REPLIES. (continued 2)

"At this daie the Bp. of Elie hath out of everie parish in Cambridgeshire a certeine tribute called Elie Farthings, or Smoke Farthings, which the church-wardens do levie, according to the number of houses or else of chimneys that be in a parish."—MSS, Baker, xxix. 326.

The date of this impost is given in the next extract:—

"By the records of the Church of Elie, it appears that in the year 1154, every person who kept a fire in the several parishes within that diocese was obliged to pay one farthing yearly to the altar of S. Peter, in the same cathedral."—MSS. Bowtell, Downing Coll. Library.

This tax was paid in 1516, but how much later I cannot say.

The readers of Macaulay will be familiar with the term "heart-money" (History, vol. i. p. 283.), and the amusing illustrations he produces, from the ballads of the day, of the extreme unpopularity of the tax on chimneys, and the hatred in which the "chimney man" was held (i. 287.) but this was a different impost frown that spoken of above, and paid to the king, not to the cathedral. It was collected for the last time in 1690, having been first levied in 1653, when, Hume tells us, the king's debts had become so—

"Intolerable, that the Commons were constrained to vote him an extraordinary supply of 1,200,000l., to be levied by eighteen months' assessment, and finding upon enquiry that the several branches of the revenue fell much short of the sums they expected, they at last, after much delay, voted a new imposition of 2s. on each hearth, and this tax they settled on the king during his life."

The Rev. Giles Moore, Rector of Horstead Keynes, Sussex, notes in his Diary (published by the Sussex Archæological Society),—

August 18, 1663.—I payed fore 1 half yeares earth-money 3s.

Other notices of this payment may be supplied by other correspondents.

E. VENABLES.

Holland Land (Vol. ii., p. 267.).—Holland means hole or hollow land—land lower than the level of contiguous water, and protected by dykes. So Holland, one of the United Provinces; so Holland, the southern division of Lincolnshire.

C.

Caconac, Caconacquerie (Vol. ii., p. 267.).—This is a misprint of yours, or a misspelling of your correspondents. The word is cacouac, cacouacquerie. It was a cant word used by Voltaire and his correspondents to signify an unbeliever in Christianity, and was, I think, borrowed from the name of some Indian tribe supposed to be in a natural state of freedom and exemption from prejudice.

C.

Discourse of National Excellencies of England (Vol. ii., p. 248.).—A Discourse of the National Excellencies of England was not written by Sir Rob. Howard, but by RICHARD HAWKINS, Whose name appears at length in the title-page to some copies; others have the initials only.

P.B.

Saffron Bags (Vol. ii., p. 217.).—In almost all old works on Materia Medica the use of these bags is mentioned. Quincy, in his Dispensatory, 1730, p. 179., says:—

"Some prescribe it (saffron) to be worn with camphire in a bag at the pit of the stomach for melancholy; and others affirm that, so used, it will cure agues."

Ray observes (Cat. Plant. Angl., 1777, p. 84.):

"Itemque in sacculo suspenditur sub mento vel gutture ad dissipandam sc. materiam putridam et venenatam, ne ibidem stagnans, inflammationen excitet, ægrotumque strangulet."

The origin of the "saffron bag", is probably to be explained by the strong aromatic odour of saffron, and the high esteem in which it was once held as a medicine; though now it is used chiefly as a colouring ingredient and by certain elderly ladies, with antiquated notions, as a specific for "striking out" the measles in their grandchildren.

ת. א.

Milton's "Penseroso" (Vol. ii, p. 153.).—H.A.B. desires to understand the couplet—

He is puzzled whether to consider "proof" an adjective belonging to "pillars," or a substantive in apposition with it. All the commentators seem to have passed the line without observation. I am almost afraid to suggest that we should read "pillars'" in the genitive plural, "proof" being taken in the sense of established strength.

Before dismissing this conjecture, I have taken the pains to examine every one of the twenty-four other passages in which Milton has used the word "proof." I find that it occurs only four times as an adjective in all of which it is followed by something dependent upon it. In three of than thus:

In the fourth, which is a little different, thus:

As Milton, therefore, has in no other place used "proof" as an adjective without something attached to it, I feel assured that he did not use it as an adjective in the passage in question.

J.S.W.

Stockwell, Sept. 7.

Achilles and the Tortoise (Vol. ii., p. l54.).—Ιδιωτης will find the paradox of "Achilles and the Tortoise" explained by Mr. Mansel of St. John's College, Oxon, in a note to his late edition of Aldrich's Logic (1849, p. 125.). He there shows that the fallacy is a material one: being a false assumption of the major premise, viz., that the sum of an infinite series is itself always infinite (whereas it may be finite). Mansel refers to Plato, Parmenid. p. 128. [when will editors learn to specify the editions which they use?] Aristot. Soph. Eleuctr. 10. 2. 33. 4., and Cousin, Nouveaux Fragments, Zénon d'Elée.

T.E.L.L.

Stepony Ale (Vol. ii., p. 267.).—The extract from Chamberlayne certainly refers to ale brewed at Stepney. In Playford's curious collection of old popular tunes, the English Dancing Master, 1721, is one called "Stepney Ale and Cakes;" and in the works of Tom Brown and Ned Ward, other allusions to the same are to be found.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

North Side of Churchyards (Vol. ii., p. 253.).—In reference to the north region being "the devoted region of Satan and his hosts," Milton seems to have recognised the doctrine when he says—

F.E.

Welsh Money (Vol. ii., p. 231.).—It is not known that the Welsh princes ever coined any money: none such has ever been discovered. If they ever coined any, it is almost impossible that it should all have disappeared.

GRIFFIN.

Wormwood (Vol. ii., pp. 249. 315.).—The French gourmands have two sorts of liqueur flavoured with wormwood; Crême d'Absinthe, and Vermouthe. In the Almanac des Gourmands there is a pretty account of the latter, called the coup d'après. In the south of France, I think, they say it is the fashion to have a glass brought in towards the end of the repast by girls to refit the stomach.

C.B.

Puzzling Epitaph (Vol. ii., p. 311.).—J. BDN has, I think, not given this epitaph quite correctly. The following is as it appeared in the Times, 20th Sept., 1828 (copied from the Mirror). It is stated to be in a churchyard in Germany:—

The reading is—

"O superbe quid superbis? tua superbia te superabit. Terra es et in terram ibis. Mox eris quod ego nunc."

E.B. PRICE.

October 14. 1850.

[The first two lines of this epitaph, and many similar specimens of learned trifling, will be found in Les Bigarrures et Touches de Seigneur des Accords, cap. iii., autre Façons de Rebus, p. 35., ed. 1662.]

Umbrella (Vol. ii., pp. 25. 93.).—In the collection of pictures at Woburn Abbey is a full-length portrait of the beautiful Duchess of Bedford, who afterwards married the Earl of Jersey, painted about the year 1730. She is represented as attended by a black servant, who holds an open umbrella to shade her.

Cowper's "Task," published in 1784, twice mentions the umbrella:

In book iv., the description of the country girl, who dresses above her condition, concludes with the following lines—

In both these passages of Cowper, the umbrella appears to be equivalent to what would now be called a parasol.

L.

Pope and Bishop Burgess (Vol. ii., p. 310.).—The allusion is to the passage in Troilus and Cressida:

which Theobald explained from Caxton, but Pope did not understand.

C.B.

[Not the only passage in Shakspeare which Theobald explained and Pope did not understand; but more of this hereafter.]

Book of Homilies (Vol. ii., p. 89.).—Allow me to inform B. that the early edition of Homilies referred to in his Query was compiled by Richard Taverner, and consists of a series of "postils" on the epistles and gospels throughout the year. It appears to have been first printed in 1540 (Ames, i. 407.), and was republished in 1841, under the editorial care of Dr. Cardwell.

C.H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

Roman Catholic Theology (Vol. ii., p. 279.).—I beg to refer M.Y.A.H. to the Church History of England by Hugh Tootle, better known by his pseudonyme of Charles Dod (3 vols. folio, Brussels, 1737-42). A very valuable edition of this important work was commenced by the Rev. M.A. Tierney; but as the last volume (the fifth) was published so long ago as 1843, and no symptom of any other appears, I presume that this extremely curious book has, for some reason or other, been abandoned. Perhaps the well-known jealousy of the censor may have interfered.

A useful manual of Catholic bibliography exists in the Thesaurus Librorum Rei Catholicæ, 8vo. Würzburg, 1850.

G.R.

Modum Promissionis (Vol. ii., p. 279.).—Without the context of the passage adduced by C.W.B., it is impossible to speak positively as to its precise signification. I think, however, the phrase is equivalent to "formula professionis monasticæ." Promissio frequently occurs in this sense, as may be seen by referring to Ducange (s.v.).

C.H.

Bacon Family (Vol. ii., p. 247.).—The name of Bacon has been considered to be of Norman origin, arising from some fief so called.—See Roman de Rose, vol. ii. p. 269.

X.P.M.

Execution of Charles I. and Earl of Stair (Vol. ii., pp. 72. 140. 158.).—MATFELONENSIS speaks too fast when he says that "no mention occurs of the Earl of Stair." I distinctly recollect reading in an old life of the Earl of Stair an account of his having been sent for to visit a mysterious person of extreme old age, who stated that he was the earl's ancestor (grandfather or great-grandfather, but whether paternal or not I do not remember), and that he had been the executioner of Charles I.

T.N.

[The story to which our correspondent alludes is, probably, that quoted in Cecil's (Hone's) Sixty Curious and Authentic Narratives, pp. 138-140., from the Recreations of a Man of Feeling. The peerage and the pedigree of the Stair family alike prove that there is little foundation for this ingenious fiction.]

Water-marks on Writing-paper (Vol. ii., p. 310.).—On this subject C., will, I think, find all the information he seeks in a paper published in the Aldine Magazine, (Masters, Aldersgate-st., 1839). This paper is accompanied by engravings of the ancient water-marks, as well as those of more modern times, and enters somewhat largely into the question of how far water-marks may be considered as evidence of precise dates. They are not always to be relied upon, for in December, 1850, there will doubtless be thousands of reams of paper issued and in circulation, bearing the date of 1851, unless the practice is altered of late years. Timperley's Biographical, Chronological, and Historical Dictionary is much quoted on the subject of "Water-marks."

E.B. PRICE.

St. John Nepomuc (Vol. ii., pp. 209. 317.).—The statues in honour of this Saint must be familiar to every one who has visited Bohemia, as also the spot of his martyrdom at Prague, indicated by some brass stars let into the parapet of the Steinerne Brücke, on the right-hand side going from Prague to the suburb called the Kleinseite. As the story goes, he was offered the most costly bribes by Wenzel, king of Bohemia, to betray his trust, and after his repeated refusal was put to the torture, and then thrown into the Moldau, where he was drowned. The body of the saint was embalmed, and is now preserved in a costly silver shrine of almost fabulous worth, in the church of St. Veit, in the Kleinseite. In Weber's Briefe eines durch Deutschland reisende Deutschen, the weight silver about this shrine is said to be twenty "centener."

C.D. LAMONT.

Satirical Medals (Vol. ii., p. 298.).—A descriptive catalogue of British medals is preparing for the press, wherein all the satirical medals relating to the Revolution of 1688 will be minutely described and explained.

G.H.

Passage in Gray (Vol. i., p. 150.).—I see no difficulty in the passage about which your correspondent; A GRAYAN inquires. The abode of the merits and frailties of the dead, i.e. the place in which they are treasured up until the Judgment, is the Divine mind. This the poet, by a very allowable figure, calls "Bosom." Homer's expression is somewhat analogous.

E.C.H.

Cupid Crying (Vol. i., pp. 172. 308.).—Another translation of the English verses, p. 172., which English are far superior to the Latin original:—

E.C.H.

Anecdote of a Peal of Bells (Vol. i., p. 382.).—It is related of the bells of Limerick Cathedral by Mrs. S.C. Hall (Ireland, vol. i., p. 328. note).

M.

[Another correspondent, under the same signature, forwards the legend as follows

"THOSE EVENING BELLS."

"The remarkably fine bells of Limerick Cathedral were originally brought from Italy. They had been manufactured by a young native (whose name tradition has not preserved), and finished after the toil of many years; and he prided himself upon his work. They were subsequently purchased by a prior of a neighbouring convent, and, with the profits of this sale, the young Italian procured a little villa, where he had the pleasure of hearing the tolling of his bells from the convent cliff, and of growing old in the bosom of domestic happiness. This, however, was not to continue. In some of those broils, whether civil or foreign, which are the undying worm in the peace of a fallen land, the good Italian was a sufferer amongst many. He lost his all; and after the passing of the storm, he found himself preserved alone, amid the wreck of fortune, friends, family, and home. The convent in which the bells, the chef-d'œuvre of his skill, were hung, was rased to the earth, and these last carried away to another land. The unfortunate owner, haunted by his memories and deserted by his hopes, became a wanderer over Europe. His hair grew gray, and his heart withered, before he again found a home and friend. In this desolation of spirit he formed the resolution of seeking the place to which those treasures of his memory had finally been borne. He sailed for Ireland, proceeded up the Shannon; the vessel anchored in the pool near Limerick, and he hired a small boat for the purpose of landing. The city was now before him; and he beheld St. Mary's steeple lifting its turreted head above the smoke and mist of the old town. He sat in the stern, and looked fondly towards it. It was an evening so calm and beautiful as to remind him of his own native haven in the sweetest time of the year—the death of spring. The broad stream appeared like one smooth mirror, and the little vessel glided through it with almost a noiseless expedition. On a sudden, amid the general stillness, the bells tolled from the cathedral; the rowers rested on their oars, and the vessel went forward with the impulse it had received. The old Italian looked towards the city, crossed his arms on his breast, and lay back on his seat; home, happiness, early recollections, friends, family—all were in the sound, and went with it to his heart. When the rowers looked round, they beheld him with his face still turned towards the cathedral, but his eyes were closed, and when they landed they found him cold in death."

MR. H. EDWARDS informs us it appeared in an early number of Chambers' Journal. J.G.A.P. kindly refers us to the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i. p. 48., where the story is also told; and to a poetical version of it, entitled "The Bell-founder," first printed in the Dublin University Magazine, and since in the collected poems of the author, D. H. McCarthy.]

Codex Flateyensis (Vol. ii., p. 278.).—Your correspondent W.H.F., when referring to the Orkneyinga Saga, requests information regarding the Codex Flateyensis, in which is contained one of the best MSS. of the Saga above mentioned. W.H.F. labours under the misapprehension of regarding the Codex Flateyensis as a mere manuscript of the Orkneyinga Saga, whereas that Saga constitutes but a very small part of the magnificent volume. The Codex Flateyensis takes its name, as W.H.F. rightly concludes, from the island of Flatey in the Breidafiord in Iceland, where it was long preserved. It is a parchment volume most beautifully executed, the initial letters of the chapters being finely illuminated, and extending in many instances, as in a fac-simile now before me, from top to bottom of the folio page. The contents of the volume may be learned from the following lines on the first page; I give it in English as the original is in Icelandic:—

"John Hakonson owns this book, herein first are written verses, then how Norway was colonised, then of Erik the Far-travelled, thereafter of Olaf Tryggvason the king with all his deeds, and next is the history of Olaf Haraldson, the saint, and of his deeds, and therewith the history of the earls of Orkney, then is there Sverrers Saga; thereafter the Saga of Hakon the Old, with the Saga of Magnus the king, his son, then the deeds of Einar Sokkeson of Greenland, and next of Elga and Ulf the Bad; and then begin the annals from the creation of the world to the present year. John Thordarson the priest wrote the portion concerning Erik the Far-travelled, and the Sagas of both the Olaves; but Magnus Thorhallson the priest has written all that follows, as well as all that preceded, and has illuminated all (the book). Almighty God and the holy virgin mary give joy to those who wrote and to him who dictated."

A little further on we learn from the text that when the book began to be written there had elapsed from the birth of Christ 1300 and 80 and 7 years. The volume was, therefore, commenced in 1387, and finished, as we judge from the year at which the annals cease, in 1395. The death of Hakon Hakonson is recorded in the last chapters of the Saga of that name, which we see is included in the list of those contained in the Codex Flateyensis.

E. CHARLTON.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oct. 6. 1850.

Paying through the Nose, and Etymology of Shilling (Vol. i., p. 335.).—Odin, they say, laid a nose-tax on ever Swede,—a penny a nose. (Grimm, Deutsche Rechts Alterthümer, p. 299.) I think people not able to pay forfeited "the prominence on the face, which is the organ of scent, and emunctory of the brain," as good Walker says. It was according to the rule, "Qui non habet in ære, luat in pelle." Still we "count" or "tell noses," when computing, for instance, how many persons of the company are to pay the reckoning. The expression is used in England, if I am rightly informed, as well as in Holland.

Tax money was gathered into a brass shield, and the jingling (schel) noise it produced, gave to the pieces of silver exacted the name of schellingen (shillings). Saxo-Grammaticus, lib viii. p. 267., citatus apud Grimm, l. 1. p. 77. The reference is too curious not to note it down:—

"Huic (Fresiæ) Gotricus nom tam arctam, quam inusitatam pensionem imposuit, de cujus conditione et modo summatim referam. Primum itaque ducentorum quadraginta pedum longitudinem habentis ædificii structura disponitur, bis senis distincta spatiis, quorum quodlibet vicenorum pedum intercapedine tenderetur, prædictæ quantitatis summam totalis spatii dispendio reddente. In hujus itaque ædis capite regio considente quæstore, sub extremam ejus partem rotundus e regione elipeus exhibetur. Fresonibus igitur tributum daturis mos erat singulos nummos in hujus scuti cavum conjicere, e quibus eos duntaxat in censum regium ratio computantis eligeret, qui eminus exatoris aures clarioris soni crepitaculo perstrinxissent quo evenit, ut id solum æs quæstor in fiscum supputando colligeret, cujus casum remotiore auris indicio persensisset, cujus vero obscurior sonus citra computantis defuisset auditum, recipiebatur quidem in fiscum (!!!), sed nullum summæ præstabat augmentum. Compluribus igitur nummorum jactibus quæstorias aures nulla sensibili sonoritate pulsantibus, accidit, ut statam pro se stipem erogaturi multam interdum æris partem inani pensione consumerent, cujus tributi onere per Karolum postea liberati produntur."

JANUS DOUSA.

Huis te Manpadt.

Small Words (Vol. ii., p. 305.).—Some of your correspondents have justly recommended correctness in the references to authorities cited. Allow me to suggest the necessity of similar care in quotations. If K.J.P.B.T. had taken the pains to refer to the passage in Pope which he criticises (Vol. ii., p. 305.), he would have spared himself some trouble, and you considerable space. The line is not, as he puts it, "And ten small words," but—

a difference which deprives his remarks of much of their applicability.

Φ.

Bilderdijk the Poet (Vol. ii., p. 309.).—There are several letters from Southey, in his Life and Correspondence, written while under the roof of Bilderdijk, giving a very agreeable account of the poet, his wife, and his family.

Φ.

Fool or a Physician (Vol. i., p. 137.; vol. ii., p. 315.).—The writer who has used this expression is Dr. Cheyne, and he probably altered it from the alliterative form, "a man is a fool or a physician at forty," which I have frequently heard in various parts of England. Dr. Cheyne's words are: "I think every man is a fool or a physician at thirty years of age, (that is to say), by that time he ought to know his own constitution, and unless he is determined to live an intemperate and irregular life, I think he may by diet and regimen prevent or cure any chronical disease; but as to acute disorders no one who is not well acquainted with medicine should trust to his own skill."

Dr. Cheyne was a medical writer of the last century.

A. G——T.

Wat the Hare (Vol. ii., p. 315.).—In the interesting, though perhaps somewhat partial, account of the unsuccessful siege of Corfe Castle, during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, which is given in the Mercurius Rusticus, there is an anecdote which will give a reply to the Query of your correspondent K. The commander of the Parliamentarian forces was Sir Walter Erle; and it was a great joke with his opponents that the pass-word of "Old Wat" had been given (by himself I believe) on the night of his last assault on the castle. The chronicler informs us that "Old Wat" was the usual notice of a hare being found sitting; and the proverbial timidity of that animal suggested some odious comparisons with the defeated general.

I have not the book at hand, but I am pretty sure that the substance of my information is correct.

C.W. BINGHAM.

Bingham's Melcombe, Blandford.

Law Courts at St. Albans (Vol. i., p. 366.).—Although unable to answer Σ., perhaps I may do him service by enabling him to put his Query more correctly. The disease which drove the lawyers from London in the 6th year of Elizabeth (1563) was not the sweating sickness (which has not returned since the reign of Edward VI.), but a plague brought into England by the late garrison of Havre de Grâce. And it was at Hertford that Candlemas term was kept on the occasions. See Heylyn, Hist. Ref., ed. Eccl. Hist. Soc. ii. 401.

J.C.R.

The Troubles at Frankfort (Vol. i., p. 379.).—In Petheram's edition of this work, it is shown that Whittingham, dean of Durham, was most likely the author. That Coverdale was not, appears from the circumstance that the writer had been a party in the "Troubles," whereas Coverdale did not reside at Frankfort during any part of his exile.

J.C.R.

Standing during the Reading of the Gospel (Vol. ii., p. 246.).—

"Apostolica auctoritate mandamus, dum sancta Evangelia in Ecclesia recitantur, ut Sacerdotes, et cæteri omnes presentes, non sedentes, sed venerabiliter curvi, in conspectu Evangelii stantes Dominica verba intente audiant, et fideliter adorent."—Anastasius, i., apud Grat. Decret. De Consecrat. Dist., ii. cap. 68.

J. BE.

Scotch Prisoners at Worcester (Vol. ii., p. 297.).—I cannot think that the extract from the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Margaret's, Westminster, at all justifies C.F.S. in supposing that the Scotch prisoners were massacred in cold blood. The total number of these prisoners was 10,000. Of the 1,200 who were buried, the greater part most probably died of their wounds; and though this number is large, yet we must bear in mind that in those days the sick and wounded were not tended with the care and attention which are now displayed in such cases. We learn from the Parliamentary History (xx. 58.), that on the 17th Sep. 1651, "the Scots prisoners were brought to London, and marched through the city into Tothill-fields." The same work (xx. 72.) states that "Most of the common soldiers were sent to the English Plantations; and 1500 of them were granted to the Guiney merchants and sent to work in the Gold mines there." Large numbers were also employed in draining the great level of the Fens (Wells, History of the Bedford Level, i. 228-244.). Lord Clarendon (book xiii.) says, "Many perished for want of food, and, being enclosed in little room till they were sold to the plantations for slaves, they died of all diseases."

C.H. COOPER.

Cambridge, Oct. 5. 1850.

Scotch Prisoners at Worcester.—The following is Rapin's account of the disposition of these prisoners, and even this statement he seems to doubt. (Vol. ii. p. 585.)

"It is pretended, of the Scots were slain [at Worcester] about 2000, and seven or eight thousand taken prisoners, who being sent to London, were sold for slaves to the plantations of the American isles."—Authorities referred to: Phillips, p. 608., Clarendon, iii. p. 320., Burnet's Mem. p. 432.

J.C.B.

Coleridge was of the same opinion (Introd. to Encycl. Metrop., p. 19.). Had the phrase been a quotation, would not Bacon have said, "Sanè ut vere dictum est," rather than "Ut vere dicamus."

T.J.

The Lass of Richmond Hill (Vol. ii., p. 103.)—In reply to QUÆRO, I beg to say that he will find the words of the above song in the Morning Herald of August 1, 1789, a copy of which I possess. It is here described as a "favourite song, sung by Mr. Incledon at Vauxhall; composed by Mr. Hook."

J.B.

Walworth.