Volume 3 — Queries.

THE WINDOW-TAX, LOCAL MINTS, AND NOBBS OF NORWICH.

In a MS. chronicle, now before me, of remarkable events which occurred, in connexion with the history of the city of Norwich, from the earliest period to the year 1716, compiled by an inhabitant of the place named Nobbs, of whom a word or two at the end of this note, occurs the following passage:

"This year (1695) the parliament made an act for remedying the coin of the nation, which was generally debased by counterfeits, and diminished by clipping, and laid a tax upon glass windows, to make good the deficiency when it should be taken in. And, for the speedy supply of money to the subjects, upon calling in of the old money, there were mints set up in York, Bristol, Chester, Exeter, and Norwich. The mint in Norwich began to work in Sept. 1696. Coined there 259,371l. The amount of plate and coin brought into this mint was 17,709 ounces."

These quantities are identical with those given by Blomefield (History of Norwich, fol., 1741, p. 300.).

1. The duties chargeable on windows, as now collected, were regulated by Sched. A. of 48 Geo. III. c. 55.; but, assuming the correctness of Nobbs' statement, is it generally known that this tax originated in the year, and under the circumstances, above recorded?

Bishop Burnet (Hist. Own Time, 8vo., 1833, vol. iv. pp. 252. 258.), describing the proceedings taken by parliament for rectifying the state of the coinage, without telling us by what means the money was raised, says (p. 290.):

"Twelve thousand pounds was given to supply the deficiency of the bad and clipped money."

Is this sum the amount of the proceeds of the tax laid, as our chronicle records, upon glass windows? If so, or from whatever source obtained, it may, in passing, be remarked, that it appears to be ridiculously inadequate to meet the requirements of the case; for, according to the Bishop, in another place (p. 316.):

"About five millions of clipped money was brought into the exchequer, and the loss that the nation suffered, by the recoining of the money, amounted to two millions and two hundred thousand pounds."

The window duties have of late provoked much discussion, and it would prove of some interest, if, through the medium of your pages, any of your correspondents would take the trouble to investigate a little further the subject of this note. It very easily admits of confirmation or denial.

2. The principal reason, however, for now writing, is to request answers to the two following Queries: 1. What amount of money was respectively coined during 1696, and the following year, in the cities of York, Bristol, Chester, and Exeter? and 2. In what parish of each of these places, including Norwich, was the mint situated?

And now let me add a sentence or two respecting the compiler of the above-named chronicle, which I am induced to do, as his name is closely connected with that of one of the most celebrated controversial writers of the Augustan age of Anne and George I., the friend of Whiston, of Newton, and of Hoadley, and the subject of Pope's sarcastic allusion:

It appears, on the authority of a MS. letter before me, dated Aylsham, Norfolk, Jan. 25, 1755, and addressed to Mr. Nehemiah Lodge, town clerk of Norwich, by Mr. Thos. Johnson, who was speaker of the common council of that city from 1731 to 1736, that Nobbs

"Was many years clerk of St. Gregory's parish in Norwich, where he kept a school, and was so good a scholar as to fit youths for the university, amongst whom were the great Dr. Samuel Clarke, and his brother, the Dean of Salisbury."

The old man's MS. is very neatly written, and arranged with much method. It was made great use of, frequently without acknowledgment, by Blomefield, in the compilation of his history; and besides the chronicle of events immediately connected with the city, there are interspersed through its pages notices of earthquakes, great famines, blazing stars, dry summers, long frosts, and other similar unusual occurrences. The simplicity, and grave unhesitating credulity, with which some of the more astonishing marvels, culled, I suppose, from the pages "of Holinshed or Stow," are recorded, is very amusing. I cannot refrain from offering you a couple of examples, and with them I will bring this heterogeneous "note" to a close.

"In the eighth year of this king's reign (E. II.) it was ordained by parliament, that an ox fatted with grass should be sold for 15s., fatted with corn 20s., the best cow for 12s.; a fat hog of two years 3s. 4d.; a fat sheep shorn 14d., and with fleece 20d.; a fat capon 2d., a fat hen 1d., four pigeons 1d. And whosoever sold for more, should forfeit his ware to the king. But this order was soon revoked, by reason of the scarcity that after followed. For, in the year following, 1315, there was so great a dearth, that continued three years, and therewith a mortality, that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead; horses, dogs, and children were eaten in that famine, and thieves in prison plucked in pieces those that were newly brought in, and eat them half alive."

But, again, sub ann. 1349:

"This year dyed in Norwich of the plague, from the first of January to the last of June, 57,374 persons, besides religious people and beggars; and in Yarmouth, 7053. This plague began November the first, 1348, and continued to 1357, and it hath been observed that they that were born after this had but twenty-eight teeth, whereas before they had thirty-two."

This latter notice refers to the first of those three destructive epidemics which visited Europe during the reign of our Edw. III., and are so frequently mentioned in ancient records. It is styled the "Pestilencia Prima et Magna, Anno Domini 1349, a festo Stæ. Petronillæ usque ad festum Sti. Michaelis." (Nicolas, Chron. of Hist., p. 345.)

COWGILL.

Minor Queries.

Gillingham.

—Can you, or any of your correspondents, furnish me with any historical or local data that may tend to identify the place where that memorable council was convened, by which the succession to the English crown was transferred from the Danish to the Saxon line? Hutchins, in his History of Dorset (Edw. II., 1813, vol. iii. p. 196.), says:

"Malmsbury[4] mentions a council held at Gillingham, in which Edward the Confessor was chosen king. It was really a grand council of the realm; but the generality of our historians place it with more probability at London, or in the environs thereof."

I am not aware of anything else that can be advanced in support of the claims of the Dorset shire Gillingham to be the scene of this event except it be the fact that a royal palace or hunting-seat there was the occasional residence of the English kings early in the twelfth century, and subsequently. I do not know whether its existence can be traced prior to the Conquest; and unless that can be done, it is obviously of no importance in the present inquiry. Now it had occurred to me that, after all, Gillingham, near Chatham in Kent, may be the true locality; but, unfortunately, my knowledge of that place is limited to the fact, that our London letters, when directed without the addition of "Dorset," are usually sent to rusticate there for a day or two. Perhaps one of your Kentish correspondents will favour me with some more pertinent information.

QUIDAM.

"We hope, and hope, and hope."

—I wish to discover the author (a disappointed courtier, I believe) of a poem ending thus:

C. P. PH***.

What is Champak?

—In Shelley's "Lines to an Indian Air," I read—"The Champak odours fail." Is it connected with the spice-bearing regions of Champava, or Tsiampa, in Siam?

C. P. PH***.

Encorah and Millicent.

—These are very common baptismal names for females in this parish, and I should be very much obliged to any one who could refer me to the origin and meaning of either or both of them. The former is also spelt Anchōra and Enchōra.

J. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield.

Diogenes in his Tub.

—It may be hypercritical, but is there any authority for placing Diogenes in the tub at the time of his interview with Alexander, which took place at Corinth, as Landseer has done in his celebrated dog-picture?

A. A. D.

Topical Memory.

—Where can I find the subject of "topical memory" treated of? Cic. de Orat. i. 34. alludes to it.

A. A. D.

St. Paul's Clock striking Thirteen.

—Will you allow me on this subject to put to men of science, and to watchmakers, the à priori question—Is the alleged fact mechanically possible?

AVENA.

A regular Mull—Origin of the Phrase.

—"You have made a regular mull of it," meaning a complete failure. This expression I have often heard, from my school days even to the present time. Can you give me the origin of it? In reading a very clever and interesting paper communicated by J. M. Kemble, Esq., to the Archæological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in the volume of their proceedings for 1845, entitled, "The Names, Surnames, and Nicnames of the Anglo-Saxons," I found the following paragraph:

"Two among the early kings of Wessex are worthy of peculiar attention, viz., the celebrated sons of Cênberht, Cædwealha and his brother Mûl. Of the former it is known, that after a short and brilliant career of victory, he voluntarily relinquished the power he had won, became a convert to Christianity, and having retired to Rome, was there baptised by the name Petrus, and died while yet in the Albs, a few days after the ceremony. His brother Mûl, during their wars in Kent, suffered himself to be surprised by the country-people and was burnt to death, together with twelve comrades, in a house where they had taken refuge."

This "Note," I think, answers my Query. Do you know of any other explanation?

W. E. W.

Register-book of the Parish of Petworth.

—Can any reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" assist in discovering a document which was formerly quoted by this title? Heylin used it for the reign of Edward VI., but his learned editor (Mr. Robertson) appears to have searched for it in vain.

C. H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

Going to Old Weston.

—When a Huntingdonshire man is asked "If he has ever been to Old Weston," and replies in the negative, he is invariably told, "You must go before you die." Old Weston is an out-of-the-way village in the county, and until within a few years was almost inapproachable by carriages in winter; but in what the point of the remark lies, I do not know.

ARUN.

"As drunk as Chloe."

—Who was Chloe, and what gave rise to the expression?

J. N. C.

Mark for a Dollar.

—What is the origin of the mark for a dollar, $?

T. C.

Stepony. (Vol. ii., p. 267.)

—If not too stale by this time, may I put a Query to any Worcestershire reader on the possible connexion of Stepony ale with a well-known country inn in that county, which must have startled many a traveller with strange hippophagous apprehensions, viz., Stew-poney?

B.

Lincoln.

Longueville MSS.

—Was the collection of MSS. possessed by Henry Viscount Longueville, and catalogued in Cat. Lib. MSS. Angliæ, 1697, dispersed; or, if not, where is it to be found?

E. T. B.

York, May 13.

Carling Sunday.

—Carling Sunday, occurring nowabouts, is observed on the north coast of England by the custom of frying dry peas; and much augury attends the process, as indicated by the different effect of the bounding peas on the hot plate. Is any solution to be given? The writer has heard that the practice originated in the loss of a ship (freighted with peas) on the coast of Northumberland. Carling is the foundation beam of a ship, or the main beam on the keel.

X.

Lion Rampant holding a Crozier.

—I met with this crest some time since on a private seal, and should be glad to ascertain whether the device was borne by chancellors and archbishops who exercised these functions contemporaneously, the last of whom was the Archbishop of York, who was also Lord Keeper from 1621 to Nov. 1625. The motto on the seal is—

"Malentour."

To this I cannot trace any meaning. Perhaps some of your heraldic antiquaries can favour me with a solution of the above device of the motto?

F. E. M.

Monumental Symbolism.

—On a monument dated 1600, or thereabouts, erected to a member of an ancient Roman Catholic family in Leicestershire, there are effigies of his children sculptured. Two of the sons are represented in a kneeling posture, with their hands clasped and upraised; while all the others are standing, some cased in armour, or otherwise. Can you, from knowledge of heraldry, or any other source, decide confidently what is the reason of the difference of posture, or rather what it is intended to denote?

READER.

Ptolemy's Presents to the Seventy-two.

—Josephus (Ant. b. xii. ch. ii. sect. 15.) mentions, as among the presents bestowed by Ptolemy on the Seventy-two elders, "the furniture of the room in which they were entertained." Was this a usual custom of antiquity?

H. J.

Baronette. (Vol. ii., p. 194.)

—In an extract from a statute temp. Hen. IV., it is stated that "dukes, earls, barons, and baronettes might use livery of our lord the king, or his collar," &c. Query the meaning of the term baronette, in the reign of Henry IV.?

B. DE M.

Meaning of "Hernshaw."

—Hernshaw occurs in Hamlet, II. 2. Query, What is the derivation of it? It means, I believe, a young heron. Chaucer ("Squire's Tale," l. 90.) spells it "heronsewe." As sewe signifies a dish (whence the word sewer, he who serves up the dinner), this word applied to heron may mean one fit for eating, young and tender.

J. H. C.

Adelaide, South Australia.

Hogan.—

"For your reputation we keep to ourselves your not hunting nor drinking hogan, either of which here would be sufficient to lay your honor in the dust."

This passage occurs in a letter from Gray to Horace Walpole in 1737. Can any subscriber state what "hogan" was, the not drinking of which was "to lay your honor in the dust?"

HENRY CAMPKIN.

"Trepidation talk'd."

—What mean the following words in Milton, Paradise Lost, book iii. line 481?

By the last three words we may easily understand the primum mobile of the Ptolemaic astronomy; and trepidation is thus explained in the Imperial Dictionary:

"In the old astr. a libration of the eighth sphere, or a motion which the Ptolemaic system ascribes to the firmament, to account for the changes and motion of the axis of the world."

Newton, in his edition of Milton, is silent. Bentley says in a note:

"Foolish ostentation, in a thing that a child may be taught in a map of these imaginary spheres. Talk'd, not good English, for called, styled, named."

Paterson, in his Commentary on Paradise Lost, 1744, for the sight of which I am indebted to the courtesy of the librarian of the Chetham Library, says:

"Trepidation, Lat., an astronomical T., a trembling, a passing. Here, two imagined motions of those spheres. Therefore Milton justly ridicules those wild notions."

Granting that trepidation and whose balance weighs are understood, can any of your readers explain the phrase trepidation talk'd?

W. B. H.

Manchester.

Lines on the Temple.

—Can any of your readers inform me if these lines, said to be the impromptu production of some passer-by struck with the horse and lamb over the Temple gates, have ever been in print, and where?

J. S.

Death.

—I am making a collection, for a literary purpose, of the forms or similitudes under which the idea of Death has been embodied in different ages, and among different nations, and shall be highly obliged by any additions which your numerous learned and intelligent correspondents may be able to make to my stock of materials. References to manuscripts, books, coins, paintings, and sculptures, will be highly acceptable. I must confess that it has not yet been in my power to trace satisfactorily the origin, or the earliest pictorial example, of the current representation of Death as a skeleton, with hour-glass and scythe.

S. T. D.

Was Stella Swift's Sister?

—Being last week on a visit to Dublin, I went to see St. Patrick's Cathedral there, when, contemplating the monuments of the Dean and Stella, the verger's boy informed me, that after the death of the latter, the Dean discovered that she was his own sister, which occasioned him to go mad. Is there any foundation for this?

J. H. S.

Minor Queries Answered.

John Marwoode.

—A house in the town of Honiton, Devon, has the following inscription carved above the dining-room mantelpiece:

From a marble tablet in the porch, J. M. appears to have been "Gentleman Physician" to Queen Elizabeth. Any information respecting him will be acceptable to

C. P. PH***.

[Dr. Thomas Marwood, of Honiton, was a physician of the first eminence in the West of England, and succeeded in effecting a cure in a diseased foot of the Earl of Essex, for which he received from Queen Elizabeth, as a reward for his professional skill, an estate near Honiton. From an inscription on his tomb in the parish church, it appears that "he died the 18th Sept., 1617, aged above 105." The house mentioned by our correspondent was erected in 1619 by John Marwood, who was also a physician, and by Bridget his wife. For further particulars respecting the family of the Marwoods, see Gentleman's Magazine, vols. lxi. p. 608.; lxiii. 113.; lxxix. 3.; lxxx. pt. i. 429.; lxxx. pt. ii. 320.]

St. Paul.

—I shall be obliged if you will allow me the opportunity of asking your correspondents for a reference to the fullest and most reliable life of St. Paul the apostle?

EMUN.

[Our correspondent is referred to The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, comprising a complete Biography of the Apostle and a paraphrastic Translation of his Epistles, inserted in Chronological Order, now in course of publication by Messrs. Longman, under the editorship of the Rev. W. J. Conybeare, M.A., and the Rev. J. S. Howson. The work is copiously illustrated with maps plans, views, &c.]

Meaning of Zoll-verein.

—Should a one-shilling visitor to the Crystal Palace ask a question of a holder of a season ticket touching the exact meaning and history of the word Zoll-verein, I wonder what he would tell him?

CORDEROY.

[Zoll-Verein, i. e. Customs Union.—An union of smaller states with Prussia for the purposes of Customs uniformity, first commenced in 1819 by the union of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, and which now includes Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Wirtemburg, Baden, Hesse-Cassel, Brunswick, and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and all intermediate principalities. For the purposes of trade and customs these different kingdoms and principalities act as one empire.]

Crex, the White Bullace.

—Will you insert a Query from a new correspondent but old subscriber? Crex is the ordinary name with Cambridgeshire folk for the White Bullace. I cannot answer for the orthography, as neither Dictionary nor Provincial Glossary acknowledges the word. Can any of your correspondents enlighten me?

CHARLES THIRIOLD.

St. Dunstan.

[This Cambridgeshire name for the White Bullace is clearly connected with the Dutch name for Cherry, Kriecke. See Killian, s. v., where we find KRIECKE, Cerasum, and the several kinds of cherry, described as Swarte Kriecke, Spaensche Kriecke, Roode Kriecke, &c.]