Volume 3 — Queries.

PRINCESSES OF WALES.

Blackstone, in his Commentaries, vol. i. p. 224., says, the heir apparent to the crown is usually made Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester; upon which Mr. Christian in a note remarks, upon the authority of Hume, that this creation has not been confined to the heir apparent, for both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were created by their father, Henry VIII., Princesses of Wales, each of them at the time (the latter after the legitimation of Mary) being heir presumptive to the crown.

Can any of your correspondents inform me upon what authority this statement of Hume rests? or whether there exists any evidence of such creations having been made? Do any such creations appear upon the Patent Rolls? The statement is not supported by any writer of authority upon such subjects, and, as far as your Querist's investigation has proceeded, seems without foundation. It is one, however, too important in connexion with royal titles to remain uncontradicted, if the fact be not so.

G.

Minor Queries.

Lady Mary Cavendish.

—Information is requested respecting the ancestry of the Lady Mary Cavendish, who married a Lieutenant Maudesley, or Mosley, of the Guards. She is thought to have been maid of honour to Queen Anne. And a Sir Henry Cavendish, who was teller of the Exchequer in Ireland some sixty years ago, was of the same family.

CAVENDO.

Covey.

—When the witches in this country were very numerous, Satan for convenience divided them into companies of thirteen (one reason why thirteen has always been considered an unlucky number), and called each company a covine. Is that the etymology of the word covey, as applied to birds?

L. M. M. R.

Book wanted to purchase.

—Can any one help me to find a little book on "Speculative Difficulties in the Christian Religion?" I read such a book about four years ago, and have quite forgotten its title and its author. The last chapter in the book was on the "Origin of Evil." There is a little book called Speculative Difficulties, but that is not the one I mean.

L. M. M. R.

The Devil's Bit.

—In the Barnane Mountains, near Templemore, Ireland, there is a large dent or hollow, visible at the distance of twenty miles, and known by the name of the "Devil's Bit."

Can any of your readers assist me in discovering the origins of this singular name? There is a foolish tradition that the Devil was obliged, by one of the saints, to make a road for his Reverence across an extensive bog in the neighbourhood, and so taking a piece of the mountain in his mouth, he strode over the bog and deposited a road behind him!

SING.

Corpse passing makes a Right of Way.

—What is the origin of the supposed custom of land becoming public property, after a funeral has passed over it? An instance of this occurred (I am told) a short time since at Battersea.

R. W. E.

Nao, a Ship.

—Seeing it twice stated in Mr. G. F. Angas's Australia and New Zealand, that "in the Celtic dialect of the Welsh, Nao (is) a ship," I am desirous to learn in what author of that language, or in what dictionary or glossary thereof, any such word is to be met with. (See vol. ii., pp. 274. 278.) I doubt, or even disbelieve, the Britons having had any name for a ship, though they had a name for an osier floating basket, covered with raw hides. And when they became familiar with the navis longa of the Romans, they and their Gaelic neighbours adopted the adjective, and not the substantive. But the question of nao is one of fact; and having got the assertion, I want the authority.

A. N.

William Hone.

—I wish to meet with the interesting and touching account of the conversion of William Hone, the compiler of the Every Day Book, and should be obliged to any one who would tell me where it is to be found.

E. V.

Hand giving the Blessing.

—What is the origin of holding up the two forefingers and thumb, and pressing down the third and little fingers of the right hand in giving "the blessing," as we see in figures of bishops, &c.? Is it a mystic allusion to the Trinity?

A. A. D.

4. Moray Place, Birkenhead.

Tinsell, a Meaning of.

—I wish to know if this word is still used by the country-people in the midland counties, and on the borders of North Wales, to denote fire-wood. In a Report dated in 1620, from a surveyor to the owner of an estate in Wales, near the borders of Shropshire, the following mention of it occurs:

"There is neither wood nor underwood on the said lands, but a few underwoods in the park of hasell, alders, withie, and thornes, and such like, which the tenants doe take and use for Tinsel as need requires."

The working people in Shropshire and Staffordshire still speak of tining a fire (pronounced teening). This is but a slight change in the Anglo-Saxon word tynan, to light a fire.

S. S. S.

Arches of Pelaga.

—A young sailor, in his passage from Alexandria to Trinadas, mentions a place under this designation. Query, Is there a place correctly so called, or is this one of the misnomers not unfrequent among seamen?

M. A. LOWER.

Emiott Arms.

—What are the arms of the family of Emiott of Kent?

E. H. Y.

Well Chapels.

—Will any of your learned readers be kind enough to direct me to the best sources of information on this subject?

H. G. T.

Davy Jones's Locker.

—If a sailor is killed in a sea-skirmish, or falls overboard and is drowned, or any other fatality occurs which necessitates the consignment of his remains to the "great deep," his surviving messmates speak of him as one who has been sent to "Davy Jones's Locker." Who was the important individual whose name has become so powerful a myth? And what occasioned the identification of the ocean itself with the locker of this mysterious Davy Jones?

HENRY CAMPKIN.

Æsopus Epulans.

—I shall be much obliged by information respecting the authorship and history of this work, printed at Vienna, 1749, 4to.

N. B.

Written Sermons.

—Information is requested as to when the custom of preaching from written sermons was first introduced, and the circumstances which gave rise to it.

M. C. L.

Pallavicino and the Conte d'Olivares.

—I have in my possession an old Italian MS., 27 pages of large foolscap paper. It is headed "Caduta del Conte d'Olivares," and at the end is signed "Scritta da Ferrante Pallavicino," and dated "28 Genaro, 1643." Of course this Count d'Olivares was the great favourite of Philip IV. of Spain; but who was Pallavicino? Could it have been the Paravicino who was court chaplain to Philip III. and IV.? or was he of the Genoese family of Pallavicini mentioned by Leigh Hunt (Autobiography, vol. ii. p. 177.) as having been connected with the Cromwell family? What favours the latter presumption is, that a gentleman to whom I showed the MS. said at once, "That is Genoa paper, just the same I got there for rough copies;" and he also told me that the water-mark was a well-known Genoa mark: it consists of a bird standing on an eight pointed starlike flower.

If any one can give me any likely account of this Pallavicino, or tell me whether the MS. is at all valuable in any way, I shall owe him many thanks.

CHARLES O. SOULEY.

Broadway, New York, May 10. 1851.

Minor Queries Answered.

Athelney Castle, Somersetshire.

—Can any of your readers inform me, whether Athelney Castle, built by King Alfred, as a monastery, in token of his gratitude to God for his preservation, when compelled to fly from his throne, is in existence; or if any remains of it can be traced, as I do not find it mentioned either in several maps, gazetteers, or topographical dictionaries? It was situated about four miles from Bridgewater, near the conflux of the rivers Parrot and Tone?

J. S.

Islington, May 15. 1851.

Athelney.—In a visit which I recently paid to the field of Sedgemoor and the Isle of Athelney in Somersetshire, I found on the latter a stone pillar, inclosed by an iron railing, designed to point the traveller's eye to the spot, so closely associated with his earliest historical studies, with the burnt cakes, the angry housewife, and the castigated king. The pillar bears the following inscription, which you may think perhaps worthy of preservation in your useful pages:—

"King Alfred the Great, in the year of our Lord 879, having been defeated by the Danes, fled for refuge to the forest of Athelney, where he lay concealed from his enemies for the space of a whole year. He soon after regained possession of his throne, and in grateful remembrance of the protection he had received, under the favour of Heaven, he erected a monastery on this spot and endowed it with all the lands contained in the Isle of Athelney. To perpetuate the memorial of so remarkable an incident in the life of that illustrious prince, this edifice was founded by John Slade, Esq., of Mansell, the proprietor of Athelney and Lord of the Manor of North Petherton, A. D. 1801."

J. R. W.

Bristol.

Legend of St. Molaisse (Vol. ii., p. 79.).

—Can you tell me anything more about this MS., and in whose possession it now is?

R. H.

["The Legend of St. Molaisse" was sold in a sale at Puttick and Simpson's, July 3, 1850, for the sum of £8. 15s.]

Bogatzky.

—Who was Bogatzky, the author of the well-known Golden Treasury? Any particulars of his life will be acceptable.

E. V.

[Bogatzky was a Polish nobleman, the pupil of the great Professor Francke, and of a kindred spirit. He died at an advanced age in 1768. It is not generally known that Bogatzky published a Second Volume of his Golden Treasury, which Dr. Steinkopff revised and edited in 1812, to which he prefixed a short but interesting account of the author. See also Allgemeine Enyclopädie von Ersch und Gruber, s.v.]