Volume 4 — Replies.

WINCHESTER EXECUTION. (Vol. iv., pp. 191. 243. 284.)

The pathetic story of a person sentenced to death for sheep-stealing, winning the heart of the gaoler by a long course of good conduct, and executed at last on the "death-warrant" being found in the office, is utterly apocryphal. There has not been such a thing as a death-warrant in England for centuries, except in London and Middlesex (where the recorder communicated the pleasure of the crown to spare certain prisoners, and leave others to their fate, in an instrument improperly so called), and in the special case referred to hereafter. It was necessary, when sentence was pronounced by Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, that a precept under their hands and seals should be made out; but in the case of Commissioners of Gaol Delivery the entry on record of the judgement of the court is sufficient; and though a calendar is now made out, and delivered to the sheriff, specifying the several sentences or acquittals of all the prisoners in gaol, yet it is not necessary. Lord Hale says:

"Rolle would never subscribe any such calendar, but would command the sheriff openly in court to take notice of the judgments and orders of what kind soever, and command the sheriff to execute them at his peril."

And, until a few years ago (when the law requiring murderers to be executed the day next but one after sentence was repealed), murderers were executed on verbal authority only, as no calendar was made out until the close of the assizes, some time after the execution. The special case above referred to is, when a person was tried by the Court of Peers before the Lord High Steward, in which case that officer issued a precept for execution. But if the trial be in parliament, a writ for execution issues under the Great Seal, as in the case of Lord William Russell.

Having demolished one story, I feel bound to give you another.

The Crown never directs execution, but respites it either to a day fixed, or during her Majesty's pleasure, which last is what is commonly called a reprieve. A late learned Baron is said to have respited an unlucky criminal on whose fate he hesitated, once, twice, thrice, till, having lost his reckoning, he wrote to this effect:

"I do not know whether John Smith's respite has expired; if it has, it is no matter; if not, let the execution be further respited until the —— day of —— next."

A. B.

I have seen in an Exeter paper an article taken from "NOTES AND QUERIES," entitled "Execution under singular Circumstances," the writer of which is in manifest error. There is no such thing as a warrant for execution; I will venture to say it could not have happened as is therein stated. I have been repeatedly undersheriff of Devon, and therefore beg to state the mode in which executions take place.

At the end of the assizes the crown-bar judge and the clerk of assize sit down quietly together, and go over the sentences of the prisoners, after which they are classed, and a fair copy signed by the clerk of the assize—not the judge—is delivered to the undersheriff, which is his only authority for carrying the different sentences into execution. If a man is to be hung, opposite his name is written, "Let him be hanged by the neck," and an asterisk is added to draw the undersheriff's attention. Should the man afterwards be respited, the judge, or the clerk of assize, writes to the undersheriff, and also (ex abundanti cautelâ) to the gaoler, to say so. Should the undersheriff hear nothing further, he hangs the man at the end of the respite, as a matter of course. A reprieve comes from the secretary of state's office. At the end of the shrievalty this list of sentences is sent to the Court of Exchequer, as forming part of what is called the Bill of Cravings, and in which the sheriff is allowed a certain sum towards the expenses of the execution. What may be the practice in London I do not know, but the above would be the practice at Winchester.

P. J.

Exeter, Sept. 15. 1851.

COCKNEY. (Vol. iv., p. 237.)

Halliwell illustrates this word by a quotation from Nash's Pierce Penilesse, 1592:

"A young heyre or cockney, that is his mother's darling, if hee playde the waste-good at the innes of the court, or about London, falles in a quarrelling humor with his fortune, because she made him not king of the Indies."

Richardson gives the following quotation from Fuller's Worthies:

"I meet with a double sense of this word cockeney.... 1st, One coaks'd or cockered, made a wanton or nestle-cock of.... 2nd, One utterly ignorant of husbandry and housewifery, such as is practised in the country...."

Webster gives the following derivation, &c.:

"COCKNEY, n. [Most probably from L. coquina, a kitchin, or coquino, to cook; Fr. coquin, idle; Fr. cocagne, It. cuccagna, an imaginary country of idleness and luxury.... Hence, a citizen who leads an idle life, or never leaves the city.]

"1. A native of London, by way of contempt. Watts. Shak.

Chaucer, in the above lines quoted by Webster, probably refers to any substantial dish of fresh meat, which might be cut in collops; possibly, however, to young roasted pigs, which, as every one knows, are continually running about, all over the land of cockaigne, with knives and forks stuck into them, crying, "Come eat me, come eat me."

Whether the word cockney be derived from the the land of cockaigne, or the legend of cockaigne arise from cockney, it appears probable that both words have their origin in the same root with the verb to cook, and that the epithet originally conveyed the imputation to citizens, of a superfluous consumption of cooked meat; inasmuch as the inhabitants of large cities generally consider the daily use of fresh meat almost as a necessary of life, while the provincial population is content to exist on less nutritious food.

Whatever may be the original import of the epithet, the modern application of it is, I believe, confined to the natives of the metropolis, and it corresponds in use and signification with the terms rustic and chaw-bacon, which distinguish the natives of the provinces; the latter term being exclusively appropriated to agriculturalists. Epithets, apparently of similar origin, exist in the seaman's land-lubber, the landsman's jack-tar, the Englishman's froggy, and the Frenchman's ros-bif.

Londoners themselves appear to have a theoretical notion that the inhabitants of Belgravia, and other enlightened metropolitan districts, are strictly entitled to the designation cockney, in virtue of their birth and residence within the sound of Bow-bells; but practically limit its application to those members of the lower, and more ignorant classes of the community, who traditionally retain some of the obsolete idioms, and other peculiarities of speech, of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers.

A LONDONER.

SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN OR PLOYDEN. (Vol. iv., p. 58.)

For the information of your correspondent A TRANSATLANTIC READER, I beg to inform him that Sir Edmund Plowden or Ployden was 2nd son of Francis Plowden of Plowden, Salop, and Shiplake in Berks: a family which can claim its descent from the Saxon kings of England; and by a Saxon charter, granting lands in Salop to the family, that the family had large estates in that remote period. The Saxon derivation of the name (from the Saxon Plean deen, or kill the Dane) alone shows the great antiquity of the family; and there are few, if any, families in England who have retained their ancestral property so direct in the male line as this family. It is also connected with some of the oldest and noblest families in England—the Howards and Staffords are allied to this family by intermarriages. In the reign of Richard I. Sir Roger de Plowden was a crusader; and for his heroic conduct at the siege of Acre, was knighted, and also permitted by the king to bear on his shield the royal arms, the fleur de lis, which is retained to this day. In 9 Edward II., John de Plowden was by parliamentary writ, signed at Clopstow 5th March, called to parliament as one of the lords of the township of Plowden, Salop. Edmund Plowden, the great lawyer in Edw. VI. and Elizabeth's reigns, who was in those times called the oracle of the law, was enrolled among Fuller's Worthies of England, with Camden's Latin verses on him: "Vitæ integritati inter homines suæ professionis nulli secundus."

He was offered by Elizabeth, whose autograph letter was until recently in the possession of the family, the Lord Chancellorship of England, with a peerage, if he would give up his creed as Catholic and turn Protestant; which he declined, preferring to abide by his moral convictions of the truthfulness of what he deemed his faith to worldly honour and aggrandisement. Sir Edmund died at Wanstead, county of Southampton, in 1659; and in possession of large estates in eleven parishes in England, besides his American province of New Albion. To each of these parishes he leaves by his will of 1655 a sum of money to be paid "eight days after his demise, and directs to be buried in the chapel of the Plowdens at Lydbury, in Salop; a stone monument, with an inscription in brass bearing the names of his children, and another with his correct pedigree as drawn out at his house in Wanstead." He appears to have gone to America about the year 1620, and remained there, in Virginia and New England, till about 1630. While there, his sister Ann was married to Sir Arthur Lake, son of Sir Thomas Lake, then Secretary of State to James I.; and through whose influence, we presume, on his return to England he was introduced to the great Lord Strafford, with whom it is believed he proceeded to Ireland; for in the Heralds' Visitation of Salop, 1632, (vide Sims' H. Vist., Brit. Mus.), he is entered in the Plowden pedigree as being then in Ireland. By the Strafford State Papers it appears that in this year he made petition to Charles I. through Lord Strafford, then Lieut. and Capt.-General of Ireland, for the colonising of New Albion:—

"Near the continent of Virginia, sixty leagues N. from James City, without the Bay of Chesapeake, there is a habitable and fruitful island, named Isle Plowden, otherwise Long Isle, with other small isles between 30° and 40° of lat., about sixty leagues from the main, near De la Warre Bay, where Your Majesty, nor any of your Progenitors, were ever possessed of any estate, &c ... to enable the petitioners, their heirs and assigns, for ever to enjoy the said Isle, and forty leagues square of the adjoining continent, as in the nature of a County Palatine or Body Politick, by the name of New Albion, to be held of your Majesty's Crown of Ireland, exempt from all appeal to the Governor of Virginia, and with such other additions, privileges, and dignities therein, to be given to Sir Edmund Plowden, like has been heretofore granted to Sir George Calvert, Knight, late Lord Calvert, in Newfoundland, together with the usual grants and privileges that other Colonies have for governing, &c., and we agree to settle with 500 inhabitants."

The king's warrant was given at Oatlands 24th July, 1632, granting the whole asked for, under the Great Seal of Ireland, signed by John Coke. Between this period and 1634, Sir Edmund was engaged in fulfilling the conditions of the warrant by carrying out the colonisation by indentures, which were executed and enrolled in Dublin, and St. Mary's in Maryland in America. In Dublin the parties were Viscount Musherry, 100 planters; Lord Monson, 100 planters; Sir Thomas Denby, 100 planters; Captain Clayborne (of American notoriety) 50; Captain Balls; and amounting in all to 540 colonisers, beside others in Maryland, Virginia, and New England. The parties who joined in the petition were Sir John Lawrence, Knight and Baronet, who died in America; Sir Bowyer Worstley, Knight, and Charles Barrett, Esq.,—both died there in 1634; George Noble, Gent., Thomas Ribread, Roger Packe, William Inwood, and John Trustler. Having completed the conditions he was granted a charter, bearing date Oatlands, 21st June, 1634; and enrolled in Dublin in 17 pages folio; and confirmed 24th July, 1634, in the eighth year of the reign of Charles I., running thus:

"And according to the tenour and effect of certain of our letters, signed with our proper hand, and sealed with our seal now enrolled in the Rolls of our Chancery of the said Kingdom of Ireland, We have given, granted, and confirmed, and by this our present Charter, for Us, our heirs, and successors, do give, grant, and confirm such the before said Sir Edmund Plowden, Knight, his heirs and assigns, for ever, all that entire island near the continent of Terra Firma of North Virginia, called the Island of Plowden, or Long Island, and lying near and between the 39° and 40° of N. lat.; together with part of the continent or Terra Firma aforesaid near adjoining, described to begin from the point of an angle of a certain promontory called Cape Cod, from thence to the westward for the space of 40°, running by the river Delaware, closely following its course by the N. lat. into a certain rivulet there arising from a spring of Lord Baltimore in the lands of Maryland, and the summit aforesaid to the south, where it touches, joins, and determines in all its breadth, from thence takes its course into a square leading to the north by a right line for the space of 40° to the river and port of Reachu Cod, and descends to a savannah, touching and including the top of Sand Bay, where it determines, and from thence towards the south by a square, stretching to a savannah which passes by and washes the shores of the Plowden aforesaid to the point of the promontory of Cape May above mentioned, and determines where it begins." And p. 4. continues: "Therefore We, for Us, our heirs, and successors, do give unto the aforesaid Sir Edmund Plowden, and his heirs and assigns, free and full power graciously to confer favours and honours upon the well-deserving citizens and inhabitants within the province aforesaid with whatever titles and dignities he shall choose to decorate them with (in such a manner as they may but now be usurped in England), and to cut and stamp different pieces of gold such as shall be lawful, current, and acceptable to all the inhabitants; and We command all, and enjoin other things to be done in the premises which to him or them shall be seen to be proper, in as free and ample a manner and form as by the Society of Newfoundland and East Indies, Island of Bermuda, Bishop of Durham within the Bishoprick or County Palatine of Durham; or Lord Baltimore within his lands and premises of Maryland and Glastonbury; or James Earl of Carlisle within the island of St. Christopher and Barbadoes; or any other Governor or Founder of a Colony."

In fact, the powers granted were never exceeded by any former charter of the Crown: they were all but regal. Under this charter a lease, enrolled in Dublin, was granted by Lord Plowden in 1634 to Sir Thomas Danby for 10,000 acres, and a release, dated 20th Dec. 1634, sealed and signed at St. Mary's, Maryland, and witnessed by Vall Havord and Richard Benham, by R. Packe for 200 acres; T. Ribread, 100; W. Inwood, 100; and John Trustler, 100; segregating 500 acres in trust for the "Earl of Albion, when they deliver up their claims or trusts in consideration for this grant of land; and confirmed unto Lord Francis Plowden, son and heir of Sir Edmund Plowden, Earl Palatine, and George and Thomas Plowden, two of the sons of the said Sir Edmund, Earl Palatine." Sir Edmund Plowden resided with his wife and family as Governor of New Albion six years; his eldest son, Francis, and Lady Plowden, returned to England to look after his father's estates in his absence: but Francis so abused the confidence reposed in him, as to oblige the Governor to return to England (leaving his sons George and Thomas as his locum tenens). On his arrival he was incarcerated in the Fleet Prison on a base charge emanating from his son, from which he was released by order of the Peers Committee, House of Lords; and likewise involved in a lawsuit to recover certain estates sold by his son, which cost him 15,000l. before he was clear. This unnatural and illegal conduct induced him to disinherit his son Francis; for, in the 15th of Charles I., 1st June, 1646, Sir Edmund obtained license from the Crown to alienate from his son the manors of Wanstead, Southwick, and many others in the county of Southampton, as is enrolled in the Rolls Chapel. By his will, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, Sir Wm. Mason was in trust for Sir Edmund's second son and heir, Thomas Plowden; and also for the New Albion colony. And the will proceeds:

"And I think it fit that my English lands and estates shall be settled and united to my Honor, County Palatine, and Province of New Albion, for the maintenance of the same; and again, that all my lease lands in England be sold with all convenient speed by my executors and overseers herein named, and with the money arising therefrom to buy good freehold, to be settled and entailed as the rest of my lands are settled on my second son Thomas Plowden, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, or to be begotten; also my County Palatine of New Albion, and Peerage as a Peer of Ireland, as aforesaid, unto Thomas Plowden my son during his natural life, and after his decease, to the heirs male of my son Thomas, begotten or to be begotten; and again, I do enter and will that my son Thomas Plowden, and, after his decease his eldest heir in male, and, if he be under age, then his guardian, with all speed after my decease do employ by consent of Sir William Mason of Gray's Inn, Knight, whom I make a trustee of this my plantation of New Albion; and if my son Thomas shall by fail, defence, loose, agree, give, or alien any part of my estates, lands, or rents in England to Francis my son, or his issue, then my son shall forfeit and lose to his eldest son all lands and estates and rents in England herein settled, entailed, or given him, and to be forfeited during his life."

George either died, or was killed, in the massacres by the Indians; as was also Francis, third son of Thomas, along with his wife and family, as alluded to in his father's will, dated 1698.

These attacks on the infant colony were instigated by the Dutch and Swedes of the New Netherlands, as they called New Albion, and who did all they could to obstruct and thwart the Earl Palatine's plans, as is alluded to in The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain: Speed and Basset, 1676, dedicated to James I.; and recommended as a most authentic work by Sir Richard St. George, Norroy King of Arms.

"Moreover these proceedings, upon complaint made to his late Majesty, and by whom represented to the State of Holland, were absolutely disowned by them, and wholly laid upon the East India Company of Amsterdam. The most northerly part towards New England was by his Majesty granted by patent to Sir Edmund Plowden, by the name of New Albion. The most southerly towards Virginia to Sir George Calvert, now Lord Baltimore, by the name of Maryland. The Dutch, upon some consideration agreed on, were forthwith to have quitted the place; yet, for all this, as the custom of this people is never to let go any opportunity that serves their turn, whether by right or wrong, they took advantage of the unhappy dissentions and cruel wars that soon after happened within this nation: they not only stood upon higher demands than was at first agreed on, but also contrived to stir up the natives against the English, that they might have the better opportunity of fixing themselves. In this state things remained till his present Majesty, after his restoration, resolved to send three ships of war."

Charles II. most tyrannically, privately, without sanction from Parliament, and without even alluding to his father's charter to Sir Edmund Plowden, gave a charter of the Province to his brother James, at the same time creating him Duke of Albany. Before James was duly clothed with the powers of Governor, he sold a large portion of it to Lord Berkely for 65,000l. For years afterwards, the Duke of York's title was disputed, and many disturbances arose, and Chancery suits, as entered in the American chancery suits of that period. Lord Sutherland, as the colonial officer, disputed the validity of the Duke's claim. A greater act of injustice could hardly be perpetrated than this virtual abrogation of the original charter, after so many years of labour had been expended, charges incurred, loss of estates and relations, and the other evils attending planting this colony which absence from England gave rise to. Sir Edmund Plowden was not inferior to any of his co-governors in ability, fortune, position, or family. Though he made a greater sacrifice than any, he never received the slightest compensation like the other early colonisers. We conclude that family dissentions connected with the disinheritance of Francis Plowden, must have tended to facilitate Charles II.'s illegal conduct; for, in Thomas Plowden's Will, 1698, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, he alludes to his son-in-law, Walter Hall, illegally and forcibly retaining papers connected with the estates: Province of New Albion Charter, the Patent for the Peerage of Ireland. The first cousin of the disinherited son was a Col. Plowden of the Life Guards, who followed James II.'s fortunes, and accompanied him on his leaving England, and died as his chamberlain at St. Germains in France. These documents may have come into his hands, and have been lost in France. It is quite clear that the only estate which came to Thomas's eldest son James of Ewhurst was Lassam in Southampton, and his son James also held it; he was married to Sarah Chichely, daughter of Sir John Chichely, son of Sir Henry Chichely, formerly Governor of Virginia, the lineal descendant of Thomas, Lord Mayor of London, and brother of Archbishop Chichely, founder of All Souls, Oxford. This family is now extinct in the male, but still exist in the female line in the Plowden family, which is the nearest of kin of any family, and consequently has a stronger claim to the Fellowships of that college as founder's kin. There can be no question but that the family have a legal claim against the government for the unjust alienation of that province to James II.; but the loss of the charter, and the ignorance of the family that it was enrolled in Ireland (now found), prevented the heir and representative of Sir Edmund from claiming compensation. Nothing but an act of parliament can nullify the sacred rights of a charter; if it were not so, no public or private right would be safe a day. As to his peerage, it was litigated at the time, and decided in his favour; but the Commonwealth did not favour the restoration of titles granted by Charles I., and on the Restoration, Sir Edmund's papers were lost to those to whom they would have been useful. Notwithstanding the sarcastic and bad spirit in which Beauchamp Plantagenet's New Albion of 1648 was reviewed by Mr. Pennington of Philadelphia, I trust that the Americans will treat the early pioneer of one of the best portions of America in a more liberal spirit, and do justice to his memory. We have now no new worlds to discover; and the present race of men can hardly appreciate the labours, dangers, and hardships our first colonisers had to endure—but they however know the value of their exertions. They have secured for America one of the finest countries in the world, which may one day be an empire of vast power. Its separation from the mother country was the greatest national calamity that ever befell her. How fatal has it been to France; first for abetting clandestinely the Americans against England, and at last throwing away the mask, openly assisting her with her arms. Since then, what calamities have befallen her, and may even yet befall her. Had we then, as Macaulay says, had a Clive at the head of our armies, and a Hastings in council, that separation might either have been deferred, or we might have parted friendly, instead of in enmity. Had I time to glean it, I have no doubt I could furnish much important matter connected with New Albion, derived from sources within my reach.

ALBION.

P.S. There are two seals attached to Sir Edmund Plowden's Will; his private seal of the Plowdens, and his Earl's with supporters, signed "Albion:" the same as is given in Beauchamp Plantagenet's New Albion, 1648 (King's Lib. B. Mus.).

GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. (Vol. iv., p. 271.)

He was born in a house now inhabited by the vicar, at Westerham, Kent, on the 2d of January, 1727, and not, as the various notices of his life state, the 15th of January, 1726 (see Penny Cyclopædia and other works). His mother's Christian name was Henrietta, and she, I believe, came from or near Deptford, to which place in the latter years of her life, she again went to reside. Wolfe was an only child; the name is still to be found in the neighbourhood of Westerham. Shortly after his birth, his parents removed to a house at the extreme end of the town,—a picturesque mansion it is, and is named after him Quebec House. Under this roof Wolfe's happiest hours were spent.

Sir Jeffrey Amherst (a native of the same valley, Holmsdale), patronised him, but where first engaged I never could discover. His body was brought to England, and interred at Greenwich; monuments were erected to him in Westminster Abbey, Squerries Park, Westerham, and Westerham Church. The inscription on the marble tablet, erected in the latter, I subjoin:—

His sword is preserved in the United Service Museum, and was engraved about two years since in the Illustrated London News. An old professed portrait of him dangles as the sign of a beer-shop in Westerham. Wolfe was ardently attached to Colonel Barré, whose portrait is introduced in West's celebrated picture of the Death of Wolfe; another head in the picture is, I have been told, a likeness of a person who had been captured by the Indians, and was about to be scalped, when his life was saved by the intercession of a chief Wolfe had formerly pardoned.

Wolfe was the youngest general ever entrusted with such a responsible command; but his bravery, his great humanity, his love to his troops, and above all, his glorious death, will render his name immortal in the page of British history.

H. G. D.

The inclosed lines were given to me some years since by an old lady, who stated that they came into her possession through some relatives of the lady to whom they were addressed. I now much regret that I did not hear (or if I heard it have forgotten) the lady's name. Perhaps in the last letter of the series now in the hands of Ʒ , some allusion may be found to one in whom the parting hero felt so deep an interest; at all events the lines may be acceptable to Ʒ or others of your readers desirous for some further knowledge of the private life of this "faithful soldier." Might not the parish register of Westerham in Kent, the birthplace of Wolfe, possibly supply his mother's maiden name, or some other particular as to his family connexions? His father, also General Wolfe, may perhaps have distinguished himself in "the 45," but James Wolfe was then barely nineteen years of age, and I have never met with any allusion to his taking part in that campaign. His appointment to the American service is said to have been the result of his display of military talent in Germany.

YUNAF.

I am enabled to reply to the third Query of Ʒ from papers in my possession. Wolfe's commission as second lieutenant in his father's (Col. Edward Wolfe's) regiment of marines,[3] is dated 3d November, 1741; as ensign in Col. Scipio Duroure's regiment, 27th March, 1742; as lieutenant in the same regiment, 14th July, 1743; as adjutant in the same regiment, 22d July, 1743; as captain in Barrell's regiment, 23d June, 1744; as major in Lord George Sackville's regiment,[4] 5th January, 1748-49; as lieut.-col. of the same regiment, 20th March, 1749-50, and colonel by brevet, 21st Oct. 1757; colonel of the 67th regiment, 21st April, 1758; brigadier in America, 23d July, 1758; killed at siege of Quebec.

Wolfe's father, Edward Wolfe, was appointed brigadier-general, 25th April, 1745; major-general, 27th May, 1745, and lieut.-general, 30th Sept. 1747.

If Ʒ will communicate with me personally, I may be able to furnish him with some other information relating to Wolfe.

ROBERT COLE.

The following memoranda from MSS. in my care, relative to this distinguished man, may, perhaps, be of use to your correspondent Ʒ .

Feb. 1746, a petition (dated Feb. 1746) to the Duke of Bedford for his interference relative to the pay due to him as Inspector of Marines.

Another letter, dated July 7, 1746, printed in the first volume of the Bedford Correspondence.

Another letter, dated Feb. 16, 1747, on the same subject as the first.

Another letter, dated Feb. 19, 1757, also printed in the Bedford Correspondence.

Another letter, dated July 22, 1767, relative to his embarkation of a regiment in which he was lieut.-col.

Another letter, dated Jan. 26, 1788, printed in the Bedford Correspondence.

Copy of a letter to Lord George Sackville, dated Halifax, May 12.

W. A.

Major-General Edward Wolfe resided in one of the villas in Montague Walk, on the west side of Greenwich Park; afterwards the residence of the Hon. Mr. Lyttelton, Henry Drax, Esq., Mr. Scott, and his widow.

In the register book of St. Alphege in Greenwich occurs this entry:

His body was brought to England from Quebec, and laid by the side of his father, Major-Gen. E. Wolfe, who was buried there on April 2, 1759.

His mother's Christian name was Henrietta; she bequeathed 500l. to Bromley College at her death in 1765.

The short sword worn by General Wolfe at the time of his death is in the United Service Institution in Scotland Yard. His military cloak is, I believe, kept in the Tower.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

In the church of Westerham, the place of Wolfe's birth, as well as in Westminster Abbey, is a cenotaph. Is it well known who was the author of the pleasing lines inscribed at Westerham?

May I also ask whether the packet of autograph letters in the possession of your correspondent was ever shown to Southey, and whether an intention was not entertained by him, at one period, of writing a memoir of Wolfe? If these letters were unknown to Southey, I have strong reasons for believing that another collection of General Wolfe's letters exists. Would not your correspondent's collection or a selection from it, form a very interesting publication?

J. H. M.

STANZAS IN CHILDE HAROLD. (Vol. iv., pp. 223. 285.)

I am much obliged to your correspondents who have taken the trouble to answer my Query respecting the lines in Childe Harold; but I am sorry that you did not print one of the replies "at considerable length" to which you allude in your note to MR. CROSSLEY'S brief one: for MR. CROSSLEY'S settlement of the question will hardly, I think, appear so satisfactory to all readers as it evidently does to him. Will you allow me to explain the reasons for thinking so?

In his opinion it is quite transparent that Lord Byron meant to say, speaking to the Ocean of its shores:

But in my former letter I quoted a German translator's version of the lines, and he did not understand them thus; and I have just referred to a French translator's, and he also differs from MR. CROSSLEY. In fact, his view of the matter so completely tallies with mine, that I will, with your permission, quote his words:

"Tes rivages sont des empires, où tout est changé, excepté toi. Que sont devenus l'Assyrie, la Grèce, Rome, Carthage? Tes flots battaient leurs frontières aux jours de la liberté, comme depuis sous le règne de plus d'un tyran."

This passage is taken from the complete translation of Lord Byron's Works, published at Paris in 1836, by M. Benjamin de Laroche, vol. i. p. 754.

M. de Laroche was no doubt led to form his opinion of the real meaning of these two lines from a careful consideration of those which immediately precede and immediately follow. The theme of the poet is the proud superiority of the ocean to human authority, and its insensibility to human vicissitude. He rebukes the haughty assumption that "Britannia rules the waves;" he refers in proof to the striking fact, that of the two most memorable tempests recorded in the naval history of Spain and England, the one aided our triumph, and the other tore the fruits of a triumph from us.

And then he proceeds, according to my view of the passage, and according to the French translator's view, to point out, that while the shores of the ocean are changed, the action of the ocean continues the same; that it wasted the empires of the ancient world when they were free, and wasted them when they fell under the sway of tyrants:

Here there seems to be a logical sequence, which is surely not to be found if the semicolon is kept, as MR. CROSSLEY wishes to keep it, after the word "since."

meaning, as he declares, that many a tyrant since has wasted them. There may be grammatical construction here, but what becomes of the meaning? The direct force of the words would surely be, that the ocean was in the habit of ravaging its shores in times of liberty, but that it left off when the tyrants began. I suppose it will be admitted that this is not exactly what the poet wished to convey. To his real meaning it will, I hope, be allowed to be essential that the statement should be made, that the ocean's ravages continue; and if this is not done in the fourth line, it is done nowhere,—the chain of reasoning is left without a link. To say that the ocean wasted empires once, and tyrants did it afterwards, is as little to the purpose as it would have been to say, in the preceding stanza, that the ocean destroyed the Armada, but that Nelson won Trafalgar. The lines become incoherent.

I beg pardon for trespassing so long on your attention; but the question seems to have excited some interest, and I think the occasion may plead my excuse.

T. W.

There is no occasion to say any more on the subject of T. W.'s doubts (Vol. iv., p. 223.) as to the construction of certain lines in the 182nd stanza: but his remarks on the substitution of the word gush'd for rush'd, in the 141st stanza, induce me to offer a suggestion, or rather ask a Query, with respect to a word in another stanza (180th) of the same canto, which I shall quote entire.

The blot which disfigures the last line of this fine stanza, in the use of the word lay for lie, has, I believe, been often observed; but the question I wish to throw out for the consideration of your readers is, whether it is quite certain that Lord Byron really wrote, or intended to write, the word lay. The following reasons appear to me to render it improbable that he did. 1. His lordship is admittedly, I believe, a great master of the English language, and would therefore be very unlikely to commit the somewhat vulgar blunder of writing lay for lie, whatever might be the requirements of the rhyme. 2. This improbability is rendered much stronger by his having used the word lies in the line next but one preceding; and therefore his attention could hardly have been averted from the distinction between the two words. 3. Though not professing to be a critic, it does appear to me that the sense itself of the line (taking the word lay in the sense of lie) is weak and unmeaning, or at least far from worthy of the former part of the stanza.

I am not perhaps bound to offer any emendation of the line, but in default of anything better I will venture to suggest that his lordship may have written, or intended to write, the word pray as the concluding word of the stanza. The sense, with pray instead of lay, would not, in my judgment, be inferior to that of the line in its present form; nor would it be in itself inappropriate, as allusion has just been made to man being sent "howling to his gods;" and, at all events, by the adoption of pray, an almost unpardonable grammatical error is avoided.

PRISCIAN.

I cannot agree with T. W. as to the stanza quoted from the Hymn to the Ocean.

is very good sense, and much more Byronic than the cacophonous inversion T. W. proposes.

Blackwood's criticism of this hymn (probably by the Professor) is not at all too severe. Noble as are some parts of it, it is full of cockneyisms and platitudes. What can be worse than

Again:

is most magnificent in its sonorous march: but the next line is equally absurd:

In vain! Why, did not Columbus discover a world? Did not Nelson make England's fame eternal? Do not our tea, coffee, wine, and cotton cross the surging seas?

As to the "Gladiator" stanza, nobody can doubt that rushed is the right and most poetic reading. Rush is a strong word: gush a weak one, much hackneyed by neoteric poetasters. Byron never used gush in such a sense. Thoughts do not gush, though blood and water may. I therefore venture to differ from T. W. and his two illustrious friends.

MORTIMER COLLINS.

The difficulty which your correspondent T. W. finds in Lord Byron's celebrated Address to the Ocean is occasioned by his having taken up a wrong notion of the construction at the first reading; and the solution of his perplexity is so obvious, when this is once pointed out, that it must have already occurred to many of your readers, and very probably, by this time, to T. W. himself. The lines that puzzle him are—

"What!" exclaims T. W., "The waters wasted many a tyrant? How, in the name of wonder?" How indeed! Probably more readers at once caught the sense:—

The word "wasted" is used in a somewhat different sense in the two cases, but this is the price of the antithesis; and the result follows, that their shores now obey the stranger, the slave, or the savage, as exemplified in Greece, Asia and Africa respectively. And here we may observe, that the writer in Blackwood's Magazine, whom T. W. quotes, and who thinks the ocean appealed to is the world's ocean, and not the Mediterranean, has been just as blind to the train of thought in the other part as T. W. in this.

But in the way of doing something beyond the solution of this particular obscurity, so far as there is any, I would remark, that Byron's efforts at concentration and point not unfrequently give rise to an obscurity of this kind; which for a moment produces a perplexity that seems laughable as soon as the true sense occurs to us. For instance, on first reading these verses in the Corsair,—

I exclaimed, like T. W., "What! his sword fatigued his foes? What a most absurd expression! To be sure, one may imagine that when Conrad was killing his enemies one after another without stopping, they would say, What a tiresome man he is! but this does not seem to be in the vein of the narration." And then, reading the passage again, and considering that the pirate complains of the guard of his sword being too narrow, I saw plainly that, with whatever damage to the rhythm, the verse was to be read—

"Last time, it more fatigued my arm than foes" (did).

My sword, by its not fitting to my hand, fatigued my arm more than all the resistance that foes could offer.

I will give another example of the same kind, again taken from the Pirate. In the enthusiastic description of a ship, he says:

"Who?" I exclaimed; "but who wants to move him? This monarch is, I suppose, the captain; but why should men in general wish to move him?" I suppose most of your readers see at the first what I saw at the second glance, that Byron meant "to move as the monarch of this deck," that is, to be the captain.

If I have satisfied T. W. and the rest of your readers of the construction of the first passage, I have, I think, also shown that the tendency to such transient mistakes in reading Byron is not uncommon.

W. W.

Cambridge, Oct. 10. 1851.

Replies to Minor Queries.

MS. Note in a Copy of Liber Sententiarum (Vol. iv., pp. 188. 282.).

—For the information of W. S. W. I beg to notify that the "mundane era" quoted by him is the Septuagint era of Venerable Bede, who, in his chronology of the world, uses two eras; one of which he calls "juxta Hebraicam veritatem," the other, "juxta septuaginta interpretes."

He makes the concurrence of these with A.D. 1, at the birth of Christ, to be respectively as follows:—

The two latter, as W. S. W. will perceive, are exactly in the same relation as those in the MS. note.

I should also suggest that "S" may be the initial in the writer's name, and not "T": in which case "q̱. T." probably signifies "quam tribuit."

A. E. B.

P.S.—Upon a second reference to the communication of W. S. W. I find that the above dates are not consistent with those quoted by him, but differ by exactly a hundred years: that this should be the exact difference is very singular, and would lead me to suspect that there might have been a mistake in transcription, were it not that in his smaller work Bede has this sentence:

"Hujus anno Dominus nascitur, completis ab Adam annis 3952.—Juxta alios, 5199."

Naturalis proles (Vol. iv., p. 161.).

—Undoubtedly in Latin naturalis is opposed to "adopted;" e.g. "P. Scipio ... naturalis consulis Paulli, adoptione Africani nepos." (Livy, xliv. 44.) I stumbled some time ago upon the following:

"The Act of Settlement by which Napoleon, Emperor of France, was declared King of Italy, with the right of succession to his sons natural or adopted, and male heirs.... He declared that he accepted, and would defend, the iron crown; and that even during his lifetime he would consent to separate the two crowns, and place one of his natural or adopted sons upon the throne."—Alison's History, chap. xxxix. §§ 38, 39.

I have no means of ascertaining whether this is a literal rendering from the French document. If I may trust my Dictionnaire de l'Académie, this sense of the word is unknown to the French language, as well as to ours.

CHARLES THIRIOLD.

Print cleaning (Vol. iv., p. 175.).

—The following method is given as infallible by Mr. Stannard in the Art-Union for 1847, pp. 179. 261.:

"Immerse the print for an hour or so in a lye made by adding to the strongest muriatic acid its own weight in water, and to three parts of this mixture adding one of red oxide of lead, or black oxide of manganese. A print, if not quickly cleaned, may remain in the liquid twenty-four hours without harm. Indian ink stains should in the first instance be assisted out with hot water. Pencil marks, if carefully done, should be partially rubbed out with India rubber or day-old bread; that is, if it can be safely done, as rubbing an engraving is always hazardous. If the print had been mounted, the paste on the back should be thoroughly removed with warm water. The saline crystals left by the solution may be removed by repeated rinsings with warm water."

ALTRON.

Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor (Vol. iv., pp. 208. 262.).

—My copy of Don Quixote has the following note on the passage referred to by Mr. C. H. COOPER:—

"Two old men appeared before Sancho, etc.—I believe this story is told, for the first time, in some of the Talmudic writings; but Cervantes, in all probability, took it from the Legenda Aurea Jacobi de Voragine, in which monkish collection it occurs in these words:

"'Vir quidam ab uno Judæo quamdam summam pecuniæ mutuo accepit, jurans super altare Sancti Nicolai quod quam citius posset sibi redderet. Tenente autem illo diu pecuniam Judæus expostulavit: sed eam sibi reddidisse affirmat. Trahit ergo eum ad judicem et juramentum indicitur debitori: Ille baculum cavatum quem auro minuto impleverat secum detulerat, ac si ejus adminiculo indigeret: Volens igitur facere juramentum Judæo baculum tradidit servandum. Juravit quod plus sibi reddiderat etiam quam debet; et facto juramento baculum repetiit. Et Judæus ignorans astutiæ eum sibi reddidit. Rediens autem qui fraudem fecerat in quodam bivio oppressus corruit somno: Currusque eum, cum impetu veniens, necuit, et baculum plenum auro fregit, et aurum effudit.'

"The conclusion of the story is, that the Jew having received his money, was earnestly entreated to acknowledge his sense of the Divine interposition in his favour, by receiving baptism. He said he would do so if Saint Nicholas would, at his prayer, restore the dead man to life. The saint was, without much difficulty, induced to do this, and the Jew became an edifying specimen of conversion. See the chapter de Sancto Nicolao."—The History of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha; translated from the Spanish by Motteux. A new Edition, with copious Notes, &c. Edinburgh, 1822, vol. v. p. 334.

May not Jeremy Taylor, in the passage cited from the Ductor Dubitantium ("NOTES AND QUERIES, Vol. iv., p. 208.), have been quoting from memory, and confused the Talmudic(?) legend with a well-known passage in Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 199-207.? Compare—

"The Greek that denied the depositum of his friend, and offered to swear at the altar,"

with

The Spartan's name was Glaucus. The story is told at large in Herodot. vi. 86. See Stocker's note on Juv. Sat. xiii. 199. The use of "sibi," in the extract from the Legenda Aurea, is new to me. Is it common in monkish Latin?

C. FORBES.

Temple.

Anagrams (Vol. iv., pp. 226. 297.).

—MR. BREEN put another Query besides "Where shall we find six good anagrams?" He asked, "How comes it that a species of composition once so popular should have become extinct?"

Let me venture to refer MR. BREEN to The Spectator for an answer to this inquiry; where, in Addison's brilliant papers on "False Wit" (Nos. 58. &c.), he will find the whole family of ingenious quibblings,—anagrams, acrostics, chronograms, puns, bouts-rimes, &c.,—mown down to their just level. And MR. BREEN cannot, I am sure, as a man of taste, fail to be delighted, even although he may think the following passage (which I quote chiefly as a warning against the rise of an anagrammatric epidemic among your correspondents) a little severe on his old friends:

"The acrostic was probably invented about the same time with the anagram, though it is impossible to decide whether the inventor of the one or the other were the greater blockhead."

It is a tempting folly I admit for an idle hour, and I must plead guilty to having (in consequence of MR. BREEN'S letter) wasted nearly a whole evening in discovering that

and also offers the following warning to its contributors—

while as an encouragement it observes (so an ingenious friend informs us)—

HERMES.

Battle of Brunanburgh (Vol. iv., p. 249.).

—The Egils Saga describes the duel between the armies of Olaf and Athelstan to have been fought in a champ clos, inclosed with branches of hazel, upon a space called the Vinheidi, or heidi of Vin, situate near (vid) or in (á) the Vinskogr, or forest of Vin. Heidi is a rough open space, with scrubs or bushes, such as furze, juniper, broom, &c. The heidi and the skogr were distinct, the latter affording shelter to the fugitives from the former, p. 290. The text, both Norse and Latin, says, "Then he brought his army to the Vin-heidi. A certain town stood towards the north of the heidi." But a various reading in the note says, "to the town of Vinheidi, which was to the north of the heidi." But it seems as unreasonable for the town to be called Vinheidi, as Vinskogr. Vin should be taken for the name of the town, and the root of the other phrases. The downs or brakes called Vinheidi were inclosed with hazel, and lay between the forest, or skogr, and some river. The town, being Olaf's head quarters, lay north of them. Athelstan occupied the nearest town to the south of the heidi. [Query, whether south of the river?] The northern town Vin is no doubt the Weon from which the Weon-dune (downs of Weon, or heidi of Vin) was called. The other name given by Simeon Dunelmensis to that space is curious, as showing how well the spot was adapted for attack and pursuit, "eth-runnan-werc," that is, "facilis-ad-opus-currendi." The name Brunanburg, probably signifying "the town of bourns," or watercourses, is unequivocally that of a town. Since Olaf or Arlaf had his quarters at Vin, it was probably at that place where Athelstan was stationed. Find these two places, Vin the northern-most of the two, and find the river. The heidi and the skogr are probably grubbed and ploughed up.

A. N.

Praed's Works (Vol. iv., p. 256.).

—Some three years ago I saw a prospectus announcing that they would be published by Mr. Parker of Oxford, under the direction of Mrs. Praed; but I believe nothing has been done in the matter since.

W. J.

Sir J. Davies (Vol. iv., p. 256.).

—Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, 191. Piccadilly, have, or had recently, an original MS. of this eminent lawyer and poet. Perhaps L. GYFFES would learn something of it by communication with them, and, if curious, oblige your readers with an account of it.

R.

Coins of Constantius Gallus (Vol. iv., p. 238.).

—MR. TAYLOR appears to me not altogether correct in his distinctions of these coins. The name VAL. certainly generally denotes Constantius Chlorus, but there are coins of Constantius II. also with VAL. It is impossible for a practised numismatist to confound the coins of these emperors, not only from the difference of lettering and workmanship, but from the change in the size, thickness, &c. of the coins. I have coins of Constantius II. with VAL. bearing the same reverse as others with IVL. (PROVIDENTIAE CAESS) in my cabinet. I have also several coins of Constantius II. with P.F.AVG., which have A. behind the head. I refer above only to coins of bronze, second and third sizes; but I should suppose the rules would apply also to the gold coins. I see "NOTES AND QUERIES" only monthly, or I should have written sooner, but I hope not to be too late.

W. H. S.

Edinburgh.

Passage in Sedley (Vol. iii., p. 476.).—

I much fear your correspondent HENRY H. BREEN suggests an alteration in Sir Charles Sedley's couplet more favourable to the witty baronet's principles than facts will admit. It is too probable that he conceived the sentiment just as it stands; for we must remember that he belonged to that school of loose wits of the Restoration, who, "Regis ad exemplar," made a mock of all which tended to place "virtue" above "interest," or to make men "too fond of the right to pursue the expedient."

Charles II. and his long train of licentious courtiers now stand at the bar of history, and the verdict on him must be, that if he had a principle in latter life it was this,—that he would never endanger himself for any abstract rule of right; or as Sir W. Scott, in Peveril, accurately says: "he had sworn never to kiss the block on which his father suffered," when yielding to the current would save him from it; hence, there is too good reason to think that, in his estimation, and in the judgment of the school he formed, "loyalty" was "folly," and to take the strongest side "wisdom."

The reference in Sedley's couplet to the line—

is too obvious to need notice; and it is but too certain that in the estimation of a courtier of Charles II., Cato dying for his country would be but "a fool for his pains." It is painful to be obliged to remind MR. BREEN that, in order to understand Sedley's meaning, we are not to look for what would be "most consistent with truth," but for what was most probably accordant with the lax morality of the author.

A. B. R.

Belmont, Oct. 6. 1851.

Buxtorf's Translation of Elias Levita's "Tub Taam" (Vol. iv., p. 272.).

—This work was printed at Venice in 1538, in 4to. Münster republished it in the next following year, with an epitome of its contents in Latin. (G. B. de' Rossi, Dizionario Storico, &c., art. "Levita.").

T. T.

Manchester.

Stonehenge (Vol. iv., p. 57.).

—P. P.'s objection to Sir R. C. Hoare's derivation of Stonehenge seems hardly justifiable. Surely the horizontal stones there may be said to hang, μετέωροι, or μετάρσιοι, sublime: as in the case of "Rocq Pendant" of Alderney, the term "hanging" is loosely applied. That leans forth from the cliff at a considerable angle out of the perpendicular, and is "hanging," in another sense of the word, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and as, in another acceptation, the famous terrace gardens of Babylon are called the Hanging Gardens.

THEOPHYLACT.

Glass in Windows formerly not a Fixture (Vol. iv., p. 99.).

—Referring to this subject, allow me to add a Note I have from the will of Robert Birkes, of Doncaster, alderman, proved at York, July 30, 1590, in further illustration. The testator gives to his son Robert all "the seeling work and portalls" in and about the house where he dwelt, "with all doors, glass windows," &c., in full of his child's portion of his goods; and then his house he gave to his wife for her life. If by "seeling work and portalls" are meant what we now understand by those terms, the above extract shows that other essential parts of a house besides glass windows were formerly considered as moveable chattels.

C. J.

Fortune, infortune, fort une (Vol. iv., pp. 57. 142.).

—The explanation offered by a writer in the Magasin Pittoresque for 1850, seems perfectly clear without the proposed transposition of the adverb fort into fait of your correspondent D. C.

If the sentence be read according to the French explanation D. C. has quoted, viz. by reading infortune as a verb, fort the adverb to it, it must be plain that the reading of the sentence must be:

If we turned fort into fait, it would entirely spoil the sentence.

Query, But is "infortuner" to be found as a verb in any old dictionary? We have the adjective "infortuné," which looks much like a participle.

J. C. W.

Francis Terrace, Kentish Town.

Matthew Paris's "Historia Minor" (Vol. iv., p. 209.).

—MR. SANSOM will find the desired MS. in the British Museum, 14 C. vii. (Macray's Manual of Brit. Hist., p. 26. Lond. 1845.)

R. G.

In the Cottonian library, Claudius D. vi. 9., will be found "Abbreviatio compendiosa Chronicorum Angliæ, ab Ao 1000, ad A. 1255. Scripsit quidam ad calcem, 'Hic desinit Mat. Paris Historia Minor, quæ est epitome Majoris, quæ ad A.D. 1258 continuatur.'"

The Bibliothecæ Regiæ, 14 C. vii., contains "Historiæ M. Paris. Continuatio ad A.D. 1273, alia manu. De possessione hujus Codicis multa fuit altercatio." (See Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. lxxxviii. edit. 1840.) There are also MSS. at Corpus Christi College (No. 56.) and Ben'et College, Cambridge (No. 31.). Macray states, that the Historia Minor was made out of the Historia Major by Paris, both from Wendover to 1235, and his own large additions after that period.

J. Y.

Hoxton.

Sanford's "Descensus" (Vol. iv., p. 232.).

—The work of Hugo Sanfordus, De Descensu Domini nostri Jesu Christi ad inferos, was published as a separate work at Amsterdam in 1611, and its title is inserted in the printed catalogue of the Bodleian Library. Can ÆGROTUS give a specific reference to the book, page, and edition of Gale's Court of the Gentiles in which it is spoken of, and also his authority for the statement that it was published in the works of a bishop who survived him?

TYRO.

Death of Pitt (Vol. iv., p. 232.).

—MR. NATHANIEL ELLISON will find in the Memoirs of Lady Hester Stanhope, vol. iii. p. 141., a passage which pretty nearly confirms the account of the desertion of Pitt's death-bed. She said that James, a servant, was the only person present with Pitt when he died, and that she herself was the last person who saw him alive except James. She also stated that Dr. Pretyman, who seems to have been in the house, was fast asleep at the time; and that Sir Walter Farquhar, the physician, was absent. The account of Pitt's last moments in Gifford's life of him, where a prayer for forgiveness, &c. is put into his mouth, she pronounced to be all a lie.

J. S. W.

Stockwell.

History of Hawick (Vol iv., p. 233.).

—In reply to the Query of your correspondent H. L., I have to inform him that there have been published two histories of Hawick, viz.,—

1. Robert Wilson's Sketch of the History of Hawick, a small 8vo. printed in 1825. It contains a notice of the altercations between the Abbot of Melrose and Langlands the Baron of Wilton, relative to the arrear of tithes due to the abbacy of Melrose. A copy of this work can be procured for about 5s.

2. James Wilson's Annals of Hawick, 1214-1814, a small 8vo. printed in 1850. This work, under date 1494-5, has a notice of the murder of the chaplain by Langlands. This book can be had for 6s. 6d.

A notice of the trial of Langlands for the murder will also be found in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. p. 20.

T. G. S.

Edinburgh, Oct. 6. 1851.

"Prophecies of Nostradamus" (Vol. iv., pp. 86. 140. 258.).

—J. R. says that "the first edition of the Prophecies of Nostradamus is not only in the National Library, but in several others, both in Paris and elsewhere." Does J. R. speak from personal observation or at second-hand? When I was in Paris I spent some hours in searching the catalogue and shelves of both the National Library and that of St. Geneviève, but I could find no edition of Nostradamus dated 1555 in either. To convince myself that my search had been accurate, I turned to Nostradamus, par Eugène Bareste, Paris, 1840, and there found it distinctly asserted that there is no copy of the first edition of the book (viz. that of 1555) in any public library in Paris, and that the copy used in compiling that edition of 1840 was borrowed from a private collection. I cannot give the exact words of M. Bareste, as I only made a "Note" of their purport; but if J. R. will say upon what authority his statement as to this rare little book is based, I will certainly some day renew my search for it at the National Library.

H. C. DE ST. CROIX.

Bourchier Family (Vol. iv., p. 233.).

—Monuments, with inscriptions, to William Bourchier, Earl of Bath, 1623; Henry Bourchier, Earl of Bath; many of the family of Bourchier-Wrey, and others allied to them, are in the church of Tavistock, in the county of Devon; and the whole of them have been carefully transcribed with notes of the heraldry.

S. S. S.

William III. at Exeter (Vol. iv., p. 233.).

—Jenkins, the historian of Exeter, in relating the prince's public entry into that city, states that he was preceded by the Earl of Macclesfield and two hundred horsemen, most of whom were English nobles and gentlemen. There is in the Bodleian Library a fo. broadsheet entitled, A True and Exact Relation of the Prince of Orange, his Publick Entrance into Exeter, which, if I remember right, was reprinted in Somers' Tracts, but I do not think any names of those gentlemen are therein mentioned.

S. S. S.

Passage in George Herbert (Vol. iv., p. 231.).

—Does not Herbert imply in these lines—

that the payer of tithes receives an equivalent in the ministrations of the priest?

S. C. C.

Corfe Castle.

This passage alludes doubtless to the tithe of the parson, and maintains that the tithe-payer is no loser if the sermons for which tithe is paid produce their effects. In fact, it is a paraphrase of Proverbs, iii. 9, 10.:

"Honour the Lord with all thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."

J. A. PICTON.

Liverpool.

Suicides buried in Cross Roads (Vol. iv., pp. 116. 212.).

—This was formerly the general practice in the South of England, and it has occasionally been resorted to within the last thirty years. At Chalvington, in Sussex, there once resided, according to a popular tradition, the only honest miller ever known. About a century since, this person, finding it impossible to succeed in business, hanged himself in his own mill, and was buried in a neighbouring "crossways." An oaken stake, driven through his body, taking root, grew into a tree, and threw a singular shrivelled branch, the only one it ever produced, across the road. It was the most singular tree I ever saw, and had something extremely hag-like and ghostly in its look. The spot was of course haunted, and many a rustic received a severe shock to his feelings on passing it after nightfall. The tradition was of course received by the intelligent as a piece of superstitious folk-lore, and the story of the "only honest miller" was regarded as a mere myth, until about twenty-five years ago, when a labourer employed in digging sand near the roots of the scraggy oak tree, discovered a human skeleton. This part of the history I can vouch for, having seen, when a schoolboy, some of the bones. I must not omit to mention that the honest miller of Chalvington owned the remarkable peculiarity of a "tot" or tuft of hair growing in the palm of each hand!

MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Armorial Bearings (Vol. iv., p. 58.).

—The coat of arms described by F. I. B. is given by Robson and by Burke to the family of Kelley of Terrington, co. Devon, and the crests are similar, but I can find no authority for the coat in any work relating to that county. The ancient family, Kelly of Kelly, in Devon, bore a very different coat and crest. There is no such place as Terrington in that county, unless Torrington be meant, but no family of note bearing the name of Kelley had possessions there. I conclude, therefore, that there must be a mistake as to the county.

S. S. S.

"Life of Cromwell" (Vol. iv., p. 117.).

—No life of Cromwell was ever written by "one Kember;" there is a Life of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the second edition (London, 1725) of which, greatly enlarged from the first, is now before me, and which has the autograph of Malone, who has on the fly-leaf asserted it to have been "written by Isaac Kimber, a Dissenting minister, who was born at Vantage in Berkshire, Dec. 1, 1692. His son, Edward Kimber, refers to it as the work of his father, in a history of England in ten volumes, which he published."

Kimber's life is a much better one than Carlyle's; but the best biography of that most extraordinary man is by Thomas Cromwell, published some twenty or thirty years since, and of which there was a second edition.

J. MT.

Harris, Painter in Water Colours (Vol. iii., p. 329.).

—In answer to the inquiry of T. C. W., relative to a Bible (Reeves, 1802) in the possession of his friend, I beg leave to state that the said Bible was illustrated with original drawings by my father, J. Harris of Walworth, who died seventeen years since, and that I am his only son surviving him in his profession. Any further communication relative to him I shall be most happy to give on a personal interview.

J. HARRIS.

40. Sidmouth Street, Regent Square, Sept. 27. 1851.

"Son of the Morning" (Vol. iv., p. 209.).

—AN OLD BENGAL CIVILIAN is informed that, no matter whom Byron may have intended to designate by the above glorious appellation, there is but ONE to whom it properly belongs. If your correspondent will consult the 110th Psalm, he will find David representing God the Father as thus addressing God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ: "The dew of Thy birth is of the womb of the morning."

G. L. S.

Pemb. Coll. Oxon., Sept. 20. 1851.

This seems to be an invocation to the personification of Light, Lucifer, or φωσφορος, the "son of the morning," by which intellectual light is indicated, through whose assistance we are enabled to discover the true faith.

The poet enters a caveat that the latter do not act the part of an Iconoclast, as has too often been her wont. At least this appears to me to be the interpretation.

E. I. U. S. Club.

Grimsdyke or Grimesditch (Vol. iv., p. 192.).

—Your Querist NAUTICUS describes the vallum or ditch called "Grimsdyke, or Grimesditch, or the Devil's Ditch," running from Great Berkhampstead, Hants, to Bradenham, Bucks, and then puts two Queries.

NAUTICUS assumes that this ditch had, at some distant day, been an artificial earthwork; but at the same time he points out that, "from its total want of flank defence, it could hardly hold an enemy in check for long; and that it does not seem to have been a military way." He asks, "Are there other earthworks of the same name (Grimsdyke) in England?" I find no trace of any other earthworks of that name in England; and it may be very questionable whether this ditch be of ancient earthwork, or of its original natural formation.

But there is, in Cheshire, a brook or rivulet in its pristine state, called Grimsditch. This brook or rivulet is one of the contributory streams of Cheshire to the great rivers, the Mersey and the Weaver; and is described by the author of King's Vale Royal of England, or the County Palatine of Chester illustrated, published in 1656, as follows:

"The Grimsditch cometh from the Hall of Grimsditch, by Preston, Daresbury, Keckwith, and so falleth into the Marsey."

Here then we have the name of a place which gives the name of Grimsditch to the brook or rivulet; and it is, moreover, shown by the County History that the place (the hamlet or lands of Grimsditch) has been in the possession of a family of the name of Grimsditch from the time of Henry III.

From the words of the original grant this hamlet, by which Thomas Tuschet, in 10 Hen. III. 1226, grants to Hugo de Grimsditch "totam terram de Grimsdich pertinentem ad villam de Witeleigh" (Ormerod's Chesh. i. 488.), it may be inferred that the place went by the name of Grimsditch prior to the Norman Conquest. There can therefore be but little doubt that the name is of Anglo-Saxon origin.

The present possessor of the property is Thomas Grimsditch, Esq., late M.P. for the borough of Macclesfield.

The second Query of NAUTICUS applies to the etymology of the word Grimsditch.

This is a very difficult question to solve. Take the first syllable: Grim, grime, dirt, sullying blackness.

"She sweats; a man may go over shoes in the grime of it."—Shakspeare.

Then the word ditch: this is derived from dic (Saxon), dük (Erse); but whatever may be the true etymology of the word, it can scarcely be doubted that it is of Anglo-Saxon origin.

I may however add that there is a tradition in the Grimsditch family of Cheshire, said to have been handed down for many ages, as to the origin of the name, to the following effect:

That in remote ages their first parents were warriors; that one of these warriors was attacked by a griffin; that a fierce contest ensued; and that the man was the conqueror of that fabulous bird or beast, the battle-ground being a dyke or ditch.

Hence, says the tradition, emanated the family coat of arms, which are certainly very singular, viz. Azure, a griffin or, about to tear, and ramping upon, a warrior, completely armed in plate armour, in bend dexter, across the lower part of the shield. Crest, a Talbot.

WILLIAM BEAUMONT.

In reply to your correspondent NAUTICUS, who inquires whether there are any ancient entrenchments in England known by the name of Grimsdyke, besides the one he mentions in Hants, I beg to remind him that the Roman wall (or ditch and rampart) executed between the Firths of Forth and Clyde during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, is popularly called by the above name. To account for the name, it has been said that it originated in the circumstance of a chieftain of the name of Graham having been the first to force his way through it; but those who gave such a derivation of the word could scarcely have been aware that it bears this name in common with at least two others, viz., that mentioned by NAUTICUS as existing at Great Berkhampstead, Hants; and the other pointed out by W. S. G. as near Salisbury.

L. D. L.

Cagots (Vol. iv., p. 190.).

—In reply to the inquiry of RUSTICUS, I rather imagine the Cagots are the remains of the Paulician "Churches" of Thoulouse Albi and Cahors (Charhagensis) of Maitland's Albigenes and Waldenses, p. 428.; and that the Cretins are no other than credentes (cf. Maitland passim), probably remnants of the same body of heretics.

AJAX.

Is there any resemblance between them and Cretins? Are there any families or races of Cretins ever heard of?

C. B.

The Serpent represented with a human Head (Vol. iv., p. 191.).

—I send you two instances of the serpent being represented with a human head; the first occurs in the Arundel MS. No. 23., in this College, containing the genealogical descent of King Edward IV., and apparently coeval with that sovereign. The other is a beautifully executed sketch of Adam and Eve in a MS., also in this College, of the time of Henry VII., at the commencement of The Genealogy of the Saxon Kings from Adam. They are both female heads, the latter, however, being the entire bust.

THOMAS W. KING (York Herald).

College of Arms.

In the stained glass of the east window in the Lady Chapel, Wells Cathedral (temp. Edw. III.), the serpent, which is entwined round a tree, and holds an apple, has not only the head but the upper half of a human figure. On a scroll is written in uncial letters, "Si comederitis de ligno vitæ eritis sicut Dii scientis bonis et malis;" and in a straight line below the subject, "Arbor cum Serpente."

T. WT.

Fire Unknown (Vol. iv., pp. 209. 283.).

—At the time when Leibnitz wrote, curious references to accounts of savages were not infrequent. All your readers will remember Locke's reference to some account of savages who had neither idea of God nor of being superior to man. It may be that narratives of tribes who did not use fire, who lived on dried flesh or fish, for instance, may have given rise to an idea of their not knowing fire. I think I remember to have seen it stated that some of the savages of Australia did not know fire. On this, five-and-twenty years ago, I made a note from Mr. Barron Field's Collection of Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales. Two wrecked Englishmen passed some time among the natives, and found they had no knowledge that water could be heated; but the very story seems to show that they knew of fire. On boiling some in a tin pot,

"The whole tribe gathered round them, and watched the pot till it began to boil, when they all took to their heels, shouting and screaming, nor could they be persuaded to return till they saw them pour the water out and clean the pot, when they slowly ventured back and carefully covered the place where the water was spilt with sand."

These two Englishmen were treated with great attention by the natives, they were painted twice a day, and it was quite their own faults that they did not have their noses bored and their bodies scarified.

M.

Plant in Texas (Vol. iv., p. 208.).

—The following is an extract from a periodical of 1848 or 1849:

"According to the Medical Times, Major Alvord has discovered on the American prairies a plant possessing the property of pointing north and south, and has given it the name of Sylphium laciniatum."

G. P***.

Copying Inscriptions (Vol. iv., p. 266.).

—M. Lottin de Laval, "by a new process," has produced the most accurate copies of cuneatic inscriptions that have yet been published. It is said that he has copied by his process (which must, I think, be some kind of heliography) 1200 inscriptions from the Sinaitic peninsula, the publication of which may be speedily expected, so that MR. BUCKTON'S wishes on this point are anticipated. These inscriptions have been already deciphered.

E. H. D. D.

Chantrey's Statue of Mrs. Jordan (Vol. iv., p. 58.).

—MR. CORNISH will find this statue at Mapledurham in Oxon, the living of the lady's son. It remains there, it is stated, until an appropriate site can be obtained.

W. A.

Portraits of Burke (Vol. iv., p. 271.).

—I doubt that Sir Joshua Reynolds ever painted a miniature, and I should say certainly not after Mr. Burke "had passed the meridian of life." His sister, Miss Reynolds, was a professed miniature painter, and I have little doubt must have painted Mr. Burke, as she certainly did Johnson; but the description given of this miniature is very unlike Mr. Burke. The name of the possessor might, in some degree, enable us to ascertain whether the portraits mentioned are really of the great statesman.

C.

Martial's Distribution of Hours (Vol. iv., p. 273.).

—Martial's distribution of hours and employments seems to me to be as follows:—From 6 till 8 the visits of the "salutantes" are received; from 8 till 9 the law tribunals are attended; from 9 till 11 the "varii labores" occupy; from 11 till 12 the "quies." The expression "in quintam" must bring us to the end of the 5th hour; and the "sexta hora" must be that which concludes at 12.

Your inquirer A. E. B. might have further asked what is the difference between the "quies" of the "sexta," and the "finis" of the "septima." To understand this is to understand the difficulty which he propounds. I apprehend the "quies" not to mean the "siesta," but that gradual and perhaps irregular cessation or suspension of employments which precedes the close of business for the day. The "siesta" is the "finis" of Martial, which would thus fall between 12 and 1; that time of the day at which A. E. B. fixes it rightly. I think he errs in identifying the "siesta" with the "sexta hora."

To question 214 I may be allowed to reply, that the effect of moonlight upon the face of those who sleep exposed to it in hot climates is very severe indeed, producing an appearance not very unlike that of a swollen and putrescent corpse. The Psalmist refers to it Ps. cxxi. 6.; and all who have lived in the East Indies are well acquainted with the phenomenon.

THEOPHYLACT.