Notes and Queries, Number 14, February 2, 1850

J. SANSOM.

Oxford, Jan. 9. 1850.

New Year's Day Custom.—I shall be glad if any of your readers can inform me of the origin and signification, of the custom of carrying about decorated apples on New Year's Day, and presenting them to the friends of the bearers. The apples have three skewers of wood stuck into them so as to form a tripod foundation, and their sides are ornamented with oat grains, while various evergreens and berries adorn the top. A raisin is occasionally fastened on each oat grain, but this is, I believe, and innovation.

SELEUCUS.

Under the Rose.—That the English proverbial expression, Under the Rose, is derived from the confessional, is, I believe, generally admitted: but the authorship of the well-known Latin verses on this subject is still, as far as I am aware, a rexata quæstio, and gives a somewhat different and tantaleau1 meaning to the adage:—

"Est Rosa flas Veneris, quem, quo sua furta laterent,Harpoerati, Matris dona, dicavit Amor.Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendit amicis,Convivæ ut sub ca dicta tacenda sciant."

Can any of your correspondents obligingly inform me to whom these not inelegant or unclassical lines are to be attributed?

ARCHÆUS.

Wiesbaden, Dec. 15. 1849.

Norman Pedigrees.—Can any gentleman inform me where (in what book) may be found the situation of the places from which the companions of William the Norman took their names? Such French names as have De prefixed—in fact, a Gazetteer? Also, where may be found—if such exist—pedigrees of the same worthies?

B.

Dr. Johnson's library.—I have long wanted to know what became of the library of Dr. Samuel Johnson (of our city), or if he had any considerable collection of books. Perhaps some of your correspondents would answer both these queries. I happen to have a few, some of which were used in compiling his Dictionary, and are full of his marks, with references to the quotations, most of which are to be found in the Dictionary. I have also his own Prayer-Book.

T.G. LOMAX.

Lichfield, Jan. 11. 1850.

Golden Frog.—In the church of Boxstead, in the county of Suffolk, there is a large and very handsome monument of marble, in a niche of which stands, in full proportion, a man in armour, his head bare, with moustaches and a tuft on his chin; in his right hand he holds a truncheon, and by his side is his sword; his armour is garnished with gold studs, and his helmet stands on the ground behind him; from his right ear hangs a gold frog.

This monument was erected in memory of Sir John Poley, of Wrongay, in Norfolk, knight, who died in 1638, at the age of upwards of eighty, having served much abroad under Henry IV. of France, Christian King of Denmark, &c., and in Queen Elizabeth's service against the Spaniards.

"Illius ante alios cepit cum dextera GadesMilitis Angliaci, et fulmina sensit Iberis."

I send you this detail, in hopes that some of your correspondents may be able to explain the ornament in his ear, whether it be the badge of any order, and whether any other instance is known of its use. There is in Boxstead Hall, the seat of the very ancient family of Poley, a portrait of Sir John having the same ornament.

D.

Singular Motto.—Being at Cheltenham in the summer of 1811, I saw a chariot standing in an inn yard, on the panels of which, under a coat of arms, apparently belonging to some foreign family, was the following on a scroll, in the nature of a motto:—"oemn3—ononoe.7 ano—7 emn3." If any of your correspondents can inform me what is its meaning, and if it be a motto, to what family it belongs, he will oblige.

P.H.F.

Stroud.

Sir Stephen Fox.—Will any of your intelligent correspondents inform me whether Sir Stephen Fox, the ancestor of the present Lord Holland and the Earl of Ilchester, had any brothers or sisters, and if so, whether they had any children, and who are the legal representatives of those collateral branches, if any?

VULPES.

Antony Alsop.—Will any of your correspondents kindly tell me who Antony Alsop was? A thin Quarto volume of Latin Odes was published in 1753, with the following title: "Antonii Alsopi Ædis Christi olim Alumni Ordarum Libri Duo," Londoni, 1753. They are extremely elegant, and deserving the attention of all lovers of Latin poetry. I have also another volume, "Latin and English Poems, by a Gentleman of Trinity College, Oxford," Quarto London, 1738. In this latter volume, with but two or three exceptions, the poems are very obscene, yet I find one or two of Alsop's odes in it. Could any of your readers tell me if both volumes are by the same author? Was Alsop at Trinity College and subsequently a student of Christ Church?

R.H.

Derivations of "Calamity," and "Zero;" and meaning of "Prutenicæ".—Will some of your correspondents give the derivations of Calamity and Zero; also the meaning of the word Prutenicæ, used by Erasmus Rheinholt, in his astronomical work on the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies?

F.S. MARTIN.

Jew's-Harp.—What is the origin of the term Jew's-Harp, applied to a well-known musical toy?

MELANION.

Sir G. Wyattville.—J.P. would be glad to be informed in what year Sir G. Wyattville was knighted?

Sparse.—As I am "less an antique Roman than a Dane," I wish to know what authority there is for the use of this word, which is to be found in a leading article of The Times, January 8th, 1850?—"A sparse and hardy race of horsemen." I should like to see this among the Queries, but I send it as a protest.

"Hostis et Peregrinus unus et idem."C. FORBES.

The word "Peruse."—I find the word Peruse employed as a substantive, and apparently as equivalent to Examination, in the following part of a sentence in the martyr Fryth's works, Russell's ed., p. 407.:—"He would have been full sore ashamed so to have overseen himself at Oxford, at a peruse."

Can any of your correspondents cite a corresponding instance of its use, or say whether it is still retained at Oxford as the name of any academic exercise?

H.W.

French Maxim.—Who is the author of the following French saying?—

"L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend à la vertu."

R.V.

Ave Trici and Gheeze Ysenoudi.—If "S.W. SINGER" can give information as to what convent, English or foreign, the sisters Ave Trici and Gheeze Ysenoudi, mentioned in his note on Otloh, state themselves (or are assumed) to have belonged, he will much oblige, by doing so,

H.L.B.

A Latin Verse.—Everybody has seen the following quotation—

"Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis,"

and everybody thinks he knows from whence it is taken. Which of your readers can verify it?

E.V.

Table-Book.—Can any of your readers refer me to a museum containing a specimen of an ancient table-book? Douce had one, which was in Mr. Rodd's catalogue, but now sold; and Hone also possessed one. These two, and another in the hands of a friend of mine, are the only specimens I have heard of; but they are not quite as old or as genuine as one could wish.

J.O. HALLIWELL.

Origin of the name "Polly."—Will you allow me to ask how persons of my name came to be called Polly?

MARY.

Tomlinson, of Southwingfield, Derbyshire.—The parochial register of the parish of Southwingfield, in the county of Derby, contains, among its earliest entries (A.D. 1586), the name Tomlinson, as then resident therein. The family, to the present time, continues to reside within the parish, as respectable yeomen, and has thence extended itself to many of the neighbouring parishes, as well as to more distinct localities. Blore's History of Southwingfield makes no mention of such a family connected with the parish, as tenants or otherwise; nor does it appear that there is at present any family of Tomlinson bearing arms that can have been derived from any of the ancient lords of Wingfield. The wills at Lichfield, to whose registry Southwingfield belongs, are in a very dilapidated and unsatisfactory state, at the time immediately preceding the commencement of the Southwingfield parochial register. Probably some genealogist will be enabled to offer a suggestion as to the means which are available for tracing the genealogy of this fanily prior to the year 1586.

The Phrase "To have a Button in the Room," and "Sally."—I have again been reading that most amusing book, The Lives of the Norths. At p. 88 of vol. i. (edit. 1826) there is a passage which has always puzzled me. Speaking of some law proceedings in which the Lady Dacres was concerned, Roger North says:—

"And herein she served herself another way, for her adversary defamed her for swearing and unswearing, and it was not amiss to have a button in the room."

At p. 92. (post) there is another strange expression: —

"The horse, when he found himself clear of pursuers, stopped his course by degrees, and went with his rider (fast asleep upon his back) into a pond to drink, and there sat his lordship upon the 'sally.' (Qy. saddle?)"

P.C.S.S.

St. Philip and St. James.—"And near it was the house of the apostles Philip and James the son of Alpheus."—Early Travels in Palestine (Mandeville), p. 175.; Bohn's Antiquarian Library. This is the only place, except in the Church service, where I have seen the above-named apostles coupled together, and have often wondered whether there was any old legend or tradition to account for the Church joining them together in one commemorative festival.

A.H.E.

Sir William Hamilton.—On a tombstone in the burial-ground at St. Hilda's, South Shields, in the county of Durham, is the following inscription:—

"Here lieth interr'd ye body of Sir W. Hamilton Knt and Baronet sonne to ye Earle of Abercorne and late servant to Queen Henrietta Maria ye late Queene mother of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles that now is over England &c. who departed to ye mercy of God June 24th anno Domni 1681."

There is in the possession of an old lady living at Durham, in 1836, an original note in the handwriting of King Charles the Second, of which the following is a copy:—

"Whereas a debte of foure thousande one hundred and fifty pounds sterlinge apeares to be remayning dew by the king my father to Sir W. Hamilton brother to the Earle of Abercorne for the service done to the Queene my mother, I do hereby promis to pay ye sayde debte of 4150£. to ye sayde Sir William Hamilton his heires and assigns or to satisfie him or them to the valew thereof when it shall please God to restore me to the possession of my dominions.

"Given at Brussells 28 Mar. 1630.

"CHARLES REX."

Is any thing known of Sir William Hamilton, or of the services he rendered to Queen Henrietta Maria?

A.H.E.

The Koran by Sterne.—Can you or any of your readers inform me if the work entitled The Koran, printed in some editions of Sterne's writings, is a genuine composition of his, or not? If not, who was its author, and what is its literary history? My reason for asking is, that I have heard it asserted that it is not by Sterne.

E.L.N.

Devices on Standards of the Anglo-Saxons.—Can any of your readers inform me what devices were borne on the standards of the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the so-called Heptarchy? The white horse is by many supposed to have been the standard of Wessex, and to have been borne by Alfred; but was not this really the ensign of the Jutish kingdom of Kent, the county of Kent to this day displaying the white horse in its armorial bearings? The standard of Wessex is by others said to have been the white dragon; but Thierry supposes that this, like the contrasted red dragon of Cymbri, was merely a poetical designation, and seems to infer that the flags of these two contending people were without any device. Again, it has been thought that a lion was the ensign of Northumbria; in which case we may, perhaps, conclude that the lions which now grace the shield of the city of York have descended from Anglo-Saxon times. The memory of the Danish standard of the Raven, described by Asser and other Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, still remains; but whether, when Northumbria and East Anglia fell under Danish power, this device supplanted previous Anglo-Saxon devices, is a curious question for antiquarian research. The famous Norwegian standard—the Landeyda, or ravager of the world—under which Harold Hardrada triumphed at Fulford, near York, but to fall a few days later at Stanford Bridge, is well known; but who can inform us as to the device which it bore? These early traces of heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than I believe they have received.

O.

Burning the Dead.—Can any of your readers, who may have attended particularly to the funeral customs of different peoples, inform me whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst any people excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia? I incline to the opinion that this practice has been limited to people of Indo-Germanic or Japetic race, and I shall be obliged by any references in favour of or opposed to this view.

T.

Meaning of "Shipster."—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the business or calling or profession of a Shipster? The term occurs in a grant of an annuity of Oct. 19. 2 Henry VIII., 1510, and made between "H.U., Gentilman, and Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk, in com Surr Shipster."

JOHN R. FOX.

55. Welbeck Street, Jan. 22. 1850.

Why did Dr. Dee quit Manchester?—In the Penny Cyclopædia, art. DEE, JOHN, I find the following statement:—

"In 1595 the queen appointed Dee warden of Manchester College, he being then sixty-eight years of age. He resided there nine years; but from some cause not exactly known, he left it in 1604, and returned to his house at Mortlake, where he spent the remainder of his days."

Can any of your correspondents assign the probable causes which led to Dr. Dee's resignation?

T.T.W.

Burnley, Lancashire, Jan. 21. 1850.

Meaning of "Emerod," "Caredon."—In the Lansd. MS., British Museum, No. 70., there is a letter from Mr. Richard Champernowne to Sir Robert Cecil, dated in 1592, referring to the discovery of some articles pillaged from the Spanish carrack, which had then recently been captured and taken into Dartmouth harbour. Amongst these articles is one thus described:—"An Emerod, made in the form of a cross, three inches in length at the least, and of great breadth."

In the same volume of MSS. (art. 61.) there is the description of a dagger "with a hefte of white Caredon."

From the size of the cross described, "Emerod" can scarcely be read "Emerald," as applied by us to one of the precious stones.

Is "white Caredon" white cornelian?

Can any of your numerous correspondents give me a note in answer to the above queries?

D.

46. Parliament Street, Westminster, Jan. 25. 1850.

Microscope, and Treatise upon it.—I am about to commence the study of the microscope. I want to know where I can purchase the most perfect instrument, and also the best Treatise upon it; this information will indeed be valuable to me, as it would enable me to go at once to the best sources without loss of time.

R.M. JONES.

Chelsea, Jan. 2. 1850.

Old Auster Tenements.—"W.P.P." wishes to know the meaning of the expression "Old Auster Tenements," by which certain lands in the parish of North Curry, Somerset, are described in Deeds and Court Rolls.

REPLIES

THE FIELD OF FORTY FOOTSTEPS

The fields behind Montague House were, from about the year 1680, until towards the end of the last century, the scenes of robbery, murder, and every species of depravity and wickedness of which the heart can think. They appear to have been originally called the Long Fields, and afterwards (about Strype's time) the Southampton Fields. These fields remained waste and useless, with the exception of some nursery grounds near the New Road to the north, and a piece of ground enclosed for the Toxophilite Society, towards the northwest, near the back of Gower Street. The remainder was the resort of depraved wretches, whose amusements consisted chiefly in fighting pitched battles, and other disorderly sport, especially on the Sabbath day. Such was their state in 1800.

Tradition had given to the superstitious at that period a legendary story of the period of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion, of two brothers who fought in this field so ferociously as to destroy each other; since which, their footsteps, formed from the vengeful struggle, were said to remain, with the indentations produced by their advancing and receding; nor could any grass or vegetable ever be produced where these forty footsteps were thus displayed. This extraordinary arena was said to be at the extreme termination of the northeast end of Upper Montague Street; and, profiting by the fiction, Miss Porter and her sister produced an ingenious romance thereon, entitled, Coming Out, or the Forty Footsteps. The Messrs. Mayhew also, some twenty years back, brought out, at the Tottenham Street Theatre, an excellent melodrama piece, founded upon the same story, entitled The Field of Forty Footsteps.

In 1792, an ingenious and enterprising architect, James Burton, began to erect a number of houses on the Foundling Hospital estate, partly in St. Giles's and Bloomsbury parishes, and partly in that of St. Pancras. Baltimore House, built, towards the northeast of Bedford House, by Lord Baltimore, in 1763, appears to have been the only erection since Strype's survey to this period, with the exception of a chimney-sweeper's cottage still further north, and part of which is still to be seen in Rhodes's Mews, Little Guildford Street. In 1800, Bedford House was demolished entirely; which with its offices and gardens, had been the site where the noble family of the Southamptons, and the illustrious Russells, had resided during more than 200 years, almost isolated. Hence commenced the formation of a fine uniform street, Bedford Place, consisting of forty houses, on the spot; also, the north side of Bloomsbury Square, Montague Street to the west, and one side of Southampton Row to the east. Towards the north, the extensive piece of waste ground, denominated the Southampton Fields, was transformed into a magnificent square, with streets diverging therefrom in various directions. Thus, as if by "touch of magic wand," those scenes, which had been "hideous" for centuries, became transformed into receptacles of civil life and polished society.

The latest account of these footsteps, previous to their being built over, with which I am acquainted, is the following, extracted from one of Joseph Moser's Common-place Books in my possession:—

"June 16. 1800.—Went into the fields at the back of Montague House, and there saw, for the last time, the forty footsteps; the building materials are there ready to cover them from the sight of man. I counted more than forty, but they might be the foot-prints of the workmen."

This extract is valuable, as it establishes the period of the final demolition of the footsteps, and also confirms the legend that forty was the original number.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

QUERIES ANSWERED, NO. 4.—"POKERSHIP", BY BOLTON CORNEY

A query made by so experienced a writer as the noble historian of Audley End, cannot admit of an easy solution; and instead of professing to answer the two-fold query on pokership, it might more become me to style this note an attempt to answer it.

In the Historical collections of the noble families of Cavendishe, etc. the passage which contains the doubtful word is printed thus:—

"He [Sir Robert Harley, of Bramton, Herefordshire] was in the next year [1604], on the 16th of July, made forester of Boringwood, alias Bringwood forest, in com. Hereford, with the office of pokership, and custody of the forest or chace of Prestwood, for life."

Are we to read parkership or pokership? If pokership, what is its meaning?

Skelton, the rhymer, has parker for park-keeper, so that parkership is an admissable word; but I reject it on this occasion, as inapplicable to a forest or chace. I incline to believe that pokership is the true lection. Poke denoted a purse; witness Chaucer:—

"Gerveis answered; Certes, were it gold,Or in a poke nobles all untold,Thou shuldest it have."—C.T. v. 3777.

We do not find poker in Barret or Cotgrave; but if poke denoted a purse, poker might denote a purse-bearer or treasurer, and pokership, the office of purse-bearer. So we have BURSA, [Glossarivm manvale, 1772. I. 849.] bursar, bursarship, etc.

BOLTON CORNEY.

MERTENS, MARTINS, OR MARTINI, THE PRINTER

A correspondent, "W.," in No. 12. p. 185., wishes to learn "the real surname of Theodoric Mertens, Martins, or Martini, the printer of Louvain."

In Latin the name is written Theodoricus Martinus; in French, Thierri Martin; in Flemish, Diedrych Meertens, and occasionally, but I think incorrectly, Dierix Martens.

In a side chapel of the chancel of the church at Alost, midway between Brussels and Ghent, is the printer's tomb, and a double inscription, in Latin and in Flemish, commemorates his celebrity and the dates of his birth and death; in the Latin inscription the name is Theodoricus Martinus; in the Flemish, which is very old and nearly effaced, it is Diedrych Meertens.

The name of Meertens, as a surname, is as common in Brabant and Flanders as that of Martin with us.

A.B.

I beg to say that, in Peignot's Dictionnaire raisonné de Bibliologie, the name of the printer Mertens is given as "Martens, Mertens, ou Martin d'Alost (Thierry), en Latin Theodoricus Martinus." The article is too long for insertion in your pages, but it contains an account of the title-page of one of his editions, in 4to., in which the name is spelt Mertens:—"Theo. Mertens impressore." Two other title-pages have "Apud Theod. Martinum." So it appears that the printer himself used different modes of spelling his own name. Erasmus wrote a Latin epitaph on his friend, in which a graceful allusion is made to his printer's mark, the anchor:—

"Hic Theodoricus jaceo, prognatus Alosto:Ars erat impressis scripta referre typis.Fratribus, uxori, soboli, notisque superstesOctavam vegetus præterii decadem.Anchora sacra manet, gratæ notissima pubi:Christe! precor nunc sis anchora sacra mihi."HERMES.

ETYMOLOGY OF ARMAGH

In reply to the inquiry of "D.S.Y." (p. 158. of your 10th number), I beg to say that the name of Armagh is written, in Irish, Ardmacha, and signifies the Height (or high ground) of Macha. It is supposed to have derived this name from Macha Mong-ruadh [i.e. Macha of the red hair], who was queen of Ireland, according to the Chronology of O'Flaherty, A.M. 3603.

I.H.T.

Dublin, Jan. 5. 1850.

Sir,—There are the following authorities for different derivations of the word Armagh.

Camden, in his Britannia, says:—

"Armach ab Amarchâ reginâ; sic dictum fabulantur Hibernici; at mihi eadem esse videtur quam Dearmach vocat Beda: et Roborum Campum ex lingua Scotica sive Hibernica interpretatur, ubi circa annum salutis DLX. monaterium extruxit celeberrimum Columbanus."

Dr. Keating's Hist. of Ireland has as follows:—

"Macha the wife of Nemedius died before her son Ainnim … from her Ardmagh received its name, because she was buried in that place."

Circles of Gomer (London, 1771), contains as follows:—

"Ar, and Ararat.—The Earth, country, or upon and on the earth … Armagh on the surrounding water confines."

M. Bullet, Mémoires de la Langue Celtique, writes thus:—

"Armagh, Une des plus anciennes villes d'Irland. Ar, article. Mag, ville."—vol. i.

But the 2nd and 3rd vols. of these Mémoires, which contain the Celtic Dictionary, afford a more probable interpretation:—

"Ar or Ard signifies a height, mountain, hill, elevation, the highest, noble, chief, &c. &c., and Ar in Hebrew, Chaldean, and Armenian, has the same meaning. Magh is a field, a plain, ground, &c., as well as a town, dwelling, &c."