Notes and Queries, Number 11, January 12, 1850

"His style is a little long-winded; but, on the other hand, his characters may match those of the ancient historians; and one thinks they would know the very men if you were to meet them in society. Few English writers have the same precision, either in describing the actors in great scenes, or the deeds which they performed; he was himself deeply engaged in the scenes which he depicts, and therefore colours them with the individual feeling, and sometimes, doubtless, with the partiality of a partisan. Yet, I think he is, on the whole, a fair writer; for though he always endeavours to excuse King Charles, yet he points out his mistakes and errors, which certainly were neither few nor of slight importance."—Scott, Life by Lockhart, vol. v. p. 146.

Other opinions as to the noble writer will be found in the Life of Calamy, and in Lord Dover's Essay; but I have perhaps trespassed too much on your space.

M.

MISCELLANIES

Books by the Yard. —Many of your readers have heard of books bought and sold by weight,– in fact it is questionable whether the number of books sold in that way is not greater than those sold "over the counter,"—but few have probably heard of books sold "by the yard." Having purchased at St. Petersburg, the library left by an old Russian nobleman of high rank, I was quite astonished to find a copy of Oeuvres de Frederic II. originally published in 15 vols., divided into 60, to each of which a new title had been printed; and several hundred volumes lettered outside Oeuvres de Miss Burney, Oeuvres de Swift, &c., but containing, in fact, all sorts of French waste paper books. These, as well as three editions of Oeuvres de Voltaire, were all very neatly bound in calf, gilt and with red morrocco backs. My curiosity being roused, I inquired into the origin of these circumstances, and learnt that during the reign of Catherine, every courtier who had hopes of being honoured by a visit from the Empress, was expected to have a library, the greater or smaller extent of which was to be regulated by the fortune of its possessor, and that, after Voltaire had won the favour of the Autocrat by his servile flattery, one or two copies of his works were considered indispensable. Every courtier was thus forced to have rooms filled with books, by far the greater number of which he never read or even opened. A bookseller of the name of Klostermann, who, being of an athletic stature, was one of the innumerable favourites of the lady, "who loved all things save her lord," was usually employed, not to select a library, but to fill a certain given space of so many yards with books, at so much per volume, and Mr. Klostermann, the "Libraire de la Cour Imperiale," died worth a plum, having sold many thousand yards of books (among which I understood there were several hundred copies of Voltaire), at from 50 to 100 roubles a yard, "according to the binding."

A. ASHER. Berlin. Dec. 1849.

Thistle of Scotland.—R.L. will find the thistle first introduced on coins during the reign of James V., although the motto "Nemo me impune lacessit" was not adopted until two reigns later. —See Lindsay's Coinage of Scotland, Longman, 1845.

B.N.

Miry-Land Town. In the Athenaeum, in an article on the tradition respecting Sir Hugh of Lincoln, the Bishop of Dromore's version of the affair is thus given:—

"The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,Sae dois it doune the Pa';Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune.Quhan they play at the Ba'."

In explanation of part of this stanza, Dr. Percy is stated to have considered "Mirry-land toune" to be "probably a corruption of Milan (called by the Dutch Meylandt) town," and that the Pa' was "evidently the River Po, though the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan;" and it is observed that it could not have occasioned Dr. Jamieson much trouble to conjecture as he did that "Mirry-land toune" was a corruption of "Merry Lincolne," and that, in fact, in 1783, Pinkerton commenced his version of the ballad thus—

"The bonnie boys o' merry Lincoln;"

and it is added, very truly, that with all his haste and petulance, Pinkerton's critical acumen was far from inconsiderable. Now, there appears to me to have been a very simple solution of the above words, so simple that perhaps it was beneath the critical acumen of the said commentators. My note on the subject is, that Mirry-land toune means nothing more than Miry-, Muddy-land Town, a designation that its situation certainly entitles it to; and Pa' is certainly not the Po, but an abbreviated form of Pall, i.e. a place to play Ba' or ball in, of which we have a well-known instance in Pall Mall.

Since writing the above, I recollect that Romsey, in Hampshire, has been designated "Romsey-in-the-Mud."

J.R.F.

Richard Greene of Lichfield.—H.T.E. is informed that there is a medal or token (not difficult to obtain) of this zealous antiquary. Obv. his bust, in the costume of the period; legend, "Richard Greene, collector of the Lichfield Museum, died June 4, 1793, aged 77." Rev. a Gothic window, apparently; legend, "West Porch of Lichfield Cathedral, 1800."

B.N.

The Lobster in the Medal of the Pretender.—The "Notes" by your correspondents, Mr. Edward Hawkins and Mr. J.B. Yates, relative to this medal, are very curious and interesting, and render it probable that the device of the Lobster has a religious rather than a political allusion. But it strikes us that the double introduction of this remarkable emblem has a more important signification than the mere insidious and creeping characteristics of Jesuitism. The lines beneath the curious print in Brandt's Stultifera Nuvis throw no light on the meaning of the Lobster. We think the difficulty yet remains unsolved.

B.N.

Marescautia.—Your correspondent "D.S." who asks (in No. 6.) for information upon the word "Marescautia," may consult Du Cange with advantage, s. v. "Marescallus;" the "u," which perhaps was your correspondent's difficulty, being often written for "l," upon phonotypic principles. It was anciently the practice to apportion the revenues of royal and great monastic establishments to some specific branch of the expenditure; and as the profits of certain manors, &c., are often described as belonging to the "Infirmaria," the "Camera Abbatis," &c., so, in the instance referred to by "D.S." the lands at Cumpton and Little Ongar were apportioned to the support of the royal stable and farriery.

J.B.

Macaulay's "Young Levite.—The following is an additional illustration of Mr. Macaulay's sketch, from Bishop Hall's Byting Satyres, 1599:—

"A gentle squire would gladly entertaineInto his house some Trencher-chapelaine;Some willing man, that might instruct his sons,And that would stand to good conditions.First, that he lie upon the truckle-bed,While his young master lieth o'er his head;Second, that he do, upon no default,Never to sit above the salt;Third, that he never change his trencher twise;Fourth, that he use all common courtesies,Sit bare at meales, and one half rise and wait;Last, that he never his young master beat,But he must aske his mother to defineHow manie jerks she would his breech should line;All these observ'd, he could contented be,To give five markes, and winter liverie."R.

Travelling in England.—I forward you a note on this subject, extracted, some years ago, from a very quaintly-written History of England, without title-page, but apparently written in the early part of the reign of George the First. It is among the remarkable events of the reign of James the First:—

"A.D. 1621, July the 17th, Bernart Calvert of Andover, rode from St. George's Church in Southwark to Dover, from thence passed by Barge to Callais in France, and from thence returned back to Saint George's Church the same day. This his journey he performed betwixt the hours of three in the morning and eight in the afternoon."

This appears to me such a surprising feat, that I think some of your correspondents may be interested in it; and also may be able to append farther information.

DAVID STEVENS.

Warning to Watchmen.—The following Warning, addressed to the Watchmen of London on the occasion of a great fire, which destroyed nearly 100 houses in the neighbourhood of Exchange Alley, Birchin Lane, the back of George Yard, &c., among which were Garraway's, The Jerusalem Coffee House, George and Vulture, Tom's, &c. &c., is extracted from the London Magazine for 1748, and is very characteristic of the then state of the police of the metropolis:—

"Mr. Touchit's Warning to the Watchmen of London. From the Westminster Journal, April 2nd, No. 331. (1748).

"Whereas it has been represented to me, Thomas Touchit, Watchman Extraordinary of the City of Westminster, that the Watchmen of London were very remiss during the dreadful Fire on Friday morning, March 25, in not giving timely Notice of that Calamity over their several Beats, whereby the Friends of many of the unhappy Sufferers, who would have flown to their Assistance, were ignorant of their Distress till it was too late to do them Service; and also that most of the said Watchmen, on other Occasions, are very negligent, whence it happens that many Robberies, Burglaries, and other Offences, which their Care might prevent, are committed; and that even some of them are in Fee with common Harlots and Streetwalkers, whom they suffer at unseasonable Hours, unmolested to prey on the Virtue, Health and Property of His Majesty's Liege Subjects: Be it known to the said Watchmen, and their Masters, that, having taken the Premises into Consideration, I intend whenever I set out from Spring Gardens with my invisible Cap, my irradiating Lanthorn, and my Oken Staff of correction, to take the City of London, under Leave of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, into my Rounds, and to detect, expose, and punish all Defaulters in the several Stands and Beats: Whereof this fair Warning is given, that none may be surprized in Neglect of Duty, I being determined to shew no Favour to such Offenders."

Euston Square, 12th Dec. 1849.

Aelfric's Colloquy.—Permit me to correct a singular error into which the great Anglo-Saxon scholars, Messrs. Lye and B. Thorpe, have been betrayed by some careless transcriber of the curious Monastic Colloquy by the celebrated Aelfric. This production of the middle ages is very distinctly written, both in the Saxon and Latin portions, in the Cotton MS. (Tiberius, A 3, fol. 58b.) Mr. Lye frequently cites it, in his Saxon Dictionary, as "Coll. Mon.," and Mr. Thorpe gives it entire in his Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. The former loosely explains higdifatu, which occurs in the reply of the shoewright (sceowyrhta), thus—"Calidilia, sc. vasa quoedam.—Coll. Mon." —and Mr. Thorpe prints both higdifatu and calidilia. Higdifatu is manifestly vessels of hides, such as skin and leather bottles and buckets. The ig is either a clerical error of the monkish scribe for y, or the g is a silent letter producing the quantity of the vowel. "I buy hides and fells," says the workman, "and with my craft I make of them shoes of different kinds; leathern hose, flasks, and higdifatu." The Latin word in this MS. is casidilia, written with the long straight s. Du Cange explains capsilis to be a vessel of leather, and quotes Matt. Westmon.: "Portans cassidile toxicum mellitum."—Gloss. tom. ii. col. 387. The root caps, or cas, does not appear to have any Teutonic correspondent, and may merit a philological investigation.

R.T. Hampson.

Humble Pie.– the proverbial expression of "eating humble pie," explained by A.G., will be found also explained in the same manner in the Appendix to Forby's Vocabulary, where it is suggested that the correct orthography would be "umble pie," without the aspirate. Bailey, in his valuable old Dictionary, traces the word properly to umbilicus, the region of the intestines, and acknowledges in his time the perquisite of the game-keeper.

J.I.

Oxford.

By Hook or by Crook.—You have noted the origin of Humble Pie. May I add a note of a saying, in my opinion also derived from forest customs, viz. "By hook or by crook?" Persons entitled to fuel wood in the king's forest, were only authorised to take it of the dead wood or branches of trees in the forest, "with a cart, a hook, and a crook."

The answer to the query respecting the meaning of "per serjantiam Marescautiae," is the Serjeantry of Farriery, i.e. shoeing of the king's horses. In Maddox, vol. i. p. 43. you will find a very full account of the office of Marescallus.

J.R.F.

THE ORIGIN OF GROG

"Written on board the Berwick, a few days before Admiral Parker's engagement with the Dutch fleet, on the 5th of August, 1781. By DR. TROTTER.

"'Tis sung on proud Olympus' hillThe Muses bear record,Ere half the gods had drank their fillThe sacred nectar sour'd."At Neptune's toast the bumper stood,Britannia crown'd the cup;A thousand Nereids from the floodAttend to serve it up."'This nauseous juice,' the monarch cries,'Thou darling child of fame,Tho' it each earthly clime denies,Shall never bathe thy name."'Ye azure tribes that rule the sea,And rise at my command,Bid Vernon mix a draught for meTo toast his native land.'"Swift o'er the waves the Nereids flew,Where Vernon's flag appear'd;Around the shores they sung 'True Blue,'And Britain's hero cheer'd."A mighty bowl on deck he drew,And filled it to the brink;Such drank the Burford's2 gallant crew,And such the gods shall drink."The sacred robe which Vernon woreWas drenched within the same;And hence his virtues guard our shore,And Grog derives its name."W.H.S.

[The gallant correspondent to whom we are indebted for the foregoing satisfactory, because early and documentary, evidence of the etymology of the now familiar term GROG, informs us that there is a still earlier ballad on the subject. We trust that he will be enabled to recover that also, and put it on record in our columns.]

Barnacles.—In a Chorographical Description of West, or Il-Jar Connaught, by Rhoderic O'Flaherty, Esq., 1684, published by the Irish Archaeological Society in 1846, the bernacle goose is thus mentioned:—

"There is the bird engendered by the sea out of timber long lying in the sea. Some call them clakes, and soland geese, and some puffins; others bernacles, because they resemble them. We call them girrinn."

Martin, in his Western Isles of Scotland, says:—

"There are also the cleek geese. The shells in which this fowl is said to be produced, are found in several isles sticking to trees by the bill; of this kind I have seen many,– the fowl was covered by a shell, and the head stuck to the tree by the bill,– but never saw any of them with life in them upon the tree; but the natives told me that they had observed them to move with the heat of the sun."—See also Gratianus, Lucius, Ware's Antiquities, &c.

Eating sea-birds on fast days is a very ancient custom. Socrates mentions it in the 5th century: "Some along with fish eat also birds, saying, that according to Moses, birds like fish were created out of the waters." Mention is made in Martin's Western Isles, of a similar reason for eating seals in Lent. Cormorants, "as feeding only on fish," were allowable food on fast days, as also were otters.

CEREDWYN.

Vondel's Lucifer.—I cannot inform your correspondent F. (No. 9 p. 142.), whether Vondel's Lucifer has ever been translated into English, but he will find reasons for its not being worth translating, in the Foreign Quarterly Review for April, 1829, where the following passage occurs:—

"Compare with him Milton, for his Lucifer gives the fairest means of comparison. How weak are his highest flights compared with those of the bard of Paradise! and how much does Vondel sink beneath him in his failures! Now and then the same thought may be found in both, but the points of resemblance are not in passages which do Milton's reputation the highest honour."

The scene of this strange drama is laid in Heaven, and the dramatis personæ are as follows:—

I give this from the original Dutch now before me.

HERMES.

Dutch Version of Dr. Faustus.—Can any of your correspondents give me information as to the author of a Dutch History of Dr. Faustus, without either author's name or date, and illustrated by very rude engravings? There is no mention of where it was printed, but at the bottom of the title-page is the following notice:—

"Compared with the high Dutch copy, and corrected in many places, and ornamented with beautiful copper plates."3

There is also a promise of a Latin copy soon to follow.

HERMES.

[The first German chap-book upon Faust appeared in 1587. A translation of it into Dutch was published as early as 1592, at Emmerich. It was again printed at Delft in 1607; and there have been several editions since that date. The curious history of this romance has been well investigated by H. Düntzer, Die Sage von Doctor Johannes Faust, in the 5th volume of Das Kloster; and even more fully by the Freiherr v. Reichlien Meldegg, in the 11th volume of the same work.]

To Fettle.—Your correspondent L.C.R. (p. 142) is referred to the late Mr. Roger Wilbraham's Cheshire Glossary, or (as he modestly termed it) An Attempt, &c. This work, privately printed in 1820, is the republication, but with very considerable additions, of a paper in the Archaeologia, vol. xix.

The explanation of the present word is an instance of this expansion.

Your correspondent and Mr. W. agree as to the meaning of this verb, viz. "to mend, to put in order any thing which is broken or defective." Being used in this sense, Mr. W. differs from Johnson and Todd, and he is inclined to derive Fettle from some deflection of the word Faire, which comes from Latine Facere. I must not crowd your columns further, but refer to the Glossary.

May I point out rather a ludicrous misprint (doubtless owing to an illegible MS.) at p. 120. For Mr. Pickering's Lives, read Series of Aldine Poets.

J.H.M.

To Fetyl, v. n. To join closely. See G. factil. ligamen.—Wyntown.

Fettil, Fettle, s. Energy, power.—S.B.

To Fettle, v. a. To tie up.—S.

Fettle, adj. 1. Neat, tight.—S.B. 2. Low in stature, but well-knit.—S.B.

Fetous, adj. Neat, trim.

Fetously, adv. Featly.

Jamieson's Dictionary, abridged 8vo. edition. Fettle, v. To put in order, to repair or mend any thing that is broken or defective.

I am inclined to consider it as from the same root as Feat,—viz. Sue Got. fatt, apt, ready. Swed. fatt, disposed, inclined; fatta, to comprehend.—Brockett's Glossary.

Ptolemy of Alexandria.—Your correspondent, "QUERY," wishes to be informed what works of Ptolemy have been translated. The following, as far as I can learn, is a list of them, viz.:—

"The Compost of Ptholomeus, Prynce of Astronomye, translated out of the Frenche into Englysshe." London, printed by Robert Wyer, no date, 12mo. There is also another edition of the same work, London, printed by T. Colwell, without date, 12mo.

"The Bounding of Greece-Land, according to Ptolomeus; Englished out of the Greek, by Thos. Wilson." London, 1570, 4to.

N.B. This is included in Wilson's translation of Demosthenes' Olynthiacs.

"The Geography of Ptolemy, so far as it relates to Britain; in Greek and English, with observations by J. Horsley." London, 1732, folio.

N.B. This forms a part of the Britannia Romana.

"Quadripartite; or Four Books concerning the Influence of the Stars, faithfully rendered into English, from Leo Allatius; with Notes, explaining the most difficult and obscure Passages, by John Whalley." London, 1701 and 1786, 12mo.

"Tetrabiblos, or Quadripartite; being Four Books, of the Influence of the Stars, newly translated from the Greek Paraphrase of Proclus; with a Preface, explanatory Notes, and an Appendix containing Extracts from the Almagest of Ptolemy, and the whole of his Colloquy, &c. by J.M. Ashmand." London, 1822, 8vo.

I am indebted to Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica for the titles of the first three of these works. The others I have in my possession.

W.J. BROWN.

Old Street.

There are several real or pretended translations of the astrological work—some certainly pretended—and Ptolemy's name is on many astrological titlepages which do not even pretend to translate. The Geography, as far as Britain is concerned, is said to be in Dr. Henry's History of Great Britain, 1788. Some works in harmonics appear in lists as translations or close imitations of Ptolemy, as John Keeble's, 1785, Francis Styles, Phil. Trans. vol. li. Various dissertations on minor pieces exist: but there is no English translation of the Almagest, &c., though it exists in French (see Smith's Biograph. Dict. art. PTOLEMY). If an English reader wants to know Ptolemy's astronomical methods and hypotheses, nothing will suit him better than Narrien's History of Astronomy.

M.

Accuracy of References.—In connection with the article on "Misquotations," in No. 3. p.38., will you impress upon your correspondents the necessity of exact references? It is rather hard when, after a long search, a sought reference has been obtained, to find that the reference itself is, on examination, incorrect. To illustrate my position: at p. 23., in an article relating to Judge Skipwyth, and at p. 42., in an article relating to the Lions in the Tower, references to certain "pp." of the Issue Rolls of the Exchequer. Now if any person with these references were to search the Issue Rolls, he would be much surprised to find that the Rolls are rolls, and not books, and that "pp." is not the correct reference. The fact is that neither of your correspondents are quoting from the Rolls themselves, but from a volume, published in 1835, under the direction of the Comptroller General of the Exchequer, by Mr. F. Devon, called Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, Bishop of Exeter, Lord High Treasurer of England, &c. 44 Edward III.

And while on the subject, permit me to remark, with reference to the article on the Domestic Expenses of Queen Elizabeth (page 41.), that there are plenty of such documents in existence, and that the only test of their value and authenticity is a reference to where they may be found, which is wanting in the article in question.

J.E.

A Peal of Bells.—In No. 8 of your interesting and valuable journal, I find a query, from the REV. A. GATTY, relative to a peal of bells. Now the science of bell-ringing being purely English, we can expect to find the explanation sought for, only in English authors. Dr. Johnson says peal means a "succession of sounds;" and in this way it is used by many old writer, thus:—

"A peal shall rouse their sleep."—MILTON.

And again Addison:—

"Oh for a peal of thunder that would makeEarth, sea, and air, and heaven, and Cato tremble."

Bacon also hath it:—

"Woods of oranges will smell into the sea perhaps twenty miles; but what is that, since a peal of ordnance will do as much, which moveth in a small compass?"

It is once used by Shakespeare, Macbeth:—

"Ere to black Hecate's summonsThe shard-borne beetle, with drowsy hums,Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be doneA deed of dreadful note."

Will not ringing a peal, then, mean a succession of sweet sounds caused by the ringing of bells in certain keys? Some ringers begin with D flat; others, again, contend they should begin in C sharp.

In your last number is a query about Scarborough Warning. Grose, in his Provincial Glossary, give the meaning as "a word and a blow, and the blow first;" it is a common proverb in Yorkshire. He gives the same account of its origin as does Ray, extracted from Fuller, and gives no notion that any other can be attached to it.