Notes and Queries, Number 08, December 22, 1849

The notion of the barnacle being considered a fish is, I am aware, one that still prevails on the western coast of Ireland; for I remember a friend of mine, who had spent a few weeks in Kerry, telling me of the astonishment he experienced upon seeing pious Roman Catholics eating barnacles on Fridays, and being assured that they were nothing else than fishes! My friend added that they had certainly a most "fish-like flavour," and were, therefore, very nasty birds.

W.B. MACCABE.

DORNE THE BOOKSELLER

Mr. Editor,—I beg to add my protest to your own, respecting the conclusion drawn by your valuable correspondent W. as to his competency to his arduous task, which no person could doubt who knows him. My remarks had reference to the supposed scribe of the catalogue, whose brains, according to W., were in some degree of confusion at times. His name is still in obscuro, it seems. "Henno Rusticus" is clear. W., I trust, will accept my apology. I say with Brutus, verbis paulo mutatis—

"By heaven, I had rather coin my heart,And drop my blood for drachmas, than to plantIn the kind bosom of a friend a thorn,By any indirection."J.I.

REV. WM. STEPHENS' SERMONS

Sir,—Amongst the books wanted in your sixth number is "a Tract or Sermon" of the Rev. Wm. Stephens. It is a sermon, and one of four, all of which are far above the ordinary run of sermons, and deserving of a place in every clergyman's library. They are rarely met with together, though separately they turn up now and then upon book stalls amongst miscellaneous sermons; it is a pity they are not better known, and much is every day republished less deserving of preservation. The author's widow published her husband's sermons in two volumes; but, strange to say, these, which are worth all the rest, are not included in the collection. The titles of the four sermons are—

"The Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost proved from Scripture, and the Anti-Nicene Fathers." Preached before the University of Oxford, St. Matthias' Day, 1716-17. Third Edition, 1725.

"The Catholic Doctrine concerning the Union of the Two Natures in the One Person of Christ stated and vindicated." Preached at the visitation of the Bishop of Oxford, 1719. Second Edition, 1722.

"The Divine Persons One God by an Unity of Nature: or, That Our Saviour is One God with His Father, by an External Generation from His Substance, asserted from Scripture and the Anti-Nicene Fathers." Preached before the University of Oxford, 1722. Second Edition, 1723.

"The Several Heterodox Hypotheses, concerning both the Persons and the Attributes of the Godhead, justly chargeable with more inconsistencies and Absurdities than those which have been groundlessly imputed to the Catholic system." Preached at the visitation of the Bishop of Exeter, 1724.

I shall be glad to learn from any of your readers whether the author published any other sermons or tracts which are not included in the two volumes of his sermons.

WM. DENTON

Shoreditch, Dec. 11. 1849.

ROGER DE COVERLEY

Sir,—In No. 4 of your "NOTES AND QUERIES" it is asked, if any notice of the tune called Roger de Coverley is to be met with earlier than 1695, when it was printed by H. Playford in his Dancing Master? I am happy in being able to inform your correspondent that the tune in question may be found in a rare little volume in my possession, entitled "The Division-Violin, containing a Choice Collection of Divisions to a Ground for the Treble-Violin. Being the first Musick of this kind ever published. London, Printed by J.P. and are sold by John Playford, near the Temple-Church, 1685, small oblong."

I have every reason to believe, from considerable researches, that no earlier copy can be found in print.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

MINOR NOTES

Omission of the Words DEI GRATIA from the new Florin.

Ruding, in his Annals of the Coinage, iv. 9., furnishes a precedent for the omission of the words DEI GRATIA from the coinage, in the case of the Irish half-pence and farthings coined at the Tower in 1736-7. And he supplies, also, a precedent for the dissatisfaction with which their omission from the new florin has been received, in the shape of two epigrams written at that time, for which he is indebted (as what writer upon any point of English literature and history is not) to Sylvanus Urban. The first (from the Gentlemen's Magazine for June, 1837) is as follows:—

"No Christian kings that I can find,However match'd or odd,Excepting ours have ever coin'dWithout the _grace of God_."By this acknowledgment they showThe mighty King of Kings,As him from whom their riches flow,From whom their grandeur springs."Come, then, Urania, aid my pen,The latent cause assign,—All other kings are mortal men,But GEORGE, 'tis plain, 's divine."

The next month produced this address:—

To the Author of the Epigram on the new Irish Halfpence"While you behold th' imperfect coinReceiv'd without the grace of God,All honest men with you must join,And even Britons think it odd.The grace of God was well left out,And I applaud the politician;For when an evil's done, no doubt,'Tis not by God's grace, but permission."Grace's Card, the Six of Hearts.

As a note to the communications which have lately amused your readers, respecting the nine of diamonds, and the curse of Scotland, allow me to remind you of another card which has a peculiar name, the origin of which is better ascertained.

At the Revolution of 1688, one of the family of Grace, of Courtstown in Ireland, raised and equipped a regiment of foot and a troop of horse, at his own expense, for the service of King James, whom he further assisted with money and plate, amounting, it is said, to 14,000l. He was tempted with splendid promises of royal favour, to join the party of King William. A written proposal to that effect was sent to him by one of the Duke of Schomberg's emissaries. Indignant at the insulting proposal, the Baron of Courtstown seized a card, which was accidentally lying near him, and wrote upon it this answer: "Go, tell your master, I despise his offer! Tell him that honour and conscience are dearer to a gentleman than all the wealth and titles a prince can bestow!" The card happened to be the "six of hearts," and to this day that card is generally known by the name of "Grace's card," in the city of Kilkenny.

I derive these particulars principally from the Memoirs of the Family of Grace, by Sheffield Grace, Esq. 4to. London, 1823, p. 42.

W.L.

Florins.

The following extract from the Issue Roll of Easter I Edward III. 1327, may interest the inquirers into the antiquity of the FLORIN, lately introduced into our coinage:—

"To Robert de Wodehouse, keeper of the King's Wardrobe, for the price of 174 florins from Florence, price each florin as purchased, 39-1/2_d_. paid to the same keeper by the hands of John de Houton, his clerk, for one pound and one mark of gold, to make oblations on the day of the coronation for the Lord the King:—and in the manner was delivered 104 florins and a mark of 70_s_. by the king's command, under the privy seal, which was used before he received the government of this kingdom,—£28.12.6."

Φ.

John Hopkins, the Psalmist.

Sir,—Little is known of the personal history of John Hopkins, the coadjutor of Sternhold in the translation of the Psalms. It is generally agreed that he was a clergyman and a schoolmaster in Suffolk, but no one has mentioned in what parish of that county he was beneficed. It is highly probably that the following notes refer to this person, and if so, the deficiency will have been supplied by them.

In Tanner's List of the Rectors of Great Waldingfield in Suffolk, taken from the Institution Book at Norwich, there is this entry:—

In the Parish Register of Great Waldingfield is the following:—

"Buried, 1570.  Mr. John Hopkins, 23rd Oct."

D.

NOTES IN ANSWER TO MINOR QUERIES

Genealogy of European Sovereigns.

Sir,—Perhaps the following books will be of service to your correspondent Q.X.Z., viz.:—

"A Genealogical History of the present Royal Families of Europe, the Stadtholders of the United States, and the Succession of the Popes from the 15th century, &c. &c., by the Rev. Mark Noble." London, 1781.

"Historical and Genealogical, Chronological, and Geographical Atlas, exhibiting all the Royal families in Europe, their origin, Descent, &c., by M. Le Sage." London, 1813.

"Complete Genealogical, Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Atlas, &c., by C.V. Lavoisne." Philadelphia, 1821.

W.J.B.

Countess of Pembroke's letter—Drayton's Poems—A Flemish Account—Bishop Burnet.

Your correspondent, at p. 28., asks whether there is any contemporary copy of the celebrated letter, said to have been written by Anne, Countess of Pembroke, to Sir Joseph Williamson? I would refer him to Mr. Hartley Coleridge's Lives of Distinguished Northerns, 1833, p. 290. His arguments for considering the letter spurious, if not conclusive, are very forcible, but they are too copious for this paper.

Your readers, who may not be conversant with that undeservedly neglected volume, will confess their obligation, when they have consulted its pages, in having been directed to so valuable and so original a work. It may be observed, that those letters of the Countess which are authentic, are certainly written in a very different style to the one in question; but this letter, if addressed by her to Sir Joseph Williamson, would be written under peculiar circumstances, and being in her 84th year, she might naturally have asked the assistance of the ablest pen within her reach. I have the copy of an interesting letter, addressed by the late Mr. John Baynes to Ritson, in 1785, stating his admiration of the Countess's "spirit and industry, having seen the collections made by her order relative to the Cliffords—such as no other noble family in the world can show."

I join in wishing that Mr. Pickering would add a judicious selection from Drayton's poetical works to his Lives of Aldine Poets. To the list given by your correspondent (p. 28.), may be added a work entitled Ideas Mirrour Amours in quatorzains (London, 1594, 4to. p. 51.), which was lent to me about forty years ago, but which I have not seen since. Some notice of it, by myself, will be found in the Censura Literaria. with the following note by Sir C. Brydges:—"The extreme rarity of this publication renders a farther account desirable, and also more copious extracts. It appears wholly unknown to Herbert, and to all the biographers of Drayton." It is unnoticed by Ritson also. Chalmers, in his Series of English Poets, has referred to this communication, but he has not printed the poem amongst Drayton's works.

The expression "a Flemish account" is probably not of very long standing, as it is not found in the most celebrated of our earlier dramatists, unless, indeed, Mrs. Page's remark on Falstaff's letter may be cited as an illustration:—"What an unweighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard picked out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner assay me."

If the habit of drinking to excess prevailed in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century to the extent represented, may not the expression have arisen from that circumstance, and been equivalent to the contempt which is usually entertained for the loose or imperfect statements made by a tipsy or drunken man?

When quoting opinions upon Burnet, we must not forget the brief but pregnant character which Burke has given of the Bishop's History of his Own Times. In his admirable speech at Bristol, previous to the election if 1780, Burke says, "Look into the History of Bishop Burnet; he is a witness without exception."

Dr. Johnson was not so laudatory:—"Burnet is very entertaining. The style, indeed, is mere chit-chat. I do not believe that he intentionally lied; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out the truth."

The reader may refer to Dr. Hickes's Criticism (Atterbury's Correspondence, i. 492.). Calamy's expression is a significant, if not a very complimentary one, as regards Burnet's candour (Life and Times, i. 59.).

I.H.M.

Bath, Dec. 1849.

Viz., why the contracted form of Videlicet.

I shall be much obliged if any one of your readers can inform me of the principle of the contraction viz. for videlicet, the letter z not being at all a component part of the three final syllables in the full world.

[Cross symbol]

[Is not our correspondent a little mistaken in supposing that the last letter in "viz." as originally a letter z? Was it not one of the arbitrary marks of contraction used by the scribes of the middle ages, and being in form something like a "z," came to be represented by the early printers by that letter? In short, the sign3 was a common abbreviation in records for terminations, as omnib3 for omnibus, hab3 for habet. Vi3, corruptly viz. is still in use.]

Authors of Old Plays.

We are enabled by the courtesy of several correspondents, to answer two of the Queries of Q.D., in No. 5. p. 77., respecting the authors of certain old plays.

G.H.B. informs us that Sicily and Naples was written by Samuel Harding; of whom, as we learn from J.F.M., an account will be found in Wood's Athenae.

NASO informs Q.D. that Nero was written by Matthew Gwinne; there are two editions of it, viz. 1603 and 1633,—and that a copy of it may be procured at 17. Wellington Street, Strand, for 2s.

Birthplace of Coverdale.

Can you inform me of the birthplace of Miles Coverdale?

W.C.

["Bishop Myles Coverdale is supposed to have been born in the year of our Lord 1488, in the district of Coverdale, in the parish of Coverham, near Middleham, in the North Riding of Yorkshire; and it is the opinion of the learned historian of Richmondshire, that it is an assumed, and not a family name." These are the words of the Rev. Geo. Pearson, B.D., the very competent editor of the works of Bishop Coverdale, published by the Parker Society. His reference is to Whitaker's Hist. of Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 17.]

Caraccioli—Author of Life of Lord Clive.

In reply to K.'s query in No. 7., I have to inform him that "Charles Caraccioli, Gent." called himself "the Master of the Grammar School at Arundel," and in 1766 published a very indifferent History of the Antiquities of Arundel; and deprecating censure, he says in his preface, "as he (the author) was educated and till within these few years has lived abroad, totally unconversant with the English tongue, he flatters himself that the inaccuracies so frequently interspersed through the whole, will be observed with some grains of allowance." His Life of Lord Clive was a bookseller's compilation.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

QUERIES

LOVE, THE KING'S FOOL OF THAT NAME

In Rawlinson's Manuscripts in the Bodleian (c. 258.), which I take to have been written either in, or very soon after, the reign of Henry VIII., there is a poem thus entitled:—

"THE EPITAPHE OF LOVE, THE KYNGE'S FOOLE."

Can any of your readers furnish me with information regarding him? He was clearly a man worthy of notice, but although I have looked through as many volumes of that period, and afterwards, as I could procure, I do not recollect meeting with any other mention of him. Skelton, who must have been his contemporary, is silent regarding him; and John Heywood, who was also living at the same time, makes no allusion to him that I have been able to discover. Heywood wrote the "Play of Love," but it has nothing to do with the "King's fool."

The epitaph in question is much in Heywood's humorous and satirical style: it is written in the English ballad-metre, and consists of seven seven-line stanzas, each stanza, as was not unusual with Heywood, ending with the same, or nearly the same, line. It commences thus:

"O Love, Love! on thy sowle God have mercye;For as Peter is princeps Apostolorum,So to the[e] may be sayd clerlye,Of all foolys that ever was stultus stultorum.Sure thy sowle is in regna polorum,By reason of reason thou haddest none;Yet all foolys be nott dead, though thou be gone."

In the next stanza we are told, that Love often made the King and Queen merry with "many good pastimes;" and in the third, that he was "shaped and borne of very nature" for a fool. The fourth stanza, which mentions Erasmus and Luther, is the following:—

"Thou wast nother Erasmus nor Luter;Thou dyds medle no forther than thy potte;Agaynst hye matters thou wast no disputer,Amonge the Innocentes electe was thy lotte:Glad mayst thou be thou haddyst that knotte,For many foolys by the[e] thynke them selfe none,Yet all be nott dead, though thou be gone."

The next stanza speaks of "Dye Apguylamys," who is told to prepare the obsequy for Love, and of "Lady Apylton," who had offered a "mass-penny," and the epitaph ends with these stanzas:

"Now, Love, Love! God have mercy on thy mery nowle;And Love! God have mercye on thy foolysche face,And Love! God have mercye on thy innocent sowle,Which amonges innocentes, I am sure, hath a place,Or ellys thy sowle ys yn a hevy case;Ye, ye, and moo foolys many [a] one,For foolys be alyve, Love, though thou be gone."Now, God have mercye on us all,For wyse and folysche all dyethe,Lett us truly to our myndes call;And to say we be wyse owr dedes denyethe,Wherefore the ende my reason thys aplyethe:God amend all foolys that thynke them selfe none,For many be alyve, thoughe Love be gone."

It is very possible that I have overlooked some common source of information to which I may be referred; and it is very possible also, that this epitaph has been reprinted in comparatively modern times, and I may not know of it. This is one of the points I wish to ascertain.

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

[Was there no such person as Love, and does the writer mean merely to pun upon the word? Cupid certainly played the fool in the court of Henry VIII. as much as any body.]

MARE DE SAHAM—POSTUM PUSILLUM—WATEWICH

I am much obliged by J.F.M's answers respecting those places. If he will look to the Historia Eliensis, lib. ii. c. 84, 85. vol. i. pp. 200-204. (Anglia Christiana), he may be certain whether or not he has correctly designated them. He may at the same time, if he be well acquainted with Cambridgeshire, give me the modern interpretation for Watewich, also mentioned in chap. 84. of the Hist. Eliens.

W.B.M.

THE ADVENT BELLS

The Advent bells are ringing in many parishes throughout various parts of England during this month of December, if I may judge from my own neighbourhood—on the western borders of Berks—where, at least three times in the week, I hear their merry peals break gladsomely upon the dark stillness of these cold evenings, from many a steeple around. In the Roman States and the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the "pifferari" go about playing on a kind of rough hautboy and bag-pipes, before the pictures of the Madonna, hung up at the corners of streets and in shops, all through Advent time; but why are the church bells rung in England? What reference in ancient documents can be pointed out for the meaning or antiquity of the usage?

He who draws upon a joint-stock bank of literature as rich as yours, Mr. Editor, already is, should bring a something to its capital, though it be a mite. Allow me, then, to throw in mine. At p. 77. "A SUBSCRIBER" asks, "if William de Bolton was an ecclesiastic, how is it that his wife is openly mentioned?" For one of these two reasons: 1st. By the canon law, whether he be in any of the four minor orders, or in any of the three higher or holy orders, a man is, and was always, called "Clericus," but clerks in lower or minor orders did, and still do, marry without censure; 2d. The Church did, and still does, allow man and wife to separate by free mutual consent, and to bind themselves by the vows of perpetual continence and chastity, the man going into a monastery, or taking holy orders, the woman becoming a nun. Such, I suspect, was the case with Sir William de Bolton ("Sir" being the ancient title of a priest) and his wife, whose joint concurrence in the transfer of property by charter would be legally required, if, as is likely, she had an interest in it.

Your correspondent "MUSAFIR," while on the subject of the Flemish account, p. 74., is in error, in assigning to a Count of Flanders the "old story" of the cloaks; it belongs to Robert, Duke of Normandy, who played off the joke at Constantinople in the court of the Greek emperor, as Bromton tells us (ed. Twysden, i. 911.)

CEPHAS

THE POETS

Many years ago a Sonnet, by Leigh Hunt, characterising the poets, appeared in the Examiner. Can any of your readers inform me whether the following, which I quote from memory, is correct?

C. DAY."Were I to name, out of the times gone by,The poets dearest to me, I should say,Pulci for spirits, and a fine, free way,Chaucer for manners, and a close, silent eye;Spenser for luxury and sweet sylvan play,Horace for chatting with from day to day;Milton for classic taste and harp strung high,Shakspeare for all—but most, society.But which take with me could I take but one?Shakspeare, as long as I was unoppress'dWith the world's weight, making sad thoughts intenser;But did I wish out of the common sunTo lay a wounded heart in leafy rest,And dream of things far off and healing—Spenser."

MR. POORE'S LITERARY COLLECTIONS—INIGO JONES—MEDAL OF STUKELEY—SIR JAMES THORNHILL

Sir,—With thanks for the insertion of my former letter, I proceed to submit a few literary queries for solution through the medium of your pages.

In connection with the country of Wilts, I will first mention the literary collections of the late Edward Poore, Esq., of North Tidworth, which I examined, with much satisfaction, on my visits to him there, in the year 1798 and 1799. Mr. Poore was a man of considerable attainments, and corresponded with many distinguished characters, both at home and abroad. He travelled over many parts of the continent, and his letters and notes relating to public and private occurrences and persons were remarkably curious and interesting. I have long lost all trace of them, and should be glad to ascertain where they are likely to be found.

An immense boon would be conferred on the cause of Architecture and Archæology by the recovery of Inigo Jones's Sketches and Drawings of Ancient Castles. These, together with his Plans, Views, and Restorations of Stonehenge, probably descended to his nephew, Webb. The latter were engraved, and published in Webb's volume on Stonehenge; but the Sketches of Castles have never yet been published. On the ground of Inigo Jones's intimacy with Lord Pembroke, I was referred to the library at Wilton as a probable despositor of his drawings, but without success; as I am informed, they do not form a part of that valuable collection. Perhaps I may be allowed to correct the error which so commonly ascribes the erection of Wilton House to Jones. In the Natural History of Wiltshire, by John Aubrey, which I edited in 1847 (4to.), it is clearly shown that the mansion was built in 1633 by, or from the designs of, Solomon de Caus, architect, who was probably aided by his brother Isaac, and that it was rebuilt in 1648, after an extensive fire, by Webb, who, as is well known, married a niece of Inigo Jones. The latter celebrated architect recommended the employment of these parties, and probably approved of their designs, but had no further share in their production. His advice, however, to the Earl of Pembroke, was the means of preserving the famous Porch at Wilton, ascribed to Hans Holbein, which gives him a peculiar claim to the gratitude of all architectural antiquaries.

I possess a large collection of the manuscript journals, papers, drawings, and correspondence of Dr. Stukeley. To the kindness of my old friend Dr. Ingram, President of Trinity College, Oxford, I also owe a large Bronze Medal, with a medallion portrait of Stukeley on the obverse, and a view of Stonehenge on the reverse. This is evidently a cast from moulds, and rather crudely executed, and I am induced to regard it as unique. I shall be much gratified if any of your correspondents can furnish me with a clue to its history, or to the name of its maker. I would here venture to suggest some inquiry into the biography of Charles Bertram, of Copenhagen, who furnished Dr. Stukeley with the manuscript of the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, which has led to so much curious discussion. It would be interesting to learn whether Bertram's papers were bequeathed to any public library at Copenhagen.