Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851

Such helpers do but make that difficult which, if received in its simplicity, need neither perplex a child nor a philosopher.

H. W.

Replies to Minor Queries

Ulm Manuscript (Vol. iii., p. 60.).—The late Bishop Butler's collection of manuscripts is in the British Museum. I send you a copy of the bishop's own description of the MS. (which should be called the St. Gall MS.), from the printed Catalogue, which was prepared for a sale by auction, previous to the negociation with the trustees for the purchase of the collection for the nation.

"Acta Apostolorum. Epistolæ Pauli et Catholicæ cum Apocalypsi. Latinè. Sæculi IX. Upon Vellum. 4to.

The date of this most valuable and important manuscript is preserved by these verses:

'Iste liber Pauli retinet documenta sereniHartmodus Gallo quem contulit Abba Beato,Si quis et hunc Sancti sumit de culmine GalliHunc Gallus Paulusque simul dent pestibus amplis.'

Which I thus have tried to imitate:

Thys boke conteynes the doctrynes of Seynct Paull,Hartmodus thabbat yeve yt to Seynct Gall;Gyf any tak thys boke from hygh Seynct Gall,Seynct Gall appall hym and Seynct Paull hym gall.

Hartmodus was Abbot of St. Gall in the Grisons from A.D. 872 to 874. The MS. therefore may be earlier than the former, but cannot be later than the latter date.

This MS. is of the very highest importance. It contains the celebrated passage of St. John thus: 'Quia tres sunt, qui testimonium dant, Spliritus, aqua, et sanguis, et tres unum sunt. Sicut in cœlo tres sunt, Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus, et tres unum sunt.' This most important word Sicut clearly shows how the disputed passage, from having been a Gloss crept into the text. And on the first page prior to the Seven Catholic Epistles is the Prologue of St. Jerome, bearing his name in uncials, which Porson and other learned men think spurious. See Porson's Letters to Travis, p. 290."—Bp. Butler's Manuscript Catalogue.

H. Foss.Rotherhithe, Jan. 29. 1851.

Harrison's Chronology (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—To the querist on William Harrison all lovers of bibliography are under obligations. At Oxford, amid the Bodleian treasures, he could not have had many questions to ask: at Thurles the case may be much otherwise, and he is entitled to a prompt reply.

After examining the Typographical Antiquities of Ames and Herbert, and various bibliographical works, relying also on my own memory as a collector of books for more than thirty years, I may venture to assert that the Chronology of W. Harrison has never been printed. I can further assert that no copy of the work is recorded in the Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ, Oxoniæ, 1697.

The best account of Harrison is given by bishop Tanner, in his Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica. Wood, however, should be consulted. With reference to the events of his life, it is important to observe that the date of his letter to sir William Brooke, which may be called an autobiography in miniature, is 1577.

Assuming that this question could not escape the notice of other contributors, I had made no researches with a view to answer it, and shall be happy to remedy the defects of this scrap at a future time.

Bolton Corney.

Mistletoe on Oaks (Vol. ii., pp. 163, 214.).—Is it ever found now on other trees? Sir Thos. Browne (Vulg. Err. lib. ii. cap. vi. § 3.) says, "We observe it in England very commonly upon Sallow, Hazell, and Oake." By-the-bye, Dr. Bell (p. 163.) seems to adopt the belief, which it is Browne's object in the section referred to above to refute, viz., that "Misseltoe is bred upon trees, from seeds which birds let fall thereon." Have later observations shown that it was Browne himself who was in error?

Ache.

Swearing by Swans (Vol. iii., p. 70.).—An instance of the cognate custom of swearing by pheasants is given by Michelet, Précis de l'Histoire Moderne (pp. 19, 20.). On the taking of Constantinople by the Turks,—

"L'Europe s'émut enfin: Nicholas V. prêcha la croisade.... à Lille, le duc de Bourgoyne fit apparaître, dans un banquet, l'image de l'Eglise désolée et, selon les rites de la chevalerie, jura Dieu, la Vierge, les dames, et le faisan, qu'il irait combattre les infidèles." (1454.)

It seems, however, that in spite of all these formalities, the oath did not sit very heavily on the conscience of the taker: for we are told immediately after that—

"Cette ardeur dura peu.... le duc de Bourgoyne resta dans ses états."

Michelet gives, as his authority, Olivier de la Marche, t. viii. De la Collection des Mémoires rélatifs à l'Hist. de France, edit. de M. Petitot.

X. Z.

Jurare ad caput animalium (Vol. ii., p. 392; Vol. iii., p. 71.).—Schayes, a Belgic writer (in Les Pays Bas avant et durant la Domination Romaine, vol. ii. p. 73. et seq.), furnishes references to two councils, in which this mode of swearing was condemned, viz. Concil. Aurelianense (Orleans), A.D. 541, and Concil. Liptinense (Liptines or Lestines), 743. On the Indiculus Paganiarum of the latter he subjoins the commentaries of Des Roches (Anc. Mém. de l'Acad. de Brux.), de Meinders (de statu relig. sub Carolo M., p. 144.), d'Eckart (Francia Orient, lib. i. p. 407.), de Canciani (de Legibus barbaror., tom. iii. p. 78.). The enquirer may also consult Riveli Opera on the Decalogue; Petiti, Observ. Miscell. lib. iv. c. 7.: "Defenditur Socrates ab improba Lactantii calumnia et de ejus jusjurando per canem:" and Alex. ab Alexandro, Geniales Dies, lib. v. c. 10.

I may avail myself of this opportunity of noticing the misprint in p. 152., Vezron for Pezron.

T. J.

Ten Children at a Birth (Vol. ii., p. 459.; Vol. iii., p. 64.).—We are indebted to the obliging courtesy of the editor of the Leeds Mercury for the following extract from that paper of the 9th October, 1781:—

"A letter from Sheffield, dated October 1, says, 'This day one Ann Birch, formerly of Derby, who came to work at the silk-mills here, was delivered of TEN children; nine were dead, and one living, which, with the mother, is likely to do well.'"

Our informant adds—

"I never heard of any silk-mills at Sheffield. If there was a Medical Society in Sheffield then, its records might be examined."

Can our correspondent N. D. throw any further light upon this certainly curious and interesting case?

Richard Standfast (Vol. iii., p. 143.).—This divine is buried in Christ Church, Bristol; having been rector of that church for the long space of fifty-one years. There is a monument erected to his memory in the above-mentioned building, with the following inscription:—

"Near this place lieth the body of Richard Standfast, Master of Arts, of Sidney College in Cambridge, and Chaplain-in-Ordinary to his Majesty King Charles I., who for his loyalty to the King and stedfastness in the established religion, suffered fourteen years' sequestration. He returned to his place in Bristol at the restoration of King Charles II., was then made prebendary of the cathedral church of Bristol, and for twenty years and better (notwithstanding his blindness) performed the offices of the church exactly, and discharged the duties of an able, diligent, and orthodox preacher. He was Rector of Christ Church upwards of fifty-one years, and died August 24, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and in the year of Our Lord 1681.

He shall live again."

The following additional lines, composed by himself, were taken down from his own mouth two days before his death; and are, according to his own desire, inscribed on his tomb:—

"Jacob was at Bethel found,And so may we, though under ground.With Jacob there God did intend,To be with him where'ver he went,And to bring him back again,Nor was that promise made in vain.Upon which words we rest in confidenceThat he which found him there will fetch us hence.Nor without cause are we persuaded thus,For where God spake with him, he spake with us."

Besides the work your correspondent mentions, he wrote a book, entitled a Caveat against Seducers.

J. K. R. W.

Feb. 22. 1851.

"Jurat, crede minus" (Vol. iii., p. 143.).—This epigram was quoted by Sir Ed. Coke on the trial of Henry Garnet. The author I cannot tell, but F. R. R. may be glad to trace it up thus far.

J. Bs.

Rab Surdam (Vol. ii., p. 493.; Vol. iii., p. 42.).—May not "Rab Surdam" be the ignorant stone-cutter's version of "resurgam?"

M. A. H.

The Scaligers (Vol. iii., p. 133.).—Everything relating to this family is interesting, and I have read with pleasure your correspondent's communication on the origin of their armorial bearings. I am, however, rather surprised to observe, that he seems to take for granted the relationship of Julius Cæsar Scaliger and his son Joseph to the Lords of Verona, which has been so convincingly disproved by several writers. The world has been for some time pretty well satisfied that these two illustrious scholars were mere impostors in the claim they made, that Joseph Scaliger's letter to Janus Dousa was a very impudent affair. If your correspondent has met with any new evidence in support of their claim, it would gratify me much if he would make it known. Who would not derive pleasure from seeing the magnificent boast of Joseph proved at last to have been founded in fact:

"Ego sum septimus ab Imperatore Ludovico et Illustrissimâ Hollandiæ comite Margareta: septimus item a Mastino tertio, ut et magnus Rex Franciscus, literarum parcus."

and Scioppius's parting recommendation—

"Quid jam reliquum est tibi, nisi ut nomen commutes et ex Scalifero fias Furcifer?"—Scaliger Hypobolimaeus. Mogunt., 1607, 4to., p. 74. b.

deprived of its force and stringency? I fear, however, that this is not to be expected.

It is impossible to read Joseph Scaliger's defence of his own case in the rejoinder to Scioppius, Confutatio fabulæ Burdonum, without observing that the author utterly fails in connecting Niccolo, the great-grandfather of Joseph, with Guglielmo della Scala, the son of Can Grande Secundo. And yet such is the charm of genius, that the Confutatio, altogether defective in the main point as a reply, will ever be read with delight by succeeding generations of scholars.

James Crossley.

Manchester, Feb. 22, 1851.

Lincoln Missal (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—It is clear that one of the most learned ritualists, Mr. Maskell, did not know of a manuscript of the Lincoln Use, else he would have noted it in his work, The Ancient Liturgy of the British Church, where the other Uses of Salisbury, York, Bangor, and Hereford, are compared together. In his preface to this work (p. ix.) he states—

"It has been doubted whether there ever was a Lincoln Use in any other sense than a different mode and practice of chanting."

Mr. Peacock would probably find more information in the Monumenta Ritualia, to which Mr. Maskell refers in his preface.

N. E. R. (A Subscriber.)

By and bye (Vol. iii., p. 73.).—Your correspondent S. S., in support of his opinion that by the bye means "by the way," suggests that good bye may mean "bon voyage." I must say the commonly received notion, that it is a contraction of "God be wi' ye," appears to me in every way preferable. I think that in the writers of the Elizabethan age, every intermediate variety of form (such as "God b' w' ye," &c.) may be found; but I cannot at this moment lay my hand on any instance.

In an ingenious and amusing article in a late Number of the Quarterly, the character of different nations is shown to be indicated by their different forms of greeting, and surely the same may be said of their forms of taking leave. The English pride themselves, and with justice, on being a peculiarly religious people: now, applying the above test,—as the Frenchman has his adieu, the Italian his addio, the Portuguese his addios, and the Spaniard his "vaya usted con Dios,"—it is to be presumed that the Englishman, also, on parting from his friend, will commit him to the care of Providence. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the Germans, who, as well as the English, are supposed to entertain a deeper sense of religion than many other nations, content themselves with a mere "lebe-wohl." I should be obliged if some one of your readers will favour me with the forms of taking leave used by other nations, in order that I may be enabled to see whether the above test will hold good on a more extensive application.

X. Z.

Gregory the Great.—This is clearly a mere slip of the pen in Lady Morgan's pamphlet. I I think it may confidently be asserted that Gregory VII. has not been thus designated habitually at any period.

R. D. H.

True Blue (Vol. iii., p. 92.)—"The earliest connexion of the colour blue with truth" (which inquiry I cannot consider as synonymous with the original Query, Vol. ii., p. 494.) is doubtless to be traced back to one of the typical garments worn by the Jewish high priest, which was (see Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, London, 1631, lib. i. chap. 5.) "A robe all of blew, with seventy two bels of gold, and as many pomegranates, of blew, purple, and scarlet, upon the skirts thereof." He says that "by the bells was typed the sound of his (Christ's) doctrine; by the pomegranates the sweet savour of an holy life;" and, without doubt, by "the blew robe" was typified the immutability and truthfulness of the person, mission, and doctrine of our great High Priest, who was clothed with truth as with a garment. The great Antitype was a literal embodiment of the symbolic panoply of his lesser type.

Blowen.

Drachmarus (Vol. iii., p. 157.).—Your correspondent has my most cordial thanks both for his suggestion, and also for his conjecture.

1. Perhaps you will kindly afford me space to say, that the name of Drachmarus occurs in a well-written MS. account of Bishop Cosin's controversy, during his residence in Paris, with the Benedictine Prior Robinson, concerning the validity of our English ordination: in the course of which, after stating the opinion of divers of the Fathers, that the keys of order and jurisdiction were given John xx., "Quorum peccata," &c., Cosin adds:

"I omit Hugo Cardinalis, the ordinary gloss, Drachmarus, Scotus, as men of a later age (though all, as you say, of your church) that might be produced to the same purpose."

I should here perhaps state, that no letter of Prior Robinson's is extant in which any mention is made either of Drachmarus or of Druthmarus.

2. Before my Query was inserted, it had not only occurred to me as probable that the transcriber might have written Drachmarus in mistake for Druthmarus, but I had also consulted such of Druthmar's writings as are found in the Bibl. Patr. I came to the conclusion, however, that a later writer than Christian Druthmar was intended. My conjecture was, that Drachmarus must be a second name for some known writer of the age of the schoolmen, just as Carbajulus may be found cited under the name of Loysius, or Loisius, which are only other forms of his Christian name, Ludovicus.

J. Sansom.

The Brownes of Cowdray, Sussex.—E. H. Y. (Vol. iii., p. 66.) is wrong in assigning the title of Lord Mountacute to the Brownes of Cowdray, Sussex. In 1 & 2 Phil. and Mary, Sir Antony Browne (son of the Master of the Horse to Henry VIII.) was created Viscount Montague (Collins). When curate of Eastbourne, in which parish are situated the ruins of their ancestral Hall of Cowdray, I frequently heard the village dames recite the tales of the rude forefathers of the hamlet respecting the family.

They relate, that while the great Sir Antony (temp. Hen. VIII.) was holding a revel, a monk presented himself before the guests and pronounced the curse of fire and water against the male descendants of the family, till none should be left, because the knight had received and was retaining the church-lands of Battle Abbey, and those which belonged to the priory of Eastbourne. Within the last hundred years, destiny, though slow of foot, has overtaken the fated race. In one day the hall perished by fire, and the lord by water, as mentioned by E. H. Y. The male line being extinct, the estate passed to the sister of Lord Montague. This lady was married to the late W. S. Poyntz, Esq., M.P. The two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz were drowned at Bognor, and the estate a second time devolved on the female representatives. These ladies, still living, are the Marchioness of Exeter, the Countess Spencer, and the Dowager Lady Clinton. The estate passed by purchase into the hands of the Earl of Egmont.

The old villagers, the servants, and the descendants of servants of the family, point to the ruins of the hall, and religiously cling to the belief that its destruction and that of its lords resulted from the curse. It certainly seems an illustration of Archbishop Whitgift's words to Queen Elizabeth:

"Church-land added to an ancient inheritance hath proved like a moth fretting a garment, and secretly consumed both: or like the eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and thereby set her nest on fire, which consumed both her young eagles and herself that stole it."

E. Rds.

Queen's Col., Birm., Feb. 20. 1851.

Red Hand (Vol. ii., p. 506., et antè).—A correspondent, Arun, says, "Your correspondents would confer a heraldic benefit if they would point out other instances, which I believe to exist, where family reputation has been damaged by similar ignorance in heraldic interpretation." I have always thought this ignorance to be universal with the country people in England: I could mention several instances. First, when I was a boy at school I was shown the hatchments in Wateringbury church, in Kent, by my master, and informed that Sir Thomas Styles had murdered some domestic, and was consequently obliged to bear the "bloody hand:" and lastly, and lately, at Church-Gresley, in Derbyshire, at the old hall of the Gresley family, I was shown the marble table on which Sir Roger or Sir Nigel Gresley had cut up, in a sort of Greenacre style, his cook; for which he was obliged to have the bloody hand in his arms, and put into the church on his tomb.

H. W. D.

Anticipations of Modern Ideas by Defoe (Vol. iii., p. 137.).—The two tracts mentioned by your correspondent R. D. H., and which he states he has often sought in vain, namely, Augusta Triumphans, London, 1728, 8vo., and Second Thoughts are best, London, 1729, 8vo., are to be found in the Selection from Defoe's Works published by Talboys in 20 vols. 12mo. in 1840. They are both indisputably by Defoe, and contain, as your correspondent observes, many anticipations of modern improvements. I may mention that there is a tract, also beyond doubt by Defoe, on the subject of London street-robberies, which has never yet been noticed or attributed to him by any one. It is far more curious and valuable than Second Thoughts are best, and is perfectly distinct from that tract. It gives a history, and the only one I ever yet met with, written in all Defoe's graphic manner, of the London police and the various modes of street robbery in the metropolis, from the time of Charles II. to 1731, and concludes by suggestions of effectual means of prevention. It is evidently the work of one who had lived in London during the whole of the period. The title is—

"An effectual Scheme for the immediate preventing of Street Robberies, and suppressing all other Disorders of the Night, with a brief History of the Night Houses, and an Appendix relating to those Sons of Hell called Incendiaries. Humbly inscribed to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of the City of London. London: Printed for J. Wilford, at the Three Flower de Luees, behind the Chapter House in St. Paul's Church Yard. 1731. (Price 1s.) 8vo., pages 72."

I have also another tract on the same subject, which has not been noticed by Defoe's biographers, but which I have no hesitation in ascribing to him. It is curious enough, but not of equal value with the last. The title is—

"Street Robberies considered. The reason of their being so frequent, with probable Means to prevent 'em. To which is added, three short Treatises: 1. A Warning for Travellers; with Rules to know a Highwayman and Instructions how to behave upon the occasion. 2. Observations on Housebreakers. How to prevent a Tenement from being broke open. With a Word of Advice concerning Servants. 3. A Caveat for Shopkeepers: with a Description of Shoplifts, how to know 'em, and how to prevent 'em: also a Caution of delivering Goods: with the Relation of several Cheats practised lately upon the Publick. Written by a converted Thief. To which is prefix'd some Memoirs of his Life. Set a Thief to catch a Thief. London: Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick Lane. Price 1s. (No date, but circ. 1726.) 8vo., pages 72."

James Crossley.

Meaning of Waste-book (Vol. iii., p. 118.).—The waste-book in a counting-house is that in which all the transactions of the day, receipts, payments, &c., are entered miscellaneously as they occur, and of which no account is immediately taken, no value immediately found; whence, so to speak, the mass of affairs is undigested, and the wilderness or waste is uncultivated, and without result until entries are methodically made in the day-book and ledger; without which latter appliances there would, in book-keeping, be waste indeed, in the worst sense of the term. The word day-book explains itself. The word ledger is explained in Johnson's and in Ash's Dictionary, from the Dutch, as signifying a book that lies in the counting-house permanently in one place. The etymology there given also explains why certain lines used in fishing-tackle, by old Isaak Walton, and by his disciples at the present day, are called ledger-lines. It, however, does not seem to explain the phrase ledger-lines, used in music; namely, the term applied to those short lines added above or below the staff of five lines, when the notes run very high or very low, and which are exactly those which are not permanent. Here the French word léger tempts the etymologist a little.

Robert Snow.

Deus Justificatus (Vol. ii., p. 441.).—There is no doubt that this work was written by Henry Hallywell, and not by Cudworth. Dr. Worthington, whose intercourse with the latter was of the most intimate kind, and who would have been fully aware of the fact had he been the author, observes, in a letter not dated, but written circ. September, 1668, addressed to Dr. More, and of which I have a copy now before me:

"I bought at London Mr. Hallywell's Deus Justificatus. Methinks it is better written than his former Letter. He will write better and better."

In a short account of Hallywell, who was of the school of Cudworth and More, and whose MS. correspondence with the latter is now in my possession, in Wood's Fasti, vol. ii. p. 187. Edit. Bliss, Wood, "amongst several things that he hath published," enumerates five only, but does not give the Deus Justificatus amongst them. It appears (Wood's Athenæ, vol. iv. p. 230.) that he was ignorant who the author of this tract was.

It is somewhat singular that the mistake in ascribing Deus Justificatus to Cudworth should have been continued in Kippis's edition of the Biographia Britannica. It was so ascribed to him, first, as far as I can find, by a writer of the name of Fancourt, in the preface to his Free Agency of Accountable Creatures Examined, London, 1733, 8vo. On his authority it was included in the list of Cudworth's works in the General Dictionary, 1736, folio, vol. iv. p. 487., and in the Biographia Britannica, 1750, vol. iii. p. 1581., and in the last edition by Kippis. Birch, in the mean time, finding, no doubt, on inquiry, that there was no ground for ascribing it to Cudworth, made no mention of it in his accurate life prefixed to the edition of the Intellectual System in 1742.

Hallywell, the author, deserves to be better known. In many passages in his works he gives ample proof that he had fully imbibed the lofty Platonism and true Christian spirit of his great master.