Notes and Queries, Number 185, May 14, 1853

"As now the English court, by reason of the aboundance of Normannes therein, became moste to speak French, so the Scottish court, because of the queen, and the many English that came with her, began to speak English; the which language, it would seem, King Malcolm himself had before that learned, and now, by reason of his queen, did more affecte it. But the English toung, in fine, prevailed more in Scotland than the French did in England; for English became the language of all the south part of Scotland, the Irish (or Gaelic) having before that been the general language of the whole country, since remaining only in the north."—Verstegan's Restitution of Antiquities, A.D. 1605.

Many of your accomplished philological readers will doubtless consider the information of this Note trivial and puerile; but they will, I hope, bear with a tyro in the science, in recording an original remark of his own, borne out by an authority so decisive as Verstegan.

A. B. R.

PICTURES BY HOGARTH

(Vol. vii., pp. 339. 412.)

In reply to Amateur, I can inform him that at the sale of the Marlborough effects at Marlborough House about thirty years ago, there were sold four or five small whole-lengths in oil of members of that family. They were hardly clever enough for what Hogarth's after-style would lead us to expect, but there were many reasons for thinking they were by him. They came into the possession of Mr. Croker, who presented them, as family curiosities, to the second Earl Spencer, and they are now, I presume, in the gallery at Althorpe. One of them was peculiarly curious as connected with a remarkable anecdote of the great Duchess. Horace Walpole tells us in the Reminiscences, her granddaughter, Lady Bateman, having persuaded her brother, the young Duke of Marlborough, to marry a Miss Trevor without the Duchess's consent:

"The grandam's rage exceeded all bounds. Having a portrait of Lady Bateman, she blackened the face, and then wrote on it, 'Now her outside's as black as her inside.'"

One of the portraits I speak of was of Lady Bateman, and bore on its face evidence of having incurred some damage, for the coat of arms with which (like all the others, and as was Hogarth's fashion) it was ornamented in one corner, were angrily scratched out, as with a knife. Whether this defacement gave rise to Walpole's story, or whether the face had been also blackened with some stuff that was afterwards removed, seems doubtful; the picture itself, according to my recollection, showed no mark but the armorial defacement.

I much wonder this style of small whole-lengths has not been more prevalent; they give the general air and manner of the personage so much better than the bust size can do, and they are so much more suited to the size of our ordinary apartments.

C.

Referring to An Amateur's inquiry as to where any pictures painted by Hogarth are to be seen, I beg to say that I have in my possession, and should be happy to show him, the portrait of Hogarth's wife (Sir William Thornhill's daughter), painted by himself.

Lyndon Rolls.

Banbury.

The late Bishop Luscombe showed me, at Paris, in 1835, a picture of "The Oratorio,"—a subject well known from Hogarth's etching. He told me that he bought it at a broker's shop in the Rue St. Denis; that, on examination, he found the frame to be English; and that, as the price was small—thirty francs, if I remember rightly—he bought the piece, without supposing it to be more than a copy. Sir William Knighton, on seeing it in the bishop's collection, told him that Hogarth's original had belonged to the Dukes of Richmond, and had been in their residence at Paris until the first Revolution, since which time it had not been heard of; and Sir William had no doubt that the bishop had been so fortunate as to recover it. Perhaps some of your readers may have something to say on this story.

J. C. R.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE

Washing Collodion Process.—In "N. & Q.," No. 153., p. 320., your valued correspondent Dr. Diamond states "that up to the final period of the operation, no washing of the plate is requisite. It prevents, rather than assists, the necessary chemical action.".

Now, in all other instructions I have yet seen, it is directed to wash off the iron, or other developing solution, prior to immersing in the hypo., and after such immersion, again to wash well in water. I shall feel greatly obliged if Dr. D. will be kind enough to state whether the first-named washing is requisite, or whether the properties of the hypo., or the beauty of the picture, will be in any way injured by the previous solutions not having been washed off, prior to the fixings.

C. W.

[We have submitted this Query to Dr. Diamond, who informs us that he never adopts the practice of washing off the developing fluid, and considers it not only needless, but sometimes prejudicial, as when such washing has not been resorted to, the hyposulphite solution flows more readily over the picture, and causes none of the unpleasant stains which frequently occur in pictures which have been previously washed, especially if hard water has been used. But besides this, and the saving of time, the doing away with this unnecessary washing economises water, which in out-door practice is often a great consideration. Dr. Diamond would again impress upon our readers the advantage of using the hyposulphite over and over again, merely keeping up its full strength by the addition of fresh crystals of the salt from time to time, as such practice produces pictures of whiter and softer tone than are ever produced by the raw solution.]

Colouring Collodion Pictures (Vol. vii., p. 388.)—A patent has just been taken out (dated September 23, 1852) for this purpose, by Mons. J. L. Tardieu, of Paris. He terms his process tardiochromy. It consists in applying oil or other colours at the back of the pictures, so as to give the requisite tints to the several parts of the photograph, without at all interfering with its extreme delicacy. It may even, in some cases, be used to remedy defects in the photographic picture. The claim is essentially for the application of colours at the back, instead of on the surface of photographs, whatever kind of colours may be used. It is therefore, of course, applicable only to photographs taken on paper, glass, or some transparent material.

A. C. Wilson.

Wanted, a simple Test for a good Lens.—As all writers on Photography agree that the first great essential for successful practice is a good lens—that is to say, a lens of which the visual and chemical foci coincide—can any of the scientific readers of "N. & Q." point out any simple test by which unscientific parties desirous of practising photography may be enabled to judge of the goodness of a lens? A country gentleman, like myself, may purchase a lens from an eminent house, with an assurance that it is everything that can be desired (and I am not putting an imaginary case), and may succeed in getting beautiful images upon his focussing-glass, but very unsatisfactory pictures; and it may not be until he has almost abandoned photography, in despair at his own want of skill, that he has the opportunity of showing his apparatus, manipulation, &c. to some more practised hand, who is enabled to prove that the lens was not capable of doing what the vendors stated it could do. Surely scientific men must know of a simple test which would save the disappointment I have described; and I hope some one will take pity upon me, and send it to "N. & Q.," for the benefit of myself and every other

Country Practitioner.

Photographic Tent—Restoration of Faded Negatives.—In Vol. vii., p. 462., I find M. F. M. inquiring for a cheap and portable tent, effective for photographic operations out of doors. I have for the last two years, and in mid-day (June), prepared calotype paper, and also the collodion glass plates, for the camera, under a tent of glazed yellow calico of only a single thickness: the light admitted is very great, but does not in the least injure the most sensitive plate or paper. It is made square like a large bag, so that in a room I can use it double as a blind; and out of doors, in a high wind, I have crept into it, and prepared my paper opposite the object I intended to calotype.

I should be glad it any of your readers would inform me how a failed negative calotype can be restored to its original strength. I last year took a great number, some of which have nearly faded away; and others are as strong, and as able to be used to print from, as when first done. The paper was prepared with the single iodide of silver solution, and rendered sensitive with aceto-nitrate sil. and gallic acid in the usual way. I attribute the fading to the hyposulphate not being got rid of; and the question is, Can the picture he restored?

Are Dr. Diamond's Notes published yet?

S. S. B., Jun.

Replies to Minor Queries

Gibbon's Library (Vol. vii., p. 407.).—I visited it in 1825, in company with Dr. Scholl, of Lausanne, who took charge of it for Mr. Beckford. It was sold between 1830 and 1835, partly by auction, partly by private sale in detail.

James Dennistoun.

Robert Drury (Vol. v., p. 533.).—I am afraid that the credit attachable to Drury's Madagascar is not supported or strengthened by the announcement that the author was "every day to be spoken with" at Old Tom's Coffee House in Birchin Lane. The Apparition of Mrs. Veal, and other productions of a similar description, should make us very doubtful as regards the literature of the earlier part of the eighteenth century. Might not a person have been suborned to represent the fictitious Robert Drury, to the benefit of the coffee-house keeper as well as the publisher? I am induced to express this suspicion by a parallel case of the same period. The Ten Years' Voyages of Captain George Roberts, London, 1726, is universally, I believe, considered fictitious, and ascribed to Defoe; yet at the end of the work we find:

"N. B.—The little boy so often mentioned in the foregoing sheets, now lives with Mr. Galapin, a tobacconist, in Monument Yard; and may be referred to for the truth of most of the particulars before related."

W. Pinkerton.

Ham.

Grub Street Journal (Vol. vii., p. 383.).—Mr. James Crossley, after quoting Eustace Budgell's conjectures as to the writers of this paper, leaves it as doubtful whether Pope was or was not one of them. The poet has himself contradicted Budgell's insinuation when he retorted upon him in those terrible lines (alluding to his alleged forgery of a will):

"Let Budgell charge low Grub Street to my quill,And write whate'er he please—except my will!"Alexander Andrews.

Wives of Ecclesiastics (Vol. i., p. 115.).—In considering "the statutes made by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas, Archbishop of York, and all the other bishops of England," ann. 1108, interdicting the marriage of ecclesiastics, might it not be worth investigating, by such of your correspondents as are curious on the subject, what had been the antecedents of the several bishops themselves?

With respect to Thomas II., Archbishop of York, it is historically certain, that he was the son of an ecclesiastic, and likewise the grandson of an ecclesiastic (his father being one of the bishops who concurred in these statutes). Neither does it seem altogether unlikely that Thomas himself also had spent some part of his early life in bonds of wedlock, since we learn from the Monasticon (vol. iii. p. 490. of new edit.), that "Thomas, son of Thomas (the second of that name), Archbishop of York, confirmed what his predecessors, Thomas and Girard, had given," &c. If this be correct, as stated4, the conclusion is inevitable; but possibly some error may have arisen out of the circumstance, that Thomas I. and Thomas II., Archbishops of York, were uncle and nephew.

J. Sansom.

Blanco White.—In Vol. vii., p. 404., is a copy of a sonnet which is said to be "on the Rev. Joseph Blanco White." This sonnet is one which I have been in search of for some years. I saw it in a newspaper (I believe the Athenæum), but not having secured a copy of it at the time, now ten or twelve years ago, I have had occasion to regret it ever since, and am consequently much obliged to Balliolensis for his preservation of it in "N. & Q." "It is needless," as he well observes, "to say anything in its praise." I should add, that my strong impression is that this sonnet was written by Blanco White.

H. C. K.

—– Rectory, Hereford.

Captain Ayloff (Vol. vii., p. 429.).—Your correspondent will find a short notice of Capt. Ayloff in Jacob's Poetical Register (1719-20, 8vo., 2 vols.), and two of his poetical pieces—"Marvell's Ghost" and the "Cambridge Commencement"—in Nichols's Collection of Poems (vol. iii. pp. 186-188.), 1780, 12mo. There is considerable vigour in his "Marvell's Ghost;" and had he cultivated his talent, he might have taken a respectable place as a poet amongst the writers of his time.

Jas. Crossley.

General Monk and the University of Cambridge (Vol. vii., p. 427.).—I cannot doubt that "W. D." was Dr. William Dillingham, Master of Emmanuel College, and Vice-Chancellor of the University, from November 1659 till November 1660.

The election to which his letter relates took place April 3, 1660. The votes were:

Lord General Moncke – 341

Thomas Crouch, M.A., Fellow of Trin. Coll. – 211

Oliver St. John, Chancellor of the University – 157

The Vice-Chancellor, in his accounts, makes this charge:

"Paid to two messengers sent to wait on ye Lord Generall about ye burgesship, 4l. 10s."—M. S. Baker, xl. 59.

On the 22nd of May, General Monk, who had been also chosen for Devonshire, made his election to sit for that county.

C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge.

In reply to Leicestriensis, I beg leave to inform him that "W. D." was Wm. Dillingham, D.D., master of Clare Hall, and at the time Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The letter in question, which was the original draft, was, with a variety of other family papers, stolen from me in 1843.

J. P. Ord.

P.S.—Query, from whom did the present possessor obtain it?

The Ribston Pippin (Vol. vii., p. 436.).—The remarks of your correspondent H. C. K., respecting the uncertain origin of the Ribston pippin, reminded me of a communication which I received about fifty years ago, from one of the sisters of the late Sir Henry Goodricke, the last of the family who possessed Ribston. Though it leaves the question concerning the origin of that excellent apple unsettled, yet it may not be uninteresting to H. C. K. and some others of your numerous readers. I therefore send a transcript:

"Tradition of the Ribston Pippin Tree

"About the beginning of the last century, Sir Henry Goodricke, father of the late Sir John Goodricke, had three pips sent by a friend in a letter from Rouen in Normandy, which were sown at Ribston. Two of the pips produced nothing: the third is the present tree, which is in good health, and still continues to bear fruit."

"Another Account

"Sir Henry, the father of the late Sir John Goodricke, being at Rouen in Normandy, preserved the pips of some fine flavoured apples, and sent them to Ribston, where they were sown, and the produce in due time planted in what then was the park. Out of seven trees planted, five proved decided crabs, and are all dead. The other two proved good apples; they never were grafted, and one of them is the celebrated original Ribston pippin tree."

The latter tradition has, I believe, always been considered as the most correct.

S. D.

Cross and Pile (Vol. vi., passim.).—The various disquisitions of your correspondents on the word pile are very ingenious; but I think it is very satisfactorily explained as "a ship" by Joseph Scaliger in De Re nummaria Dissertatio, Leyden, 1616:

"Macrobius de nummo ratito loquens, qui erat æreus: ita fuisse signatum hodieque intelligitur in aleæ lusu, quum pueri denarios in sublime jactantes, Capita aut Navia, lusu teste vetustatis exclamant."—P. 58.

And in Scaligerana (prima):

"Nummus ratitus—ce qu'aujourd'hui nous appellons jouer à croix ou à pile, car pile est un vieil mot français qui signifiait un Navire, unde Pilote. Ratitus nummus erat ex ære, sic dictus ab effigie ratus."—Tom. ii., Amsterdam, 1740, p. 130.

See also, Auctores Latinæ Linguæ, by Gothofred, 1585, p. 169. l. 53. Also, Dictionnaire National of M. Bescherelle, tome ii. p 885., Paris, 1846, art. Pile (subst. fém.)

En passant, allow me to point out a very curious and interesting account of this game, being the pastime of Edward II., in the Antiquarian Repertory, by Grose and Astle: Lond. 1808, 4to., vol. ii. pp 406-8.

Φ.

Richmond, Surrey.

Ellis Walker (Vol. vii., p. 382.).—

"Ellis Walker, D.D.," according to Ware, "was born in the city of York; but came young into Ireland, and was educated in the college of Dublin, where he passed through all his degrees. He fled from thence in the troublesome reign of King James II., and lived with an uncle at York, where he translated Epictetus into verse. After the settlement of Ireland he returned, and for seven years employed himself with great reputation in teaching a public school at Drogheda, where he died on the 17th April, 1701, in the fortieth year of his age; and was buried there in St. Peter's Church, and twenty years after had a monument erected to his memory by one of his scholars."

Tyro.

Dublin.

Blackguard (Vol. vii., pp. 77. 273.).—I am not aware that the following extract from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy has ever yet been quoted under this heading. Would it not be worth the while to add it to the extract from Hobbes's Microcosmos, quoted by Jarltzberg, Vol. ii., p. 134. and again, by Sir J. Emerson Tennent at Vol. vii., p. 78.:

"The same author, Cardan, in his Hyperchen, out of the doctrine of the Stoicks, will have some of these genii (for so he calls them) to be desirous of men's company, very affable and familiar with them, as dogs are; others again, to abhor as serpents, and care not for them. The same, belike, Trithemius calls igneos et sublunares, qui numquam demergunt ad inferiora, aut vix ullum habent in terris commercium: generally they far excel men in worth, as a man the meanest worm; though some there are inferiour to those of their own rank in worth, as the black guard in a princes court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures are excelled of brute beasts."—Anat. of Mel., Part I. sec. 2. Mem. 1. subs. 2. [Blake, 1836, p. 118.]

C. Forbes.

Temple.

In looking over the second volume of "N. & Q.," I find the use of the word blackguard is referred to, and passages illustrative of its meaning are given from the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Hobbes, Butler, &c. To these may be added the following fanciful use of the word, which occurs in the poems of Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset; the author of the well-known naval song "To all you Ladies now at Land:"

"Love is all gentleness, all joy,Smooth are his looks, and soft his pace.Her [Belinda's] Cupid is a blackguard boy,That rubs his link full in your face."Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

Talleyrand (Vol. vi., p. 575.).—Talleyrand's maxim is in Young. I regret that I cannot give the reference.

Z. E. R.

Lord King and Sclater (Vol. v., pp. 456. 518.).—By Sclater's answer, "as I am informed, the Lord Chancellor King was himself fully convinced."—Zach. Grey's Review of Neal, p. 67., edit. 1744.

"Beware the Cat" (Vol. v., p. 319.).-The "dignitary of Cambridge" was probably Dr. Thackeray, provost of King's, who bequeathed all his black-letter books to the college. Perhaps Beware the Cat may be among them.

Z. E. R.

"Bis dat qui cito dat" (Vol. vi., p. 376.).—The following Greek is either in the Anthologia, or in Joshua Barnes:

"ὠκεῖαι χάριτος γλυκερώτεραι, ἢν δὲ βραδυνῇ πᾶσα χάρις φθινύθει, μηδὲ λέγοιτο χαρις."

"Gratia ab officio quod mora tardat, abest."

Z. E. R.

High Spirits a Presage of Evil.—The Note of your correspondent Cuthbert Bede (Vol. vii., p. 339.) upon this very interesting point recalls to my recollection a line or two in Gilfillan's First Gallery of Literary Portraits, p. 71., which bears directly upon it. Speaking of the death of Percy Bysshe Shelley, the author says, "During all the time he spent in Leghorn, he was in brilliant spirits, to him a sure prognostic of coming evil." I may add, that I have been on terms of intimacy with various persons who entertained a dread of finding themselves in good spirits, from a strong conviction that some calamity would be sure to befall them. This is a curious psychological question, worthy of attention.

W. Sawyer.

Brighton.

Colonel Thomas Walcot (Vol. vii., p. 382.) married Jane, the second daughter of James Purcel of Craugh, co. Limerick, and had by her six sons and two daughters: John, the eldest, who married Sarah Wright of Holt, in Denbighshire; Thomas, Ludlow, and Joseph, which last three died unmarried; Edward (who died an infant); William (of whom I have no present trace); Catherine and Bridget. The latter married, first, Mr. Cox of Waterford, and second, Robert Allen of Garranmore, co. Tipperary. John, the eldest son, administered to his father, and possessed himself of his estates and effects. I think his son was a John Minchin Walcot, who represented Askeaton in Parliament in 1751, died in London in 1753, and was buried in St. Margaret's churchyard. Two years after his death his eldest daughter married William Cecil Pery, of the line of Viscount Pery, and had by him Edmund Henry Pery, member of parliament for Limerick in 1786. A William Walcot was on the Irish establishment appointed a major in the 5th Regiment of Foot in 1769, but I cannot just now say whether, or how, he was related to Colonel Thomas Walcot.

John D'Alton.

Dublin.

Wood of the Cross: Mistletoe (Vol. vii., p. 437.).—Was S. S. S.'s farmer a native of an eastern county? If he came from any part where Scandinavian traditions may be supposed to have prevailed, there may be some connexion between the myth, that the mistletoe furnished the wood for the cross, and that which represents it as forming the arrow with which Hödur, at the instigation of Lok, the spirit of evil, killed Baldyr. I have met with a tradition in German, that the aspen tree supplied the wood for the cross, and hence shuddered ever after at the recollection of its guilt.

T. H. L.

The tradition to which I have been always accustomed is, that the aspen was the tree of which the cross was formed, and that its tremulous and quivering motion proceeded from its consciousness of the awful use to which it had once been put.

W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Irish Office for Prisoners (Vol. vii, p 410.).—The best reference for English readers is to Bishop Mant's edition of the Prayer-Book, in which this office is included.

J. C. R.

Andries de Græff: Portraits at Brickwall House (Vol. vii, p. 406.).—"Andries de Græff. Obiit lxxiii., MDCLXXIV." Was this gentleman related to, or the father of, Regulus de Græf, a celebrated physician and anatomist, born in July, 1641, at Scomharen, a town in Holland, where his father was the first architect? Regulus de Græf married in 1672, and died in 1673, at the early age of thirty-two. He published several works, chiefly De Organis Generationis, &c. (See Hutchinson's Biographia Medica; and, for a complete list of his works, Lindonius Renovatus, p. 933.: Nuremberg, 1686, 4to.)

S. S. S.

Bath.

"Qui facit per alium, facit per se" (Vol. vii., p. 382.).—This is one of the most ordinary maxims or "brocards" of the common law of Scotland, and implies that the employer is responsible for the acts of his servant or agent, done on his employment. Beyond doubt it is borrowed from the civil law, and though I cannot find it in the title of the digest, De Diversis Regulis Juris Antiqui (lib. 1. tit. 17.), I am sure it will be traced either to the "Corpus Juris," or to one of the commentators thereupon.