Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851

Would it not be desirable, as well in a literary as a theological point of view, that any extant sermons of so renowned a divine should be made accessible to general readers? At present they are too rare and expensive to be largely useful. A brief Narrative of the Life and Death of Mr. Henry Smith (as it is for substance related by Mr. Thomas Fuller in his Church History), which is prefixed to an old edition (1643) of his sermons in my possession, concludes in these words:—

"The wonder of this excellent man's worth is increased by the consideration of his tender age, he dying very young (of a consumption as it is conceived) above fifty years since, about Anno 1600."

Thos. McCalmont.

Highfield, Southampton.

Minor Queries

Owen Glendower.—Some of your Cambrian correspondents might, through your columns, supply a curious and interesting desideratum in historical genealogy, by contributing a pedigree, authenticated as far as practicable by dates and authorities, and including collaterals, of Owen Glendower, from his ancestor Griffith Maelor, Lord of Bromfield, son of Madoc, last Prince of Powys, to the extinction of Owen's male line.

All Cambrian authorities are, I believe, agreed in attributing to Owen the lineal male representation of the sovereigns of Powys; but I am not aware that there is any printed pedigree establishing in detail, on authentic date, his descent, and that of the collaterals of his line; while uncertainty would seem to exist as to one of the links in the chain of deduction, as to the fate of his sons and their descendants, if any, as well as to the marriages and representatives of more than one of his daughters.

I have in vain looked for the particulars I have indicated in Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales; in the Welsh Heraldic Visitation Pedigrees, lately published by the Welsh MSS. Society, under the learned editorship of the late Sir Samuel Meyrick; and in the valuable contributions to the genealogy of the Principality to be found in the Landed Gentry and the Peerage and Baronetage of Mr. Burke,—a pedigree, in other respects admirable, in the Landed Gentry of a branch of the dynasty of Powys, omitting the intermediate descents in question.

S. M.

Meaning of Gig-Hill.—Can any of your readers favour me with an explanation of the following matter in local topography? There are two places in the neighbourhood of Kingston-on-Thames distinguished by the name of Gig-Hill3, although there is no indication of anything in the land to warrant the name.

Are there any instances to be met with where the place of punishment by the stocks or pillory in olden times, was known by that name?

There was a king of Brittany who resigned his crown, and obtained the honours of canonisation as Saint Giguel, in the seventh century. St. Giles, who died about the sixth century, might, perhaps, have had some connexion with those who are traditionally believed to have been punished on the spot; that is, if we judge by his clients, who locate themselves under the sanctity of his name as a "Guild" or fraternity in London.

There is, however, a curious use by Shakspeare of the word gig. It occurs in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. I.:

Holofernes says,

"What is the figure?"

Moth. Horns.

Holofernes. Thou disputest like an infant. Go, whip thy gig."

I submit this matter, as local names have often their origin in religious associations or in proverbial philosophy.

It has been suggested that giggle, as a mark of the derision to which the culprit was exposed, might so become corrupted.

If the term be connected with the punishment, it would be, doubtless, one of general application. The smallest contribution will be thankfully received.

Sir John Vaughan.—In the patent under which the barony of Hamilton of Hackallen, in the county of Meath, was granted on the 20th of October, in the second year of the reign of George I., to Gustavus Hamilton, he is described as son of Sir Frederick Hamilton, Knt., by Sidney, daughter and heiress of Sir John Vaughan, Knt.; and that the said Dame Sidney Hamilton was descended from an honourable line of ancestors, one of whom, Sir Will Sidney, was Chamberlain to Henry II., another of the same name Comptroller of the Household to Henry VIII., &c., &c.

Can any of your genealogical friends inform me who the above-named Sir John Vaughan married, and in what way she was connected with the Sidneys of Penshurst, as the pedigree given by Collins contains no mention of any such marriage?

The arms of Sir John Vaughan, which appear quartered with those of Hamilton and Arran in the margin of the grant, are,—Argent, a chevron sable between three infants' heads coupled at the shoulders, each entwined round the neck with a snake, all proper, thereby intimating his descent from the Vaughans of Porthaml Trêtower, &c., in the county of Brecon.

J. P. O.

Quebecca and his Epitaph.—

"Here lies the body of John Quebecca, precentor to my Lord the King. When his spirit shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the Almighty will say to the Angelic Choir, 'Silence, ye calves! and let me hear John Quebecca, precentor to my Lord the King.'"

Can any of your correspondents inform me who John Quebecca was, and where the epitaph may be found?

E. Hailsture.K.

A Monumental Inscription.—Near the chancel door of the parish-church of Wath-upon-Dearne, in Yorkshire, is an upright slab inscribed to the memory of William Burroughs. After stating that he was of Masbro', gentleman, and that he died in the year 1722, the monument contains the two following hexameters:—

"Burgus in hoc tumulo nunc, Orthodoxus Itermus,Deposuit cineres, animam revocabit Olympus."

The meaning of all which is obvious, except of the words "Orthodoxus Itermus:" and I should be glad to have this unscanning doggrel translated. It has been conjectured that Itermus must be derived from iter, and hence that Burroughs may have been a traveller, or possibly an orthodox itinerant preacher: surely there can be no punning reference to a journeyman! The lines have been submitted, in vain, to some high literati in Oxford.

A. G.

Ecclesfield.

Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs of Charles I. (Vol. iii., p. 157.).—My friend, who is in possession of the original MS. of this work, is desirous of ascertaining whether the volume published in 1702 be a complete and exact copy of it. I will transcribe the commencing and concluding passages of the MS., and shall be obliged if Mr. Bolton Corney will compare them with the book in his possession, and tell me the result.

"Sr,

"By your's of the 22d of August last, I find you have receaved my former letters of the first and thirteenth of May, 1678; and seeing 'tis your further desire," &c.

"This briefe narrative shall conclude with the king's owne excellent expression: Crowns and kingdoms are not so valuable as my honour and reputation—those must have a period with my life; but these survive to a glorious kind of immortality when I am dead and gone: a good name being the embalming of princes, and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of love and gratitude amongst posterity."

The present owner of the MS. has an idea that an incorrect copy was fraudulently obtained and published about 1813. Is there any foundation for this supposition?

Alfred Gatty.

Ecclesfield.

Comets.—Where may a correct list of the several comets and eclipses, visible in France or England, which appeared, or took place, between the years 1066 and 1600, be obtained?

S. P. O. R.

Natural Daughter of James II.—James II., in Souverains du Monde (4 vols. 1722), is stated to have had a natural daughter, who in 1706 was married to the Duke of Buckingham.

Can any of your readers inform me the name of this daughter, and of her mother? Also the dates of her birth and death, and the name of her husband, and of any children?

F. B. Relton.

Going the Whole Hog.—What is the origin of the expression "going the whole hog?" Did it take its rise from Cowper's fable, the Love of the World reproved, in which it is shown how "Mahometans eat up the hog?"

Σ.

Innocent Convicts.—Can any of your readers furnish a tolerably complete list of persons convicted and executed in England, for crimes of which it afterwards appeared they were innocent?

Σ.

The San Grail.—Can any one learned in ecclesiastical story say what are the authorities for the story that King Arthur sent his knights through many lands in quest of the sacred vessel used by our Blessed Lord at His "Last Supper," and explain why this chalice was called the "Holy Grail" or "Grayle?" Tennyson has a short poem on the knightly search after it, called "Sir Galahad." And in Spenser's Faerie Queene, book ii. cant. x. 53., allusion is made to the legend that "Joseph of Arimathy brought it to Britain."

W. M. K.

Meaning of "Slums."—In Dr. Wiseman's Appeal to the Reason and Good Feeling of the English People, we find the word "slums" made use of with respect to the purlieus of Westminster Abbey. Warren, in a note of his letter on "The Queen or the Pope?" asks "What are 'slums?' And where is the word to be found explained? Is it Roman or Spanish? There is none such in our language, at least used by gentlemen."

I would ask, may not the word be derived from asylum, seeing that the precincts of abbeys, &c. used to be an asylum or place of refuge in ancient times for robbers and murderers?

W. M. W.

Stokesley.

Bartolus' "Learned Man Defended and Reformed."—Can any one inform the applicant in what modern author this excellent (and he believes rare) book in his possession, translated from the Italian of Daniel Bartolus, G. J., by (Sir) Thomas Salusbury, 1660, is spoken of in terms of high approval? The passage passed before him not long ago, but having made no note, he is unable to recover it.—Query, Is it in Mr. Hallam's Literary History, which he has not at hand?

U. Q.

Odour from the Rainbow.—What English poet is it that embodies the idea contained in the following passage of Bacon's Sylva? I had noted it on a loose scrap of paper which I left in my copy of the Sylva, but have lost it:—

"It hath been observed by the Ancients, that when a Raine Bow seemeth to hang over or to touch, there breaketh forth a sweet smell. The cause is, for that this happenth but in certain matters which have in themselves some sweetnesse, which the Gentle Dew of the Raine Bow doth draw forth. And the like doe soft showers; for they also make the ground sweet. But none are so delicate as the Dew of the Raine Bow, where it falleth. It may be also that the water itself hath some sweetnesse: for the Raine Bow consisteth of a glomeration of small drops which cannot possibly fall but from the Aire that is very low. And therefore may hold giving sweetnesse of the herbs and flowers, as a distilled water," &c.—Bacon's Sylva, by Rawley, 6th ed. 1651, p. 176.

Jarltzberg.

Tradesmen's Signs.—A Citizen wishes to be informed in what year or reign the signs that used to hang over the tradesmen's shop-doors were abolished, and whether it was accomplished by "act of parliament," or only "by the authority of the Lord Mayor." Also, whether there is any law now in existence that prevents the tradesmen putting the signs up again, if they were so disposed.

Minor Queries Answered

Supporters borne by Commoners.—Can any of your readers state why some commoners bear supporters, and whether the representatives of Bannerets are entitled to do so? I find in Burke's Dictionary of Landed Gentry, that several gentlemen in England, Scotland, and Ireland continue to use them. See Fulford, p. 452.; Wyse, p. 1661.; Hay-Newton, p. 552., &c. &c.

The late Mr. Portman, father of Lord Portman, used supporters, as do Sir W. Carew, Bart., and some other baronets.

Guinegate.

[Baronets are not entitled, as such, to bear supporters, which are the privilege of the peerage and the knights of the orders.

There are many baronets who by virtue of especial warrants from the sovereign have, as acts of grace and favour, in consideration of services rendered to the state, received such grants; and in these instances they are limited to descend with the dignity only. No doubt there are some private families who assume and improperly bear supporters, but whose right to do so, even under their own statements as to origin and descent, has no legal foundation. "Notes And Queries" afford neither space nor place for the discussion of such questions, or for the remarks upon a correction of statements in the works quoted.]

Answer to Fisher's Relation.—I have a work published at London by Adam Islip, an. 1620, the title-page of which bears—

"An Answere to Mr. Fisher's Relation of a Third Conference betweene a certaine B. (as he stiles him) and himselfe. The conference was very private till Mr. Fisher spread certaine papers of it, which in many respects deserved an Answere. Which is here given by R. B., Chapleine to the B. that was employed in the conference."

Pray, who was the chaplain? I have heard he was the after-famous Archbishop Laud.

I pray your assistance in the resolution of this Query.

J. M.

Liverpool.

[This famous conference was the third held by divines of the Church of England with the Jesuit Fisher (or Perse, as his name really was: see Dodd's Church History, vol. iii. p. 394.). The first two were conducted by Dr. Francis White: the latter by Bishop Laud, was held in May, 1622, and the account of it published by R. B. (i.e. Dr. Richard Baylie, who married Laud's niece, and was at that time his chaplain, and afterwards president of St. John's College, Oxford). Should J. M. possess a copy printed in 1620, it would be a literary curiosity. Laud says himself, that "his Discourse was not printed till April, 1624."]

Drink up Eisell (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—Here is a passage in Troilus and Cressida, in which drink up occurs (Act IV. Sc. 1.):

"He, like a puling cuckold, would drink upThe lees and dregs of a flat-tamed piece."

The meaning is plainly here avaler, not boire.

Here is another, which does not perhaps illustrate the passage in Hamlet, but resembles it (Act III. Sc. 2.):

"When we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers, thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposition enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed."

C. B.

[We are warned by several correspondents that this subject is becoming as bitter as wormwood to them. Before we dismiss it, however, we must record in our pages the opinion of one of the most distinguished commentators of the day, Mr. Hunter, who in his New Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 263., after quoting "potions of eysell" from the sonnet, says, "This shows it was not any river so called, but some desperate drink. The word occurs often in a sense in which acetum is the best representative, associated with verjuice and vinegar. It is the term used for one ingredient of the bitter potion given to our Saviour on the cross, about the composition of which the commentators are greatly divided. Thus the eighth prayer of the Fifteen Oos in the Salisbury Primer, 1555, begins thus: 'O Blessed Jesu, sweetness of heart and ghostly pleasure of souls, I beseech thee for the bitterness of the aysell and gall that thou tasted and suffered for me in thy passion,' &c."

Since the above was written, we have received a communication from An English Mother with the words and music of the nursery song, showing that the music does not admit the expressions "eat up," and "drink up;" quoting from Haldorson's Icelandic Lexicon, Eysill, m. Haustrum en Ose allsa; and asking what if Shakspeare meant either a pump or a bucket? We have also received a Note from G. F. G. showing that eisel in Dutch, German, and Anglo-Saxon, &c., meant vinegar, and stating, that during his residence in Florence in 1817, 1818, and 1819, he had often met with wormwood wine at the table of the Italians, a weak white wine of Tuscany, in which wormwood had been infused, which was handed round by the servants immediately after the soup, and was believed to promote digestion.]

Saxon Coin struck at Derby.—In the reign of Athelstan there was a royal mint at Derby, and a coinage was struck, having on the obverse merely the name of the town, Deoraby, and on the other side the legend "HEGENREDES MO . ON . DEORABY." What is the meaning of this inscription?

R. C. P.

Derby, Feb. 26. 1851.

[If HEGENREDES is rightly written, it is the name of a moneyer. MO . ON . DEORABY signifies Monetarius (or Moneyer) in Derby. Coins are known with MEGENFRED and MEGNEREDTES, and our correspondent may have read his coin wrongly.]

Replies

SCANDAL AGAINST QUEEN ELIZABETH

(Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., pp. 11. 151. 197.)

The Marquis of Ormonde having been informed that certain statements, little complimentary to the reputation of Queen Elizabeth, and equally discreditable to the name of his ancestor, Thomas, Earl of Ormonde, have appeared in "Notes and Queries," wherein it is stated "that the Ormonde family possess documents which afford proof of this," begs to assure the editor of the journal in question, that the Ormonde collection of papers, &c. contains nothing that bears the slightest reference to the very calumnious attack on the character of good Queen Bess.

Hampton Court, March 17. 1851.

[If the Marquis of Ormonde will do us the favour to refer to our Number for the 8th March (No. 71.), he will find he has not been correctly informed with respect to the article to which his note relates. The family in which the papers are stated to exist, is clearly not that of the noble Marquis, but the family with which our correspondent "J. Bs." states himself to be "connected;" and we hope J. Bs. will, in justice both to himself and to Queen Elizabeth, adopt the course suggested in the following communication. We believe the warmest admirers of that great Queen cannot better vindicate her character than by making a strict inquiry into the grounds for the scandals, which, as has been already shown (antè, No. 62. p. 11.), were so industriously circulated against her.]

J. Bs. says papers are "said to exist in the family which prove the statement." As it is one of scandal against a female, and that female a great sovereign, should he not ascertain the fact of the existence of any such paper, before supporting the scandal, and not leave a tradition to be supported by another tradition, when a little trouble might show whether any papers exist, and when found what their value may be.

Q. G.

THE MISTLETOE ON THE OAK

(Vol. ii., pp. 163. 214.; Vol. iii., p. 192.)

From having been a diligent searcher for the mistletoe on the oak, I may be allowed to make a few remarks upon the question. Is it ever found now on other trees? Now, it not only occurs abundantly on other trees, but it is exceedingly rare on the oak. This may be gathered from the following list, in which numbers have been used to express comparative frequency, as near as my observations enable me to form a judgment:—

On Native Trees.25Apple (various sorts)20Poplar (mostly the black)10Whitethorn4Lime3Maple2Willow1OakOn Foreign Trees.1Sycamore1Robinia

From this it would appear that notwithstanding the British Oak grows everywhere, it is at present only favoured by the companionship of the mistletoe in equal ratio with two comparatively recently introduced trees. Indeed such objection does this parasite manifest to the brave old tree, even in his teens, that, notwithstanding a newly-planted line of mixed trees will become speedily attacked by it, the oak is certain to be left in his pride alone.

I have, however, seen the mistletoe on the oak in two instances during my much wandering about amid country scenes, especially of Gloucester and Worcester, two great mistletoe counties. One was pointed out to me by my friend, Mr. Lees, from whom we may expect much valuable information on this subject, in his forthcoming edition of the Botanical Looker-out—it was on a young tree, perhaps of fifty years, in Eastnor Park, on the Malvern chain. The other example is at Frampton-on-Severn, to which the President of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, T. B. L. Baker, Esq., and myself, were taken by Mr. Clifford, of Frampton. The tree is full a century old, and the branch, on which was a goodly bunch of the parasite, numbered somewhere about forty years. That the plant is propagated by seeds there can, I think, be but little doubt, as the seeds are so admirably adapted for the peculiar circumstances under which alone they can propagate; and the want of attention to the facts connected therewith, is probably the cause why the propagation of the mistletoe by artificial means is usually a failure.

I should be inclined to think that the mistletoe never was abundant on the oak; so that it may be that additional sanctity was conferred on the Viscum guerneum on account of its great rarity.

James Buckman.

Cirencester.

Mistletoe upon Oak (Vol. ii., p. 214.).—Besides the mistletoe-bearing oak mentioned by your correspondent, there is one in Lord Somers' park, near Malvern. It is a very fine plant, though it has been injured by sight-seeing marauders.

H. A. B.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

Mistletoe (Vol. ii., pp. 163., 214.).—Do I understand your correspondent to ask whether mistletoe is found now except on oaks? The answer is, as at St. Paul's, "Circumspice." Just go into the country a little. The difficulty is generally supposed to be to find it on the oak.

C. B.

UNIVERSALITY OF THE MAXIM, "LAVORA COME SE TU," ETC

(Vol. iii., p. 188.)

I have not been able to trace this sentence to its source, but it would most probably be found in that admirable book, Monosinii Floris Italicæ Linguæ, 4to, Venet., 1604; or in Torriano's Dictionary of Italian Proverbs and Phrases, folio, Lond., 1666, a book of which Duplessis doubts the existence! Most of Jeremy Taylor's citations from the Italian are proverbial phrases. Your correspondent has probably copied the phrase as it stands in Bohn's edition of the Holy Living and Dying, but there is a trifling variation as it stands in the first edition of Holy Living, 1650:—

"Lavora come se tu havesti a campar ogni hora:Adora come se tu havesti a morir alhora."

The universality of this maxim, in ages and countries remote from each other, is remarkable. Thus we find it in the Hitopadésa:

"A wise man should think upon knowledge and wealth as if he were undecaying and immortal. He should practise duty as if he were seized by the hair of his head by Death."—Johnson's Translation, Intr. S.

So Democratis of Abdera, more sententiously:

"Οὕτος πειρῶ ζῆν, ὡς καὶ ὀλίγον καὶ πολὺν χρόνον βιωσόμενος."

Then descending to the fifteenth century, we have it thus in the racy old Saxon Laine Doctrinal:

"Men schal leven, unde darumme sorgen,Alse men Stärven sholde morgen,Unde leren êrnst liken,Alse men leven sholde ewigliken."

Where the author of the Voyage autour de ma Chambre, Jean Xavier Maitre, stumbled upon it, or whether it was a spontaneous thought, does not appear; but in his pleasing little book, Lettres sur la Vieillesse, we have it thus verbatim:

"Il faut vivre comme si l'on avoit à mourir demain, mais s'arranger en même temps sa vie, autant que cet arrangement peut dépendre de notre prévoyance, comme si l'on avoit devant soi quelques siècles, et même une éternité d'existence."

Some of your correspondents may possibly be able to indicate other repetitions of this truly "golden sentence," which cannot be too often repeated, for we all know that

"A verse may reach him who a sermon flies."S. W. Singer.

Replies to Minor Queries

Tennyson's In Memoriam (Vol. iii., p. 142.).—