Notes and Queries, Number 181, April 16, 1853

M.

Minor Queries with Answers

Leapor's "Unhappy Father."—Can you tell me where the scene of this play, a tragedy by Mary Leapor, is laid, and the names of the dramatis personæ? It is to be found in the second volume of Poems, by Mary Leapor, 8vo. 1751. This authoress was the daughter of a gardener in Northamptonshire, and the only education she received consisted in being taught reading and writing. She was born in 1722, and died in 1746, at the early age of twenty-four. Her poetical merit is commemorated in the Rev. John Duncombe's poem of the Feminead.

A. Z.

[The scene, a gentleman's country house. The dramatis personæ: Dycarbas, the unhappy father; Lycander and Polonius, sons of Dycarbas, in love with Terentia; Eustathius, nephew of Dycarbas, and husband of Emilia; Leonardo, cousin of Eustathius; Paulus, servant of Dycarbas; Plynus, servant to Eustathius; Timnus, servant to Polonius; Emilia, daughter of Dycarbas; Terentia, a young lady under the guardianship of Dycarbas; Claudia, servant to Terentia.]

Meaning of "The Litten" or "Litton."—This name is given to a small piece of land, now pasture, inclosed within the moat of the ancient manor of Marwell, formerly Merewelle, in Hants, once the property of the see of Winchester. It does not appear to have been ever covered by buildings. What is the meaning or derivation of the term? Does the name exist in any other place, as applied to a piece of land situated as the above-described piece? I have spelt it as pronounced by the bailiff of the farm.

W. H. G.

Winchester.

[Junius and Ray derive it from the Anglo-Saxon lictun, cœmiterium, a burying-place. Our correspondent, however, will find its etymology discussed in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxviii. pp. 216. 303. and 319.]

St. James' Market House.—In a biography of Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist divine, about 1671:

"Mr. Baxter came up to London, and was one of the Tuesday lecturers at Pinner's Hall, and a Friday lecturer at Fetter Lane; but on Sundays he for some time preached only occasionally, and afterwards more statedly in St. James's Market House."

Where was the Market House situate?

P. T.

[Cunningham, in his Handbook of London, under the head of St. James' Market, Jermyn Street, St. James', tells us that "here, in a room over the Market House, preached Richard Baxter, the celebrated Nonconformist. On the occasion of his first Sermon, the main beam of the building cracked beneath the weight of the congregation." We recollect the old market and Market House, which must have stood on the ground now occupied by Waterloo Place.]

Replies

GRUB STREET JOURNAL

(Vol. vii., pp. 108. 268.)

Reginensis has been referred by F. R. A. to Drake's Essays for an account of this journal. Drake's account is, however, very incorrect. The Grub Street Journal did not terminate, as he states, on the 24th August, 1732, but was continued in the original folio size to the 29th Dec., 1737; the last No. being 418., instead of 138., as he incorrectly gives it. He appears to have supposed that the 12mo. abridgment in two volumes contained all the essays in the paper; whereas it did not comprise more than a third of them. He mentions as the principal writers Dr. Richard Russel and Dr. John Martyn. Budgell, however, in The Bee (February, 1733) says, "The person thought to be at the head of the paper is Mr. R—l (Russel), a nonjuring clergyman, Mr. P—e (Pope), and some other gentlemen." Whether Pope wrote in it or not, it seems to have been used as a vehicle by his friends for their attacks upon his foes, and the war against the Dunces is carried on with great wit and spirit in its pages. It is by far the most entertaining of the old newspapers, and throws no small light upon the literary history of the time. I have a complete series of the journal in folio, as well as of the continuation, in a large 4to. form, under the title of The Literary Courier of Grub Street, which commenced January 5, 1738, and appears to have terminated at the 30th No., on the 27th July, 1738. I never saw another complete copy. The Grub Street Journal would afford materials for many curious and amusing extracts. One very entertaining part of it is the "Domestic News," under which head it gives the various and often contradictory accounts of the daily newspapers, with a most humorous running commentary.

James Crossley.

STONE PILLAR WORSHIP

(Vol. v., p. 122.)

Sir James Emerson Tennent, in his learned and curious Note on stone worship in Ireland, desires information as to the present existence of worship of stone pillars in Orkney. When he says it continued till a late period, I suppose he must allude to the standing stone at Stenness, perforated by a hole, with the sanctity attached to promises confirmed by the junction of hands through the hole, called the promise of Odin. Dr. Daniel Wilson enters into this fully in Præhistoric Annals of Scotland, pp. 99, 100, 101. It has been told myself that if a lad and lass promised marriage with joined hands through the hole, the promise was held to be binding. Whence the sanctity attached to such a promise I could not ascertain to be known, and I did not hear of any other superstition connected with this stone, which was destroyed in 1814. In the remote island of North Ronaldshay is another standing stone, perforated by a hole, but there is no superstition of this nature attached to it. At the Yule time the inhabitants danced about it, and when there were yule dancings in neighbouring houses, they began the dancing at the stone, and danced from the stone all the road to what was called to me the dancing-house. The sword dance, with a great deal of intricate crossing, and its peculiar simple tune, still exists in Orkney, but is not danced with swords, though I heard of clubs or sticks having been substituted. There are found in these islands the two circles of stones at Stenness, and single standing stones. One of these, at Swannay in Birsay, is said by tradition to have been raised to mark the spot where the procession rested when carrying the body of St. Magnus after his murder in Egilshay in 1110, from that island to Christ's Kirk in Birsay, where it was first interred. Here is a date and a purpose. The single standing stones, in accordance with Sir James's opinion, and to use nearly his expressions, are said to mark the burial-places of distinguished men, to commemorate battles and great events, and to denote boundaries; and these, and still more the circles, are objects of respect as belonging to ages gone by, but principally with the educated classes, and there is no superstition remaining with any. Such a thing as the swathing stone of South Inchkea is not known to have existed. The stones in the two circles, and the single standing stones, are all plain; but there was found lately a stone of the sculptured symbolical class, inserted to form the base of a window in St. Peter's Kirk, South Ronaldshay, and another of the same class in the island of Bressay, in Zetland. The first is now in the Museum of Scottish Antiquaries in Edinburgh; and the Zetland stone, understood to be very curious, is either there or in Newcastle, and both are forming the subject of antiquarian inquiry.

W. H. F.

AUTOGRAPHS IN BOOKS

(Continued from Vol. vii., p. 255.)

The following are probably trifling, but may be considered worth recording. Facing the title-page to The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, London, W. Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, &c., 1717, 8vo., no date at end of preface, is in (no doubt) his own hand:

"To the Right Honorable the Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, from his ever-oblig'd, most faithfull, and affectionate servant, Alex. Pope."

Cranmer's Bible, title gone, but at end, Maye 1541:

"This Bible was given to me by my ffather Coke when I went to keepe Christmas with him at Holckam, anno Domini 1658. Will. Cobbe."

Sir William Cobbe of Beverley, York, knight, married Winifred, sixth daughter of John (fourth son of the chief justice), who was born 9th May, 1589.

This copy has, before Joshua and Psalms, a page of engravings, being the "seconde" and "thyrde parte;" also before the New Testament, the well-known one of Henry VIII. giving the Bible, but the space for Cromwell's arms is left blank or white. Cromwell was executed July 1540; but do his arms appear in the 1540 impressions?

Cranmer's quarterings are, 1 and 4, Cranmer; 2, six lions r.; 3, fusils of Aslacton. In the Gent. Mag., vol. lxii. pp. 976. 991., is an engraving of a stone of Cranmer's father, with the fusils on his right, and Cranmer on his left. The note at p. 991. calls the birds cranes, but states that Glover's Yorkshire and other pedigrees have pelicans; and Southey (Book of the Church, ii. p. 97.) states that Henry VIII. altered the cranes to pelicans, telling him that he, like them, should be ready to shed his blood. The engraving, however, clearly represents drops of blood falling, and those in the Bible appear to be pelicans also.

This Bible has the days of the month in MS. against the proper psalms, and where a leaf has been repaired, "A.D. 1608, per me Davidem Winsdon curate."

A. C.

GRINDLE

(Vol. vii., pp. 107. 307.)

I think I can supply I. E. with another example of the application of this name to a place. A few miles east or south-east of Exeter, on the borders of a waste tract of down extending from Woodbury towards the sea, there is a village which is spelt on the ordnance map, and is commonly called, Greendale. In strictness there are, I believe, two Greendales, an upper and a lower Greendale. A small stream, tributary to the Clyst river, flows past them.

Now this place formerly belonged to the family of Aumerle, or Alba Marla, as part of the manor of Woodbury. From that family it passed to William Briwere, the founder of Tor Abbey, and was by him made part of the endowment of that monastery in the reign of Richard I. In the two cartularies of that house, of which abstracts will be found in Oliver's Monasticon, there are many instruments relating to this place, which is there called Grendel, Grindel, and Gryndell. In none of them does the name of Greendale occur, which appears to be a very recent form. Even Lysons, in his Devonshire, does not seem to be aware of this mode of spelling it, but always adopts one of the old ways of writing the word.

I have not seen the spot very lately, but, according to the best of my recollection, it has not now any feature in keeping with the mythological character of the fiend of the moor and fen. The neighbouring district of down and common land would not be an inappropriate habitat for such a personage. It has few trees of any pretension to age, and is still covered in great part with a dark and scanty vegetation, which is sufficiently dreary except at those seasons when the brilliant colours of the blooming heath and dwarf furze give it an aspect of remarkable beauty.

Whether the present name of Greendale be a mere corruption of the earliest name, or be not, in fact, a restoration of it to its original meaning, is a matter which I am not prepared to discuss. As a general rule, a sound etymologist will not hastily desert an obvious and trite explanation to go in search of a more recondite import. He will not have recourse to the devil for the solution of a nodus, till he has exhausted more legitimate sources of assistance.

The "N. & Q." have readers nearer to the spot in question than I am, who may, perhaps, be able to throw some light on the subject, and inform us whether Greendale still possesses the trace of any of those natural features which would justify the demoniacal derivation proposed by I. E. It must not, however, be forgotten that three centuries and a half of laborious culture bestowed upon the property by the monks of Tor, must have gone far to exorcise and reclaim it.

E. S.

Some years ago I asked the meaning of Grindle or Grundle, as applied to a deep, narrow watercourse at Wattisfield in Suffolk. The Grundle lies between the high road and the "Croft," adjoining a mansion which once belonged to the Abbots of Bury. The clear and rapid water was almost hidden by brambles and underwood; and the roots of a row of fine trees standing in the Croft were washed bare by its winter fury. The bank on that side was high and broken; the bed of the Grundle I observed to lie above the surface of the road, on the opposite side of which the ground rises rapidly to the table land of clay. My fancy instantly suggested a river flowing through this hollow, and the idea was strengthened by the appearance of the landscape. The village stands on irregular ground, descending by steep slopes into narrow valleys and contracted meadows. I can well imagine that water was an enemy or "fiend" to the first settlers, and I was told that in winter the Grundle is still a roaring brook.

I find I have a Note that "in Charters, places bearing the name Grendel are always connected with water."

F. C. B.

Diss.

ROGER OUTLAWE

(Vol. vii., p. 332.)

Mr. Ellacombe will find some account of this personage, who was Prior of Kilmainham, and for several years served the office of Lord Justice of Ireland, in Holinshed's Chronicles of Ireland, sub anno 1325, et seq.: also in "The Annals of Ireland," in the second volume of Gibson's Camden, 3rd edition, sub eod. anno. He was nearly related to the lady Alice Kettle, and her son William Utlawe, al. Outlaw; against whom that singular charge of sorcery was brought by Richard Lederede, Bishop of Ossory. The account of this charge is so curious that, for the benefit of those readers of "N. & Q." who may not have the means of referring to the books above cited, I am tempted to extract it from Holinshed:

"In these daies lived, in the Diocese of Ossorie, the Ladie Alice Kettle, whome the Bishop ascited to purge hir selfe of the fame of inchantment and witchcraft imposed unto hir, and to one Petronill and Basill, hir complices. She was charged to have nightlie conference with a spirit called Robin Artisson, to whome she sacrificed in the high waie nine red cocks, and nine peacocks' eies. Also, that she swept the streets of Kilkennie betweene compleine and twilight, raking all the filth towards the doores of hir sonne William Outlaw, murmuring and muttering secretlie with hir selfe these words:

"'To the house of William my sonneHie all the wealth of Kilkennie towne.'

"At the first conviction, they abjured and did penance; but shortlie after, they were found in relapse, and then was Petronill burnt at Kilkennie: the other twaine might not be heard of. She, at the hour of hir death, accused the said William as privie to their sorceries, whome the bishop held in durance nine weeks; forbidding his keepers to eat or to drinke with him, or to speake to him more than once in the daie. But at length, thorough the sute and instance of Arnold le Powre, then seneschall of Kilkennie, he was delivered, and after corrupted with bribes the seneschall to persecute the bishop: so that he thrust him into prison for three moneths. In rifling the closet of the ladie, they found a wafer of sacramentall bread, having the divel's name stamped thereon insteed of Jesus Christ's; and a pipe of ointment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she ambled and gallopped thorough thicke and thin when and in what maner she listed. This businesse about these witches troubled all the state of Ireland the more; for that the ladie was supported by certeine of the nobilitie, and lastlie conveied over into England; since which time it could never be understood what became of hir."

Roger Outlawe, the Prior of Kilmainham, was made Lord Justice for the first time in 1327. The Bishop of Ossory was then seeking his revenge on Arnold le Powre, for he had given information against him as being—

"Convented and convicted in his consistorie of certeine hereticall opinions; but because the beginning of Powres accusation concerned the justice's kinsman, and the bishop was mistrusted to prosecute his owne wrong, and the person of the man, rather than the fault, a daie was limited for the justifieing of the bill, the partie being apprehended and respited thereunto. This dealing the bishop (who durst not stirre out of Kilkennie to prosecute his accusation) was reputed parciall: and when by meanes hereof the matter hanged in suspense, he infamed the said prior as an abettor and favourer of Arnold's heresie. The Prior submitted himselfe to the trial."

Proclamation was made, "That it should be lawful for anie man … to accuse, &c. the Lord Justice; but none came." In the end, six inquisitors were appointed to examine the bishops and other persons, and they—

"All with universal consent deposed for the Prior, affirming that (to their judgements) he was a zelous and a faithfull child of the Catholike Church. In the meane time, Arnold le Powre, the prisoner, deceased in the castell; and because he stood unpurged, long he laie unburied."

In 1332, William Outlawe is said to have been Prior of Kilmainham, and lieutenant of John Lord Darcie, Lord Justice.

This Bishop of Ossorie, Richard Lederede, was a minorite of London: he had a troubled episcopate, and was long in banishment in England. I have met with his name in the Register of Adam de Orlton, Bishop of Winchester, where he is recorded as assisting that prelate in some of his duties, A.D. 1336. He died however peaceably in his see, and was a benefactor to his cathedral. (See Ware's History of Ireland.)

W. H. G.

Winchester.

[It may be added, that much information respecting both Roger Outlawe and the trial of Alice Kyteler would be found in the interesting volume published by the Camden society in 1842, under the editorship of Mr. Wright, entitled Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for Sorcery in 1324.]

Your correspondent H. T. Ellacombe asks who this Roger Outlawe was, and expresses his surprise that a prior of a religious house should "sit as locum tenens of a judge in a law court."

But the words "tenens locum Johannis Darcy le cosyn justiciarii Hiberniæ" do not imply that Outlawe sat as locum tenens of a judge in a law court. For this Sir John Darcy was Lord Justice, or Lord Lieutenant (as we would now say), of Ireland, and Roger Outlawe was his locum tenens.

Nothing, however, was more common at that period than for ecclesiastics to be judges in law courts; and it happens that this very Roger was Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1321 to 1325, and again, 1326—1330: again, 1333: again (a fourth time), 1335: and a fifth time in 1339: for even then, as now, we were cursed in Ireland by perpetual changes of administration and of law officers, so that we have scarcely had any uniform practice, and our respect for law has been proportionally small.

Sir John Darcy was Lord Justice, or Lord Lieutenant, in 1322, in 1324, in 1328 (in which year Roger Outlawe was his locum tenens during his absence), in 1322, and on to 1340.

Roger Outlawe was Lord Justice, either in his own right or as locum tenens for others, in 1328, 1330, and 1340, in which last year he died in office. His death is thus recorded in Clyn's Annals (edited by Dean Butler for the Irish Archæological Society), p. 29.:

"Item die Martis, in crastino beatæ Agathæ virginis, obiit frater Rogerus Outlawe, prior hospitalis in Hibernia, apud Any, tunc locum justiciarii tenens: et etiam Cancellarius Domini Regis, trium simul functus officio. Vir prudens et graciosus, qui multas possessiones, ecclesias, et redditus ordini suo adquisivit sua industria, et regis Angliæ gratia speciali et licentia."

To this day, in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lords Justices are appointed.

J. H. Todd.

Trin. Coll., Dublin.

PROSPECTUS TO CIBBER'S "LIVES OF THE POETS."

(Vol. v., pp. 25. 65.; Vol. vii., p. 341.)

I am obliged to Dr. Rimbault for noticing, what had escaped me, that this Prospectus has been reprinted in the Censura Literaria, vol. vi. p. 352. With respect to my ground for attributing it to Johnson, it will, I think, be obvious enough to any one who reads my remarks, that it was on the internal evidence alone, on which, as every one is aware, many additions have been made to his acknowledged compositions. Your correspondent C., with whom I always regret to differ, is so far at variance with me as to state it as his opinion that "nothing can be less like Johnson's peculiar style," and refers me to a note, with which I was perfectly familiar, to show—but which I must say I cannot see that it does in the slightest degree—"that it is impossible that Johnson could have written this Prospectus." Another correspondent, whose communication I am unable immediately to refer to, likewise recorded his dissent from my conclusion. Next follows Dr. Rimbault, whom I understand to differ from me also, and who says (but where is the authority for the statement?) "Haslewood believed it to have been the production of Messrs. Cibber and Shields." I have every respect for Haslewood as a diligent antiquary, but I confess I do not attach much weight to his opinion on a question of critical taste or nice discrimination of style. I had, as I have observed, assigned the Prospectus to Dr. Johnson on the internal evidence alone; but since it appeared in "N. & Q." I have become aware of an important corroboration of my opinion in a copy of Cibber's Lives which formerly belonged to Isaac Reed, and which I have recently purchased. At the beginning of the first volume he has pasted in the Prospectus, and under it is the following note in his handwriting: "The above advertisement was written or revised by Dr. Johnson.—J. R." Reed's general correctness and capacity of judging in literary matters are too well known to render it necessary for me to enlarge upon them; and with this support I am quite content to leave the point in issue between your correspondents and myself to the decision of that part of your readers who take an interest in similar literary questions.

It will be observed that I have confined myself in my remarks to the Prospectus exclusively. The authorship of the Lives themselves is another question, and a very curious one, and not, by any means, as your correspondent C. appears to think, "settled." Perhaps I may, on a future occasion, trouble you with some remarks upon the Lives in detail, endeavouring to assign the respective portions to the several contributors.

James Crossley.

PIC-NIC

(Vol. vii., p. 23.)

As I consider that the true origin of pic-nic remains yet to be discovered, permit me to try and trace the word through France into Italy, and to endeavour to show that the land with the "fatal gift of beauty" was its birthplace; and that when the Medici married into France, the august ladies probably imported, together with fans, gloves, and poisons, a pastime which, under the name of pique-nique, became, as Leroux says in his Dictionnaire Comique, "un divertissement fort à la mode à Paris."

I will not occupy space by quoting the article "at length" from Leroux, but the substance is this:—Persons of quality, of both sexes, who wished to enjoy themselves, and feast together, either in the open air or in the house of one of the number, imposed upon each one the task of bringing some particular article, or doing some particular duty in connexion with the feast. And to show how stringent was the expression pique-nique in imposing a specific task, Leroux quotes "considérant que chacun avait besoin de ses pièces, prononça un arrêt de pique-nique." (Rec. de Pièc. Com.)

Thus, I think Leroux and also Cotgrave show that the word pique-nique involves the idea of a task, or particular office, undertaken by each individual for the general benefit.

Let us now go to Italian, and look at the word nicchia. Both from Alberti and from Baretti we find it to bear the meaning of "a charge, a duty, or an employment;" and if before this word we place the adjective piccola, we have piccola nicchia, "a small task, or trifling service to be performed." Now I think no one can fail to see the identity of the meanings of the expressions piccola nicchia and pique-nique; but it remains to show how the words themselves may be identical. Those who have been in the habit of reading much of the older Italian authors (subsequent to Boccacio) will bear me out in my statement of the frequency of contraction of words in familiar use: the plays, particularly, show it, from the dialogues in Machiavelli or Goldoni to the libretto of a modern opera; so much as to render it very probable that piccola nicchia might stand as picc' nicc', just as we ourselves have been in the habit of degrading scandalum magnatum into scan. mag. It only remains now to carry this picc' nicc' into France, and, according to what is usual in Gallicising Italian words, to change the c or ch into que, to have what I started with, viz. the divertissement concerning which Leroux enlarges, and in which, I am afraid, it may be said I have followed his example.