What a curious book would be "Our Prophets and Enthusiasts!" The literary and biographical records of the vaticinators, and the heated spirits who, after working upon the fears of the timid, and exciting the imaginations of the weak, have flitted into oblivion! As a specimen of the odd characters such a work would embrace, allow me to introduce to your readers Thomas Newans, a Shropshire farmer, who unhappily took it into his head that his visit to the lower sphere was on a special mission.

Mr. Newans is the author of a book entitled A Key to the Prophecies of the Old and New Testament; showing (among other impending events) "The approaching Invasion of England;" "The Extirpation of Popery and Mahometisme;" "The Restoration of the Jews," and "The Millennium." London: printed for the Author (who attests the genuineness of my copy by his signature), 1747.

In this misfitted key he relates how, in a vision, he was invested with the prophetic mantle:

"In the year 1723, in the night," says Mr. Newans, "I fell into a dream, and seemed to be riding on the road into the county of Cheshire. When I was got about eight miles from home, my horse made a stop on the road; and it seemed a dark night, and on a sudden there shone a light before me on the ground, which was as bright as when the sun shines at noon-day. In the middle of that bright circle stood a child in white. It spoke, and told me that I must go into Cheshire, and I should find a man with uncommon marks upon his feet, which should be a warning to me to believe; and that the year after I should have a cow that would calve a calf with his heart growing out of his body in a wonderful manner, as a token of what should come to pass; and that a terrible war would break out in Europe, and in fourteen years after the token it would extend to England."

In compliance with his supernatural communication, our farmer proceeded to Cheshire, where he found the man indicated; and, a year after, his own farm stock was increased by the birth of a calf with his heart growing out. And after taking his family, of seven, to witness to the truth of what he describes, he adds with great simplicity: "So then I rode to London to acquaint the ministers of state of the approaching danger!"

This story of the calf with the heart growing out, is not a bad type of the worthy grazier himself, and his hearty and burning zeal for the Protestant faith. Mr. Newans distinctly and repeatedly predicts that these "two beastly religions," i. e. the Popish and Mahomedan, will be totally extirpated within seven years! And "I have," says he, "for almost twenty years past, travelled to London and back again into the country, near fifty journies, and every journey was two hundred and fifty miles, to acquaint the ministers of state and several of the bishops, and other divines, with the certainty, danger, and manner of the war" which was to bring this about. Commenting on the story of Balaam, our prophet says: "And now the world is grown so full of sin and wickedness, that if a dumb ass should speak with a man's voice, they would scarce repent:" and I conclude that the said statesmen and divines did not estimate these prophetic warnings much higher than the brayings of that quadruped which they turned out to be. Mr. Newan professes to gave penned these vaticinations in the year 1744, twenty-one years after the date of his vision; so that he had ample time to mature them. What would the farmer say were he favoured with a peep at our world in 1853, with its Mussulman system unbroken; and its cardinal, archbishops, and Popish bishops firmly established in the very heart of Protestant England?

J. O.

FOLK LORE

Folk Lore in Cambridgeshire.—About twenty years ago, at Hildersham, there was a custom of ringing the church bell at five o'clock in the leasing season. The cottagers then repaired to the fields to glean; but none went out before the bell was rung. The bell tolled again in the evening as a signal for all to return home. I would add a Query, Is this custom continued; and is it to be met with in any other place?

F. M. Middleton.

New Brunswick Folk Lore:—Common Notions respecting Teeth.—Among the lower orders and negroes, and also among young children of respectable parents (who have probably derived the notion from contact with the others as nurses or servants), it is here very commonly held that when a tooth is drawn, if you refrain from thrusting the tongue in the cavity, the second tooth will be golden. Does this idea prevail in England?

Superstition respecting Bridges.—Many years ago my grandfather had quite a household of blacks, some of whom were slaves and some free. Being bred in his family, a large portion of my early days was thus passed among them, and I have often reverted to the weird superstitions with which they froze themselves and alarmed me. Most of these had allusion to the devil: scarcely one of them that I now recollect but referred to him. Among others they firmly held that when the clock struck twelve at midnight, the devil and a select company of his inferiors regularly came upon that part of the bridge called "the draw," and danced a hornpipe there. So firmly did they hold to this belief, that no threat nor persuasion could induce the stoutest-hearted of them to cross the fatal draw after ten o'clock at night. This belief is quite contrary to that which prevails in Scotland, according to which, Robin Burns being my authority, "neither witches nor any evil spirits have power to follow a poor wight any farther than the middle of the next running stream."1

C. D. D.

New Brunswick, New Jersey.

North Lincolnshire Folk Lore.—Here follow some shreds of folk lore which I have not seen as yet in "N. & Q." They all belong to North Lincolnshire.

1. Death sign. If a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or on the dead bough of a living tree, there will be a death in the family of the owner during the year.

2. If you do not throw salt into the fire before you begin to churn, the butter will not come.

3. If eggs are brought over running water they will have no chicks in them.

4. It is unlucky to bring eggs into the house after sunset.

5. If you wear a snake's skin round your head you will never have the headache.

6. Persons called Agnes always go mad.

7. A person who is born on Christmas Day will be able to see spirits.

8. Never burn egg-shells; if you do, the hens cease to lay.

9. If a pigeon is seen sitting in a tree, or comes into the house, or from being wild suddenly becomes tame, it is a sign of death.

10. When you see a magpie you should cross yourself; if you do not you will be unlucky.

Edward Peacock.

Bottesford Moors.

Portuguese Folk Lore.—

"The borderer whispered in my ear that he was one of the dreadful Lobishomens, a devoted race, held in mingled horror and commiseration, and never mentioned without by the Portuguese peasantry. They believe that if a woman be delivered of seven male infants successively, the seventh, by an inexplicable fatality, becomes subject to the powers of darkness; and is compelled, on every Saturday evening, to assume the likeness of an ass. So changed, and followed by a horrid train of dogs, he is forced to run an impious race over the moors and through the villages; nor is allowed an interval of rest until the dawning Sabbath terminates his sufferings, and restores him to his human shape."—From Lord Carnarvon's Portugal and Gallicia, vol. ii. p. 268.

E. H. A.

POPE AND COWPER

In Cowper's letter to Lady Hesketh, dated January 18, 1787, occurs a notice for the first time of Mr. Samuel Rose, with whom Cowper subsequently corresponded. He informs Lady Hesketh that—

"A young gentleman called here yesterday, who came six miles out of his way to see me. He was on a journey to London from Glasgow, having just left the University there. He came, I suppose, partly to satisfy his own curiosity, but chiefly, as it seemed, to bring me the thanks of some of the Scotch professors for my two volumes. His name is Rose, an Englishman."

Prefixed to a copy of Hayley's Life and Letters of William Cowper, Esq., in the British Museum, is an extract in MS. of a letter from the late Samuel Rose, Esq., to his favourite sister, Miss Harriet Rose, written in the year before his marriage, at the age of twenty-two, and which, I believe, has never been printed. It may, perhaps, merit a corner of "N. & Q."

"Weston Lodge, Sept. 9, 1789.

"Last week Mr. Cowper finished the Odyssey, and we drank an unreluctant bumper to its success. The labour of translation is now at an end, and the less arduous work of revision remains to be done, and then we shall see it published. I promise both you and myself much pleasure from its perusal. You will most probably find it at first less pleasing than Pope's versification, owing to the difference subsisting between blank verse and rhyme—a difference which is not sufficiently attended to, and whereby people are led into injudicious comparisons. You will find Mr. Pope more refined: Mr. Cowper more simple, grand, and majestic; and, indeed, insomuch as Mr. Pope is more refined than Mr. Cowper, he is more refined than his original, and in the same proportion departs from Homer himself. Pope's must universally be allowed to be a beautiful poem: Mr. Cowper's will be found a striking and a faithful portrait, and a pleasing picture to those who enjoy his style of colouring, which I am apprehensive is not so generally acceptable as the other master's. Pope possesses the gentle and amiable graces of a Guido: Cowper is endowed with the bold sublime genius of a Raphael. After having said so much upon their comparative merits, enough, I hope, to refute your second assertion which was, that women, in the opinion of men, have little to do with literature. I may inform you, that the Iliad is to be dedicated to Earl Cowper, and the Odyssey to the Dowager Lady Spencer but this information need not be extensively circulated."

J. Yeowell.

50. Burton Street.

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE

"As You Like It."—Believing that whatever illustrates, even to a trifling extent, the great dramatic poet of England will interest the readers of "N. & Q.," I solicit their attention to the resemblance between the two following passages:

"All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players.""Si rectè aspicias, vita hæc est fabula quædam.Scena autem, mundus versatilis: histrio et actorQuilibet est hominum—mortales nam propriè cunctiSunt personati, et falsâ sub imagine, vulgiPræstringunt oculos: ita Diis, risumque jocumque,Stultitiis, nugisque suis per sæcula præbent. . . . . . . . ."Jam mala quæ humanum patitur genus, adnumerabo.Principiò postquam è latebris malè olentibus alviEductus tandem est, materno sanguine fœdus,Vagit, et auspicio lacrymarum nascitur infans. . . . . . . . ."Vix natus jam vincla subit, tenerosque coërcetFascia longa artus: præsagia dire futuriServitii. . . . . . . . ."Post ubi jam valido se poplite sustinet, et jamRitè loqui didicit, tunc servire incipit, atqueJussa pati, sentitque minas ictusque magistri,Sæpe patris matrisque manu fratrisque frequenterPulsatur: facient quid vitricus atque noverca?Fit juvenis, crescunt vires: jam spernit habenas,Occluditque aures monitis, furere incipit, ardensLuxuriâ atque irâ: et temerarius omnia nulloConsilio aggreditur, dictis melioribus obstat,Deteriora fovens: non ulla pericula curat,Dummodo id efficiat, suadet quod cœca libido. . . . . . . . ."Succedit gravior, melior, prudentior ætas,Cumque ipsâ curæ adveniunt, durique labores;Tune homo mille modis, studioque enititur omniRem facere, et nunquam sibi multa negotia desunt.Nunc peregrè it, nunc ille domi, nunc rure laborat,Ut sese, uxorem, natos, famulosque gubernet,Ac servet, solus pro cunctis sollicitus, necJucundis fruitur dapibus, nec nocte quietâ.Ambitio hunc etiam impellens, ad publica mittitMunia: dumque inhiat vano malè sanus honori,Invidiæ atque odii patitur mala plurima: deincepsObrepit canis rugosa senecta capillis,Secum multa trahens incommoda corporis atqueMentis: nam vires abeunt, speciesque colorque,Nec non deficiunt sensus: audire, videreLanguescunt, gustusque minor fit: denique semperAut hoc, aut illo morbo vexantur—inermiManduntur vix ore cibi, vix crura bacilloSustentata meant: animus quoque vulnera sentit.Desipit, et longo torpet confectus ab ævo."

It would have only occupied your space needlessly, to have transcribed at length the celebrated description of the seven ages of human life from Shakspeare's As You Like It; but I would solicit the attention of your readers to the Latin verses, and then to the question, Whether either poet has borrowed from the other? and, should this be decided affirmatively, the farther question would arise, Which is the original?

Arterus.

Dublin.

[These lines look like a modern paraphrase of Shakspeare; and our Correspondent has not informed us from what book he has transcribed them.—Ed.]

Passage in "King John" and "Romeo and Juliet."—I am neither a commentator nor a reader of commentators on Shakspeare. When I meet with a difficulty, I get over it as well as I can, and think no more of the matter. Having, however, accidentally seen two passages of Shakspeare much ventilated in "N. & Q.," I venture to give my poor conjectures respecting them.

1. King John.—

"It lies as sightly on the back of him,As great Alcides' shows upon an ass."

I consider shows to be the true reading; the reference being to the ancient mysteries, called also shows. The machinery required for the celebration of the mysteries was carried by asses. Hence the proverb: "Asinus portat mysteriæ." The connexion of Hercules—"great Alcides"—with the mysteries, may be learned from Aristophanes and many other ancient writers. And thus the meaning of the passage seems to be: The lion's skin, which once belonged to Richard of the Lion Heart, is as sightly on the back of Austria, as were the mysteries of Hercules upon an ass.

2. Romeo and Juliet.—

"That runaways eyes may wink."

Here I would retain the reading, and interpret runaways as signifying "persons going about on the watch." Perhaps runagates, according to modern usage, would come nearer to the proposed signification, but not to be quite up with it. Many words in Shakspeare have significations very remote from those which they now bear.

Patrick Muirson.

Shakspeare and the Bible.—Has it ever been noticed that the following passage from the Second Part of Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 3., is taken from the fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel?

"What do we then, but draw anew the modelIn fewer offices; or, at least, desistTo build at all? Much more, in this great work,(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down,And set another up) should we surveyThe plot, the situation, and the model;Consult upon a sure foundation,Question surveyors, know our own estate,How able such a work to undergo.A careful leader sums what force he bringsTo weigh against his opposite; or elseWe fortify on paper, and in figures,Using the names of men, instead of men:Like one that draws the model of a houseBeyond his power to build it."

The passage in St. Luke is as follows (xiv. 28-31.):

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

"Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

"Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

"Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?"

I give the passage as altered by Mr. Collier's Emendator, because I think the line added by him,

"A careful leader sums what force he brings,"

is strongly corroborated by the Scripture text.

Q. D.

Minor Notes

Judicial Families.—In vol. v. p. 206. (new edition) of Lord Mahon's History of England, we find the following passage:

"Lord Chancellor Camden was the younger son of Chief Justice Pratt,—a case of rare succession in the annals of the law, and not easily matched, unless by their own cotemporaries, Lord Hardwicke and Charles Yorke."

The following case, I think, is equally, if not more, remarkable:—

The Right Hon. Thomas Berry Cusack-Smith, brother of the present Sir Michael Cusack-Smith, Bart., is Master of the Rolls in Ireland, having been appointed to that high office in January, 1846. His father, Sir William Cusack-Smith, second baronet, was for many years Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland. And his grandfather, the Right Hon. Sir Michael Smith, first baronet, was, like his grandson at the present day, Master of the Rolls in Ireland.

Is not this "a case of rare succession in the annals of the law, and not easily matched?"

Abhba.

Derivation of "Topsy Turvy."—When things are in confusion they are generally said to be turned "topsy turvy." The expression is derived from a way in which turf for fuel is placed to dry on its being cut. The surface of the ground is pared off with the heath growing on it, and the heath is turned downward, and left some days in that state that the earth may get dry before it is carried away. It means then top-side-turf-way.

Clericus Rusticus.

Dictionaries and Encyclopædias.—Allow me to offer a suggestion to the publishers and compilers of dictionaries; first as to dictionaries of the language. A large class refer to these only to learn the meaning of words not familiar to them, but which may occur in reading. If the dictionaries are framed on the principle of displaying only the classical language of England, it is ten to one they will not supply the desired information. Let there be, besides classical dictionaries, glossaries which will exclude no word whatever on account of rarity, vulgarity, or technicality, but which may very well exclude those which are most familiar. As to encyclopædias, their value is chiefly as supplements to the library; but surely no one studies anatomy, or the differential calculus, or architecture, in them, however good the treatises may be. I want a dictionary of miscellaneous subjects, such as find place more easily in an encyclopædia than anywhere else; but why must I also purchase treatises on the higher mathematics, on navigation, on practical engineering, and the like, some of which I already may possess, others not want, and none of which are a bit the more convenient because arranged in alphabetical order in great volumes. Besides, they cannot be conveniently replaced by improved editions.

Encyclopædicus.

"Mary, weep no more for me."—There is a well-known ballad of this name, said to have been written by a Scotchman named "Low." The first verse runs thus:

"The moon had climbed the highest hill,Which rises o'er the source of Dee,And from the eastern summit spedIts silver light on tower and tree."

I find, however, amongst my papers, a fragment of a version of this same ballad, of, I assume, earlier antiquity, which so surpasses Low's ballad that the author has little to thank him for his interference. The first verse of what I take to be the original poem stands thus:

"The moon had climbed the highest hill,Where eagles big2 aboon the Dee,And like the looks of a lovely dame,Brought joy to every body's ee."

No poetical reader will require his attention to be directed to the immeasurable superiority of this glorious verse: the high poetic animation, the eagles' visits, the lovely looks of female beauty, the exhilarating gladness and joy affecting the beholder, all manifest the genius of the master bard. I shall receive it as a favour if any of your correspondents will furnish a complete copy of the original poem, and contrast it with what "Low" fancied his "improvements."

James Cornish.

Epitaph at Wood Ditton.—You have recently appropriated a small space in your "medium of intercommunication" to the subject of epitaphs. I can furnish you with one which I have been accustomed to regard as a "grand climacterical absurdity." About thirty years ago, when making a short summer ramble, I entered the churchyard of Wood Ditton, near Newmarket, and my attention was attracted by a headstone, having inlaid into its upper part a piece of iron, measuring about ten inches by six, and hollowed out into the shape of a dish. I inquired of a cottager residing on the spot what the thing meant? I was informed that the party whose ashes the grave covered was a man who, during a long life, had a strange taste for sopping a slice of bread in a dripping-pan (a pan over which meat has been roasted), and would relinquish for this all kinds of dishes, sweet or savoury; that in his will he left a request that a dripping-pan should be fixed in his gravestone; that he wrote his own epitaph, an exact copy of which I herewith give you, and which he requested to be engraved on the stone:

"Here lies my corpse, who was the manThat loved a sop in the dripping-pan;But now believe me I am dead,—See here the pan stands at my head.Still for sops till the last I cried,But could not eat, and so I died.My neighbours they perhaps will laugh,When they read my epitaph."J. H.

Cambridge.

Pictorial Pun.—In the village of Warbleton, in Sussex, there is an old public-house, which has for its sign a War Bill in a tun of beer, in reference of course to the name of the place. It has, however, the double meaning, of "Axe for Beer."

R. W. B.

Queries

SIR THOMAS BUTTON'S VOYAGE, 1612

I am about to print some information, hitherto I believe totally unknown, relative to the voyage of Sir Thomas Button in 1612, for the discovery of the north-west passage.

Of this voyage a journal was kept, which was in existence many years afterwards, being offered by its author to Secretary Dorchester in 1629, then engaged in forwarding the projected voyage of "North-West" Foxe; it is remarkable, however, that no extended account of this voyage, so important in its objects, has ever been published. I am desirous of knowing if this journal is in existence, and where? Also, Lord Dorchester's letter to Button in February, 1629; of any farther information on the subject of the voyage, or of Sir Thomas Button.

What I possess already are, 1. "Motiues inducing a Proiect for the Discouerie of the North Pole terrestriall; the streights of Anian, into the South Sea, and Coasts thereof," anno 1610. 2. Prince Henry's Instructions for the Voyage, together with King James's Letters of Credence, 1612. 3. A Letter from Sir Thomas Button to Secretary Dorchester, dated Cardiff, 16th Feb., 1629 (from the State Paper Office). 4. Sir Dudley Digges' little tract on the N.-W. Passage, written to promote the voyage, and of which there were two distinct impressions in 1611 and 1612. 5. Extracts from the Carleton Correspondence, and from the Hakluyt Society's volume on Voyages to the North-West.

I shall be glad also to learn the date, and any other facts connected with the death of John Davis, the discoverer of the Straits bearing his name.

John Petheram.

94. High Holborn.

Minor Queries

The Words "Cash" and "Mob."—In Moore's Diary I find the following remark. Can any of your numerous readers throw any light on the subject?

"Lord Holland doubted whether the word 'Cash' was a legitimate English word, though, as Irving remarked, it is as old as Ben Jonson, there being a character called Cash in one of his comedies. Lord Holland said Mr. Fox was of opinion that the word 'Mob' was not genuine English."—Moore's Diary, vol. iii. p. 247.

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Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853

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