Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851

Kerriensis.

Separation of the Sexes in Church (Vol. ii., p. 94.; Vol. iii., p. 94.).—In Collectanea Topographica, &c., vol. iii. p. 134., is printed the "Account of the Proctors of the Church of Yeovil, co. Somerset, 36 Hen. VI. 1457-8." The learned editor says:

"The first item is remarkable, as affording an instance of seats being made subject to sale at so early a period;" and proceeds: "it may be observed that the two sexes must have sat in different parts of the church, as, with only one exception, the seats are let to other persons of the same sex as before."

Llewellyn.

Separation of the Sexes in Time of Divine Service (Vol. ii., p. 94.).—A proof of the correctness of the remark advanced in this note is afforded by the practice followed in the little church of Covington, Huntingdonshire, where a few of the old open seats remain towards the western end, in which each sex still sits on its proper side, although the custom does not hold with respect to the pews which some of the farmers and others have erected for themselves at the eastern end.

Arun.

Separation of the Sexes at Church.—Many of your correspondents have taken up the separation of the living at church, but none have alluded to the dead. I extract the following from a deed of the 34th of Elizabeth:—

"But also in the two severall vawtes or towmbes in the sayd chappell, and in the sowthe syde of the same, and in the wall of the sayd church, ffor themselves only to bury in; that is to say, in the upper of the same, standing eastwards, to bury the deade bodyes of the men, being ancestors of the sayd A. B.; and in the lower, standing westwards, to bury the deade bodies of the women, being wyves or children female of his, the said A. B.'s ancestors."

Perhaps some of your correspondents can tell us whether such separate vaults were customary?

Vox Populi Vox Dei (Vol. i., p. 370.).—Your correspondent Daniel Rock states these words to have been chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Mepham, as his text for the sermon he preached when Edward III. was called to the throne; and in your Notices to Correspondents, Vol. iii., p. 254., you repeat the statement.

The prelate by whom the sermon was preached was not Simon Mepham, but his predecessor, Walter Reynolds, who was Archbishop of Canterbury when the second Edward was deposed, and when Edward III. was crowned, on February 1, 1327. This Walter Reynolds died on November 16, 1327, and Simon Mepham was appointed his successor on December 11, 1327. John Toland, in his Anglia Libera, p. 114., has this reference to the sermon which was preached by the Archbishop Reynolds on the occasion of the king's coronation:

"To Edward I. succeeded his son Edward II., who growing an intolerable tyrant, was in a parliament summoned by himself formally accused of misgovernment, and on his own acknowledging the truth of this charge, solemnly deposed. When his son, Edward III., was elected with universal consent, Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury, preached the coronation sermon, and took these words for his text, "Vox populi Vox Dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God,"—so little did they dream in those days of the divine right of monarchy, or that all power did not originally derive from the people, for whom and by whom all governments are erected and maintained."

Sir Harris Nicolas in his Synopsis of the Peerage, and Dugdale in his Monasticon, give the name of this Archbishop as Walter Reynolds. Sir Richard Baker, in his Chronicle, describes him as Walter Reginald; and in Hume's England he is called Walter de Reynel.

St. Johns.

Mazer Wood (Vol. iii., p. 239.).—The Querist asks, "Has the word Mazer any signification in itself?"

It is used to signify a cup. Vide Walter Scott's Lord of the Isles, where Robert Bruce is speaking:

"Bring here, he said, the Mazers four,My noble fathers loved of yore."

And it is probably derived from the Irish "Maeddher," a standing cup, generally of wood, of a quadrangular form, with a handle on each of the sides. The puzzle was how to drink out of it, which was done from the angles. A silver "Maeddher" was presented to Lord Townshend when leaving Ireland, who puzzled many of his English friends by placing it before them filled with claret. Uninitiated persons usually attempted to drink from the flat side, and poured the wine over their clothes. I think another was presented to Lord Normanby when in Ireland. We see gutta percha cups and buckets everywhere now-a-days. Perhaps such an utensil might have been among the dishes, &c. mentioned in the Catalogue of the Tradescant Museum.

Kerriensis.

[See a curious note on Mazers, used as large drinking-cups, or goblets, in Walter Scott's Poetical Works, p. 488., edit. 1848.]

Traditions from remote Periods through few Hands (Vol. iii., p. 237.).—The following facts may not be uninteresting on this subject.

The late Maurice O'Connell of Derrynane, co. Kerry, died early in 1825, and would have completed 99 years on the 31st of March in that year. The writer hereof has heard him tell anecdotes derived from the conversation of Daniel McCarthy, of the same co., who died about 1740, aged at least 108 years. This Daniel McCarthy was commonly known by the nick-name of "Dhonald Bhin," or "Yellow Dan," and was the first man that ran away from the battle of Aughrim. There is a short account of him in Smith's History of Kerry, in which he is mentioned as lately deceased. You have thus a period of over 200 years, the traditions of which might be derived through three persons, the survivor of whom, your correspondent, is but middle aged. I remember being told in the co. Clare, circiter 1828, of an individual then lately deceased, who remembered the siege of Limerick by General Ginkle, and the news of the celebrated treaty of Limerick. It is to be wished that your readers who reside in, or may visit Ireland, would take an interest in this subject. I am certain that in remote parts of the country much curious tradition could be thus brought to light; and it would be interesting to compare the accounts of great public events, as remembered and handed down by the peasantry, with those which we take on the faith of historians.

As relating to this subject, I may refer to the allusion made in page 250. of the same Number to the Countess of Desmond, who was said to have lived to so great an age. I have seen the picture alluded to at Glanlearne in Valencia, the seat of the knight of Kerry; and it must have been taken at a comparatively early period of life, as the Earl of Desmond was outlawed, and his estates confiscated, in the reign of Elizabeth. Some record of how this old lady's jointure was provided for might yet be discovered, and the period of her decease thus ascertained.

Kerriensis.

Latin Epigram on the Duchess of Eboli (Vol. iii., p. 208.).—This beautiful epigram, which C. R. H. has somewhat mutilated even in the two lines which he gives of it, was written by Jerome Amaltheus, who died in 1574, the year in which Henry III. of France came to the throne; so that it is unlikely at least that the "Amor" was meant for Mangirow, his "minion." In the edition of the poems of the three brothers Amalthei, which I possess, and which was printed at Amsterdam in 1689, the epigram runs—

"DE GEMELLIS FRATRE ET SORORE LUSCIS"Lumine Acon, dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro,Et potis est forma vincere uterque Deos.Blande puer, lumen, quod habes concede puellæ,Sic tu cæcus Amor, sic erit illa Venus."

I have seen it thus translated:

"One eye is closed to each in rayless night,Yet each has beauty fit the gods to move,Give, Acon, give to Leonill thy light,She will be Venus, and thou sightless Love."

The relationship between the Duchess of Eboli and Mangirow I do not remember. Were they brother and sister? or was she ever known as Leonilla?

Among Jerome Amaltheus's other epigrams I find several about this "Acon;" and one, entitled "De duabus Amicis," begins—

"Me lætis Leonilla oculis, me Lydia torvisAspicit."

The mistress of Philip II. (who here, by the by, seems to have recovered her lost eye) would hardly have been the mistress of an Italian poet.

H. A. B.

Trin. Coll. Cam.

"Harry Parry, when will you marry" (Vol. iii., p. 207.).—E. H. has omitted the last line, which, however, is well known. May it not have the same meaning as the lines in the "Marquis de Carabas" of Béranger:

"Et tous vos tendrons,Subiront l'honneurDu droit du seigneur?"

The nursery rhyme may have been sung to the young Baron to teach him his feudal privileges, as the lines—

"Hot corn, baked pears,Kick nigger down stairs,"

are used to inculcate the rights of a white man on the minds of infant cotton planters in the Southern States.

J. H. L.

Visions of Hell (Vol. iii., p. 70.).—In solving the Query propounded by F. R. A. as to "whether Bunyan was the author of the Visions?" it is very necessary that all the editions should be known of and collated. I have one not yet referred to, styled The Visions of John Bunyan, being his last Remains, giving an Account of the Glories of Heaven, the Terrors of Hell, and of the World to come, London, printed and sold by J. Hollis, Shoemaker Row, Blackfriars, pp. 103., with an address to the reader, subscribed "thy soul's well-wisher, John Bunyan," without date. "Thomas Newby, of Epping, Essex," is written in it; he might have been only the first owner of the book, which was certainly published before the year 1828 or 20, but I should say not much earlier.

Blowen.

"Laus tua non tua Fraus," &c. (Vol. i., p. 416.). Verse Lyon.—Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, published in 1589, contains an earlier allusion to this epigram than any of those mentioned by your correspondents at Vol. ii., p. 77., and assigns to Pope Alexander [Qy. VI.] the doubtful honour of being the subject of it. The passage is at p. 11., and is as follows:—

"Another of their pretie inuentions was to make a verse of such wordes as lay their nature and manner of construction and situation might be turned backward word by word, and make another perfit verse, but of quite contrary sence, as the gibing monke that wrote of Pope Alexander these two verses:

'Laus tua non tua fraus, virtue non copia rerum,Scandere te faciunt hoc decus eximium:'

which if ye will turne backward, they make two other good verses, but of a contrary sence, thus:

'Eximium decus hoc faciunt te scandere, rerumCopia, non virtus, fraus tua, non tua laus;'

and they call it Verse Lyon."

Query, Why? and where else is Verse Lyon alluded to?

J. F. M.

[Is not "Verse Lyon" Puttenham's translation of Leonine Verse?]

Passage from Cymbeline (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—

"Some jay of Italy,Whose mother was her painting, hath betrayed him."—Act III. Sc. 4.

The word painting (your correspondent's stumbling-block) evidently means resemblance—resemblance of character, and as such exactly corresponds to the German word Ebenbild, an image or painting, which is used in the same sense; e.g. Sie hat das Ebenbild ihres Mutters, "She is the very image of her mother."

Cranmore.

Rue de Cerf, 6. Brussels.

Engraved Warming-pans (Vol. iii., pp. 84. 115.).—As an earlier instance of this custom, it may be worth notice that I have one which was purchased some years ago at the village of Whatcote in Warwickshire; it is engraved with a dragon, and the date 1601. I think it probable that it originally came from Compton Wyniatt, the ancient seat of the Earls [now Marquis] of Northampton; the supporters of the Compton family being dragons, and Whatcote being the next village to Compton Wyniatt.

Spes.

Symbolism of the Fir-cone (Vol. i., p. 247.).—The Fir-cone on the Thyrsus—a practice very general throughout Greece, but which is very prevalent at Athens, may perhaps, in some degree, account for the connexion of the Fir-cone (surmounting the Thyrsus) with the worship of Bacchus. Incisions are made in the fir-trees for the purpose of obtaining the turpentine, which distils copiously from the wound. This juice is mixed with the new wine in large quantities; the Greeks supposing that it would be impossible to keep it any length of time without this mixture. The wine has in consequence a very peculiar taste, but is by no means unpleasant after a little use. This, as we learn from Plutarch, was an ancient custom (Sympos. Quæst. iii. and iv. p. 528. edn. Wytten); the Athenians, therefore, might naturally have placed the Fir-cone in the hands of Bacchus. ("Lord Aberdeen's Journals," Appendix to Walpole's Memoirs of Turkey, &c., vol. i. p. 605.)

F. B. Relton.

Dr. Robert Thomlinson (Vol. i., p. 350.).—The gentleman who is very anxious for the communication of any matter illustrative of the life of the doctor, his family, &c., will find considerable useful and interesting information relating to him, his widow, and brother, by referring to the under-mentioned Reports from the Commissioners for inquiring concerning Charities:

5th Report, pages 67. 69.; 23rd Report, pages 56. 450.; 31st Report, pages 754. 757.

There is a slight allusion to the doctor in the Returns of Corporate Offices and Charitable Funds, &c., p. 375.

H. Edwards.

Touching for the Evil (Vol. iii., p. 93.).—St. Thomas Aquinas refers the practice of touching for the evil by French kings to Clovis. See a work published in 1633, by Simon Favoul, entitled, Du Pouvoir que les Rois de France ont de guérir les Ecrouelles; also a work by Du Laurens, entitled, De Mirabili Strumas sanandi vi, regibus Galliarum Christianis divinitus concessa, libri duo, Paris, 1609, in 8vo.

Edward the Confessor is said to have been the first English king who touched for the evil. Consequently the English can hardly be said to have owed their supposed power to their pretensions to the crown of France.

E. J. R.

[We are indebted to Mr. J. B. Ditchfield and Mr. Joseph Sulley for very elaborate notices of the custom of the French kings touching for the evil; but the principal facts contained in those communications have already been laid before our readers by Mr. Cooper (Vide No. 69. p. 148. et seq.)]

Drax Free School (Vol. ii., p. 199.).—It appears by the will of Charles Read, dated July 30, 1669, that that gentleman had at his own charge erected a school-house at Drax, which he designed for a free school, and for the habitation of a schoolmaster, to instruct the children of the inhabitants of that parish gratis, to read, write, and cast accounts, and in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as occasion should require; and that he had erected six almshouses at Drax, for six aged and impotent people at that parish, and the lodgment of six poor boys; and for the support and maintenance of the said school, master, alms people, and poor boys, he directed his executors to lay out 2000l. in the purchase of freehold land of 120l. per annum in or near Drax, to be conveyed to trustees to let such land at the best improved rent, for the purposes and uses mentioned in his will; and he appointed the lord mayor and aldermen of York, visitors of the school and almshouses.

At the time of the inquiry by the charity commissioners, the estates purchaser in pursuance of the directions of Mr. Read's will amounted to 391 acres of land, let at 542l. per annum, and there was an accumulation of stock of 12,700l. in the Three per Cents, the whole income being 924l. 9s. 6d. per annum.

Mr. Dyson will find a copious account of this school, &c., in the following Reports of the Commissioners: XXI. p. 598.; XXXII. part 2d. p. 828.; and the latter gives a full detail of proceedings in Chancery, and other matters connected with the administration of the trust.

Henry Edwards.

Enigmatical Epitaph on the Rev. John Mawer (Vol. iii., pp. 184. 248.).—Perhaps it may be of service to J. H. to know that Arthur Llewellyn Tudor Kaye Mawer, referred to by J. T. A., was a short time ago an assistant bookseller at Oxford, and may be heard of by addressing a line to Mr. Vincent, Herald Office, or Mr. Wheeler, bookseller, Oxford.

Nibor.

Treatise by Engelbert, Archbishop of Treves (Vol. i., p. 214.).—Mr. Sanson may probably find the information he desires in the reprint of Bishop Cosin's History of Popish Transubstantiation, London, 1840, in which the references are verified, and the quotations given in full length.

T. J.

King John at Lincoln (Vol. iii., p. 141.).—There is no question of Matt. Paris alluding here to the old prophecy which forbade a king's wearing his crown in Lincoln, or, as some think, even entering the city. Although he makes John the first to break through the superstition, yet the same is attributed to his predecessor Stephen, who is described by H. Huntingdon as entering the city fearlessly—"prohibentibus quibusdam superstitiosis." This was after the great disasters of Stephen's reign; but as the succession eventually departed from his line, Lord Lyttleton observes that the citizens might nevertheless be strengthened in their credulity; and Henry II. certainly humoured it so far as to wear his crown only in the suburb of Wigford. John seems to have been very partial to the place, and visited it repeatedly, as did many of his successors. Many parallel superstitions might, no doubt, be gathered, as that of Oxford, and Alexander the Great at Babylon, &c.

B.

Lincoln.

Haybands in Seals (Vol. iii., p. 186.).—In your paper for March 8. I observe a Query by Mr. M. A. Lower respecting seals. It appears that Mr. Lower has in his possession one or two seals, temp. Henry VII., which are impressed on haybands, that is to say, the wax is encircled by a twisted wisp of hay, or split straw; and, if I rightly understand Mr. Lower, no device is apparent on the wax, but some ends of the hay or straw protrude from the surface of it. Under these circumstances Mr. Lower states his opinion that such seals belonged to mediæval gentlemen who occupied their time in fattening stock,—simply graziers.

It may be interesting to some of your correspondents, and especially to Mr. Lower, to know that a few seals, both pendent and impressed on the parchment itself, within haybands, may be found of as early a date as the reign of Edward II. From that time the fashion become very prevalent: in the reigns of Richard II., Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI., and, indeed, down to the period of Elizabeth, it was the common practice to secure the wax impression in this manner. Almost all the impressions of the Privy Seal of Henry V., called "the Eagle," are made on haybands. It is needless to give further examples, as they must be well known to all antiquaries who have studied the history of seals. It is not from the examination of a few specimens of early seals that a general conclusion is to be rationally drawn; and it is to be hoped that Mr. Lower may, even yet, be induced to abandon his singular theory of graziers' seals.

T. Hudson Turner.

If your correspondents on this subject will refer to the first volume of Kalendars and Inventories of his Majesty's Exchequer, published by the Commissioners of Public Records, they will find in the Introduction, written by Sir Francis Palgrave, at page cxlvii., a fac-simile representation of a letter upon paper from James IV. of Scotland to Henry VII., dated July 12, 1502, showing the seal encircled by a rush ring. At page cxxxvii. it is stated that in the fifteenth century a rush ring surrounding the fragile wax was not unfrequently used for the purpose of preserving it.

S. S. S.

Aver (Vol. iii., pp. 42. 157.).—Spelman, in his Glossary, derives averia from averare pro laborare. Averare he derives from the French ouvre and ouvrage, "vel potius a Latino operare, o et p, ut solent, in a et u, conversis." "Hence," he says, "our ancestors called beasts of burden averia, and the Scotch called them avaria." In Northumberland, he elsewhere adds, "they call a lazy, sluggish horse 'a faulse aver,' or 'afer.'"

Averum signified goods and chattels, and personal property in general, and, in this sense, is derived from the French avoir. It also signified the royal treasure, as appears from the following extract front the will of Philip Augustus, sub anno 1190. After directing his rents, services, and oblations to be brought annually to Paris, he adds—

"In receptionibus averi nostri, Adam clericus noster presens erit, et eas scribet, et singuli habeant singulas claves de singulis archis in quibus reponetur averum nostrum in templo."

The following story, which illustrates P.'s Query, is told by Blackstone:—

"Sir Thomas More (when a student on his travels) is said to have puzzled a pragmatic professor at Bruges, who gave a universal challenge to dispute with any person in any science: in omni scibili, et de quolibet ente. Upon which Mr. More sent him this question, 'Utrum averia carucæ, capta in vetito namio, sint irreplegibilia, Whether beasts of the plough, taken in withernam, are incapable of being replevied:'"

—a question likely enough to pose any man except an English lawyer.

Cudyn Gwyn.

Aver or Aiver is a word in common use in the south of Scotland for a horse. In Burns's poem entitled "The Dream," there is this couplet:

"Yet aft a ragged cowte's been knownTo mak a noble aiver."J. Ss.

Aver (Vol. iii., p. 42.).—Your correspondents G. M. and D. 2. are at cross purposes. The latter is unquestionably right in his opinion about haver cake, haver in that instance being the German Hafer, Sw. Havre, &c., as held by Brockett (North Country Words) and Carr (Craven Glossary). But aver, averium, on which G. M. descants, is altogether a different word. As D. 2. requires the authority of a dictionary, allow me to refer him to Lacombe, Dictionnaire du vieux Langage François, where he will find:

"Avoirs, animaux domestiques de la basse cour.""Averlands, marchand de chevaux."

And in the second, or supplementary volume of the same work:

"'Avers,' bestiaux qui nantissent une ferme à la campagne."

See also Jamieson (Scottish Dictionary):

"Aver, a cart-horse."

A suggestion may also be gathered from Webster under Average.

F. S. Q.

In the Chronicle of Jocelyn de Brakelond, at p. 29. of Tomlins's translation, mention is made of one Beodric,

"Lord of that town, whose demesne lands are now in the demesne of the Cellarer. And that which is now called Averland was the land of the rustics."

Again, at p. 30.:

The Cellarer was used freely to take all the dung-hills in every street, for his own use, unless it were before the doors of those who were holding averland; for to them only was it allowable to collect dung and to keep it."

To this a note is appended to the effect that

"Averland seems to have been ancient arable land so called, held by rustic drudges and villans."

At p. 29. the said Cellarer is stated

To have aver-peni, to wit, for each thirty acres two pence."8

Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Romane, gives Aver, from avoir: "Bestiaux qui nantissent une ferme de campagne;" and Avè, "un troupeau de brebis," from ovis.

Raynouard, in the Nouveau Choix des Poésies des Troubadours, vol. ii., which commences the Lexique Roman, derives "Aver" also from Avoir; to signify possession generally I take it. 2dly, Troupeau,

"E play mi quan li corredorFan las gens e 'ls avers fugir."("Et il me plaît quand les coureursFont fuir les gens et les troupeaux.")Bertrand de Born, Be m Play.

Barbazan, in his short Glossary, derives the word from Avarus.

H. C. C.

I would inform D. 2. and others (Vol. iii., p. 42.) that aver, or haver-cake, which he states to be the name applied in North Yorkshire to the thin oat-cake in use there, is evidently derived from the Scandinavian words, Hafrar, Havre, Hafre, oats.