Notes and Queries, Number 207, October 15, 1853

Thos. Keightley.

Shakspeare's Works with a Digest of all the Readings (Vol. viii., pp. 74, 170.).—I fully concur with your correspondent's suggestion, and beg to suggest to Mr. Halliwell that his splendid monograph edition would be greatly improved if he would undertake the task. As his first volume contains but one play (Tempest), it may not be too late to adopt the suggestion, so that every variation of the text (in the briefest possible form) might be seen at a glance.

Este.

DEATH ON THE FINGERS

"Isaac saith, I am old, and I know not the day of my death (Gen. xxvii. 2.); no more doth any, though never so young. As soon (saith the proverb) goes the lamb's skin to the market as that of the old sheep; and the Hebrew saying is, There be as many young skulls in Golgotha as old; young men may die (for none have or can make any agreement with the grave, or any covenant with death, Isa. xxviii. 15. 18.), but old men must die. 'Tis the grant statute of heaven (Heb. ix. 27.). Senex quasi seminex, an old man is half dead; yea, now, at fifty years old, we are accounted three parts dead; this lesson we may learn from our fingers' ends, the dimensions whereof demonstrate this to us, beginning at the end of the little finger, representing our childhood, rising up to a little higher at the end of the ring-finger, which betokens our youth; from it to the top of the middle finger, which is the highest point of our elevated hand, and so most aptly represents our middle age, when we come to our ακμὴ, or height of stature and strength; then begins our declining age, from thence to the end of our forefinger which amounts to a little fall, but from thence to the end of the thumb there is a great fall, to show, when man goes down (in his old age) he falls fast and far, and breaks (as we say) with a witness. Now, if our very fingers' end do read us such a divine lecture of mortality, oh, that we could take it out, and have it perfect (as we say) on our fingers' end, &c.

"To old men death is præ januis, stands before their door, &c. Old men have (pedem in cymbâ Charonis) one foot in the grave already; and the Greek word γήρων (an old man) is derived from παρὰ το εἰς γὴν ορᾶν, which signifies a looking towards the ground; decrepit age goes stooping and grovelling, as groaning to the grave. It doth not only expect death, but oft solicits it."—Christ. Ness's Compleat History and Mystery of the Old and New Test., fol. Lond. 1690, chap. xii. p. 227.

From The Barren Tree, a sermon on Luke xiii. 7., preached at Paul's Cross, Oct. 26, 1623, by Thos. Adams:

"Our bells ring, our chimneis smoake, our fields rejoice, our children dance, ourselues sing and play, Jovis omnia plena. But when righteousnesse hath sowne and comes to reape, here is no haruest; οὐκ εὐρίσκω, I finde none. And as there was neuer lesse wisdome in Greece then in time of the Seven Wise Men, so neuer lesse pietie among vs, then now, when vpon good cause most is expected. When the sunne is brightest the stars be darkest: so the cleerer our light, the more gloomy our life with the deeds of darkness. The Cimerians, that live in a perpetuall mist, though they deny a sunne, are not condemned of impietie; but Anaxogoras, that saw the sunne and yet denied it, is not condemned of ignorance, but of impietie. Former times were like Leah, bleare-eyed, but fruitful; the present, like Rachel, faire, but barren. We give such acclamation to the Gospell, that we quite forget to observe the law. As vpon some solenne festivall, the bells are rung in all steeples, but then the clocks are tyed vp: there is a great vntun'd confusion and clangor, but no man knowes how the time passeth. So in this vniuersall allowance of libertie by the Gospell (which indeed rejoyceth our hearts, had we the grace of sober vsage), the clocks that tel vs how the time passes, Truth and Conscience, that show the bounded vse and decent forme of things, are tyed vp, and cannot be heard. Still Fructum non invenio, I finde no fruits. I am sorry to passe the fig-tree in this plight: but as I finde it, so I must leave it, till the Lord mend it."—Pp. 39, 40., 4to. Lond. 1623.

Balliolensis.

Minor Notes

On a "Custom of ye Englyshe."—When a more than ordinarily doubtful matter is offered us for credence, we are apt to inquire of the teller if he "sees any green" in our optics, accompanying the query by an elevation of the right eyelid with the forefinger. Now, regarding this merely as a "fast" custom, I marvelled greatly at finding a similar action noted by worthy Master Blunt, as conveying to his mind an analogous meaning. I can scarcely credit its antiquity; but what other meaning can I understand from the episode he relates? He had been trying to pass himself off as a native, but—

"The third day, in the morning, I, prying up and down alone, met a Turke, who, in Italian, told me—Ah! are you an Englishman, and with a kind of malicious posture laying his forefinger under his eye, methought he had the lookes of a designe."—Voyage in the Levant, performed by Mr. Henry Blunt, p. 60.: Lond. 1650.

—a silent, but expressive, "posture," tending to eradicate any previously formed opinion of the verdantness of Mussulmans!

R. C. Warde.

Kidderminster.

Epitaph at Crayford.—I send the following lines, if you think them worthy an insertion in your Epitaphiana: a friend saw them in the churchyard of Crayford, Kent.

"To the Memory of Peter Izod, who was thirty-five years clerk of this parish, and always proved himself a pious and mirthful man.

"The life of this clerk was just three score and ten,During half of which time he had sung out Amen.He married when young, like other young men;His wife died one day, so he chaunted Amen.A second he took, she departed,—what then?He married, and buried a third with Amen.Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but thenHis voice was deep bass, as he chaunted Amen.On the horn he could blow as well as most men,But his horn was exalted in blowing Amen.He lost all his wind after threescore and ten,And here with three wives he waits till againThe trumpet shall rouse him to sing out Amen."

Tradition reports these verses to have been composed by some curate of the parish.

Quæstor.

The Font at Islip.—

"In the garden is placed a relic of some interest—the font in which it is said King Edward the Confessor was baptised at Islip. The block of stone in which the basin of immersion is excavated, is unusually massy. It is of an octangular shape, and the outside is adorned by tracery work. The interior diameter of the basin is thirty inches, and the depth twenty. The whole, with the pedestal, which is of a piece with the rest, is five feet high, and bears the following imperfect inscription:

'This sacred Font Saint Edward first receavd,From Womb to Grace, from Grace to Glory went,His virtuous life. To this fayre Isle beqveth'd,Prase … and to vs but lent.Let this remaine, the Trophies of his Fame,A King baptizd from hence a Saint became.'

"Then is inscribed:

'This Fonte came from the Kings Chapell in Islip.'"—Extracted from the Beauties of England and Wales, title "Oxfordshire," p. 454.

In the gardens at Kiddington there—

"was an old font wherein it is said Edward the Confessor was baptized, being brought thither from an old decayed chapel at Islip (the birth-place of that religious prince), where it had been put up to an indecent use, as well as the chapel."—Extracted from The English Baronets, being a Historical and Genealogical Account of their Families, published 1727.

The Viscounts Montague, and consequently the Brownes of Kiddington, traced their descent from this king through Joan de Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

C. B.

"As good as a Play."—I note this very ordinary phrase as having royal origin or, at least, authority. It was a remark of King Charles II., when he revived a practice of his predecessors, and attended the sittings of the House of Lords.

The particular occasion was the debate, then interesting to him, on Lord Roos' Divorce Bill.

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

Queries

LOVETT OF ASTWELL

It is stated in all the pedigrees of this family which I have seen, that Thomas Lovett, Esq., of Astwell in Northamptonshire, who died in 1542, married for his first wife Elizabeth, daughter (Burke calls her "heir," Extinct Baronetage, p. 110.) of John Boteler, Esq., of Woodhall Watton, in Hertfordshire. The pedigree of the Botelers in Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire (vol. ii. p. 476.) does not notice this marriage, nor is there any distinct allusion to it in the wills of either family. Thomas Lovett's will, dated 20th November, 1542, and proved on the following 19th January, does not contain the name of Boteler. (Testamenta Vetusta, vol. ii. p. 697.) His father Thomas Lovett, indeed, in his will dated 29th October, 7 Henry VII., and proved 28th January, 1492 (Test. Vetust., vol. ii. p. 410.), bequeaths to Isabel Lovett and Margaret, his daughters, "Cl. which John Boteler oweth me," but he refers to no relationship between the families. Again, "John Butteler, Esquier," by his will, dated 7th September, 1513, and proved at Lambeth 11th July, 1515, appoints "his most gracious Maister, Maister Thomas Louett," to be supervisor of his will, and bequeaths to him "a Sauterbook as a poore remembraunce;" but he alludes to no marriage, nor does he mention a daughter Elizabeth. This John Boteler is said by Clutterbuck to have married three wives: 1. Katherine, daughter of Thomas Acton; 2. Margaret, daughter of Henry Belknap, who died 18th August, 1513; 3. Dorothy, daughter of William Tyrrell, Esq., of Gipping in Suffolk: the last-mentioned was the mother of his heir, Sir Philip Boteler, Kt.; but I can nowhere find who was the mother of the son Richard, and the daughters Mary and Joyce mentioned in his will, or of Thomas Lovett's wife. I cannot help fancying that Elizabeth Lovett was his only child by one of his wives, and was perhaps heir to her mother. Can one of your contributors bring forward any authority to confirm or disprove this conjecture? Whilst I am speaking of the Lovett pedigree, I would also advert to two other contradictions in the popular accounts of it. That most inaccurate of books, Betham's Baronetage, vol. v. p. 517., says, Giles Pulton, Esq., of Desborough, married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lovett, Esq., of Astwell: the same author, vol. i. p. 299., calls her Catherine; which is correct? Neither Anne nor Catherine is mentioned in Thomas Lovett the Elder's will (Test. Vetust., vol. ii. p. 410). Again, Betham, Burke, and Bridges (History of Northamptonshire, "Astwell") have rolled out Thomas Lovett into two persons, and in fact have made him appear the son of his second wife Joan Billinge, who was not the ancestress of the Lovetts of Astwell at all. Nor was it possible she could be; for Thomas Lovett, in his will, dated 1492, speaks of her as "Joan, my wife, late the wife of John Hawys, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas." Now this John Hawys was living in 1487, and Lovett's son and heir, Thomas, was seventeen years old in 1492. The abstract of Lovett's will in the Test. Vetust., calling Thomas Lovett the Younger "my son and heir by the said Joan my wife," must therefore be manifestly incorrect. I will not apologise for the minuteness of this account, as I believe the correction of detail in published pedigrees to be one of the most valuable features of "N. & Q.;" but I am almost ashamed of the length of my communication, which I hope some of your readers may throw light upon.

Tewars.

OATHS

The very remarkable distinction between the manner in which English and Welsh witnesses take the book at the time when they are sworn, has often struck me. An English witness always takes the book with his fingers under, and his thumb at the top of the book. A Welsh witness, on the contrary, takes it with his fingers at the top, and his thumb under the book. How has this singular difference arisen? I am inclined to suggest that originally the oath was taken by merely laying the hand on the top of the book, without kissing it. Lord Coke (3 Inst. 165.) says, "It is called a corporal oath, because he toucheth with his hand some part of the Holy Scripture." And Jacob (L. D., "Oath"), says it is so called "because the witness, when he swears, lays his right hand upon, and toucheth the Holy Evangelists." And Lord Hale (2 H. P. C. 279.) says, "The regular oath, as is allowed by the laws of England, is 'Tactis sacrosanctis Dei Evangeliis'," and in case of a Jew, "Tacto libro legis Mosaicæ:" and, if I rightly remember, the oath as administered in the Latin form at Oxford concludes: "Ita te Deus adjuvet, tactis sacrosanctis Christi Evangeliis." In none of these instances does kissing the book appear to be essential. Whereas the present form used in the Courts is, "So help you God, kiss the book;" but still the witness is always required to touch the book with his hand, and he is never permitted to hold the book with his hand in a glove. When then did the practice of kissing the book originate? And how happens it that the Welsh and English take the book in the hand in the different manners I have described?

C. S. G.

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH

Powerful as this extraordinary agent has become, and incalculably useful as its operation is now found to be, it would appear that the principle of the electric telegraph and its modus operandi, almost identically as at present, were known and described upwards of a century ago. On the occasion of a late visit to Robert Baird, Esq., of Auchmeddan, at his residence, Cadder House, near Glasgow, my attention was called by that gentleman to a letter initialed C. M., dated Renfrew, Feb. 15, 1753, and published that year in the Scots Magazine, vol. xv. p. 73., where the writer not only suggests electricity as a medium for conveying messages and signals, but details with singular minuteness the method of opening and maintaining lingual communication between remote points, a method which, with only few improvements, has now been so eminently successful. It is usual to attribute this wonderful discovery to the united labours of Mr. W. F. Cooke and Professor Wheatstone, but has any one acknowledged the contribution of C. M., and can any of the learned correspondents of "N. & Q." inform me who he was?

Inquirendo.

Glasgow.

Minor Queries

Queries relating to the Porter Family.—Above the inscription on the tablet erected by a devoted friend to the memory of this highly-gifted family in Bristol Cathedral, is a medallion of a portcullis surrounded by the word AGINCOURT, and surmounted by the date 1415.—What connexion is there between Agincourt2 and the Porter family?

Did Sir R. K. Porter write on account of Sir John Moore's campaign in the Peninsula?—What is the title of the book, and where can it be procured?3

Who was Charles Lempriere Porter (who died Feb. 14, 1831, aged thirty-one), mentioned on the Porter tombstone in St. Paul's churchyard at Bristol?—Who was Phœbe, wife of Dr. Porter, who died Feb. 20, 1845, aged seventy-nine, and whose name also occurs on this stone?

Did this family (which is now supposed to be extinct) claim descent from Endymion Porter, the loyal and devoted adherent of King Charles the Martyr?

D. Y. N.

Lord Ball of Bagshot.—Coryat, in his Crudities, vol. ii. p. 471., edit. 1776, tells us that at St. Gewere, near Ober-Wesel—

"There hangeth an yron collar fastened in the wall, with one linke fit to be put upon a man's neck, without any manner of hurt to the party that weareth it.

"This collar doth every stranger and freshman, the first time that he passeth that way, put upon his neck, which he must weare so long standing till he hath redeemed himself with a competent measure of wine."

Coryat submitted himself to the collar "for novelty sake," and he adds:

"This custome doth carry some kinde of affinity with certain sociable ceremonies that wee have in a place of England, which are performed by that most reuerend Lord Ball of Bagshot, in Hampshire, who doth with many, and indeed more solemne, rites inuest his brothers of his vnhallowed chappell of Basingstone (Basingstoke?) (as all our men of the westerne parts of England do know by deare experience to the smart of their purses), to these merry burgomaisters of Saint Gewere vse to do."

Will any of your readers state whether the custom is remembered in Hampshire, and afford explanation as to the most Rev. Lord Ball? The writers that I have referred to are silent, and I do not find mention of the custom in the pages of Mr. Urban.

J. H. M.

Marcarnes.—In Guillim's Display of Heraldry (6th edit., London, 1724), sect. 2. chap. v. p. 32., occurs the following description of a coat of arms: "Marcarnes, vaire, a pale, sable."

There is no reference to a Heralds' Visitation, or to the locality in which resided the family bearing this name and coat. It is only mentioned as an instance among many others of the pale in heraldry. I have searched many heraldic books, as well as copies of Heralds' Visitations, but cannot find the name elsewhere. Will any herald advise me how to proceed farther in tracing it?

G. R. M.

The Claymore.—What is the original weapon to which belongs the name of claymore (claidh mhor)? Is it the two-handed sword, or the basket-hilted two-edged sword now bearing the appellation? Is the latter kind of sword peculiar to Scotland? They are frequently to be met with in this part of the country. One was found a few years since plunged up to the hilt in the earth on the Cotswold Hills. It was somewhat longer than the Highland broadsword, but exactly similar to a weapon which I have seen, and which belonged to a Lowland Whig gentleman slain at Bothwell Bridge. If these swords be exclusively Scottish, may they not be relics of the unhappy defeat at Worcester?

Francis John Scott.

Tewkesbury.

Sir William Chester, Kt.—It is said of this gentleman in all the Baronetages, that "he was a great benefactor to the city of London in the time of Edward VI., and that he became so strictly religious, that for a considerable time before his death he retired from all business, entered himself a fellow-commoner at Cambridge, lived there some years' and was reputed a learned man." Did he take any degree at Cambridge, and to what college or hall did he belong? Must there not be some records in the University which will yield this information? I observe the "Graduati Cantabrigienses" only commence in 1659 in the printed list; but there must be older lists than this at Cambridge. Collins mentions that he was so conspicuous in his zeal for the Reformed religion, that he ran great risk of his life in Queen Mary's reign, and that one of his servants was burnt in Smithfield. Can any one inform me of his authority for this statement?

Tewars.

Canning on the Treaty of 1824 between the Netherlands and Great Britain.—When and under what circumstances did Canning use the following words?—

"The results of this treaty [of 1824 between England and Holland, to regulate their respective interests in the East Indies] were an admission of the principles of free trade. A line of demarcation was drawn, separating our territories from theirs, and ridding them of their settlements on the Indian continent. All these objects are now attained. We have obtained Sincapore, we have got a free trade, and in return we have given up Bencoolen."

Where are these words to be found, and what is the title of the English paper called by the French Courier du Commerce?—From the Navorscher.

L. D. S.

Ireland a bastinadoed Elephant.—"And Ireland, like a bastinadoed elephant, kneeled to receive her rider." This sentence is ascribed by Lord Byron to the Irish orator Curran. Diligent search through his speeches, as published in the United States, has been unsuccessful in finding it. Can any of your readers "locate it," as we say in the backwoods of America? A bastinado properly is a punishment inflicted by beating the soles of the feet: such a flagellation could not very conveniently be administered to an elephant. The figure, if used by Curran, has about it the character of an elephantine bull.

Philadelphia.

Memorial Lines by Thomas Aquinas.—

"Thomas Aquinas summed up, in a quaint tetrastic, twelve causes which might found sentences of nullity, of repudiation, or of the two kinds of divorce; to which some other, as monkish as himself, added two more lines, increasing the causes to fourteen, and to these were afterwards added two more. The former are [here transcribed from] the note:

'Error, conditio, votum, cognatio, crimen,Cultûs disparitas, vis, ordo, ligamen, honestas,Si sis affinis, si forte cöire nequibis,Si parochi, et duplicis desit præsentia testis,Raptave si mulier, parti nec reddita tutæ;Hæc facienda vetant connubia, facta retractant.'"—From Essay on Scripture Doctrines of Adultery and Divorce, by H. V. Tabbs, 8vo.: Lond. 1822.

The subject was proposed, and a prize of fifty pounds awarded to this essay, by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in the Diocese of St. David's in 1821. This appears to me to have been a curious application of its funds by such a society. Can any of your readers explain it?

Balliolensis.

"Johnson's turgid style"—"What does not fade?"—Can any of your readers tell me where to find the following lines?

"I own I like not Johnson's turgid style,That gives an inch th' importance of a mile,"&c. &c.

And

"What does not fade? The tower which long has stoodThe crash of tempests, and the warring winds,Shook by the sure but slow destroyer, Time,Now hangs in doubtful ruins o'er its base,"&c. &c.A. F. B.

Meaning of "Lane," &c.—By what process of development could the Anglo-Saxon laen (i. e. the English word lane, and the Scottish loaning) have obtained its present meaning, which answers to that of the limes of the Roman agrimensores?

What is considered to be the English measurement of the Roman juger, and the authorities for such measurement?

What is the measurement of the Anglo-Saxon hyde, and the authorities for such measurement?

H.

Theobald le Botiller.—What Theobald le Botiller did Rose de Vernon marry? See Vernon, in Burke's Extinct Peerage; Butler, in Lynch's Feudal Dignities; and the 2nd Butler (Ormond), in Lodge's Peerage.

Y. S. M.

William, fifth Lord Harrington.—Did William, fifth Lord Harrington, marry Margaret Neville (see Burke's Extinct Peerage) or Lady Catherine Courtenay? The latter is given in Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, in Sir John Harrington's pedigree.

Y. S. M.

Singular Discovery of a Cannon-ball.—A heavy cannon-shot, I should presume a thirty-two pound ball, was found embedded in a large tree, cut down some years since on the estate of J. W. Martin, Esq., at Showborough, in the parish of Twyning, Gloucestershire. There was never till quite lately any house of importance on the spot, nor is there any trace of intrenchments to be discovered. The tree stood at some distance from the banks of the Avon, and on the other side of that river runs the road from Tewkesbury through Bredon to Pershore. The ball in question is marked with the broad arrow. From whence and at what period was the shot fired?

Francis John Scott.

Tewkesbury.

Scottish Castles.—It is a popular belief, and quoted frequently in the Statistical Account of Scotland, and other works referring to Scottish affairs, that the fortresses of Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle, Dumbarton Castle, Blackness Castle, were appointed by the Articles of Union between England and Scotland to be kept in repair and garrisoned. Can any of your readers refer to the foundation for this statement? for no reference in to be found to the subject in the Articles of Union.