Page images
PDF
EPUB

twelve at night, and occasionally I have heard him in a neighbouring wood between midnight and one o'clock. J. Dorking.

66

The nightingale is the latest bird, not the earliest. Michelet, L'Oiseau, p. 323, talking of a nightingale, says: il commencait vers minuit et continuait jusqu'à l'aube." Every one must have heard them late at night, about eleven o'clock, and going on till dawn. Michelet seems to think the lark the earliest bird, and I, about ten days ago, heard a lark at a few minutes before three o'clock in the

morning, when the dawn was yet hardly appearing and long before any other birds were heard. R. C. S. W.

Stowford, Devon.

For several successive nights (moonlight) in June last a nightingale commenced its charm here in a neighbouring bush at about ten p.m., and kept it up till late in the morning. Twice I sat beneath it till after twelve, and I could still hear it when I went to bed at two. J. WETHERELL. Slingsby, York.

I consider this a subject of considerable interest, and perhaps may therefore be allowed to state the following, coming within my own knowledge, and noted in my common-place book since I was a boy. In purely rural districts of the south-east of Ireland, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wicklow, &c, the first bird is beyond question the lark, which in fine clear weather is always up before one o'clock in the morning. The quail, or corncreak, screeches almost without intermission all night. The cock always crows at twelve fifteen times; again at one, two, and three, for the same number. If a bird that makes the first noise be designated the "earliest bird," I think the domestic cock is that bird. Our Holy Redeemer told Peter that "this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice," &c. And Shakspeare, alluding to that, or rather using it in Hamlet, has,—

"Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes, Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long." I do not say positively that the cock is the earliest bird, but he is amongst the earliest. In the ordinary sense of wild or field birds, the lark is, in my mind, the first. Now, what is the last? Can any one tell me a later bird than the little robin red breast-singing at night?

Liverpool.

S. REDMOND.

PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM PENN (4th S. i. 34.) Is it not to be supposed that when Benjamin West, the American, P.R.A., painted his picture of William Penn making a treaty with the In

dians, he took pains to have the best likeness, if any? If so, why not take that? P. A. L.

LONG FAMILY CONNECTION WITH CHURCHLIVINGS (4th S. ii. 54.)-My late very worthy good friend, the Rev. James Turner, M.A., who 0.8.p. 29 Oct. 1863, cet. 66, was the third in direct succession of a family which had held the living of Meerbrook, near Leek, for an uninterrupted period of at least 130 years; his father, James Turner, M.A. having died on August 7, 1828, at. 84; and his grandfather, Daniel Turner, B.A. on Oct. 11, 1789, at. 81.

There is, in connection with this parish, the indisputable record of a most marvellous natural phenomenon-an icy gnomon (an exact reproduction of the displaced one of brass, bearing date 1673), which was found on the top of the old village sun-dial on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1822, the formation of which has never yet been satisfactorily explained, and full details of whose appearance may be found in the Christian Remembrancer of November, 1835. JOHN SLEIGH. Thornbridge, Bakewell.

PORTRAITS OF HENRY LAWES (4th S. ii. 39.)— In addition to the portrait by Faithorne and the anonymous one indicated in Bromley's Catalogue, two paintings were exhibited at the Kensington Exhibition of Portraits last year, of which photographs may be obtained. One, No. 717, represents him young; the other, No. 549, with a musical canon, at a later period of life. This, which is the property of the University of Oxford, is probably the original of the engraved portraits.

Reform Club.

J. B. D.

HERALDIC QUERY (4th S. ii. 55.) — Consult Boyer's Great Theatre of Honour and Nobility, in which the English is given on one side the page and the French on the other. It is a very useful work, though now little used. G. W. M.

Payne has published two volumes on Jersey famiJERSEY FAMILIES (4th S. ii. 55.)—Mr. J. B. lies-A Monograph of the House of Lempriere, 4to, 1862, and The Lineage and Pedigree of the Family of Millais. 1865, fol. G. W. M.

SYON COPE (4th S. ii. 65.)-There is an elaborate description of the Syon Cope by Dr. Rock, in his Church of our Fathers, at the end of chapter vi. in vol. ii. I received also from John, Earl of Shrewsbury, the particulars of its coming into his possession. There was one matter, however, appertaining to it which had never been elucidated. I allude to the two sentences, or rather the same sentence embroidered on one side of the cope in a very abbreviated form, and repeated on the opposite side at greater length. In the first case the letters form a semicircle, but without any scroll or border; but in the second, they are

included in a scroll, waving very gracefully. In this the letters are thus arranged, though they cannot here be given in their actual shape, which is quite peculiar:

DEV N PERS: DE:

After puzzling a long time over this, when I had the pleasure of examining the venerable old cope at the Alton Towers, I thought that its meaning might be brought out by comparing it with the abbreviated sentence on the opposite side; which ran thus, the letters being all close together, and without any points of division:

DEVNPE

I considered that both sentences were the same, and that the full reading was:

"De universis periculis defende." Though it might be supposed that the shorter sentence would be more likely to be explained by the longer one: the contrary was the fact, from the letters in the shorter being more perfectly and correctly formed than the corresponding letters in the longer legend.

[ocr errors]

It is an address to the Blessed Virgin, whose coronation is so conspicuously represented upon the cope, so like the usual words at the beginning of her Litany-" A periculis cunctis libera nos' that I have no doubt that this is the correct explanation, though I believe it had not been previously hit upon. I have now before me the tracing carefully made on the above occasion, more than twenty years ago; and have never since wavered from the above interpretation.

The set of vestments, chasuble, dalmatic and tunicella, which were presented by the Catholic Bishop of Waterford to the lamented John, Earl of Shrewsbury, were given by him to St. Mary's College, Oscott; and are there carefully preserved in the museum of the college.

--

F. C. H.

CORRUPT ENGLISH (4th S. ii. 54.) -For the information of M. A. B., I should say that writers of the phrase "It cannot be doubted but that he is sincere"-must have had in their minds Kerchever Arnold's Latin Exercises, where the expression, "Dubitari non potest quin," etc., is so frequently presented to our youthful eye as an excellent example of correct Latinity. The English version given by M. A. B. is literal enough, but its elegance may be questioned. OXONIENSIS.

Wormingford, near Colchester.

Your correspondent M. A. B. condemns but that as incorrect English. It is not for me to pretend to decide whether it be so or not, but it seems perfectly in accordance with the genius of the Latin as well as with that of the Teutonic languages.

One of the meanings of but is, according to Tooke, exactly the same as that of without, it

[blocks in formation]

ΤΟ

ROMNEY MARSH FORMED SUBSEQUENTLY pach maintains that, "in Caesar's time, the sea CESAR'S INVASIONS (4th S. i. 595.)- Mr. Apdiffer from that view, I have endeavoured to show filled the whole bay of Appuldore." How far I in my map of the county of Kent, especially in the coast line as it existed during the primeval period, i. e. prior to Cæsar's invasions. That map illustrate Caesar's marches and proceedings in was published more than fourteen years since, to Kent: it will also be found in Part XLI. of the Archæological Mine (Russell Smith, Soho Square). The map alone may be had, price 6d., of William Chandler, Dartford. In it I have endeavoured to prove that, in the century before the Christian epoch, the Isle of Lomea was not submerged; and that then Romney Marsh consisted of three islands the channels around which have silted up, consequent on the divergence of the mouth of the river Rother, from Lympne (the Portus Lemanis) to Rye in Sussex.

Dartford.

ALFRED JOHN DUNKIN.

CHRONICLE BY JOHN DOUGLAS (4th S. ii. 70.)-— The manuscript containing the Chronicle ascribed to John Douglas is now preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 4690, and the only authority on which the authorship rests is an anonymous note in the volume, as follows: "The memorable Cronicke, written by John Douglas, Munke of Glastonburye Abbaye." Although referred to by Douce (Illustr. Shaksp. vol. i. p. 423), and Dibdin (Ames, vol. i. p. 90),

yet in all probability John Douglas was merely the transcriber, for the work is nothing more than a copy of the common English prose Chronicle of the Brute. For further information, see Sir F. Madden's introduction to the romance of Havelok the Dane, 1828, pp. xxv-xxvii. SUUM CUIQUE. FUSCUM (4th S. ii. 35, 69.)-Probably Franklin, in calling his scrap-book fuscum, merely meant to imply that it was not kept with sufficient neatness to deserve the appellation of album.

Garrick Club.

C. G. PROWETT.

[blocks in formation]

"Finally, this see hath yielded to the church ten saints, and to Rome two Cardinals; to England, one Lord Chief

Justice, nine Chancellors, two Lord Treasurers, one Lord Privy Seal, one Chancellor of the University of Oxford, another to the Exchequer, and twenty-three Prelates of the Garter."

Of the ten saints he gives the names in order, beginning with St. Headda, the fourth bishop in 677, and ending with St. Henricus Blesensis, Card. thirty-sixth bishop in 1129. Herefrid holds no place in this catalogue; hence, if it be a correct one, he was no saint.

From what little I know of the rules for canonisation in the church of Rome, I do not think that martyrdom of itself would be considered enough to entitle any one to the possession of this dignity. Before it be conferred, which can only be by the sovereign pontiff, a strict and solemn investigation takes place of the claims of the departed, and evidence is sought from every available quarter, as to whether miracles have been wrought by him, either before or after his decease. On the merits, or supposed merits, of which evidence would, if I mistake not, very much depend his chance of obtaining a place in the Calendar.

In Bede we find, "Anno 747, Herefridus vir Dei obiit.". Can this be the person to whom the "come of Ivery" belonged? I wonder whether, in medieval Latin, vir Dei is ever synonymous with sanctus or divus. EDWARD TEW, M.A.

St. Herefrid was honoured in the North of England on June 2, and styled the Man of God. He was the Abbot of Lindisfarne, who attended St. Cuthbert in his last sickness, and administered to him the last sacraments. It was from him that St. Bede received the circumstantial and edifying account of the illness and death of St. Cuthbert, which he has given at length in his history. St. Bede has recorded the happy death of St. Here

[blocks in formation]

DR. WILMOT'S LETTER (4th S. ii. 50.)— "Notwithstanding the flourishing state of the royal family, the Duke of Somerset was chief mourner."-Doddington's Diary, April 13, 1751.

Bubb walked in the funeral of Frederic Prince of Wales as a Privy Councillor. One therefore prefers his account of what he saw, to what Sir Richard Phillips heard.

If John Dunning had been the author of Junius, he must have known that the copyright of libellous matter was not assignable, and that any assignment of copyright was regulated by rules laid down in the statute of Anne, whereas Junius professed to assign the copyright of libellous matter by a sentence in a book. (Preface to Letters of Junius.)

"The other letters of Junius were written in a hand which a well educated woman used about the commencement of the century, approaching the Italian. The letter to the King was in a different hand."-Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 81.

The reminiscent had carefully examined them.

. . It was not Woodfall, but his apprentice, Jackson (afterwards proprietor of the Ipswich Journal), who saw a tall gentleman, wearing bag and sword, throw a letter into the office. Some have thought that "Leonidas " Glover, therefore, was Junius, because he walked into the city every morning with his wig carefully dressed, and his hat under his arm. But it is not said that he wore a sword, and that fact (if true) makes all the been a clergyman. I took the trouble, with redifference. If he wore a sword he could not have ference to this point, to examine carefully the In 1770 the custom of wearing swords, except by portraits in the Kensington Exhibition last year. great personages en grande tenue, had gone out.

That Junius was a man of rank appears from two facts: First, some of his letters were sealed Wilkes, vol. i. p. 21) that the letter signed "Canwith a coronet; secondly, Almon said (Life of

dour " was written by a nobleman. As he published that pamphlet he was likely to know, and Mr. Parkes would not have argued so zealously to prove that pamphlet to have been the work of Junius, if he had been aware of that declaration of Almon's. If that pamphlet was written by a nobleman, and was also written by Junius, good bye to the Franciscan theory.

An engraving of the coronetted seal may be seen in the plates prefixed to the third volume of Woodfall's edition. The impression of the top

[blocks in formation]

THE BADGER (3rd S. vii. 289.)-Within the last five years a badger dug himself a residence in Darenth Wood (which is only sixteen miles from London), and there abode for some months. He

would not have been discovered had not a fox also selected the same locality. It took nearly ten hours to dig the badger out of his burrow. Probably within the present century no badger has selected a residence so near the great metropolis. ALFRED JOHN DUNKIN.

ROTHSCHILD AT THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO (4th S. i. 535.)—The intelligence of this battle was brought to England by the engineer, or, as the term would now be, projector of the Hungerford Suspension Bridge. Upon reaching London, he went to Lord Harrowby, who discredited the news (after consulting with his coadjutors in the government), especially as their informant would not give a satisfactory account of how he had crossed the Channel, and how he had left France, and yet was able to say that the French were in total flight. He was immediately placed under surveil lance. Rumours had been flying about London for some days of a great battle having been fought, but the weather had been so tempestuous that no vessel had been able to cross the Channel. Weary of delay, the government, after another examination of their informant, resolved to draw up a paper, and publish it in the Gazette next day. Whilst actually engaged in compiling this document a messenger arrived, and confirmed the fact of the defeat of Napoleon; but even then the utter disorganization of the French was not believed. I had the above statement from the gentleman's own lips a year before his death.

Dartford.

ALFRED JOHN DUNKIN.

PARISH REGISTERS (4th S. ii. 20.)- Will you permit me to add one other argument (if it can be needed) for the preservation of these most valuable national memorials? All who have engaged in searches among parish registers agree in condemning the impediments, both lay and clerical, and the expenditure of time and money which they entail, especially when, to be exhaustive, they extend into all adjacent parishes. These causes combine, doubtless to a very great degree, in forbidding their more frequent pursuit. I believe that, if these registers were deposited in some central institution like the Record Office, there would be far more frequent references made to

them, and that their "productive" value would be proportionately increased.

That the rights of the clergy should be preserved (so far as fees, &c., are in question) I would propose that an equitable proportion of those charged for searches, certified transcripts, &c. (say two-thirds) should be paid to the clergyman, for certificate, &c., was obtained. I have every reason the time being, of the parish from which such to believe that this arrangement would be financially advantageous to the clergy, and would at the same time amply provide for the proper maintenance and custody of these documents.

scripts should be deposited with these registers, I would also propose that the diocesan transo as to replace, as far as possible, the unfortunate gaps which occur in the original records. My plan is but roughly sketched here, yet I think, when calmly considered, it will meet any arguments against "disestablishment and disendowment," which at this time might not unreasonably be urged.

51, Westbourne Park Villas.

HENRY MOODY.

DANTE'S "INFERNO" (4th S. ii. 54.)-Through the kindness of Mr. (or Dr.) David Johnston I am in possession of a copy of the translation which he has printed of the Inferno, with its successor the Purgatorio. The work is not, strictly speaking, "published: " it was printed at the Chronicle office, Kingston Buildings, Bath, and both parts were issued in 1867. The metre is blank verse; and the merit of the translation is certainly such as to qualify it for wider diffusion than circumstances give it at present. W. M. ROSSETTI. 56, Euston Square, N.W.

CLITHEROE IN 1775 (4th S. ii. 33.)-The poetical description of Clitheroe in 1775 sent by your correspondent G. H. A. has been printed by the Chetham Society in a volume of —

"Miscellanies: Being a Selection from the Poems and

Correspondence of the Rev. Thomas Wilson, B.D., Rector

of Claughton, Incumbent of Clitheroe and Downham, and Master of the Grammar School of Clitheroe. With Memoirs of his Life. By the Rev. F. R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. Canon of Manchester, and Incumbent of Milnrow, 1847."

The poem occurs in the first page of the work, and differs in no respect from the copy printed in "N. & Q." It does not bear any date in the printed work, but I find from Mr. Raines's life

that Mr. Wilson was licensed to the school "30th T. T. W.

June, 1775."

[blocks in formation]

QUOTATION WANTED (4th S. ii. 37.)- "Time is money"-whence ? Time being a measure of duration, and money being a measure of price, and one being commonly given as an equivalent for the other, therefore time money; and hence "time is money,' as poor Richard says." Whether Franklin is the author of the precise phrase I cannot say, but I believe it is found in a little work entitled The Way to Wealth" to copy which is piracy." A bookseller wishing very much to possess it, I let him have it many years ago, or I might now give a quotation therefrom; but possibly this hint may lead thereto. I rather think, however, the phrase may be derived from the Bible, which inculcates "redeeming the time." Collate Eph. v. 16, Col. iv. 5, and Isa. lii. 3.

J. BEALE.

MARC ANTONY AS BACCHUS (4th S. ii. 36) The Greeks had traditionary likenesses of their deities, and that of Bacchus was so much at variance with the features of Marc Antony that it is difficult to conceive how the Ephesians could adapt the actual face to that tradition. From the British Museum an impression of a coin is given in the Penny Cyclopedia (ii. 134), with the likeness and name "Antonius Imp."; also (ii. 136) with the inscription ΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ ΤΡΙΤΟΝ TPION ANAPON. The nose is Roman, and the tip projects downwards at an angle of twenty-five degrees, whilst the chin is at a right angle to the perpendicular, leaving the mouth in a deep bay, as it is viewed in profile, and well land-locked, as a seaman might say, by the promontories of nose and chin. The Ephesians were ill-advised in hailing him as Bacchus, χαριδότην καὶ μειλίχιον, gracious and courteous, as he proved himself to be more ὠμηστὴς καὶ ἀγριώνιος, savage and severe. This was the year before he first met Cleopatra at Tarsus, when he was forty years of age. They should have saluted him as Hercules, a character he affected, claiming descent from that god, on better grounds than Theodore from the Queen of Sheba. Thus," says Plutarch, "when he appeared in public, he wore his vest girt on his hips, a large sword, and over all a coarse mantle," seeking "to confirm this opinion, by affecting to resemble Hercules in his air and his dress. Antony," he adds, "had a noble dignity of countenance, a graceful length of beard, a large forehead, an aquiline nose (Ypumótηs purtĥpos), and, on the whole, the same manly aspect that we see in the pictures and statues of Hercules." The likeness attached to the Langhornes' translation, as well as one in the Penny Cycl. (ii. 134), on the right hand of the one above described, cannot be that of Marc Antony, but is probably Julius Caesar, according to the inscription, "Cæsar Imp." Not only at Ephe

Acts xiv. 12.

sus, but at Tarsus, when Cleopatra was hailed as Venus he was hailed as Bacchus, not as Mars or Hercules; and at the close of his career, Plutarch also mentions (60, 75) that he affected to imitate Bacchus. Dion Cassius (xlviii. 39) says the Athenians called him young Bacchus, and married their Athene (=Minerva) to him. But it was no joke for them, as he demanded for his new wife's fortune one million drachma (=28001). His amusements partook of the character of Bacchus, for when he went to Alexandria he joined the society of auunτoblwv (Inimitables), "jolly dogs," (Plut. 28). He put an end to this society afterwards, and formed another of συναποθανουμένων (Immortalizers), "suicides," not the less jolly on account of the name (Plut. 71). On the whole I would suggest the exclusion of all reference to Marc Antony, Alexander, or other historical personages, and the adoption of Bacchus himself, for Ephesus was celebrated for good wine, and of the best kind, whether for gratification or dietetic purposes (Strabo, xiv. ch. i. § 15). The adjacent isle, Samos, produces muscat which, as stated by Sonnini (ii. 306), yields to no other Greek wine. This island was so fertile that, according to the proverb, as Menander says, "it produced even birds' milk (or pépei kal opvílwv yára)"; which may be the origin of our "pigeon's milk " sent for the first day in April. T. J. BUCKTON.

is

66

Wiltshire Road, Stockwell, S.W.

sese.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

PASSAGE IN "LUCRETIUS" (4th S. ii. 37.)-In my сору of Lucretius-that of Creech ("editio altera, priori multo emendatior: Londini, M.DCC.XVII")the reading in the line referred to (lib. iv. p. 474) retro,' as quoted by Montaigne, and not The passage is as follows:"Hunc igitur contra mittam contendere causam, Qui capite ipse suo instituit vestigia retrò.” The following explanatory note is given, but no reference is made to the var. lec. "sese":"Hos duos versus omnes Codd. agnoscunt; suspectos tamen habet Lambinus, tandem verò legit,

'Locus est

'Hunc igitur contra quidnam contendere curem.' Alia est Fabri sententia, qui hæc habet: luculentissimus; Qui manibus ingrediuntur, prono in terram capite, quod histrionum pueri vulgò faciunt, non nisi retrò incedere possunt; quod facile ad explicandam Lucretii sententiam transferre possis. Transferamus igitur, et hæc sit sententia: Non est disputandum cum illo qui omnia pervertit, quod novos Academicos fecisse certum est."

In his dedicatory preface, dated "Prid. Kal. Sept. An. 1694," the editor (who in his address "Ad Lectorem," it may be added, superlatively eulogises his author as "Omnium poetarum Latinorum qui hodie extant, et qui ad nostram ætatem pervenerunt, elegantissimus et purissimus, idemque gravissimus, atque ornatissimus,") writes thus:

« PreviousContinue »