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ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. 2
To revive the memory of estimable authors, or of estimable books, is a pursuit to which a man of leisure may devote himself under the certainty that he can neither want materials to proceed with, not miss the reward of commendation.
It is by the extensive circulation of biographical dictionaries, and the re-productive agency of the press, that the fame of authors and their works is chiefly perpetuated. General biographers, however, relying too much on the intelligence and tact of their precursors, are frequently the dupes of tradition; and the press, like other descriptions of machinery, requires a double motive-power.
A remedy happily presents itself. As it appears, a short note is sufficient to raise inquiry; and inquiry may lead to new fact, or advance critical equity. It may rescue a meritorious author from oblivion, and restore him to his true position on the roll of fame.
It is near a century and a half since Ant. Wood printed a notice of the reverend Thomas Powell, and more than a century since the inquisitive Oldys devoted eighteen pages to an abstract of his Human industry;—yet we search in vain for the name of Powell in the dictionaries of Aikin, Watkins, Chalmers, Gorton, &c.—It is even omitted in the Cambrian biogarphy of his countryman William Owen, F.S.A.
An exact transcript of the title of the work, and of the manuscript notes which enrich my own copy of it, may therefore be acceptable:—
"Humane industry; or, a history of most manual arts, deducing the original, progress, and improvement of them. Furnished with variety of instances and examples, shewing forth the excellency of humane wit. [Anonymous.] London, for Henry Herringman, 1661." 8º.
[On the title.] "E libris rarioribus Joannis Brand, Coll. Line. Oxon. 1777."
[On a fly-leaf.] "This book is ascribed by Wood to Dr. Tho'm. Powell, canon of St. David's, who was, says he, 'an able philosopher, a curious critic, and well versed in various languages.' See an abstract of this scarce book in Oldys's British librarian, p. 42."
"N.B.—The above is the hand-writing of the Rev'd. M'r. Granger, author of the biographical history.– I bought it of Mr. Prince, at Oxford, who purchased his books." [John Brand.]
I have now only to consign the learned Powell to future biographers, and to recommend the volume as one which deserves a place in every choice collection of English books.
BOLTON CORNEY.
MINOR NOTES
Quotations from Pope.
D***N**R. (p. 38.), gives, as an instance of misquotation, a passage from Pope, as it appeared in the Times, and adds a correction of it. As my memory suggested a version different from both that of the Times, and the correction of your correspondent, I turned to Pope (Bowles edition, 1806), and found the passage there, precisely as it is given from the Times. Has your correspondent any authority for his reading? No various reading of the lines is given by Bowles.
While on the subject of Pope, I will make a note (as I have not seen it noticed by his commentators), that the well-known line,
"The proper study of mankind is man,"
is literally from Charron (De la Sagesse, I. i. ch. 1.)—
"La vraye science et le vray etude de l'homme c'est l'homme."
F.F.B.
[We may add, that in the Aldine edition of Pope, which was produced under the editorial superintendence of the Rev. A. Dyce, the lines are given as quoted from the Times, and without any various reading. See vol. ii. p. 55.]
Angels' Visits.
Campbell's famous line,
"Like angels visits, few and far between,"
has been clearly shown by a correspondent in another paper, to be all but copied from Blair:—
—– "like an ill-used ghost Not to return;—or if it did, its visits Like those of angels, short and far between."
Blair's Grave.
But the same phrase, though put differently, occurs in a religious poem of Norris of Bemerton, who died in 1711:—
"But those who soonest take their flight, Are the most exquisite and strong, Like angels visits, short and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long."
WICCAMECUS.
Extract from Parish Register of North Runcton, Norfolk.
Sir,—As a pendant to the extracts from the register of East Peckham, Kent, in your third number, I send the following, which I copied some time ago from one of the register books of the parish of North Runcton, Norfolk, and which may prove interesting to some of your readers.
C.W.G
"Jun. 12. 1660.
"Reader,—Lest whatever pseudography (as there is much thereof) occurring to thy intentionall or accidentall view of the following pages in this book should prove offensive to thee, I thought good to give thee an account of what hath occasioned the same, viz. In the woful days of the late usurper, the registring of births, not baptisms, was injoyned and required, to give a liberty to all the adversaries of Pedobaptisme, &c., and, besides some circumstances, too unhandsome for the calling and person of a minister, were then allso annexed to him that was to keep a register of all, &c.; and so it came to passe, that persons of no learning, for many places, were chosen by y'e parish, and ministers declined the office.
NATH ROWLES."
The Norman Crusader.
"The Norman Crusader," in the horse-armoury in the Tower of London, or a part of it, came from Green's Museum. He obtained the hauberk from Tong Castle. At the dispersion of the Museum, the hauberk was purchased by Bullock, of Liverpool (afterwards of the Egyptian Hall), in whose catalogue for 1808 it appears as a standing figure, holding a brown bill in the right hand, and resting the left upon a heater shield.
Bullock at this time added the chauses.—In 1810, the "London Museum" was opened at the "Egyptian Temple" (Hall), the figure as before; but, in the catalogue for 1813, we have the man and horse standing in front of the gallery, and named "The Norman Crusader."
At the "decline and fall" of Bullock's Museum, Mr. Gwennap purchased the Crusader for, it is said, 200 guineas; and after being put in thorough repair, it was placed in the "Aplotheca," Brook Street, Mr. Gwennap, jun. adding the sword.
During its repair, it was discovered that the armour was not originally made for a horse, but for an elephant; and, on inquiry, it appeared that Bullock had purchased it, together with other curiosities, of a sailor, had taken it to pieces, and formed the armour for the horse.
At the sale of Gwennap's collection, "The Norman Crusader" was knocked down by Geo. Robins to a Mr. Bentley, for 30l., and he being unable to polish it, as he had intended, sold it to the authorities at the Tower for one hundred guineas, where it is exhibited as "The Norman Crusader."
NASO.
Lady Jane of Westmoreland.
Sir,—On page 206. of Mr. Collier's second volume of Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, the following entry occurs:– "1585-6. Cold and uncoth blowes, of the lady Jane of Westmorland." And on page 211., "A songe of Lady Jane of Westmorland." Mr. Collier considers these entries to refer to the same production.
The name of Lady Jane of Westmoreland does not occur in Park's edition of Royal and Noble Authors; but it would clearly be entitled to a place there, if we can ascertain who she was.
I have little doubt she was Jane, daughter of Thomas Manvers, first Earl of Rutland, and first wife of Henry Nevill, fifth Earl of Westmoreland, by whom she was mother of Charles, Earl of Westmoreland, one of the chiefs of the northern rebellion.
Collins, under the title "Rutland," states that Anne, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Rutland, married Henry, Earl of Westmoreland; but under the title "Abergavenny" he states that the same Henry, Earl of Westmoreland, married Jane, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Rutland. The last statement I presume to be the correct one.
I can find no other person, at the period in question, to whom the title of Lady Jane of Westmoreland could have been attributed; and her sister Frances, who also married a Henry Nevill (fourth Lord Abergavenny of that name), is known to have been an authoress. An account of her will be found in the first volume of the Royal and Noble Authors, by Park. Lady Frances Abergavenny (whose work is entered on page 52. of Mr. Collier's second volume), had an only daughter, who married Sir Thomas Fane, and from this marriage the present Earl of Westmoreland is descended.
Q.D.
NOTES IN ANSWER TO QUERIES
The Lobster in the Medal of the Pretender.
Your correspondent, Mr. B. NIGHTINGALE, desires an answer to his Query (in your No. 4), Why is the figure of a Lobster introduced into the impression upon the rare medal struck 20th June, 1688, in contempt or ridicule of Prince James Edward, the newly-born son of King James II.?
A reference to the two following works will, perhaps, supply the answer:—
1st. In Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History (a great authority at the time) this passage occurs in book ix. cap. 30.:—
"Lobsters, so long as they are secure of any fear and danger, go directly straight, letting down their hornes at length along their sides;… but if they be in any fear, up go their hornes straight—and then they creep byas and go sidelong."
And in the next chapter (31.):—
"Crabs" (which were often confounded with lobsters) "when they will be afraid, will recule backward, as fast as they went forward."
2nd. In the celebrated work of Sebastian Brandt, entitled Stultifera Naxis (which went through many editions after its first appearance in 1494), is an engraving of a fool, wearing cap and bells, seated astride on the back of a lobster, with a broken reed in his hand, and a pigeon flying past him as he stares vacantly at it with open mouth. The following lines are attached:—
DE PREDESTINATIONE
"Qui pretium poseit quod non meruisse videtur,
Atque super fragilem ponit sua brachia cannam
Illius in dorso Cancrorum semita stabit;
Devolet inque suum rictum satis assa Columba."
It appears, then, to me, that the design of the medallist was to hold up to the exceration of the English people the machinations of Father Petre, who (together with Sunderland) guided the councils of the king at the juncture. The Jesuits, like the crustaceous fish above-mentioned, were alleged to accomplish their dark and crooked designs by creeping and sedulously working their way straight forward through the mud, until some real danger presented itself, and then reculing with equal adroitness.
At this time, too, the bigoted and superstitious adherents of James had been offering their vows at every shrine, and even making pilgrimages, to induce Heaven to grant a male heir to the throne, and thus exclude the Protestant daughters of the king. The premature and unexpected event, therefore, of the birth of a son, was pronounced by James's friends to have been predestined by the special grace of the Most High. All this, I apprehend, was intended to be typified by the figure of the Jesuit Petre riding upon a Lobster.
JOS. BROOKS YATES
Straw Necklaces—Method of keeping Notes, &c.
Sir,—As I see this matter is not yet explained, I venture a suggestion. Wheat straw was an emblem of peace among heathen nations; in it the first-fruits brought by Abaris the Hyperborean to Delos were wrapped; and when commerce, or rather trade by barter, had rendered transmission from hand to hand practicable, wheat straw was still used. With the worship of Diana the offering of wheat straw passed over to Thrace, where it was a recognition of that goddess as the patron of chastity. In Judea the wheat harvest was later than that of barley, the Jews therefore offered a sheaf of the latter grain as first-fruits; it is, however, extraordinary that Moses orders barley-meal as the offering for jealousy (Numbers, v 15.), though the price of barley was but half that of wheat. It seems as if there were the same connection between this peace-offering and that of the first-fruits with the Jews, that we see between the offering to Diana and the first-fruits of the Hyperboreans; both may have been derived from Egypt, in the learning of which, we are told, Moses was skilled. The straw necklace or chaplet of Erasmus' pilgrim might be worn to secure him from molestation in travelling, or it may refer to the patroness of Walsingham, the Virgin Mary.
I dare say many persons have thought with me, that a poet's promise of a "belt of straw" to his love, was not a very complimentary one; one possible meaning never struck me till this moment: it may be a compliment unconsciously drawn from a heathen source, and perpetuated, like so many of our old-world customs, among a class of people the least likely to understand the meaning.
Another corroboration of Macaulay's Young Levite may be found in The Tatler, No. 255, sixty years later than Burton.
I beg to suggest a method of keeping "Notes," which I have found useful. I have a blank book for each quarter of the world, paged alphabetically; I enter my notes and queries according to the subject for which they are most likely to be required; if relating to mere geography or history, under the name of place or person. I also keep a list (with dates) of all the books I read, with a note of any use to be made of them; I also keep a list of all books to be read, and the reasons for reading them. I tried various ways of keeping my notes, and found no classification so easy for reference as the plan I have mentioned; it may not, however, suffice to those whose reading is much more extensive than mine; I mention it as a working plan.
F.C.B.
