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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 sped
Its 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 man
That 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.
Clericus Rusticus.
"History of Jesus Christ."—G. L. S. will feel obliged by any correspondent of "N. & Q." stating who is the author of the following work?—
"The History of the Incarnation, Life, Doctrine and Miracles, the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. In Seven Books; illustrated with Notes, and interspersed with Dissertations, theological, historical, geographical and critical.
"To which are added the Lives, Actions, and Sufferings of the Twelve Apostles; also of Saint Paul, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, and Saint Barnabas. Together with a Chronological Table from the beginning of the reign of Herod the Great to the end of the Apostolic Age. By a Divine of the Church of England.
"London: printed for T. Cooper, at the Globe, in Paternoster Row, 1737."
This work is in one folio volume, and all I can ascertain of its authorship is that it was not written by Bishop Gibson, of "Preservative" fame.
Quantity of the Latin Termination -anus.—Proper names having the termination -anus are always long in Latin and short in Greek; thus, the Claudiānus, Luciānus, &c. of the Latins are Κλαυδιᾰνος and Λουκιᾰνος in Greek. What is to be said of the word Χριστιανος? Is it long or short, admitting it to be long in the Latin tongue?
While on the subject of quantities, let me ask, where is the authority for that of the name of the queen of the Ethiopians, Candace, to be found? We always pronounce it long, but all books of authority mark it as short.
Anti-Barbarus.
Webb and Walker Families.—Perhaps you or some of your numerous readers could inform me if the Christian names of Daniel and Roger were used 160 or 180 years ago by any of the numerous families of Webb or Webbe, resident in Wilts or elsewhere; and if so, in what family of that name? And is there any pedigree of them extant? and where is it to be found?
Was the Rev. Geo. Walker, the defender of Derry, connected with the Webbs? and if so, how, and with what family?
Is there any Webb mentioned in history at the siege of Derry? and if so, to what family of that name did he belong?
Gulielmus.
Cawdrey's "Treasure of Similes."—I stumbled lately at a book-stall on a very curious old book entitled A Treasurie or Store-house of Similes both pleasant, delightfull, and profitable. The title-page is gone; but in an old hand on the cover it is stated to have been written by a certain "Cawdrey," and to have been printed in 1609, where I cannot discover. Can any of your correspondents oblige me with some information concerning him? The book is marked "scarce."
J. H. S.
Point of Etiquette.—Will some of your numerous correspondents kindly inform me as to the rule in such a case as the following: when an elder brother has lost both his daughters in his old age, does the eldest daughter of the younger brother take the style of Miss Smith, Jones, Brown, or Robinson, as the case may be?
F. D., M.R.C.S.
Napoleon's Spelling.—Macaulay, in his History of England, chap. vii., quotes, in a foot-note, a passage from a letter of William III., written in French to his ambassador at Paris, and then makes this remark, "The spelling is bad, but not worse than Napoleon's."
Can you refer me to some authentic proof of the fact that Napoleon was unable to spell correctly? It is well known that he affected to put his thoughts upon paper with great rapidity; and the consequence of this practice was, that in almost every word some letters were dropped, or their places indicated by dashes. But this was only one of those numerous contrivances, to which he was in the habit of resorting, in order to impress those around him with an idea of his greatness.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
Trench on Proverbs.—Mr. Trench, in this excellent little work, states that the usual translation of Psalm cxxvii. 2. is incorrect:
"Let me remind you of such [proverbs] also as the following, often quoted or alluded to by Greek and Latin authors: The net of the sleeping (fisherman) takes3; a proverb the more interesting, that we have in the words of the Psalmist (Ps. cxxvii. 2.), were they accurately translated, a beautiful and perfect parallel; 'He giveth his beloved' (not 'sleep,' but) 'in their sleep;' his gifts gliding into their bosoms, they knowing not how, and as little expecting as leaving laboured for them."
The Hebrew is יִתֵּן לִידִידוֹ שֵׁנָא, the literal translation of which, "He giveth (or, He will give) to his beloved sleep," seems to me to be correct.
As Mr. Trench is a reader of "N. & Q.," perhaps he would have the kindness to mention in its pages the ground he has for his proposed translation.
E. M. B.
Rings formerly worn by Ecclesiastics.—In describing the finger-ring found in the grave of the Venerable Bede, the writer of A brief Account of Durham Cathedral adds,—
"No priest, during the reign of Catholicity, was buried or enshrined without his ring."—P. 81.
I have seen a similar statement elsewhere, and wish to ask, 1st, Were priests formerly buried with the ring? 2ndly, If so, was it a mere custom, or was it ordered or authorised by any rubric or canon of our old English Church?
I am very strongly of opinion that such never was the custom, and that the statement above quoted has its origin in the confounding priests with bishops. Martene says, when speaking of the manner of burying bishops,—
"Episcopus debet habere annulum, quia sponsus est. Cæteri sacerdotes non, quia sponsi non sunt, sed amici sponsi vel vicarii."—De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus, lib. III. cap. xii. n. 11.
Ceyrep.
Butler's "Lives of the Saints."—Can any of your correspondents supply a correct list of the various editions of this popular work? The notices in Watt and Lowndes are very unsatisfactory.
J. Yeowell.
Marriage of Cousins.—It was asserted to me the other day that marriage with a second cousin is, by the laws of England, illegal, and that succession to property has been lately barred to the issue of such marriage, though the union of first cousins entails no such consequences. Is there any foundation for this statement?
J. P.
Castle Thorpe 4, Bucks.—A traditional rhyme is current at this place which says that—
"If it hadn't been for Cobb-bush Hill,
Thorpe Castle would have stood there still."
or the last line, according to another version,—
"There would have been a castle at Thorpe still."
Now it appears from Lipscomb's History of the county, that the castle was demolished by Fulke de Brent about 1215; how then can this tradition be explained?
Cobb-bush Hill, I am told, is more than half a mile from the village.
H. Thos. Wake.
Where was Edward II. killed?—Hume and Lingard state that this monarch was murdered at Berkeley Castle. Echard and Rapin are silent, both as to the event and as to the locality. But an earlier authority, viz. Martyn, in his Historie and Lives of Twentie Kings, 1615, says:
"He was committed to the Castle of Killingworth, and Prince Edward was crowned king. And not long after, the king being removed to the Castle of Corff, was wickedly assayled by his keepers, who, through a horne which they put in his," &c.
What authority had Martyn for these statements?
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
Encore.—Perhaps some correspondent of "N. & Q." can assign a reason why we use this French word in our theatres and concert rooms, to express our desire for the repetition of favourite songs, &c. I should also like to know at what period it was introduced.
A. A.
Amcotts' Pedigree.—Can any of your correspondents supply me with a full pedigree of Amcotts of Astrop, co. Lincolnshire? I do not refer to the Visitations, but to the later descents of the family. The last heir male was, I believe, Vincent Amcotts, Esq., great-grandfather to the present Sir William Amcotts Ingilby, Bart. Elizabeth Amcotts, who married, 19th July, 1684, John Toller, Esq., of Billingborough Hall in Lincolnshire, was one of this family, and I suppose aunt to Vincent Amcotts. I may mention, the calendars of the Will Office at Lincoln have no entries of the name of Amcotts between 1670 and 1753.
Tewars.
Blue Bell—Blue Anchor.—A bell painted blue is a common tavern sign in this country (United States); and the blue anchor is also to be met with in many places. As these signs evidently had their origin in England, and one of them is alluded to in the old Scotch ballad "The Blue Bell of Scotland," it seems to me that the best method to apply for information upon the subject is to ask "N. & Q." Are these signs of inns heraldic survivors of old time; are they corruptions of some other emblem, such as that which in London transformed La Belle Sauvage into the Bell Savage, pictorialised by an Indian ringing a hand-bell; or is the choice of such improper colour as blue for a bell and an anchor a species of symbolism the meaning of which is not generally known?
.
Philadelphia.
"We've parted for the longest time."—Would you insert these lines in your paper, the author of which I seek to know, as well as the remaining verses?
"We've parted for the longest time, we ever yet did part,
And I have felt the last wild throb of that enduring heart:
Thy cold and tear-wet cheek has lain for the last time to mine,
And I have pressed in agony those trembling lips of thine."
R. Jermyn Cooper.
The Rectory, Chiltington Hunt, Sussex.
Matthew Lewis.—Allow me to solicit information, through the medium of "N. & Q.," where I can see a pedigree of Matthew Lewis, Esq., Deputy Secretary of War for many years under the Right Hon. William Windham, then M.P. for Norwich, and other Secretaries-at-War. I rather think Mr. Lewis married a daughter of Sir Thomas Sewell, Kt., Master of the Rolls from 1764 to 1784; and had a son, Matthew Gregory Lewis, known as Monk Lewis, who was M.P. for Hindon at the close of the last century: a very clever but eccentric young man. I also believe Lieut.-Gen. John Whitelocke, and Gen. Sir Thos. Brownrigg, G.C.B., who died in 1838, were connected by marriage with the Sewell or Lewis families.
C. H. F.
Paradise Lost.—In A Treatise on the Dramatic Literature of the Greeks, by the Rev. J. R. Darley, I read the following remark:
"In our own literature also, the efforts of our early dramatists were directed to subjects derived from religion; even the Paradise Lost is composed of a series of minor pieces, originally cast in dramatic form, of which the creation and fall of man, and the several episodes which were introduced subordinately to these grand events, were the subject-matter."
This statement being at variance with the received opinion, that Milton, from his early youth, had meditated the composition of an epic poem, I would inquire whether there is any evidence to support Mr. Darley's view? Milton has been charged with having borrowed the design of Paradise Lost from some Italian author; and this allegation, coupled with that made by Mr. Darley, would, if founded, reduce our great national epic to what Hazlitt has described as "patchwork and plagiarism, the beggarly copiousness of borrowed wealth."
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
Colonel Hyde Seymour.—Who was "Colonel Hyde Seymour?" I find his name written in a book, The Life of William the Third, 1703.
H. T. Ellacombe.
Vault at Richmond, Yorkshire.—In Speed's plan of Richmond, in Yorkshire, is represented the mouth of a "vault that goeth under the river, and ascendeth up into the Castell." Was there ever such a vault, and how came it to be destroyed or lost sight of? One who knows Richmond well tells me that he never heard of it.
O. L. R. G.
Poems published at Manchester.—Can any contributor to "N. & Q." inform me who was the author of a volume of Poems on Several Occasions, published by subscription at Manchester; printed for the author by R. Whitworth, in the year 1733? It is an 8vo. of 138 pages; has on the title-page a line from Ovid:
"Jure, tibi grates, candide lector, ago,"
and begins with an "Address to all my Subscribers;" after which follow several pages of subscribers' names, which consist chiefly of Staffordshire and Cheshire gentry. My copy (for the possession of which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Bliss, the Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford) was formerly in the library of Mr. Heber, who has thus noted its purchase on the fly-leaf, "Feb. 1811, Ford, Manchester, 7s. 6d." Dr. Bliss has added, on the same fly-leaf, "Heber's fourth sale, No. 1908, not in the Bodleian Catalogue." The first poem in the book is "A Pastoral to the Memory of Sir Thomas Delves, Baronet." It is probably a scarce book; but possibly some of your book-learned correspondents may help me to the author's name.
W. Sneyd.
Denton.
Handel's Dettingen Te Deum.—Any information as to the circumstances under which Handel composed this celebrated Te Deum, and the place and occasion of its first public performance, will be welcome to
Philo-Handel.
Edmund Spenser and Sir Hans Sloane, Bart.—As I believe myself (morally speaking) to be lineally descended from the former of these celebrated men, and collaterally from the latter, may I request that information may be forwarded me, either through your columns or by correspondence, regarding the descendants of the great poet and his ancestry; and also whether, among the many thousand volumes bequeathed by Sir Hans to the nation, some record does not exist tending to prove his genealogical descent? At present I know of no other pedigree than that Mr. Burke has given of him in his Extinct Baronetage. I shall feel exceedingly gratified if any assistance can be given me relating to these two families.
W. Sloane Sloane-Evans.
Cornworthy Vicarage, Totnes.
