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Queries

NICHOLAS FERRAR OF LITTLE GIDDING

Dr. Peckard, in his Preface to the Life of Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding, says the memoir he published was edited or compiled by him from "the original MS. still in my possession" (p. xi.); and in the Appendix adds, that "Mr. John Ferrar," the elder brother of Nicholas, was the author of it (p. 279.).

How he compiled or edited "the original MS." he states with much candour in his Preface (p. xv.):

"The editor's intention," in altering the narrative, "was to give what is not observed in the original, a regular series of facts; and through the whole a sort of evenness and simplicity of stile equally free from meanness and affectation. In short, to make the old and the new, as far as he could, uniform; that he might not appear to have sewed a piece of new cloth to an old garment, and made its condition worse by his endeavours to mend it."

Again, at page 308., he says,

"There is an antient MS. in folio, giving an account of Mr. N. Ferrar, which at length, from Gidding, came into the hands of Mr. Ed. Ferrar of Huntingdon, and is now in the possession of the editor. Mr. Peck had the use of this MS. as appears by several marginal notes in his handwriting; from this and some loose and unconnected papers of Mr. Peck.... the editor, as well as he was able, has made out the foregoing memoirs."

Can any of your numerous correspondents inform me if this "antient MS." is still in existence, and in whose possession?

Peckard was related to the Ferrars, and was Master of Magdalen Coll., Cambridge.

In "A Catalogue of MSS. (once) at Gidding," Peckard, p. 306., the third article is "Lives, Characters, Histories, and Tales for moral and religious Instruction, in five volumes folio, neatly bound and gilt, by Mary Collet." This work, with five others, "undoubtedly were all written by N. Ferrar, Sen.," says Dr. Peckard; and in the Memoir, at page 191., he gives a list of these "short histories," ninety-eight in number, "which are still remaining in my possession;" and adds further, at p. 194.,

"These lives, characters, and moral essays would, I think, fill two or three volumes in 8vo., but they are written in so minute a character, that I cannot form any conjecture to be depended upon."

I have been thus particular in describing these "histories", because the subjects of them are identical with those in Fuller's Holy and Profane State, the first edition of which was published at Cambridge, in 1642. "The characters I have conformed," says Fuller in his Preface, "to the then standing laws of the realm (a twelvemonth ago were they sent to the press), since which time the wisdom of the King and state hath" altered many things. Nicholas Ferrar died December 2, 1637, and the Query I wish to ask is, Did Fuller compose them (for that he was really the author of them can hardly be doubted) at the suggestion and for the benefit of the community at Gidding, some years before he published them; and is it possible to ascertain and determine if the MS. is in the handwriting of Ferrar or Fuller?

Is there any print or view in existence of the "Nunnery," at Little Gidding?

In the Life of Dr. Thomas Fuller, published anonymously in 1661, it is stated, that at his funeral a customary sermon was preached by Dr. Hardy, Dean of Rochester, "which hath not yet (though it is hoped and much desired may) passe the presse," p. 63.

Query. Was this sermon ever published? and secondly, who was the author of the Life from which the above passage is quoted?

John Miland.

STUKELEY'S "STONEHENGE."

May I request a space in your periodical for the following Queries, drawn from Dr. Stukeley's Stonehenge and Abury, p. 31.?

1st. "But eternally to be lamented is the loss of that tablet of tin, which was found at this place (Stonehenge) in the time of King Henry VIII., inscribed with many letters, but in so strange a character that neither Sir Thomas Elliott, a learned antiquary, nor Mr. Lilly, master of St. Paul's school, could make any thing out of it. Mr. Sammes may be right, who judges it to have been Punic. I imagine if we call it Irish we shall not err much. No doubt but what it was a memorial of the founders, wrote by the Druids and had it been preserved till now, would have been an invaluable curiosity."

Can you or any of your contributors give me any further information about this inscription?

2. The Doctor continues,

"To make the reader some amends for such a loss I have given a specimen of supposed Druid writing, out of Lambecius' account of the Emperor's library at Vienna. 'Tis wrote on a very thin plate of gold with a sharp-pointed instrument. It was in an urn found at Vienna, rolled up in several cases of other metal, together with funeral exuviæ. It was thought by the curious, one of those epistles which the Celtic people were wont to send to their friends in the other world. The reader may divert himself with trying to explain it."

Has this inscription ever been explained, and how? Stukeley's book is by no means a rare one; therefore I have not trusted myself to copy the inscription: and such as feel disposed to help me in my difficulty would doubtless prefer seeing the Doctor's own illustration at p. 31.

Henry Cunliffe.

Hyde Park Street.

ATHELSTANE'S FORM OF DONATION.—MEANING OF "SOMAGIA."

Tristram Risdon, in his quaint Survey of the Co. of Devon, after mentioning the foundation of the church of High Bickington by King Athelstane,

"Who," he says, "gave to God and it one hide of land, as appeareth by the donation, a copy whereof, for the antiquity thereof, I will here insert: 'Iche Athelstane king, grome of this home, geve and graunt to the preist of this chirch, one yoke of mye land frelith to holde, woode in my holt house to buyld, bitt grass for all hys beasts, fuel for hys hearth, pannage for hys sowe and piggs, world without end,'"—

adds presently afterwards, that

"Sir John Willington gave Weeksland in this tything, unto Robert Tolla, cum 40 somagia annuatim capiend in Buckenholt (so be the words of the grant) in the time of K. Edw. I."

The Willingtons were lords of the manor of Umberleigh, where Athelstane's palace stood, with its chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity, formerly rich in ancient monuments, and having a chantry near to it. Some of the monuments from this chapel are still preserved in the neighbouring church of Atherington.

My Queries upon this Note are:

1. Whence did Risdon derive his copy of King Athelstane's form of donation? 2. What is the precise meaning of the word Somagia?

In Ducange (ed. Par. 1726, tom. vi. col. 589.) I find:

"Somegia. Præstatio, ut videtur ex summis, v. gr. bladi, frumenti. Charta Philippi Reg. Franc. an. 1210. Idem etiam Savaricus detinet sibi census suos, et venditiones, et quosdam reditus, qui Somegiæ vocantur, et avenam, et captagia hominum et foeminarum suarum, qui reditus cum una Somegiarum in festo B. Remigii persolverentur; deinde secunda Somegia in vicesima die Natalis Domini, et tertia in Octabis Resurrectionis Dominicæ, ei similiter persolventur; caponum etiam suorum in crastino Natalis Domini percipiet solutionem: unaquæque vero somegiarum quatuor denarios bonæ monetæ valet."

Ducange refers also to some kindred words; but, instead of clearing up my difficulty in the word somagia, he presents me with another in captagia, the meaning of which I do not clearly understand. Perhaps some of your more learned contributors will obligingly help me to the true import of these words?

J. Sansom.

Minor Queries

Charade.—Can any one tell who is the author of the following charade? No doubt, the lines are well known to many of your readers, although I have never seen them in print. It has been said that Dr. Robinson, a physician, wrote them. It strikes me that the real author, whoever he be, richly deserves to be named in "Notes and Queries."

 
"Me, the contented man desires,
The poor man has, the rich requires;
The miser gives, the spendthrift saves,
And all must carry to their graves."
 

It can scarcely be necessary to add that the answer is, nothing.

Alfred Gatty.

July 1. 1850.

"Smoke Money."—Under this name is collected every year at Battle, in Sussex, by the Constable, one penny from every householder, and paid to the Lord of the Manor. What is its origin and meaning?

B.

"Rapido contrarius orbi."—What divine of the seventeenth century adopted these words as his motto? They are part of a line in one of Owen's epigrams.

N.B.

Lord Richard Christophilus.—Can any of your readers give any account of Lord Richard Christophilus, a Turk converted to Christianity, to whom, immediately after the Restoration, in July, 1660, the Privy Council appointed a pension of 50l. a-year, and an additional allowance of 2l. a-week.

CH.

Fiz-gigs.—In those excellent poems, Sandys's Paraphrases on Job and other Books of the Bible, there is a word of a most destructive character to the effect. Speaking of leviathan, he asks,

"Canst thou with fiz-gigs pierce him to the quick?"

It may be an ignorant question, but I do not know what fiz-gigs are.

C.B.

Specimens of Erica in Bloom.—Can any of your correspondents oblige me by the information where I can procure specimens in bloom of the following plants, viz. Erica crescenta, Erica paperina, E. purpurea, E. flammea, and at what season they come into blossom in England? If specimens are not procurable without much expense and trouble, can you supply me with the name of a work in which these plants are figured?

E.S.

Dover.

Michael Scott, the Wizard.—What works by Michael Scott, the reputed wizard, (Sir Walter's Deus ex Machina in The Lay of the Last Minstrel), have been printed?

X.Y.A.

Stone Chalices.—Can any of the readers of "Notes and Queries" inform me whether the use of stone chalices was authorised by the ancient constitutions of the Church; and, if so, at what period, and where the said constitutions were enacted?

X.Y.A.