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MINOR NOTES

Circulation of the Blood.—About twenty-five years since, being in a public library in France, a learned physician pointed out to me in the works of the Venerable Bede a passage in which the fact of the circulation of the blood appeared to him and myself to be clearly stated. I regret that I did not, at the time, "make a note of it," and that I cannot now refer to it, not having access to a copy of Bede: and I now mention it in hopes that some of your correspondents may think it worth while to make it a subject of research.

J. MN.

Culprit, Origin of the Word.—Long ago I made this note, that this much used English word was of French extraction, and that it was "qu'il paruit," from the short way the clerk of the court has of pronouncing his words; for our pleadings were formerly in French, and when the pleadings were begun, he said to the defendant "qu'il parait"—culprit; and as he was generally culpable, the "qu'il parait" became a synonyme with offender.

T.

Cambridge.

[Does not our ingenious correspondent point at the more correct origin of culprit, when he speaks of the defendant being "generally culpable?"]

Collar of SS.—In the volume of Bury Wills just issued by the Camden Society, is an engraving from the decorations of the chantry chapel in St. Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmund's, of John Baret, who died in 146-; in which the collar is represented as SS in the upright form set on a collar of leather or other material. It is described in the will as "my collar of the king's livery." John Baret, says the editor of the Wills, was a lay officer of the monastery of St. Edmund, probably treasurer, and was deputed to attend Henry VI. on the occasion of the king's long visit to that famed monastic establishment in 14—.

BURIENSIS.

The Singing of Swans.—"It would," says Bishop Percy (Mallet's North. Antiq., ii. p. 72.), "be a curious subject of disquisition, to inquire what could have given rise to so arbitrary and groundless a notion as the singing of swans," which "hath not wanted assertors from almost every nation." (Sir T. Browne.)

 
"Not in more swelling whiteness sails
Cayster's swan to western gales, ³
When the melodious murmur sings
'Mid her slow-heav'd voluptuous wings."
 

T.J.

Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs.—In consequence of the suggestion of Δ. (Vol. ii., p. 220.), I have applied to the owner of Sir T. Herbert's MS. account of the last days of Charles I., and the answer which I have received is as follows:

"I found the first part of Sir Thos. Herbert's MS. (56 pages) is not in the edition of Woods Athenæ Lord W. has; but I found a note in a pedigree book, saying it was printed in 1702, 8vo. I suppose it can be ascertained whether this is true."

Perhaps some of your readers may know whether there is such a volume in existence as that described by my friend.

ALFRED GATTY.

Portraits of Stevens and Cotton and Bunyan.—The plan of "NOTES AND QUERIES" appears well adapted to record the change of hands into which portraits of literary men may pass. I accordingly offer two to your notice.

The portrait of George Stevens, the celebrated annotator on Shakspeare, who died in 1800, was bequeathed by him to a relative, Mrs. Gomm of Spital Square; and at that lady's death, some years after, it passed, I have reason to expect, into the possession of her relative, Mr. Fince, of Bishopsgate Street. I have no farther information of it.

The portrait of Charles Cotton, by Sir Peter Lely, was, at the time (1814) when Linnell took a copy, and (in 1836) when Humphreys took a copy, in the possession of John Berisford, Esq., of Compton House, Ashborne, Derbyshire; and the following extracts of letters will show who at present possesses it:—

"Leek, 14th July, 1842.

"After Mr. Berisford's decease, I should think the portrait of Cotton would fall into the hands of his nephew Francis Wright, Esq., of Linton Hall, near Nottingham.

I am, &c. &c"

"Linton Hall, Aug. 19. 1842.

"Sir,—The Rev. J. Martin, of Trinity College, Cambridge, is the possessor of the portrait of Cotton to which your letter alludes. I am, Dear Sir,

"Yours, in haste,

"F. WRIGHT."

I avail myself of the present opportunity to ask the authority for the portrait of Bunyan appended to his ever-fresh allegory. The engraved portrait I have has not the name of the painter.

O.W.

 
Sonnet: Attempting to prove that Black is White.—
That white was really black, and black was white;
But I believe it has not yet been done.
Black (Saxon, Blac) in any way to liken
With candour may seem almost out of reach;
Yet whiten is in kindred German bleichen,
Undoubtedly identical with bleach:
This last verb's cognate adjective is bleak—
Reverting to the Saxon, bleak is blæk.
A semivowel is, at the last squeak,
All that remains such difference wide to make—
The hostile terms of keen antithesis
Brought to an E plus ultra all but kiss!"
 

MEZZOTINTO.

Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks, 1626.—MR. HEBER says, "Who has seen another copy?" In Tanner's Collection in the Bodleian Library is one copy, and in the British Museum is another, the latter from Mr. Bright's Collection.

W.P.

[Another copy is in the valuable collection of the Rev. T. Corser. See that gentleman's communication on Nicholas Breton, in our First Vol., p. 409.]

QUERIES

THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM

An ill-starred town in England seems to have enjoyed so unenviable a reputation for some centuries for the folly and stupidity of its inhabitants, that I am induced to send you the following Query (with the reasons on which it is founded) in the hope that some of your readers may be able to help one to a solution.

Query: Why have the men of Gotham been long famous for their extreme folly?

My authorities are,—

1. The Nursery Rhyme,—

 
"Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl;
If the bowl had been stronger,
My story would have been longer."
 

2. Drunken Barnaby's Journal (edit. London, 1822, p. 25.), originally printed 1774, London:

 
"Veni Gotham, ubi multos
Si non omnes, vidi stultos,
Nam scrutando reperi unam
Salientem contra lunam
Alteram nitidam puellam
Offerentem porco sellam."
 
 
"Thence to Gotham, where, sure am I,
If, though not all fools, saw I many;
Here a she-bull found I prancing,
And in moonlight nimbly dancing;
There another wanton mad one,
Who her hog was set astride on."
 

3. In the "Life of Robin Hood" prefixed to Ritson's Collection of Ballads concerning Robin Hood (People's edit. p. 27.), the following story, extracted from Certaine Merry Tales of the Madmen of Gottam, by Dr. Andrew Borde, an eminent physician, temp. Hen. VIII. (Black letter), in Bodleian Library, occurs:—

"There was two men of _Gottam, and the one of them was going to the market to Nottingham to buy sheepe, and the other came from the market; and both met together upon Nottingham bridge. Well met, said the one to the other. Whither be yee going? said he that came from Nottingham. Marry, said he that was going thither, I goe to the market to buy sheepe. Buy sheepe? said the other, and which way wilt thou bring them home? Marry, said the other, I will bring them over this bridge. By Robin Hood, said he that came from Nottingham, but thou shalt not. By Maid Marrion, said he that was going thitherward, but I will. Thou shalt not, said the one. I will, said the other. Ter here! said the one. Shue there! said the other. Then they beat their staves against the ground, one against the other, as there had been an hundred sheepe betwixt them. Hold in, said the one. Beware the leaping over the bridge of any sheepe, said the other. I care not, said the other. They shall not come this way, said the one. But they shall, said the other. Then said the other, and if that thou make much to doe, I will put my finger in thy mouth. A t..d thou wilt, said the other. And as they were at their contention, another man of Gottam came from the market with a sack of meale upon a horse, and seeing and hearing his neighbours at strife for sheepe, and none betwixt them, said, Ah, fooles, will you never learn wit? Helpe me, said he that had the meale, and lay my sacke upon my shoulder. They did so and he went to the one side of the bridge, and unloosed the mouth of the sacke, and did shake out all his meale into the river. Now, neighbours, said the mall, how much meale is there in my sacke now? Marry, there is none at all, said they. Now, by my faith, said he, even as much wit as in your two heads, to strive for that thing you have not. Which was the wisest of all these three persons, judge you?"

4. Tom Coryat, in an oration to the Duke of York (afterwards Chas. I.), called Crambe, or Colwarts twice sodden (London, 1611), has this passage:—

"I came to Venice, and quickly took a survey of the whole model of the city, together with the most remarkable matters thereof; and shortly after any arrival in England I overcame any adversaries in the Town of Evill, in my native county of Somersetshire, who thought to have sunk me in a bargain of pilchards, as the wise men of Gottam went about to drown an eel."

5. Dr. More's Antidote against Atheism, cap. ii. § 14.:

"But because so many bullets joggled together in a man's hat will settle a determinate figure, or because the frost and wind will draw upon doors and glass windows pretty uncouth streaks like feathers and other fooleries which are to no use or purpose, try infer thence, that all the contrivances that are in nature, even the frame of the bodies, both of men and beasts, are from no other principle but the jumbling together of the matter, and so because that this doth naturally effect something, that is the cause of all things, seems to me to be reasoning in the same mood and figure with that wise market man's, who, going down a hill and carrying his cheeses under his arms, one of them falling and trundling down the hill very fast, let the other go after it appointing them all to meet him at his house at Gotham, not doubting but they beginning so hopefully, would be able to make good the whole journey; or like another of the same town, who perceiving that his iron trevet he had bought had three feet, and could stand, expected also that it should walk too, and save him the labour of the carriage."

6. Col. T. Perronet Thompson's Works, vol. ii. p. 236., Anti-Corn-Law Tracts:—

"If fooleries of this kind go on, Gotham will be put in Schedule A., and the representation of Unreason transferred into the West Riding."

J.R.M., M.A.

K.C.L. Nov. 26. 1850.