Notes and Queries, Number 179, April 2, 1853.

"The enamour'd rustic worships its fair hues,Nor knows he makes the shadow he pursues."Coleridge's Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 91., 1840.

Query: Which reading is the correct one? Coleridge refers to the Manchester Philosophical Transactions for a description of this phenomenon; but, as the earlier volumes of these are scarce, perhaps some of your correspondents would copy the description from the volume which contains it, or furnish one from some authentic source.

J. M. B.

Minor Queries

Cann Family.—Can any of your correspondents enlighten me as to the origin of this family name; and if of foreign extraction, as I suspect, in what county of England they first settled? There is a village in Dorsetshire called Cann St. Rumbold. Possibly this may afford some clue. Burke informs us that William Cann, Esq., was Mayor of Bristol in 1648, and that his son, Sir Robert Cann, also Mayor, and afterwards M.P. for that city, was knighted by Charles II. in 1662, and created a Baronet, September 13th in the same year. The title became extinct in 1765, by the death of Sir Robert Cann, the sixth Baronet. The first Baronet had several brothers, some of whom most probably left issue, as I find a respectable family of that name now, and for many years past, located in Devonshire; but I am not aware if they are descended from the same stock.

Domini-Cann.

Canada.

Landholders in Lonsdale South of the Sands.—In his History of Lancashire, Baines states (vol. i. chap. iv.) that a return of the principal landholders in Lonsdale South of the Sands, in the time of James I., has been kept; but he does not state where the return is registered, nor whether it was in a private or public form. In fact, it is impossible to make any reference to the return, from the brief mention made of it by Baines.

Perhaps some one of your Lancashire correspondents may be acquainted with the sources of the learned historian's information. If so, it would much oblige your correspondent to be directed to them, as also to any of the Lancashire genealogical authorities referring to the district of Lonsdale South of the Sands.

Observer.

Rotation of the Earth.—Has the experiment which about two years ago was much talked of, for demonstrating the rotation of the earth by means of a pendulum, been satisfactorily carried out and proved? And if so, where is the best place for finding an account of it? The diagram by Mr. Little in the Illustrated London News does not seem to explain the matter very fully.

[?]

Nelson and Wellington.—The following statement has been going the round of the American newspapers since the death of the Duke of Wellington. Is it true?—"Lord Nelson was the eighteenth in descent from King Edward I., and the Duke of Wellington was descended from the same monarch."

Uneda.

Are White Cats deaf?—White cats are reputed to be "hard of hearing." I have known many instances, and in all stupidity seemed to accompany the deafness. Can any instances be given of white cats possessing the function of hearing in anything like perfection?

Shirley Hibberd.

Arms in Dugdale's "Warwickshire," &c.—In Dugdale's Warwickshire (1656), p. 733. fig. 21., is a coat of arms from the Prior's Lodgings at Maxstoke, viz. Or, fretty of ten pieces sa. with a canton gu. And in Shaw's Hist. of Staffordshire, vol. i. p. *210., is the notice of a similar coat from Armitage Church, near Rugeley, extracted out of Church Notes, by Wyrley the herald, taken about 1597: viz. "Rugeley as before, impaling O. fretty of … S. with a canton G. Query if …"

Dugdale gives another coat, p. 111. fig. 12., from the windows of Trinity Church, Coventry; viz. Arg. on a chev. sa. three stars of the first. There is a mitre over this coat.

Can any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." assign the family names to these arms? Does the mitre necessarily imply a bishop or mitred abbot; and, if not, does it belong to John de Ruggeley, who was Abbot of Merevale (not far from Coventry) temp. Hen. VI., one branch of whose family bore—Arg. on a chev. sa. three mullets of the first. I may observe that this John was perhaps otherwise connected with Coventry; for Edith, widow of Nicholas de Ruggeley, his brother, left a legacy, says Dugd., p. 129., to an anchorite mured up at Stivichall Church, a member of St. Michael's Church, Coventry.

The same coat (i. e. with the mullets) is assigned by Dugd., p. 661. fig. 12., to the name of Knell.

J. W. S. R.

Tombstone in Churchyard.—Does any one know of a legible inscription older than 1601?

A. C.

Argot and Slang.—I shall be much obliged by learning from any correspondent the etymons of argot (French) and slang, as applied to language; and when did the latter term first come into use?

Thos. Lawrence.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Priests' Surplices.—Will some of the readers of "N. & Q." favour me with a decision or authority on the following point? Does a priest's surplice differ from that worn by a lay vicar, or vicar choral? I have been an old choir-boy; and some few years since, as a boy, used to remark that the priests' surplices worn at St. Paul's, the Chapel Royal, and Westminster Abbey, were, as a sempstress would term it, gaged, or stitched down in rows over the shoulders some seven or eight times at the distance of about half an inch from each other. In the cathedral churches of Durham, York, Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, and Oxford, I have remarked their almost universal adoption; but, to the best of my belief, I have never seen such a description of vestment in use among parochial clergymen, above half-a-dozen times, and I am desirous of knowing if the gaged surplice is peculiar to cathedrals and collegiate churches (I have even seen canons residentiary in them, habited in the lay vicar's surplice), or is the surplice used by choristers, undergraduates, and vicars choral, which, according to my early experience, is one without needlework, the correct officiating garment; the latter is almost universally used at funerals, where the officiating priest seldom wears either his scarf or hood, and presents anything but a dignified appearance when he crowns this négligée with one of our grotesque chimney-pot hats, to the exclusion of the more appropriate college cap.

Amanuensis.

John, Brother German to David II.—Can any of your readers solve the problem in Scotch history, who was John, brother german to King David II., son of Robert Bruce? David II., in a charter to the Priory of Rostinoth, uses these words: "Pro salute animæ nostræ, etc., ac ob benevolentiam et affectionem specialem quam erga dictum prioratum devote gerimus eo quod ossa celebris memoriæ Johannis fratris nostri germani ibidem (the Priory) humata quiescunt dedimus, etc., viginti marcas sterlingorum, etc." Dated at Scone, "in pleno parliamento nostro tento ibidem decimo die Junii anno regni sexto decimo."

The expression "celebris memoriæ" might almost be held to indicate that John had lived to manhood, but is perhaps only a style of royalty; nevertheless, the passage altogether seems to lead to the inference, that the person had at least survived the age of infancy. King Robert's bastard son, Sir Robert Bruce, had a grant of the lands of Finhaven, in the neighbourhood of Rostinoth.6

De Camera.

Scott, Nelson's Secretary.—Can any of your readers give me information as to the pedigree and family of John Scott, Esq., public secretary to Lord Nelson? He was killed at Trafalgar on board the Victory; and dying while his sons were yet very young, his descendants possess little knowledge on the subject to which I have alluded. He was, I think, born at Fochabers, near Gordon Castle, where his mother is known to have died.

A Subscriber.

The Axe which beheaded Anne Boleyn.—A friend of mine has excited my curiosity by stating, that in his school-boy readings of the history of England, he learned that the axe which deprived Henry VIII.'s second wife (Anne Boleyn) of her head was preserved as a relic in the Northgate Street of Kent's ancient citie, Canterbury. I have written to friends living in that locality for a confirmation of such a strange fact; but they plead ignorance. Can any of your numerous readers throw any light relative to this subject upon the benighted mind of

Philip West.

Roger Outlawe.—A friend of mine in Germany has met with some ancient rolls, said to have been from the Irish Court of Common Pleas, chiefly of the time of Edward III., and headed thus:

"Communia placita apud Dublin coram fratre Rogero Outlawe priore hospitii sancti Johannis de Jerusalem in hibernia tenens locum Johannis Darcy le Cosyn Justiciarii hiberniæ apud Dublin die pasche in viiij mense anno B. Etii post ultimum conquestum hiberniæ quarto."

Can any person state who this Roger Outlawe was? And is it not singular that a prior of a religious and military establishment should be qualified to sit as locum tenens of a judge in a law court?

H. T. Ellacombe.

Clyst St. George.

"Berte au Grand Pied."—I should be glad to know what is the history or legend of the goose-footed queen, whose figure Mr. Laing, in his Norway, p. 70. 8vo. edition, says is on the portals of four French cathedrals.

Thos. Lawrence.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Lying by the Walls.—What is the origin of the phrase "Lying by the walls," an euphemism for dead? It was very commonly used in this county some years ago. Instead of saying "Poor M. or N. is dead," they always said "Poor M. or N. lies by the walls."

R. P.

St. Ives, Hunts.

Constables of France (Vol. vi., pp. 128. 254.).—Has no person been appointed to fill that high office since the death of the Duc de Luynes, in 1621?

A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

St. John's Church, Shoreditch.—The church of St. John, within the priory of Holywell, Shoreditch, and the chapel adjoining it, built by Sir Thomas Lovel, treasurer of the household to King Henry VII., knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, &c.

Is there any better or other account of this priory, church, and chapel than that given in the Monasticon? Judging by the statement copied by Mr. Lysons from the original entry in the books of the College of Arms, the chapel must have been a splendid building. Sir Thomas Lovel was buried there on the 8th June, 1525, "in a tombe of whyte marbell which both hit and the chappell were founded by hym, and it stondeth on the southe syde of the quyre of the saide churche." At his funeral there were present the Bishop of London, Lord St. John, Sir Richard Wyngfield, and many others, nobles and gentlemen. The Abbot of Waltham, the Prior of St. Mary Spital, four orders of friars, the Mayor and all the aldermen of London, the gentlemen of the Inns of Court, the Lord Steward, and all the clerks of London, &c., also attended. What a contrast to the present condition of the place, now a scavenger's yard, once the apparently last resting-place of the councillor of a mighty sovereign! "They that did feed delicately, that were brought up in scarlet, embrace dunghills. The holy house where our fathers worshipped is laid waste."

Warden S. Hendry.

P. S.—Part of the chapel is now to be found under the floor of the "Old King John," Holywell Lane. The stone doorway into the porter's lodge of the priory still exists; but, from the accumulation of earth, the crown of the arch is six feet below the ground. I took a sketch of it, and some other remains of the priory, also under ground, about ten years ago.

W. S. H.

Minor Queries with Answers

Sir John Thompson.—What are the crest, arms, motto, and supporters of Sir John Thompson, Bart., created Baron Haversham, of Haversham and Newport Pagnel, about the eighth year of William III.?

R. P. D.

[Or, on a fesse indented az. three etoiles ar.; on a canton of the second, a sun in his glory, ppr.—Crest, an arm, erect, vested gu. cuff ar. holding in the hand ppr. five ears of wheat or. Motto, "In lumine luce."—Robson's British Herald, vol. ii. s. v.; and for the plate, vol. iii. pl. 50.]

Ring, the Marriage.—When and how did the use of the ring, in the marriage ceremony, originate? Is it of Christian origin; or is it derived from the Jews, or from the Greeks or Romans?

Jonathan Pim.

[Brand quotes Vallancey and Leo Modena for the use of the marriage ring among the Jews (Popular Antiq., vol. ii. p. 103. edit. 1849). Wheatly, however, has given the most detailed account of its origin:—"The reason," he says, "why a ring was pitched upon for the pledge rather than anything else was, because anciently the ring was a seal, by which all orders were signed, and things of value secured (Gen. xxxviii. 18., Esther iii. 10. 12., 1 Maccab. vi. 15.); and therefore the delivery of it was a sign that the person to whom it was given was admitted into the highest friendship and trust (Gen. xli. 42.). For which reason it was adopted as a ceremony in marriage to denote that the wife, in consideration of her being espoused to the man, was admitted as a sharer in her husband's counsels, and a joint-partner in his honour and estate: and therefore we find that not only the ring, but the keys also were in former times delivered to her at the marriage. That the ring was in use among the old Romans, we have several undoubted testimonies (Juvenal, Sat. vi. ver. 26, 27.; Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. iii. c. i.; Tertull. Apol., c. vi. p. 7. A.). Pliny, indeed, tells us, that in his time the Romans used an iron ring without any jewel; but Tertullian hints, that in the former ages it was a ring of gold."—Rational Illustration of the Common Prayer, p. 390. edit. 1759.]

Amusive.—Is this word peculiar to Thomson, or is it made use of by other poets? Its meaning does not appear to be very definite. In the Spring it is applied to the rooks, with their "ceaseless caws amusive;" in the Summer to the thistledown, which "amusive floats;" and in the Autumn, the theory of the supposed cause of mountain springs is called an "amusive dream." Thomson seems to have been partial to these kind of adjectives, "effusive," "diffusive," "prelusive," &c.

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

[A reference to Richardson's Dictionary will show that, however fond Thomson may have been of this word, it is not one peculiar to him. Whitehead says:

"To me 'twas given to wake th' amusive reed,"

and Chandler, in his Travels in Greece, speaks of the wind "murmuring amusively among the pines."]

Belfry Towers separate from the Body of the Church.—At Mylor, near Falmouth, there is an old tower for the bells (where they are rung every Sunday), separate from the church itself, which has a very low tower. Are there many other instances of this? I do not remember to have seen any.

J. S. A.

[If our correspondent will refer to the last edition of the Glossary of Architecture, s. v. Campanile, he will learn that though bell towers are generally attached to the church, they are sometimes unconnected with it, as at Chichester cathedral, and are sometimes united merely by a covered passage, as at Lapworth, Warwickshire. There are several examples of detached bell-towers still remaining, as at Evesham, Worcestershire; Berkeley, Gloucestershire; Walton, Norfolk; Ledbury, Herefordshire; and a very curious one entirely of timber, with the frame for the bells springing from the ground, at Pembridge, Herefordshire. At Salisbury a fine early English detached campanile, 200 feet in height, surmounted by a timber turret and spire, stood near the north-west corner of the cathedral, but was destroyed by Wyatt.]

An Easter-day Sun.—In that verse of Sir John Suckling's famous Ballad upon a Wedding, wherein occurs the simile of the "little mice," what is the meaning of the allusion to the Easter-day sun?—

"But oh! she dances such a way,No sun upon an Easter-dayIs half so fine a sight!"Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

[It was formerly a common belief that the sun danced on Easter-day: see Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. p. 161. et seq. So general was it, that Sir Thomas Browne treats on it in his Vulgar Errors, vol. ii. p. 87. ed. Bohn.]

Replies

HAMILTON QUERIES

(Vol. vii., p. 285.)

On reference to the Peerages of Sir Harris Nicolas and Wood, I feel no doubt that the father of Lord Spencer Hamilton, as Tee Bee remarks, was the fifth Duke of Hamilton, and not the third, as Collins (edition Brydges) states, who misled me. Perhaps the perplexity, if any, arose from Anne Duchess of Hamilton, the inheritress of the ducal honours by virtue of the patent of 1643, after the deaths of her father and uncle s. p. m., having obtained a life dukedom for her husband, William Earl of Selkirk, and, subsequently to his decease, having surrendered all her titles in favour of their eldest son, James Earl of Arran, who was in 1698 made Duke of Hamilton, with the same precedency of the original creation of 1643, as if he had succeeded thereto.

Sir William Hamilton, the ambassador, married first, Jan. 25, 1752, the only child of Hugh Barlow, Esq., of Lawrenny in Pembrokeshire, with whom he got a large estate: she died at Naples, Aug. 25, 1782, and was buried in Wales. His second lady was Emma Harte, a native of Hawarden in Flintshire; where her brother, then a bricklayer working for the late Sir Stephen Glynne, was pointed out to me forty years ago. In Wood's Peerage it is stated that Sir W. Hamilton's second marriage took place at London, Sept. 6, 1794: he died in April, 1803, and was buried in Slebech Church.

I well remember Single-speech Hamilton, who was a fried of the family, dining with my father when I was a little boy; and I still retain the impression of his having been a tall and thin old gentleman, very much out of health. He left a treatise called Parliamentary Logick, published in 1808. The brief memoir of the author prefixed to the work, makes no mention of him as a member of the House of Hamilton; but it is said that he derived his name of Gerard from his god-mother Elizabeth, daughter of Digby, Lord Gerard of Bromley, widow of James, fourth Duke of Hamilton, who fell in the duel with Lord Mohun, which looks as if some affinity was recognised. The same authority tells us that William Gerard Hamilton was the only child of a Scotch advocate, William Hamilton, by Hannah Hay, one of the sisters of David Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller; and that he removed to London, and practised with some reputation at the English bar. Mr. W. G. Hamilton died, unmarried, in July, 1796, æt. sixty-eight.

Braybrooke.

Tee Bee has, by his Queries about Sir W. Hamilton, recalled some most painful reminiscences connected with our great naval hero. According to the statement in the New General Biographical Dictionary, Sir William Hamilton was married to his first wife in the year 1755; but although it is asserted that she brought her husband 5000l. a-year, her name is not given. She died in 1782, and in 1791 "he married Emma Harte, the fascinating, mischievous, and worthless Lady Hamilton." Pettigrew, in his Memoirs of Nelson, says, that this marriage took place at St. George's, Hanover Square, on the 6th of September, 1791. Tee Bee will find a full account of Lady H. in the above-mentioned work of Pettigrew.

F. S. B.

THE WOOD OF THE CROSS

(Vol. vii., p. 177.)

I never heard of our Lord's cross having been made of elder wood. The common idea, legend, or tradition, that prevailed formerly was, that the upright beam of the cross was made of cedar, the cross-beam of cypress, the piece on which the inscription was written of olive, and the piece for the feet of palm.

The legend concerning the wood of the cross is very curious, and may be analysed as follows:—When Adam fell sick, he sent his son Seth to the gate of the garden of Eden to beg of the angel some drops of the oil of mercy that distilled from the tree of life. The angel replied that none could receive this favour till five thousand years had passed away. He gave him, however, a cutting from the tree, and it was planted upon Adam's grave. It grew into a tree with three branches. The rod of Moses was afterwards cut from this tree. Solomon had it cut down to make of it a pillar for his palace. The Queen of Sheba, when she went to visit Solomon, would not pass by it, as she said it would one day cause the destruction of the Jews. Solomon then ordered it to be removed and buried. The spot where it was buried was afterwards dug for the pool of Bethsaida, and the mysterious tree communicated the power of healing to the waters. As the time of the Passion of Christ approached, the wood floated on the surface of the water, and was taken for the upright beam of the cross. See this curious legend at greater length in the Gospel of Nicodemus; the Legenda Aurea at the feasts of the Discovery and Exaltation of the Cross; Curzon's Monasteries of the Levant, p. 163.; and Didron's Iconography, p. 367., Bohn's edition.

I think, however, that I can explain the origin of the question put to Rubi by his poor parishioner as to the cross having been made of elder wood. His question may have sprung from a corruption of an old tradition or legend regarding not our Saviour, but Judas his betrayer. Judas is said to have hanged himself on an elder tree. Sir John Maundeville, in his description of Jerusalem, after speaking of the Pool of Siloe, adds,

"And fast by is still the elder tree on which Judas hanged himself for despair, when he sold and betrayed our Lord."—P. 175., Bohn's edit.

To return to the wood of the cross. In Sir John Maundeville's time a spot was pointed out at Jerusalem as the spot where the tree grew:

"To the west of Jerusalem is a fair church, where the tree of the cross grew."—P. 175.

and he speaks of the wood of this tree as having once been used as a bridge over the brook Cedron (p. 176.). Henry Maundrell describes a Greek convent that he visited, about half an hour's distance from Jerusalem:

"That which most deserves to be noted in it, is the reason of its name and foundation. It is because there is the earth that nourished the root, that bore the tree, that yielded the timber, that made the cross. Under the high altar you are shown a hole in the ground where the stump of the tree stood."—P. 462.

These are some of the legendary traditions regarding the history and site of the wood of the cross, up to the time of the Passion of Christ.

Ceyrep.

EDMUND CHALONER

(Vol. vi., p. 292.)

I have been waiting for several months in expectation of seeing some satisfactory reply to Ursula's Query. It seems, however, that, in common with myself, your numerous correspondents are quite at a nonplus. Wood, in his Athenæ Oxoniensis, vol. ii. p. 163., mentions this Edmund Chaloner as being about nineteen (Ursula says twenty-one) years old at the death of his father, James Chaloner, in 1660. Wood, Granger, as also Burke in his Extinct Baronetage, represent James as being the fourth son of Sir Thomas Chaloner of Gisborough, in the county of York, and this appears to be the general impression as to his parentage. In a History of Cheshire, however, written, I believe, by Cowdray, and published in 1791, the author claims him as a native of that county, and makes him to be of much humbler birth and descent than any of his other biographers. Hear him in his own words:

"Our succeeding (Cheshire) collectors form a family harmonic trio, a father, son, and grandson, of the surname of Chaloner, and of the several Christian names, Thomas, Jacob, and James. Thomas was an arms-painter in Chester about 1594; he knew the value of learning sufficiently to give his son a better education than he received himself. And this son followed the same occupation in Chester, and made collections, about the year 1620. But it was James, the grandson, who reflected the greatest credit upon his family, by a very concise, accurate, and sensible account of the Isle of Man, printed at the end of King's Vale Royal, in 1656. He laid the foundation of a learned education in our much honoured college (Brazennoze); and when the parliament invested Lord Fairfax with the Seignory of Man, he was one of his lordship's three commissioners for settling the affairs of that island. The antiquarian collections of all the three Chaloners are valuable."