Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850

The second blunder I have to notice has been perpetrated by the writer of an otherwise excellent article on Pascal in the last number of the British Quarterly Review (No. 20. August). He mentions Bossuet's edition of the Pensées, speaks of "the prelate," and evidently ascribes to the famous Bishop of Meaux, who died in 1704, the edition of Pascal's Thoughts, published in 1779 by Bossuet. (See pp. 140. 142.)

GUSTAVE MASSON.

Porson's Epigram.—I made the following Note many years ago:—

"The late Professor Porson's own account of his academic visits to the Continent:—

"'I went to Frankfort, and got drunkWith that most learn'd professor—Brunck:I went to Worts, and got more drunken,With that more learn'd professor Ruhncken.'"

But I do not remember where or from whom I got it. Is anything known about it, or its authenticity?

P.H.F.

QUERIES

"ORKNEYINGA SAGA."

In the introduction to Lord Ellesmere's Guide to Northern Archæology, p. xi., is mentioned the intended publication by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, of a volume of historical antiquities to be called Antiquitates Britannicæ et Hibernicæ. In the contents of this volume is noticed the Orkneyinga Saga, a history of the Orkney and Zetland Isles from A.D. 865 to 1234, of which there is only the edition Copenhagen, 1780, "chiefly printed," it is said, "from a modern paper manuscript, and by no means from the celebrated Codex Flateyensis written on parchment in the fourteenth century." This would show that the Codex Flateyensis was the most valuable manuscript of the work published under the name of the Orkneyinga Saga, of which its editor, Jonas Jonæus, in his introductory address to the reader, says its author and age are equally unknown: "auctor incertus incerto æque tempore scripsit." The Orkneyinga Saga concludes with the burning of Adam Bishop, of Caithness, by the mob at Thurso while John was Earl of Orkney, and according to Dalrymple's Annals in A.D. 1222; but in the narrative given by the historian Torfæus, in his Orcades, of Haco, King of Norway's expedition against the western coast of Scotland in 1263, which terminated in the defeat of the invaders by the Scots at Largs, in Ayrshire, and the death of King Haco on his return back in the palace of the bishop of Orkney at Kirkwall, reference is made to the Codex Flateyensis as to the burial of King Haco in the city of Bergen, in Norway, where his remains were finally deposited, after lying some months before the shrine of the patron saint in the cathedral of Saint Magnus, at Kirkwall. There is not a syllable of King Haco or his expedition in the Orkneyinga Saga; and as I cannot reconcile this reference of Torfæus (2nd edition, 1715, book ii. p. 170.) with the Saga, the favour of information is desired from some of your antiquarian correspondents. The Codex Flateyensis has been ascribed to a pensioner of the king of Norway resident in Flottay, one of the southern isles of Orkney, but with more probability can be attributed to some of the monks of the monastery built on the small island of Flatey, lying in Breida Fiord, a gulf on the west coast of Iceland.

W.H.F.

MINOR QUERIES

Incumbents of Church Livings in Kent.—I have by me the following MS. note:—"A list of B.A.'s graduated at Cambridge from 1500 to 1735 may be found in 'Additional MSS. British Museum, No. 5,585.'" Will any of your correspondents inform me if this reference is correct, and if the list can be examined?

Is there in the British Museum or elsewhere a list of incumbents of church livings in Kent (with name and birthplace) from 1600 to 1660?

BRANBRIDGES.

York Buildings Company.—This company existed about the middle of the last century. I shall be glad to be informed where the papers connected with it are to be met with, and may be referred to.

WDN.

Saying ascribed to Montaigne.—The saying, "I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them," is usually ascribed to Montaigne. In what part of his works are these words to be found? I heard doubts expressed of their genuineness some years ago by a reader of the Essays; and my own search for them has also proved hitherto unsuccessful.

C. FORBES.

"Modum promissionis."—Will any of your readers help to interpret the following expression in a mediæval author:—

"(Ut vulgò loquitur) modum promissionis ostendit?"

I have reason to think that modum promissionis means "a provisional arrangement:" but by whom, and in what common parlance, was this expression used?

C.W.B.

Roman Catholic Theology.—Is there any work containing a list of Roman Catholic theological works published in the English language from the year 1558 to 1700?

M.Y.A.H.

Wife of Edward the Outlaw.—Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the wife of Edward the Outlaw, and consequently mother of Margaret of Scotland, and ancestress of the kings of England?

The account adopted by most historians is that Canute, in 1017, sent the two sons of Edmund Ironside to the king of Denmark, whence they were transferred to Solomon, king of Hungary, who gave his sister to the eldest; and, on his death without issue, married the second Edward to Agatha, daughter of the Emperor Henry II. (or, in some accounts, Henry III., or even, in Grafton's Chronicles, called Henry IV.), and sister to his own queen.

That Edward the Outlaw returned to England in 1057, having had five children, of whom three survived: Edgar; Margaret, who in 1067 married King Malcolm of Scotland, and another daughter.

Now this account is manifestly incorrect. The Emperor Henry II. died childless: when on his death-bed he restored his wife to her parents, declaring that both he and she had kept their vows of chastity.

Solomon did not ascend the throne of Hungary until 1063, in which year he had also married Sophia, daughter of the Emperor Henry III.; but this monarch (who was born in October, 1017, married his first wife in 1036, who died, leaving one child, in 1038 and his second wife in November 1043) could not be the grandfather of the five children of Edward the Outlaw, born prior to 1057.

The Saxon Chronicle says, that Edward married Agatha the emperor's cousin.

E.H.Y.

Conde's "Arabs in Spain".—In Professor de Vericour's Historical Analysis of Christian Civilisation, just published, it is stated (p. 499.) that Conde's Arabs in Spain has been translated into English. I have never met with a translation, and fancy that the Professor has made a mistake. Can any of your correspondents decide? I know that a year or two ago, Messrs. Whittaker announced that a translation would form part of their Popular Library; but for some reason (probably insufficient support) it never appeared. Query, Might not Mr. Bohn with advantage include this work in his Standard Library?

IOTA.

REPLIES

CAVE'S HISTORIA LITERARIA

I do not know whether the notices respecting Cave's Historia Literaria (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 255.) hold out any prospect of a new edition. It is much to be desired; and as it may be done at some time or other, you will perhaps allow me to make a Note of a circumstance which accidentally came to my knowledge, and should be known to any future editor. It is simply this: in the second volume of the Oxford edition of 1740, after the three dissertations, &c., there are fifteen pages, with a fresh pagination of their own, entitled, "Notæ MSS. et Accessiones Anonymi ad Cavei Historiam Literariam, Codicis Margini adscriptæ, in Bibliotheca Lambethana. Manus est plane Reverendiss. Thomæ Tenison, Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi." Not to occupy more of your valuable space than is necessary, I will merely observe that the "Anonymus" was not Archbishop Tenison, but Henry Wharton. There can be no doubt in the mind of any person acquainted with the handwriting of the parties; and to those to whom such a notice is likely to be of any use at all, it is unnecessary to say that the difference is important. I need scarcely add, that if ever a new edition is undertaken, Wharton's books and papers, and other things in the Lambeth collection of MSS., should be examined.

S.R. MAITLAND.

Cave's Historia Literaria (Vol ii., p. 230.).—

1. London, 1688-1698, 2 vols. folio. This was the first edition. A curious letter from Cave to Abp. Tenison respecting the assistance which H. Wharton furnished to this work is printed in Chalmers' Biog. Dict., vol. xxxi. p. 343.

2. Geneva, 1693, folio.

3. –, 1694, folio.

4. –, 1705, folio.

5. Coloniæ Allobrogum, 1720, folio.

6. Oxon. 1740-43, 2 vols. folio. Dr. Waterland rendered important aid in bringing out this edition, which Bp. Marsh pronounces "the best." It seems from some letters of Waterland's to John Loveday, Esq. (works by Van Mildert, 1843, vol. vi. p. 423-436.), that Chapman, a petty canon of Windsor, was the editor.

7. Basil, 1741-5, 2 vols. folio. This is said to be an exact reprint from the Oxford edition.

Watt and Dr. Clarke mention an edition, 1749, 2 vols. folio; but I cannot trace any copy of such edition.

JOHN I. DREDGE.

SIR GAMMER VANS

In reply to C.'s inquiry (Vol. ii., p. 89.) as to a comic story about one Sir Gammer Vans, I have pleasure in communicating what little information I have on the subject. Some years ago, when I was quite a boy, the story was told me by an Irish clergyman, since deceased. He spoke of it as an old Irish tradition, but did not give his authority for saying so. The story, as he gave it, contained no allusion to an "aunt" or "mother." I do not know whether it will be worthy of publication: but here it is, and you can make what use of it you like:—

"Last Sunday morning at six o'clock in the evening, as I was sailing over the tops of the mountains in my little boat, I met two men on horseback riding on one mare: so I asked them 'Could they tell me whether the little old woman was dead yet, who was hanged last Saturday week for drowning herself in a shower of feathers?' They said they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir Gammar Vans he could tell me all about it. 'But how am I to know the house?' said I. 'Ho, 'tis easy enough,' said they, 'for it's a brick house, built entirely of flints, standing alone by itself in the middle of sixty or seventy others just like it.' 'Oh, nothing in the world is easier,' said I. 'Nothing can be easier,' said they: so I went on my way. Now this Sir G. Vans was a giant, and bottlemaker. And as all giants, who are bottlemakers, usually pop out of a little thumb bottle from behind the door, so did Sir G. Vans. 'How d'ye do?' says he. 'Very well, thank you,' says I. 'Have some breakfast with me?' 'With all my heart,' says I. So he gave me a slice of beer, and a cup of cold veal; and there was a little dog under the table that picked up all the crumbs. 'Hang him,' says I. 'No, don't hang him,' says he; 'for he killed a hare yesterday. And if you don't believe me, I'll show you the hare alive in a basket.' So he took me into his garden to show me the curiosities. In one corner there was a fox hatching eagle's eggs; in another there was an iron apple tree, entirely covered with pears and lead; in the third there was the hare which the dog killed yesterday alive in the basket; and in the fourth there were twenty-four hipper switches threshing tobacco, and at the sight of me they threshed so hard that they drove the plug through the wall, and through a little dog that was passing by on the other side. I, hearing the dog howl, jumped over the wall; and turned it as neatly inside out as possible, when it ran away as if it had not an hour to live. Then he took me into the park to show me his deer: and I remembered that I had a warrant in my pocket to shoot venison for his majesty's dinner. So I set fire to my bow, poised my arrow, and shot amongst them. I broke seventeen ribs on one side, and twenty-one and a half on the other: but my arrow passed clean through without ever touching it, and the worst was I lost my arrow; however, I found it again in the hollow of a tree. I felt it: it felt clammy. I smelt it; it smelt honey. 'Oh, ho!' said I, 'here's a bee's nest,' when out sprung a covey of partridges. I shot at them; some say I killed eighteen, but I am sure I killed thirty-six, besides a dead salmon which was flying over the bridge, of which I made the best apple pie I ever tasted."

Such is the story: I can answer for its general accuracy. I am quite at sea as to the meaning and orthography of "hipper switches,"—having heard, not seen, the story.

S.G.

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

THE COLLAR OF SS

(Vol. ii., pp. 89. 194. 248.)

The Collar of SS. "is to this day a mystery to the most learned and indefatigable antiquaries," according to Mr. Planché, in his valuable little work on The History of British Costume: what has appeared in "NOTES AND QUERIES" certainly has not cleared away the obscurity. ARMIGER tells us (Vol. ii., p. 195.): "As to the derivation of the name of the collar from Soverayne; from St. Simplicius; from the martyrs of Soissons (viz. St. Crespin and St. Crespinian, upon whose anniversary the battle of Agincourt was fought); from the Countess of Salisbury; from the word Souvenez; and, lastly, from Seneschallus or Steward, (which latter is MR. NICHOLS' notion)—they may be regarded as mere monkish (?) or heraldic gossip." If the monastic writers had spoken anything on the matter, a doubt never would have existed: but none of them has even hinted at it. Never having seen the articles in the Gentleman's Magazine, I do not know MR. NICHOLS' reasons for supposing "Seneschallus or Steward" could have furnished an origin of the SS.; but I am at loss to think of any grounds upon which such a guess could rest. From the searches I have made upon this question, it seems to me that these SS. are taken as a short way of expressing the "SANCTUS, SANCTUS, SANCTUS" of the Salisbury liturgy and ritual. I hope soon to be able to lay before the public the documents out of which I draw this opinion, in a note to the third and forthcoming volume of The Church of our Fathers.

D. ROCK.

Collar of SS.—To your list of persons now privileged to wear these collars, I beg to add her Majesty's serjeant trumpeter, Thomas Lister Parker, Esq., to whom a silver collar of SS. has been granted. It is always worn by him or his deputy on state occasions.

THOMAS LEWIS,

Acting Serjeant Trumpeter. 34. Mount Street.

JOACHIN, THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR

(Vol. ii., p. 229.)

Your correspondent AMICUS will I fear find very little information about this mysterious person in the writers of French history of the time. He is thus mentioned in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey (ed. 1825, vol. i. p. 73.):—

"The French king lying in his camp, sent secretly into England a privy person, a very witty man, to entreat of a peace between him and the king our sovereign lord, whose name was John Joachin; he was kept as secret as might be, that no man had intelligence of his repair; for he was no Frenchman, but an Italian born, a man before of no estimation in France, or known to be in favour with his master, but to be a merchant; and for his subtle wit, elected to entreat of such affairs as the king had commanded him by embassy. This Joachin, after his arrival here in England, was secretly conveyed unto the king's manor of Richmond, and there remained until Whitsuntide; at which time the cardinal resorted thither, and kept there the said feast very solemnly. In which season my lord caused this Joachin divers times to dine with him, whose talk and behaviour seemed to be witty, sober, and wondrous discreet."

My note on this passage says:—

"The name of this person was Giovanni Joacchino Passano, a Genoese; he was afterwards called Seigneur de Vaux. The emperor, it appears, was informed of his being in England, and for what purpose. The cardinal stated that Joacchino came over as a merchant; and that as soon as he discovered himself to be sent by the lady regent of France, he made De Præt (the emperor's ambassador) privy thereto, and likewise of the answer given to her proposals. The air of mystery which attached to this mission naturally created suspicion; and, after a few months, De Præt, in his letters to the emperor, and to Margaret, governess of the Netherlands, expressed his surmise that all was not right, alleging his reasons. His letters were intercepted by the cardinal, and read before the council. Charles and Margaret complained of the insult, and the cardinal explained as well as he could: at the same time protesting against the misinterpretation of De Præt, and assuring them that nothing could be further from his wish than that any disunion should arise between the king his master and the emperor; and notwithstanding the suspicious aspect of this transaction, his dispatches, both before and after this fracas, strongly corroborate his assertions. Wolsey suspected that the Pope was inclined toward the cause of Francis, and reminded him of his obligations to Henry and Charles. The Pope had already taken the alarm, and had made terms with the French king, but had industriously concealed it from Wolsey, and at length urged in his excuse that he had no alternative. Joacchino was again in England upon a different mission, and was an eye-witness of the melancholy condition of the cardinal when his fortunes were reversed. He sympathised with him, and interested himself for him with Francis and the queen dowager, as appears by his letters published in Legrand, Histoire du Divorce de Henry VIII."

I think it is from this interesting book, which throws much light upon many of the intricate passages of the history of the times, that I derived my information. It is in all respects a work worth consulting.

S.W. SINGER.

REMAINS OF JAMES II

(Vol. ii., p. 243.)

The following passage is transcribed from a communication relative to the Scotch College at Paris, made by the Rev. H. Longueville Jones to the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, 1841, vol. vii. p. 33.:—

"The king left his brains to this college; and, it used to be said, other parts, but this is more doubtful, to the Irish and English colleges at Paris. His heart was bequeathed to the Dames de St. Marie at Chaillot, and his entrails were buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, where a handsome monument has been erected to his memory by order of George IV.; but the body itself was interred in the monastery of English Benedictine Monks that once existed in the Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, close to the Val de Grace. In this latter house, previous to the Revolution, the following simple inscription marked where the monarch's body lay:—

"'CI GIST JACQUES II. ROI DE LA GRANDE BRETAGNE.'"

A monument to the king still exists in the chapel of the Scotch College (which is now leased to a private school), and the inscription, in Latin, written by James, Duke of Perth, is printed in the same volume of Collectanea, p. 35., followed by all the other inscriptions to James's adherents now remaining in that chapel.

In a subsequent communication respecting the Irish College at Paris, made by the same gentleman, and printed in the same volume, at p. 113. are these remarks:—

"It is not uninteresting to add, that the body of James II. was brought to this college after the destruction of the English Benedictine Monastery adjoining the Val de Grace; and remained for some years in a temporary tomb in one of the lecture halls, then used as the chapel. It was afterwards removed; by whose authority, and to what place, is not exactly known: but it is considered not improbable that it was transported to the church of St. Germain-en-Laye, and there buried under the monument erected by George IV. Some additional light will probably be thrown on this subject, in a work on the Stuarts now in course of compilation."

Has this work since appeared?

J.G.N.

Interment of James II.—I remember reading in the French papers, in the year 1823 or 1824, a long account of the then recent exhumation and re-interment in another spot of the remains of James II. I was but a boy at the time, and neglected to make a "Note", which might now be valuable to you. I have not the least doubt, however, that the fact will be discovered on reference to a file of the Etoile, or any other of the Paris papers of one or other of the years above named.

There is a marble monument erected in memory of James, in the chapel of the old Scotch College, in the Rue des Fossés Saint Victor. An urn of bronze, gilt, containing the king's brains, formerly stood on the crown of this monument. The urn was smashed and the contents scattered over the ground, during the French Revolution. A much more important loss to posterity was incurred by the destruction of the manuscripts entrusted by James to the keeping of the brotherhood he loved. The trust is alluded to with mingled pride and affection in the noble and touching inscription on the royal monument.

J.D.

Earl's Court, Kensington.

HANDFASTING

(Vol. ii., p. 151.)

Your correspondent J.M.G. has brought forward a curious subject, and one well deserving attention and illustration. A fair is said to have been held at the meeting of the Black and White Esks, at the foot of Eskdalemuir, in Dumfriesshire, when the singular custom of Handfasting was observed. The old statistical account of the parish says:

"At that fair it was the custom for unmarried persons of both sexes to choose a companion according to their liking, whom they were to live with till that time next year. This was called handfasting, or hand-in-fist. If they were pleased with each other at that time, then they continued together for life; if not, they separated, and were free to make another choice as at the first."

John Maxwell, Esq., of Broomholm, in a letter (dated April 15th, 1796) to the Rev. Wm. Brown, D.D., of Eskdalemuir, says, in reference to this custom:

"No account can be given of the period at which the custom of handfasting commenced; but I was told by an old man, John Murray, who died at the farm of Irvine (as you go from Langholm to Canobie), and had formerly been a proprietor in Eskdaldemuir, that he was acquainted with, or at least had seen an old man, I think his name was Beattie, who was grandson to a couple who had been handfasted. You perhaps know that the children born under the handfasting engagement were reckoned lawful children, and not bastards, though the parents did afterwards resile. This custom of handfasting does not seem to have been peculiar to your parish. Mention is made in some histories of Scotland that Robert II. was handfasted to Elizabeth More before he married Euphemia Ross, daughter of Hugh, Earl of that name, by both of whom he had children; his eldest son John, by Elizabeth More, viz., King Robert III., commonly called Jock Ferngyear, succeeded to the throne in preference to the sons of Euphemia, his married wife. Indeed, after Euphemia's death, he married his former handfasted wife Elizabeth."

Sir J. Chardin observes that contracts for temporary wives are frequent in the East, which contracts are made before the Cadi with the formality of a measure of corn, mentioned over and above the stipulated sum of money.

Baron du Tott's account of "Marriages by Capin," corroborated by Eastern travellers, corresponds with the custom of Handfasting. He says:

"There is another kind of marriage which, stipulating the return to be made, fixes likewise the time when the divorce is to take place. This contract is called capin: and, properly speaking, is only an agreement between the parties to live together for such a price, during such a time."

This contract is a regular form of marriage, and is so regarded generally in the East.

The Jews seem to have had a similar custom, which perhaps they borrowed from the neighbouring nations; at least the connexion formed by the prophet Hosea (chap. iii. 2.) bears a strong resemblance to Handfasting and Capin.