Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850

J.K.

Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks (Vol. ii., p. 375.).—In reply to the second Bibliographical Query of J. MT., Edinburgh, respecting Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks, I beg to inform him that my copy is perfect, and contains twenty-two leaves. The title is Fantasticks: seruing for a perpetuall Prognostication, with the subjects of the twenty-four Descants, as they are called, in prose, contained in the volume. 4to. bl. lett. London: Printed for Francis Williams, 1626. After this is a dedication "To the worshipfull and worthy knight Sir Marke Ive, of Rivers Hall, in Essex;" and a short address "To the Reader," one leaf. It is an entertaining work, and contains some curious and useful remarks on our ancient manners, customs, and habits. My copy had successively belonged to Garrick, Fillingham, and Heber; the latter of whom has written in it, "Who has ever seen another copy?"

T.C.

Strand.

Gaudentio di Lucca (Vol. ii., pp. 247. 298. 327.).—The Rev. Simon Berington, the author of The Memoirs of Gaudentio di Lucca, "of whom" MR. CROSSLEY (Vol. ii., p. 328.) "regrets that so little is known," was the fourth son of John Berington, of Winesley, co. Hereford, Esquire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Wolrich, of Dudmaston, co. Salop, Bart. He was born 1679. He studied and took holy orders at Douay College.

W.L.

Nov. 3. 1850.

Weights for weighing Coins(Vol. ii., p. 326.).—I am able to supply H.E. with a reference to this subject of an earlier date than those he quotes. In the MS. Compotus or Accounts of Sibton Abbey, in Suffolk, in my possession, occurs the following item, under the year 1363-4:

"Et de ix d. pro ij paribus Balaunces pro aure ponderand'."

The following extract, although of later date than H.E. requires, may yet be not without its use to him in illustration of the subject. It occurs in the Compotus of a collegiate establishment at Mettingam, Suffolk, from an earlier volume of which some extracts were furnished to the Archæological Journal (vol. vi. p. 62.). It is as follows, under the year 1464:—

"Item in ponderibus pro novo aura ponderant' s' nobili xs. di. nobyl et quadrant' ejusdem cunagii et pro nobili de vjs. viijd. di. nobil et quadrant' et minoribus ponderibus utriusque cunagii cum le Scolys et Cophino pro eisdem. ijs. jd."

The new gold is of course the reduced coinage of Edward IV. I conclude that the nobles of 6s. 8d. were the same as the angels.

C.R.M.

Mrs. Partington (Vol. ii., p. 377.).—IGNORANS no doubt refers to the oft-repeated allusion to "Dame Partington and her mop;" and taking it for granted that he does so, I will enlighten him a little on the subject. The "original Mrs. Partington" was a respectable old lady, living, at Sidmouth in Devonshire; her cottage was on the beach, and during an awful storm (that, I think, of Nov. 1824, when some fifty or sixty ships were wrecked at Plymouth) the sea rose to such a height as every now and then to invade the old lady's place of domicile: in fact, almost every wave dashed in at the door. Mrs. Partington, with such help as she could command, with mops and brooms, as fast as the water entered the house, mopped it out again; until at length the waves had the mastery, and the dame was compelled to retire to an upper story of the house. I well recollect reading in the Devonshire newspapers of the time an account similar to the above: but the first allusion to the circumstance was, I think, made by Lord Brougham in his celebrated speech in the house of Commons on the Reform Bill, in which he compared the Conservative opposition to the bill to be like the opposition of "Dame Partington and her mop, who endeavoured to mop out the waves of the Atlantic."

ROBERT COLE.

Mrs. Partington.—Mr. Greene, the witty editor of the Boston (N.E.) Post, is believed to be the original of Mrs. Partington: at least he fathers all her sayings. He began to print them about twelve or fifteen years ago.

G.M.B.

[G.M.B. has also kindly forwarded to us some of "Mrs. Partington's Queries from a recent number of the Boston Post, from which we select a couple of specimens, viz.,—

"Whether the Emperor of China is a porcelain statue or a mere fiction?"

"Is the Great Seal alive, or only stuffed?"]

The East Anglian Word "Mauther" (Vol. ii., pp. 217. 365.).—Skinner's note on this word is

"Mawther, vox Norfolciensi agro peculiaris: Spelman ipse eodem agro ortus a Dan. Moer, Virgo, Puella, deflectit. Possit tamen et declinari a Belg. Maegd, Teut. Magd, idem signante, addita term. er vel der, ut in proximo agro Lincolniensi in vocibus Heeder et Sheeder quæ Marem et Feminam notant. Author Dict. Angl. scribit Modder, et cum Kiliano deducit a Belg. Modde, Moddeken, Pupa, Puella, Virgincula."—Etymol. sub voce.

Webster merely gives (with strange neglect, having Skinner before him):

"Mauther, a foolish young girl(not used)."—Ben Jonson.

Skinner is, I believe, wrong in assigning the r termination to the Danish word. Such a termination of the word maid is not to be found in any of the Teutonic dialects. The diphthong sound and the th appear frequently; as,

1. Moeso-Gothic: Magath or Magaths; Mawi,

dim. Mawilo.

2. Anglo-Saxon: Maeth, Maegth, dim. Meowla.

3. Old-German: Maget.

4. Swedish: Moe.

5. Norse: Moei.

I therefore suppose the r termination in mauther to be a mere corruption, like that pointed out by Skinner in the Lincoln Folk-speech: or is it possible that it may have arisen from a contusion of the words maid and mother in Roman Catholic times? In Holland the Virgin Mary was called Moeder Maagd,—a phrase which may possibly have crossed over to the East Anglian coast, and occasioned the subsequent confusion.

B.H.K.

P.S. Do the words modde, moddeken, quoted by Skinner, exist? and, if so, are they Dutch or Flemish? I have no means of verifying them at hand.

[On referring to Kilian's Dictionarium Teutonico-Latin-Gallicum (ed. 1642), we find, "MODDE, MODDEKEN, Pupa, Poupée."]

Cheshire Cat (Vol. ii., p. 377.).—A correspondent, T.E.L.P.B.T., asks the explanations of the phrase, "grinning like a Cheshire cat." Some years since Cheshire cheeses were sold in this town moulded into the shape of a cat, bristles being inserted to represent the whiskers. This may possibly have originated the saying.

T.D.

Bath.

"Thompson of Esholt" (Vol. ii., p. 268.).—In an old pedigree of the Calverley family, I find it stated that Henry Thompson of Esholt (whose only daughter Frances William Calverley of Calverley married, and by her acquired that property) was great-grandson to Henry Thompson,

"One of the king's gentlemen-at-arms at the siege of Boulogne (temp. H. 7.), where he notably signalised himself, and for his service was rewarded with the Maison Dieu at Dover, by gift of the king; afterwards, in the reign of Edward VI., exchanged it for the manor and rectory of Bromfield in Cumberland, and the site of the late dissolved nunnery of Esholt."

Further particulars regarding the above grant of Bromefield, and a pedigree of the Thompsons, are published in Archæologia Œliana, vol. ii. (1832), p. 171.

W.C. TREVELYAN.

Wallington.

Minar's Book of Antiquities (Vol. i., p. 277.; ii. p. 344.).—I am much obliged to T.J. for his endeavours to help me to Minar's Book of Antiquities. But there still remains a chasm too wide for me to jump; inasmuch as Christopher Meiners published his treatise De Vero Deo in 1780, and Cardinal Cusa, who refers to Minar, died in 1464, being more than 300 years before.

A.N.

Croziers and Pastoral Staves (Vol. ii., pp. 248, 313.).—The opinion expressed by the REV. MR. WALCOT (in your No. 50.), that by the word crozier is to be understood the crossed staff belonging only to archbishops and legates, while the staff with a crook at its end is to be called the pastoral staff, cannot, I think, be considered satisfactory, for the following, among other reasons.

Crozier is generally (I should formerly have said universally) understood to mean the staff with a crook, the so well-known "ensign of bishops."

In the instances mentioned by MR. WALCOT, croziers are repeatedly spoken of as having been borne at the funerals of bishops, while the crosses borne before Wolsey are called crosses, and not croziers.

The word crozier seems to be derived from the mediæval Latin word crocia. This is explained by Ducange: "Pedum, baculus pastoralis, episcopalis." Crocia seems to be derived from, or closely connected with, "crocha, uncinus, lamus," and "crochum, uncus quo arcubalistæ tenduntur" (Ducange). Hence it appears that crozier does not refer to a cross but to a crook.

In such ancient authorities as I have had the opportunity of referring to at the moment, as brasses, incised slabs, &c., bishops and archbishops are alike represented with the crooked staff; a cross is of more rare occurrence, and at the moment only two instances occur to me, one in the fine brass of Frederic, son of Casimir, king of Poland, and a cardinal, which is in the cathedral of Cracow, and in which he is represented holding a crozier, while crosses are figured on the sides under the cardinal's hat. The other is in the curious brass of Lambert, bishop of Bamberg, in the cathedral of that city: in this the bishop holds a cross in his right and a crozier in his left hand.

The statement that the crook of the bishop's staff was bent outwards, and that of the abbot's inward, is one which is often made in books; I should, however, be very glad to learn whether any difference has been observed to exist either in mediæval representations of croziers on seals, accompanying, effigies, or in paintings, or in the existing examples. So far as I have seen, the crook, in all except a few early instances, is bent in the same manner, i.e. inwards.

N.

Socinian Boast (Vol. ii., p. 375.).—The following lines "De Ruinâ Babylonis" occur in the works of a Socinian writer, one Samuelis Przipcovius, who died in 1670, and evidently have reference to those quoted by Dr. Pusey:—

"Quid per Luterum, Calvinum, perque Socinum,Funditus eversam jam Babylona putas?Perstat adhuc Babylon, et toto regnat in orbeSub vario primum nomine robur habens.Ostentat muros, jactat sublimia tectaDe fundamento quis metus esse potest?Ni Deus hanc igitur molem disjecerit ipseHumano nunquam Marte vel arte ruet."

Przipcovius was a Polish knight, and cotempory the author of Hudibras. In a tract entitled Religio Vindicata a Calumniis Atheismi, he thus alludes to the spiritual Quixotism which induced Butler to "crack the satiric thong:"

"Sæpe audivi quod in Angliâ (quæ regio sicut in multis aliis rebus, sic præcipue in religionibus totius mundi compendium est) de ejusmodi fanaticis perhibetur, quod ita sui suarumque irrationabilium opinionum sint amantes, ut audeant propter eas divinam Providentiam angustis Ecclesiarum suarum (quæ ex angustis cujuslibet Penatibus constant) terminis circumscribere.... Et quemadmodum omnes isti miseri aperte delirant, præcipue ii quos zeli æstus eousque deducit, ut tanquam bacchantes aut cerriti per plateas, domos, templa, absque ullo ordine et respectu cursitantes concionentur, et interdum anseres, equos, vel oves (cujus rei ibi satis frequentia exempla occurrunt) dum eis homines aures præbere nolunt, ad suas opiniones convertere tentent."

R. PRICE.

Cheam.

MSS. of Locke (Vol. i., pp. 401. 462.).—In reply to a question in "NOTES AND QUERIES," I may state, that the address of the son of the late Dr. Hancock, is George H., Park Grove, Birkenhead; and he will furnish information relative to the MSS. of Locke.

AN INTENDED READER.

Sir William Grant (Vol. ii., p. 397.).—Your correspondent R. says that "Sir William Grant" was one of the few Scotchmen who had freed himself from the peculiarities of the speech of his country. Frank Horner is another." If R. means to include the Scottish accent, he is mistaken as to Sir William Grant, who retained a strong Scottish burr. If he means only correctness of diction, then I should say the number was not few. Mackintosh's and Jeffery's English was, I think, quite as pure as Horner's; and Lord Brougham, with much idiosyncrasy, had no Scotch peculiarities, at least—me judice—infinitely less than Sir William Grant. I could name twenty members of the present houses of parliament in whom I have never detected any "Scotch peculiarity."

C.

Tristan d'Acunha (Vol. ii., p. 358.).—The island is noticed, but briefly, in p. 54. of the first volume of Perouse's Voyage round the World, Lond. 1799. It is there stated that a tolerably minute account of it is contained in Le Neptune Oriental, by D'Apres (or Apres de Manvilette). This work was published in Paris, 1775, in two volumes, large folio.

C.I.R.

Arabic Numerals (Vol.ii., pp. 27. 61. 339.).– In a work in Arabic, by Ahmad ben Abubekr bin Wahshih, on Ancient Alphabets, published in the original, and accompanied with an English translation, by Von Hammer, your correspondent on the subject of Arabic numerals will find that these numerals were not invented as arbitrary signs, and borrowed for various alphabets; but that they are actually taken from an Indian alphabet of nine characters, the remaining letters being made up at each decimal by repeating the nine characters, with one or two dots. The English Preface states that this alphabet is still in use in India, not merely as a representative of numbers, but of letters of native language. The book is a neat quarto, printed in London in 1806; and the alphabet occurs in page 7. of the Arabic original.

E.C.H.

Athenæum.

Luther's Hymns (Vol. ii., p. 327.).—If F.Q. will turn to Mr. Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ, vol. ii. p. 238. 4th edit., he will find that the sentence in the Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death," &c., is taken from the Salisbury Breviary Psalter. The Salisbury Use was drawn up by Bishop Osmund in the eleventh century.

N.E.R. (a Subscriber.)

Bolton's Ace.—What is the meaning of "Bolton's Ace," in the following passage in the address to the reader prefixed to Henry Hutton's Follies Anatomie, 8vo. Lond. 1618? It is passed over by DR. RIMBAULT in his reprint of the work for the Percy Society in 1842:

"Could ye attacke this felon in's disgrace,I would not bate an inch (not Bolton's ace)To baite, deride, nay, ride this silly asse."J. CT.

["Bate me an ace quoth Bolton" is an old proverb of unknown origin. Ray tells us that a Collection of Proverbs having been presented to Queen Elizabeth, with an assurance that it contained all the proverbs in the English language. "Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton," said the queen, implying that the assertion was too strong; and, in fact, that every proverb was not in the collection. See Nares' Glossary, who quotes the following epigram by H.P., to show the collection referred to

"Secundæ Cogitutiones meliores"A pamphlet was of proverbs penned by Polton,Wherein he thought all sorts included were;Untill one told him Bate m' an ace quoth Bolton,'Indeed,' said he, 'that proverb is not there.'"]

Hopkins the Witchfinder (Vol. ii., p. 392.).—If the inquiry of CLERICUS relates to Mathew Hopkins the witchfinder general, my friend W.S. Fitch of Ipswich has some manuscript account of his residence in that town, as a lawyer of but little note, and his removal to Manningtree, in Essex; but whether it gives any further particulars of him I am unable to state, as I have not seen the manuscript.

J. CLARKE.

Sir Richard Steel (Vol. ii., p.375.).—The death and burial-place of Sir Richard Steel is thus noticed in Cibber's Lives of the Poets, vol. iv. p.120.:—

"Some years before his death he grew paralytic, and retired to his seat at Langunnor, near Caermarthen, in Wales, where he died, September 1st, 1729, and was privately interred, according to his own desire, in the church of Caermarthen."

J.V.R.W.

Ale-draper (Vol. ii., p.310.).—A common designation for an ale-house keeper in the sixteenth century. Henry Chettle, in his very curious little publication, Kind-Harts Dreame, 1592 (edited for the Percy Society by your humble servant), has the following passage:

"I came up to London, and fall to be some tapster, hostler, or chamberlaine in an inn. Well, I get mee a wife; with her a little money; when we are married, seeke a house we must; no other occupation have I but to be an ale-draper." (P. 37. of reprint.)

Again, in the same tract, the author speaks of "two milch maydens that had set up a shoppe of "ale-drapery."

In the Discoverie of the Knights of the Poste, 1597, is another notice of the same occupation:

"So that now hee hath left brokery, and is become a draper. A draper, quoth Freeman, what draper—of woollin or linnen? No, qd. he, an ale-draper, wherein he hath more skil then in the other."

Probably these instances of the use of the term may be sufficient for your correspondent.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

P.S. The above was written before J.S.W.'s note appeared (Vol. ii., p. 360.), which does not carry the use of this term further back than Bailey's Dictionary.

George Herbert (Vol. ii., p. 103.) was buried under the communion table at Bemerton, but there is no monument to his memory. The adornment of his little church would be one of the most fitting offerings to his memory. It is painful to contrast the whitewash and unpainted deal of the house of God with the rich furniture and hangings of the adjoining rectory. In the garden of the latter is preserved a medlar-tree, planted by "the sweet singer of the temple."

J.W.H.

Notaries Public (Vol. ii., p. 393.).—Why does your correspondent MANLEIUS think this form of expression "putting the cart before the horse?" Public notary (though that phrase is sometimes erroneously used) is not so exact as "notary public;" for a notary is not, as the first form would imply, a public officer appointed by the public to perform public services, but an individual agent through whose ministry private acts or instruments become publici juris. The same form, and for analogous reasons, prevails in several other legal and technical titles or phrases, as Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, Accountant-General, Receiver-General, Surveyor-General; Advocate Fiscal; Theatre Royal, Chapel Royal; Gazette Extraordinary; and many other phrases in which it is evident that the adjective has a special and restricted meaning.

C.

Tobacconists (Vol. ii, p. 393.).—There was, in the old house of commons, a room called the smoking-room, where members tired of the debate used to retire to smoke, and in later years to drink tea or write letters. These, no doubt, were meant by the Tobacconists, members within call, though not actually within the house.

C.

Vineyards (Vol. ii., p. 392.).—In answer to CLERICUS, I beg to say that there is a piece of land called the Vineyards situated in the warm and sheltered valley of Claverton, about two miles from Bath: it formerly belonged to the Abbey of Bath.

There is also in the suburbs, on the north side of the city of Bath, a street called the Vineyards; but I do not know that this ever belonged to the Abbey.

G. FALKNER.

Devizes.

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

Those who know Mr. Craik's happy tact for seizing on the more striking points of a character or an incident, his acquaintance with our national history and biography, his love of research, and perseverance in following up a clue, were prepared to expect both instruction and amusement from his Romance of the Peerage. Nor were they doomed to disappointment. Each succeeding volume has added to the interest of the work and there can be little doubt, that the favour with which the first three volumes have been received by the reading world, will be extended to the one now published, and which concludes the first series, or main division of Mr. Craik's projected work.

Our space will permit us to do little more than specify its principal contents; but when we state that in the present volume Mr. Craik treats of the great Earl of Cork and the Boyles; of the founders of the Fermor, Bouverie, Osborne, and Bamfylde families; that he gives us with great completeness the history of Anne Clifford, the most remarkable woman of her time; that he furnishes pleasant gossipping pictures of the rise of the families of Fox, Phips, and Petty; the history of the celebrated claim of the Trunkmaker to the honours of the Percies,—of the story of the heiress of the Percies who married Tom Thynn of Longleat Hall; and lastly, that of Ann of Buccleugh, the widow of the unfortunate Monmouth, we shall have done more than enough to make our readers wish to share the pleasure we have derived from turning over Mr. Craik's amusing pages.

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell on Monday next, and two following days, a valuable collection of books, chiefly the property of a gentleman deceased, among which we may specify la Vie Saint Germain L'Auxerrois (lettres gothèques), printed on vellum, and quite unique; no other copy even on paper being known.

We have received the following Catalogues:– Williams and Norgate's (14. Henrietta Street, Covent Garden) German Book Circular, a Quarterly List of New Publications, No. 26.; John Russell Smith's (4. Old Compton Street, Soho) Catalogue No. 1. for 1851 of an extensive Collection of Choice, Useful, and Curious Books in most Classes of Literature, English and Foreign.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE

BACON'S ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, interpreted by WATS, Oxford, 1621, 1640, folio.

STUART'S ATHENS. First Edition. Vols. IV. and V.

SUPPLEMENT TO BERRY'S HERALDRY.

SPECIMEN HISTORIÆ ARABUM, by POCOCK.

LA ROQUE, VOYAGE DANS LA PALESTINE.

ABULFARAQ HIST. DYNAST.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS

G.W.'s Query was in type before we received his unbecoming letter,—the terms of which both forbid our asking the name of the writer, or giving him that satisfactory explanation which we could furnish as to the delay in the insertion of his communication. As the first letter of the kind we have ever received, we should certainly have printed it, but for our regard for personal friends who belong to the same body as G.W., and whose names he can have no difficulty in discovering in the list of our distinguished contributors.

We are compelled by want of space to omit many NOTES, QUERIES, REPLIES, and articles of FOLK-LORE.

Volume the First of "NOTES AND QUERIES," with very copious Index, price 9s. 6d. bound in cloth, may still be had by order of all Booksellers.

The Monthly Part for October, being the Fifth of Vol. II., is also now ready, price 1s. 3d.

NOTES AND QUERIES may be procured by the Trade at noon on Friday; so that our country Subscribers ought to experience no difficulty in receiving it regularly. Many of the country Booksellers are probably not yet aware of this arrangement, which enables them to receive Copies in their Saturday parcels.

Errata—P. 391. col. 1. line 46, for "veriis circumdant" read "variis circumstant;" l. 47., for "antesolat" read "antevolat;" and l. 48., for "nec" read "ne."

JOURNAL FRANCAIS, publié à Londres.—Le COURRIER de l'EUROPE, fondé en 1840, paraissant le Samedi, donne dans chaque numéro les nouvelles de la semaine, les meilleurs articles de tous les journaux de Paris, la Semaine Dramanque par Th. Gautier ou J. Jauin, la Révue de Paris par Pierre Durand, et reprodrit en entier les romans, nouvelles, etc,. en vogue par les premiers ecrivains de France. Prix 6d.