Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851

Scriblerus.

Poems discovered among the Papers of Sir K. Digby.—In page 18. of your current volume is a poem of which I am anxious to know the author: it is entitled the "Houre-Glasse." Among the poems of Amaltheus I have discovered one so like it, that it appears to be almost a translation. It is curious, and but little known, so that I trust you can find it a place in "Notes and Queries."

"HOROLOGIUM PULVERUM, TUMULUS ALCIPPI.Perspicuo in vitro pulvis qui dividit horasDum vagus augustum sæpe recurrit iter,Olim erat Alcippus, qui Gallæ ut vidit ocellos,Arsit, et est cæco factus ab igne cinis.—Irrequiete cinis, miseros testabere amantesMore tuo nulla posse quiete frui."H. A. B.

Matter-of-fact Epitaph.—May I venture to ask a place for the following very matter-of-fact epitaph in the English cemetery at Leghorn?

"Amstelodamensis situs est hic Burr. Johannes,Quatuor è lustris qui modò cratus erat:Ditior anne auro, an meritis hoc nescio: tantasCæca tamen Clotho non toleravit opes."

which may be thus freely rendered:

"Here lie the remains of a Dutchman named Burr. John,Who baffled at twenty the skill of his surgeon;Whether greater his merits or wealth, I doubt which is,But Clotho the blind couldn't bear such great riches."C. W. B.

Queries

ANCIENT DANISH ITINERARY: PROL IN ANGLIAM

An ancient scholiast on Adam of Bremen, "paululum Adamo ratione ætatis inferior," according to his editor, Joachim Maderus, supplies us with a curious list of the stations in the voyages from Ripa, in Denmark, to Acre, in the Holy Land. Adam of Bremen's Ecclesiastical History dates toward the end of the eleventh century, about 1070. His text is as follows:—

"Alterum (episcopatum) in Ripa; quæ civitas alio tangitur alveo, qui ab oceano influit, et per quem vela torquentur in Fresiam, vel in nostram Saxoniam, vel certe in Angliam."

The scholiast has this note:—

"De Ripa in Flandriam ad Cuicfal velificari potest duobus diebus, et totidem noctibus; de Cuicfal ad Prol in Angliam duobus diebus et una nocte. Illud est ultimum caput Angliæ versus Austrum, et est processus illuc de Ripa angulosus inter Austrum et Occidentem. De Prol in Britanniam ad Sanctum Matthiam, uno die,—inde ad Far, juxta Sanctum Jacobum tribus noctibus. Inde Leskebone duobus diebus inter Austrum et Occidentem. De Leskebone ad Narvese tribus diebus et tribus noctibus, angulariter inter Orientem et Austrum. De Narvese ad Arruguen quatuor diebus et quatuor noctibus, angulariter inter Aquilonem et Orientem. De Arruguen ad Barzalun uno die, similiter inter Aquilonem et Orientem. De Barzalun ad Marsiliam uno die et una nocte, fere versus Orientem, declinando tamen parum ad plagam Australem. De Marsilia ad Mezein in Siciliam quatuor diebus et quatuor noctibus, angulariter inter Orientem et Austrum. De Mezein ad Accharon xiiii diebus et totidem noctibus, inter Orientem et Austrum, magis appropiando ad Austrum."

We may fairly consider that the stations marked in this itinerary are of great antiquity. "Prol in Angliam" is, no doubt, Prawle Point, in Devonshire; a headland which must have been well known to the Veneti long before the days of Adam of Bremen. Its mention here is one among the many proofs of the early importance of this coast, the ancient "Littus Totonesium," the scene of one of Marie's fabliaux, and of some curious passages in Layamon's Brut, which are not to be found in the poem of Wace. I wish to ask,—

1. Is the word "Prol" Saxon or British, and what is its probable etymology?

2. Where was "Cuicfal in Flandriam," from whence the voyage was made to Prol?

Richard John King.

CHIMING, TOLLING, AND PEAL-RINGING OF BELLS

Some of your clerical readers, as well as myself, would probably be glad to have determined, what are the proper times and measures in which the bells of a church ought to be rung. There seems to be no uniformity of practice in this matter, nor any authoritative directions, by which the customs that obtain may be either improved or regulated. The terms chiming, tolling, and peal-ringing, though now generally understood, do not intelligibly apply to the few regulations about bells which occur in the canons.

I believe that chiming is the proper method of summoning the congregation to the services of the church: and tolling certainly appears to be the most appropriate use of the bell at funerals. But chiming the bells is an art that is not recognised in the older rules respecting their use. For instance, the Fifteenth Canon orders that on Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, warning shall be given to the people that litany will be said, by tolling of a bell. And, on the other hand, though we toll at a funeral, the Sixty-seventh Canon enjoins that—

"After the party's death, there shall be rung no more but one short peal, and one other before the burial, and one other after the burial.

The peal here alluded to does not of course mean what Mr. Ellacombe has so clearly described to be a modern peal, in Vol. i., p. 154., of "Notes and Queries;" but it would at least amount, I suppose, to consonantia campanarum, a ringing together of bells, as distinguished from the toll or single stroke on a bell. Horne Tooke says:

"The toll of a bell is its being lifted up (tollere, to raise), which causes that sound we call its toll."

The poet does not clear the ambiguity and confusion of terms, when he sings—

"Faintly as tolls the evening chime!"

Peals are not heard in London on Sunday mornings, I believe; but in the country, at least hereabouts, they are commonly rung as the summons to church, ending with a few strokes on one bell; and then a smaller bell than any in the peal (the sanctus bell of old, perhaps, and now sometimes vulgarly called "Tom Tinkler") announces that divine service is about to begin.

The object of these remarks is to elicit clearly what is the right way of ringing the bells of a church on the several occasions of their being used.

Alfred Gatty.

Ecclesfield.

MAZER WOOD: GUTTA PERCHA

In the Musæum Tradescantianum, or a Collection of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London, by John Tradescant, 1656, I find, amongst "other variety of rarities," "the plyable Mazer wood, which, being warmed in water, will work to any form;" and a little farther on, in the list of "utensils and household stuffe," I also find "Mazer dishes." In my opinion, it is more than a coincidence that Doctor Montgomery, who, in 1843, received the gold medal of the Society of Arts for bringing gutta percha and its useful properties under the notice of that body, describes it in almost the same words that Tradescant uses when speaking of the pliable Mazer wood: the Doctor says, "it could be moulded into any form by merely dipping it into boiling water." It is worthy of remark that Tradescant, who was the first botanist of his day, seems to have been uncertain of the true nature of the "Mazer wood," for he does not class it with his "gums, rootes, woods;" but, as before observed, in a heterogeneous collection which he styles "other variety of rarities." Presuming, as I do, that this Mazer wood was what we now term gutta percha, the question may be propounded, how could Tradescant have procured it from its remote locale? The answer is easy. In another part of the Musæum Tradescantianum may be found a list of the "benefactors" to the collection; and amongst their names occurs that of William Curteen, Esq. Now this William Curteen and his father Sir William, of Flemish Descent, were the most extensive British merchants of the time, and had not only ships trading to, but also possessed forts and factories on, some of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, the native habitat of the sapotaceous tree that yields the gutta percha. Curteen was a collector of curiosities himself, and no doubt his captains and agents were instructed to procure such: in short, a specimen of gutta percha was just as likely to attract the attention of an intelligent Englishman at Amboyna in the fifteenth century, as it did at Singapore in the nineteenth.

If there are still any remains of Tradescant's collection in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the question, whether the Mazer wood was gutta percha or not, might be soon set at rest; but it is highly probable that the men who ordered the relics of the Dodo to be thrown out, showed but little ceremony to the Mazer wood or dishes.

A curious instance of a word, not very dissimilar to Mazer, may be found in Eric Red's Saga, part of the Flatö Annals, supposed to be written in the tenth century, and one of the authorities for the pre-Columbian discovery of America by the Icelanders. Karlsefne, one of the heroes of the Saga, while his ship was detained by a contrary wind in a Norwegian port, was accosted by a German, who wished to purchase his, Karlsefne's, broom.

"'I will not sell it,' said Karlsefne. 'I will give you half a mark in gold for it,' said the German man. Karlsefne thought this a good offer, and thereupon concluded the bargain. The German man went away with the broom. Karlsefne did not know what wood it was; but it was Mæsur, which had come from Wineland!"

Perhaps some reader may give an instance of Mazer wood being mentioned by other writers; or inform me if the word Mazer, in itself, had any peculiar signification.

W. Pinkerton.

Minor Queries

Paul Pitcher Night.—Can any of the contributors to "Notes and Queries" throw light upon a curious custom, prevalent in some parts of Cornwall, of throwing broken pitchers, and other earthen vessels, against the doors of dwelling-houses, on the eve of the Conversion of St. Paul, thence locally called "Paul pitcher night?" On that evening parties of young people perambulate the parishes in which the custom is retained, exclaiming as they throw the sherds,—

"Paul's eve,And here's a heave!"

According to the received notions, the first "heave" cannot be objected to; but, upon its being repeated, the inhabitants of the house whose door is thus attacked may, if they can, seize the offenders, and inflict summary justice upon them; but, as they usually effect their escape before the door can be opened, this is not easily managed.

Query, Can this apparently unintelligible custom have any reference to the 21st verse of the IXth chap. of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"—the earthen fragments thus turned to dishonour being called "Paul's pitchers."

Any more probable conjecture as to the origin or meaning of this custom, or any account of its occurring elsewhere, will greatly oblige

F. M. (a Subscriber).

Disinterment for Heresy.—A remarkable instance of disinterment on account of heresy is stated to have occurred a little before the Reformation, in the case of one Tracy, who was publicly accused in convocation of having expressed heretical tenets in his will; and, having been found guilty, a commission was issued to dig up his body, which was accordingly done. I shall be much obliged to any of your readers who will favour me with the date and particulars of this case.

Arun.

"Just Notions," &c.—At the end of the Introduction of The Christian Instructed in the Principles of Religion, by W. Reading, Lond. 1717, occur the following lines: (Query, whether original, or, if not, from whence quoted?)—

"Just notions will into good actions grow,And to our reason we our virtues owe;False judgments are the unhappy source of ill,And blinded error draws the passive will.To know our God, and know ourselves, is allWe can true happiness or wisdom call."U. Q.

Pursuits of Literature.—How came the author of the Pursuits of Literature to be known? I have before me the 11th edition (1801); and in the Preface to the fourth and last dialogue, the author declares that "neither my name nor situation in life will ever be revealed." He does not pretend to be the sole depository of his own secret; but he says again:

"My secret will be for ever preserved, I know, under every change of fortune or of political tenets, while honour, and virtue, and religion, and friendly affection, and erudition, and the principles of a gentleman have binding force and authority upon minds so cultivated and dignified. When they fall, I am contented to fall with them."

Nevertheless, the author of the Pursuits of Literature is known. How is this?

S. T. D.

Satirical Medal.—I possess a medal whose history I should be glad to know. It is apparently of silver, though not ringing as such, and about an inch and a quarter in diameter. On the obverse are two figures in the long-waisted, full-skirted coats, cavalier hats, and full-bottomed wigs of, I presume, Louis XIV.'s time. Both wear swords; one, exhibiting the most developed wig of the two, offers a snuff-box, from which the other has accepted a pinch, and fillips it into his companion's eyes. The legend is "Faites-vous cela pour m'affronter?"

The mitigated heroism of this query seems to be noted on the reverse, which presents a man digging in the ground, an operation in which he must be somewhat hampered by a lantern in his left hand; superfluous one would deem (but for the authority of Diogenes), as the sun is shining above his head in full splendour. The digger's opinion, that the two combined are not more than the case requires, is conveyed in the legend,—

"Je cherche du courage pour mon maistre."

The finding was curious. On cutting down an ash-tree in the neighbourhood of Linton, Cambridgeshire, in 1818, a knob on its trunk was lopped off, and this medal discovered in its core! It was probably the cause of the excrescence, having been, perhaps, thrust under the bark to escape the danger of its apparently political allusion. The Linton carrier purchased it for half-a-crown, and from him it passed in 1820 into hands whence it devolved to me.

Is anything known of this medal, or are any other specimens of it extant? I pretend to no numismatic skill, but to an unlearned mind it would seem to contain allusion to the insult which Charles II. and his government were supposed to submit to from Louis XIV.; to be, in fact, a sort of metallic HB.

Some friend, I forget who, pronounced the workmanship Dutch, which would, I think, favour the above theory. The figures are in bold and prominent relief, but to a certain degree rounded by wear, having been evidently carried in the pocket for a considerable time.

G. W. W.

Matthew's Mediterranean Passage.—I should be thankful for any information as to where the following work could be seen, and also respecting the nature of its contents.

"Somerset.—Matthew's Mediterranean Passage by water from London to Bristol, &c., and from Lynne to Yarmouthe. Very rare, 4to. 1670."

The above is quoted from Thos. Thorpe's Cat., part iii., 1832, p. 169., no. 7473.

Mercurii.

Inscription on an Oak Board.—I have an old oak board, on which are carved the following lines in raised capital letters of an antique form, with lozenges between the words:—

"IF . YOV . WOVLD . KNOW . MY . NAME .OR . WHO . I . WAS . THAT . DID . THE . SAME .LOKE . IN . GENESIS . WHERE . HEE . DOO . INDIGHT."

The letters are two inches long, and a quarter of an inch high from the sunken face of the board, which is four feet long by ten inches wide. It has a raised rim or border round the inscription; which proves that it had not contained more lines than as above. It was found at Hereford, in a county which still abounds in timbered houses, and it had been lately used as a weather-board. The legend was submitted to the late Sir Samuel Meyrick of Goderich Court; who was of opinion, that it had formerly been over the chimney-piece or porch of some dwelling-house, and is a riddle involving the builder's or founder's name. If any of your readers can suggest the age and original use of this board, or explain the name concealed in the lines, it will oblige

P. H. F.

Expressions in Milton.—Allow me to ask some correspondent to give the meaning of the following expressions from the prose works of Milton:—

"A toothless satire is as improper as a toothed sleck stone, and as bullish."

"A toothed sleck stone," I take to mean a "jagged whetstone," very unfit for its purpose; but what is the force of the term "as bullish?"

Again:

"I do not intend this hot seasons to bid you the base, through the wide and dusty champaign of the councils."

The meaning I receive from this is, "I don't mean to carry you through the maze of the ancient councils of the church;" but I wish to know the exact force of the expression "to bid you the base?"

R. (a Reader).

Saints' Days.—The chorea invita is not a very satisfactory explanation of St. Vitus's dance; and though St. Vitus is not in the Roman martyrology of our day, yet he is in the almanacs of the fifteenth century, and probably earlier. The martyr Vitus makes the 15th of June a red letter-day in the first almanac ever printed. Who was St. Vitus, and how did he give his name to the play of the features which is called his dance? Again, the day before St. Patrick is celebrated in Ireland, St. Patricius is celebrated in Auvergne. Can any identity be established?

M.

Chepstow Castle.—In Carlyle's Life of Cromwell, vol. i. pp. 349, 350., there is a letter from Cromwell, dated before Pembroke, wherein he directs a Major Saunders, then quartered at or near Brecon, to go to Monmouthshire and seize Sir Trevor Williams of Llangevie, and Mr. Morgan, High Sheriff of Monmouth, "as," he writes, "they were very deep in the plot of betraying Chepstow Castle." Carlyle has the following foot-note to the letter:

"Saunders by his manner of indorsing this letter seems to intimate that he took his two men; that he keeps the letter by way of voucher. Sir Trevor Williams by and bye compounds as a delinquent, retires then into Llangevie House, and disappears from history. Of Sheriff Morgan, except that a new sheriff is soon appointed, we have no farther notice whatever."

Can any of your correspondents give me information in what work I can find a tolerably full account of this "betraying of Chepstow Castle?" and also of what place in the county was this Morgan, Sheriff of Monmouth?

Danydd Gam.

The Wilkes MSS. and "North Briton."—I inquired long since what had become of these MSS., which Miss Wilkes bequeathed to Peter Elmsley, of Sloane Street, "to whose judgement and delicacy" she confided them,—meaning, I presume, that she should be content to abide by his judgement as to the propriety of publishing them, or a selection; but certainly to be preserved for the vindication of her father's memory; otherwise she would have destroyed them, or directed them to be destroyed. In 1811 these MSS. were, I presume, in the possession of Peter Elmsley, Principal of St. Alban's Hall, as he submitted the Junius Correspondence, through Mr. Hallam, to Serjeant Rough, who returned the letters to Mr. Hallam. Where now are the original Junius Letters, and where the other MSS.? The Athenæum has announced that the Stowe MSS., including the Diaries and Correspondence of George Grenville, are about to be published, and will throw a "new light" on the character of John Wilkes. I suspect any light obtained from George Grenville will be very like the old light, and only help to blacken what is already too dark. I therefore venture to ask once again, Where are the Wilkes MSS.? and can they be consulted? Further, are any of your readers able and willing to inform us who were the writers of the different papers in the North Briton, either first or second series? Through "Notes and Queries" we got much curious information on this point with reference to the Rolliad.

W. M. S.

"O wearisome Condition of Humanity!"—Can any of your readers inform me in what "noble poet of our own" the following verses are to be found. They are quoted by Tillotson in vol. ii. p. 255. of his Works, in 3 vols. fo.

"O wearisome condition of humanity!Born under one law, to another bound;Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity;Created sick, commanded to be sound.If Nature did not take delight in blood,She would have found more easy ways to good."Q.

Bloomsbury.

Places called "Purgatory."—The Rev. Wm. Thornber, in his History of Blackpool in the Fylde District of Lancashire, gives the following explanation of the name as applied to particular fields, houses, &c.:—

"The last evening in October (or vigil of All Souls) was called the Teanlay night; at the close of that day, till within late years, the hills which encircle the Fylde shone brightly with many a bonfire, the mosses rivalling them with their fires kindled for the object of succouring their friends in purgatory. A field near Poulton, in which this ceremony of the Teanlays was celebrated (a circle of men standing with bundles of straw raised high on pitchforks), is named Purgatory; and will hand down to posterity the farce of lighting souls to endless happiness from the confines of their prison-house: the custom was not confined to one village or town, but was generally practised by the Romanists."

It is certain that places may be found here and there in the county still going by the name of Purgatory. Can any of your correspondents throw further light on the matter, or tell us if the custom extended to other counties?

P. P.

Epitaph in Hall's "Discovery."—The following epitaph occurs in Bishop Hall's Discovery of a New World, by an English Mercury, an extremely rare little volume, unknown to Ames or Herbert; and is, I should imagine, a satire on some statesman of the time. Query, on whom?

"Passenger.,

"Stay, reade, walke, Here lieth Andrew Turnecoate, who was neither Slave, nor Soldier, nor Phisitian, nor Fencer, nor Cobler, nor Filtcher, nor Lawier, nor Usurer, but all; who lived neither in citty, nor countrie, nor at home, nor abroade, nor at sea, nor at land, nor here, nor elsewhere, but everywhere. Who died neither of hunger, nor poyson, nor hatchet, nor halter, nor dogge, nor disease, but altogether. I., I. H., being neither his debtour, nor heire, nor kinsman, nor friend, nor neighbour, but all: in his memory have erected this, neither monument, nor tombe, nor sepulcher, but all; wishing neither evill nor well, neither to thee, nor mee, nor him, but all unto all."—P. 140.

C. J. Francis.

Minor Queries Answered

Canon and Prebendary.—What is the difference between a canon and a prebend or prebendary in a cathedral, or a collegiate church establishment?

W. J.

[The distinction seems to be this, that a prebendary is one who possesses a prebend, which formerly a canon might or might not hold. Subsequently, when canons received prebends for their support, the two classes became confounded; the one, however, is a name of office (canon), the other of emolument (prebendary).

"Une partie du clergé était toujours auprès de l'évêque, pour assister aux prières et à toutes les fonctions publiques. L'évêque consultait les prêtres sur toutes les affaires de l'église: et pour l'exécution il se servait des diacres et des ministres inférieurs. Le reste du clergé était distribué dans les titres de la ville et de la campagne, et ne se rassemblait qu'en certaines occasions, d'où sont venus les synodes. De cette première partie de clergé sont venus les chanoines des cathédrales. Il est vrai que du commencement on nommait clercs canoniques, tous ceux qui vivaient selon les canons, sous la conduite de leur évêque; et qui étaient sur le canon ou la matricule de l'église, pour être entretenus à ses dépens, soit qu'ils servissent dans l'église matrice, ou dans les autres titres. Depuis, le nom de canonique ou chanoines fut particulièrement appliqué aux clercs, qui vivaient en commun avec leur évêque."—Institution du Droit Ecclésiastique, par M. l'Abbé Fleury, 1ière partie, chap. xvii.

So much for the origin of canons. As to prebendaries:

"Præbenda, est jus percipiendi reditus ecclesiasticos, ratione divini officii, cui quis insistit. Alia est canonicatui annexa, alia sine ea confertur. Gl. in c. cum M. Ferrariensis, 9. in verbo receperunt de constit.