Notes and Queries, Number 75, April 5, 1851

1. As Blomefield is silent on the subject, is anything more known respecting the biography of John Seguard?

2. Can a list be obtained of the contents of the Merton manuscript?

3. What became of the Langley MS., and where is it at present?

4. In what manuscript of the British Museum is the poem on Henry V. contained?

F. Madden.

P.S. Since I wrote the above, I have found in the Sale Catalogue of the Towneley library, 1814, pt. i. lot 396.:

"Seguardi Opuscula. Manuscript on vellum. This volume contains several treatises not mentioned by Bale or Pits."

It was purchased by Mr. Laing for 1l. 1s. May I, therefore, add one more Query?

5. Can the present owner of this MS. (which is probably the same as the Langley copy) furnish a note of its contents?

F. M.

EPITAPH ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE

Who was the writer of the oft-quoted lines,

"Underneath this marble (sable) hearse," &c.

intended, as all know, for an epitaph on Mary Sidney, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, but not inscribed upon any monumental stone? They are almost universally attributed to Ben Jonson, and are included amongst his poems. But this is not conclusive evidence, as we also there find the epitaph on Drayton, which was written by Quarles. In Aubrey's MS. Memoires of Naturall Remarques in Wilts, these verses are said to have been "made by Mr. Williā. Browne, who wrote the Pastoralls, and they are inserted there." Mr. Britton, in his Life of Aubrey (p. 96.), adds:

"It is essential to observe, that Aubrey is not alone in stating them to be by Browne; for, in his note upon the subject, he left a blank for the latter's Christian name, 'William,' which was filled up by Evelyn when he perused the manuscript. Indeed, Evelyn added as a further note, 'William, Governor to the now Earl of Oxford.'"

But these lines are not to be found in Browne's Pastorals. In book ii., song 4., there is an epitaph, but which bears little resemblance to the one in question. It concludes with the following conceit:

"If to the grave there ever was assign'dOne like this nymph in body and in minde,We wish here in balme, not vainely spent,To fit this maiden with a monument,For brass, and marble, were they seated here,Would fret, or melt in tears, to lye so near."

Addison, in The Spectator, No. 323., speaks of this epitaph as "written by an uncertain author." This was not more than seventy-five or eighty years after Jonson's death. In the lives of the Sidneys, and in Ballard's Memoirs of Celebrated Ladies (1752), no author is mentioned; but the latter speaks of the epitaph as likely to be more lasting than marble or brass. To the six lines which generally stand alone, the following are added in the two last-mentioned works:

"Marble pyles let no man raise,To her name, for after daies,Some kind woman, born as she,Reading this like Niobe,Shall turn marble, and become,Both her mourner and her tomb."

These are also given by Brydges in his Peers Of James II., but they are not in Jonson's works. Did they originally form part of the epitaph, or are they the production of another and later author?

That this epitaph should be attributed to Jonson, may possibly have arisen from the following lines being confounded with it. Jacob, in his English Poets, says—

"To show that Ben was famous at epigram, I need only transcribe the epitaph he wrote on the Lady Elizabeth L. H.:

"Underneath this stone doth lieAs much virtue as could die,Which when alive did harbour giveTo as much beauty as could live.J. H. M.

Bath.

Minor Queries

The Vellum-bound Junius.—Mr. Cramp, in his late publication, Junius and his Works, conjectures that the printer having bound a copy of Junius for and under the direction of the writer of the letters, followed the pattern in the binding of other copies; and this, he says, "will account for similar copies having been found in the libraries of so many persons, which from time to time has occasioned so much speculation." With Mr. Cramp's conjecture I do not concern myself; but I should be much obliged if he would inform me, through your Journal, in what libraries, and where, these many vellum-bound copies have been found, and where I can find the speculations to which they have given rise.

V. B.

The Vellum-bound Junius.—Some years ago, on reading the private letters of Junius, addressed to H. S. Woodfall, and printed by G. Woodfall, 1812, I was particularly struck by those of No. 58. and 59., wherein he states a desire to have one set of his letters (which were published 3d March, 1772, by Woodfall) bound in vellum.

Constantly bearing in mind the fact of the vellum copy, I invariably examined all the book catalogues that came in my way for it. At last the long-wished-for object appeared in the Stowe sale, and I immediately gave my agent instruction to purchase the book for me, and he might offer as much as 10l.: he bid 8l., and then it was intimated that it was no use to go on; that fifty guineas would not purchase it, or any other sum.

Query, Has this volume been in any other sale? if not, it certainly connects the Buckingham family with Junius, though it does not prove the author.

W. D. Haggard.

[The Stowe copy of Junius, it appears, was bought by Mr. Rodd for 9l., no doubt upon commission.]

What is a "Tye?"—In Essex, many parishes have a place called "the tye," which I believe is always an out-lying place where three roads meet. In an old map I have seen one place now called "Tye" written "Dei." Is it where a cross once stood, and Tye a corruption of Dei? Forby, in his East Anglian Vocabulary, mentions it, but cannot make it out.

A. Holt White.

"Marriage is such a Rabble Rout."—In D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, Moxon's edition, in 1 vol. p. 118., or ed. edited by his son, vol. i. p. 363., under the head "A Literary Wife," are the lines—

"Marriage is such a rabble rout,That those that are out, would fain get in;And those that are in, would fain get out:"

quoted from Chaucer. I have heard these lines quoted as being from Hudibras: as I cannot trace them in my editions of Chaucer of Butler, perhaps some of your readers can tell me where I can find them?

S. Wmson.

Arms of Robert Nelson.—Can any of the numerous readers and correspondents of "Notes and Queries" describe the armorial bearings of Robert Nelson, Esq., the author of the Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England? He was buried in the burying-ground in Lamb's Conduit Fields, January, 1714.

G. F.

Knebsend or Nebsend, co. York.—Query, whereabouts in the county of York is this place? I believe that one of the above is the way of spelling, but at any rate they have the same sound.

J. N. C.

Moore's Almanack.—Can any of your correspondents inform me as to the history of Moore's Almanack?

What is the date of its first appearance? Was Francis Moore a real personage, or merely a myth?

H. P. W.

Temple.

Archbishop Loftus.—I shall be deeply obliged to any of your correspondents who will inform me whether, and where, any diary or private memoranda are known to exist of Adam Loftus, who was Archbishop of Dublin nearly forty years, from 1567 to 1605, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and the first Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. He was an ancestor of the Viscount Loftus, and of the Marquess of Ely.

Henry Cotton.

Thurles, Ireland, March 20.

Matrix of Monastic Seal.—A brass matrix has fallen into my hands of a period certainly not much anterior to the Revolution. Device, the Virgin and Child, their heads surrounded with nimbi; the former holds in her right hand three lilies, the latter a globe and cross. The legend is:

"* SIGIL . MON . B . M . DE . PRATO . ALIAS . DE . BONO . NVNCIO."

In the field, a shield charged with three lions passant. Can any correspondent aid me in assigning it rightly? There was an Abbey of St. Mary de Pratis at Leicester (Vide Gent. Mag., vol. xciii. p. 9.); and there is a church dedicated to "St. Mary in the Marsh at Norwich." In a recent advertisement I find a notice of Scipio Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, so that the appellation is not very uncommon.

E. S. Taylor.

Syriac Scriptures and Lexicon.—What edition of the Peschito-Syriac version of the Old and New Testaments, respectively, is considered the best? Also, what Syriac Lexicon stands highest for value and accuracy?

T. Tn.

Villiers Duke of Buckingham.—There is a tradition in Portsmouth, that in the evening preceding his assassination, Villiers Duke of Buckingham killed a sailor. Is there any authority for this?

E. D.

Porci solidi-pedes.—Can any of your readers inform me if any pigs with single hoofs are in existence in any county in England? They are mentioned in a letter from Sir Thomas Browne to Dugdale the antiquary.

J. S. P. (a Subscriber).

The Heywood Family.—I am anxious to know if Thomas Heywood, the dramatist, was in any way related to Nathaniel Heywood or Oliver Heywood, the celebrated Nonconformist ministers in the seventeenth century? Could any of your correspondents give me information on this point?

H. A. B.

Trin. Coll. Camb.

Was Charles II. ever in Wales?—There is a tradition amongst the inhabitants of Glamorganshire, that, after his defeat at the battle of Worcester, Charles come to Wales and staid a night at a place called Llancaiach Vawr, in the parish of Gelligaer. The place then belonged to a Colonel Pritchard, an officer in the Parliamentary army; and the story relates that he made himself known to his host, and threw himself upon his generosity for safety. The colonel assented to his staying for one night only, but went away himself, afraid, as the story goes, that the Parliament should come to know he had succoured Charles. I know that Llancaiach was a place of considerable note long after that, and that an old farmer used to say he had heard tile story from his father. The historians, I believe, are all silent as to his having fled to Wales between the time of his defeat at Worcester and the time he left the country.

Davydd Gam.

[Some accounts state that Charles I. was entertained by Colonel Prichard, when that monarch, travelling through Wales, lost his way between Tredegar and Brecknock. (See Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Wales, art. "Gellygaer.")]

Dog's Head in the Pot.—"Thomas Johnson, Citizen and Haberdasher of London, by will, dated 3d Sept. 1563, gave 13s. 4d. annually to the highways between Barkway and Dogshed-in-the-Pot, otherwise called Horemayd."

The Dogshed-in-the-Pot here mentioned was, as I infer, a public-house in the parish of Great or Little Hormead in Hertfordshire, by the side of the road from Barkway to London. In Akerman's Tradesmen's Tokens current in London I find one (numbered 1442) of the "Dogg's-Head-in-the-Potte" in Old Street, having the device of a dog eating out of a pot; and the token of Oliver Wallis, in Red Cross Street (No. 1610., A.D. 1667), has the device of a dog eating out of a three-legged pot. In April, 1850, Hayward Brothers (late R. Henly and Co.), wholesale and manufacturing builders ironmongers, 196. Blackfriars Road, and 117. and 118. Union Street, Borough, London (who state their business to have been established 1783), put forth an advertisement headed with a woodcut of a dog eating out of a three-legged pot.

Can any of your readers elucidate this sign of the "Dog's-head-in-the Pot?"

C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge, May 24. 1850.

"Poor Allinda's growing old."—Charles II., to vex the Duchess of Cleveland, caused Will Legge to sing to her—

"Poor Allinda's growing old,Those charms are now no more."

(See Lord Dartmouth's note in Burnet, vol. i. p. 458. ed. 1823.) Let me ask, through "Notes and Queries," Dr. Rimbault, Mr. Chappell, or any readers, where are these verses to be found?

P. Cunningham.

Minor Queries Answered

Who was the Author of "The Modest Enquiry, &c."?—There is an anonymous tract, entitled A Modest Enquiry, &c., (4to. London, 1687), on the question of St. Peter's ever having been at Rome: proving, in so far as a negative in the case can be proved, in the most logical, full, clear, and satisfactory manner, that—He never was at Rome; and never was, either nominally or otherwise, Bishop of the Church there: and showing the grounds for the contrary assertion to be altogether baseless and untrue; being a tissue of self-contradicting forgeries and frauds, invented long subsequently to the time, evidently for the sole purpose of justifying the Papal pretensions of succession and derivation from the Apostle; as those, and all its other claims, are founded alone upon that fact, and must stand or fall with it.

The inquiry is conducted throughout with evidence of great acquaintance with Scripture and much theological learning (though the writer states himself to be a layman), without the least undue pretension, and with the most perfect temperateness and impartiality. The work would seem now well worth reprinting in a cheap and popular form.

Who was the author?

M.

[In Francis Peck's Catalogue of Discourses in the Time of King James II., No. 226., the name of Henry Care is given as the author. A list of his other works may be found in Watt's Bibliotheca.]

William Penn's Family.—Can any of your correspondents inform me to whom his eldest surviving son (William) was married, and also to whom the children of the said son were married, as well as those of his daughter Letitia (Mrs. Aubrey), if she had any? This son and daughter were William Penn's children by his first marriage with Miss Springett.

A. U. C.

[William Penn, eldest son (of William Penn by Miss Springett), had two children, Gulielma Maria, married to Charles Fell, and William Penn of the Rocks in Sussex, who by his first wife, Christian Forbes, had a daughter and heir, married to Peter Gaskell. Mrs. Aubrey was living in 1718. Our correspondent may also be referred to Mr. Hepworth Dixon's recently published William Penn, an Historical Biography.]

Deal, Dover, and Harwich.—Where do the following lines come from?

"Deal, Dover, and Harwich,The devil gave with his daughter in marriage;And, by a codicil to his will,He added Helvoet and the Brill."J. H. L.

[Francis Grose, in his Collection of Proverbs, speaks of them as "A satirical squib thrown at the innkeepers of those places, in return for the many impositions practised on travellers, as well natives as strangers. Equally applicable to most other sea-ports."]

Author of Broad Stone of Honour.—Who is the author of the Broad Stone of Honour, of which mention is made in the Guesses at Truth, 1st series, p. 230., &c., and in the Ages of Faith, p. 236., works of some interest in reference to the Papal discussions which are raging at present?

Nemo.

[Kenelm M. Digby is the author of the Broad Stone of Honour.]

Pope Joan.—Can any information be procured as to the origin of the game called Pope Joan, and (what is of more importance) of the above title, whether any such personage ever held the keys of St Peter and wore the tiara? If so, at what period and for what time, and what is known of her personal history?

Nemo.

[That Papissa Joanna is merely a fictitious character, is now universally acknowledged by the best authorities. "Clearer confirmations must be drawn for the history of Pope Joan, who succeeded Leo IV. and preceded Benedict III., than many we yet discover, and he wants not grounds that doubts it." So thought Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, B. vii. Ch. 17. Gibbon, too, rejects it as fabulous. "Till the Reformation," he says, "the tale was repeated and believed without offence, and Joan's female statue long occupied her place among the Popes in the Cathedral of Sienna. She has been annihilated by two learned Protestants, Blondel and Bayle; but their brethren were scandalized by this equitable and generous criticism. Spanheim and L'Enfant attempted to save this poor engine of controversy, and even Mosheim condescends to cherish some doubt and suspicion."—The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlix. Spanheim's work, Joanna Papissa Restituta, was printed at Leyden in 1692.]

The Well o' the World's End.—I am very anxious to find out, whether there still exists in print (or if it is known to any one now alive) an old Scotch fairy tale called "The Weary Well at the World's End?" Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., who is unhappily dead lately, knew the story and meant to write it down; but he became too infirm to do so, and though many very old people in the hilly districts of Lammermoor and Roxburghshire remember parts of it, and knew it in their youth, I cannot find one who knows it entirely.

L. M. M. R.

[Some references to the story alluded to by our correspondent will be found in Dr. Leyden's valuable introduction to The Complaynt of Scotland; and the story itself in Chambers's admirable collection of Scottish Folk Lore, Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 236. of the third edition, which form vol. vii. of the Select Writings of Robert Chambers.]

Sides and Angles.—What is the most simple and least complicated method of determining the various relations of the sides and angles of the acute and obtuse-angled triangles, without the aid of trigonometry, construction, or, in fact, by any method except arithmetic?

F. G. F.

St. Andrew's.

[The relations of sides and angles cannot be obtained without trigonometry in some shape. A very easy work has lately been published by Mr. Hemming, in which there is as little as possible of technical trigonometry.]

Meaning of Ratche.—In John Frith's Antithesis, published in 1529, he says:

"The pope and bishops hunt the wild deer, the fox, and the hare, in their closed parks, with great cries, and horns blowing, with hounds and ratches running."

I should be glad to have the word ratches satisfactorily explained.

H. W.

[From a note by Steevens on the line in King Lear (Boswell's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 155.), it appears that the late Mr. Hawkins, in his notes to The Return from Parnassus, p. 237., says, "That a rache is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes, and that the female of it is called a brache:" and in Magnificence, an ancient Interlude of Morality, by Skelton, printed by Rastell, no date, is the following line:

"Here is a leyshe of ratches to renne an hare."

In a following note, Mr. Tollet, after saying "What is here said of a rache, might, perhaps, be taken from Holinshed's Description of Scotland, p. 14.," proceeds, "The females of all dogs were once called braches; and Ulitius upon Gratius observes, 'Racha Saxonibus canem significabat unde Scoti hodie Rache pro cane fœmina habent, quod Anglis est Brache.'"]

"Feast of Reason," &c.—Seeing your correspondents ask where couplets are to be found, I venture to ask whence comes the line—

"The feast of reason and the flow of soul."

I have often heard it asked, but never answered.

H. W. D.

[It will be found in Pope's Imitations of Horace, Book ii. Satire i.:

"There St. John mingles with my friendly bowlThe feast of reason and the flow of soul."]

Tu Autem.—In page 25. of "Hertfordshire," in Fuller's Worthies, there is a story of one Alexander Nequam, who, wishing to become a monk of St. Alban's, wrote thus to the abbot thereof:

"Si vis, veniam. Sin autem, tu autem."

To which the abbot replied:

"Si bonus sis, venias. Si Nequam, nequaquam."

Can any of your readers inform me of the meaning of "tu autem" in the first line? as I have been long puzzled.

This puts me in mind of a form which there was at Ch. Ch., Oxford, on "gaudy" days. Some junior students went to the "high table" to say a Latin grace, and when they had finished it, they were dismissed by the Dean saying "Tu autem;" on which, I remember, there was invariably a smile pervading the faces of those present, even that of the Dean himself, as no one seemed to know the meaning of the phrase. I believe that it was in my time an enigma to all. Can any of your ingenious readers solve me this?

H. C. K.

——Rectory, Hereford.

[Pegge in his Anonymiana, Cent. iv. Sect. 32. says, "At St. John's College, Cambridge, a scholar, in my time, read some part of a chapter in a Latin Bible; and after he had read a short time, the President, or the Fellow that sat in his place cried, Tu autem. Some have been at a loss for the meaning of this; but it is the beginning of the suffrage, which was supposed to follow the reading of the Scripture, which the reading scholar was to continue by saying Miserere mei, Domine. But at last it came to mean no more than to be a cue to the reader to desist or give over."]

Replies

BARONS OF HUGH LUPUS

(Vol. iii., pp. 87. 189.)

The inquiry of P., in p. 87., seems to indicate an impression that all the witnesses to the charter of Hugh Lupus to Chester Abbey were barons of the Palatinate, but only a few of them were such, the rest being of England generally.

The original barons of the Palatinate were clearly distinguishable by possession of privileges confirmed to them by a well-known charter of Earl Ranulph III.; and all the Norman founders of their baronies will be found, under Cestrescire, in Domesday, as tenants in capite, from the Earl Palatine, of lordships within the lyme of his county.

Bigod de Loges (one of the subjects of P.'s inquiry) will not bear this test, unless he was identical with Bigot, Norman lord of the manors afterwards comprised in Aldford Fee, which is not known to have been the case. For this last-named Bigot, whose lands descended through the Alfords to Arderne, reference may be made to the History of Cheshire, I. xxix., II. 411.

William Malbanc, the other subject of inquiry, who has eluded M. J. T.'s searches, is easily identified. He was the Norman baron of Nantwich, the Willelmus Malbedeng of the Domesday Survey (vol. i. p. 265. col. 2.), and the name is also written thus in the copy of H. Lupus's charter referred to, which was ratified under inspection by Guncelyn de Badlesmere, Justiciary of Chester in 8 Edw. I.

The charter, with Badlesmere's attestation prefixed, will be found in Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities, p. 109., and in Ormerod's Hist. of Cheshire, vol. i. p. 12. In the latter work, in vol. iii., the inquirer will also find an account of William Malbedeng or Malbanc, his estates, his descendant coheirs, and their several subdivisions, extending from p. 217. to p. 222., under the proper head of Nantwich or Wich Malbanc, a still existing Palatine barony.

Lancastriensis.

Your correspondent M. J. T. says it appears from—

"The MS. Catalogue of the Norman nobility before the Conquest, that Robert and Roger de Loges possessed lordships in the districts of Coutances in Normandy."

Will he be so good as to say what MS. Catalogue he refers to? He seems to speak of the MS. Catalogue of Norman nobility as if it were some well-known public and authentic record.

Q. G.

EDMUND PRIDEAUX AND THE FIRST POST-OFFICE

(Vol. iii., p. 186.)

In a recent number of "Notes and Queries" (which, by the way, I have only recently become acquainted with) I saw the Queries of your correspondent G. P. P. upon the above subject, and having some time ago had occasion to investigate it, I accumulated a mass of notes from various sources,—and these I send you, rough and unpolished as they are, in the hope that in the absence of better information, they may prove to be acceptable.

Herodotus (viii. 98.) mentions the existence of a method of communication among the Persians, by means of horsemen placed at certain distances.

In the Close and Misæ Rolls (temp. King John et post) payments are recorded for nuncii who were charged with the carriage of letters.