Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 111, December 13, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Queries.
Queries.
DIAL MOTTO AT KARLSBAD.
The inclosed inscription was brought over for me from Karlsbad by the late Lord Chief Justice Tindal. Can any one throw light upon the capital letters? I give it copied exactly from Sir Nicholas Tindal's writing, with his observation beneath, and may safely venture to warrant his accuracy. It might be supposed to be a chronogram, but for the introduction of the letter "E."
"Motto from a Dial formed on the two Sides of the Angle of a House at Karlsbad.
"'Hora HorIs CEdIt, pereVnt sIC TeMpora nobIs,
Vt tIbI fInalIs sIt bona, VIVe benè.'
"The letters which are written in capitals were so in the original inscription, and were coloured red: probably the anagram of some one's name is concealed under them."
Having been a collector of existing dial mottoes for many years, I shall feel greatly obliged to any of your correspondents who will inform me of remarkable ones in their own neighborhood.
There are four—one in English, one in Latin, one in Greek, and one in Hebrew—on the keep of Carlisle Castle; but though I possess the three former, I have not the last, and should be very glad to obtain it, if possible.
There is a motto at Bonneville in Switzerland, as I have been told:
"Soli Soli Soli."
What can be the interpretation thereof?
Of course I am acquainted with Leadbetter's Art of Dialling, and the curious list of mottoes he gives, together with the still more curious translations of the same; as e.g.
"Aut Cæsar, aut nullus."
(I shine, or shroud!)
Or—
"Sic transit gloria mundi:"
(So marches the god of day!!)
But what I want is, mottoes from dials actually in existence.
HERMES.
SUPPRESSED EPILOGUE BY DRYDEN.
Mr. Payne Collier communicates to the Athenæum of the 22nd November, 1851, an interesting letter relative to an unspoken epilogue to Dryden, and Nat Lee's famous tragedy of The Duke of Guise. This rare composition, entitled "Another Epilogue intended to have been spoken to the Play before it was forbidden last Summer, written by Mr. Dryden," occurs in conjunction with the Prologue and Epilogue which were actually spoken, upon a separate sheet of foolscap; in which shape, as Mr. Collier informs us, they were often printed for sale at the playhouse doors. Mr. Collier's acceptable communication suggests a Query or two. At the end of my copy of this play, the 4to. edit. of 1687, is the following
"ADVERTISEMENT.
"There was a Preface intended to this play, in vindication of it, against two scurrilous libels lately printed. But it was judged, that a defence of this nature would require more room than a preface would reasonably allow. For this cause, and for the importunity of the stationers, who hastened their impression, 'tis deferred for some little time, and will be printed by itself. Most men are already of opinion that neither of the pamphlets deserve an answer, because they are stuffed with open falsities, and sometimes contradict each other; but, for once, they shall have a day or two thrown away upon them, tho' I break an old custom for their sakes, which was to scorn them."
Was this threatened preface ever issued? Are the "two scurrilous libels" here spoken of so scornfully, known to be in existence?
The new-found Epilogue belongs as much to the political as to the dramatic history of those troublous times; and let us hope, maugre the unfortunate coarseness of the school to which it belongs, that Mr. Collier will some day present us with a reprint of it in toto, accompanied by the above noted preface, if it exist. There is ample matter, as the pages of "N OTES AND Q UERIES" have lately shown, for a new volume of Dryden Miscellanies.
HENRY C AMPKIN.
Minor Queries.
332.Barrister.
—Can any of your correspondents refer me to the etymon of this name, given to a vocation attached to our English courts of law? I can find none even in the comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of Nat. Bailey, unless, indeed, by dividing the word into two portions, viz. "bar" and "rister," and then, with a little of the critic's license, assuming that the latter half might originally have been written "roister." But as this analysis would render it so little characteristic of the class so named, and would strongly imply that some portion at least of that distinguished body was once viewed as the "roisters," i.e. "bullies and blusterers," of that division of our courts called "the Bar," it is evident that we cannot reasonably look for the derivation of the latter part of the word from that source. But still, as there may be those who are inclined, in spite of these cogent objections, to doubt whether this may be its true etymon; and it is fit that any such lurking and slanderous suspicion should be dispelled from every sceptic mind, some one of your curious and learned correspondents, anxious to effect it, will, perhaps, tax his etymological skill to the suggestion of a less offensive, and more just and appropriate derivation, than "Bar-roister."
W. Y.
333.Indian Jugglers.
—Can any of your readers favour me with references to any works containing an account of the trick practised by jugglers in the East Indies, and known there by the name of "growing a mango?" In performing this trick a seed is planted in a pot or basket of earth, which is then covered up from the sight by a cloth or other wire; in a little time this is removed, and the seed is seen to have germinated, and its growth is similarly shown in successive stages, the last of which exhibits the plant in fruit. Hundreds of Europeans have seen the trick, but I have never heard of any one who was able to detect the successive substitutions in which it obviously consists. I do not at present recollect the name of any author who takes any notice of it.
N.
334.Priory of Hertford.
—The Priory of Hertford was founded by Ralph de Limesey and his wife Hadewise, some time after the Conquest. Can any of your antiquarian correspondents inform me in what year this took place?
The Rev. D R. ROCK had the politeness to answer my Query respecting the Abbot Eustacius; perhaps he could oblige me by solving the present one.
J. L.
335.Jacobus Creusius( or Crucius).
—Jacobi Creusii Theologi et Medici, Frisii, Victimas Humanas. I should be greatly obliged by any information respecting the author, or the book, which I find so mentioned in a MS. of 1677.
S. W. RIX.
Beccles.
336.Clekit House.
—In the will of John Buttery of Bury, 1557, is this item:
"My capitall mesuage, with the maltinge house and the tenement called Banyards, with all the gardaines, yards, and close, to them belonginge,—except the ij tenements called the Clekit House."
What is the meaning of Clekit? In the E.-Anglian dialect, clicket is "to chatter." Phillips has "CLICKET, the knocker of a door, but Chaucer uses it for a key."
B URIENSIS.
337.Ballad on the Rising of the Vendée.
—Who is the author of a modern ballad on the Rising of the Vendée, of which the last lines are—
"We crush'd, like ripen grapes, Montreuil, we tore down old Vetier—
We charged them with our naked breasts, and took them with a cheer—
We'll hunt the robbers through the land, from Seine to sparkling Rhone.
Now 'Here's a health to all we love: our King shall have his own!'"
D. B. J.
338.Stanza on Spenser's "Shepherd's Calender."
—In some of the early quarto editions of Spenser, in the "Shepherd's Calender," June, there is a stanza which in almost all the subsequent folio editions is omitted. I shall be much obliged for any information as to when and why it was left out; in the copies in which it appears it is the twelfth stanza, and is as follows:—
"Now dead he is, and lieth wrapt in led,
(O why should death on him such outrage show?)
And all his passing skill with him is fled,
The fame whereof doth daily greater grow;
But if on me some little drops would flow
Of that the spring was in his learned head,
I soon should learn these words to wail my woe,
And teach the trees their trickling tears to shed."
The last line is a good specimen of alliteration.
E. N. W.
Southwark, Nov. 17. 1851.
339.Prophecy respecting 1837.
—I remember seeing in the year 1837, I think in one of the morning papers, the following lines, which were said, as far as my memory serves me, to have been taken from an old almanac, in which they were prophetical of what should happen in the above-named year:—
"By the power to see through the ways of Heaven,
In one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven,
Shall the year pass away without any spring,
And on England's throne shall not sit a king."
Can any of your readers inform me whether these lines were only composed after the events related took place—that is, at the time the lines appeared in the paper in which I saw them, or whether they are really to be found in any old almanac; and if so, in what almanac, and in what year?
N. L. N.
Maidstone.
340.Lines on the Bible.
—In a small volume of Sacred Poetry, in the possession of a friend of mine, the following lines on the Bible are ascribed to Byron:
"Within this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries;
Oh! happiest they of human race
To whom our God has given grace
To hear, to read, to fear, to pray,
To lift the latch, and force the way:
But better had they ne'er been born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn."
Not having met with these lines in the works of Lord Byron, can any of your readers say whether they are his, or not, or who is the author?
JOHN ALGOR.
Sheffield.
341.En bon et poyer.
—The family of Cockayne of Ashbourne, co. Derby, used as a motto upon their seals, in the fourteenth century, the following words, "En bon et poyer." This has been explained to mean, "Boni est posse," or "Right is might." Can any of your readers suggest anything to confirm or throw doubt on this interpretation?
FRANCIS M. N ICHOLS.
342."England expects every man," &c.
—For nearly fifty years our countrymen have taught their children Nelson's last signal—
"England expects every man to do his duty."
Such was my impression of this emphatic form of words. I am surprised to see upon the column in Trafalgar Square,
"England expects every man will do his duty."
Pray is there any authority for the inscription as it there stands?
E. N. H.
343.Religious Houses in East Sussex.
—Can any of your readers refer me to any sources of information, printed or in manuscript, in addition to those mentioned in the last edition of Dugdale's Monasticon, respecting the following religious houses in East Sussex: Otham, Bayham, Michelham, Robertsbridge?
E. V.
344.Parish Registers—Right of Search—Fees claimable.
—Considerable attention has of late been excited with reference to the difficulties attending the ordinary means of access to various public depositories of documentary evidence in this country. In some of these departments, the commencement of a welcome reform is already apparent; others, it is but reasonable to hope, will, ere long, yield to the frank and inquisitive spirit of the times in this respect. The present communication is confined to a very wide, though less dignified source of official information, viz. Parish Registers. I am sure I need not say one word to illustrate the importance of the last-mentioned class of evidence to the genealogist, the topographer, or the archæological inquirer in general,—in one word, to those who enter into the spirit of the "N OTES AND Q UERIES." I beg, therefore, to submit the following inquiries:
1. Have the actual parishioners of a place a right to consult their own register of baptisms, marriages, and burials, gratuitously? If not:—
2. What fee is legally demandable,—and by whom,—and under what restrictions? And—
3. Do the terms differ when the inquirer is not a parishioner? If so, in what respect do they differ?
These inquiries have reference to the contents of the chests kept in, or in connection with, parochial churches and chapels, and not to those in the custody of the modern "Registrar." I need scarcely add, that my concern is with the strictly legal rights of search, and demand of fees; and not as to what courtesy may concede, or usage sanction.
D.
Rotherfield.
345.Bacon a Poet.
—In Boswell's Journal of his Tour to the Hebrides he quotes the subjoined couplet, premising, "As Bacon says—
"Who then to frail mortality shall trust,
But limns the water, or but writes in dust."
Is not Bacon here a slip of the pen or press? Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Bacon, and Bacon the sculptor, are the only conspicuous men of the name, and none of them that I know wrote verses.
R. C S.
346.Tregonwell Frampton.
—Where can I obtain any particulars of the life of Tregonwell Frampton, Esq., commonly called the "Father of the Turf," who died at an advanced age about 1727-8. Reference is made to him in the Rambler.
T. R. W.
347.Weever and Fuller—their Autographs wanted.
—Can any of your readers direct the etcher of a portrait of Weever, where to find his autograph, from which to make a copy to illustrate it? It is not to be found in the British Museum. The extreme paucity of information respecting this worthy is somewhat strange, considering the value of his contributions to literature. In our leading biographies and cyclopædias his name does not occur. By-the-bye, where was he buried, and what inscription is there on his "funeral monument?"
An etched portrait is about to be published in the next part of the Antiquarian Etching Club, of Fuller, the author of Worthies, Church History, &c., without a copy of his signature for the same reason, unless one should be discovered.
It has been suggested that search made in the library of Queen's College, Cambridge, might prove successful in both cases, from the fact of their having both belonged to that college. Perhaps some member of the university would kindly undertake the inquiry.
A. E. C.
348.Is the Badger Amphibious?
—Turner (Sacred History of the World, Letter XV. vol. i. p. 428. 4th edit. 1833) says:
"The beaver, otter, and badger are amphibious creatures, but not oviparous."
Surely this is a mistake, and worthy of a Note? I cannot find the badger mentioned as an amphibious animal in any modern zoology. I certainly have not by me Kerr's Linnæus to refer to, as a verification of Sharon Turner's note on this passage.
CHARLES P ASLAM.
Minor Queries Answered.
Royal Registers.
—I have nine volumes of a work published by Bew, Paternoster Row, and which appeared from 1778 to 1784, pretending to give sketches of the characters of public men by his Majesty. Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the writer, and what number of volumes were published?
B.
[This literary curiosity was completed in nine volumes, which are sometimes bound in three. In 1841 Mr. H. G. Bohn advertised a copy with all the names filled up in manuscript, the initials being no doubt sufficiently intelligible at that time. For a notion of the work on its first appearance, see the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xlviii. p. 130.]
Paul Hoste.
—Paul Hoste, a Jesuit, published early in the seventeenth century a small quarto with diagrams on "Breaking the Line," so much discussed, as being first done in Rodney's action. If any one can give me some account of Paul Hoste and his scientific views on naval architecture, the information will be acceptable to
ÆGROTUS.
[See Chalmers' and Gorton's Biographical Dictionaries; Moreri, Le Grand Dictionnaire, and Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, s.v.]
"Liber Mirabilis."
—Can any of your readers inform me if there be a copy of the Liber Mirabilis in any library in the United Kingdom? It contains a remarkable prediction of St. Cæsario, Bishop of Arles, in the year 542. The work is printed in Gothic characters, and there is a copy in the Royal Library, Paris.
C LERICUS.
Dublin.
[A copy is in the library of the British Museum, consisting of two parts. Part I. is in Latin, and Part II. in French, 4to., 1523.]
Saint Richard, King of England.
—In the Romish Calendar we find, on the 7th February, amongst other saints, "Saint Richard, King of England." Which of our Richards does this refer to? I have never read in history of any of them having been canonized, nor should I have thought any of them at all a likely candidate for that honour; but if such was really the case, I presume that Cœur de Lion must be the man, and that his valour in the Crusades was suffered to outweigh his many other unsaintly qualities.
J. S. WARDEN.
Balica.
[St. Richard was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West Saxons, which it is probable he renounced that he might dedicate himself to the pursuit of Christian perfection. About the year 722, on his way to Rome, he died suddenly at Lucca in Italy. See Butler's Lives of the Saints, Feb. 7.]
Saint Irene or St. Erini.
—Can any of your correspondents direct me to where information may be found regarding the Saint Irene or St. Erini, from whom the Grecian island of Santorin takes its name?
Σ.
Bristol Dec. 1. 1851.
[Irene, Empress of Constantinople, A.D.797-802, was one of the most extraordinary women in Byzantine history. The Greeks have placed her among their saints, and celebrate her memory on the 15th of August. Consult Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, and Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xlviii.]