Minor Queries
Henry Scobell.—Henry Scobell, compiler of a well-known Collection of Acts, was for several years clerk to the Long Parliament. I should be glad to learn what became of him after the dissolution of that assembly.
A Leguleian.
The Court House.—This place is situated in Painswick, in Gloucestershire, and has been described to me as an old out-of-the-way place. Where can I meet with a full description of it? Is the tradition that a king—supposed to be either the first or second Charles—ever slept there true?
F. M.
Ash-trees attract Lightning.—Is it true that ash-trees are more attractive to lightning than any others? and the reason, because the surface of the ground around is drier than round other trees?
C. S. W.
Symbol of Sow, &c.—A sow suckled by a litter of young pigs is a common representation carved on the bosses of the roofs of churches. What is this symbolical of?
F. G. C.
Ottery St. Mary.
Passage in Blackwood.—
"I sate, and wept in secret the tears that men have ever given to the memory of those that died before the dawn, and by the treachery of earth our mother."—Blackwood's Magazine, December, 1849, p. 72., 3rd line, second column.
Will some of your readers give information respecting the above words in Italic?
D. N. O.
Rathband Family.—Can any of your readers assist me in distinguishing between the several members of this clerical family, which flourished during the period of the Commonwealth, and immediately preceding? From Palmer's Nonconformist Mem. (vol. i. p. 520.), there was a Mr. William Rathband, M.A., ejected from Southwold, a member of Oxford University, who was brother to Mr. Rathband, sometime preacher in the Minster of York, and son of an old Nonconformist minister, Mr. W. Rathband, who wrote against the Brownists.—I should feel obliged by any information which would identify them with the livings they severally held.
Oliver.
Encaustic Tiles from Caen.—In the town of Caen, in Normandy, is an ancient Gothic building standing in the grounds of the ancient convent of the Benedictines, now used as a college. This building, which is commonly known as the "Salle des Gardes de Guillaume le Conquerant," was many years ago paved with glazed emblazoned earthenware tiles, which were of the dimensions of about five inches square, and one and a quarter thick; the subjects of them are said to be the arms of some of the chiefs who accompanied William the Conqueror to England. Some antiquaries said these tiles were of the age of William I.; others that they could only date from Edward III. I find it stated in the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1789, vol. lix. p. 211., that twenty of the tiles above spoken of were taken up by the Benedictine monks, and sent as a present to Charles Chadwick, Esq., Healey Hall, Lancashire, in 1786. The rest of the tiles were destroyed by the revolutionists, with the exception of some which were fortunately saved by the Abbé de la Rue and M. P. A. Lair, of Caen. What I wish to inquire is, firstly, who was Charles Chadwick, Esq.? and secondly, supposing that he is no longer living, which I think from the lapse of time will be most probable, does any one know what became of the tiles which he had received from France in 1786?
George Boase.
P.S.—The Gentleman's Magazine gives a plate of these tiles, as well as a plate of some others with which another ancient building, called "Grand Palais de Guillaume le Conquerant," was paved.
Alverton Vean, Penzance.
Artificial Drainage.—Can any of your correspondents refer me to a work, or works, giving a history of draining marshes by machines for raising the water to a higher level? Windmills, I suppose, were the first machines so used, but neither Beckmann nor Dugdale informs us when first used. I have found one mentioned in a conveyance dated 1642, but they were much earlier. Any information on the history of the drainage of the marshes near Great Yarmouth, of which Dugdale gives passing notice only, would also be very acceptable to me.
E. G. R.
Storms at the Death of great Men.—Your correspondent at Vol. vi., p. 531., mentions "the storms which have been noticed to take place at the time of the death of many great men known to our history."
A list of these would be curious. With a passing reference to the familiar instance of the Crucifixion, as connected with all history, we may note, as more strictly belonging to the class, those storms that occurred at the deaths of "The Great Marquis" of Montrose, 21st May, 1650; Cromwell, 3rd September, 1658; Elizabeth Gaunt, who was burnt 23rd October, 1685, and holds her reputation as the last female who suffered death for a political offence in England; and Napoleon, 5th May, 1821; as well as that which solemnised the burial of Sir Walter Scott, 26th September, 1832.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
Motto or Wylcotes' Brass.—In the brass of Sir John Wylcotes, Great Tew Church, Oxfordshire, the following motto occurs:
"IN . ON . IS . AL."
I shall feel obliged if any one of your numerous correspondents will enlighten my ignorance by explaining it to me.
W. B. D.
Lynn.
"Trail through the leaden sky," &c.—
"Trail through the leaden sky their bannerets of fire."
Where is this line to be found, as applied to the spirits of the storm?
R. C. Warde.
Kidderminster.
Lord Audley's Attendants at Poictiers.—According to the French historian Froissart, four knights or esquires, whose names he does not supply, attended the brave Lord Audley at the memorable battle of Poictiers, who, some English historians say, were Sir John Delves of Doddington, Sir Thomas Dutton of Dutton, Sir Robert Fowlehurst of Crewe (all these places being in Cheshire), and Sir John Hawkstone of Wrinehill in Staffordshire; whilst others name Sir James de Mackworth of Mackworth in Derbyshire, and Sir Richard de Tunstall alias Sneyde of Tunstall in Staffordshire, as two of such knights or esquires. The accuracy of Froissart as an historian has never been questioned; and as he expressly names only four attendants on Lord Audley at the battle of Poictiers, it is extremely desirable it should be ascertained if possible which of the six above-named knights really were the companions of Lord Audley Froissart alludes to; and probably some of your learned correspondents may be able to clear up the doubts on the point raised by our historians.
T. J.
Worcester.
Roman Catholic Bible Society.—About the year 1812, or 1813, a Roman Catholic Bible Society was established in London, in which Mr. Charles Butler, and many other leading gentlemen, took a warm part. How long did it continue? Why was it dissolved? Did it publish any annual reports, or issue any book or tract, besides an edition of the New Testament in 1815? Where can the fullest account of it be found?
Will any gentleman be kind enough to sell, or even to lend, me Blair's Correspondence on the Roman Catholic Bible Society, a pamphlet published in 1813, which I have not been able to meet with at a bookseller's shop, and am very desirous to see.
Henry Cotton.
Thurles, Ireland.
Minor Queries with Answers
"Vox Populi Vox Dei."—Lieber, in the last chapter of his Civil Liberty, treating of this dictum, ascribes its origin to the Middle Ages, acknowledging, however, that he is unable to give anything very definite. Sir William Hamilton, in his edition of the Works of Thomas Reid, gives the concluding words of Hesiod's Works and Days thus:
"The word proclaimed by the concordant voice of mankind fails not; for in man speaks God."
And to this the great philosopher adds:
"Hence the adage (?), 'Vox Populi vox Dei.'"
The sign of interrogation is Sir William Hamilton's, and he was right to put it; for whatever the psychological connexion between Hesiod's dictum and V. P. V. D. may be, there is surely no historical. "Vox Populi vox Dei" is a different concept, breathing the spirit of a different age.
How far back, then, can the dictum in these very words be traced?
Does it, as Lieber says, originally belong to the election of bishops by the people?
Or was it of Crusade origin?
America begs Europe to give her facts, not speculation, and hopes that Europe will be good enough to comply with her request. Europe has given the serious "V. P. V. D." to America, so she may as well give its history to America too.
Americus.
[As this Query of Americus contains some new illustration of the history of this phrase, we have given it insertion, although the subject has already been discussed in our columns. The writer will, however, find that the earliest known instances of the use of the sayings are, by William of Malmesbury, who, speaking of Odo yielding his consent to be Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 920, says: "Recogitans illud Proverbium, Vox Populi Vox Dei;" and by Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as we learn from Walsingham, took it as his text for the sermon which he preached when Edward III. was called to the throne, from which the people had pulled down Edward II. Americus is farther referred to Mr. G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion (pp. 172, 173., and the accompanying notes) for some interesting remarks upon it. See farther, "N. & Q.," Vol. i., pp. 370. 419. 492.; Vol. iii., pp. 288. 381.]
"Lanquettes Cronicles."—Of what date is the earliest printed copy of these Chronicles? The oldest I am acquainted with is 1560, in quarto (continued up to 1540 by Bishop Cooper). Is this edition rare?
R. C. Warde.
Kidderminster.
[The earliest edition is that printed by T. Berthelet, 4to., 1549. The first two parts of this Chronicle, and the beginning of the third, as far as the seventeenth year after Christ, were composed by Thomas Lanquet, a young man of twenty-four years of age. Owing to his early death, Bishop Cooper finished the work; and his part, which is the third, contains almost thrice as much as Lanquet's two parts, being taken from Achilles Pyrminius. When it was finished, a surreptitious edition appeared in 1559, under the title of Lanquet's Chronicle; hereupon the bishop protested against "the vnhonest dealynge" of this book, edited by Thomas Crowley, in the next edition, entitled Cooper's Chronicle, "printed in the house late Thomas Berthelettes," 1560. The running title to the first and second parts is, "Lanquet's Chronicle;" and to the third, "The Epitome of Chronicles." The other editions are, "London, 1554," 4to., and "London, 1565," 4to. We should think the edition of 1560 rare: it was in the collections of Mr. Heber and Mr. Herbert. In this work the following memorable passage occurs, under the year 1542:—"One named Johannes Faustius fyrste founde the crafte of printynge in the citee of Mens in Germanie."]
"Our English Milo."—Bishop Hall extols in his Heaven upon Earth the valour of a countryman in a Spanish bull-fight (see p. 335., collected ed. Works, 1622). Of whom does he speak?
R. C. Warde.
Kidderminster.
[If we may offer a conjecture, in the passage cited the bishop seems to refer to that "greatest scourge of Spain" Sir Walter Raleigh, and not so much to a bull-fight as to the Spanish Armada. The bishop is prescribing Expectation as a remedy for Crosses, and says, "Is it not credible what a fore-resolved mind can do—can suffer? Could our English Milo, of whom Spain yet speaketh, since their last peace, have overthrown that furious beast, made now more violent through the rage of his baiting, if he had not settled himself in his station, and expected?" Sir Walter's "fore-resolved and expectant mind" was shown in the publication of his treatise, Notes of Directions for the Defence of the Kingdom, written three years before the Spanish invasion of 1588.]
"Delights for Ladies."—I lately picked up a small volume entitled—
"Delights for Ladies; to adorn their Persons, Tables, Closets, and Distillatories, with Beauties, Bouquets, Perfumes, and Waters. Reade, practise, and censure." London, Robert Young. 1640.
Who is the author of this interesting little work? Some one has written on the fly-leaf, "See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 69., where there is a reference to this curious little book;" but as I cannot readily lay my hand on Douce, I will feel obliged for the information sought for from any of your valued correspondents.
George Lloyd.
Dublin.
[The author was Sir Hugh Plat, who, says Harte, "not to mention his most excellent talents, was the most ingenious husbandman of the age he lived in. In a word, no man ever discovered, or at least brought into use, so many new sorts of manure." The Delights for Ladies first appeared in 1602, and passed through several editions. Douce merely quotes this work. Plat was the author of several other works: see Watt and Lowndes.]
Burton's Death.—Did Burton, author of Anatomy of Melancholy, commit suicide?
C. S. W.
[The supposition that Robert Burton committed suicide originated from a statement found in Wood's Athenæ, vol. ii. p. 653. (Bliss). Wood says, "He, the said R. Burton, paid his last debt to nature in his chamber in Christ Church, at or very near that time which he had some years before foretold from the calculation of his own nativity; which, being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper among themselves that, rather than there should be a mistake in the calculation, he sent up his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck."]
Joannes Audoënus.—I shall be obliged by any notices of the personal or literary history of John Owen, the famous Latin epigrammatist, in addition to those furnished by the Athenæ Oxonienses. Wood remarks, that "whereas he had made many epigrams on several people, so few were made on or written to him. Among the few, one by Stradling, and another by Dunbar, a Scot," I have met with one allusion to him among the epigrams of T. Bancroft, 4to., Lond. 1639, signat. A 3.:
"To the Reader
Reader, till Martial thou hast well survey'd,
Or Owen's wit with Jonson's learning weighed,
Forbeare with thanklesse censure to accuse
My writ of errour, or condemne my Muse."
As translators of Audoënus, Wood mentions, in 1619, Joh. Vicars, usher of Christ's Hospital school, as having rendered some select epigrams, and Thomas Beck six hundred of Owen's, with other epigrams from Martial and More, under the title of Parnassi Puerperium, 8vo., Lond. 1659. In addition to these I find, in a catalogue of Lilly, King Street, Covent Garden, No. 4., 1844:
"Hayman, Robert. Certaine Epigrams out of the First Foure Bookes of the excellent Epigrammatist Master John Owen, translated into English at Harbor Grace in Bristol's Hope, anciently called Newfoundland, 4to., unbound; a rare poetical tract, 1628, 10s. 6d."
Balliolensis.
[The personal and literary history of John Owen (Audoënus) is given in the Biographia Britannica, vol. v., and in Chalmers' and Rose's Biographical Dictionaries.]
Hampden's Death.—Was the great patriot Hampden actually slain by the enemy on Chalgrove Field? or was his death, as some have asserted, caused by the bursting of his own pistol, owing to its having been incautiously overcharged?
T. J.
Worcester.
[See the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1815, p. 395., for "A true and faithfull Narrative of the Death of Master Hambden, who was mortally wounded at Challgrove Fight, A.D. 1643, and on the 18th of June." From this narrative we learn, that whilst Hampden was fighting against Prince Rupert at Chalgrove Field, he was struck with two carbine-balls in the shoulder, which broke the bone, and terminated fatally.]
Replies
"PINECE WITH A STINK."
(Vol. viii., pp. 270. 350.)
I would not have meddled with this subject if R. G., getting on a wrong scent, had not arrived at the very extraordinary conclusion that Bramhall meant a "pinnace," and an "offensive composition well known to sailors!"
The earliest notice that I have met with of the pinece in an English work, is in the second part of the Secrets of Maister Alexis of Piemont, translated by W. Warde, Lond. 1568. There I find the following secrets—worth knowing, too, if effective:
"Against stinking vermin called Punesies.—If you rub your bedsteede with squilla stamped with vinaigre, or with the leaves of cedar tree sodden in oil, you shall never feel punese. Also if you set under the bed a payle full of water the puneses will not trouble you at all."
Butler, in the first canto of the third part of Hudibras, also mentions it thus:
"And stole his talismanic louse—
His flea, his morpion, and punaise."
If the Querist refers to his French dictionary he will soon discover the meaning of morpion and punaise—the latter without doubt the pinece of Bishop Bramhall. Cotgrave, in his French-English Dictionary, London, 1650, defines punaise to be "the noysome and stinking vermin called the bed punie."
It may be bad taste to dwell any longer on this subject; but as it illustrates a curious fact in natural history, and as it has been well said, that whatever the Almighty has thought proper to create is not beneath the study of mankind, I shall crave a word or two more.
The pinece is not originally a native of this country; and that is the reason why, so many years after its first appearance in England, it was known only by a corruption of its French name punaise, or its German appellation wandlaus (wall-louse). Penny, a celebrated physician and naturalist in the reign of Henry VII., discovered it at Mortlake in rather a curious manner. Mouffet, in his Theatrum Insectorum (Lond. 1634), thus relates the story:
"Anno 1503, dum hæc Pennio scriptitaret, Mortlacum Tamesin adjacentem viculum, magna festinatione accersebatur ad duas nobiles, magno metu ex cimicum vestigiis percussas, et quid nescio contagionis valde veritas. Tandem recognita, ac bestiolis captis, risu timorem omnem excussat."
Mouffet also tells us that in his time the insect was little known in England, though very common on the Continent, a circumstance which he ascribes to the superior cleanliness of the English:
"Munditiem frequentemque lectulorum et culcitrarem lotionem, cum Galli, Germani, et Itali minus curant, pariunt magis hane pestem, Angli autem munditei et cultus studiosissimi rarius iis laborant."
Ray, in his Historia Insectorum, published in 1710, merely terms it the punice or wall-louse; indeed, I am not aware that the modern name of the insect appears in print previous to 1730, when one Southal published A Treatise of Buggs. Southal appears to have been an illiterate person; and he erroneously ascribes the introduction of the insect into this country to the large quantities of foreign fir used to rebuild London after the Great Fire.
The word bug, signifying a frightful object or spectre, derived from the Celtic and the root of bogie, bug-aboo, bug-bear—is well known in our earlier literature. Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, Beaumont and Fletcher, Holinshed and many others, use it; and in Matthew's Bible, the fifth verse of the ninety-first psalm is rendered:
"Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs by night."
Thus we see that a real "terror of the night" in course of time, assumed, by common consent, the title of the imaginary evil spirit of our ancestors.
One word more. I can see no difficulty in tracing the derivation of the word humbug, without going to Hamburg, Hume of the Bog, or any such distant sources. In Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, I find the word hum signifying deceive. Peter Pindar, too, writes writes:
"Full many a trope from bayonet and drum
He threaten'd but behold! 'twas all a hum."
Now, the rustic who frightens his neighbour with a turnip lanthorn and a white sheet, or the spirit-rapping medium, who, for a consideration, treats his verdant client with a communication from the unseen world, most decidedly humbugs him; that is, hums or deceives him with an imaginary spirit, or bug.
W. Pinkerton.
Ham.
I take it that the editor of Archbishop Bramhall's Works was judicious in not altering the word pinece to pinnace, as an object very different from the latter was meant; i. e. a cimex, who certainly revenges any attack upon his person with a stink. Pinece is only a mistaken orthography of punese, the old English name of the obnoxious insect our neighbours still call a punaise (see Cotgrave in voce). Florio says "Cimici, a kinde of vermine in Italie that breedeth in beds and biteth sore, called punies or wall-lice." We have it in fitting company in Hudibras, III. 1.:
"And stole his talismanic louse,
His flea, his morpion, and punese."
This is only one more instance of the danger of altering the orthography, or changing an obsolete word, the meaning of which is not immediately obvious. The substitution of pinnace would have been entirely to depart from the meaning of the Archbishop.
S. W. S.