  "Row the boat, Norman."—In the Chronicles of England collected by John Stow, and printed in 1580, is the following passage:—
Are any of your correspondents in possession of the words of this song? or is the tune to which it was sung known? The Hereditary Standard Bearer.—In Crawford's Peerage of Scotland it is mentioned, that in the year 1107 Alexander I., by a special grant, appointed a member of the Carron family (to whom he gave the name of Scrimgeour, for his valour in a sharp fight) the office of Hereditary Standard Bearer. Can you inform me how the Scrimgeours were deprived of this honour? The family is not extinct, and yet I see the Hereditary Royal Standard Bearer is now a Wedderburne, and the Earl of Lauderdale is also Hereditary Standard Bearer. There surely must have been injustice committed some time to cause such confusion. When and how did it take place? Walton's Angler; Seth's Pillars; May-butter; English Guzman.—In Walton's Complete Angler, in the beginning of the discourse between Piscator and Venator, the former, expatiating on the antiquity of the art of angling, gives as one of the traditions of its origin, that Seth, one of the sons of Adam,
What is the tradition of Seth's Pillars? Piscator in chap. v. says:
What is May-butter, or the origin of the saying? In the amusing contest between the gypsies related in the same chapter, these worthies were too wise to go to law about the residuary shilling, and did therefore choose their choice friends Rook and Shark, and our late English Guzman, to be their arbitrators and umpires. What is the explanation of these names? There appears to be some natural consequence to this choice, for the decision seems to have been arrived at by the act of reference. The notes explain that by "our English Guzman"[3] was intended one James, a noted thief. I suppose his prototype was Don Guzman D'Alfarache; but no interpretation of the passage is given. Would it be found to have reference to some passage in the book referred to in the note? [Sir Harris Nicolas says: "The allusion is to a work which had appeared three years before: The English Gusman; or, the History of that unparalleled Thief, James Hind, written by G. F. [George Fidge] 4to., London, 1652. Hind appears to have been the greatest thief of his age; the son of a saddler at Chipping Norton, and apprenticed to a butcher. In the rebellion he attached himself to the royal cause, and was actively engaged in the battles of Worcester and Warrington. In 1651, he was arrested by order of parliament, under the name of Brown, 'at one Denzy's, a barber over against St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street;' which circumstance may have introduced him to Walton's notice."—Ed.] Radish Feast.—I copied the following from the north door of St. Ebbe's Church, Oxford. Can any of your correspondents explain the origin and meaning of this feast?
Cambridge. What Kind of Drink is Whit?—In going over the famous old mansion Cothele, near Tavistock, the other day, I saw, among other primÆval crockery, three pot-bellied jugs, two of which were inscribed "Sack, 1646;" and the third, a smaller one, "Whit, 1646." What kind of drink is whit? "Felix natu," &c.— "Felix natu, felicior vitÂ, felicissimus morte." Of whom was this said, and by whom? St. Lucia. "Gutta cavat lapidem."—Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me whence the following verse is taken? "Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed sÆpe cadendo." The first half, I know, is the commencement of a line in Ov. ex Ponto, Ep. x. v. 5., which concludes with— "... consumitur annulus usu." I have seen it quoted, but no reference given. Kilburn. Punch and Judy.—Are any of your readers of "N. & Q." not aware that Punch and Judy is a corruption, both in word and deed, of Pontius cum JudÆis, one of the old mysteries, the subject of which was Pontius Pilate with the Jews; and particularly in reference to St. Matt. xxvii. 19.? I should be glad to hear of some similar instances. Edgmond, Salop. Sir John Darnall (Vol. v., pp. 489. 545.).—Can either of your correspondents, E. N. or G., inform me whether the Sir John Darnall, who is the subject of their communications, is descended from John Darnall, who was a Baron of the Exchequer in 1548, or give me any particulars of the "birth parentage, education, life, character, and behaviour" of the latter? The Chevalier St. George.—Can any of the numerous readers of "N. & Q." inform me where ample and minute accounts, either in print or MS., of the Life and Court of the Chevalier St. George, particularly from the death of James II. to his own death, can be obtained; also, of his ministers of state, personal attendants, &c.? I have already examined such of the Stuart Papers as have been published by Mr. Glover, and by Brown in his History of the Highland Clans. Declaration of 2000 Clergymen.—Several allusions have been lately made at Parliament to the 2000 clergymen who signed a Declaration calling in question the Queen's supremacy. Was a list of these clergymen ever published? If so, in what newspaper or periodical? What were the exact words of the declaration? MS. "De Humilitate."—Can any of your correspondents give me any information as to the date, authorship, or value of a MS. that has lately fallen into my hands? It is a thin quarto, beautifully written upon parchment. The title page is wanting, and the MS. commences with the index: but the title of the work is De Humilitate. It consists of twenty-four chapters. The heading of the first two is as follows:
The top of the first page has a rich initial letter; and at the bottom a coat of arms: Crest, a leopard rampant; shield, argent, 3 bars gules, on a chief azure 3 fleur de lys or. The heading of each chapter is written in red ink. MS. Work on Seals.—Moule, in his Bibliotheca Heraldica, states that there was at the date of the publication of his work (1822), in the library at Stowe, a MS. work, two volumes, folio, by Anstis, on the Antiquity and Use of Seals. Can any of your readers inform me in whose possession this work now is? Sir George Carew.—Sir George Carew, the able commander and crafty statesman of Queen Elizabeth's time, was created Earl of Totness. His grandfather mortgaged his ancestral estate of Carew, in Pembrokeshire, to Sir Rhys ap Thomas, who, with its subsequent possessors, Sir John Perrot and the Earl of Essex, made great additions to Carew Castle, the magnificent remains of which entitle it to be called the ruined Windsor of Wales. The Carews then pushed their fortunes in Ireland, and endeavoured to recover the "Marquisate of Cork" on an obsolete and false claim. The writer wishes for an accurate pedigree of Sir George Carew, showing his relationship to Sir Peter Carew, who was buried at Ross, and to Sir Peter who was killed at the skirmish of Glendalough in 1581. Docking Horses' Tails.—I should be glad to learn when the practice of docking horses' tails commenced in England, or in any country of Europe, and what was the immediate cause of this amputation? I cannot trace in the plates of Froissart, or others of a later date, any indication of this practice, and in them there are no tails lopped of their fair proportions. What other nations besides the English have ever docked their horses' tails; and where is any account to be found of their reasons for so doing? If any of your correspondents will answer these Queries, I shall feel obliged. St. Albans, William, Abbot of.—Archbishop Morton addressed a monition in 1490 to William, Abbot of St. Albans. It is to be found in Wilkin's Concilia, iii. 632., and is extracted from Archbishop Morton's Register, fol. 22. b. Now, in Tanner's Notitia, and in Dugdale's Monasticon, it is stated that William Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans, died in 1484; and that the chair was vacant until 1492, when Thomas Ramryge was elected abbot. Archbishop Morton's original letter is, I believe, to be seen in the register at Lambeth, and its date is distinctly 1490. This date, moreover, agrees with the Excerpta of Dr. Ducarel in the British Museum. Can any of your readers solve this difficulty for me, as I am anxious to know immediately whether I may safely identify "William," the notorious evil-liver of Morton's monition, with "Wallington," who bears a respectable character in Dugdale's Monasticon. Jeremy Taylor on Friendship.—
This was written A.D. 1657: what is the case referred to? Colonel or Major-General Lee.—The dates of his letters tend to prove that Lee was on the continent in 1770, and this is apparently borne out by the "memoirs" published both in America and in England. But Dr. Girdleston, in his strange work published in 1813, asserts that on the 20th April, 1770, at the christening of Sir Charles Davis's eldest son, Charles Sydney, Lee was at Rushbrooke in Suffolk. The proof, however, is not adduced in a simple and straightforward manner. At page 6, Dr. Girdlestone tells us that some person, not named, remembers that Lee stood sponsor, &c.; at page 7, that the register proves that the baptism took place on the 20th April, 1770; and at page 13, that the register proves that Lee was on the 20th April "in that church." This last is the only fact bearing on the question at issue. Will any of your intelligent correspondents residing at Bury favour you with a copy of the register of the baptism of Charles Sydney on the 20th April, 1770? "Roses all that's fair adorn."—Can you inform me where I can find a copy of an old poem, which begins as follows: "Roses all that's fair adorn, Rosy-finger'd is the morn," &c.; since I have searched in vain for it. |
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