(Vol. iv., p. 412.) With reference to my Note, ascribing a Celtic origin to this symbol, I have just met with somewhat of a curious coincidence, to say the least of it. In Richardson's Travels in the Sahara, &c., vol. i. p. 420., speaking of the camel, he says:
Now, the Celtic (as before mentioned) is typical of superior holiness, &c. &c.; and it is singular that a city of Marabouts (saints or holy men, such as the Ghadamsee are described to be) should have adopted this symbol as their public (or government) mark. The population of Ghadames is a strange medley of Arabs, Touaricks, negroes, half-breeds of all kinds, &c., and whence their claim to superior sanctity does not appear. That Celtic tribes once sojourned in Northern Africa is attested by Druidical remains in Morocco and elsewhere. Mr. Richardson mentions the frequent occurrence of pyramidal stones in the Sahara, incidentally, without specifying whether they are rocks in sitÛ, or supposed to be the work of man's hand. The language of Ghadames is one of the Berber dialects; and according to Mr. Urquhart (Pillars of Hercules, vol. i. p. 383.), these, or some of them, are said to contain so much of the Celtic element, that Highlanders from the garrison of Gibraltar, and the natives about Tangier, can mutually understand each other. The above, however, are mere speculations; and I would suggest that, previous to further research as to the origin of the broad arrow, it would be as well to ascertain how long it has been used as "the King's mark." I should incline to believe that the earliest mark upon government stores was the royal cipher—ER (with a crown above) perhaps. On old guns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, we find the rose and crown, but no broad arrow; more frequently Elizabeth's bear her cipher. A few articles I have seen of William III. are stamped with WR (with a crown above): no broad arrow. Nor do I remember having ever seen it upon anything older than George III. This, however, is a question which may interest some gentleman of the Ordnance Department, and induce him to make research where success is most likely to reward his trouble, viz. in the Tower, in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, or amongst the ancient records in the Ordnance Office; for I presume there be such. P. C. S. S. (Vol. iv., p. 371.) says that "he always understood" the broad arrow represented the "Pheon" in the arms of the Sydney family; but, as he quotes no authority, we are at liberty to doubt the adoption and perpetuation of a bearing appertaining to any particular master-general of ordnance as a "king's mark," howsoever illustrious or distinguished he might be. Exeter ENGLISH COMEDIANS IN THE NETHERLANDS.(Vol. ii., pp. 184. 459.; Vol. iii., p. 21.; Vol. vii., p. 114.) Returning to this question, I will communicate a few extracts from the Gerechtsdagboeken (Minutes of the Council) of the city of Leyden:—
And again:
Constanter has communicated the following lines of G. A. Brederode, confirming the statements of Heywood and Tieck: "Ick mach soo langh oock by geen reden-ryckers zijn: Want dit volckje wil steets met allen menschen gecken, En sy kunnen als d'aep haer afterst niet bedecken; Sy seggen op haer les, soo stemmigh en soo stijf, Al waer gevoert, gevult met klap-hout al haer lijf! Waren 't de Engelsche, of andere uytlandtsche Die men hoort singen, en soo lustigh siet dantse Dat sy suyse-bollen, en draeyen als een tol: Sy spreken 't uyt eaer geest, dees leeren 't uyt een rol. 't Isser weer na (seyd ick) als 't is, sey Eelhart schrander, Dat verschil is te groot, besiet men 't een by 't ander! D'uytheemsche die zijn wuft, dees raden tot het goedt, En straffen alle het quaet bedecklelijck en soet." Translation. To stay with rhetoricians I've no mind: The fool they'll play with men of every kind, And, like the ape, exhibit what's behind. With gests so stiff their lesson they repeat, You'd swear with staves their bodies were replete! Heard you the men from merry England sing? Saw you their jolly dance, their lusty spring? How like a top they spin, and twirl, and turn? And from the heart they speak—ours from a roll must learn....—From the Navorscher. THE SWEET SINGERS.(Vol. v., p. 372.) A. N. asks for some historical notices of the above fanatics: as he may not be satisfied with Timperley's meagre allusion, allow me to refer him to the Memoirs of the Lord Viscount Dundee: London, 1714. The author of this, "An Officer of the Army," speaking of the stiff-necked Presbyterians, says:
A more detailed account of these Gibbites will be found in the curious Presbyterian biographies "collected by, and printed for Patrick Walker, in the Bristo-Port of Edinburgh," the early part of last century. In that entitled "Some remarkable Passages in the Life, &c. of Mr. Daniel Cargill:" 12mo. Edin. 1732, A. N. will find the original story of the crazy skipper and his band of "three men and twenty-six women," whom worthy Mr. Cargill endeavoured unsuccessfully to reclaim. From this it would appear that the sweet singers went far greater lengths than above described, and that Gib, after the dispersion of his followers, took himself off to America, "where," says the aforesaid Patrick, "he was much admired by the blind EDMUND SPENSER.(Vol. vii., p. 303.) Mr. F. F. Spenser published the results of his researches relative to Spenser in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1842; and towards the end of his communication promised to record "many further interesting particulars," through the same medium, but failed to do so. Mr. Craik has made special reference to Mr. F. F. Spenser's paper in a little work upon which he must have bestowed a vast deal of labour, and which contains the completest investigation of all that has been discovered concerning the life, works, and descendants of the poet that I have met with: I refer to Spenser and his Poetry: by George L. Craik, M.A.: 3 vols. London, 1845. The appendix to vol. iii., devoted to an account of the descendants of Spenser, among other interesting matter, contains the history of the family descended from Sarah Spenser, a sister of Edmund Spenser, which is still represented. To which I may add that Spenser's own direct descendants are living in the city of Cork, and, I regret to say, in reduced circumstances. This should not be. A pension might well be bestowed on the descendants of Spenser, the only one of our four great poets whose posterity is not extinct. Tunbridge Wells. I have read with much curiosity and surprise a paragraph engrafted into "N. & Q." (Vol. vii., p. 33.) from The Times newspaper, June 16, 1841, announcing that a Mr. F. F. Spenser, of Halifax, had ascertained that the ancient residence of his own family, at Hurstwood, near Burnley, Lancashire, was the identical spot where the great Elizabethan poet, Edmund Spenser, is said to have retired, when driven by academical disappointments to his relations in the north of England. I confess all this appears to me very like a hoax, there is such a weight of negative testimony against it. Dr. Whitaker, the learned historian of Whalley, describes Hurstwood Hall as a strong and well-built old house, bearing on its front, in large characters, the name of "Barnard Townley," its founder, and that it was for several descents the property and residence of a family branched out from the parent stock of Townley, in the person of John Townley, third son of Sir Richard Townley, of Townley—died Sept. 1562. His son, Barnard Townley, died 1602, and married Agnes, daughter and coheiress of George Ormeroyd, of Ormeroyd, who died 1586. It must be remembered that Hurstwood is in the immediate neighbourhood of Dr. Whitaker's ancient patrimonial estate of Holme; and he must have been familiar with all the traditionary history of that locality. Yet he is silent on this subject, and does not allude either to the occasional residence of the poet Spenser in those parts, or to the family of Spensers, who are stated in this paragraph to have resided at Hurstwood about four hundred years. LAMECH KILLING CAIN.(Vol. vii., p. 305.) Sir John Maundeville says:
To which is appended the following note by Mr. Thomas Wright, the editor:
J. W. M. will find this question discussed at length in the Dictionnaire de Bayle, art. "Lamech," and more briefly in Pol. Synopsis Criticorum, Gen. iv. 23. The subject has been engraved by Lasinio in his Pitture a fresco del Campo Santo di Pisa (tom. xvii.), after the original fresco by Buonamico Buffalmacco, whose name is so familiar to readers of the Decameron. Bayle relates this legend in his account of Lamech as follows:
One of the frescos of the Campo Santo at Pisa gives the whole subject, from the offering of Abel's and Cain's sacrifice, to the death of the young man The following note upon the name of Lamech may perhaps serve to throw a little light upon the difficult passage in Genesis iv. 23, 24.—Lamech, in Celtic Lamaich, or Laimaig, means a slinger of stones; and Lamech being dextrous in the use of that weapon the sling, wantonly slew two young men, and boasted of the bloody deed to his two wives, Adah and Zillah, blasphemously maintaining that as Cain for one murder should be avenged sevenfold, so he, for his wanton act, would be avenged seventy and seven fold upon whoever should slay him. It may be considered strange that the name of Lamech should be Celtic, and that it should signify a slinger; but I am strengthened in my opinion by reference to the Hebrew alphabet, in which the letter l is called lamed; but why it is so named the Hebrews cannot say. Now, if any one examines the Hebrew ל he will perceive that it is by no means a rude representation of a human arm, holding a sling with a stone in it. The word Lamech is derived from lam, the hand; and the termination signifies dexterity in shooting or discharging missiles therewith. It is curious to notice that the remaining names in the passage of Scripture are Celtic: thus Cain is compounded of cend, first, and gein, offspring,—pronounced Kayean, i. e. first begotten. Adah means a fair complexioned, red-haired woman; and Zillah, peace, from siotlad, pronounced shieta. PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.Photographic Notes.—G. H. P. has communicated (Vol. vii., p. 186.) a very excellent paper in reference to our numerous failures in the collodion process; but the remedies he proposes are not, as he is aware, infallible. He gives the recommendation you find in every work on the subject, viz. to lift the plate up and down in the bath to allow evaporation of ether. I have made experiments day after day to ascertain the value of this advice, and I am convinced, as far as my practice goes, that you gain nothing by it; indeed, I am sure that I much oftener get a more even film when the plate is left in the bath for about two minutes without lifting it out. I should be glad of other photographers' opinion on the point. I have never found any benefit, but much the contrary, from re-dipping the plate in the bath; and I may observe the same of mixing a drop or two of silver solution with the developing fluid. I think with G. H. P. that the developing solution should be weak for positives. I omitted, in my description of a new head-rest, to say that it is better to have all the parts in metal; and that the hole, through which the arm runs, should be a square mortice instead of a round one, as is usual. A screw at the side sets it fast; the lower portion of the upright piece being round, and sliding up and down in a tube of metal, as it does in the best rests, allowing the sitter to be placed in different positions. All this is very difficult to describe, but a slight diagram would explain it easily, which I would willingly, as I have before said, send to any one thinking it worth writing to me for. Edingthorpe Rectory. On some Difficulties in Photographic Practice.—Being desirous to have a glass bath for the silver, I was glad to find you had given (in "Notices to Correspondents") directions for making one, viz. two parts best red sealing-wax to one part of Jeffries' marine glue. I tried this, but found the application of it to the glass impossible, as it set immediately. Now, can you afford room for the means by which this may be remedied; as my wish to substitute glass for gutta percha remains? Now I am addressing you, may I offer one or two hints which may be of service to beginners? If, after what has been considered a sufficient washing of the glass, after the hypo., during the drying, crystals from hypo. remaining appear, and which would most certainly destroy the picture, I have found that by breathing well over these parts, and immediately repeating the washing, all ill effects are thoroughly prevented. To substitute hot water instead of breathing does not destroy the hyposulphite, and therefore will not do. When the plate shall be dry after the washing process, if a leaden, dim, grey appearance occurs, I have found that by tenderly rubbing it with fine cotton, and applying with a good-sized camel's hair pencil a varnish of about 8-10ths spirits of turpentine and 2-10ths mastic varnish, and then, before this gets dry, putting on the black varnish, the grey effect will have been removed. I have found the protonitrate of iron, as also the protosulphate, and not seldom the pyrogallic, so difficult of application, that I have stained and spoiled very good pictures. I have therefore used, and with perfect success, a tray of gutta percha a little longer than the glass (say one-fourth of an inch), and one-fourth of an inch deep; sliding from one end the glass into the tray (supplied immediately before using it), by which means the glass is all covered at once. I think the Rev. Mr. Sisson's suggestion, viz. to send you some of our specimens with collodion, You will, I trust, pardon any foregoing hints for beginners, as I well know that I have lost several pictures by hypo-crystals, and very many by the difficulty in developing. Maidstone. P.S.—I always find collodion by Dr. Diamond's formula capital, and with it from five to ten seconds is time enough. Mr. Weld Taylor's cheap Iodizing Process.—I have no doubt Mr. Weld Taylor will be kind enough to explain to me two difficulties I find in his cheap iodizing process for paper. In the first place, whence arises the caustic condition of his solution, unless it be through the decomposition of the cyanide of potassium which is sometimes added? and if such caustic condition exists, does it not cause a deposition of oxide of silver together with the iodide, thereby embrowning the paper? Why does the caustic condition of the solution require a larger dose of nitrate of silver, and does not this larger quantity of nitrate of silver more than outbalance the difference between the new process and the old, as regards price? I pay 1s. 3d. for an ounce of iodide of potassium of purest quality; the commoner commercial quality is cheaper. Replies to Minor Queries.Somersetshire Ballad (Vol. vii., p. 236.).— "Go vind the vicar of Taunton Deane," &c. S. A. S. will find the above in The Aviary, or Magazine of British Melody, a square volume published about the middle of last century; or in a volume bearing the running title—A Collection of diverting Songs, Airs, &c., of about the same period—both extensive depÔts of old song; the first containing 1344, and the last, as far as my mutilated copy goes, extending to nearly 500 pages quarto. Family of De Thurnham (Vol. vii., p. 261.).—In reply to Θ. I send a few notes illustrative of the pedigree, &c. of the De Thurnhams, lords of Thurnham, in Kent, deduced from Dugdale, public records, and MS. charters in my possession, namely, the MS. Rolls of Combwell Priory, which was founded by Robert de Thurnham the elder; from which it appears that Robert de Thurnham, who lived tempore Hen. II., had two sons, Robert and Stephen. Of these, Robert married Joan, daughter of William Fossard, and died 13 John, leaving a daughter and sole heir Isabel, for whose marriage Peter de Maulay had to pay 7000 marks, which were allowed him in his accounts for services rendered to the crown. Stephen, the other son, married Edelina, daughter of Ralph de Broc, and, dying circiter 16 John, was buried in Waverley Abbey, Surrey. He seems to have left five daughters and coheirs; viz. Mabilia, wife of Ralph de Gatton, and afterwards of Thomas de Bavelingeham; Alice, wife of Adam de Bending; Alianore, wife of Roger de Leybourne; Beatrice, wife of Ralph de Fay; and Alienore, wife of Ralph Fitz-Bernard. Dugdale and the Combwell Rolls speak of only four daughters, making no mention of the wife of Ralph Fitz-Bernard; but an entry on the Fine Rolls would seem almost necessarily to imply that she was one of the five daughters and coheiresses. If not a daughter, she was in some way coheiress with the daughters; which is confirmed by an entry in Testa de Nevill: and, by a charter temp. Edw. I., I find Roger de Northwood, husband of Bona Fitz-Bernard, in possession of the manor of Thurnham, with every appearance of its having been by inheritance of his wife. With this explanation, I have ventured to include Alianore, wife of Ralph Fitz-Bernard, as among the daughters and coheiresses of Stephen de Thurnham. The issue of all of these marriages, after a few years, terminated in female representatives—among them the great infanta Juliana de Leybourne—mingling their blood with the Denes, Towns, Northwoods, Wattons, &c., and other ancient families of Kent. I have two beautiful seals of Sir Stephen de Thurnham temp. John,—a knight fully caparisoned on horseback, but not a trace of armorial bearings on his shield; nor, in truth, could we expect to find any such assigned to him at that early period. Major-General Lambert (Vol. vii., pp. 237. 269.).—Lambert did not survive his sentence more than twenty-one years. His trial took place in 1661, and he died during the hard winter of 1683. The last fifteen years of his life were spent on the small fortified island of St. Nicholas, commonly called Drake's Island, situated in Plymouth Sound, at the entrance to the Hamoaze. Lambert's wife and two of his daughters were with him on this island in 1673. (See "N. & Q.," Vols. iv. and v.) Loggerheads (Vol. v., p. 338.; and Vol. vii., pp. 192-3.).—Your correspondent Cambrensis, whose communication on this subject I have read with much interest, will excuse my correcting him in one or two minor points of his narrative. The little wayside inn at Llanverres, rendered famous by the genius of the painter Wilson, is still standing in its original position, on the left-hand of the road as you pass through that village to Ruthin. Woodward, who was landlord of the inn at the time Wilson frequented it, survived his friend Chester. Grafts and the Parent Tree (Vol. vii., p. 261.).—In reply to J. P. of this town, I beg to say that the belief, that "the graft perishes when the parent tree decays," is merely one among a host of superstitions reverently cherished by florists. The fact is, that grafts, after some fifteen years, wear themselves out. Of course there cannot be wanting many examples of the almost synchronous demise of parent and graft. From such cases, no doubt, the myth in question took its rise. Birmingham. The Lisle Family (Vol. vii., pp. 236. 269.).—Mr. Garland's Query has induced me to inquire, through the same channel, whether anything is known about a family of this name, some of whom are buried at Thruxton in Hampshire. There are four monuments in the church, two of which are certainly, the others probably, erected to members of the family. The first is a very fine brass (described in the Oxford Catalogue of Brasses), inscribed to Sir John Lisle, Lord of Boddington in the Isle of Wight, who died A.D. 1407. The next in date, and I suppose of much the same period, is an altar-tomb under an arch, which seems to have led into a small chantry. On this there are no arms, and no inscription. The tomb is now surmounted by the figure of a Crusader, which once lay outside the church, and is thought to be one of the Lisles, and the founder of the original church. On the north side of the chancel two arches looked into what was once a chantry chapel. In the eastern arch is an altar-tomb, once adorned with shields, which are now torn off. This chantry stood within the memory of "the oldest inhabitant;" but it was pulled down by the owner of the land appertaining to the chantry, and of its materials was built the church tower. One of its windows forms the tower window, and its battlements and pinnacles serve their old purpose in their new position. A modern vestry occupies part of the site of the chantry, and shows one side the altar-tomb I have last mentioned. This side has been refaced in Jacobian style, and the arms of Lisle and Courtenay, and one other coat (the same which occur on the brass), form part of the decoration. Two figures belonging to this later work lie now on the altar-tomb, and many more are remembered to have existed inside the chantry. The mixture of this late Jacobian work with the old work of the chantry is very curious, and can be traced all over what remains of it. The initials T. L. appear on shields under the tower battlements. I should be glad to find that these Lisles would throw any light on the subject of Mr. Garland's inquiry; and if they do not, perhaps some of your readers can give some information about them. The coat of arms of this family is—Or, on a chief gules, three lioncels rampant of the first. The Dodo in Ceylon (Vol. vii., p. 188.).—The bird which Sir J. Emerson Tennent identifies with the dodo is common on Ceylonese sculpture. The natives say it is now extinct, and call it the Hangsiya, or sacred goose; but whether deemed sacred for the same reason as the Capitoline goose, or otherwise, I must leave the author of Eleven Years in Ceylon to explain, he being the person in this country most conversant with Ceylonese mythology. I now wish to call Sir Emerson's attention to a coincidence that may be worthy his notice in connexion with his forthcoming work on Ceylon. If he will take the trouble to examine the model of the Parthenon, in the Elgin Marble room of the British Museum, he cannot fail, to be struck with its resemblance to the beautiful building he visited at Polonaroowa, called the Jaitoowanarama. The dimensions of the respective buildings I cannot at present ascertain; but the ground-plans are precisely similar, and each was roofless. But the most striking resemblance is in the position and altitude of the statues: that of the gigantic Bhoodho is precisely similar, even in the posture of the right arm and hand, to that of Minerva, the masterpiece of Phidias. On consulting his notes, he may find the height of the statues to correspond. That of Phidias was thirty-nine feet. Glen Tulchan. Thomas Watson, Bishop of St. David's, 1687-99 (Vol. vii., p. 234.).—This harshly-treated prelate died at Great Wilbraham, near Cambridge, on June 3, 1717, Æt. eighty years; and, from a private letter written at the time, seems to have been buried in haste in the chancel of that church, "but without any service," which may perhaps imply that there was not a funeral sermon, and the ordinary ceremony at a prelate's burial. It is, how Milnrow Parsonage. He died in retirement at Wilburgham, or Wilbraham, in the county of Cambridge, June 3, 1717, Ætat. eighty.—See Gough's Camden, vol. ii. p. 140., and Gentleman's Magazine, vols. lix. and lx. Bishop Gobat was born in 1799, at Cremine, in the perish of Grandval, in Switzerland. His name is not to be found in the list of graduates of either Oxford or Cambridge. His degree of D. D. was probably bestowed on him by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dublin. Etymology of Fuss (Vol. vii., p. 180.).— Richardson gives the same etymology, referring to Somner. Webster says, "allied, perhaps, to Gr. φυσαω, to blow or puff." A reference to the word in Todd's Johnson's Dictionary will show, and I think satisfactorily, that its origin is fus (Anglo-Saxon), prompt or eager; hence fysan, to hasten. The quotation given is from Swift. Palindromical Lines (Vol. vii., p. 178.).—The sotadic inscription,
is stated (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xl. p. 617.) to be on a font at Sandbach in Cheshire, and (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxiii. p. 441.) to be on the font at Dulwich in Surrey, and also on the font at Harlow in Essex. Nugget (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.; Vol. vii., pp. 143. 272.).—Furvus is persuaded that the word nugget is of home growth, and has sprung from a root existing under various forms throughout the dialects at present in use. The radical appears to be snag, knag, or nag (Knoge, Cordylus, cf. Knuckle), a protuberance, knot, lump; being a term chiefly applied to knots in trees, rough pieces of wood, &c., and in its derivatives strongly expressive of (so to speak) misshapen lumpiness. Every one resident in the midland counties must be acquainted with the word nog, applied to the wooden ball used in the game of "shinney," the corresponding term of which, nacket, holds in parts of Scotland, where also a short, corpulent person is called a nuget. So, in Essex, nig signifies a piece; a snag is a well-known word across the Atlantic; nogs are ninepins in the north of England; a noggin of bread is equivalent to a hunch in the midland counties; and in the neighbourhood of the Parret and Exe the word becomes nug, bearing (besides its usual acceptation) the meaning of knot, lump. This supposed derivation is by no means weakened by the fact, that miners and others have gone to the "diggins" from parts at no great distance from the last-mentioned district; and we may therefore, although the radical is pretty generally diffused over the kingdom, attribute its better known application to them. It is no objection that the word, in many of its forms, is used of rough pieces of wood, as instances show that it merely refers to a rudis indigestaque moles characteristic of any article in question. St. James's. Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores (Vol. vii., p. 260.).—This, which is no doubt the proper form, will be found in Southey's Naval History of England, vol. iv. p. 104., applied to "those of old English race who, having adopted the manners of the land, had become more Irish than the Irishry." The expression originally was applied to these persons in some proclamation or act of parliament, which I think is quoted in the History of England in Lardner's Cabinet CyclopÆdia: but that work has so bad an index as to make it very difficult to find any passage one may want. Probably Southey would mention the source whence he had it, in his collections for his Naval History in his Commonplace Book. The Passame Sares (mel. Passamezzo) Galliard (Vol. vi., pp. 311. 446.; Vol. vii., p. 216.).—Will you allow me to correct a mistake into which both the correspondents who have kindly answered my questions respecting this galliard seem to have fallen, perhaps misled by an ambiguity in my expression? My inquiry was not intended to refer to galliards in general, the tunes of which, I am well aware, must have been very various, but to this one galliard in particular; and was made with the view of ascertaining whether the air is ever played at the present day during the representation of the Second Part of King Henry IV. Temple. Swedish Words current in England (Vol. ii., p. 231.).—I beg to inform your correspondent that the following words, which occur in his list, are pure Anglo-Saxon, bearing almost the same mean Eldon is Icelandic, from elldr, fire: hence we have "At slÁ elld Úr tinnu," to strike fire from flint; which approaches very near to a tinder-box. Ling, Icel., the heath or heather plant: ljung I take to be the same word. Gat, Icel. for way or opening; hence strand-gata, the opening of the strand or creek. Tjarn, tiorn, Icel., well exemplified in Malham Tarn in Craven. Gotch (Vol. vi., p. 400.).—The gotch cup, described by W. R., must have been known in England before the coming of the present royal family, as it is given in Bailey's Dictionary (1730) as a south country word: it is not likely to have become provincial in so short a time, nor its origin, if German, to have escaped the notice of old Φιλὁλογος. The A.-S. verb geotan seems to have had the sense of to cast metals, as giessen has in German. In Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary is leadgota, a plumber. In modern Dutch this is lootgieter. Thus, from geotan is derived ingot (Germ. einguss), as well as the following words in Halliwell's Dictionary: yete, to cast metals (Pr. Parv.), belleyetere and bellyatere, a bell-founder (Pr. Parv.); geat, the hole through which melted metal runs into a mould; and yote, to pour in. Grose has yoted, watered, a west country word. Passage in Thomson: "Steaming" (Vol. vii., pp. 87. 248.).—This word, and not streaming, is clearly the true reading (as is remarked by the former correspondents), and is so printed in the editions to which I am able to refer. The object of my Note is to point out a parallel passage in Milton, and to suggest that steaming would there also be the proper reading: "Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise, From hill or streaming lake, dusky or gray, Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold, In honour to the world's great Author, rise." Paradise Lost, Book v. [The reading is steaming in the 1st edition of Paradise Lost, 1667.—Ed.] The Word "Party" (Vol. vii., pp. 177. 247.).—The use of this word for a particular person is earlier than Shakspeare's time. It no doubt occurs in most of our earliest writers; for it is to be found in Herbert's Life of Henry VIII., in his translation of the "Centum Gravamina" presented to Pope Adrian in 1521, the 55th running thus:
It may also be found in Exodus xxii. 9., where, though it occurs in the plural, it refers to two individuals:
Clyst St. George. Curious Fact in Natural Philosophy (Vol. vii., p. 206.).—In reply to Elginensis I send you a quotation from Dr. Golding Bird's Natural Philosophy in explanation of this well-known phenomenon:
Dr. G. B. then describes the experiment quoted by Elginensis as "a similar phenomenon, and apparently explicable on similar principles." (Bird's Nat. Phil., p. 118.) Lowbell (Vol. vii., p. 272.).—I may add to the explanation of this word given by M. H., that low, derived from the Saxon loeg, is still commonly used in Scotland for a flame; hence the derivation of lowbell, for a mode of birdcatching by night, by which the birds, being awakened by the bell, are lured by the light into nets held by the fowlers. In the ballad of St. George for England, we have the following lines: "As timorous larks amazed are With light and with a lowbell." The term lowbelling may therefore, from the noise, be fitly applied to the rustic charivari described by H. T. W. (Vol. vii., p. 181.) as practised in Northamptonshire. Coniger, &c. (Vol. vii., pp. 182. 241.).—At one extremity, the picturesque range of hills which forms the noble background of Dunster Castle, co. Somerset, is terminated by a striking conical eminence, well-wooded, and surmounted by an embattled tower, erected as an object from the castle windows. This eminence bears the name of The Coniger, and is now a pheasant preserve. Mr. Hamper, in an excellent notice of Dunster and its antiquities, in the Gentleman's Magazine, October, 1808, p. 873., says:
Savage, however, in his History of the Hundred of Carhampton, p. 440., is of opinion that
I give you this criticism on Mr. Hamper valeat quantum, but am disposed to think he is right. At all events there are no vestiges of any building on the Coniger except the tower aforesaid, which was erected by the present Mr. Luttrell's grandfather. In the Irish language, Cuinicear, pronounced "KeenÈkar," is a rabbit-warren. Cuinin is the diminutive of cu, a dog of any sort; and from the Celtic cu, the Greeks took their word κυων, a dog. I am of opinion that the origin of rabbit is in the Celtic word rap, i. e. a creature that digs and burrows in the ground. Cupid crying (Vol. i., p. 172.).—I had no means (for reasons I need not now specify) of referring to my 1st Vol. of "N. & Q." until yesterday, for the pretty epigram given in an English dress by Rufus and as the writer in the AthenÆum, whose communication you quote on the same subject (Vol. i., p. 308.), observes "that the translator has taken some liberties with his text," I make no apology for sending you a much closer rendering, which hits off with great happiness the point and quaintness of the original, by a septuagenarian, whose lucubrations have already been immortalised in "N. & Q." "De Cupidine. Cur natum cÆdit Venus? arcum perdidit, arcum Nunc quis habet? Tusco Flavia nata solo: Qui factum? petit hÆc, dedit hic, nam lumine formÆ Deceptus, matri se dari crediderat." "Cupid Crying. Wherefore does Venus beat her boy? He has mislaid or lost his bow:— And who retains the missing toy? Th' Etrurian Flavia. How so? She ask'd: he gave it; for the child, Not e'en suspecting any other, By beauty's dazzling light beguil'd, Thought he had given it to his mother." Westminster Assembly of Divines (Vol. vii., p. 260.).—Dr. Lightfoot's interesting and valuable "Journal of the Assembly of Divines," from January 1, 1643, to December 31, 1644, will be found in the last volume of the edition of his Works, edited by Pitman, and published at London, 1825, in 13 vols. 8vo. I believe a few copies of the 13th volume were printed to be sold separately. The MS. Journal in three thick folio volumes, preserved in Dr. Williams's library, Redcross Street, London, is attributed to Dr. Thomas Goodwin. A MS. Journal, by Geo. Gillespie, from Feb. 2, 1644, to Oct. 25, 1644, in 2 vols., is in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. The Rev. W. M. Hetherington published a tolerably impartial History of the Westminster Assembly, Edinburgh, 1843, 12mo. The most important work, as throwing light upon the proceedings of the Assembly, is the Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie. The only complete edition of these interesting documents is that edited by David Laing, Esq., and published in 3 vols. royal 8vo., 1841-2. Mr. Stansbury will find the "Journal of the Assembly of Divines," by Lightfoot, in the new edition of his Works, vol. xiii. pp. 5. et seq. Some further light is thrown upon the subject by a parliamentary paper, printed "for the service of both Houses and the Assembly of Divines." A copy of it is preserved in our University library (Ff. xiv. 25.). I have referred to both these documents in A History of the Articles, &c., pp. 208-9. St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge. The Journal kept by Lightfoot will be found in the 13th volume of his Works, as edited by the Rev. J. R. Pitman: London, 1825, 8vo. It should be studied by all those who desire to see a revived Convocation. Ashington, Sussex. "God and the world" (Vol. vii., pp. 134. 297.).—These lines are found, as quoted by W. H., in Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, p. 87., ed. 1831. Coleridge gives them as the words of a sage poet of the preceding generation (meaning, I suppose, the generation preceding that of Archbishop Leighton, a passage from whose works he has introduced as an aphorism just before). I have often wondered who this poet was, and whether the last line were really a quotation from Macbeth, or whether Shakspeare and the unknown poet had both but borrowed a popular saying. I also had my suspicions that Coleridge himself might have patched the verses a little; and the communication of your correspondent Rt., tracing the lines in their original form to the works of Fulke Greville Lord Brooke, now verifies his conjecture. It may be worth while to point out another instance of this kind of manufacture by the same skilful hand. In the first volume of The Friend (p. 215., ed. 1818), Coleridge places at the head of an essay a quotation of two stanzas from Daniel's Musophilus. The second, which precedes in the original that which Coleridge places first, is thus given by him: "Since writings are the veins, the arteries, And undecaying life-strings of those hearts, That still shall pant and still shall exercise Their mightiest powers when Nature none imparts; And the strong constitution of their praise Wear out the infection of distemper'd days." Daniel wrote as follows (vol. ii. p. 373., ed. 1718): "For these lines are the veins, the arteries And undecaying life-strings of those hearts, That still shall pant and still shall exercise The motion spirit and nature both imparts, And still with those alive so sympathize, As nourish'd with their powers, enjoy their parts." Skating Problem (Vol. vii., p. 284.).—The Query of your correspondent recalls the one said to have been put by King James to the members of the Royal Society: "How is it," said the British Solomon, "that if two buckets of water be equipoised in a balance, and a couple of live bream be put into one of them, the bucket containing the fish does not overweigh the other?" After some learned reasons had been adduced by certain of the philosophers, one of them said, "Please your Majesty, that bucket would be heavier by the exact weight of the fish." "Thou art right," said the sapient king; "I did not think there had been so much sense among you." Now, although I do not mean to say that A Skater propounds for elucidation what he knows to be a fallacy, yet I do assert that he is mistaken as to the fact alleged. He recommends any one who is "incredulous" to make the trial—in which case, the experimenter would undoubtedly find himself in the water! I advise an appeal to common sense and philosophy: the former will show that a person in skates is not lighter than another; the latter, that ice will not fracture less readily beneath the weight of an individual raised on a pair of steel edges, than one on a pair of flat soles—all other circumstances being the same; the reverse, indeed, would be the fact. The true explanation of the "problem" is to be found in the circumstance, that "a skater," rendered confident by the ease with which he glides over ice on which he could not stand, will often also "stand" securely on ice which would break under the restless feet of a person in his shoes only. This has always appeared to be the obvious reason for the apparent anomaly to one who is Parochial Libraries (Vol. vi., p. 432.).—Let me add to the list of parochial libraries that at Wendlebury, Oxon, the gift of Robert Welborn, rector, cir. 1760. It consists of about fifty volumes in folio, chiefly works of the Fathers, and, if I remember rightly, Benedictine editions. It was originally placed in the north transept of the church, but afterwards removed to the rectory. I believe that the books were intended for the use of the rector, but were to be lent to the neighbouring clergy on a bond being given for their restoration. After many years of sad neglect, this library was put into thorough order a few years ago by the liberality of the Rev. Jacob Ley, student of Ch. Ch. |