(Vol. viii., p. 182.)

A correspondent who seems to delight in sibilants, signing, himself S.Z.Z.S., invites me to "preserve, in your columns, the letter of Calvin to Cranmer, of which Dean Jenkyns has only given extracts," as noticed by me in your Vol. vii., p. 621.

I would not shrink from the trouble of transcribing the whole letter, if a complete copy were only to be found in the short-lived columns of a newspaper, as inserted in the Record of May 15, 1843, by Merle d'AubignÉ; but the Dean has given a reference to the volume in which both the letters he cites are preserved and accessible, viz. Calvin Epistles, pp. 134, 135., Genev. 1616.

S. Z. Z. S. justly observes that there are two points to be distinguished: first, Cranmer's wish that Calvin should assist in a general union of the churches protesting against Romish errors; second, Calvin's offer to assist in settling the Church of England. He adds, "The latter was declined; and the reason is demonstrated in Archbishop Laurence's Bampton Lectures." I neither possess those lectures, nor the volume of Calvin's epistles; but all I have seen of the correspondence between him and Cranmer, in the Parker Society's editions of Cranmer, and of original letters between 1537-58, and in Jenkyns' Remains of Cranmer, indisposes me to believe that Calvin made any "offer to assist in settling the Church of England." It appears from Dean Jenkyns' note, vol. i. p. 346., that Archbishop Laurence made a mistake in the order of the correspondence, calculated to mislead himself; and as to Heylyn's assertion, Eccles. Restaur., p. 65., that Calvin made such an offer and "that the Archbishop (Cranmer) knew the man and refused his offer," the Dean says:

"He gives no authority for the later part of his statement, and it can hardly be reconciled with Cranmer's letter to Calvin of March 20, 1552."

The contemptuous expression, he "knew the man and refused his offer," is, in fact, utterly irreconcilable with Cranmer's language in all his three letters to Melancthon, to Bullinger, and to Calvin (Nos. 296, 297, 298. of Parker Society's edition of Cranmer's Remains, and Nos. 283, 284, 285. of Jenkyns' edition), where he tells each of the other two that he had written to Calvin from his desire—

"Ut in Anglia, aut alibi, doctissimorum et optimorum virorum synodus convocaretur, in qua de puritate ecclesiasticÆ doctrinÆ, et prÆcipue de consensu controversiÆ sacramentariÆ tractaretur."

Or, as he said to Calvin himself:

"Ut docti et pii viri, qui alios antecellunt eruditione et judicio, convenirent."

Your correspondent seems to have used the word "demonstrated" rather in a surgical than in its mathematical sense.

Having taken up my pen to supply you with an answer to this historical inquiry, I may as well notice some other articles in your No. 199. For example, in p. 167., L. need not have referred your readers to Halliwell's Researches in Archaic Language for an explanation of Bacon's word "bullaces." The word may be seen in Johnson's Dictionary, with the citation from Bacon, and instead of vaguely calling it "a small black and tartish plum," your botanical readers know it as the Prunus insititia.

Again, p. 173., J. M. may like to know farther, that the Duke of Wellington's clerical brother was entered on the boards of St. John's College, Cambridge, as Wesley, where the spelling must have been dictated either by himself, or by the person authorised to desire his admission. It continued to be spelt Wesley in the Cambridge annual calendars as late as 1808, but was altered in that of 1809 to Wellesley. The alteration was probably made by the desire of the family, and without communicating such desire to the registrary of the university. For it appears in the edition of Graduati Cantabrigienses, printed in 1823, as follows:

"Wesley, Gerard Valerian, Coll. Joh. A. M. 1792. Comitis de Mornington, Fil. nat. 4^tus."

In p. 173., C. M. Ingleby may like to know, as a clue to the origin of his apussee and, that I was taught at school, sixty years ago, to call & And per se, whilst some would call it And-per-se-and.

In the same page, the inquirer B. H. C. respecting the word mammon, may like to know that the history of that word has been given at some length in p. 1. to p. 68. of the Parker Society's edition of Tyndale's Parable of the wicked Mammon, where I have stated that it occurs in a form identical with the English in the Chaldee Targum of Onkelos on Exod. viii. 21., and in that of Jonathan on Judges, v. 9., as equivalent to riches; and that in the Syriac translation it occurs in a form identical with ?a???, in Exod. xxi. 30., as a rendering for ?????, the price of satisfaction. In B.H.C.'s citation from Barnes, even seems a misprint for ever. The Jews did not again fall into actual idolatry after the Babylonish captivity; but we are told that in the sight of God covetousness is idolatry.

Henry Walter.

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BARNACLES.

(Vol. viii., p. 124.)

A Querist quoting from Porta's Natural Magic the vulgar error that "not only in Scotland, but in the river Thames, there is a kind of shell-fish which get out of their shells and grow to be ducks, or such like birds," asks, what could give rise to such an absurd belief? Your correspondent quotes from the English translation of the Magia Naturalis, A.D. 1658; but the tradition is very ancient, Porta the author having died in 1515 A.D. You still find an allusion in Hudibras to those—

The story has its origin in the peculiar formation of the little mollusc which inhabits the multivalve shell, the Pentalasmis anatifera, which by a fleshy peduncle attaches itself by one end to the bottoms of ships or floating timber, whilst from the other there protrudes a bunch of curling and fringe-like cirrhi, by the agitation of which it attracts and collects its food. These cirrhi so much resemble feathers, as to have suggested the leading idea of a bird's tail: and hence the construction of the remainder of the fable, which is thus given with grave minuteness in The Herbal, or General Historie of Plants, gathered by John Gerarde, Master in Chirurgerie: London, 1597:

"What our eyes have seen, and our hands have touched, we shall declare. There is a small island in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by shipwreck; and also the trunks or bodies, with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise, whereon is found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certain shells, in shape like those of a mussel, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour; wherein is contained a thing in form like a lace of silk finely woven as it were together, of a whitish colour; one end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and mussels are; the other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude mass or lump, which in time cometh to the shape and form of a bird. When it is perfectly formed, the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the legs of the bird hanging out and as it groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only by the bill. In short space after it cometh to full maturity, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowl, bigger than a mallard, and lesser than a goose; having black legs, and a bill or beak, and feathers black and white, spotted in such manner as our magpie, called in some places a Pie-Annet, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name than a tree-goose; which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjacent, do so much abound therewith, that one of the best may be bought for threepence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repair unto me, and I shall satisfy them by the testimony of credible witnesses."—Page 1391.

Gerarde, who is doubtless Butler's authority, says elsewhere, that "in the north parts of Scotland, and the islands called Orcades," there are certain trees whereon these tree-geese and barnacles abound.

The conversion of the fish into a bird, however fabulous, would be scarcely more astonishing than the metamorphosis which it actually undergoes—the young of the little animal having no feature to identify it with its final development. In its early stage (I quote from Carpenter's Physiology, vol. i. p. 52.) it has a form not unlike that of the crab, "possessing eyes and powers of free motion; but afterwards, becoming fixed to one spot for the remainder of its life, it loses its eyes and forms a shell, which, though composed of various pieces, has nothing in common with the jointed shell of the crab."

Though Porta wrote at Naples, the story has reference to Scotland; and the tradition is evidently northern, and local. As to Speriend's Query, What could give rise to so absurd a story? it doubtless took its origin in the similarity of the tentacles of the fish to feathers of a bird. But I would add the farther Query, whether the ready acceptance and general credence given to so obvious a fable, may not have been derived from giving too literal a construction to the text of the passage in the first chapter of Genesis:

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and the fowl that may fly in the open firmament of heaven?"

J. Emerson Tennent.

Drayton (1613) in his Poly-olbion, iii., in connexion with the river Dee, speaks of—

"Th' anatomised fish, and fowls from planchers sprung,"

to which a note is appended in Southey's edition, p. 609., that such fowls were "barnacles, a bird breeding upon old ships." In the Entertaining Library, "Habits of Birds," pp. 363-379., the whole story of this extraordinary instance of ignorance in natural history is amply developed. The barnacle shells which I once saw in a sea-port, attached to a vessel just arrived from the Mediterranean, had the brilliant appearance, at a distance, of flowers in bloom^[1]; the foot of the Lepas anatifera (LinnÆus) appearing to me like the stalk of a plant growing from the ship's side: the shell had the semblance of a calyx, and the flower consisted of the fingers (tentacula) of the shell-fish, "of which twelve project in an elegant curve, and are used by it for making prey of small fish." The very ancient error was to mistake the foot of the shell-fish for the neck of a goose, the shell for its head, and the tentacula for a tuft of feathers. As to the body, non est inventus. The Barnacle Goose is a well-known bird: and these shell-fish, bearing, as seen out of the water, resemblance to the goose's neck, were ignorantly, and without investigation, confounded with geese themselves, an error into which Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) did not fall, and in which Pope Pius II. proved himself infallible. Nevertheless, in France, the Barnacle Goose may be eaten on fast-days by virtue of this old belief in its marine origin.

T. J. Buckton

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DIAL INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. iv., p. 507. Vol. v., p. 155., &c.)

In the churchyard of Areley-Kings, Worcestershire (where is the singular memorial to Sir Harry Coningsby, which I mentioned at Vol. vi., p. 406.), is a curious dial, the pillar supporting which has its four sides carved with figures of Time and Death, &c., and the following inscriptions.

On the south side, where is the figure of Time:

On the north side, where is the figure of Death standing upon a dead body, with his dart, hour-glass, and spade:

The east side of the pillar has the following:

And on the west:

I subjoin a few other dial inscriptions, copied from churches in Worcestershire.

Kidderminster (parish church):

"None but a villain will deface me."

Himbleton (over the porch):

"Via VitÆ."

Bromsgrove:

"We shall ——" (i.e. we shall die-all).

Shrawley:

"Ab hoc nomento pendet Æternitas."

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

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THE "SALTPETER MAKER."

(Vol. vii., pp. 377. 433. 460. 530.)

The following humble petition will give an idea of the arbitrary power exercised by the "Saltpeter maker" in the days of Good Queen Bess; and of the useful monopoly that functionary contrived to make of his employment, in defiance of county government:

"Righte honorable, our humble dewties to yo^r good Lordshippe premised, maye it please the same to be advertised, that at the Quarter sessions holden at Newarke within this countie of Nottingham, There was a generall Complaynte made unto us by the Whole Countrie, that one John Ffoxe, saltpeter maker, had charged the Whole Countrie by his precepts for the Caryinge of Cole from Selsonn, in the Countie of Nottingham, unto the towne of Newarke w^thin the same countie; beinge sixteene myles distante for the makeinge of saltpeter, some townes w^th five Cariages and some w^th lesse, or els to geve him foure shillinges for everie Loade, whereof he hath Recyved a great parte. Uppon w^ch Complaynte we called the same Ffoxe before some of us at Newarke at the Sessions, there to answere the premisses, and also to make us a propcion what Loades of Coales would serve to make a thowsand of saltpeter, To thend we might have sett some order for the preparing of the same: But the said Ffoxe will not sett downe anie rate what would serve for the makeinge of a Thowsande. Therefore we have thoughte good to advertise your good Lordshippe of the premisses, and have appoynted the clarke of the peace of this countie of Nottingham to attend yo^r good Lordshippe to know yo^r Lordshippes pleasure about the same, who can further informe yo^r good Lordshippe of the particularities thereof, if it shall please yo^r good Lordshippe to geve him hearings, And so most humblie take our Leaves, Newarke, the viij^th of Octob^r, 1589.

"Your L^pp most humblie to Comaunde,

Ro. Markham,

William Sutton,

Rauf Barton, 1589,

Nihs Roos,

Brian Lassels,

John Thornhagh."

The document is addressed on the back "To the Right Honorable our verie good Lord the Lord Burghley, Lord Heighe Threasoro^r of England, yeve theis;" and is numbered LXI. 72. among the Lansdowne MSS., B. M.

The proposal quoted below has no date attached, but probably belongs to the former part of the seventeenth century:

"The Service.

"1. To make 500 Tunne of refined Saltpetre within his Ma^ties dominions yearely, and continually, and cheaper.

2. Without digging of homes or charging of carts, or any other charge to the subject whatsoever.

3. To performe the whole service at our owne cost.

4. Not to hinder any man in his owne way of makeing saltpetre, nor importation from forreine parts."

The following memorandum is underwritten:

"Mr. Speaker hath our Bill; Be pleased to-morrow to call for it."

The original draft of the above disinterested offer may be seen Harl. CLVIII. fol. 272.

Furvus.

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TSAR.

(Vol. viii., p. 150.)

The difficulty in investigating the origin of this word is that the letter c, "the most wonderful of all letters," says Eichhoff (Vergleichung der Sprachen, p. 55.), sounds like k before the vowels a, o, u, but before e, i, in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, as s, in Italian as tsh, in German as ts. It is always ts in Polish and Bohemian. In Russian it is represented by a special letter ?, tsi; but in Celtic it is always k. Conformably with this principle, the Russians, like the Germans, Poles, and Bohemians, pronounce the Latin c as ts. So Cicero in these languages is pronounced Tsitsero, very differently from the Greeks, who called him Kikero. The letter tsi is a supplementary one in Russian, having no corresponding letter in the Greek alphabet, from which the Russian was formed in the ninth century by St. Cyril. The word to be sought then amongst cognate languages as the counterpart of tsar (or as the Germans write it czar) is car, as pronounced in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The most probable etymological connection that I can discover is with the Sanscrit Sanskrit: car car, to move, to advance; the root of the Greek ??????, in English car, Latin curro, French cours. So Sanscrit caras, carat, movable, nimble; Greek ?????, Latin currens. And Sanscrit cÂras, motion, Greek ?????, Latin currus, cursus, French char, English car, cart, &c. The early Russians were doubtless wanderers, an off-shoot of the people known to the Greeks as Scythians, and to the Hebrews and Arabians as Gog and Magog, who travelled in cars, occupying first one territory with their flocks, but not cultivating the land, then leaving it to nature and taking up another resting-place. It is certain that the Russians have many Asiatic words in their vocabulary, which must necessarily have occurred from their being for more than two centuries sometimes under Tatar, and sometimes under Mongol domination; and the origin of this word tsar or car may leave to be sought on the plateaus of North-east Asia. In the Shemitic tongues (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, &c.) no connexion of sound or meaning, so probable as the above Indo-European one, is to be found. The popular derivations of Nabupolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, &c., are not to be trusted. It is remarkable, however, that these names are significant in Russian. (See "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 432, 433, note.) The cuneatic inscriptions may yet throw light on these Assyrian names. In Russian the kingdom is Tsarstvo, the king Tsar, his queen Tsarina, his son is Tsarevitch, and his daughter Tsarevna. The word is probably pure Russian or Slavic. The Russian tsar used about two hundred years ago to be styled duke by foreign courts, but he has advanced in the nomenclature of royalty to be an emperor. The Russians use the word imperatore for emperor, Kesar for CÆsar, and samodershetse for sovereign.

T. J. Buckton.

In Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire, it is stated that the title of Czar may possibly be derived front the Tzars or Tchars of the kingdom of Casan. When John, or Ivan Basilides, Grand Prince of Russia, had completed the reduction of this kingdom, he assumed this title, and it has since continued to his successors. Before the reign of John Basilides, the sovereigns of Russia bore the name of Velike Knez, that is, great prince, great lord, great chief, which in Christian countries was afterwards rendered by that of great duke. The Czar Michael Federovitz, on occasion of the Holstein embassy, assumed the titles of Great Knez and Great Lord, Conservator of all the Russias, Prince of Wolodimir, Moscow, Novogorod, &c., Tzar of Casan, Tzar of Astracan, Tzar of Siberia. The name of Tzar was therefore the title of those Oriental princes, and therefore it is more probable for it to have been derived from the Tshas of Persia than from the Roman CÆsars, whose name very likely never reached the ears of the Siberian Tzars on the banks of the Oby. In another part of Voltaire's History, when giving an account of the celebrated battle of Narva, where Charles XII., with nine thousand men and ten pieces of cannon, defeated "the Russian army with eighty thousand fighting men, supported by one hundred and forty-five pieces of cannon," he says, "Among the captives was the son of a King of Georgia, whom Charles sent to Stockholm; his name was Mittelesky Czarowitz, or Czar's Son, which is farther proof that the title of Czar or Tzar was not originally derived from the Roman CÆsars." To the above slightly abbreviated description may not be uninterestingly added the language of Voltaire, which immediately follows the first reference:

"No title, how great soever, is of any signification, unless they who bear it are great and powerful of themselves. The word emperor, which denoted only the general of an army, became the title of the sovereigns of Rome and it is now conferred on the supreme governor of all the Russias."

A Hermit at Hampstead.

I beg to inform J. S. A. that the right word is Tsar, and that it is the Russian word answering to our king or lord, the Latin Rex, the Persian Shah, &c. There may be terms in other languages that have an affinity with it, but I believe we should seek in vain for a derivation.

T. K.

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"LAND OF GREEN GINGER."

(Vol. viii., p. 160.)

I wish that R. W. Elliot of Clifton, whom I recognise as a former inhabitant of Hull, had given the authority on which he states, that "It is so called from the sale of ginger having been chiefly carried on there in early times." The name of this street has much puzzled the local antiquaries; and having been for several years engaged on a work relative to the derivations, &c., of the names of the streets of Hull, I have spared no pains to ascertain the history and derivation of the singular name of this street.

I offer then a conjecture as to its derivation as follows:—The ground on which this street stands was originally the property of De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, on which he had built his stately manor-house. On the attainder of the family it was seized by the king; and Henry VIII. several times held his court here, on one of his visits having presented his sword to the corporation. It was then, 1538, called Old Beverley Street, as seen in the survey made of the estates of Sir William Sydney, Kt. In a romance called Piraute el Blanco, it is stated "The morning collation at the English Court was green ginger with good Malmsey, which was their custom, because of the coldness of the land." And in the Foedera, vii. 233., it is stated that, among other things, the cargo of a Genoese ship, which was driven ashore at Dunster, in Somersetshire, in 1380, consisted of green ginger (ginger cured with lemon-juice). In Hollar's Map of Hull, 1640, the street is there laid out as built upon, but without any name attached to it. No other plans of Hull are at present known to exist from the time of Hollar, 1640, to Gent, 1735. In Gent's plan of Hull, it is there called "The Land of Green Ginger;" so that probably, between the years 1640 and 1735, it received its peculiar name.

I therefore conjecture that, as Henry VIII. kept his Court here with his usual regal magnificence, green ginger would be one of the luxuries of his table; that this portion of his royal property being laid out as a garden, was peculiarly suitable for the growth of ginger—the same as Pontefract was for the growth of the liquorice plant; and that, upon the property being built upon, the remembrance of this spot being so suitable for the growth of ginger for the Court, would eventually give the peculiar name, in the same way that the adjoining street of Bowl-Alley-Lane received its title from the bowling-green near to it.

John Richardson.

13. Savile Street, Hull.