Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853
V >>
Various >> Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
are listed at the end of the text.
{589} NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,
GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 190.]
Saturday, June 18, 1853.
[Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Page
On the Use of the Hour-glass in Pulpits 589
The Megatherium Americanum in the British Museum 590
Remunerations of Authors, by Alexander Andrews 591
Coincident Legends, by Thomas Keightley 591
Shakespeare Readings, No. VIII. 592
Shakespeare's Use of the Idiom "No had" and "No hath
not," by S. W. Singer, &c. 593
MINOR NOTES:--The Formation of the Woman,
Gen. ii. 21, 22.--Singular Way of showing Displeasure
--The Maids and the Widows--Alison's "Europe"--
"Bis dat, qui cito dat:" "Sat cito, si sat bene" 593
QUERIES:--
House-marks 594
Minor Queries:--"Seductor Succo"--Anna Lightfoot
--Queries from the "Navorscher"--"Amentium
haud Amantium"--"Hurrah!" and other War-cries
--Kissing Hands at Court--Uniforms of the three
Regiments of Foot Guards, temp. Charles II.--Raffaelle's
Sposalizio--"To the Lords of Convention"--
Richard Candishe, M.P.--Alphabetical Arrangement--
Saying of Pascal--Irish Characters on the Stage--
Family of Milton's Widow--Table-moving 595
MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--Form of Petition,
&c.--Bibliography--Peter Francius and De Wilde--
Work by Bishop Ken--Eugene Aram's Comparative
Lexicon--Drimtaidhvrickhillichattan--Coins of
Europe--General Benedict Arnold 596
REPLIES:--
Parish Registers: Right of Search, by G. Brindley Acworth 598
The Honourable Miss E. St. Leger, a Freemason, by
Henry H. Breen 598
Weather Rules, by John Booker, &c. 599
Scotchmen in Poland, by Richard John King 600
Mr. Justice Newton 600
The Marriage Ring 601
Canada, &c. 602
Selling a Wife, by William Bates 602
Enough 603
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:--Mr. Wilkinson's
Mode of levelling Cameras--Collodion Negative--
Developing Collodion Process--An iodizing Difficulty 604
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Bishop Frampton--Parochial
Libraries--Pierrepont--Passage in Orosius
--Pugna Porcorum--Oaken Tombs and Effigies--
Bowyer Bible--Longevity--Lady Anne Gray--Sir
John Fleming--Life--Family of Kelway--Sir G.
Browne, Bart.--Americanisms, so called--Sir Gilbert
Gerard, &c. 605
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, &c. 610
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 610
Notices to Correspondents 610
Advertisements 611
* * * * *
Notes.
ON THE USE OF THE HOUR-GLASS IN PULPITS.
George Herbert says:
"The parson exceeds not an hour in preaching, because _all ages_ have
thought that a competency."--_A Priest to the Temple_, p. 28.
Ferrarius, _De Ritu Concion._, lib. i. c. 34., makes the following
statement:
"Huic igitur certo ac communi malo (the evil of too long sermons) ut
medicinam facerent, Ecclesiae patres in concionando determinatum dicendi
tempus fereque unius horae spatio conclusum aut ipsi sibi praescribant,
aut ab aliis praefinitum religiose observabant."
Bingham, commenting on this passage, observes:
"Ferrarius and some others are very positive that they (their sermons)
were generally an hour long; but Ferrarius is at a loss to tell by what
instrument they measured their hour, for he will not venture to affirm
that they preached, as the old Greek and Roman orators declaimed, by an
hour-glass."--See _Bingham_, vol. iv. p. 582.
This remark of Bingham's brings me at once to the subject of my present
communication. What evidence exists of the practice of preaching by the
hour-glass, thus treated as improbable, if not ridiculous, by the learned
writer just quoted? If the early Fathers of the church _timed_ their
sermons by any instrument of the kind, we should expect their writings to
contain _internal_ evidence of the fact, just as frequent allusion is made
by Demosthenes and other ancient orators to the klepshydra or water-clock,
by which the time allotted to each speaker was measured. Besides, the close
proximity of such an instrument would be a constant source of metaphorical
allusion on the subject of _time and eternity_. Perhaps those of your
readers who are familiar with the extant sermons of the Greek and Latin
fathers, may be able to supply some illustration on this subject. At all
events there appears to be indisputable evidence of the use of the
hour-glass in the pulpit formerly in this country. {590}
In an extract from the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Helen,
in Abingdon, Berks, we find the following entry:
"Anno MDXCI. 34 Eliz. 'Payde for an houre-glasse for the pulpit,'
4d."--See Hone's _Table-Book_, vol. i. p. 482.
Among the accounts of Christ Church, St. Catherine's, Aldgate, under the
year 1564, this entry occurs:
"Paid for an hour-glass that hangeth by the pulpitt when the preacher
doth make a sermon that he may know how the hour passeth
away."--Malcolm's _Londinium_, vol. iii. p. 309., cited Southey's
_Common-Place Book_, 4th Series, p. 471.
In Fosbrooke (_Br. Mon._, p. 286.) I find the following passage:
"A stand for an hour-glass still remains in many pulpits. A rector of
Bibury (in Gloucestershire) used to preach two hours, regularly turning
the glass. After the text the esquire of the parish withdrew, smoaked
his pipe, and returned to the blessing."
The authority for this, which Fosbrooke cites, is Rudder's
_Gloucestershire_, in "Bibury." It is added that lecturers' pulpits have
also hour-glasses The woodcuts in Hawkins's _Music_, ii. 332., are referred
to in support of this statement. I regret that I have no means of
consulting the two last-mentioned authorities.
In 1681 some poor crazy people at Edinburgh called themselves the Sweet
Singers of Israel. Among other things, they renounced the limiting the
Lord's mind by _glasses_. This is no doubt in allusion to the hour-glass,
which Mr. Water, the editor of the fourth series of Southey's _Common-Place
Book_, informs us is still to be found, or at least its iron frame, in many
churches, adding that the custom of preaching by the hour-glass commenced
about the end of the sixteenth century. I cannot help thinking that an
earlier date must be assigned to this singular practice. (See Southey's
_Common-Place Book_, 4th series, p. 379.) Mr. Water states that one of
these iron frames still exists at Ferring in Sussex. The iron extinguishers
still to be found on the railing opposite large houses in London, are a
similar memorial of an obsolete custom.
I trust some contributor to the "N. & Q." will be able to supply farther
illustrations of this custom. Should it be revived in our own times, I fear
most parishes would supply only a _half_-hour glass for the pulpit of their
church, however unanimous antiquity may be in favour of sermons of an
hour's duration. One advantage presented by this ancient and precise
practice was, that the squire of the parish knew exactly when it was time
to put out his pipe and return for the blessing, which he cannot ascertain
under the present uncertain and indefinite mode of preaching. Fosbrooke
(_Br. Mon._, p. 286.) states that the priest had sometimes a watch found
for him by the parish. The authority cited for this is the following entry
in the accounts of the Chantrey Wardens of the parish of Shire in Surrey:
"Received for the priest's watch after he was dead, 13s.
4d."--Manning's _Surrey_, vol. i. p. 531.
This entry seems to be rather too vague and obscure to warrant the
inference drawn from it. This also may be susceptible of farther
illustration.
A. W. S.
Temple.
* * * * *
THE MEGATHERIUM AMERICANUM IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
Amongst the most interesting specimens of that collection certainly ranges
the skeleton of the above animal of a primaeval world, albeit but a cast;
the real bones, found in Buenos Ayres, being preserved in the Museum of
Madrid. To imagine a sloth of the size of a large bear, somewhat baffles
our imagination; especially if we ponder upon the size of trees on which
such a huge animal must have lived. To have placed near him a nondescript
branch (!!) of a palm, as has been done in the Museum here, is a terrible
mistake. Palms there were none at that period of telluric formation;
besides, no sloth ever could ascend an exogenous tree, as the simple form
of the coma of leaves precludes every hope of motion, &c. I never can view
those remnants of a former world, without being forcibly reminded of that
most curious passage in Berosus, which I cite from memory:
"There was a flood raging then over parts of the world.... There were
to be seen, however, on the walls of the temple of Belus,
representations of animals, such as inhabited the earth before the
Flood."
We may thence gather, that although the ancient world did not possess
museums of stuffed animals, yet, the first collection of _Icones_ is
certainly that mentioned by Berosus. I think that it was about the times of
the Crusades, that animals were first rudely preserved (stuffed), whence
the emblems in the coats of arms of the nobility also took their origin. I
have seen a MS. in the British Museum dating from this period, where the
delineation of a bird of the _Picus_ tribe is to be found. Many things
which the Crusaders saw in Egypt and Syria were so striking and new to
them, that they thought of means of preserving them as mementoes for
themselves and friends. The above date, I think, will be an addition to the
history of collections of natural history: a work wanting yet in the vast
domain of modern literature.
A FOREIGN SURGEON.
Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury Square.
* * * * * {591}
REMUNERATION OF AUTHORS.
In that varied and interesting of antiquarian and literary curiosities, "N.
& Q.," perhaps a collection of the prices paid by booksellers and
publishers for works of interest and to authors of celebrity might find a
corner. As a first contribution towards such a collection, if approved of,
I send some Notes made some years ago, with the authorities from which I
copied them. With regard to those cited on the authority of "R. Chambers,"
I cannot now say from which of Messrs. Chambers's publications I extracted
them, but fancy it might have been the _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_.
To any one disposed to swell the list of the remunerations of authors, I
would suggest that Disraeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, Boswell's _Life
of Johnson_, Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_ and other works of every-day
handling, would no doubt furnish many facts; but all my books being in the
country, I have no means of searching, and therefore send my Notes in the
fragmentary state in which I find them:--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title of Work. | Author. | Publisher. | Price. | Authority.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Gulliver's Travels | Dean Swift | Molte | 300l. |Sir W. Scott.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Tom Jones | H. Fielding | Miller | 600l. | Ditto.
| | | and 100l. |
| | | after |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Amelia | Ditto | Ditto | 1000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of England | Dr. Smollett| | 2000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Memoirs of Richard | | | |
Cumberland | Himself | Lackington | 500l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Vicar of Wakefield |Dr. Goldsmith| Newberry | 50l. | Dr. Johnson.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Selections of | | | |
English Poetry | Ditto | | 200l. | Lee Lewis.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Deserted Village | Ditto | | 100l. | Sir W. Scott.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Rasselas | Dr. Johnson | | 100l. |
| | | and 24l. | Ditto
| | | after |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Traveller |Dr. Goldsmith|Newberry | 21l. | Wm. Irving
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Old English Baron | Clara Reeve | Dilly | |
| | (Poultry) | 10l. |Sir W. Scott.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Mysteries of | | Geo. | |
Udolpho |Ann Radcliffe| Robinson |500l. | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Italian | Ditto | |800l. | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Mount Henneth | Robert Bage | Lowndes |30l. | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Translation of | | Jacob | |
Ovid | John Dryden | Tonson |52l. 10s. |R. Chambers.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto of | | |1200l. |
Virgil | Ditto | Ditto |and | Ditto
| | |subscriptions|
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Fables and Ode | | | |
for St. Cecilia's | Ditto | Ditto | 250 guineas | Ditto
Day | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Paradise Lost | John Milton |Sam. Symmons|5l., 5l. 2nd |
| | |edit., and |Sir W. Scott.
| | |8l. |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Translation of | Alexander | | |
the Iliad | Pope | | 1200l. | R. Chambers.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto of the | | | |
Odyssey (half) | Ditto | | 600l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto ditto | | | |
(remainder) | Ditto | Browne | 500l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto ditto | | | |
(ditto) | Ditto | Featon | 300l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Beggar's Opera | | | |
(1st part) | John Gay | | 400l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto (2nd part) | Ditto | |1100l. or |
| | |1200l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Three abridged | | | |
Histories of |Dr. Goldsmith| Newberry | About 800l. | Ditto.
England | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of | | | |
Animated Nature | Ditto | Ditto | 850l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Lives of the Poets | Dr. Johnson | | 210l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Evelina | Miss Burney | | 5l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of England | | | |
during the Reign | David Hume | | 200l. |
of the Stuarts | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto ditto | | | |
(remainder) | Ditto | | 5000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of Scotland| Robertson | | 600l | Creech.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
History of Charles | | | |
V. | Ditto | | 4500l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Decline and Fall | | | |
of the Roman | Gibbon | | 6000l. |R. Chambers.
Empire | | | |
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Sermons (1st part) | Blair | | 200l. | Creech
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto | Tillotson | | 2500 guineas| R. Chambers
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Childe Harold | | | |
(4th canto) | Lord Byron | | 2100l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Poetical Works | | | |
(whole) | Ditto | | 15,000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Lay of the | | | |
Last Minstrel |Sir W. Scott | Constable | 600l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Marmion | Ditto | Ditto | 1050l. | Miss Seward.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Pleasures of | Thos. | | |
Hope | Campbell | Mundell | 1050l. | R. Chambers.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Gertrude of | | | |
Wyoming | Ditto | Ditto |1500 guineas | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Poems | Crabbe | Murray | 3000l. | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Irish Melodies | Thomas Moore| |500l. a year | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Spelling Book | Vyse | | 2200l. and |
| | | 50l. a year | Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Philosophy of | | |1050l., 1st |
Natural History | Smellie | |edition and |
| | |50l. each |
| | |after | Ditto
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Various | | | |
(aggregate) | Goethe | |30,000 crowns| Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Ditto (ditto) |Chateaubriand| |500,000 francs| Ditto.
-------------------+-------------+------------+--------------+-------------
I perfectly agree with the suggestion of one of your correspondents, that,
in a publication like yours, dealing with historic facts, the
communications should not be anonymous, or made under _noms de guerre_. I
therefore drop the initials with which I have signed previous
communications, and append my name as suggested.
ALEXANDER ANDREWS.
* * * * *
COINCIDENT LEGENDS.
In the Scandinavian portion of the _Fairy Mythology_, there is a legend of
a farmer cheating a Troll in an argument respecting the crops that were to
be grown on the hill within which the latter resided. It is there observed
that Rabelais tells the same story of a farmer and the Devil. I think there
can be no doubt that these are not independent fictions, but that the
legend is a transmitted one, the Scandinavian being the original, brought
with them perhaps by the Normans. {592} But what are we to say to the
actual fact of the same legend being found in the valleys of Afghanistan?
Masson, in his _Narrative_, &c. (iii. 297.), when speaking of the Tajiks of
Lughman, says,--
"They have the following amusing story: In times of yore, ere the
natives were acquainted with the arts of husbandry, the Shaitan, or
Devil, appeared amongst them, and, winning their confidence,
recommended them to sow their lands. They consented, it being farther
agreed that the Devil was to be a _sherik_, or partner, with them. The
lands were accordingly sown with turnips, carrots, beet, onions, and
such vegetables whose value consists in the roots. When the crops were
mature the Shaitan appeared, and generously asked the assembled
agriculturists if they would receive for their share what was above
ground or what was below. Admiring the vivid green hue of the tops,
they unanimously replied that they would accept what was above ground.
They were directed to remove their portion, when the Devil and his
attendants dug up the roots and carried them away. The next year he
again came and entered into partnership. The lands were now sown with
wheat and other grains, whose value lies in their seed-spikes. In due
time, as the crops had ripened, he convened the husbandmen, putting the
same question to them as he did the preceding year. Resolved not to be
deceived as before, they chose for their share what was below ground;
on which the Devil immediately set to work and collected the harvest,
leaving them to dig up the worthless roots. Having experienced that
they were not a match for the Devil, they grew weary of his friendship;
and it fortunately turned out that, on departing with his wheat, he
took the road from Lughman to Barikab, which is proverbially intricate,
and where he lost his road, and has never been heard of or seen since."
Surely here is simple coincidence, for there could scarcely ever have been
any communication between such distant regions in remote times, and the
legend has hardly been carried to Afghanistan by Europeans. There is, as
will be observed, a difference in the character of the legends. In the
Oriental one it is the Devil who outwits the peasants. This perhaps arises
from the higher character of the Shaitan (the ancient Akriman) than that of
the Troll or the mediaeval Devil.
THOS. KEIGHTLEY.
* * * * *
SHAKSPEARE READINGS, NO. VIII.
I have to announce the detection of an important misprint, which completely
restores sense, point, and antithesis to a sorely tormented passage in
_King Lear_; and which proves at the same time that the corrector of MR.
COLLIER'S folio, in this instance at least, is undeniably in error. Here,
as elsewhere (whether by anticipation or imitation I shall not take upon me
to decide), he has fallen into just the same mistake as the rest of the
commentators: indeed it is startling to observe how regularly he suspects
every passage that they have suspected, and how invariably he treats them
in the same spirit of emendation (some places of course excepted, where his
courage soars far beyond theirs; such as the memorable "curds and cream,"
"on a table of green frieze," &c.).
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6