Page images
PDF
EPUB

to the name of Jarndyce. It is currently believed that Charles Dickens took his idea of 'Bleak House' from a deserted mansion at Acton, in Suffolk, the former residence of an eccentric miser named Jennens, who died intestate in 1798, when his vast estate "fell into Chancery," and has originated several law suits.

This gentleman, William Jennens, however, did make an inadequate testament, constituting his wife (who, however, predeceased him) life tenant of all his estates; but he appointed no executors, no reversionary heir to his wife's life interest, nor did he dispose of one farthing of his vast personalty. This virtual intestacy was solved by two of his oldest surviving relatives, called "cousins german once removed," and next of kin, who administered; he had no child, nephew, niece, brother, sister, uncle, or aunt surviving, having, at the great age of ninety-seven, outlived all immediate relatives.

His property was thus divided or appropriated strictly according to statute; the heir-at-law was found to be the first Earl Howe, great-great-grandson of Charles Jennens, of Gopsal, eldest uncle of the deceased, who thus took the real estate. The personalty was divided among the descendants of Lady Fisher and Mrs. Hanmer, two aunts of the deceased. It is said that this cause, last disposed of on March 5, 1878, is about to be revived; hence this note. A. HALL.

TRANSLATORS=COBBLERS.

Some years ago,

[ocr errors]

Mr. Parker's History of Wycombe' that this weighing business was continued up to the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act :

"After partaking of luncheon, the Mayor and Council attended at the Bar Iron Warehouse in White Hart Street, when each member of the Council was weighed, and his weight was duly recorded. Such was the order of proceedings, during the past generations, but how far back the practice thus described originated it would be difficult to determine; however we may assume that it was of remote antiquity."

R. J. FYNMore.

[blocks in formation]

'SIMPLE SIMON.'-In my childhood I learnt the nursery rhyme of 'Simple Simon,' but it had been long out of my mind until a few days ago, when I was reading one of Francesco Sansovino's 'Novelle' (ix. 8), written about the middle of the sixteenth century. A gentleman, Messer Simon della Pigna, loving neither wisely nor well, is "translator" was a cant name for one who "trans-beguiled by the object of his unwelcome attentions lated" two or more old shoes into one new. In into a sack, and there treated by the lady's husband, this connexion it is curious to find Mercurius who has planned the affair with her, as Scapin Pragmaticus' (No. 27, March 14-21, 1647/8) treats Géronte in the Fourberies,' but far more saying:vigorously as well as for a different end. Previously to this, Simon questions the lady about something which awakens suspicion in his mind, and is answered with a gross falsehood; whereupon the novelist observes: "Messer Simon, who might well be called Simpleton (Scempione), believing what the lady told him to be true, made himself easy." Simon, then, has been a simpleton (scempione means a gross simpleton) for nearly 350 years, on the evidence of the above story. Why? F. ADAMS.

"These [the General Assembly] are the vile Cobblers of Controversy, the dull a-la-mode Reformers, or Translators of Antiquity, that have pull'd the Church all to peeces, and know not how to patch it up againe."

H. H. S.

"JOHNNIES."-This word was used in a figurative sense seventy years ago, even as now it is; though now the fashionable sense is other. Writing one of those last letters from Missolonghi, on Feb. 23, 1824, Byron tells Murray they had had a smart shock of earthquake, which had caused rather a stampede. "If," he adds, "you had but seen the English Johnnies, who had never been out of a cockney workshop before......!"

W. F. WALler.

ELECTION OF MAYOR AT HIGH WYCOMBE.— An ancient Wycombe custom was revived after the election of mayor this year. Nearly all the members of the municipal body proceeded to the weights and measures office, in Paul's Row, and were severally weighed with all formalities by the inspector, Superintendent Sparling. Thus far from a local paper of the month of November, 1892, but we are further informed by an extract from

105, Albany Road, Camberwell, S.E.

GELERT IN INDIA.-A writer in the Pioneer Mail of Allahabad (Aug. 3, 1892) gives the following analogue of the folk-story best known to us in its Welsh form of ' Beddgelert' ('Gellert's Grave'):

"The Banjaras occasionally keep dogs, and it was, we believe, a Banjara dog which gave rise to the Bethgelert legend of India. The story comes from at least half a dozen different parts of India, the substance being identical though the localities differ. This is how it runs:

"Once upon a time a poor man owed a large sum of money to a Baniya; and as he could pay nothing the Baniya came to seize his property, but found all that he had was a dog. Well,' said the Baniya, 'since you have

nothing else, I will take the dog; he will help to watch
my house. So the poor man took a tender farewell of
his four-footed friend, with many injunctions to serve his
new master faithfully, and never to attempt to run home.
Some time after the dog got to his new home, thieves
broke into the house and took all they could find.
Though the dog barked as loudly as he could, yet the
Baniya snored on peacefully, and so, seeing the thieves dis-
appearing with their booty, he followed them and saw
them hiding their treasure in holes dug in the dry bed of
a nala. He then ran home and never stopped barking
until his master woke up. The Baniya was frantic with
grief on discovering his loss, and was about to wreak his
vengeance on the dog, but, attracted by his strange
behaviour, he determined to watch him instead. The
dog at once led the way to the nala, and began scratching
at the hole, and very soon the stolen wealth was again
in possession of its lawful owner. The Baniya's delight
on recovering his property was so great that he wrote
on a paper, 'Your dog has paid your debt,' and fastening
this to the dog's collar he bade him return to his old master,
and the faithful dog, full of joy, trotted off as hard as he
could go.
His old master, as it happened, just about
this time began to long for a sight of his dog, and deter-
mined to go and see how he was getting on. When half
way on his journey, he saw the dog running towards him.
He drew his sword and awaited his approach, and as the
dog, with a little whimper of joy, sprang forward to caress
him, he cut off his head with the sword, crying out,
Thou disobedient dog! Pay the penalty of deserting
thy post.' Then too late he saw the note attached to his
dead friend's neck, and was seized with such remorse
that he fell upon his sword and died. The man and dog
are buried in one grave, and any one travelling to
Haidarabad may still see the grave by the roadside."

It is interesting to note the varied forms which this story has taken. WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Manchester.

CHURCH BRASSES.-I have read with much interest the remarks by Mr. T. W. King, Rouge Dragon, in the part of the Essex Archæological Transactions just issued. He very properly objects to the wholesale destruction of brasses in churches which has taken place in recent years, and he also objects, but whether with equal propriety may be a question, to the custom of removing brasses with the slabs in which they are embedded from the floors of churches and placing them upright against the walls. Now, I happen to be the patron and lay rector of a small parish in Surrey. In the chancel within the communion rails are very fine brasses (late fifteenth century) of a man and woman and several children.

The

slab in which they are embedded is much worn and decayed, and the brasses are in places at least one-eighth of an inch above the slab, and parts of the figures of the children have already been broken off. Every time the vicar goes to the communion-table (the brasses are on the north side) he treads on them, and there is a danger of breaking off more pieces. I am willing to put the chancel of the church in such a state of repair, ornamental and otherwise, as may befit the sacred character of the place, and also the architecture of the church. But there are only three ways of

dealing with them: (1) by leaving them as they
are, with the risk of further damage; (2) by tak
ing up the slab as it is, and putting it upright
against the chancel wall; (3) by embedding the
brasses in a new slab of stone or marble. I am
told, on good authority, that the third alternative
will be an act of vandalism. There are other
brasses in the chancel, but they are, fortunately,
nearly covered by carpets, and, besides, are not on
the north side of the table. Perhaps some of your
readers would say what ought to be done.
J. W.

FIRST THEATRE ROYAL IN THE PROVINCES. Writes Mr. Belville S. Penley, at p. 35 of his recently published work on 'The Bath Stage':

"Another and more important step taken by Palmer to defeat opposition was to petition Parliament for an Act to enable the King to grant him a patent. The only patent houses in existence at that time were Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and no new letters patent could be granted by the King without the sanction of Parliament. To the younger Palmer was entrusted the task of securing the necessary Act, which was warmly supported by the Mayor and Corporation of the city. Surmounting the many difficulties which lay in the way of his undertaking, he succeeded in getting it passed, and in 1768 his Majesty George III. granted letters patent, under which the Bath Theatre obtained the title of Theatre Royal.' This was the first Act ever passed in this country for the protection of theatrical property, and the Bath Theatre was the first Theatre Royal of the provinces."

Precise and circumstantial as all this reads, the premier distinction claimed for Bath seems to me, as the Scotch say, "not proven." Mr. J. C. Dibdin has already shown us, in 'The Annals of the Edinburgh Stage' (p. 147), that a company acted The Earl of Essex' under a royal patent at the old theatre in the Caledonian capital on December 9, 1767. This was the first legally performed play in Scotland. In all fairness, it must be conceded Mr. Penley that the first temple of Thespis north of the Tweed honoured with the title of "Theatre Royal" did not open its doors to the public until exactly two years after the date mentioned. But the fact that the Edinburgh patent was in existence so early as the year 1767-unless his data be incorrectly marshalled— to my mind puts the Bath annalist out of court. W. J. LAWRENCE.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

subsequently discovered. However this may be,
the above-named four are all that are at present
known.
W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

Queries.

We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only privato interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

"CROSS-PURPOSES."-On Boxing Day, 1666, says Mr. Pepys, mighty merry we were, and danced; and so till twelve at night, and to supper; and then to cross-purposes, mighty merry; and then to bed." There are many references to this parlour game or amusement from Mr. Pepys onward, but I do not find any clear account of it. I shall be obliged to any reader of 'N. & Q.' who can refer me to one, or, better still, send it. J. A. H. MURRAY.

Oxford.

"BROUETTE."-Théophile Gautier, in the "Versailles" chapter, section iv. of his 'Tableaux de Siége,' says:

1. At p. 860, under "Saturn," we are told that the ring surrounding that planet was "discovered to be twofold by Messrs. Ball, Oct. 13, 1665." This statement was formerly made in many astronomical books, apparently for the first time in one on telescopes by William Kitchiner, in 1825. Doubt was first thrown upon it by myself in 1880, in a letter to the Observatory, in which I pointed out that it was founded upon a remark in the Philosophical Transactions for 1666, with refer- "Le frontispice d'un petit livre du temps, que nous ence to an omitted drawing which it was desirable consultons pour faire cet article, nous fournit un curieux to find that the true meaning of the suggestion détail de moeurs: Une jeune dame franchit la grille du (for it was no more) might be understood. This.....L'usage de la brouette était d'ailleurs fréquent sous Labyrinthe, traînée en brouette par un vigoureux porteur. led to search, and a few copies of the Transactions Louis XIV. et la cour se promenait dans le jardin voiturée were at last found containing the engraving, which fort commodément de la sorte." had been suppressed in the greater number. I do not clearly understand what is meant by Afterwards the late Prof. Adams discovered in brouette here. The primary meaning of brouette is the archives of the Royal Society the actual draw-wheelbarrow; but it also means a 66 Bath-chair ing, or rather paper cutting, made by William Ball (Gasc and Spiers), and a "sort of sedan-chair in 1665, which led Sir Robert Moray, who wrote (Roubaud). I can scarcely suppose that the magthe notice respecting it in the Philosophical Trans-nificent courtiers of Louis Quatorze were in the actions, to suspect that the ring was double. This conjectured duplicity, however, was of a totally different kind from a division in the breadth of the ring (which was first discovered by Cassini ten years later), and has no real existence, the appearance being due either to an indistinct view of the planet, or (as Prof. Adams suggested) to the folding of the paper with which the cutting was made.

66

[ocr errors]

habit of "taking the air" in the immortal conveyance in which Mr. Pickwick went to the shooting party. "A female markis," as Sam Weller says, with her falbalas and vertugadin, trundling about the grounds of Versailles in a wheelbarrow would have been a sight for gods and men! On the other hand, if the brouette in which the "jeune dame" was voiturée was either a sedan-chair or what we call a Bath-chair, so ordinary a circum2. At p. 1029, under "Uranus," we are told stance would hardly be worth mentioning, and would that that planet is attended by eight moons or not be ". un curieux détail de moeurs," as Gautier satellites, six of which were discovered by Sir calls it. Gautier uses the word traînée, which favours William Herschel. The whole number really the "Bath-chair" meaning; a wheelbarrow would, I known amounts to only four, two of which (after-suppose, be poussée. Sedan-chairs must have been wards named Titania and Oberon) were discovered by Herschel in 1787, and two (called Ariel and Umbriel) by Lassell and O. Struve respectively in 1847. Herschel was mistaken in supposing that he had discovered four more, the objects seen having been probably very faint stars seen near the planet, though unsuccessful attempts have been made to identify one or other of them with the satellites

common enough at that period. See the scene of Mascarille and the chairmen in 'Les Précieuses Ridicules.' A sedan-chair, however, would be neither traînée nor poussée, but portée. Were what we call Bath-chairs known in either France or England in the seventeenth century?

Are not wheelbarrows used at the present day as a means of personal conveyance in China? I

do not mean the " cany waggons light" which "Chineses drive with sails and wind," described by Milton in Paradise Lost,' but actual wheelbarrows like our own. JONATHAN BOUCHIER. Ropley, Alresford.

6

MONTGOMERY FAMILY.-Hugh Montgomery of Derrybrosk (Derrybrusk), in county Fermanagh, ancestor of Montgomery of Blessingbourne, and of Archdale of Castle Archdale, was a member of the Braidstane branch of the family of Montgomerie of Eglinton, in Scotland. (See Hill's 'Montgomery MSS.,' pp. 99 and 389; Burke's Hist. of the Commoners,' vol. ii. p. 108; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland,' 1754, vol. ii., note to article on Earl of Mount Alexander, &c.). According to Paterson's "History of the County of Ayr' (ed. 1847, vol. i. p. 280), this Hugh Montgomery was the son of the fourth son (name unknown) of Adam John Montgomery, Laird of Braidstane, grandfather of Sir Hugh Montgomery, first Viscount Montgomery of Ards. Can the name of this fourth son of Adam John Montgomery be ascertained; or was Hugh of Derrybrusk himself Adam John Montgomery's son, and not his grandson? I may mention that in the Montgomery pedigree, printed in Mr. J. H. Montgomery's book (Philadelphia, 1863), and in the history by General George S. Montgomery, C.S.I., Derrybrosk is misprinted Donnybrook. H. DE F. MONTGOMERY.

Blessingbourne, Fivemiletown.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

"Paganini seldom consulted doctors, but his credulity was worse than his scepticism. He dosed himself immoderately with some stuff called Leroy'; he believed that this could cure anything. It usually produced a powerful agitation in his nervous system, and generally it seems to have deprived him of the power of speech.” ended in upsetting the intestinal functions. Sometimes

Is it known what this stuff was?
Norwich.

JAMES HOOPER.

CHARLES LAMB AS A RITUALIST.-Charles Lamb, in his essay 'On some of the Old Actors,' "WIGGIN."-Is this word known in East referring to Dodd, who had been chorister in St. Anglia? I cannot find it in any of the published Paul's Cathedral, speaks of ", a surplice-bis white glossaries; but I have a note, made some twelve stole and albe," as if such garments might have years ago, from the report of a lady whom I met, been worn by him in that capacity. In the twenty-that a Yarmouth boatman once remarked to her, first century perhaps some historian of the postTractarian movement called Ritualism might be led into antedating it, if he trusted to Lamb as qualified to speak on the subject as an accurate observer of things ecclesiastical. Has this error been pointed out anywhere? PALAMEDES. Paris.

[blocks in formation]

Your father, the admiral, was a regular old wiggin" (? =" sea-dog" or "salt ").

Woodford.

A. SMYTHE PALMER, D.D.

ALDINE 'SWIFT,' 1833.-In a copy of this book I saw in Watt's shop at Hastings recently, vol. ii. pp. 128-134, are not numbered. Was this defective pagination subsequently put right? If so, here is another "first" first edition.

W. F. WALLER,

"PHILAZER."-Iu 'Calendar of State Papers,' 1660, I came across this: "Office of Philazer in the Court of Common Pleas for the County and City of Lincoln." What is meant by "Philazer"} WM. STONARDE.

"DE MORTUIS NIL NISI BONUM."-Is the author of this trite expression known? Perhaps the Rev. E. Marshall, with his usual erudition, will be able to give the authorship, which all books of quotations consulted by me have failed to supply. Ray, in his 'Collection of English Proverbs,' sub “Speak well of the dead," has: "Mortuis non conviciandum,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]

et de mortuis nil nisi bonum. Namque cum mortui non mordent, iniquum est ut mordeantur." The xpressions Mortuis non conviciandum" and "Mortui non mordent" are given in Erasmi Adagia,' but I cannot find "de mortuis," &c. therein. The phrase occurs in the margin of Maronides' by John Phillips, 1673, bk. vi. p. 24. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY.

appointment of " adjutant general" to the Duke of
Lorraine. The authority for these statements is the
'Compleat History of Europe' (1707, p. 455),
which I have not seen. Is this book in the British
Museum; and if it is, can some kind reader supply
the press-mark?
L. L. K.

"TRISSINO TYPE."-G. G. Trissino's 'Granimatichetta' (sm. 4to., Vicenza, 1529)—one of the CLAYPOOLE.-Can any of your readers inform earliest attempts at an Italian grammar, for it was me whether Wingfield, Gravely, and Benjamin preceded only by Fortunio's 'Regole Grammaticali Claypoole (brothers of Lord John Claypoole, who della Volgar Lingua' (Ancona, 1516), and Flaminio's married Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, Compendio della Volgar Gramatica' (Bologna, Protector), married and left issue? If so, how can 1521)-is printed, like the other Italian works of I get their names, &c.? I would like copies of this poet and humanist, with so-called "Trissino family records of all Claypoole, Claypole, Cleypole, type." The main distinction of this type, I notice, or Claypool descendants, with items of history, &c., is its constant use of the Greek letter w instead of that would interest the present and future genera-o, whenever it denotes a long vowel. It would be tions of the family. Will all members of the interesting to ascertain whether this alteration of family or descendants now living please write me? one character was adopted by other Italian writers, EDW. A. CLAYPOOL. or whether it is peculiar to Trissino's works. H. KREBS.

112, E. Randolph Street, Chicago, Ill., U.S.

ST. THOMAS'S DAY CUSTOM.-What is the explanation of an old custom of distributing little Joaves of bread to children on St. Thomas's Day? This is done in a village near Birmingham by some old ladies. M. E. G.

APPLES AND ST. CLEMENT'S DAY.-Why on St. Clement's Day should children go round to the houses singing about apples and beer, and receive presents of apples at the different doors? M. E. G.

ANNE VAUX.-She is said in Burke's 'Landed Gentry' to have been fifth in descent from John of Gaunt. I could never find out how. She married Sir Thos. L'Estrange, and was daughter of Thomas (? Nicholas), Lord Vaux. C. MOOR. Barton-on-Humber.

[ocr errors]

Oxford.

Beplies.

PORTRAITS OF ROBERT BURNS.

(8th S. ii. 428.)

That the poet Burns visited Miers for the purpose of having his "profile" cut, there is abundant proof in the fact that he forwarded one to Mr. William Tytler, of Woodhouslee, with an address commencing, "Revered defender of beauteous Stuart" (an allusion to Mr. Tytler's book, An Inquiry into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots'). The ode continues:

I send you a trifle, a head of a bard,
A trifle scarce worthy your care;
But accept it, good sir, as a mark of regard,
Sincere as a saint's dying prayer.

"KODAK.”—What is the derivation of this new In a letter to Robert Ainslie, dated Mauchline, word; and when did it first appear?

Madison, Wis.

JAMES D. BUTLER.

JOHN CUTTS.-He is said to have "greatly distinguished himself at the siege and capture of Buda [in 1686], being the first to plant the flag upon the walls." (Cf. Mr. C. R. B. Barrett's Essex,' p. 124.) I should be glad to have the anthority for this statement. Jacob Richards, the English engineer, who was serving in the beleaguering army, does not even mention Cutts in his diary (Harley MS., 4989). Hammer mentions a "Cuts" among the "lords anglais" who fell on the fatal July 13. According to the 'Dict. of Nat. Biog.' Cutts was among the English volunteers serving under Charles, Duke of Lorraine, against the Turks in Hungary, and greatly distinguished himself by his heroism at the siege and capture of Buda, for which he received the

June 23, 1788, asking his friend to sit for his profile, the poet says: "The time is short. When I sat to Mr. Miers I am sure he did not exceed two minutes." In the course of three years' patient and persistent research anent the portraiture of Robert Burns, I have never seen any contemporary copy, duplicate, or replica of the Miers silhouette; and I think the descendants of Mr. Wm. Tytler should be appealed to, in order to ascertain if the original profile is still in their possession.

The earliest engraved reproduction of the Miers profile I have seen is that appearing in Cunningham's octavo edition, published by James Cochrane & Co., Waterloo Place, London, 1834-5. Should there be no earlier engraved transcript, the question arises, What was it engraved from? Had they access to the original "shade," or outline?

« PreviousContinue »