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2. It also signifies "the upper part of the ridge of some elevated and exposed land." As a prefix, its meaning depends upon the fact whether the word attached to it be an adjective or a substantive. If an adjective be attached, it has the second signification; i. e. it is the upper part of some exposed land, having the particular quality involved in the adjective, such as, "Cefndu," "Cefngwyn," "Cefncoch," the black, white, or red headland. When a substantive is attached, it has the first signification; i. e. it is the back of the thing signified by the substantive; such as, back of the court.

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rosary there is a bead longer than the rest, for distinction's sake called the Pater-noster; from whence that name applies to a rosary; and, therefore, to anything likened to it; and, therefore, to the article of fishing-tackle in question.

The word pater-noster, i. e. pater-noster-wise, is an heraldic term (vide Ash's Dictionary), applied to beads disposed in the form of a cross.

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ROBERT SNOW.

Welsh Words for Water (Vol. iii., p. 30.). —

It is quite surprising," says Sharon Turner (Trans. of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. i. pt. i. p. 97.), "to observe that, in all the four quarters of the world, many nations signify this liquid by a vocable of one or more syllables, from the letter M."

He mentions the Hebrew word for it, mim; in Africa he finds twenty-eight examples, in Asia sixteen, in South America five, in North America three, in Europe three; and elsewhere, in Canary He adds Cefnllys," the Islands one, in New Zealand one.

E. L. Portrait of Archbishop Williams (Vol. iii., p. 8.). -There is a portrait of this prelate in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, in the Cloisters. The greater part of the archbishop's library was given to this library, but only one volume of it seems to have been preserved. It is of this library the remark is made in J. Beeverell, Délices de la Grande Bretagne, p. 847., 12mo., 1707: "Il se trouve dans le cloistre une bibliothèque publique, qui s'ouvre soir et matin pendant les séances des Cours de Justice dans Westminstre."

μ.

Sir Alexander Cumming (Vol. iii., p. 39.).—In answer to an inquiry relative to Sir Alexander Cumming, of Culter, I may refer to the Scottish Journal (Menzies, Edin. 1848) of Topography, Antiquities, Traditions, &c., vol. ii. p. 254., where an extract from a MS. autobiography of the baronet is given. The work in which this occurs is little known; but, as a repertory of much curious and interesting information, deserved a more extensive circulation than it obtained. It stopped with the second volume, and is now somewhat scarce, as the unsold copies were disposed of for waste paper.

Pater-noster Tackling (Vol. iii., p. 89.).-Paternoster fishing-tackle, so called in the shops, is used to catch fish (perch, for instance) which take the bait at various distances between the surface and the bottom of the water. Accordingly, hooks are attached to a line at given intervals throughout its length, with leaden shots, likewise regularly distributed, in order to sink it, and keep it extended perpendicularly in the water.

This regularity of arrangement, and the resemblance of the shots to beads, seems to have caused the contrivance to have been, somewhat fancifully, likened to a chaplet or rosary. In a

"We trace the same radical in the Welsh more, the sea, and in the Latin mare, humor, humidus.* rived their sound from each other. "All these people cannot be supposed to have deIt must have descended to them from some primitive source, common to all."

connexion of the Welsh dwr with the Greek vowp From the expression used by J. W. H., “the is remarkable," he appears not to have known that Vezron found so many resemblances in the Doric or Laconic dialect, and the Celtic, that he thereupon raised the theory that the Lacedæmonians and the Celts were of the same the Titanic-stock. T. J.

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Early Culture of the Imagination (Vol. iii., p. 38.). -The germ of the thought alluded to by MR. GATTY is as ancient as the time of Plato, and may be found in the Republic, book ii. c. 17. If this will aid MR. GATTY in his research, it is gladly placed at his disposal by

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

The

January 20. 1851. Venville (Vol. iii., p. 38.). — R. E. G. inquires respecting the origin of this word, as applied to certain tenants round Dartmoor Forest. name is peculiar to that district, and is applied chiefly to certain vills or villages (for the most part also parishes), and to certain tenements within them, which pay fines to the Lord of Lidford and Dartmoor, viz. the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. The fines are supposed to be due in respect either of rights of common on the forest, or of trespasses committed by cattle on it; for the point is a vexata quæstio between the lord

and tenants of Dartmoor and the tenants of the Venville lands, which lie along the boundaries of it.

*He may have added the Armoric or Breton mor, mar; and the Irish muir, mara.

In the accounts rendered to the lord of these fines, there was a distinct title, headed "Fines Villarum" when these accounts were in Latin; and I think it cannot be doubted that the lands and tenures under this title came to be currently called Finevill lands from this circumstance. Hence Fenvill, Fengfield, or Venvill; the last being now the usual spelling and pronunciation. R. E. G. may see a specimen of these accounts, and further observations on them, in Mr. Rowe's very instructive Perambulation of Dartmoor, published a year or two ago at Plymouth. E. S.

Cum Grano Salis (Vol. iii., p. 88.) simply means, with a grain of allowance; spoken of propositions which require qualification. The Cambridge man's explanation, therefore, does not suit the meaning. I have always supposed that salis was added to denote a small grain. I find in Forcellini that the Romans called a small flaw in crystals sal. C. B.

Hoops (Vol. iii., p. 88.). — The examples given in Johnson's article Farthingale will sufficiently answer the question. Farthingales are mentioned in Latimer with much indignant eloquence:

"I trow Mary had never a verdingale."

If the question had been, not whether they were in use as early as 1651, but whether they were in use in 1651, perhaps there would have been more difficulty, for they do not appear in Hollar's dresses, 1640. C. B. Cranmer's Descendants (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—It may be of some interest to C. D. F. to be informed, that the newspapers of the time recorded the death of Mr. Bishop Cranmer of Wivelescombe, co. Somerset, on the 8th April, 1831, at the age of eighty-eight. He is said to have been a direct descendant of the martyred archbishop, to whose portraits he bore a strong personal resemblance.

J. D. S.

Shakspeare's Use of the Word "Captious" (Vol. ii., p. 354.).—Why may not the word have the same meaning as it has now? A captious person is not primarily a deceitful person, but either one who catches at any argument to uphold his own cause, or, more generally, one who catches or cavils at arguments or expressions used by another, and fastens a frivolous objection on them; one who takes exception to a point on paltry and insufficient grounds:

"Yet in this captious and intenible sieve

I still pour in the waters of my love."

i. e. yet into this sieve, which catches at, and yet never holds them, I still pour the waters of my love.

There seems to me a double meaning of the word captious, indicating an under-current of thought in the author; first, the literal sense, then the inferential: "this sieve catches at and seems as if

it would intercept the waters of my love, but takes me in, and disappoints ine, because it will not uphold them." The objection to explaining captious by simply fallacions, is that the word means this by inference or consequence, rather than primarily. Because one who is eager to controvert, i. e. who is captious, generally, but not always, acts for a sophistical purpose and means to deceive. Cicero, I believe, uses fallax and captiosus as distinct, not as synonymous, terms. E. A. D.

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Boiling to Death (Vol. ii., p. 519.).—

Impoysonments, so ordinary in Italy, are so abominable among English, as 21 Hen. 8. it was made high treason, though since repealed; after which the punishment for it was to be put alive in a caldron of water, and there boiled to death at present it is felony without benefit of clergy."- Chamberlayne's State of England, an old copy, without a title-page.

Judging from the list of bishops and maids of honour, I believe the date to be 1669.

WEDSECNARF.

Dozen of Bread (Vol. ii., p. 49.).-The Duchess of Newcastle says of her Nature's Picture: "In this volume there are several feigned stories, & c. Also there are some morals and some dialogues; but they are as the advantage loaf of bread to the baker's dozen." 1656. WEDSECNARF.

Friday Weather (Vol. iii., p. 7.).— A very old friend of mine, a Shropshire lady, tells me that her mother (who was born before 1760) used to say that Friday was always the fairest, or the foulest, WEDSECNARF. day of the week.

Saint Paul's Clock (Vol. iii., p. 40.).—In reply to MR. CAMPKIN's Query, I send you the following extract from Easton's Human Longevity (London, 1799):

Was

"James Hatfield died in 1770, aged 105. formerly a soldier when on duty as a centinel at Windsor, one night, at the expiration of his guard, he heard St. Paul's clock, London, strike thirteen strokes instead of twelve, and not being relieved as he expected he fell asleep; in which situation he was found by the succeeding guard, who soon after came to relieve him; for such neglect he was tried by a court-martial, but ing, as a proof, the singular circumstance of hearing pleading that he was on duty his legal time, and assertSt. Paul's clock strike thirteen strokes, which, upon inquiry, proved true- - he was in consequence acquitted."

J. B. COLMAN.

Lunardi (Vol. ii., p. 469.).— I remember seeing Lunardi's balloon pass over the town of Ware, previous to its fall at Standon. I have seen the moonstone described by your correspondent C. J. F., but all that I can remember of an old song on the occasion is, "They thought it had been the man in the moon," alluding to the men in the fields, who ran away frightened. But a servant girl had

the courage to take the rope thrown out by Lunardi, and was well rewarded. It caused a great sensation, and many of the principal inha bitants of Ware and Wadesmill assembled with Lunardi at the Feathers Inn, at the latter place. J. TAYLOR.

Newick, Sussex.

Outline in Puinting. — J. O. W. H. (Vol. i., p. 318.) and H. C. K. (Vol. iii., p. 63.) are earnestly referred, for resolution of their doubts, to the work by Mr. Ruskin, in 2 vols. large 8vo., entitled Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford, published by Smith and Elder, 1846.

ROBERT SNOW. Handbell before a Corpse (Vol. iii., p. 68.). Your correspondent has too inconsiderately dismissed the Query which he has undertaken to answer touching the custom of ringing a handbell in advance of a funeral procession. He says, "I have never considered it as anything but a cast of the bell-man's office, to add more solemnity to the occasion."

The custom is invariably observed throughout Italy, and is common in France and Spain. I have witnessed at least some hundreds of funerals in various cities and villages of Piedmont, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Roman States, Naples, Elba, and Sicily; and in Malta; yet never knew I one without the handbell.

Its object, as first explained to me in Florence, is to clear the way for the procession; to remind passengers and loiterers to take off their hats; and to call the pious to their doors and windows to gaze upon the emblems of mortality, and to say a prayer for the repose of the departed soul.

NOCAB. Brandon the Juggler (Vol. ii., p. 424.).-Your correspondent T. CR. is referred to Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 308. (edit. 1584) for a notice of this person and his pigeon.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

"Words are Men's Daughters" (Vol. iii., p. 38.). -This line is taken from Dr. Madden's Boulter's Monument (Dublin, 1745, 8vo.), a poem which was revised by Dr. Johnson, but to which little attention has been paid by his biographers. Mr. Croker observes (edit, of Boswell, 1848, p. 107. note)

« Dr. Madden wrote very bad verses, The few lines in Boulter's monument which rise above mediocrity

may be attributed to Johnson.”

Those who take the trouble to refer to the poem itself, will, notwithstanding Mr. Croker's hasty oriticism, find a great many fine and vigorous passages, in which the hand of Johnson is clearly distinguishable, and which ought not to be allowed to remain unnoticed. Perhaps on a future occasion I may, in support of this opinion, give some

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and which is in allusion to Genesis vi. 2. 4., is, I entertain no doubt, one of Dr. Johnson's insertions. JAS. CROSSLEY,

"Fine by degrees, and beautifully less” (Vol. iii., p. 105.); This line is from Prior's "Henry and Emma," a poem, upon the model of the "Nutbrown Maid." I copy part of the passage in which it occurs, for the sake of any of your readers who may be lovers of context, and may not have the poem at hand to refer to.

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“ Henry [addressing Emma].

Vainly thou tell'st me what the woman's care
Shall in the wildness of the woods prepare; [420]
Thou, ere thou goest, unhappiest of thy kind,
Must leave the habit and the sex behind.
No longer shall thy comely tresses break
In flowing ringlets on thy snowy neck;
Or sit behind thy head, an ample round,
In graceful braids with various ribbon bound:
No longer shall the bodice aptly lae'd
From thy full bosom to thy slender waist,
That air and harmony of shape express,
Fine by degrees, and beautifully less:
Nor shall thy lower garments' artful plait,
From thy fair side dependent to thy feet,
Arm their chaste beauties with a modest pride,
And double every charm they seek to hide."

Temple, Feb. 10.

[430]

C. FORBES.

[We are also indebted for replies to this Query to Robert Snow, Fras. Crossley, A. M., J. J. M., A. H., S. T., E. S. T. T., V., W. K., R. B., and other correspondents. C. II. P. remarks:

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Pope, who died in 1744, twenty-three years after Prior, evidently had this line in view when he wrote as follows:

"Ladies, like variegated tulips, show;

'Tis to their changes half their charms they owe; Fine by defect, and delicately weak,

Their happy spots the nice admirer take.'" And J. H. M. tells us, "The late Lord Ellenborough applied the line somewhat ignobly, when speaking of bristles, in a dispute between two brushmakers."]

"The Soul's dark Cottage" (Vol. iii., p. 105.). The couplet "EFFARESS inquires for, is to be found in Waller's poems. It is a production of his later years, and occurs in the epilogue to his "Poems of Divine Love," and "Of the Fear of God," &c., thus:

"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,

Lets in new light through chinks that time has made,
Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become,
As they draw nigh to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new."

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"That incouragement I have already received from the most ingenious men, in their clear and courteous entertainment of Mr. Waller's late choice Peeces, hath onece more made me adventure into the world, presenting it with these ever-green and not to be blasted laurels." Had Humphrey Mosley any presentiment of the deathless fame of Milton? S. W. SINGER.

"The Soul's dark Cottage," &c. (Vol. iii., p. 105.). -This admired couplet can never escape recollection. It was written by Waller. From the tenor of some preceding lines, and the place which the verses occupy in the edition of 1693, they must be among the latest of his compositions.

BOLTON CORNEY. [À. H. H., R. B., C. J. R., H. G. T., and other friends have replied to this Query.

The Rev. J. Sansom points out a kindred passage in his poem of Divine Love, canto vi. p. 249. :

"The soul contending to that light to fly
From her dark cell," &c.

H. G. sends a beautiful parallel passage from Fuller (Holy State Life of Monica): "Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven, and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body." And J. H. M. informs us that amongst Duke's Poems is a most flattering one addressed to Waller, evidently allusive to the lines in question.]

"Beauty Retire" (Vol. iii., p. 105.). The lines beginning "Beauty Retire," which Pepys set to music, taken from the second part of the Siege of Rhodes, act iv. scene 2., are printed in the 5th volume of the Memoirs, p. 250., 3rd edition.

I believe the music exists in the Pepysian Library, but any of the Fellows of Magdalene College could ascertain the fact. BRAYBROOKE.

Mythology of the Stars (Vol. iii., p. 70.). — I would here add to my recommendation of Captain

Smyth's Celestial Cycle (antè, p.70.), that soon after it appeared it obtained for its author the annual gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society; and that it is a book adapted to the exigencies of astronomers of all degrees, from the experienced astronomer, furnished with every modern refinement of appliances and means of observation, to the humbler, but perhaps no less zealous beginner, furnished only with a good pair of natural eyes, aided, on occasion, by the common opera-glass. Such an observer, if he goes the right way to work, will make sure of a high degree of entertainment and instruction, and may reasonably hope to light on a discovery or two, worthy, even in the present day, of being recorded. ROBERT SNOW.

Simon Bache (Vol. iii., p. 105.). — Thesaurarius Hospitii.-The office of "Thesaurarius Hospitii," about which A. W. H. inquires, means, I believe, "Treasurer of the Household." In Chauncy's Hertfordshire, vol. ii. p. 102., the inscription on Simon Bache is given in the same terms as by your correspondent. The learned author then gives, at p. 103., the epitaph on another monument also in Knebworth Church, erected to the memory of John Hotoft, in which occur these two lines:

"Hospitii regis qui Thesaurarius olim

Henrici sexti merito pollebat honore." At p. 93. of the same volume, Sir Henry Chauncy speaks of the same John Hotoft as an eminent man, and sheriff of the county, and adds:

"He was also Treasurer of the King's Household afterwards; he dyed and was buried in the chancel of this church, where his monument remains at this day."

Who Simon Bache was, or how he came to be buried at Knebworth, I cannot tell. The name of "Bach" occurs in Chauncy several times, as that of mayors and assistants, at Hertford, between 1672 and 1689. J. H. L.

Winifreda (Vol. iii., p. 108.).—It may perhaps interest LORD BRAYBROOKE and J. H. M. to know, that I have in my possession the copy of Dodsley's Minor Poems, which belonged to John Gilbert Cooper, and which was bought at the sale of his grandson, the late Colonel John GilbertCooper-Gardiner. The song of "Winifreda" is at page 282. of the 4th volume; and a manuscript note, in the handwriting of the son of the author of Letters concerning Taste, states it to have been written by John Gilbert Cooper." The praise bestowed by Cooper on the poem, and which J. H. M. conceives to militate against his claim to the composition, is obviously intended to apply to the original, and not to Cooper's elegant transla. tion. A,

Newark.

Queries on Costume (Vol. iii., p. 88.).— Addison's paper in the Spectator, No. 127., seems to be

conclusive that hooped petticoats were not in use so early as the year 1651. The anecdote in connection with the subject related in Wilson's Life of De Foe, has always appeared to me very questionable, not only on that consideration, but because Charles was at the time a fine tall young man of more than twenty-one years of age, and at the only period that he could have been in the neighbourhood referred to, he was on horseback and attended by at least two persons, who were also mounted. Neither can the circumstances related be at all reconciled with the particulars given by Clarendon and subsequent writers, who have professed to correct the statements of that historian by authority. J. D. S.

Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi (Vol. ii., p. 218.; Vol. iii., p. 125.).-Permit me again to express my opinion, with due deference to the eminent authorities cited in your pages, that the comprehensive words of Lord Bacon, "Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi," were not borrowed from any author, ancient or modern. But it would be a compliment which that great genius would have been the first to ridicule, were we to affirm that no anterior writer had adopted analogous language in expressing the benefits of "the philosophy of time." On the contrary, he would have called our attention to the expressions of the Egyptian priest addressed to Solon, (see a few pages beyond the one referred to in his Advancement of Learning):

"Ye Grecians are ever children, ye have no knowledge of antiquity nor antiquity of knowledge." The words of Bacon to me appear to be a condensation of the well-known dialogue in Plato's Timæus, above quoted, as will, I hope, appear in the following paraphrase:

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her an only daughter, Anne, who married Drew, afterwards Sir Drew Drury, Bart., of Riddlesworth, Norfolk. He, Edward Waldegrave, was descended from a younger branch of the family of Waldegrave, of Smallbridge, in the parish of Bures, Suffolk, from whence descends the present Earl Waldegrave.

Lady Bingham lies buried in the chancel of Lawford church, where a stone in the floor states her age to have been sixty-nine, and that she was buried Sept. 9. 1634. There is also another stone in the floor for Edward Waldegrave, Esq., who married Dame Sarah Bingham, by whom he had one daughter, Jemima, who was married to John Stearne (a mistake evidently for Stene, the seat of James Lord Crewe). Edward Waldegrave was buried Feb. 13, 1621, aged about sixty-eight.

The large monument in Lawford church is for the father of this Edward Waldegrave, who died in 1584. D. A. Y.

Proclamation of Langholme Fair (Vol. iii., p. 56.). MONKBARNS wishes the meaning of the choice expressions in this proclamation. They may be explained as follows:- Hustrin, hustling, or riotously inclined, being so consonanted to make it alliterate with custrin, spelt by Jamieson, custroun, and signifying a pitiful fellow. Chaucer has the word trustron in this sense.

Land-louper, one who runs over the country, a vagabond.

Dukes-couper I take to be a petty dealer in ducks or poultry, and to be used in a reproachiful sense, as we find "pedlar," "jockey," &c.

Gang-y-gate swinger, a fighting man, who goes swaggering in the road (or gate); a roisterer who takes the wall of every one. Swing is an old word for a stroke or blow. Apud vos propter inundationes ineunte modò Durdam is an old word meaning an uproar, sæculo nihil scientiarum est augmentationis. Quoad and akin to the Welsh dowrd Urdam may be a nos juventus mundi ac terræ Ægyptiacæ, quâ nulla hominum exitia fuerunt, progrediente tempore, anti-corruption of whoredom, but is more probably quitas fit sæculi, et antiquissimarum rerum apud nos prefixed to the genuine word as a co-sounding monumenta servantur." expletive.

T. J.

Lady Bingham (Vol. iii., p. 61.).— Lady Bingham, whose daughter, afterwards Lady Crewe, was unsuccessfully courted by Sir Symonds D'Ewes (for which see his autobiography), was Sarah, the daughter of John Heigham, Esq., of Gifford's Hall, in Urckham Brook, Suffolk, of the same family with Sir Clement Heigham, Knt., of Barrow, Suffolk, Speaker of the House of Commons. She was married by banns at St. Olave's, Hart Street, Jan. 11, 1588, to Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., of co. Dorset. She married, secondly, Edward Waldegrave, Esq., of Lawford, Essex, to whom she was second wife, and by him had Jemima, afterwards Lady Crewe. Edward Waldegrave, married to his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Bartholomew Averell, of Southminster, Essex, had by

Brabblement seems to be a derivative from the Scotch verb " bra," to make a loud and disagreeable noise (see Jamieson); and squabblement explains itself.

Lugs, ears; tacked, nailed; trone, an old word, properly signifying the public weighing-machine, and sometimes used for the pillory.

size and sort of which twelve are bought for a A nail o' twal-a-penny is, of course, a nail of that

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