Page images
PDF
EPUB

66

Giovanni Volpe or Master Wolfe (Vol. iii., person was certainly never "phyP. 188.).-This sician to Queen Elizabeth," but he may have received from her Majesty the appointment of On apothecary, as he did from her successor. New-Year's day, 1605-6, John Vulp presented to the king a box of Indian plums," receiving in return 7 oz. di. di. qr. of gilt plate; he is then named the last of five apothecaries who paid their votive offerings to royalty. (Nichols's Progresses, In &c. of King James I., vol. i. p. 597.) 1617 he had risen to be the king's principal apothecary, and by the name of John Wolfgango Rumlero received" for his fee by the year 40 li.," as appears by the abstract of his Majesty's revenue attached to the pamphlet entitled Time brought to Light by Time. From the name here given him, it may be conjectured that he was rather from Germany than Italy. However, he also went by the plain English name of Master Wolfe.

He is thus alluded to in the epilogue to Ben Jonson's Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies, when it was performed at Windsor in September, 1621:

66

But, lest it prove like wonder to the sight
To see a gipsy, as an Æthiop, white,

Know that what dy'd our faces was an ointment
Made and laid on by Master Woolfe's appointment,
The Count Lycanthropos."

As he was a man of such prominence in his profession, probably many other notices of him might be collected if duly "noted" as they occur. J. G. N.

Replies to Minor Queries. Sir Andrew Chadwick (Vol. iii., p. 141.).-It was stated in evidence, in a trial at Lancaster assizes, Hilary Term, 1769, between Law and Taylor, plaintiffs, and Duckworth and Wilkinson, defendants, respecting the heirs at law of Sir Andrew Chadwick, and their claim to his estates, that “Ellis Chadwick married in Ireland a lady of fashion, who had some connexion with her late Majesty Queen Anne, and had issue by her the Ellis, the father, dying in his son's infancy, about the year 1693, his widow brought her son Andrew over to England, where he was very early introduced at court, and being contemporary with the young Duke of Gloucester, became a great favourite with him, was knighted, and had divers preferments."-From The latter the Attorney-General's MS. Brief. part of this statement does not appear to confirm the supposition recorded by MR. J. N. CHADWICK.

late Sir Andrew Chadwick.

F. R. R.

of

The Manuscript of Bede (Vol. iii., p. 180.). volume in question is entered in the Catalogue Thoresby's MSS., No. 10. in the Ducatus Leodiensis, p. 72. 2d ed. 1816. The greater part of these

247

Jun., and, together with the coins, were disposed
MSS. came into the hands of Ralph Thoresby,
of by public auction in March, 1764, by Whiston
Bristow, sworn broker. The MSS. were sold on
the third day, but the volume containing Bede
The opinion
does not appear among them.
formed by J. M. of the age of this MS. is cer-
tainly erroneous, and being on paper it is more
The period of William Dadyngton, Vicar of Bar-
probably of the fifteenth than the twelfth century.
ton, might decide this.

με

Your corre

MS. of Bede (Vol. iii., p. 180.). spondent will find a description of this MS. in the catalogue of Thoresby's Museum, at the end of his Ducatus Leodiensis, edit. 1715, fol., p. 515. He will also, in Thoresby's Correspondence, 1832, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 39., see a letter from Dr. John Smith, the editor of Bede's History, respecting this manuscript, the original of which letter is in my pos

session.

After many dismemberments, what remained of Thoresby's Museum, including his manuscripts, was sold in London in March, 1764, by auction. Mr. Lilly, the bookseller of Pall Mall, had a priced catalogue of this sale; and your correspondent, if anxious to trace the pedigree of his MS. further, can, I have no doubt, on application, get a reference made to that catalogue.

I take the present opportunity of mentioning that, at Mr. Upcott's sale, when I became the purchaser of the Thoresby papers, including his MS. diaries, his Album, and upwards of 1000 letters to him, a very small number of which were printed in the collection, in two volumes, edited by Mr. Hunter, one of the diaries, from May 14, 1712, to September 26, 1714, which was sold with the lot, was after the sale found to be missing. It subsequently came into the hands of a London dealer, by whom it was sold to a Yorkshire gennot yet been able to trace. Should this meet his tleman, as I understand, but whose name I have eye, I will venture to appeal to his sense of justice, pedigree," to use your correspondent's exentirely ignorant as I am sure he has been of the pression, of his MS., whether he will allow it to be longer separated from the series to which it belongs, and which is incomplete without it. I need hardly say, I can only expect to receive it on the terms of repaying the price paid for it, and which I should embrace with many thanks.

Manchester, March 8. 1851.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

[The following advertisement of the missing MS. C. J. Hamilton, then of Castle Court, Birchin Lane, appeared in the Catalogue (No. 33., 1848) of Mr. now residing in the City Road, London:-"Thoresby's (Ralph, antiquary of Leeds), Diary from May 14, 1712, to September 26, 1714, an original unpublished MS., containing much highly interesting literary information, with autograph on fly-leaf, thick 8vo., 436

pages, vellum with tuck, closely written, price 21. 12s. 6d." The purchaser was Mr. Wallbran, Fallcroft, Ripon, Yorkshire.]

Closing of Rooms on account of Death (Vol. iii., p. 142.).—I am acquainted with a remarkable instance of this custom. A respectable farmer who resided in a parish in Bedfordshire, adjoining that in which I am writing, died in 1844; leaving to his daughter the fine old manor-house in which he had lived for many years, and in which he died, together with about 300 acres of land. The lady, with her husband, was then residing in a neighbouring village, where the latter rented a farm, which he has since given up, retaining the house; but she positively refused to remove to the manorhouse, "because her father had died in it;" and as she still persists in her refusal, it is unoccupied to this day. For Mr. is not even permitted to let it, except a part, now tenanted by a valued friend of mine, which for many years has been let separately. The rooms and the furniture in them remain exactly as in the lifetime of the late occupant. The lady's husband, who farms the land attached to the house, is put to great inconvenience by living at a distance from it, but nothing will induce her to alter her determination. The facts I have related are notorious in the neighARUN. Enigmatical Epitaph on Rev. John Mawer (Vol. iii., p. 184.).—On reading to a lady the article on this subject in a late Number, she immediately recollected, that about thirty years ago she had a governess of that name, the daughter of a clergyman in Nottinghamshire, who often mentioned that they were descended from the Royal Family of Wales, and that she had a brother who was named Arthur Lewellyn Tudor Kaye Mawer.

bourhood.

This anecdote will perhaps be of use in directing attention to Cambrian pedigrees, and leading it from Dr. Whitaker's "Old King Cole" to "the noble race of Shenkin." J. T. A.

Haybands in Seals (Vol. iii., p. 186.).—The practice mentioned by MR. LOWER, of inserting haybands, or rather slips of rush, in the seals of feoffments, was common in all counties; and it certainly was not confined to the humbler classes. Hundreds of feoffments of the fifteenth century, and earlier, have passed through my hands with the seals as described by MR. LOWER, relating to various counties, and executed by parties of all degrees. In these instances, a little blade of rush is generally neatly inserted round the inner rim of the impression, and evidently must have been so done while the wax was soft. In some instances, these blades of rush overlay the whole seal; in others, a slip of it is merely tied round the label. In delivering seisin under a feoffment, the grantor, or his attorney, handed over to the

grantee, together with the deed, a piece of turf, or a twig, or something plucked from the soil, in token of his giving full and complete possession. I have generally supposed that these strips of rush were the tokens of possession so handed over, as part and parcel of the soil, by the grantor; and that they were attached to the seal, as it were, "in perpetuam rei memoriam." In default of better information, I venture to suggest this explanation, but will not presume to vouch for its correctness. L. B. L.

Notes on Newspapers (Vol. iii., p. 164.). — John Houghton, the editor of the periodical noticed by your correspondent, A Collection for the Improvemeritorious men who well deserve commemoration, ment of Husbandry and Trade, was one of those though his name is not to be found in any biography that I am acquainted with. He was an apothecary, and became a dealer in tea, coffee, and chocolate. He was in politics a loyalist, or Tory, and was admitted a member of the Royal Society in 167980. He began to publish his Letters on Husbandry and Trade in 1681. No. 1. is dated Thursday, September 8, 1681. The first collection ended June, 1684, and consists of two vols. 4to. In November, 1691, Houghton determined to resume his old plan of publishing papers on Husbandry and Trade. His abilities and industry were warmly recommended by several members of the Royal Society: Sir Peter Pott, John Evelyn, Dr. Hugh Chamberlain, and others. The recommendation is prefixed to the first number of this second collection. The first paper is dated Wednesday, March 30, 1692; and the second. Wednesday, April 6, 1692; they were continued every succeeding Wednesday. The concluding paper was published September 24, 1703. There were 583 numbers, in 19 vols., of the folio papers. The last number contains an Epitome" of the 19 vols. and a "Farewell," which gives his reasons for discontinuing the paper, and thanks to his assistants, "wishing that knowledge may cover the earth as the water covers the sea. A selection from these papers was published in 1727, by Richard Bradley, F.R.S., in three vols. 8vo., to which a fourth was afterwards added in 1728, 8vo.

46

and Houses, with the proportional Tax, &c. of Houghton also published An Account of the Acres each County in England and Wales. Lond. 1693, on a broadside. Also, Book of Funds, 1694, 4to. Alteration of the Coin, with a feasible Method to it 1695. 4to. JAMES CROSSLEY.

[blocks in formation]

Cross," and at another period of his life in Mon-
mouth Court. He is reported to have amassed a
large fortune from practising upon the credulity of
the public, and was the grand answerer of "Que-
ries" in his day. Defoe's entertaining pieces re-
lating to him are evidently novels founded upon
fact.
JAS. CROSSLEY,

J. C.

This tract is in the British Museum.
makes a tremendous leap in chronology when he
asks "Was it not either Julius I. or II.?" Why
the one died exactly 1161 years after the other!
COWGILL.

Christmas Day (Vol. iii., p. 167.). In a note to one of Bishop Pearson's sermons (Opera Minora, ed. Churton) occurs the following passage from St. Chrysostom:

66

“Παρὰ τῶν ἀκριβῶς ταῦτα εἰδότων, καὶ τὴν πόλιν εκείνην (sc. Romam) οἰκούντων, παρειληφάμεν τήν μepav. Oi yàp èncî diaтpíВOUTES аveev Kai ÈK παλαίας παραδόσεως ταύτην ἐπιτελοῦντες,” &c. Homil. Di. Nat. ii. 354.

Christmas Day (Vol. iii., p. 167.).— Julian I. has the credit of transferring the celebration of Christ's birth from Jan. 6th to Dec. 25th; but Mosheim considers the report very questionable (vol. i. p. 370. Soames's edit.). Bingham, in his Christian Antiq., devotes ch. iv. of book xx. to the consideration of this festival, and that of the Epiphany; but does not notice the claim set up on behalf of Julian I.; neither Neander (vol. iii. pp. 415-22. Eng. Translation). It would appear that the Eastern Church kept Christmas on Jan. 6th, and the Western Church on Dec. 25th at length, about the time of Chrysostom, the Oriental Christians sided with the Western MS. Sermons by Jeremy Taylor (Vol. i., p. 125.). Church. Bingham also cites Augustine as saying-Coleridge's assertion," that there is now extant that it was the current tradition that Christ was

born on the eighth of the kalends of January, that
is, on the 25th of December. Had, therefore,
Julian I. dogmatically fixed the 25th of Decem-
ber as the birthday of our Saviour, it is scarcely
possible to suppose that Augustine, who flourished
about half a century later, would allege current
tradition as the reason, without any notice of
Julian.
N. E. R. (A Subscriber).

[See Tillemont's Histoire Ecclésiastique, tome i., note 4., for a full discussion of this question. Also Commentarii, sæculum primum, sec. 1.; and Butler's Lives of the Saints, article Christmas-Day.]

Mosheim's De Rebus Christianorum ante Constantinum

Christmas-day (Vol. iii, p. 167.). - St. John of Chrysostom, archbishop of Nice (died A. D. 407), in an epistle upon this subject, relates (tom. v. p. 45. edit. Montf., Paris, 1718-34) that, at the instance of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (died A.D. 385), St. Julius (Pope A.D. 337-352) procured a strict inquiry to be made into the day of our Saviour's nativity, which being found to be the 25th Dec., that day was thenceforth set apart for the celebration of this "Festorum omnium metropolis," as he styles it. St. Tilesphorus (Pope A. D. 128139), however, is supposed by the generality of ancient authorities to be the first who appointed the 25th Dec. for that purpose. The point is involved in much uncertainty, but your correspondent may find all the information he seeks in Baronii Apparatus ad Annales Ecclesiasticos, fol., Lucæ, 1740, pp. 475. et seq.; and in a curious tract, entitled The Feast of Feasts; or, the Celebration of the Sacred Nativity of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; grounded upon the Scriptures, and confirmed by the Practice of the Christian Church in all Ages. 4to. Oxf. 1644.

The remainder of the quotation my note does not supply, but it may be easily found by the reference. The day, therefore, seems fixed by tradition," and received both by the Eastern and Western Church, and not on any dogmatical decision of the popes. R. W. F.

66

in MS. a folio of unprinted sermons by Jeremy
Taylor," must have proceeded from his wishes
rather than his knowledge. No such MS. is known
to exist; and such a discovery is, I believe, as
little to be expected as a fresh play of Shakspeare's.
Was it in the "Lands of Vision," and with "the
damsel and the dulcimer," that the transcendental
philosopher beheld it?
JAS. CROSSLEY,

Dryden's Absolom and Achitophel (Vol. i., The edition noticed by your correp. 406.). spondent, " printed and sold by H. Hills, in Blackfriars, near the Water Side, for the benefit of the Poor," 1708, 8vo., is a mere catch-penny. Hills, the printer, was a great sinner in this way. I have Roscommon's translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1709; his Essay on translated Verse, 1709; Mulgrave's Essay on Poetry, 1709; Denham's Cooper's Hill, 1709; and many other poems, all printed by Hills, on bad paper, and very incorrectly, from 1708 to 1710, for sale at a low price. JAS. CROSSLey.

The Rev. W. Adams (Vol. iii., p. 140.).—The age of Mr. Adams at his death was thirty-three. His tomb is in the churchyard of Bonchurch-a

simple coped coffin; but the cross placed upon it is, in allusion to his own beautiful allegory, slightly raised, so that its shadow falls—

"Along the letters of his name,

And o'er the number of his years."

I have a pretty engraving of this tomb, purchased at Bonchurch in 1849, and your correspondent may perhaps be glad to adopt the idea for an illustration of the book he mentions.

E. J. M.

Duchess of Buckingham (Vol. iii., p. 224.).—I am much surprsed at this question; I thought

there were few ladies of the last century better known than Catherine, daughter of James II. (to whom he gave the name of Darnley) by Miss Ledley, created Countess of Dorchester. Lady Catherine Darnley was married first to Lord Anglesey, and secondly to Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, by whom she was mother of the second duke of that name, who died in his minority, and the title became extinct. All this, and many more curious particulars of that extraordinary lady, may be found in the Peerages, in Pope, in Walpole's Reminiscences, and in Park's edition of the Noble Authors. C.

"Go the whole Hog" (Vol. iii., p. 224.). — We learn from Men and Manners in America, vol. i. pp. 18, 19., that going the whole hog is the American popular phrase for radical reform, or democratical principle, and that it is derived from the phrase used by butchers in Virginia, who ask their customer whether he will go the whole hog, or deal only for joints or portions of it. C. B. Lord Bexley's Descent from Cromwell (Vol. iii., p. 185.). In answer to PURSUIVANT'S Query, How were the families of Morse and Ireton connected? it appears that Jane, only child of Richard Lloyd (of Norfolk ?), Esq, by Jane, second daughter of Ireton, married, circa 1700, Nicholas or Henry Morse. But what appears to me most likely to have occasioned the report of Lord Bexley's connexion with the Cromwell family is, that the late Oliver Cromwell, Esq., of Cheshunt, married Miss Mary Morse in 1771, which must have been not far from the period when Lord Bexley's mother, also a Miss Morse, WAYLEN. was married to Mr. Vansittart.

Morse and Ireton Families. I have a small original portrait of General Ireton by old Stone; on the back of it is a card, on which is the following:

66

Bequeathed by Jane Morse to her daughter Ann Roberts, this picture of her grandfather Ireton. Will dated Jan. 15. 1732-33."

"Anne Roberts, wife of Gaylard Roberts, brother of Christ Roberts, father of J. R."

In Noble's Memoirs of the Cromwell Family, vol. ii. p. 302., the name is printed Moore, evidently a mistake for Morse:

"Jane, third daughter of General Ireton, having married Richard Lloyd, Esq., the issue of this marriage was Jane, an only child, who married Nicholas, or Henry Moore [Morse], Esq., by whom she had four sons and three daughters."

SPES.

The Countess of Desmond (Vol. ii., pp. 153. 186. 219. 317.).-Touching this venerable lady, the following "Note" may not be unacceptable.

In the year 1829, when making a tour in Ireland, I saw an engraving at Lansdowne Lodge, in the county of Kerry, the residence of Mr.

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

Aristophanes on the Modern Stage (Vol. iii, p. 105.). In reply to a Query of your correspondent C. J. R., I beg leave to state, that, after having made inquiry on the subject, I cannot find that any of the Comedies of Aristophanes have ever been introduced upon the English stage, although I agree with him in thinking that some of them might be advantageously adapted to the modern theatre; and I am inore confirmed in this opinion from having witnessed at the Odéon in Paris, some years since, a dramatic piece, entitled "Les Nuées d'Aristophane," which had a great run there. It was not a literal translation from the Greek author, but a kind of mélange, drawn from the Clouds and Plutus together. The characters of Socrates and his equestrian son were very well performed; but the scenic accessories I considered very meagre, particularly the choral part, which must have been so striking and beautiful in the original of the former drama. Upon my return to England I wrote to the then lessee of Drury Lane Theatre, recommending a similar experiment on our stage from the free version by Wheelwright, published some time before by the late D. A. Talboys, of Oxford. The answer I received was, that the manager had then too much on his hands to admit of his giving time to such an undertaking, which I still think might be a successful one (as is the case with the "Antigone"

[blocks in formation]

On a Passage in the Tempest (Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299. 337. 429. 499.). If you will allow me to offer a conjecture on a subject, which you may think has already been sufficiently discussed in your pages, I shall be glad to submit the following to the consideration of your readers.

The passage in the Tempest, Act III. Scene 1., as quoted from the first folio, stands thus: "I forget:

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours Most busie lest, when I do it."

This was altered in the second folio to

"Most busie least, when 'I do it." Instead of which Theobald proposes,

"Most busyless, when I do it."

But "busyless" is not English. All our words ending in less (forming adjectives), are derived from Anglo-Saxon nouns; as love, joy, hope, &c., and never from adjectives.

My conjecture is that Shakspeare wrote -
66 I forget:
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour's
Most business, when I do it."

"Most" being used in the sense of "greatest," as in Henry VI., Pt. I., Act IV. Scene 1., (noticed by Steevens):

"But always resolute in most extremes." Thus the change of a single syllable is sufficient to make good English, good sense, and good metre of a passage which is otherwise defective in these three particulars. It retains the s in "labours," keeps the comma in its place, and provides that

[blocks in formation]

"Merchant's Mirrour, or Directions for the Perfect Ordering and Keeping of his Accounts; framed by way of Debitor and Creditor after the (so tearmed) Italian Manner, containing 250 rare Questions, with their Answers in the form of a Dialogue; as likewise a Waste Book, with a complete Journal and Ledger thereunto appertaining;"

annexed to Malyne's Consuetudo vel Lex Mercatoria, edit. 1636, folio, gives rather a different explanation of the origin of the term "wastebook" to that contained in the answer of your last correspondent. "WASTE-BOOK," he observes,

"So called, because, when the Matter is written into the Journal, then is this Book void, and of no esteeme, especially in Holland; where the buying people firme not the Waste-book, as here our nation doe in England." JAS. CROSSLey.

Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Craigs (Vol. iii., p. 119.).-L. M. M. R. is informed that there is a tradition of King Arthur having defeated the Saxons in the neighbourhood of this hill, to the top of which he ascended for the purpose of viewing the country.

In the Encyclopædia Britannica we have another explanation also (sub voce), as follows:

"Arthur's Seat is said to be derived, or rather corrupted, from A'rd Seir, a place or field of arrows,' where people shot at a mark: and this not improperly; for, among these cliffs is a dell, or recluse valley, where the wind can scarcely reach, now called the Hunter's Bog, the bottom of it being a morass."

The article concludes thus:

"The adjacent crags are supposed to have taken their name from the Earl of Salisbury; who, in the reign of Edward III., accompanied that prince in an expedition against the Scots.”

66

But query a height of earth;" "earthes" (an old form of the genitive), or "airthes height," not unnaturally corrupted to " Arthur's Seat." W. T. M.

Edinburgh.

Salisbury Craigs. Craiglockhart Hill and Craigmillar Castle, both in the neighbourhood of the Craigs, are all so called from Henry de Craigmillar, who built the castle (now in ruins) in the twelfth century. There is a charter in the reign of Alexander II., in 1212, by William, son of Henry de Craigmillar, to the monastery of Dunfermline, which is the earliest record of the castle. BLOWEN.

Meaning of "Harrisers" (Vol. ii., p. 376.). I am told that the practice which CLERICUS RUS

« PreviousContinue »