MUMMIES OF ECCLESIASTICS.

"Grendel hight the grisly guest,Dread master he of waste and moor,The fen his fastness—fiends among,Bliss-bereft...."

"Grendel hight the grisly guest,

Dread master he of waste and moor,

The fen his fastness—fiends among,

Bliss-bereft...."

This awful being was no doubt in the mind of those who originated the namegrendles mere, before quoted from Kemble. The name is applied to a locality quite in keeping with the ancient mythological character ofGrendel, who held the moor and the fen. Most strikingly does the same sentiment appear in the name of that strange and wildering valley of the Bernese Oberland, in Switzerland:—I mean the valley of Grindelwald, with its two awful glaciers.

But when we come to consider the etymology of the name, we are led to an object which seems inadequate, and incapable of acting as the vehicle for these deep and natural sentiments of the inhuman and the horrible.

Grendelmeans, originally, no more than abarorrod, or a palisade or lattice-work made of such bars or rods. Also a bar or bolt for fastening a door, or for closing a harbour. Middle-aged people at Zurich recollect when the old "Grindel" was still standing at the mouth of their river. This was a tremendous bar, by which the water-approach to their town could be closed against an enemy; who might otherwise pass from the Lake of Zurich down the river Limmat, into the heart of the town of Zurich.

It was in Germany that this word lived longest as a common substantive. There is no known instance of it in Anglo-Saxon, other than in proper names, and of these I know no more than are already enumerated above; whereas, in the Middle High German, it is by no means uncommon. It occurs in a mystery on the resurrection preserved in this dialect, and edited by Ettmüller, 1851 (Dat Spil fan der Upstandinge). I cannot now find the line, but it is used there for "the gates of hell." Cf. also Ziemann'sMittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, voc.Grindel.

Grimm, in hisMythology, establishes a connexion betweenGrendelandLoki, the northern half-deity half-demon, the origin of evil. He was always believed to have cunningly guided the shaft of Flöder the Blind, who, in loving sport, shot his brother Balder the Gay, the beloved of gods and men. So entered sorrow into the hitherto unclouded Asaland.

Grimm draws attention to the circumstance that Loki is apparently connected with the widespread root which appears in English in the formslockandlatch. Here is a very striking analogy,and it is supported by an instance from the present German:Höllriegel= vectis infernalis, brand of hell, is still recognised as =teufel; or for an old witch = devil's dam.

And even in Latin documents we find the same idea represented. Thus, in a charter of King Edgar (Cod. Dipl., No. 487.), which begins with a recital of the fall of man, and the need of escaping the consequent misery, we have the following:

"Quamobrem ego Eadgar, totius Britanniæ gubernator et rector, ut hujus miseriærepagulumquam protoplastus inretitus promeruit ... evadere queam, quandam ruris particulam ... largitus sum," &c. &c.

As to the application of this name to localities, it seems to represent the same sentiment as the prefix of Giant, Grim, or Devil: and this sentiment would be that of the grand or awful in Nature, and mysterious or unaccountable in artificial works. I think we may then safely conclude, that all dikes, ditches, camps, cromlechs, &c., which have such titles attached to them, date from an age previous to the Saxons being in England. For example, if we did not know from other sources the high antiquity of Wayland Smith's Cave in Berkshire, we might argue that it was at least pre-Saxon; from the fact that the Saxons called it by the name of their Vulcan, and therefore that it appeared to them so mysterious as to bedignus vindice nodus.

If your correspondent C. G., or any of your readers, can, either from their reading or from local knowledge, add any further illustrations or examples of this ancient heathen word, I, for one, shall receive them gratefully.

I. E.

Oxford.

(Vol. vi., pp. 53. 110. 205. 328.)

Although I have myself seen the natural mummies preserved at Kreuzberg on the Rhine, I can say nothing more with regard to them, than vouch for the accuracy of the accounts transmitted by your various correspondents under this head. Your Querist A. A. however may, if curious on this subject, be referred with advantage to Mr. T. J. Pettigrew's interestingHistory of Egyptian Mummies. In chap. xvii. of this work, many instances are adduced of the preservation of bodies from putrefaction by the desiccating properties of the natural air of the place in which they are contained. He says:

"In dry, and particularly calcareous vaults, bodies may be preserved for a great length of time. In Toulouse, bodies are to be seen quite perfect, although buried two centuries ago. In the vaults of St. Michael's Church, Dublin, the same effect is produced; and Mr. Madden says he there saw the body of Henry Shears, who was hanged in 1798, in a state of preservation equal to that of any Egyptian mummy."

Garcilasso de la Veya, and more recent historians, may be referred to for accounts of the mummy-pits of Peru, the dry air of which country is an effectual preventive of the process of putrefaction. One of the most curious spectacles, however, of this nature is to be found in the Catacombs of Palermo, where the traveller finds himself in the midst of some thousands of unburied bodies, which, suspended mostly by the neck, have become so distorted in form and feature in the process of desiccation, as to provoke an irrepressible smile in the midst of more solemn and befitting contemplations. (Sonnini'sTravels, vol. i. p. 47.; Smyth'sMemoirs of Sicily and its Islands, p. 88.)

Similar properties are also attributed to the air of the western islands of Scotland. "To return to our purpose," says P. Camerarius (The Living Librarie, translated by Molle, folio, London, 1625, p. 47.),—

"That which Abraham Ortelius reporteth after Gyrald de Cambren is wonderfull, that the bodies of men rot not after their decease, in the isles of Arran; and that therefore they bee not buried, but left in the open ayr, where putrefaction doth them no manner of hurt; whereby the families (not without amazement) doe know their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and a long race of their predecessors. Peter Martyr, a Milannois, saith the same of some West Indians of Comagra. These bee his words: 'The Spaniards being entered the lodgings of this Cacick, found a chamber fulle of dead bodies, hanging by ropes of cotton, and asking what superstition that was, they received this answer, That those were the fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers of the Cacick of Comagra. The Indians say that they keep such relikes preciously, and that the ceremonie is one of the points of their religion. According to his qualities while he lived, his bodie, being dead, is richly decked with jewels and precious stones.'"

Many other instances might be adduced, but you will now think that at least enough has been said on this subject.

William Bates.

Birmingham.

(Vol. vi., pp. 125. 297. 400.; Vol. vii., pp. 242. 243.)

Your correspondent A. S. A. seems very anxious to possess a complete list of the vicars-apostolic of England. With their names, and the date of their consecration and death, collected from various sources, I am able to supply him.

The last survivor of the Roman Catholic bishops consecrated in England prior to the reign of Elizabeth was Dr. Thomas Watson, appointed bishop of Lincoln in 1557 by Queen Mary, and deprived (on the accession of Elizabeth) in 1559.

Upon his death, in 1584, the Catholic clergy in England were left without a head, and the Pope some time after appointed anarch-priest, to superintend them, and the following persons filled the office:

On the death of the latter the episcopate was revived by the pope in England, and one bishop was consecrated as head of the English Catholics.

In 1840, England and Wales were divided among eight vicars-apostolic, and from that time until the year 1850 the following was the arrangement:

In 1850 came another change, and one archbishop and twelve bishops were appointed to ruleover the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales:

The foregoing I believe to be, in the main, a correct account of the Roman Catholic episcopate in England and Wales from the accession of Elizabeth down to the present year.

J. R. W.

Bristol.

(Vol. vii., p. 106.)

I have no doubt that the particular instance ofZeal in the cause of the Churchat Banbury, which Addison had in mind when he wrote No. 220. of theTatler, published Sept. 5, 1710, was a grand demonstration made by its inhabitants in favour of Dr. Sacheverell, whose trial had terminated in his acquittal on March 23 of that year. And my opinion is strengthened by the introduction almost immediately afterwards of a passage on the party use of the terms High Church and Low Church.

On June 3, 1710, the High Church champion made a triumphal entry into Banbury, which is ridiculed in a pamphlet calledThe Banb..y Apes, or the Monkeys chattering to the Magpye; in a Letter to a Friend in London. On the back of the title is large woodcut, representing the procession which accompanied the doctor; among the personages of which the Mayor of Banbury (as a wolf), and the aldermen (as apes), are conspicuous figures. Dr. Sacheverell himself appears on horseback, followed by a crowd of persons bearing crosses and rosaries, or strewing branches. The accompanying letter-press describes this procession as being closed by twenty-four tinkers beating on their kettles, and a "vast mob, hollowing, hooping, and playing the devil." There is another tract on the same subject, which is extremely scarce, entitled—

"An Appeal from the City to the Country for the Preservation of Her Majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the Protestant Religion, &c. Occasionally written upon the late impudent Affronts offer'd to Her Majesty's Royal Crown and Dignity by the People ofBanburyandWarwick: Lond. 8vo. 1710."

To your correspondent H.'s (p. 222.) quotation from Braithwait's "Drunken Barnaby" may be added this extract from an earlier poem by the same writer, called "A Strappado for the Divell:"

"But now for Bradford I must haste away:Bradford, if I should rightly set it forth,Stile it I mightBanberryof the North;And well this title with the town agrees,Famous for twangingale,zeal,cakes, andcheese."

"But now for Bradford I must haste away:

Bradford, if I should rightly set it forth,

Stile it I mightBanberryof the North;

And well this title with the town agrees,

Famous for twangingale,zeal,cakes, andcheese."

A few words on "BanburyCakes," and I have done. The earliest mention of them I am aware of (next to that in Camden'sBritannia, published by Philemon Holland in 1608, and already referred to), is by Ben Jonson, in hisBartholomew Fair, written 1614; where he introduces "Zeal-of-the-Land Busy" as "a Banbury Man," who "was abaker—but he does dream now, and see visions: he has given over his trade, out of a scruple he took, that, in spiced conscience,those cakes he madewere served to bridales, maypoles, morrisses, and such profane feasts and meetings." I do not know whether the sale of Banbury cakes flourished in the last century; but I find recorded in Beesley'sHist. of Banbury(published 1841) that Mr. Samuel Beesley sold in 1840 no fewer than 139,500 twopenny cakes; and in 1841, the sale had increased by at least a fourth. In Aug. 1841, 5,400 were sold weekly; being shipped to America, India, and even Australia. I fancy their celebrity in early days can hardly parallel this, but I do not vouch for the statistics.

J. R. M., M.A.

(Vol. vi., p. 575.)

This remarkable saying, like most good things of that kind, has been repeated by so many distinguished writers, that it is impossible to trace it to any one in particular, in the precise form in which it is now popularly received. I shall quote, in succession, all those who appear to have expressed it in words of the same, or a nearly similar, import, and then leave your readers to judge for themselves.

I cannot help thinking that the first place should be assigned to Jeremy Taylor, as he must have had the sentiment clearly in view in the following sentence:

"There is in mankind an universal contract implied in all their intercourses; andwords being instituted to declare the mind, and for no other end, he that hears me speak hath a right in justice to be done him, that, as far as I can, what I speak be true; for else he by words does not know your mind, and then as good and better not speak at all."

Next we have David Lloyd, who in hisState Worthiesthus remarks of Sir Roger Ascham:

"None is more able for, yet none is more averse to, that circumlocution and contrivance wherewith some men shadow their main drift and purpose.Speech was made to open man to man, and not to hide him; to promote commerce, and not betray it."

Dr. South, Lloyd's cotemporary, but who survived him more than twenty years, expresses the sentiment in nearly the same words:

"In short, this seems to be the true inward judgment of all our politick sages, thatspeech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind, but to wise men whereby to conceal it."

The next writer in whom this thought occurs is Butler, the author ofHudibras. In one of his prose essays on the "Modern Politician," he says:

"He (the modern politician) believes a man's words and his meanings should never agree together: for he that says what he thinks lays himself open to be expounded by the most ignorant; andhe who does not make his words rather serve to conceal than discover the sense of his heart, deserves to have it pulled out, like a traitor's, and shown publicly to the rabble."

Young has the thought in the following couplet on the duplicity of courts:

"When Nature's end of language is declin'd,And men talk only toconceal their mind."

"When Nature's end of language is declin'd,

And men talk only toconceal their mind."

From Young it passed to Voltaire, who in the dialogue entitled "Le Chapon et la Poularde," makes the former say of the treachery of men:

"Ils n'emploient les paroles que pourdéguiser leurs pensées."

Goldsmith, about the same time, in his paper inThe Bee, produces it in the well-known words:

"Men who know the world hold that the true use of speech is not so much toexpressour wants, as toconcealthem."

Then comes Talleyrand, who is reported to have said:

"La parole n'a été donnée à l'homme que pourdéguiser sa pensée."

The latest writer who adopts this remark without acknowledgment is, I believe, Lord Holland. In hisLife of Lope de Vegahe says of certain Spanish writers, promoters of thecultismostyle:

"These authors do not avail themselves of the invention of letters for the purpose ofconveying, but of concealing, their ideas."

From these passages (some of which have already appeared in Vol. i., p. 83) it will be seen that the germ of the thought occurs in Jeremy Taylor; that Lloyd and South improved upon it; that Butler, Young and Goldsmith repeated it; that Voltaire translated it into French; that Talleyrand echoed Voltaire's words; and that it has now become so familiar an expression, that any one may quote it, as Lord Holland has done, without being at the trouble of giving his authority.

If, from the search for the author, we turn to consider the saying itself, we shall find that its practical application extends not merely to every species of equivocation, mental reservation, and even falsehood; but comprises certain forms of speech, which are intended to convey thecontraryof what they express. To this class of words the French have given the designation ofcontre-vérité; and, to my surprise, I find that they include therein the expressionamende honorable. Upon this point theGrammaire des Grammaires, by Girault Duvivier, has these remarks:

"La contre-vérité a beaucoup de rapport avec l'ironie. Amende honorable, par exemple, est une contre-vérité, une vérité prise dans un sens opposé à celui de son énonciation; car, au lieu d'être honorable, elle est infamante, déshonorante."

I have some doubts as to whether this meaning ofamende honorablebe in accordance with our English notion of its import; and I shall be thankful to any of your readers who will help me to a solution. I always understood that the termhonorable, in this expression, was to be taken in its literal sense, namely, that the person who made an open avowal of his fault, or tendered an apology for it, was acting,in that respect, in strict conformity with the rules of honour. It is possible that, at first, theamende honorablemay have been designed as a "peine infamante;" but its modern acceptation would seem to admit of a more liberal construction.

There are other expressions, framed upon this "lucus a non lucendo" principle, which may fairly be classed amongcontre-vérités. The French say that a thing isà propos de bottes, when it is altogether inappropriate. We all use the formula of "your most obedient, humble servant," even when we intend anything but humility or obedience.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

(Vol. vi., pp. 431. 539. 605.)

Mr. Cuthbert Bede(Vol. vi., p. 605.) says "he thinks A. B. R. would have to search a long time, before he found, in the pages of Pope, such brogue-inspired rhymes asrake wellandsequel,starve itanddeserve it,charge yeandclergy, and others quoted by him at p. 431." Among the latter, I presume he chiefly relies on the rhymessatireandhater,creatureandnature.

Of all these I am able to adduce parallel instances both from Dryden and Pope. And first, as torake wellandsequel.Mr. Bedeis, of course, aware that these are double rhymes; thatquelandwellare good English rhymes; and that the brogue betrays itself only in the first syllable of each,rakeandse. It is, in fact, the same sort of rhyme asbreakandweak, which is of such frequent occurrence both in Dryden and Pope. Here is an example from each:

"Or if they should, their interest soon wouldbreak,And with such odious aid make Davidweak."Absalom and Achitophel.

"Or if they should, their interest soon wouldbreak,

And with such odious aid make Davidweak."

Absalom and Achitophel.

"Men in their loose, unguarded hours theytake;Not that themselves are wise, but othersweak."Essay on Man.

"Men in their loose, unguarded hours theytake;

Not that themselves are wise, but othersweak."

Essay on Man.

The next "brogue-inspired rhyme" isstarve itanddeserve it. Here, as in the former instance, the last syllables rhyme correctly, and the objection is confined tostarveanddeserve. Let us see what Dryden says to this:

"Wrong conscience, or no conscience, maydeserveTo thrive, but ours alone is privileged tostarve."Hind and Panther.

"Wrong conscience, or no conscience, maydeserve

To thrive, but ours alone is privileged tostarve."

Hind and Panther.

And Pope:

"But still the great have kindness inreserve:He help'd to bury whom he help'd tostarve."Prologue to the Satires.

"But still the great have kindness inreserve:

He help'd to bury whom he help'd tostarve."

Prologue to the Satires.

Of this species of rhyme I have notedthree otherinstances in Dryden, andtwoin Pope.

As regards the rhymecharge yeandclergy, no instance, in the same words, occurs in Dryden or Pope. They did not write much in that sort of doggerel. But the brogue, even here, is nothing more than the confounding of the sounds ofaande, which is so beautifully exemplified in the following couplet in Dryden:

"For yet no George, to ourdiscerning,Has writ without a ten years' warning."Epistle to Sir G. Etheredge.

"For yet no George, to ourdiscerning,

Has writ without a ten years' warning."

Epistle to Sir G. Etheredge.

Next, we have the rhymesatireandhater. The following in Dryden is quite as bad, if not worse:

"Spiteful he is not, though he wrote asatire,For still there goes some thinking toill-nature."Absalom and Achitophel.

"Spiteful he is not, though he wrote asatire,

For still there goes some thinking toill-nature."

Absalom and Achitophel.

Of this rhymesatireandnature, I can adduce two other instances from Dryden.

In the same category we must placenatureandcreature,natureandfeature. Here is an example from Dryden; and I can bring forward two others:

"A proof that chance alone makes everycreatureA very Killigrew without goodnature."Essay upon Satire.

"A proof that chance alone makes everycreature

A very Killigrew without goodnature."

Essay upon Satire.

And here is one from Pope:

"'Tis a virgin hard offeature,Old and void of all goodnature."Answer to "What is Prudery?"

"'Tis a virgin hard offeature,

Old and void of all goodnature."

Answer to "What is Prudery?"

CanMr. Bedeproduce anything to match the following sample of thecrater, to be found in our most polished English poet?

"Alas! if I am such acreature,To grow the worse for growinggreater!"Dialogue between Pope and Craggs.

"Alas! if I am such acreature,

To grow the worse for growinggreater!"

Dialogue between Pope and Craggs.

It will be seen, from the foregoing quotations, that the rhymes described as Irish were, a century and a half ago, common to both countries,—a fact whichMr. Bedewas probably not sufficiently aware of when he introduced the subject in "N. & Q." For obvious reasons, the use of such rhymes, at the present day, would be open to the imputation of "Irishism;" but it was not so in the days of Swift.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

In a former Number I drew attention to that peculiar fondness for "Irish rhymes" which is more evident in Swift than in any other poet; and another correspondent afterwards gave examples to show that "our premier poet, Pope," sometimes tripped in the same Hibernian manner. In looking over an old volume of theNew Monthly Magazine, during the time of its being edited by the poet Campbell, I have stumbled upon a passage which is soaproposto the subject referred to, that I cannot resist quoting it; and independent of its bearing on our Irish rhyming discussion, the passage has sufficient interest to excuse my making a Note of it. It occurs in one of a series of papers called "The Family Journal," supposed to have been written by the immediate descendants of the "Will Honeycomb" of theSpectator. Adinner-party is assembled at Mr. Pope's, when the conversation takes this turn:

"Mr. Walscott asked if he (Dryden) was an Englishman or an Irishman, for he never could find out. 'You would find out,' answered Mr. Pope, 'if you heard him talk, for he cannot get rid of the habit of sayingafore. He would be an Englishman with all his heart, if he could; but he is an Irishman, that is certain, and with all his heart too in one sense, for he is the truest patriot that country ever saw.... You must not talk to him about Irish rhymes,' added Mr. Pope, 'any more than you must talk to me about thegodsandabodesin my Homer, which he quarrels with me for. The truth is, we all write Irish rhymes, and the Dean contrives to be more exact that way than most of us.' 'What!' said Mr. Walscott, 'does he carry his Irish accent into his writings, and yet think to conceal himself?' Mr. Pope read to us an odd kind of Latin-English effusion of the Dean's, which made us shake with laughter. It was about a consultation of physicians. The words, though Latin in themselves, make English when put together; and the Hibernianism of the spelling is very plain. I remember a taste of it. A doctor begins by inquiring,"'Is his Honor sic? Præ lætus felis pulse. It do es beat veris lotode.'"Heredespellsday. An Englishman would have used the wordda."'No,' says the second doctor; 'no, notis as qui cassi e ver feltu metri it,' &c."Metriformay try."Mr. Pope told us that there were two bad rhymes in theRape of the Lock, and in the space of eight lines:"'The doubtful beam long nods from side to side;At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.But this bold lord, with manly strength endued,She with one finger and a thumb subdued.'"Mr. Walscott.'These would be very good French rhymes.'"Mr. Pope.'Yes, the French make a merit of necessity, and force their poverty upon us for riches. But it is bad in English. However, it is too late to alter what I wrote. I now care less about them, notwithstanding the Doctor. When I was a young man, I was for the freedisinvolteway of Dryden, as in theEssay on Criticism; but the town preferred the style of my pastorals, and somehow or other I agreed with them. I then became very cautious, and wonder how those lines in theLockescaped me. But I have come to this conclusion, that when a man has established his reputation for being able to do a thing, he may take liberties. Weakness is one thing, and the carelessness of power another.'"—New Monthly Magazine, vol. xiii. (1825), pp. 551, 552.

"'Is his Honor sic? Præ lætus felis pulse. It do es beat veris lotode.'

"Heredespellsday. An Englishman would have used the wordda.

"'No,' says the second doctor; 'no, notis as qui cassi e ver feltu metri it,' &c.

"Metriformay try.

"Mr. Pope told us that there were two bad rhymes in theRape of the Lock, and in the space of eight lines:

"'The doubtful beam long nods from side to side;At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.But this bold lord, with manly strength endued,She with one finger and a thumb subdued.'

"'The doubtful beam long nods from side to side;At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.

"'The doubtful beam long nods from side to side;

At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.

But this bold lord, with manly strength endued,She with one finger and a thumb subdued.'

But this bold lord, with manly strength endued,

She with one finger and a thumb subdued.'

"Mr. Walscott.'These would be very good French rhymes.'

"Mr. Pope.'Yes, the French make a merit of necessity, and force their poverty upon us for riches. But it is bad in English. However, it is too late to alter what I wrote. I now care less about them, notwithstanding the Doctor. When I was a young man, I was for the freedisinvolteway of Dryden, as in theEssay on Criticism; but the town preferred the style of my pastorals, and somehow or other I agreed with them. I then became very cautious, and wonder how those lines in theLockescaped me. But I have come to this conclusion, that when a man has established his reputation for being able to do a thing, he may take liberties. Weakness is one thing, and the carelessness of power another.'"—New Monthly Magazine, vol. xiii. (1825), pp. 551, 552.

With regard to the French rhyme, I see, in a note toOdes and other Poems, by Henry Neele, 1821, that he apologises for rhymingmultitudewithsolitude, by saying:

"It is of that kind which is very common in French, but I fear hardly justified by English practice. Still, 'La rime est une esclave, et ne doit qu'obéir.'"

I would append to this Note a Query. Where in Swift's works is the "Latin-English effusion of the Dean's" to be met with?[2]or is it composed for him by the writer of the article? I only know of two such effusions really written by Swift; theLove Song, "Apud in is almi des ire," &c., and theEpigram on Dic:

"Dic, heris agro at an da quarto finaleFora ringat ure nos an da stringat ure tale."

"Dic, heris agro at an da quarto finale

Fora ringat ure nos an da stringat ure tale."

I should also like to know the author of the clever series of papers from which I have quoted.

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

Footnote 2:(return)[See "Consultation upon a Lord that was Dying," in Swift'sWorks, ed. Scott, vol. xiii. p. 471.—Ed.]

[See "Consultation upon a Lord that was Dying," in Swift'sWorks, ed. Scott, vol. xiii. p. 471.—Ed.]

(Vol. v., p. 489.)

Your correspondentW. Stanley Simmondswill find a lengthy account of this notable Spanish Don—Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar—in theNobiliario genealogico de los Reyes y Titulos de Españaof Lopez de Haro, folio, Madrid, 1622, vol. i. pp. 236-238. In this notice he chiefly figures, strange to say, as a military character! At the ripe age ofseventeenthis "famous captain" is said to have chastised the insolence of that bold "English pirate, Francisco Draques," who in 1584 had had the temerity to land somewhere near Bayona, his sole object being of course plunder. Don Diego guarded well his territory of Tuy when the same formidable "dragon," in the year 1589, made his appearance before Coruña; and again in 1596, when the English Armada visited ill-fated Cadiz. Being a person of "great parts," the Count was despatched to England as ambassador in 1613, and during the five years that he resided in this country, "the king and his nobility showered upon him favours and honours innumerable." He once told James that the flour of England (meaning the gentry) was very fine, but the bran (meaning the common people) was very coarse; "La harina de Inglatierra es muy delgada y fina, pero el afrecho es muy grossero,"—for Gondomar, like the learned Isaac Casaubon, had been subject to the grossest insults from the London rabble. We next find ranked among his praiseworthy deeds the following atrocious one:

"Hizo cortar la cabeça al General Ingles Wbaltero Rale (Sir Walter Raleigh) por aver intentado descubrimiento en las Indias Occidentales de Castilla a su partida."

Another meritorious action is added:

"A su instancia perdonó la Magestad de aquel Rey (James I.) a sesenta sacerdotes que estavan presos condenados por causa de la religion, y a otros mucho Catolicos, passandolos todos consigo a Flandes."

The title of Count Gondomar was conferred upon him by Philip III. in 1617, but the date of his death is still a desideratum. Many anecdotes concerning him are to be seen scattered in Howel'sTreatise of Ambassadors.

W. M. R. E.

(Vol. vi., p. 543.)

B. B. Woodward(urged, probably, byR. Rawlinson'squestion in Vol. vi., p. 412.) sends you the following inscription,

"Sit mihi nec glis servus, nec hospes hirudo,"

copied from over the entrance to an old hostel in the town of Wymondham, Norfolk. He says he quotes from memory.

Vol. vii., p. 23., you give an English translation of the inscription:

"From servant lazy as dormouse,Or leeching guest, God keep my house;"

"From servant lazy as dormouse,

Or leeching guest, God keep my house;"

but suggest that "hirudo" should be "hirundo," and produce some apt classical quotations supposing it may be so, requestingMr. Woodwardto look again at the original inscription.

In a recent Number (Vol. vii., p. 190.)Mr. Woodwardappears to have done this, and sends you the inscriptions correctly (as I beg to vouch, having often read and copied it, and living within four miles of the spot), thus:

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