Minor Queries Answered.

"Marriage is such a rabble rout,That those that are out, would fain get in;And those that are in, would fain get out:"

"Marriage is such a rabble rout,

That those that are out, would fain get in;

And those that are in, would fain get out:"

quoted from Chaucer. I have heard these lines quoted as being fromHudibras: as I cannot trace them in my editions of Chaucer of Butler, perhaps some of your readers can tell me where I can find them?

S. Wmson.

Arms of Robert Nelson.—Can any of the numerous readers and correspondents of "Notes and Queries" describe thearmorial bearingsofRobert Nelson, Esq., the author of theCompanion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England? He was buried in the burying-ground in Lamb's Conduit Fields, January, 1714.

G. F.

Knebsend or Nebsend, co. York.—Query, whereabouts in the county of York is this place? I believe that one of the above is the way of spelling, but at any rate they have the same sound.

J. N. C.

Moore's Almanack.—Can any of your correspondents inform me as to the history ofMoore's Almanack?

What is the date of its first appearance? Was Francis Moore a real personage, or merely a myth?

H. P. W.

Temple.

Archbishop Loftus.—I shall be deeply obliged to any of your correspondents who will inform me whether, andwhere, any diary or private memoranda are known to exist of Adam Loftus, who was Archbishop of Dublin nearly forty years, from 1567 to 1605, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and the first Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. He was an ancestor of the Viscount Loftus, and of the Marquess of Ely.

Henry Cotton.

Thurles, Ireland, March 20.

Matrix of Monastic Seal.—A brass matrix has fallen into my hands of a period certainly not much anterior to the Revolution. Device, the Virgin and Child, their heads surrounded with nimbi; the former holds in her right hand three lilies, the latter a globe and cross. The legend is:

"* SIGIL. MON .B.M. DE . PRATO . ALIAS . DE . BONO . NVNCIO."

In the field, a shield charged with three lions passant. Can any correspondent aid me in assigning it rightly? There was an Abbey of St. Mary de Pratis at Leicester (VideGent. Mag., vol. xciii. p. 9.); and there is a church dedicated to "St. Mary in the Marsh at Norwich." In a recent advertisement I find a notice of Scipio Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, so that the appellation is not very uncommon.

E. S. Taylor.

Syriac Scriptures and Lexicon.—What edition of the Peschito-Syriac version of the Old and New Testaments, respectively, is considered the best? Also, what Syriac Lexicon stands highest for value and accuracy?

T. Tn.

Villiers Duke of Buckingham.—There is a tradition in Portsmouth, that in the evening preceding his assassination, Villiers Duke of Buckingham killed a sailor. Is there any authority for this?

E. D.

Porci solidi-pedes.—Can any of your readers inform me if any pigs with single hoofs are in existence in any county in England? They are mentioned in a letter from Sir Thomas Browne to Dugdale the antiquary.

J. S. P. (a Subscriber).

The Heywood Family.—I am anxious to know if Thomas Heywood, the dramatist, was in any way related to Nathaniel Heywood or Oliver Heywood, the celebrated Nonconformist ministers in the seventeenth century? Could any of your correspondents give me information on this point?

H. A. B.

Trin. Coll. Camb.

Was Charles II. ever in Wales?—There is a tradition amongst the inhabitants of Glamorganshire, that, after his defeat at the battle of Worcester, Charles come to Wales and staid a night at a place called Llancaiach Vawr, in the parish of Gelligaer. The place then belonged to a Colonel Pritchard, an officer in the Parliamentary army; and the story relates that he made himself known to his host, and threw himself upon his generosity for safety. The colonel assented to his staying foronenight only, but went away himself, afraid, as the story goes, that the Parliament should come to know he had succoured Charles. I know that Llancaiach was a place of considerable note long after that, and that an old farmer used to say he had heard tile story from his father. The historians, I believe, are all silent as to his having fled to Wales between the time of his defeat at Worcester and the time he left the country.

Davydd Gam.

[Some accounts state that Charles I. was entertained by Colonel Prichard, when that monarch, travelling through Wales, lost his way between Tredegar and Brecknock. (See Lewis'sTopographical Dictionary of Wales, art. "Gellygaer.")]

Dog's Head in the Pot.—"Thomas Johnson, Citizen and Haberdasher of London, by will, dated 3d Sept. 1563, gave 13s.4d.annually to the highways between Barkway and Dogshed-in-the-Pot, otherwise called Horemayd."

The Dogshed-in-the-Pot here mentioned was, as I infer, a public-house in the parish of Great or Little Hormead in Hertfordshire, by the side of the road from Barkway to London. In Akerman'sTradesmen's Tokens current in LondonI find one (numbered 1442) of the "Dogg's-Head-in-the-Potte" in Old Street, having the device of a dog eating out of a pot; and the token of Oliver Wallis, in Red Cross Street (No. 1610.,A.D.1667), has the device of a dog eating out of a three-legged pot. In April, 1850, Hayward Brothers (late R. Henly and Co.), wholesale and manufacturing builders ironmongers, 196. Blackfriars Road, and 117. and 118. Union Street, Borough, London (who state their business to have been established 1783), put forth an advertisement headed with a woodcut of a dog eating out of a three-legged pot.

Can any of your readers elucidate this sign of the "Dog's-head-in-the Pot?"

C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge, May 24. 1850.

"Poor Allinda's growing old."—Charles II., to vex the Duchess of Cleveland, caused Will Legge to sing to her—

"Poor Allinda's growing old,Those charms are now no more."

"Poor Allinda's growing old,

Those charms are now no more."

(See Lord Dartmouth's note inBurnet, vol. i. p. 458. ed. 1823.) Let me ask, through "Notes and Queries," Dr. Rimbault, Mr. Chappell, or any readers, where are these verses to be found?

P. Cunningham.

Who was the Author of "The Modest Enquiry, &c."?—There is an anonymous tract, entitledA Modest Enquiry, &c., (4to. London, 1687), on the question of St. Peter's ever having been at Rome: proving, in so far as a negative in the case can be proved, in the most logical, full, clear, and satisfactory manner, that—He never was at Rome; andnever was, either nominally or otherwise, Bishopof the Church there: and showing the grounds for the contrary assertion to be altogether baseless and untrue; being a tissue of self-contradicting forgeries and frauds, invented long subsequently to the time, evidently for the sole purpose of justifying the Papal pretensions of succession and derivation from the Apostle; as those, and all its other claims, are founded alone upon that fact, and must stand or fall with it.

The inquiry is conducted throughout with evidence of great acquaintance with Scripture and much theological learning (though the writer states himself to be a layman), without the least undue pretension, and with the most perfect temperateness and impartiality. The work would seem now well worth reprinting in a cheap and popular form.

Who was the author?

[In Francis Peck'sCatalogue of Discourses in the Time of King James II., No. 226., the name ofHenry Careis given as the author. A list of his other works may be found in Watt'sBibliotheca.]

William Penn's Family.—Can any of your correspondents inform me to whom his eldest surviving son (William) was married, and also to whom the children of the said son were married, as well as those of his daughter Letitia (Mrs. Aubrey), if she had any? This son and daughter were William Penn's children by his first marriage with Miss Springett.

A. U. C.

[William Penn, eldest son (of William Penn by Miss Springett), had two children, Gulielma Maria, married to Charles Fell, and William Penn of the Rocks in Sussex, who by his first wife, Christian Forbes, had a daughter and heir, married to Peter Gaskell. Mrs. Aubrey was living in 1718. Our correspondent may also be referred to Mr. Hepworth Dixon's recently publishedWilliam Penn, an Historical Biography.]

Deal, Dover, and Harwich.—Where do the following lines come from?

"Deal, Dover, and Harwich,The devil gave with his daughter in marriage;And, by a codicil to his will,He added Helvoet and the Brill."

"Deal, Dover, and Harwich,

The devil gave with his daughter in marriage;

And, by a codicil to his will,

He added Helvoet and the Brill."

J. H. L.

[Francis Grose, in hisCollection of Proverbs, speaks of them as "A satirical squib thrown at the innkeepers of those places, in return for the many impositions practised on travellers, as well natives as strangers. Equally applicable to most other sea-ports."]

Author of Broad Stone of Honour.—Who is the author of theBroad Stone of Honour, of which mention is made in theGuesses at Truth, 1st series, p. 230., &c., and in theAges of Faith, p. 236., works of some interest in reference to the Papal discussions which are raging at present?

Nemo.

[Kenelm M. Digby is the author of theBroad Stone of Honour.]

Pope Joan.—Can any information be procured as to the origin of the game called Pope Joan, and (what is of more importance) of the above title, whether any such personage ever held the keys of St Peter and wore the tiara? If so, at what period and for what time, and what is known of her personal history?

Nemo.

[ThatPapissa Joannais merely a fictitious character, is now universally acknowledged by the best authorities. "Clearer confirmations must be drawn for the history of Pope Joan, who succeeded Leo IV. and preceded Benedict III., than many we yet discover, and he wants not grounds that doubts it." So thought Sir Thomas Browne, in hisVulgar Errors, B. vii. Ch. 17. Gibbon, too, rejects it as fabulous. "Till the Reformation," he says, "the tale was repeated and believed without offence, and Joan's female statue long occupied her place among the Popes in the Cathedral of Sienna. She has been annihilated by two learned Protestants, Blondel and Bayle; but their brethren were scandalized by this equitable and generous criticism. Spanheim and L'Enfant attempted to save this poor engine of controversy, and even Mosheim condescends to cherish some doubt and suspicion."—The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlix. Spanheim's work,Joanna Papissa Restituta, was printed at Leyden in 1692.]

The Well o' the World's End.—I am very anxious to find out, whether there still exists in print (or if it is known to any one now alive) an old Scotch fairy tale called "The Weary Well at the World's End?" Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., who is unhappily dead lately, knew the story and meant to write it down; but he became too infirm to do so, and though many very old people in the hilly districts of Lammermoor and Roxburghshire remember parts of it, and knew it in their youth, I cannot find one who knows it entirely.

L. M. M. R.

[Some references to the story alluded to by our correspondent will be found in Dr. Leyden's valuable introduction toThe Complaynt of Scotland; and the story itself in Chambers's admirable collection of Scottish Folk Lore,Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 236. of the third edition, which form vol. vii. of theSelect Writings of Robert Chambers.]

Sides and Angles.—What is the most simple and least complicated method of determining the various relations of the sides and angles of the acute and obtuse-angled triangles, without the aid of trigonometry, construction, or, in fact, by any method except arithmetic?

F. G. F.

St. Andrew's.

[The relations of sides and angles cannot be obtained without trigonometry in some shape. A very easy work has lately been published by Mr. Hemming, in which there is as little as possible of technical trigonometry.]

Meaning of Ratche.—In John Frith'sAntithesis, published in 1529, he says:

"The pope and bishops hunt the wild deer, the fox, and the hare, in their closed parks, with great cries, and horns blowing, with hounds andratchesrunning."

I should be glad to have the wordratchessatisfactorily explained.

H. W.

[From a note by Steevens on the line inKing Lear(Boswell'sShakspeare, vol. x. p. 155.), it appears that the late Mr. Hawkins, in his notes toThe Return from Parnassus, p. 237., says, "That aracheis a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes, and that the female of it is called abrache:" and inMagnificence, an ancient Interlude of Morality, by Skelton, printed by Rastell, no date, is the following line:"Here is a leyshe of ratches to renne an hare."In a following note, Mr. Tollet, after saying "What is here said of arache, might, perhaps, be taken from Holinshed'sDescription of Scotland, p. 14.," proceeds, "The females of all dogs were once calledbraches; and Ulitius upon Gratius observes, 'Racha Saxonibus canem significabat unde Scoti hodieRachepro cane fœmina habent, quod Anglis estBrache.'"]

"Here is a leyshe of ratches to renne an hare."

In a following note, Mr. Tollet, after saying "What is here said of arache, might, perhaps, be taken from Holinshed'sDescription of Scotland, p. 14.," proceeds, "The females of all dogs were once calledbraches; and Ulitius upon Gratius observes, 'Racha Saxonibus canem significabat unde Scoti hodieRachepro cane fœmina habent, quod Anglis estBrache.'"]

"Feast of Reason," &c.—Seeing your correspondents ask where couplets are to be found, I venture to ask whence comes the line—

"The feast of reason and the flow of soul."

I have often heard it asked, but never answered.

H. W. D.

[It will be found in Pope'sImitations of Horace, Book ii. Satire i.:"There St. John mingles with my friendly bowlThe feast of reason and the flow of soul."]

[It will be found in Pope'sImitations of Horace, Book ii. Satire i.:

"There St. John mingles with my friendly bowlThe feast of reason and the flow of soul."]

"There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl

The feast of reason and the flow of soul."]

Tu Autem.—In page 25. of "Hertfordshire," in Fuller'sWorthies, there is a story of one Alexander Nequam, who, wishing to become a monk of St. Alban's, wrote thus to the abbot thereof:

"Si vis, veniam. Sin autem, tu autem."

To which the abbot replied:

"Si bonus sis, venias. Si Nequam, nequaquam."

Can any of your readers inform me of the meaning of "tu autem" in the first line? as I have been long puzzled.

This puts me in mind of a form which there was at Ch. Ch., Oxford, on "gaudy" days. Some junior students went to the "high table" to say a Latin grace, and when they had finished it, they were dismissed by the Dean saying "Tu autem;" on which, I remember, there was invariably a smile pervading the faces of those present, even that of the Dean himself, as no one seemed to know the meaning of the phrase. I believe that it was in my time an enigma to all. Can any of your ingenious readers solve me this?

H. C. K.

——Rectory, Hereford.

[Pegge in hisAnonymiana, Cent. iv. Sect. 32. says, "At St. John's College, Cambridge, a scholar, in my time, read some part of a chapter in a Latin Bible; and after he had read a short time, the President, orthe Fellow that sat in his place cried,Tu autem. Some have been at a loss for the meaning of this; but it is the beginning of the suffrage, which was supposed to follow the reading of the Scripture, which the reading scholar was to continue by sayingMiserere mei, Domine. But at last it came to mean no more than to be a cue to the reader to desist or give over."]

(Vol. iii., pp. 87. 189.)

The inquiry of P., in p. 87., seems to indicate an impression that all the witnesses to the charter of Hugh Lupus to Chester Abbey were barons of the Palatinate, but only a few of them were such, the rest being of England generally.

The original barons of the Palatinate were clearly distinguishable by possession of privileges confirmed to them by a well-known charter of Earl Ranulph III.; and all the Norman founders of their baronies will be found, under Cestrescire, in Domesday, as tenants in capite, from the Earl Palatine, of lordships within the lyme of his county.

Bigod de Loges(one of the subjects of P.'s inquiry) will not bear this test, unless he was identical with Bigot, Norman lord of the manors afterwards comprised in Aldford Fee, which is not known to have been the case. For this last-named Bigot, whose lands descended through the Alfords to Arderne, reference may be made to theHistory of Cheshire,I.xxix.,II.411.

William Malbanc, the other subject of inquiry, who has eluded M. J. T.'s searches, is easily identified. He was the Norman baron of Nantwich, the Willelmus Malbedeng of theDomesday Survey(vol. i. p. 265. col. 2.), and the name is also written thus in the copy of H. Lupus's charter referred to, which was ratified under inspection by Guncelyn de Badlesmere, Justiciary of Chester in 8 Edw. I.

The charter, with Badlesmere's attestation prefixed, will be found in Leycester'sCheshire Antiquities, p. 109., and in Ormerod'sHist. of Cheshire, vol. i. p. 12. In the latter work, in vol. iii., the inquirer will also find an account of William Malbedeng or Malbanc, his estates, his descendant coheirs, and their several subdivisions, extending from p. 217. to p. 222., under the proper head of Nantwich orWich Malbanc, a still existing Palatine barony.

Lancastriensis.

Your correspondent M. J. T. says it appears from—

"The MS. Catalogueof the Norman nobility before the Conquest, that Robert and Roger de Loges possessed lordships in the districts of Coutances in Normandy."

Will he be so good as to say whatMS. Cataloguehe refers to? He seems to speak ofthe MS.Catalogueof Norman nobility as if it were some well-known public and authentic record.

Q. G.

(Vol. iii., p. 186.)

In a recent number of "Notes and Queries" (which, by the way, I have only recently become acquainted with) I saw the Queries of your correspondent G. P. P. upon the above subject, and having some time ago had occasion to investigate it, I accumulated a mass of notes from various sources,—and these I send you, rough and unpolished as they are, in the hope that in the absence of better information, they may prove to be acceptable.

Herodotus (viii. 98.) mentions the existence of a method of communication among the Persians, by means of horsemen placed at certain distances.

In the Close and Misæ Rolls (temp. King John et post) payments are recorded for nuncii who were charged with the carriage of letters.

In 1481, Edward IV., during his war with Scotland, established horse riders atpoststwenty miles apart, by which letters were conveyed two hundred miles in two days (Gale'sHist. Croyland); and the Scottish Parliament issued an ordinance for facilitating the expedition of couriers throughout the kingdom. Carriers of letters also existed in England about this time, for in a letter from Sir J. Paston, written in 1471, we are informed that "Courby, the carrier, hath had 40d.for the third hired horse," for a journey from Norwich to London and back. (Fenn'sPaston Letters, 4to. vol. v. p. 73.)

In 1542, letters reached Edinburgh on the fourth day from their despatch from London. (Sadler'sLetters and Negociations.)

In 1548, the rate to be charged for post-horse hire was fixed by statute (2 & 3 Edw. VI. cap. 3.) at one penny per mile.

In 1581 (according to Camden), Thomas Randolph was appointed the first Chief Postmaster of all England.

James I. established (date unknown) the office of Foreign Postmaster, which was first held by Mathewe le Questor.

In 1631, Charles I. appointed William Frizell and Thomas Witherings (in reversion) to the sole management of the foreign post-office. And at this date it seems a regular home post was also carried on, as appears by the following entry from the Corporation Books of Great Yarmouth:—"1631. Agreed, June 6, with the Postmaster of Ipswich to have Quarterly 20s.paid him for carrying and bringing letters to and from London to Yarmouth for the vse of the Towne."

In 1635, Charles I. issued a proclamation for the establishment of "a running post or two, torun night and day between Edinburgh and Scotland and the City of London, to go thither and come back again in six days:" branch posts were also to be established with all the principal towns on the road: the rates of postage were fixed at 2d.under 80 miles; 4d.for 140 miles; 6d.beyond; and 8d.to Scotland. This is conclusive evidence that a regular post-office establishment existed nearly ten yearsbefore Prideaux had anything to do with the post-office.

In 1640, a proclamation was issued by the Long Parliament, by which the offices of Foreign and Inland Postmaster (then held by Witherings) were sequestrated into the hands of one Philip Burlamachy, a city merchant. Soon after this we find a Committee of the Commons, with "Master Edmund Prideaux" for chairman, inquiring into the matter.

In 1644, a resolution of the Commons declared that "Edmund Prideaux, Esq., a member of the House," was "constituted master of the posts, messengers, and couriers."

In 1649 Prideaux established a weekly conveyance to every part of the kingdom; and also appears to have introduced other judicious reforms and improvements,—indeed he seems to have been the Rowland Hill of those days; but he has not the slightest claim to be considered as the "Inventor of the Post-office." The mistake may have arisen from a misapprehension of the following statement frown Blackstone: "Prideaux first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation,thereby saving to the public the charge of maintaining postmasters, to the amount of 7000l.per annum."

I have not been able to obtain any particulars of Prideaux's personal history.

Mercurii.

Jememutha Magna.

Edmund Prideaux and the First Post-office.—See the Appendix to the Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Commons on the Detaining and Opening of Letters at the Post-Office, 1844, which contains copies of numerous documents furnished by Mr. Lechmere and Sir Francis Palgrave.

Arun.

[We avail ourselves of this opportunity of inserting the following extract from Mr. Rowland Hill'sPost-Office Reform; its Importance and Practicability, p. 86. of the third edition, published in 1837, as it shows clearly the use which Mr. Rowland Hill made of the story in his great work of Postage Reform; and that Miss Martineau had clearly no authority for fathering the story in question upon that gentleman:—"Coleridge tells a story which shows how much the Post-office is open to fraud, in consequence of the option as to pre-payment which now exists. The story is as follows:—'One day, when I had not a shilling which I could spare, I was passing by a cottage not far from Keswick, where a letter-carrier was demanding a shilling for a letter, which the woman of the house appeared unwilling to pay, and at last declined to take. I paid the postage, and when the man was out of sight, she told me that the letter was from her son, who took that means of letting her know that he was well; the letter wasnot to be paid for. It was then opened and found to be blank!'[1]"This trick is so obvious a one that in all probability it is extensively practised."]

"Coleridge tells a story which shows how much the Post-office is open to fraud, in consequence of the option as to pre-payment which now exists. The story is as follows:—

'One day, when I had not a shilling which I could spare, I was passing by a cottage not far from Keswick, where a letter-carrier was demanding a shilling for a letter, which the woman of the house appeared unwilling to pay, and at last declined to take. I paid the postage, and when the man was out of sight, she told me that the letter was from her son, who took that means of letting her know that he was well; the letter wasnot to be paid for. It was then opened and found to be blank!'[1]

"This trick is so obvious a one that in all probability it is extensively practised."]

Footnote 1:(return)Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge, vol. ii. p. 114.

Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge, vol. ii. p. 114.

The quotations of your correspondent G. P. P., from Polwhele'sCornwall, relate to the same individual, and a more general construction must, I think, be put upon the expression "our countryman," than that it inferred a native of the county. The family of Prideaux was one of great antiquity, and originated in Cornwall (their first seat being at Prideaux Castle there), and had estates there in the time of the above Edmund. His father, Sir Edmund Prideaux, of Netherton (the first baronet), studied the law in the Inner Temple, where he became very eminent for his skill and learning. He is stated to have raised a large estate in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. He married * * *; secondly, Catherine, daughter of Piers Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecombe, Esq., by whom he had two sons, Sir Peter his successor, and Edmund, the subject of your correspondent's Queries, who is thus described in Prince'sWorthies of Devon, p. 509.:—

"This gentleman was bred to the law, and of so great a reputation, as well for zeal to religion as skill in the law, it is not strange he was chosen a Member of that which was called the Long Parliament, wherein he became a very leading man; for, striking in with the prevailing party of those times (though he never joined with them in setting upon the life of his Sovereign), he grew up to great wealth and dignity. He was made Commissioner of the Great Seal [1643. Rushworth, vol. iii. p. 242.], worth 1500l.a-year and by ordinance of Parliament practised within the bar as one of the king's counsel, worth 5000l.per annum. After that he was Attorney General,worth what he pleased to make it[!!], and thenPostmaster General... from all which rich employments he acquired a great estate, and among other things purchased theAbbey of Ford, lying in the Parish of Thorncombe, in Devonshire, where he built a noble new house out of the ruins of the old," &c.

Prideaux cannot be called the inventor of the Post-office, although to him may be attributed the extension of the system. The first inland letter office, which, however, extended to some of the principal roads only, was established by Charles I. in 1635, under the direction of Thomas Witherings, who was superseded in 1640. On the breaking out of the civil war, great confusion was occasioned in the conduct of the office, and about that time Prideaux's plan seems to have been conceived.He was chairman of a committee in 1642 for considering the rates upon inland letters; and afterwards (1644) appointed Postmaster, in the execution of which office he first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation. Prior to this, letters were sent by special messengers, or postmasters, whose duty it was to supply relays of horses at a certain mileage. (Blackstone, book i. c. 8. s. 3.)

I am unable to discover when Edmund Prideaux died; but it appears that either he, or one of his descendants, took part in the rising of the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England, upon which occasion the "great estate" was found of great service in providing a bribe for Lord Jeffreys. In the Life of Lord Jeffreys, annexed to theWestern Martyrology; or, Bloody Assizes(5th ed. 266. London, 1705), it is said that "A western gentleman's purchase came to fifteen or sixteen hundred guineas, which my Lord Chancellor had." And Rapin, vol. ii. p. 270., upon the authority of Echard, iii. p. 775., states that in 1685 one Mr. Prideaux, of Ford Abbey, Somerset, gave Jeffreys 14000l.[probably misprint for 1400l.] "to save his life."

I think it likely that your correspondent may find further information upon the subject of this note, in theLife of Dr. Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich(born 1648, died 1724), published in 1748.

J. B. Colman.

Eye, March 18. 1851.

Polwhele was clearly wrong in designating Edmund Prideaux, the Attorney-General, a Cornishman, as he belonged to the family long seated in Devonshire, and was fourteenth in descent from Hickedon Prideaux, of Orcharton, in that county, second son of Nicholas, lord of Prideaux, in Cornwall, who died in 1169.

The four Queries of G. P. P. may be more or less fully answered by reference to Prince'sWorthies of Devon, ed. 1810, p. 651.; and an excellent history of the Post-office in thePenny Magazinefor 1834, p. 33.

Is it too much to ask of your correspondent, who writes from Putney under my initials, that he will be so good as to change his signature? I think that I have strong reasons for the request, but I will only urge that I was first in the field, under the designation which he has adopted.[2]

J. D. S.

Footnote 2:(return)[Would J. D. S. No 1, and J. D. S. No. 2, add the final letter of their respective names,h n s y, or whatever it may be, the difficulty may probably be avoided. We have now so many correspondents that coincidence of signature can scarcely be avoided.]

[Would J. D. S. No 1, and J. D. S. No. 2, add the final letter of their respective names,h n s y, or whatever it may be, the difficulty may probably be avoided. We have now so many correspondents that coincidence of signature can scarcely be avoided.]

(Vol. i., p. 103.; Vol. ii., p. 485.)

Jane, Countess of Henry Neville,fifthEarl of Westmoreland, was daughter ofSir Roger Cholmley, of Kinthorpe and Roxby, co. York. (Vis. York. Harl. MS.1487.fol.354.) She is often confused with his other wife, Anne Manners, and also with her own sister, Margaret Gascoigne, both in the Neville and Cholmley pedigrees asprinted. (Burke'sExtinct Baronetage, art.Cholmley, andExtinct Peerage, art.Neville.) But while the Manners pedigree in Collins'sPeerage(by Longmate, vol. i. p. 433.), as cited by Q. D., removes the former difficulty, that of Gascoigne is disposed of by the Cholmley pedigree in Harl. MS. above quoted, as well as by that (though otherwise very incorrect) in Charlton'sWhitby, book iii. pp. 290, 291. 313., and by the Gascoigne pedigree in Whitaker'sRichmondshire, vol. i. p. 77. Thus we possesslegal and cotemporaryevidence whoJane, Countess ofHenry,fifthEarl of Westmoreland, really was, without any authentic obstacle or unremoveable contradiction to its reception, viz. that she was aCholmley.

But I conceive your correspondent's identification istotallyerroneous. It is true he only puts an hypothesis on the subject; but this hypothesis has no solid foundation. In the first place, Henry, fifth Earl of Westmoreland, died in 1549; and all authorities seem to agree that his first wife was Anne Manners, and his second Cholmley's daughter. Thus, if either of his countesses were living in 1585, it must have been thelatter, by which means all chance of appropriation is removed from Manners to Cholmley. But I shall now give reasons for contending that neither of these ladies was your correspondent's Countess of Westmoreland, by referring him (2ndly) to Longmate'sCollins's Peerage, vol. i. p. 96., where he will find thatJane, daughter of Henry Howard, the talented and accomplished Earl of Surry, married Charles Neville,sixthEarl of Westmoreland. He has evidently passed her over, through seeing her calledAnnein the Neville pedigrees: "Anne" and "Jane" being often mutually misread in old writing, from the cross upon the initial letter of the last name.

I offer it to your correspondent's consideration, whether his "Jane, Countess of Westmoreland," was not wife of the said Charles Neville,sixthEarl of Westmoreland, who was attainted 18 Eliz. (1575-6). His date is evidently most favourable to this view. It is true the attainder stands in the way; but if even this affords an obstacle, the next candidate for appropriation would be JaneCholmley. Assuming, however, that your correspondent allows this lady as a candidate for the appropriation, her pedigree corroborates the claim. I have found, by long and minute observation, that hereditary talent, &c. usually descends by themesmerictie of affection and favoritism, from fathers to the eldest daughter, and from mothers to the eldest son; and the pedigree ofJane, Countess of Charles,sixthEarl of Westmoreland, stands thus:—

Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham; great,good, and accomplished, and fell a victim to envy.=||1st Dau.Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Howard, thirdDuke of Norfolk.=||1st Son.Henry Howard, Earl of Surry, the poet;great, good, and accomplished, and fell a victim toenvy= as physical heir of his mat. grandfather.||1st Dau.Jane, wife of Charles Neville, sixth Earl ofWestmoreland (and qu. the authoress in question?).

Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham; great,

good, and accomplished, and fell a victim to envy.

1st Dau.Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Howard, third

Duke of Norfolk.

1st Son.Henry Howard, Earl of Surry, the poet;

great, good, and accomplished, and fell a victim to

envy

= as physical heir of his mat. grandfather.

1st Dau.Jane, wife of Charles Neville, sixth Earl of

Westmoreland (and qu. the authoress in question?).

Besides being eldest daughter of the celebrated poet, the said Jane, Countess of Westmoreland, was sister of Henry Howard, the learned Earl of Northampton, her father's younger son—(some younger son, like eldest daughters, generally inheriting, physically, in some prominent feature, from the father).

William D'Oyly Bayley.

Ulm Manuscript(Vol. iii., pp. 60. 191.).—In addition to the information supplied byMr. Foss, it may be mentioned that this manuscript is so called from having been referred to by Griesbach as theCodex Ulmensis apud Gerbert. This takes us to theIter Alemannicum, Italicum et Gallicumof Martin Gerbert, published in 1765, at p. 192. of which work he informs us, that in the year 1760 this manuscript was preserved at Ulm in the library of the family of Krafft, which consisted of 6000 volumes, printed and manuscript. Of its history from this period till it came into Bishop Butler's hands, I am ignorant. Its reference at present in the British Museum isMSS. Add.11,852.

μ.

Father Maximilian Hell(Vol. iii., p. 167.).—A querist is in conscience bound to be a respondent; I therefore hasten to tell you that Dr. Watt (Biblioth. Britan.iv.Magnetism, animal) should have writtenHellinstead ofHehl. It was that eminent astronomer, MaximilianHell, who supposed that magnets affected the human frame, and, at first, approved of Mesmer's views. The latter was at Vienna in 1774; and perhaps got some parts of his theory from Father Hell, of whom he was afterwards jealous, and therefore very abusive. The life of Hell in Dr. Aikin'sGeneral Biographyis an unsatisfactory compilation drawn up by Mr. W. Johnston, to whom we are indebted for the current barbarismso-called. In that account there is not one word on Hell'sTreatise on Artificial Magnets, Vienna, 1763; in which the germ of animal magnetism may probably be found.

Engastrimythus.

Meaning of "strained" as used by Shakspeare(Vol. iii., p. 185.).—The context of the passage quoted by L. S. explains the sense in which Shakspeare used the word "strain'd:"

"Portia.Thenmustthe Jew be merciful.Shylock.On whatcompulsionmust I? tell me that.Portia.The quality of mercy is not strain'd," &c.

"Portia.Thenmustthe Jew be merciful.

Shylock.On whatcompulsionmust I? tell me that.

Portia.The quality of mercy is not strain'd," &c.

that is, there is nothing forced, nothing of compulsion in the quality of mercy.

Johnson gives: "To strain, to force, to constrain."

Q. D.

L. S. will find his difficulty solved by Johnson's Dictionary (a work to which he himself refers), if he compares the following quotation with Portia's reply to Shylock:—

"He talks and plays with Fatima, but his mirthIs forced and strained," &c.

"He talks and plays with Fatima, but his mirth

Is forced and strained," &c.

Egduf.

[We have also to thank, for replying to this Query, our correspondents R. F., R. T. G. H., P. K.,J. H. Kershaw, C. M., Y., E. N. W.,C. D. Lamont, and alsoMr. Snow, who remarks that "actresses rarely commence this speech satisfactorily, or give, or seem to feel, the point of contrast between themustandno must, thecompulsionandno compulsion. In fact, the whole of it is usually mouthed out, without much reference to Shylock or the play, as if it had been learned by rote from a school speech-book. Hazlitt says, in hisCharacters of Shakspeare's Plays, 'The speech about mercy is very well, but there are a thousand finer ones in Shakspeare.'"]

Headings of Chapters in English Bibles(Vol. iii., p. 141.).—The summaries of the contents of each chapter, as found in the authorised editions of our English Bible, were prefixed by Miles Smith, bishop of Gloucester, one of the original translators, who also wrote the preface, and, in conjunction with Bishop Bilson, finally reviewed the whole work. Your correspondent will find full answers to his other queries in Stackhouse and Tomlins; in Johnson'sHistory of English Translations, &c.; and in T. H. Horne'sIntroduction.

Cowgill.

The author ofThe History of the Church of Rome to the end of the Episcopate of Damasus,A.D.384, which has just been published by Messrs. Longman, well remarks, "that he is not aware that there is any account of the Church of Rome, framed on the simple and obvious principle of merely collecting and arranging the testimony of history with regard to facts, and so presented to the reader as that he should leave a right to believe that when he has read what is before him, hehas learnt all that is to known. This is strange, considering the points at issue, and the extent, duration, and intensity of the controversies which have been carried on between that Church and the rest of Christendom." It is indeed strange, and it happens fortunately, looking at the all-important question which now agitates the public mind, that the subject should have engaged for some years the attention of a learned, acute, and laborious scholar like Mr. Shepherd, so that he is enabled to put forth the result of his inquiries upon this interesting topic at this moment. Mr. Shepherd's book is indeed a startling one: and when we tell our readers that he "has proved, or, to say the least, has given such indications as will lead to the proof that some documents which have been quoted as authorities in the History of the Early Christian Church, are neither genuine nor authentic;" that he has pretty well resolved St. Cyprian into a purely mythic personage; and shown that all the letters in his works passed between imagined or imaginary correspondents,—we think we are justified in pronouncing hisHistory of the Church of Romea work calculated to excite the deepest interest in all who peruse it (and by the omission of all long quotations in the learned languages, it is adapted for the perusal of all), to exercise great influence on the public mind, and to awaken a host of endeavours to combat and overthrow arguments which appear to us, however, to be irresistible.

The Council of the Shakspeare Society has just issued to the members the first volume for the present year. It containsTwo Historical Plays on the Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Thomas Heywood, which are very ably edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by Mr. Collier; and we have no doubt will be very acceptable; first, from the interest of the plays themselves, the second of which appears to have been extremely popular; and, lastly, as a further instalment towards a complete collection of Heywood's dramatic works.

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell on Tuesday and Wednesday next a valuable portion of the Library of a gentleman, including the late Charles Mathews' copy of the Second Shakspeare; a valuable series of works on Annuities, &c.; and another on the History and Antiquities of London.

Books Received.—Supplement on the Doctrine and Discipline of the Greek Church.We characterised Mr. Appleyard's interesting little volume, entitled,The Greek Church, as historical rather than doctrinal. The title of this Supplement shows that it expressly supplies the very material in which the original work was deficient.—Archæologia Cambrensis, New Series, No. VI.A very good number of this record of the Antiquities of Wales and its Marches, and in which are commenced two series of papers of great interest to the Principality: one on the Architectural Antiquities of Monmouthshire, by Mr. Freeman; the other on the Poems of Taliessin, by Mr. Stephens.

Catalogues Received.—W. Brown's (46. High Holborn) Catalogue Part 52. of Valuable Second-hand Books, Ancient and Modern;—Cole's (15. Great Turnstile, Holborn) List No. 33. of very Cheap Books; B. Quaritch's (16. Castle Street, Leicester Square) Catalogue No. 27. of Antiquarian, Historical, Heraldic, Numismatic, and Topographical Books; Charles Skeet's (21. King William Street, Strand) List No. 2. of Miscellaneous Books just purchased.

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