GENTLEMAN CROSSING-SWEEPER (6th S. ix. 449, 493). I have to thank various contributors for replies under this head. I wrote a story on the subject (in the Million for June, 1870) at the request of a friend, who said he was acquainted with the hero of it. The circumstances were very pathetic. The ruined gentleman continued to maintain the wife of his affections in a life of ease by presenting himself as a one-legged beggar on a crowded city crossing, notwithstanding the conviction that it would one day bring him to grief. He was finally run over by his own wife's brougham. She had never suspected what his business was till she saw the victim of the accident.

The paragraph in the Court Journal surprised me, as I fancied it implied that the story given me was a fiction; but I am interested to find now that there has been more than one similar R. H. BUSK.

occurrence.

CHAUCER'S "PILWE-BERE" (6th S. ix. 245, 313, 374). At the second reference MR. WM. COOKE says, "as Davies writes." To which Davies does he refer, and to what book? I dare say I ought to know, but I do not. Would it not be well for all correspondents to give exact names and references? I am sure the Editor, who values his space, will think so. C. M. I.

SMITH'S "DICT. OF GR. AND ROM. BIOGR. AND MYTHOLOGY" (6th S. ix. 486).-Why on earth Smith should omit the words Cymodoce and Cymothoe, who shall say? Both are duly recorded by that hardly unknown author Lempriere.

Haverstock Hill,

C. A. WARD.

SINGULAR ERROR OF HUMBOLDT CONCERNING A SUPPOSED NEW STAR IN THE FOURTH CENTURY (6th S. viii. 404; ix. 33).-Being very desirous of tracing, if possible, the source of this remarkable error of Humboldt in stating that Cuspinianus (Spieshammer) had himself seen an object (evidently from the description really a comet), which was supposed to be a new star, in the year A.D. 389, nearly eleven centuries before his birth, I addressed letters upon it both to the Observatory and to the Athenæum. In consequence of that in the latter, Prof. Steiff, of Tübingen, kindly sent a note to its editor (which is printed in the number for February 9), giving the passage in Cuspinianus which, having failed to find, I erroneously con

cluded was in some non-extant or at any rate unprinted work, and only known by a reference to it by Tycho Brahe. The passage at once shows that Cuspinianus simply quoted the account of the supposed star from Marcellinus.

It should also be mentioned, for the information of your readers, that I found, since the date of my note in "N. & Q." at the above reference, that the extraordinary mistake of representing Cuspinianus before Humboldt by Cassini, in his Eléments as an eye-witness of this so-called star was made d'Astronomie, where he states this on the authority of Licetus. Reference to the latter (De Novis Astris et Cometis), however, shows that he merely mentioned the history of Cuspinianus as the source whence, like Tycho Brahe, he drew his information on the subject of the celestial appearance. Cassini, therefore, seems to have been the originator of the mistake, although it is singular that Humboldt should have inadvertently repeated it.

Blackheath.

W. T. LYNN.

FEA FAMILY (6th S. ix. 269, 472).-Some account of the Orkney family of Fea may be seen in pp. 113-118 of History of Episcopal Church in Orkney, 1688-1882, by Rev. J. B. Craven (Kirkwall, Peace & Son, 1883). On their old house of septem proavi hæc nobis reliquerunt. J. F. B. T., Store this inscription stood, "Soli Deo gloria, 1671." These "septem proavi" were all direct ascendants, all of the same name―James Fea―and holders of the same property and title=" clestron." H. A. B.

TRANSMOGRIFY (6th S. ix. 449, 476, 517).—PROF. SKEAT declares, ex cathedra, that transmogrify is certainly not from transmigrate. "It is merely a playful turn of transmorphy, itself a playful substitution for transform, by the putting of the Greek morphe for the Latin forma." Here is a double conjecture from one who is always declaiming against the iniquity of guessing in etymology. To give the slightest plausibility to the explanation, it ought to be shown that transmorphy was ever used in the sense required. But a jocular framed on such a foundation as to be significant coinage of this nature would never have been only to those who are familiar with Greek. On the other hand, the idea of transmigration offers a familiar instance of the most complete alteration of appearance and form; and certainly the body of that word, transmigr-, in which the significance seems to rest, comes a good deal nearer the sound of transmogrify than PROF. SKEAT's transmorph-. H. WEDGWOOD.

SIR NATHANIEL WRAXALL (6th S. ix. 387, 457, 511).-The much misquoted epitaph upon Sir Nathaniel Wraxall first appeared in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xxv. p. 541, in an article on

[MR. C. A. WARD and other contributors supply versions with which MR. CHRISTIE'S authoritative answer enables us to dispense.]

RHYMING LETTER OF COWPER (6th S. ix. 443, 477). It may be well to mention that Cowper's letter appears in the following tract:

Three very Interesting Letters (two in curious Rhyme) by the Celebrated Poets Clare, Cowper, and Bird, printed Verbatim from the Original Manuscripts. With an Appendix. Only 25 Copies printed. Great Totham, Essex. Printed at Charles Clark's private press, 1847. The letter is here addressed to the Rev. J. Newton. WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Higher Broughton, Manchester. LAFITTE THE PAINTER (6th S. ix. 509).-Louis Lafitte was a pensioner of the French Academy in Rome at the end of the last century. Fuessli, in the Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon, 1809, ii. 660, gives a short account of him, commencing by observing that he first made himself known at Rome by "A Dying Gladiator." On his return to Paris he painted many pictures, a considerable number of which have been engraved.

EDWARD SOLLY.

small biographical dictionary of 1816. All that its compilers could say of her was that she had "acquired considerable note by her various works of fiction." W. P. COURTNEY.

15, Queen Anne's Gate.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL (6th S. x. 9).-The author of the three poems was James Wright, born at Yarnton, in Oxfordshire, about the year 1644. He was the son of the Rev. Abraham

James

Wright, of Okeham, Rutlandshire (see A. à Wood's Ath. Ox., iv. 275); said to have been educated at Merchant Taylors' School; entered at New Inn 1666; removed to the Middle Temple three years subsequently; died in 1715. Wright was a careful and laborious antiquary, publishing, amongst other things, The History of Rutland, &c., 1684, A Compendious View of the late Tumults, &c., 1685, Monasticon Anglicanum, "translated and epitomized," 1693. Wright declined to give Wood some information which the latter desired, because he regarded him as an injudicious biographer." Wood therefore says of him, "He hath also published little trivial things of history and poetry, merely to get a little money, which he will not own." Amongst his poems were (1) An Essay on the Present Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, 4to., 1668; (2) The Choire, the Rebuilding of St. Paul's, fol., 1697; (3) Phoenix Paulina: a Poem on the New Fabric of St. Paul's, 4to., 1709. The best account of James Wright is probably a note by Warton in Milton's Minor Poems, ed. 1785, p. 601. This note was left out by Warton in the second edition of Milton

in 1791.

EDWARD SOLLY.

PRINCESS POCAHONTAS (6th S. ix. 508).-The only portrait of this lady which was ever painted was engraved by Simon de Passe. As she died in March, 1616, and the volume containing the engraved portrait was published soon after, we can fix within narrow limits the date of both. It has never been discovered who painted this portrait. It somehow came into the possession of the Rolfes of Tuttington, and from them passed into the family of the Elwins, of Booton Hall, near Aylsham. It is said to have once hung on the walls of Heacham Hall, which is not improbable, as the Rolfes of Heacham were blood relations of Poca

A list of works by this lady is printed in the

Heacham Hall, Norfolk,

TITUS OATES AGAIN (6th S. viii. 408, 499; ix. 213, 291, 337, 445).-DR. JESSOPP does not appear to know R. North's sketch of Oates; for North tells us that the Liar's mother "came to see him in his Greatness, and told him of her Dream [? that she

HENSHAW (6th S. ix. 349, 368, 376, 436, 511). -No Henshaw, either Charles or Edward, ever was Lord Mayor of London up to 1773. Neither did any William Strickland of Boynton marry a Henshaw; there were only two that could have done so according to date, viz., Sir William the third, and Sir William the fourth baronet. The former married, in 1684, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William Palmer, Esq., and the latter Catherine, daughter of Sir Jeremy Sambroke, Knt., of Gubbins, co. Herts, and had an only son, Sir George, fifth baronet, who married, in 1751, Elizabeth, third daughter of Sir Rowland Winn, Bart, by whom he left issue. Edward Roper, of Eltham, married a daughter of James Butler, M.P. for Arundel. His daughter Elizabeth, wife of Edward Henshaw, became his heir on the death of her brother without issue. The name of the daughter of Sir Thomas More who married William Roper was Margaret, not Elizabeth. It is very probable that Edward Henshaw was descended from Edward Henshaw, of Lewes, co. Sussex, fourth and youngest son of William Henshaw, of Worth, co. Sussex, who had a grandson, by name Edward, living in 1681, and mentioned in his brother's (the Rev. Tobias Henshaw, Vicar of Cuckfield, co. Sussex) will, dated Sept. 4 and proved Sept. 8, 1681. D. G. C. E.

MONFRAS (6th S. ix. 489).—A closely allied form is Monfries, a modern patronymic called Scottish. The Mithraic caves found near Hadrian's Wall are ascribed to Roman legionary soldiers quartered there, so the inscriptions connected therewith cannot be Celtic. There is little doubt, however, that some form of sun worship existed in Britain prior to the Roman occupation; thus Bath was called Aqua Solis, or Aquæ Calidæ, from local hot springs, and thereby connected with a sun god Sual, cf. Welsh haual, by a common euphonic change; cf. Latin sol, Sanskrit suriya, Greek helios; also the river Sind, which becomes Indus, and leads up to Hindu. Is the Beunans Meriasek to be met with in English? LYSART. Bath,

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

ing quite generally, with no animus against any par ticular school or faith. We could, if called upon, give a long catalogue of almost worthless partisan' biographical literature, the authors of which have been members of almost every theological section into which Christians are at present divided. Miss Holt shows herself in many passages to be a strong Protestant, but we cannot find that in any instance she has permitted her own beliefs to colour her narrative. It is very tempting to a modern writer who admires Wycliffe to try to show that the reformer's opinions were those of his biographer Miss Holt is too honest to do this; she knows, moreover, that no man of the Middle Ages, however good or the views of any one of the parties of the nineteenth however great, could by any possible chance have held century. To assume such a thing is to imagine a moral miracle as great as any of the physical ones recorded in the Magnum Speculum.

There have been several books on Wycliffe in which original research is a prominent feature. This is a It is intended for, and will, we trust, popular life. attain to wide circulation; but it will be a great mistake if it is thought that because it is written in an easy and flowing style it is therefore a make-up from printed sources only.

Miss Holt is a diligent student of our records, and has, as is evident, a rare facility in their interpretation. She has carefully gone over the ground afresh, and from the lights which our Record Office parchments furnish has been able to add many little facts which were unknown to previous inquirers. Not only her hero, but others of his contemporaries are For instance, Miss Holt has proved gainers by this. almost to demonstration that the evil stories concerning Alice Periers are mere calumnies, invented by personal enemies, which have been rashly taken up and incorporated into modern histories of the picturesque order. One of the heaviest charges against the unfortunate lady was that she had received from Edward III. " the entire This Miss

wardrobe and jewels of the dead queen." Holt has proved to be false. What the old king did give to her was only certain jewels, goods, and chattels which were in the custody of Euphemia de Haselarton. That this is the true state of things there can be no doubt whatever, for Miss Holt has found the original donation on the Patent Roll, and has been careful to give so exact a reference that any one can verify her

statement.

Many books begin well but fall off towards the end. We have found this an exception. It seems to us that the last two chapters are by far the best in the They are an admirable exposition of the volume. opinions of a remarkable man, whose thoughts were in transition.

Where almost everything is good it is ungrateful to find fault, but we would ask Miss Holt whether she thinks the account of realism and nominalism on pp. 12, 13 quite fair? Of course it does not pretend to be exhaustive.

The Gentleman's Magazine Library. Edited by George Laurence Gomme, F.S.A.- Dialects, Proverbs, and Word-Lore. (Stock.)

THE second volume of the "Gentleman's Library" is no less interesting and acceptable than the former. To a large section of readers of " N. & Q." it makes direct appeal. To possess in accessible shape the large mass of heterogeneous information upon what is called word-lore which has been communicated to the Gentleman's Magazine is a privilege the student will not be slow to recognize. No volume, past or prospective, of the series is likely, in the nature of its contents, to prove at once so conformable with and so supplementary to " N. & Q." as