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take off his shirt or stockings, or put on his nightcap, without the personal aid of a posse comitatus of aristocrats. No wonder the king delighted to get away to his mistress, where all sorts of people assembled, and he sat sans façon with them under the presidency of the Mailly, Châteauroux, Pompadour, or Barry. Voltaire was a guest. Pompadour gave him a place at court worth 60,000 livres in cash; which he sold, with the king's consent, retaining the title "Gentilhomme de la Chambre" (Capef. 177).

Du Barry (not Barri) was twenty-four when presented five years before the king's death, prematurely old, at sixty-four. She is known to us only through the Duc de Choiseul, who was disappointed in endeavouring to put "the sceptre of the mistress" into the hands of his sister, the Duchess de Grammont (Capef. 365). Her birthplace was the same as that of the Maid of Orleans (Vaucouleurs), and name Lange. She was handsome; and her enemies, with intended ridicule, said that she, as mistress of the king, looked like a little girl going to her first communion. She gave good and firm counsel to the king in politics. When Marie-Antoinette, on her marriage with the dauphin, ascertained that Du Barry's office at court was to divert the king, she said, "with a charming grace," that thenceforward she would be Du Barry's rival (id. 368). Louis XV. took the smallpox (the cause of his death) at the Parc-aux-Cerfs from an old man-horresco referens! The clergy called him to account on his death-bed, after condoning at confession the king's long life of profligacy; and yet "Louis XV n'avait cessé d'être profondément religieux" (id. 400). After the death of Louis XV., Du Barry sacrificed all her diamonds and her fortune to Marie-Antoinette and the Duc de Brassac, of whom she was passionately fond.

Streatham Place, S.

T. J. BUCKTON.

ASSUMPTION OF A MOTHER'S NAME.
(3rd S. xii. 66, 111.)

As a Member of the Faculty of Advocates I can fully confirm C. C.'s statement that a person in Scotland may change his surname as often as it suits his fancy. The only difficulty he will experience is, that on rare occasions he may have formally to prove his identity.

I could mention families who, within the recollection of the last and present generation, have more than once changed their surnames for no cause whatever but that of euphony; but for

* "Scelus expendisse merentem! L'âme foible et vacillante de Louis XV ne résistoit à aucun vice.". Sismondi, xxix. 497.

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obvious reasons I abstain from "naming names," and confine myself to cases connected with my own family.

1st. I may mention my own; neither my grandfather nor my father assumed the name of Vere, nor did I in the earlier years of my life. Soon after I attained my majority, in looking over our charters I found one which contained an injunction that we should take that name. As it was fenced with no legal penalty, it had been disregarded. It was, however, connected with a rather romantic incident, which was the cause of our acquiring our property, and in consequence I thought it wrong to omit it, although I was not legally bound to adopt it. The only step I took was simply to add Vere to my usual signature, and the addition was at once recognised, and I not only appeared professionally in court, but signed warrants as a magistrate with the addition, and no objection was ever made. The only difficulty I ever had (and it was a very slight one) was when the roll of the University Court of Edinburgh was made up, on which occasion all I had to do was to procure a letter from one of the professors under whom I had studied, to the effect that the claimant, George Vere Irving, was the same person who had attended his classes as George Irving.

2nd. One of my uncles married an heiress in her own right, who lived but a short time, while he survived to a very advanced age. It was only when searching his repositories after his death that I found an old card-plate, and became aware that, during their brief union, he had adopted her name, which during the quarter of a century in which I knew him he never used.

Under the Act of 1867, to which C. C. refers, there is of course an easy process of recording the change in the Lyon's Office, which may be useful, but formerly an application there was not required unless an addition to the arms was desired. No such application was necessary in my own case, for the simple reason that a previous grant of the Lord Lyon combined both the Irving and Vere arms on our shield.

name,

But

I must own that, although I have made the authority in the Corpus Juris for MR. BUCKTON'S Civil Law my especial study, I can find no statement that a mother might retain her maiden choose between that and his paternal one. and that the son of the marriage might in the Civil Law the question is so mixed up with points relative to the Patria Potestas and to the rules regulating Adoption and Legitimation, that questions as to the proper surname become most complicated.

The 32nd section of the Registration Act for Scotland, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 80 provides for a change in the pre as well as the SURname under certain conditions. The following sections up to 37 may also

be consulted with advantage by anyone interested in the matter. GEORGE VERE IRVING.

All your correspondents seem to dwell on a supposed necessity of advertising the assumption of a different name. I dispute that any such is necessary. A friend of mine who assumed another name many years ago, never did anything further than do so and tell his friends.

The mere fact of advertising gives no better legal status, and is in my opinion a useless expense, and sometimes a source of more annoyance than the original name. For example, if Mr. Norfolk Howard had quietly assumed that name, it would not at present stand as a nickname for a little animal whose cognomen he originally bore. An attorney cannot alter his name without leave of the court, or special license. Neither, I should presume, can a barrister.

RALPH THOMAS.

"ALBUMAZAR" (3rd S. ix. 178.)-I did not intend to take any part in the controversy respecting the authorship of this play, but a parenthetical remark by MR. INGALL, that "Mr. Tomkis was paid in 1615 for making a transcript of it" (3rd S. xii. 136), induces me to send the following note, written a year ago.

The authorship of this play has not been assigned to Mr. Tomkis, as H. I. asserts, "because a sum of money was paid to him (in 1615) for making a transcript of it," for till I sent him an extract from our Senior Bursar's book a year or two since, no one had ever heard of this payment. The extract is from the "Extraordinaries" for the year 1615, and is as follows:

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"Item, given Mr Tomkis for his paines in penning and ordering the Englishe Commedie at or Mrs appoyntm*, XX"."

From the use of the word penning I infer that Mr. Tomkis was the author, and not the transcriber of the comedy. There are several entries of payments for transcribing, but in this case it is invariably "for coppieing" or "for writing," never "for penning."

Thomas Tomkis, Tomkys, Tompkis, or Tompkys, was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. His name first appears among the major fellows in 1604, and disappears after 1610; from which I conclude that he was a layman, and vacated his fellowship in consequence of not taking orders. He took the degree of B.A. in 1600, and of M.A. in 1605. There is no evidence that his name was ever written "Tomkins," and therefore I fear there is no ground for identifying him with John Tomkins, the organist of St. Paul's.

Trin. Coll. Cambridge.

WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT.

HENRY ALKEN, ARTIST (3rd S. xi. 516.)-Old Henry Alken was originally, I think, either hunts

man, stud-groom, or trainer, to a Duke of Beaufort. His fertility was truly amazing. I have some soft ground etchings by him, dated long anterior to 1822, and illustrating the once favourite sport of bull-baiting. The idea of his fertility, however, might be factitiously enhanced if we neglected to bear in mind this fact: that he left two or three sons, all artists, and all sporting artists, and who, for the last thirty or forty years, have been incessantly painting, lithographing, aquatinting, and etching for the sporting publishers and for private patrons of the turf. The eldest son, Henry Alken, I knew about fifteen years since, and in conjunction with him I engraved on steel a panoramic view of the funeral procession of the great Duke of Wellington, which was published by the wellknown but now defunct firm of the Brothers Akermann. Their premises, 96, Strand, are now occupied by Mr. Rimmel, the perfumer. This funeral was a very huge, costly, ugly work, containing many thousands of figures. The soldiers, footmen, and undertakers' men fell to my share, while Henry Alken engraved the horses and carriages. It was published, I think, early in 1853, and has so much of curiosity about it, that of the military uniforms depicted, scarcely one now remains in the wardrobe of Her Majesty's forces. Epaulettes, "scales," waist-sashes, black scabbarded swords, hussars' pelisses, swallow-tailed coatees, have all disappeared, and our infantry and cavalry are now attired after the fashion of EX-AQUATINT.

Prussians and Bavarians.

THE LATE REV. R. H. BARHAM (3rd S. xii. 79.) The piece alluded to is as follows:

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RICH AND POOR; OR, SAINT AND sinner.
BY PETER PEPPERCORN, M.D.

"The poor man's sins are glaring
In the face of ghostly warning;
He is caught in the fact
Of an overt act,

Buying greens on a Sunday morning.
"The rich man's sins are under
The rose of wealth and station;
And escape the sight

Of the children of light,
Who are wise in their generation.
"The rich man hath a cellar,
And a ready butler by him;
The poor man must steer
For his pint of beer

Where the Saint cannot choose but spy him. "The rich man's well-stor'd book-shelves Supply his Sabbath reading;

But the poor man's 'Spatch
Is the print of Old Scratch,
And to sure damnation leading!
"The rich man hath his carriage
At hand for Sunday riding;
If the poor man start
The same road in his cart,
"Tis an infamy past abiding!

"The nasal twang of Moses*
Is the song of the Saints in glory;
But the hymn of the lark
O'er the open park

Tells a very different story!
"The rich man's close-shut windows
Hide the concerts of the Quality;
The poor can but spare

A crack'd fiddle in the air, Which offends all sound morality. "The rich man is invisible

In the crowd of his gay society;
But the poor man's delight
Is a soil in the sight,

And a stench in the nose of piety."

Such is the poem. I perhaps wrote too hastily in my last "note." All I would insist upon is, that the same signature was appended to the parody on the burial of Sir John Moore as was appended to "Rich and Poor," and therefore we may presume that they came from the same pen. But the signature of "Peter Peppercorn, M.D." may have been used by more than one facetious writer in The Globe. S. J.

were rated as classici, or men of the highest class in literature; just as in English we say men of rank,' absolutely, for men who are in the highest ranks of the

state."

The proper use of the word in question is no more restricted to literature than (as some suppose) in literature it is contined to the dead languages.

Its use is perfectly legitimate in all the fine arts, and consequently in that one to which your correspondent more especially refers, viz. music. I should say he is quite safe in applying the term to the works of all the old masters-such as Haydn, Glück, Mozart, Handel, &c.-whose works have been approved by the verdict of their posterity. With regard to the productions of contemporary composers, it must be a matter of individual taste to a great extent; and as we know, de gustibus, &c., we shall often have to agree to differ. W. A. PART.

Manchester.

CAMPBELL'S "HOHENLINDEN" (3rd S. xii. 22.)—I do not desire to argue the question whether or not CLASSIC (3rd S. xii. 65.) — This word is used as Campbell's use of the trisyllable was a puerility, classicus, from classis, a class or rank of citizens but I protest against MR. KEIGHTLEY'S suggestion according to their estate and quality, which was that resting-place would better express the poet's again divided into centuries (Livy, i. 41); also a idea than sepulchre, which the poet has used to form in schools-"Cum pueros in classes distri- express his idea. Campbell, I believe, was a buerant" (Quint. i. 2). But it is spoken Kar' pains-taking writer, and did not allow his works oxy, of the superior class or classes of authors; to go forth to the world without due attention to and although at grammar schools and colleges it their polish, and therefore it may be presumed is chiefly confined to the best Latin and Greek that he was satisfied with the word he has given writers, yet in the general use of the public it us; justly, too, I think, for it appears to me the applies to the best authors in other languages as substitution of resting-place for sepulchre would well which have attained a high degree of cul- effect a commonplace, even a platitude. The tivation, the Italian, French, Spanish, German, author's object was clearly to raise a horror in the English, &c. The term classic, as applied to first-reader's mind, and for that purpose he made use rate authors, necessarily implies inferior grades. of the dreary and solemn word sepulchre: In Latin, for instance, there are four: ætas aurea, ætas argentea, ætas enea, and ætas ferrea. The term classic in music would, according to the above usage, apply to all the great masters of composition, each eminent in his department: as, in the golden age of Latin, Plautus, Lucretius, Cæsar, Cicero, Virgil, &c., each eminent in various kinds of composition. T. J. BUCKTON.

Streatham Place, S.

In order to answer your correspondent's query, it is necessary to explain what is the origin of the term classical. I do not know that this can be better done than in the words of De Quincey:"The term classical is drawn from the political economy of ancient Rome. Such a man was rated as to his income-as in the third class, such another in the fourth, and so on; but he who was in the highest was said emphatically to be of THE class-classicus, a classman, without adding the number, as in that case superfluous. Hence, by an obvious analogy, the best authors

*? The parish clerk.-S. J.

"... a soldier's sepulchre"!

"A soldier's resting-place" would convey rather a pleasing sense of repose than the horrors of a humbly suggest, be an anticlimax to the first two miserable death in the cold snow, and would, I lines quoted by MR. KEIGHTLEY.

JAMES KNOWLES.

SMITH QUERIES (3rd S. xii. 67.)-Captain John Smith was born at Willoughby in Lincolnshire, but was descended (so states Chalmers in his Biographical Dictionary) from the Smyths of Cuerdley. Some account of his descent may possibly be given in the history of the early part of his life, published by himself in 1629, at the request of Sir Robert Cotton, intitled The true Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, which is preserved in the second volume of Churchill's Collections. An interesting life of him is given in Anecdotes of Eminent Persons, 1804, vol. ii., but nothing is there said of his

ancestors. Chalmers mentions a MS. life of Smith, by Henry Wharton, in the Lambeth library. H. P. D.

DUNDRENNAN ABBEY (3rd S. xii. 69.)- Allow me to correct an error in MR. SEMPLE'S communication regarding this most interesting ruin, as it might seriously inconvenience visitors to the beautiful scenery and scenes of historic interest in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.

The abbey is more than double the distance from the pleasant burgh of Kirkcudbright than what he states on the authority of Spottiswood. As the crow flies it is as nearly as possible five miles, and at least a mile farther by the nearest road.

I have been told, although I never attempted the route myself, that the easiest access to it from the south is by a cross road from Castle Douglas. GEORGE VERE IRVING.

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"LEO PUGNAT CUM DRACONE" (3rd S. xii. 45, 96.) At a meeting of the Archæological Institute, held June 5, 1857, an impression from a matrix of pointed oval form, with the device of a lion in conflict with a dragon, and the above legend, was exhibited by Mr. Arthur Trollope, the matrix having been dug up near Peterborough: date the fourteenth century. In the Sigilla Antiqua of the Rev. G. H. Dashwood (vol. i. pl. 4), an engraving is given of a similar device and legend (but in a circular form) as existing amongst the muniments of Sir Thomas Hare, Bart. at Stowe-Bardolph. It is appended to a deed of the time of Henry III.

I do not possess either of the above examples, but I have in my collection of medieval seals one which places beyond a doubt the right interpretation of the allegory. It bears the legend "VICIT LEO DE TRIBV IVDA (E?)," and the lion is here depicted couchant in the upper part of the seal, whilst the dragon is shown below alive, but apparently supplicating. It is an impression from the seal of Sir William le Buttiller, Baron of Warrington, attached to a charter of the date 17 Edward III.

I have five other examples of the conflict between the lion and dragon, but they afford no explanation of the allegory. Two are respectively the seals of Gervase de Brandicourt and Godfrey de Plateau; the legends of the others being illegible.

May I ask, why in modern times we assign four legs to the dragon, since in all mediæval examples it possesses only two? Even the Great Seal of the Order of the Garter shows a four-footed dragon in conflict with St. George. M. D.

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LINES ON THE EUCHARIST (3rd S. xii. 76.) ""Twas God the word that spake it, &c. (Christ was the word that spake it),"

Elizabeth. are usually ascribed to Anne Askew, not Queen W.

MRS. LAWRENCE, OF LIVERPOOL (3rd S. xii. 91.) I never heard this lady mentioned as the authoress of the works bearing the date 1821-namely, Saul from Alfieri, and Jephtha's Daughter, a drama. Indeed, the fact that the publication referred to was designed for the benefit of the Bible Society, would perhaps warrant me in giving a negative answer to the query of your correspondent.

A son of Mr. Lawrence (now deceased) was for many years a Liverpool clergyman, and another borough during the visit of Sir Robert Peel, which son now resident at that place was mayor of the took place, I think, a year or two before the untimely death of the great statesman.

C.

NEEDLE'S EYE (3rd S. xi. 254.)-The equivalent to the Hebrew "needle's eye," as applied to the smaller entrance to a city for foot passengers adjoining the larger one for camels, horses, and asses, is the "needle's ear in Arabic, having the same meaning (Koran, vii. 38). In India the expression an elephant going through a little door," or "through the eye of a needle," is proverbial. The Jews also use the latter phrase. "Perhaps thou art one of the Pombeditha (a Jewish school at Babylon) IPT SUTNYE,

66

who can make an elephant go through the eye of a needle?" See Lightfoot, Schoettgen, Kuinoel, and Kitto, on Matt. xix. 24. Whether ear or eye is used, both words mean primarily the hole through which a thread passes. Notwithstanding Bochart, there is no authority for putting a cable in the place of a camel. T. J. BUCKTON.

Streatham Place, S.

COURTS OF QUEEN'S BENCH AND EXCHEQUER (3rd S. xii. 90.)—When the ancient office of Justiciarius Angliæ was abolished in the reign of Henry III., his principal duties were transferred to the Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench. Among them was the management of the royal revenue. Thus, in the event of a vacancy in the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Justice takes his place, or rather receives its seal, for he is not expected to perform any other than its formal duties. Lord Mansfield held the seal of Chancellor of the Exchequer twice, once during the three months' vacancy occasioned by the removal of Mr. Legge, and again on the death of

the Hon. Charles Townshend; and Lord Ellenborough on the death of Mr. Pitt held the same office till the new ministry was appointed. (Foss's Judges of England, vol. viii. pp. 321, 344.) I am not aware that the custom has been since abolished.

With regard to H. C. L.'s second question, the following passage from the same authority may be quoted (Foss, vol. viii. p. 84):

"When the Court of Exchequer sat in Equity, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was constitutionally Chief Judge; and on the day of his being sworn into office he takes his seat on the bench, and some motion of course is made before him. In 1732, whilst Sir Robert Walpole held the office, he heard a cause in which Chief Baron Reynolds and Baron Comyns were of one opinion, and Barons Carter and Thomson were of the contrary, and in a learned speech gave his decision. In 1735 an equal division of the ordinary court obliged him to pursue the same course."

In 1841 the Equity jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer was abolished. D. S.

I beg leave to refer R. C. L. to the first edition of Haydn's Book of Dignities, p. 167, where he will find his query fully answered; and particularly to the foot-note, where it is shown that in six instances-beginning in 1721 and ending in 1834-the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer till a formal appointment to it was made by the Crown. The reason of this is also there explained-viz. that writs and other process issuing from the Court of Exchequer require to be sealed instanter with the initial seal of the chancellor.

G. "When the Court (of Exchequer) sits in equity, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has a voice (although now very rarely exercised) in giving judgment. The last case in which the Chancellor was required to sit, owing to the barons being equally divided in opinion, was that of Naish against the East India Company, Michaelmas Term, 1735, when Sir Robert Walpole was Chancellor, and his decision in a question of very considerable difficulty was said to have given great satisfaction."-Penny Cyclopædia, art. "Exchequer Court."

H. P. D.

"EXCELSIOR:" EXCELSIUS (3rd S. xii. 66.)-In more than one article of the Saturday Review has mention been made of the fact to which MR. DIXON calls attention. LYDIARD.

I think Longfellow is right in using Excelsior and not Excelsius. The idea of the poem I have always considered as a reflex from a hymn by James Montgomery, where we read

"Higher! higher! let us climb

Up the mount of Glory!"

We have here not only the Excelsior, but the mount also. True, it is not St. Bernard; but it is an ascent more in accordance with our Christian hopes and feelings. J. H. DIXON.

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"Qui me amat, amat et canem meum."-S. Bern. in Fest. S. Mich., Serm. 1. § 3.

"Inter seculares nugæ nugæ sunt; in ore sacerdotis blasphemiæ."-S. Bern. De Consid., 1. 2. c. 13.

"Da, Pater, augustam menti conscendere sedem," &c.Boët., 1. 3. met. 9. Q. Q.

"Bonæ leges malis ex moribus procreantur," stands thus in Macrobius: —

"Vetus verbum est; Leges, inquit, bonæ ex malis moribus procreantur."― Macrobii Saturn., lib. iii. cap. xvii. (or in some editions lib. ii. cap. xiii.) § 10.

cognitos esse quam remedia eorum, sic cupiditates prius [Cf. Liv. xxxiv. 4, 8: "Sicut ante morbos necesse est natæ sunt quam leges quæ iis modum facerent"; Tacit. Annal. iii. capp. 26 et 27: “quorum finis est; et corruptissima re publica plurimæ leges"; et xv. 20: “Usu probatum est leges egregias, exempla honesta, apud bonos ex delictis aliorum gigni."-Macrobii Opera, ed. Lud. Janus, vol. ii. p. 338.]

ANON.

If W. R. S. inquires for any metrical legend, of which the four lines which he quotes form a part, I know of none; but if his object is to ascertain whether there exists any old tradition of the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Jerusalem, that such a tradition will be found in most of and her burial at Gethsemane, I can inform him our old accounts of our Blessed Lady. These relations give very curious particulars of her receiving a divine admonition, by an angel, of her approaching death; of the Apostles assembling at Jerusalem on the occasion; of her address to them on her death-bed; of her burial by the Apostles at Gethsemane, in all which St. John is most conspicuous; and of her tomb being opened three days after her burial, and her body not being found-having been assumed into heaven. The accounts in various old books in my possession agree in most particulars; but it seems historically true that she died at Ephesus, having been taken thither by St. John when the terrible persecution of the disciples broke out at Jerusalem in the year 44. F. C. H.

It is perhaps worth while to compare the following: In a hymn to St. John, in Religious Pieces, ed. Perry, p. 90 (Early English Text Society), we find the following:

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