bers of convent dungeons were eagerly explored by the populace, but, to their disappointment, no prisoners were found in them. Some centuries before, when the common people were even more ignorant and more credulous, it is natural to suppose that the knowledge that there were dungeons in the monasteries in which friars were carcerated should have become amplified into a belief that any monk obnoxious to his superior was put away straight into a "pryvye chamber," where he speedily expired from duresse and want. But how about "putting him under a pot," MR. SKEAT may ask. I can only resolve his doubt by process of analogy. We must take that other in Piers Plowman's Crede passage "For thei ben nere dede And put al in pur clath With pottes on hir hedes." Now, it was a common medieval observance for a person being at the point of death to cause himself, in token of contrition and humility, to be clothed in sackcloth, or in his shroud (al in pur clath), and to strew dust and ashes on his head. St. Louis King of France elected to die in this manner. The Last Crusader even had the ashes and cinders strewn over his very couch, and lay upon them. It is not unlikely that this act of devotion grew sometimes to be conventional and perfunctory, and that in regard to the comfort of the moribund the dust and ashes were put in a saucer or a pot at the bed's head: whence came the phrase "dying with a pot at or on his head." Such a pot full of dust, &c., might have been lowered into the dungeon of the imprisoned friar. It is certain that this "pot" in connection with mortality took very strong root in the English tongue. To "go to pot" is now accounted a slang expression; but we find in the evidence given against the conspirators (temp. Charles II.) in, I think, the Meal Tub Plot, that when a proposition was made to assassinate the king but to spare the Duke of York, one of the conspirators answered "No, no, James must go to pot," meaning that he must be done to death. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. that which is so delivered to more several purposes and applications; for we see that all the ancient wisdom and science was wont to be delivered in that form, as may be seen by the parables of Solomon, and by the aphorisms of Hippocrates, and the moral verses of Theognis and Phocylides; but chiefly the precedent of the civil law, which hath taken the same course with their rules, doth confirm me in my opinion." (Bacon's Works, ed. Montague, vol. xiii. pp. 139-140.) There is a parallel passage in the Second Book of the Advancement of Learning: "Neither was this in use only with the Hebrews, but it is generally to be found in the wisdom of the more ancient times; that as men found out any observation that they thought was good for life, they would gather it, and express it in parable, or aphorism, or fable." (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 266.) 66 Bacon has been writing thus: But chiefly we may see in those aphorisms which have place among divine writings, composed by Solomon the King (of whom the Scriptures testify that his heart was as the sands of the sea, encompassing the world and all worldly matters), we see, I say, not a few profound and excellent cautions, precepts, positions, extending to much variety of occasions." (Ibid., pp. 260-261.) Compare the following, from the First Book of the Advancement of Learning: "Another error, of a diverse nature from all the former, is the over-early and peremptory reduction of knowledge into arts and methods; from which time commonly sciences receive small or no augmentation. But as young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom grow to a further stature; so knowledge, while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth; but when it once is comprehended in exact methods, it may perchance be further polished and illustrated, and accommodated for use and practice, but it increaseth no more in bulk and substance." (Ibid. p. 48.) Book of the same treatise:- "Another diversity of method, whereof the conserisms, or in methods; wherein we may observe, that it quence is great, is the delivery of knowledge in apho hath been too much taken into custom, out of a few axioms or observations upon any subject, to make a solemn and formal art, filling it with some discourses, and illustrating it with examples, and digesting it into a sensible method: but the writing in aphorisms hath many excellent virtues, whereto the writing in method doth not approach. "For first, it trieth the writer, whether he be superficial or solid for aphorisms, except they should be ridiculous, cannot be made but of the pith and heart of sciences; for discourse of illustration is cut off, recitals of examples are cut off, discourse of connection and order is cut off, descriptions of practice are cut off; so there remaineth nothing to fill the aphorisms but some good quantity of observation: and therefore no man can suffice, nor in reason will attempt to write aphorisms, but he that is sound and grounded. But in methods, "Tantum series juncturaque pollet; 666 Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris ;' as a man shall make a great show of an art, which, if it were disjointed, would come to little. Secondly, methods are more fit to win consent or belief, but less fit to point to action; for they carry a kind of demonstration in orb or circle, one part illuminating another, and therefore satisfying; but particulars, being dispersed, so best agree with dispersed directions. And lastly, aphorisms, redresenting a knowledge broken, do invite men to inquire farther; whereas methods, carrying the shew of a total, do secure men as if they were at farthest." (Ibid. p. 203-4.) Add the following, from the Filum Labyrinthi (4.): "Knowledge is uttered to men in a form, as if every thing were finished: for it is reduced into arts and methods, which in their divisions do seem to include all that may be. And how weakly soever the parts are filled, yet they carry the shew and reason of a total; and thereby the writings of some received authors go for the very art whereas antiquity used to deliver the knowledge which the mind hath gathered, in observations, aphorisms, or short and dispersed sentences, or small tractates of some parts that they had diligently meditated and laboured; which did invite men both to ponder that which was invented, and to add and supply further." (Ibid. vol. i. p. 312-313.) These passages on aphorisms may be illustrated by the following, from the Second Book of the Advancement of Learning :· "It is true that knowledges reduced into exact methods have a shew of strength, in that each part seemeth to support and sustain the other; but this is more satisfactory than substantial: like unto buildings which stand by architecture and compaction, which are more subject to ruin than those which are built more strong in their several parts, though less compacted." (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 307.) And it is worth while to read a paragraph a little further on, beginning with the words, "In this part, touching the exposition of the Scriptures." (P. 312.) JOHN HOSKYNS-ABRAHALL, JUN. SAINTE AMPOULE. (3rd S. xii. 149.) The name obviously means "The Holy Vial" (ampulla), and it is surprising to find Mr. Froude calling it "the precious ointment of St. Ampull," as if it had been named after some saint. The legend is well known, that when St. Remigius was about to baptise King Clovis, there was no holy chrism at hand with which to anoint him immediately after baptism; but that a dove brought to St. Remigius a vessel of chrism, which was preserved as the Holy Vial (Sainte Ampoule). But later on the tradition was recorded, not of the baptism, but of the coronation of King Clovis. Thus the antiphon at the Benedictus in the Breviary of Maestrict for the feast of St. Remigius: "Gentem Francorum inclytam, similiter cum rege nobili, beatus Remigius, sumpto cœlitus chrismate sancto, sanctificavit." But another variation applied it to the consecration of St. Remigius himself. Cardinal Mai, in his PP. Nova Bibliotheca (tom. i. pars ii. p. 212) quotes the following from Anselm of Auxerre: "Est civitas metropolis Remis dicta, prænobilis. Hujus urbis præcipuæ Et quondam magnæ gloriæ, Quo pontifex perungitur," &c. But the application of the tradition to the coronation of the French kings prevailed; and we read in the Acta Sanctorum Maii, t. v. p. 322: — "Emiserat (Dominus) et illustrissimis regibus Franciæ columbam qua oleum in ampulla, rostro desuper delatum, deferret; quo inunctus est Christianissimus Clodovaus et reliqui omnes post eum."-See Cahier, Caracteristiques des Saints, art. "Colombe et Fiole." The vial, called the Sainte Ampoule, was about an inch in diameter at the bottom, and not more than two inches high. It contained a balsam of a reddish brown colour, and used to be enclosed in a shrine of gold surrounded with precious stones, and kept in a bag of crimson velvet. At a coronation, a small portion of congealed balsam was taken out by the Archbishop of Rheims with a golden pin, and mixed with holy chrism, to which it gave a reddish colour. When the revolution broke out, the sacred vial was taken from the tomb of St. Remigius and concealed; but Philip Ruhl, a deputy of the Convention, had it brought forth on October 6, 1793, into the public square at Rheims, and broke the vial into pieces with a hammer. The officer, however, who brought the vial is said to have dipped a needle into it, and thus obtained a small portion of its contents; and Champagne Prevoteau, picked up and preserved some persons who stood near, particularly a M. L. some fragments of the glass, with some of the holy balsam adhering to them. On May 22, previous to the coronation of Charles X., which took place on May 29, 1825, the Archbishop of Rheims took the depositions of those persons who preserved any portions of the Sainte Ampoule, and collected the remains of the balsam which adhered to the fragments. These were deposited in a new vial, and from this the archbishop took a little to mix with the holy chrism with which he anointed the King Charles X. The new vial was deposited, like the former, in the tomb of St. Remigius. MR. DAVIDSON will find an engraving and an account of the Sainte Ampoule in The Mirror, supplementary number for June 4, 1825, with ample details of the coronation. F. C. H. MADAME DE POMPADOUR. (3rd S. xii. 153.) May I inquire what authority exists for calling Madame de Pompadour duchess? Madame Campan speaks of her only as "marquise." The Dictionnaire de la Noblesse de France, Paris, 1855, gives Pompadour thus: — "D'azur à trois tours d'argent maconnées de sable, et en chef un lion leopardé passant d'or. Supports deux lions lionnés. Couronne de Marquis." The same arms appear in a book-Traité sur l'Amélioration des Terres-at the head of the dedication to Madame de Pompadour in 1758. The following passage (3rd S. xii. 154) is not written intelligibly: "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 fondément religieux." pro The calling the unhappy king to account was a step included in confession, and leading to it. But the word condoning is not one which, as usually understood, at all expresses the sacred acts of that supreme moment. The king received the grace of contrition, and profited by it. Some fear was expressed lest the announcement of the arrival of his confessor should destroy the life of the king. But the illustrious Fitzjames, Bishop of Carcassonne, replied to the Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon, who urged this fear: "Que le Roy fût administré, la concubine expulsée et que le roi donnât un exemple de repentir à la France et à l'Europe Chretienne qu'il avoit scandalisé. De quel droit me donnez vous cet avis? lui disoit le Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon. Voilà mon droit, lui repliquoit l'évêque de Carcassonne en detachant sa croix pectorale. Apprenez, Monseigneur, a respecter ce droit, et ne laissez pas Monsieur votre roi sans les sacremens de l'église dont le roi tres-Chrétien est le fils aîné." Madame du Barry was immediately sent away from Versailles to Ruelle. But the fear for the king's life still stood in the way of his eternal salvation: gieux"; that is, fully penetrated with a sense of what the Christian religion required of him, and of his own sad faults. Any defence of his life is, to the last, impossible; but he died as a Christian should die. I have used the narrative of Soulavie given in the Mémoires of Madame Campan. I believe I express the feeling of an immense number of the readers of "N. & Q." when I say that such a subject as the "Parc-aux-Cerfs" is unfit for our pages. We usually place "N. & Q." in the hands of our wives and other ladies. Certainly no woman ought to be offered the perusal of the note to which I have referred. Nauseous be left in their original sources, to be referred to and hateful details such as these should, I think, when necessary. Those sources are very easily accessible; and the production of them in "N. & Q." cannot even be justified by the plea of necessity. D. P. Stuarts Lodge, Malvern Wells. In explanation, it is necessary to state that the maiden name of the Countess du Barry was Jeanne Vaubernier; but whilst in the service of a milliner at Paris, she went by the name of Mademoiselle Lange, until she was married to the Count du Barry. She was presented at court, at the age of twenty-four, by the Countess du Béarn, a lady of respectability and of high lineage (Capefigue, ch. xlv. pp. 365-6). Also, that Domremi, eleven miles south of Vaucouleurs, where Du Barry was born, was the birthplace of the Maid of Orleans. T. J. BUCKTON. Some curious particulars connected with the death of Mary may be seen in "The Departure of My Lady Mary from this World," by Dr. W. Wright, in the Journal of Sacred Literature, April, 1865. J. M. CowPER. The legend of the Virgin's burial at Gethsemane, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, is very well known. It first appears in the fifth century, at which time there appears to have existed another tradition, placing her interment at Ephesus, where she lived to old age under the guardianship of St. John. But the claim in favour of Gethsemane prevailed, and is adopted by numerous writers of the sixth and following centuries. Many apocryphal books mention it, the earliest, or one of the earliest, being the so-called "Book of John on Mary's falling Asleep," the Greek of which has been published by Tischendorf in the Apocalypses Apocrypha. The same publication contains the legend in Latin, and it is elsewhere found in Arabic and Syriac. Of course we have it in the Legenda Aurea and in the Breviary, the latter being taken from John of Damascus (eighth century). Here is part of it: "Ejus autem corpus, quod Deum ineffabili quadam ratione suscepit, cum angelica et apostolica hymnodia elatum, et in loculo fuit depositum Gethsemane: quo in loco angelorum cantus mansit tres dies continuos." The old Greek Apocryph says the Apostles carried the bier and deposited the holy and honourable body in Gethsemane in a new tomb. The ancient Latin version represents the Apostles as bearing the body, with singing of psalms, from Mount Sion to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The place is still shown. B. H. C. Meisner, in his Dissert. de Sepultura Maria, Basnage in his Annalium, A. c. xlvii.; Baronius, Annal. ad A.C. xlviii.; Mayer, De Conventu Apostolorum ad Mortem Maria, and other authorities in Zedler's Universal Lexicon, xix. 1478-1490, may be consulted. The time and place of Mary's death and interment are unknown in history; but tradition has assigned Ephesus and Jerusalem, the latter place being considered the more probable. In 1832, Lamartine visited the Garden of Gethsemane, a small plot of ground, fifty-seven yards square, nearly covered with buildings. He says: "We passed the bridge" [crossing the Kedron and leading to Gethsemane and the Garden of Olives]," and dismounted from our horses in front of a charming edifice, of the composite order, but of a severe and antique character, which is, as it were, buried in the lowest depths of the valley of Gethsemane, and fills its entire breadth. It is the assigned tomb of the Virgin, the mother of Christ; it belongs to the Armenians, whose convents were the most ravaged by the plague. We did not, therefore, enter the sanctuary of the tomb. I contented myself with falling on my knees upon the marble step of the outer court of this handsome temple, and invoking the blessing of her whom every mother early teaches her child to piously and affectionately worship." On the other hand, Richardson says: "The gardens of Gethsemane are now of a very miserable description, hedged round with a dry stone fence, and provided with a few olive trees. A convent has been built on the spot, but is now in ruins." that one traveller in Palestine has had to comSuch is the confusion amongst the moderns, pose a second work to correct the errors of his first. Streatham Place, S. age T. J. BUCKTON. THE ORDER OF BARONETS. D. P. is quite correct in supposing the baronetJames and his advisers in order to get money; of Ulster to have been a thing planned by but it is not a solitary instance, for similar schemes were a favourite device of the Scottish Solomon. To say nothing of the cognate case of the Nova Scotia baronets, in his quaint book, The Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes in Scotland (which was printed for the Bannatyne Club), Stephen Atkinson gives in detail the king's plan for creating another order. He states that the king sent for Sir Bevis Bulmer, the well-known mining adventurer, whose pupil Atkinson was, and opened to him a plot which he had devised for the working of the gold mines in Scotland. in the following terms: He then gives the outline of the royal plot "Lett Bulmer procure or move 24 gentlemen within England of sufficient lands and livings, or any other his friends in Scotland that shall be willing to be underthat all these gentlemen be of such sufficiencie in lands, takers thereof, and to be adventurers thereof; and see goods, or chattelis as the worst be worth ten thousand pounds starling, else £500 per annum starling. And such gentlemen to be moved to disburse £300 starling each man in monies or victuals for maintainnance of the gold mynes in Scotland; for which disbursement each man to have the honour of knighthood bestowed uppon him, and so for ever to be called the Knight of the Golden Mynes or the Golden Knight.” He then states that the Earl of Salisbury had too mean a man to have granted to him such a crossed the plot on the ground that Bulmer was privilege, but adds: "Only one knight was made, and he was called Sir John Cleypoole, for he had ventured with Bulmer before £500 starling at the gold mynes in Scotland." Atkinson concludes his treatise with the following: : "Neither is it (the working of the gold mines in Scotland) to be don by wishers and woulders, but only by the Kings Majesties Plott already devised, and cost him nothing but only a stroke with his sword upon the shoulder of man: for which the one halfe of the profitt doth befall unto His Majestie, the other halfe to lay open the gold and silver moynes in Scotland." GEORGE VERE IRVING. The presumptive evidence offered by your correspondent D. P. seems to me conclusive as to the original suggestion of the Order of Baronets, nor have I seen it noticed elsewhere. The association of the name of Bacon adds lustre to the royal foundation of the dignity. My edition of Gwillim, 1610, is of course too early to contain the Instructions, and I wish to know in what other works they are to be found? THOMAS E. WINNINGTON. GENEALOGY OF THE USSHER FAMILY (3rd S. xii. 92.) In case any new edition of the Life of Archbishop Ussher appears, I shall willingly supply any information I possess as to the genealogy of his family. I have taken some pains to make both corrections and additions to the published pedigree, and I am anxious to add to my information. There are many persons of the surname I am unable to connect with the archbishop's family. Except in the way I have mentioned, I do not exactly see how I can oblige ABHBA. H. LOFTUS TOTTENHAM. SWEDENBORG ARMS (3rd S. xi. 496.)—The arms borne by Swedenborg are impressed on the books issued by the Society bearing his name, and were taken, it is believed, from an original in the hall of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, which, however, is surrounded by a wreath of foliage. The armorial blazon is as follows: Parti per pale gules and or, on the dexter side two keys in saltire of the second between as many bendlets sinister argent: on the sinister side a burning mountain proper over all on a chief azure, a mitre with labels or, between two mullets argent. Crest on helmet- A demi-lion rampant, double queued, holding in the dexter paw a key. J. MANUEL. Newcastle-on-Tyne. ep. 12, "In Postumum." That to Maskelyne is from Owen. A translation by Dr. Walsh appears in "Select Epigrams: an "Nature abhors a vacuum! Bubo said. Bubo, you're wrong—the vacuum's in your head." The epigram "On the Passage of the Israelites out of Egypt" may have been supplied to Scott by an "unknown hand," but it was certainly not "unknown" epigram, for it was in print some found in the Poetical Calendar, vol. vi. p. 67, 1763, years before Scott's book was published. It is and in the Festoon, edited by Graves, p. 5, second edition, 1767. Very probably it may be found in still earlier collections. H. P. D. "YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND" (3rd S. xii. 194.)—I am not quite sure whether LORD LYTTELTON intended or not to include me in the number of those who make "daring and futile attempts to cobble and tinker our greatest works of genius"; but I rather think he did, for I had been warned before-when I gave sense to a pasit-to take example by the fate of Bentley, and sage of Scripture which had long been without that may have been in his lordship's mind. I should not have supposed that any one would suspect me of desiring to substitute what I termed my "critical exercitations" for the words of the poet. I only ventured to state how I thought they might be approved, and I had done this more than once in my edition of Milton's Poems, and in what I had written on Parnell and Collins in " N. & Q." As to the passages in Campbell, the poet himself, we know, was not satisfied with sepulchre." LORD LYTTELTON does not defend H. R. A. by the way, that not one in five hundred "the baying of the beagle." I would remind would imagine "beagle" to be synonymous with blood-hound-and that, finally, I only suggested that gale would have been better than" breeze." 66 In this very No. of "N. & Q." an emendation of Byron by MR. BUCKTON is shown to be erroneous; yet he had a perfect right to make it. I beg leave to remind T. S. N. that Keats had the authority of Gray, a first-rate classical scholar, for "Hypérion." THOS. KEIGHTLEY. HALF-YEARED LAND (3rd S. xii. 162.) — Is not this simply "Lammas Land," of which the copyholder has the use for half the year, from Öld Lammas Day (August 12) to Old Lady Day (April 5), and the parishioners entitled to common of pasture enjoy it for the other half? One shilling an acre is not an uncommon quit-rent even now, the substantial profit of the lord of the manor being the fines on death or alienation. It is said small quit-rents were reserved to prevent tenants of old standing claiming the lands as freehold. I should feel extremely obliged for any information |