AN END TO ALL THINGS.-The following, which appeared in The Leisure Hour for July 6, 1867, is worthy of a corner in "N. & Q.: " "EDINBURGH JOURNALISM.-The Caledonian Mercury, which began in 1662, ceased on Saturday the 20th of April, 1867." LIOM. F. COAT CARDS, OR COURT CARDS. In an article in Macmillan's Magazine for April last, Professor Max Müller states, as an illustration of the metamorphic process in language, that_coat cards have been exalted into court cards. I am not aware what the usage may be there at present, but thirty years ago they were in East Cornwall invariably called coat cards, at any rate by the middle and lower classes. WM. PENGELLY. Torquay. LETTER FROM KIMBOLTON LIBRARY.-The enclosed copy of a letter, which has no address or date of year, and which contains much puzzling matter, may perhaps be worthy a place in your columns, and may elicit some explanation from some one of your numerous readers. I met with it in the library at Kimbolton Castle: 66 My Lord, "I acknowledge your favor, not only in the delivry of my Leter, but that you have a desyer to oblidge me by a visite wch cold I resayve it... trouble to you it wold have brought me much satisfaction. I finde such cause for ye vallewe I have of my Lord Admirall, and such inclination of my owne to love and esteeme his Lo: as I know not what it maye groe to war I not so old I think it might arrive to... the action that Co: Go: and thos that accompaned him was such a on as seuets well with them, and discovered great Corage to incounter broome-men and pinne-mackers, and a rabble of such poore men who have nothing to offend but the lungs, nor to resist but their hands: it may be that this is to ingratiat themselves, and that is as meane as the other is foolishe. I wish myselfe with you, but I can not come till the later end of next weak, if then and thar is fair cause. Black Tom has more corage than his Grase, and therefor will not be so apprehencive as he is, nor suffer a Gard to atend him, knowing he hath terror enough in his bearded browes to amaze the prentises. SOURCE OF QUOTATION WANTED.— "Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat." Former references in "N. & Q.," 1st S. i. 351, 421, 476; ii. 317; vii. 618; viii. 73; 2nd S. i. 301. The Bishop of Down, in his speech in the House of Lords, June 24, 1867 (as reported in The Times of the following day), gives a source hitherto, as far as I know, unnoticed, at any rate in any of the notes above referred to. He speaks of "the warning contained in The Sibylline Leaves: Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.' H. K. 5, Paper Buildings, Temple. 6 ESPARTO GRASS. -The following, taken from the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, July 8, may be interesting to many of the readers of "N. & Q.":— "Last week the 'Melancthon' arrived in the Tyne Dock with a cargo of Esparto grass, and in addition to the usual cargo of cut grass the 'hold' contained two large tubs of live grass, sent as a present to Captain Randells. The grass is very handsome, and, though drooping in the head, owing to being confined during the voyage, the whole seemed very strong and healthy at the roots. We understand that Captain Randells has very generously sent one of the tubs to Sir Wm. Hooker, Kew Gardens, London. This is the first specimen of Esparto grass ever brought over to this country. The first cargo of Esparto was brought into the Tyne in 1861, and the imports during the first year reached between 16,000 and 17,000 tons; every year has witnessed a rapid increase in the imports until last year, when the shipments exceeded 50,000 tons." Newcastle-on-Tyne. J. MANUEL. 98,890 58,856 26,691 12,307 8,138 The The latter are chiefly cabin passengers. foreigners are generally Germans, Norwegians, or Swedes. Of the above, there proceeded Queries. ALFRED'S MARRIAGE WITH ALSWITHA.-There is a tradition among the inhabitants of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, that the nuptials of Alfred the Great with Alswitha, daughter of Ethelred, Earl of Gainsborough, were celebrated in 868, when he was twenty years of age, at a "wonderful old hall" in that neighbourhood. The marriage is mentioned by the old chroniclers, Asser Menevensis, Roger de Hoveden, Roger of Wendover, Florence of Worcester, and Matthew of Westminster, but not one of them specifies the locality where it took place. On what authority is the above-named tradition founded? Is it recorded in any document, either printed or in MS. ? LLALLAWG. AUTHORS WANTED.-Can you inform me where I shall find the epitaph on the Marquis of Anglesey's leg (shot off at the battle of Waterloo), which commences BATTLE OF BUNKER'S HILL.-I shall be very much obliged to any of your readers having access to a list of the killed and wounded in this battle who will kindly ascertain if the name of "Stafford" occurs in the list, and acquaint me with the result by letter. D. M. STEVENS. Guildford. INSCRIPTION AT BLENHEIM.—I have a volume of epigrams (London, 1751), on which a former owner has made some good notes. Against Dr. Evans's "Inscription for the Bridge at Blenheim "The lofty arch his high ambition shows; The stream, an emblem of his bounty, flows," he has written "v. Anthol. Gr. xcii. 75.” I cannot find any similar Greek epigram, but perhaps some correspondent familiar with the Anthology may assist me. T. E. C. "LEO PUGNAT CUM DRACONE."-Medieval seals with this legend, and with a corresponding device of a lion fighting with a dragon, are of not infrequent occurrence. I have always imagined them to have a religious significance, but am unable to [The epitaph on the Marquis of Anglesey's leg is by Mr. Thomas Gaspey, and is printed in "N. & Q." 3rd S. . 320, 339.-ED.] find any text of Scripture on which it may have been founded. I would gladly learn the allusion they were designed to bear. J. G. N. NAME, ETC. WANTED.-I have a very old seal with these arms-viz. sa. a fesse ar. between three cinquefoils ar. I shall be greatly obliged if any of your readers can inform me to whom these arms belong; also, the crest and motto, and when ADAMAS. granted. NATIONAL PORTRAIT EXHIBITION: THE FORTUNE TELLER.-In the National Portrait Exhibition of this year there is a picture described in the catalogue as "The Fortune Teller," without any mention being made as to whose portrait it is. Can any reason be assigned why it is placed in an exhibition devoted entirely to portraits? Surely the authorities would not have allowed it to be placed there had they not been the readers of "N. & Q." may be able to elucidate aware that it was a portrait? Perhaps some of the mystery attached to the picture in question. EDWARD C. DAVIES. Cavendish Club. POEMS, ANONYMOUS.I have lately added to my collection a small MS. book containing several poems, mostly written on some passage from the Bible. No author's name is given. Perhaps some of the numerous readers of "N. & Q." would kindly say if either of the specimens I subjoin have ever appeared in print. The MS. also contains other matters of a commonplace nature. At the end is the date 1703: 6 "Prov. xviii. 14. "A wounded spirit who can bear?' "Is't possible who will believe, A spirit can be wounded, add and grieve? What hath no body needs no blows to fear; Yet 'tis most true, God's word tells you, 'A wounded spirit who can bear?' "One thing there is a Soul will wound So deeply, that 'twill bleed and sound, And even die for grief, for shame, for fear; Sin is the thing Doth all this bring. 'A wounded Spirit who can bear?' &c. "An old stale widdower quite past the best, Cork. THE POPEDOM.-A writer in the Saturday Review, in an article called "The Pope and the Bishops," states that there is a tradition among the Roman populace that St. Peter reigned as pope for twenty-five years, and that none of his successors is destined to exceed the term. Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me where I can find any particulars of the "tradition" referred to? EDWARD C. DAVIES. Cavendish Club. PORTRAITS OF PERCY, BISHOP OF DROMORE. I am surprised that the National Portrait Gallery does not contain one of the editor of the Reliques of English Poetry, and have a great desire to know where the fine portrait of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds is supposed to be, as one of the good bishop's grandsons has informed me that the representatives are ignorant of its location. It is certainly not in Christ Church Hall, where it might naturally be expected to be found amongst those of the numerous eminent alumni of the house; and it might not have a niche from the fact of his not having been a student, for though presented with a college living (Easton-Maudit in Northamptonshire), it might have come to him as chaplain, as it is of very small value. Perhaps on this point some Christ Church correspondent might throw light. The engraving from this portrait is still to be found, representing him in a plain black gown and bands, a loose black cap on his head, and in his hand the celebrated MS. Folio of Ballads, the very existence of which was denied by the sceptical Ritson. those Genii who obeyed him, and ordered him to cast me into the sea, which, to my great grief, he performed directly." Many other Oriental tales likewise make mention of "Solomon's " dealings with the Genii. I would ask if it is not a mistake of the story-tellers to attribute such acts to the son of David? Do they not rather belong to the mythical race of pre-Adamite princes, who bore the common name of Solomon, and, according to the Mahommedan creed (set forth in the preliminary discourse to Sale's Koran), ruled over the troublesome beings called Genii, who occupied an intermediate place in the scale of creation, between angels and devils? ST. SWITHIN. SPROUTING PLATES AND JARS.—In Nature and exhibiting the curious phenomenon of the enamel Art, vol. i. p. 141, is a drawing of a jar of porcelain rising in lumps on the outside and inside of the vessel. Mr. Frank Buckland, in the second vol. of his third series of Curiosities of Natural History, describing a plate with the same peculiarity, says: in The original of another portrait of him, crayons, is somewhere supposed to be hidden. A copy of this is in the possession of his grandson, Major Meade, and an excellent engraving of it is to be found in Dr. Dibdin's Decameron, vol. iii. It represents Percy at the close of life, and when totally blind, feeding his swans in the palace garden at Dromore. Information in regard to the location of both is sought by OXONIENSIS. Alvechurch, co. Worcester. PORTRAIT OF MRS. SHELLEY.-May I use your columns to learn whether or not any portrait of Mary W. Shelley, the poet's second wife, has ever appeared in any form? It seems strange that there should not be one, when Mrs. Shelley was living so lately. W. SOLOMON AND THE GENII. When the Fisherman of the Arabian Nights liberated the Genius from the vase, that worthy related the following story: "I am one of those spirits who rebelled against the sovereignty of God. All the other Genii acknowledged the great Solomon the prophet of God, and submitted to him. Sacar and myself were the only ones who were above humbling ourselves. In order to revenge himself, this powerful monarch charged Assaf, the son of Barakhia his first minister, to come and seize me. This was done, and Assaf took and brought me in spite of myself before the king his master. Solomon, the son of David, commanded me to quit my mode of life, acknowledge his authority, and submit to his laws. I haughtily refused to obey him, and rather exposed myself to his resentment than take the oath of fidelity and submission which he required of me. In order, therefore, to punish me, he enclosed me in this copper vase; and to prevent my forcing my way out, he put upon the leaden cover the impression of his seal, on which the great name of God is engraven. This done he gave the vase to one of "At first sight one would imagine bits of common washing soda had been scattered over the plate, and attached to it by gum; but on close examination with a magnifying glass, I observed numerous excrescences of a whitish opaque substance, apparently growing or extending themselves out of the centre and rim of the plate. size of a fourpenny-bit, and it has raised up a portion of The largest eruption (if it may be so called) is about the the enamel above the surface of the plate to about the height represented by the thickness of a new pennypiece." Mr. Buckland goes on to say the proprietor told him that he had refused a cheque for a thousand pounds for his specimen. Mr. George Chapman, author of the article in Nature and Art above alluded to, offers the following as a probable explanation of the phenome non: served. "Carbonate of soda was used in the enamel as a flux, the soda forming a glass with the siluric acid or silica. (the carbonate of soda being most likely in excess), a The quantities not having been accurately proportioned slow decomposition (not necessarily on the surface) has been going on for a long time. There is hardly a mediæval window where such decomposition may not be obThe atmosphere of all large towns, London especially, contains sulphuric acid, the result of the combustion of sulphur in the coal. The acid has by slow degrees combined with the soda and formed sulphate of soda, the moisture of the air supplying the water of crystallization. Every equivalent of sulphate of soda takes ten equivalents, or more than half its weight of water of crystallization; the increase, therefore, in the bulk of salt on crystallizing is very considerable, and hence the sprouting." I wish to know if any specimens exist in any of our public museums. It would be worth while to look over china-closets, and see if any of the articles have grown since they were deposited there. JOHN PIGGOT, JUN. STAINS IN OLD DEEDS, ETC. — I have a very old map or plan of an estate with the buildings, &c. painted on vellum, and another on parchment. They are dreadfully stained. How can I get out the stains without injury? ADAMAS. JOHN STEPHENS published Dialogues intended for Sunday School Reading and Recitation, 1828. Can any reader who has seen this book inform me whether these Dialogues are written in a dramatic form, after the manner of Sacred Dramas, and whether they are composed by Mr. Stephens? Any information regarding the author and his other writings would be acceptable. R. I. WALLACE. When was William Wallace, the hero in Scottish history, knighted, and by whom? Can any of your readers refer me to an undoubted authority? F. J. J. Liverpool. Queries with Answers. LUCIFER.—This word is now used as a poetical synonym for Satan. Can any correspondent say when the use began, and whether it now extends beyond the English language? Lord Byron, addressing Napoleon after his overthrow, says — "Since him, miscalled the morning star, Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far." I doubt not there are earlier examples. But how early? It is certain that in the fourth century there was no such use, as Lucifer was then a Christian name and borne by a very celebrated Bishop of Cagliari. My own theory is, that the practice has arisen from a popular misunderstanding of the text of the Prophet Isaiah, in which, addressing the King of Babylon, the Prophet describes him as falling from his throne, as if the morning star should fall from heaven: "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" I suspect that persons who heard this chapter read in church, and did not understand the allusion, imagined that it referred to the fall of the angels from heaven. I have no books within reach to enable me to support or discard this conjecture. Does Milton anywhere appear to know the word as a name of his "hero"? I believe not. Johnson, I find, does not admit it at all in his dictionary. MALVERN WELLS. ["Lucifer is, in fact," says Miss Yonge, "no profane er Satanic title. It is the Latin Luciferus, the lightbringer, the morning star, equivalent to the Greek dopópos, and was a Christian name in early times, borne even by one of the popes. It only acquired its present association from the apostrophe of the ruined king of Babylon, in Isaiah, as a fallen star: How art (thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!' Thence, as this destruction was assuredly a type of the fall of Satan, Milton took Lucifer as the title of his demon of pride, and this name of the pure pale herald of daylight has become hateful to Christian ears" (History of Christian Names, i. 289). There is an allusion to the fabled palace of Lucifer in Milton's elegy upon the death of Bishop Andrewes. The "Luciferi domus" alluded to, we learn from a note in the Aldine edition of Milton (iii. 263), is the palace of the sun; and not, as conjectured by T. Warton, the abode of Satan. Milton, however,, in the Paradise Lost (book v. ver. 757), appears to have adopted the popular gloss upon Isaiah xiv. See "N. & Q.," 1st S. v. 275, 352.] HOPS IN BEER.-How long have hops been used in brewing of beer? In the Harleian MS. No. 980, fol. 279, it is stated "That about the 4th of Henry VI. [1425-6] an information was exhibited against one for putting an unwholesome kind of weed called an hopp into his brewing." M. [The hop is probably indigenous in England, and in common with alehoof, or ground ivy, has been used from very ancient times for a bitter condiment to beer; though perhaps its cultivation for the purpose may be of more recent date, at which time a foreign name may have superseded its vernacular one. Fuller, in his Worthies (art. Essex) notices a petition to parliament in the reign of Henry VI. against "that wicked weed called hops." He says, "They are not so bitter in themselves as others have been against them, accusing hops for noxious; preserving beer, but destroying those who drink it." In the Northumberland Household Book mention is also made of hops as being used for brewing in England in the year 1512. In 1528 their use was prohibited under severe penalties. In Rastell's Collection of Entries it is stated that "an aleman brought an action against his brewer for spoiling his ale, by putting a certain weed called a hop, and recovered damages against his brewer." Even Bluff Harry, who loved a sparkling glass, appears to have been prejudiced against hops; for in a MS. dated Eltham, January, 1530, occurs an injunction to his brewer "not to put any hops or brimstone into the ale!" An interesting series of articles on the history of hops appeared in Vol. ii. 2nd Series, of "N. & Q.," of which the foregoing is a compendious account.] GIDEON OUSELEY.-The name of this worthy man, mentioned by CUTHBERT BEDE in his interesting article in 3rd S. xi. 493, induces me to ask when and where Mr. Ouseley died? I think he was an English gentlemen, and a relative of the English baronet of that name. In early life he became attached to the Wesleyans; was appointed a minister; but not liking the bondage of obedience to the Conference in matters of residence, he broke the bonds, and itinerated in Ireland on his own responsibility. He was remarkable for his controversial zeal, on account of which he suffered many things. At different times, from personal violence, he lost an eye, had his arms and legs broken and injured, his ribs were broken two or three times, and his life often endangered. I think this was his only title to be called an Irish missionary. When I was a boy I well remember hearing him preach in the West of Ireland, at the house of a friend. GEORGE LLOYD. Darlington. [Mr. Gideon Ouseley died at Dublin on May 14, 1839. In 1847 was published "A Memorial of the Ministerial Life of the Rev. Gideon Ouseley, Irish Missionary: comprising Sketches of the Mission in connection with which he laboured, under the direction of the Wesleyan Con ference; with notices of some of the most distinguished Irish Methodist Missionaries. By William Reilly." 12mo.] BIRTHPLACE OF CROMWELL'S MOTHER. - The late Hugh Miller, in one of his Essays, p. 36, mentions an old house near Queensferry, in which Oliver Cromwell's mother, Elizabeth Stuart, "first saw the light." Probably he alludes to Rosyth Castle, once the seat of the Stuarts of Rosyth, "a branch (as the guide-books tell us) of the royal house of Scotland." But I venture to ask on what authority the statement rests of Oliver's mother having been born in Scotland? It is not to be found in Noble's or Carlyle's memoirs of Cromwell. Her family belonged to the town of Ely, and had been long settled there, if we may judge from a passage in Principal Tulloch's English Puritanism. A. COVENTRY. [This tradition is thus noticed in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, ix. 240: "The Castle of Rosyth is said by Sir Robert Sibbald to have been the seat of Stewart of Rosyth or Durisdeer, a descendant of James Stewart, brother to Walter, the great Steward of Scotland, and father of Robert II. There is a tradition that the mother of Oliver Cromwell was born in it, and that the Protector visited it when he commanded the army in Scotland. It is now [1836] the property of the Earl of Hopetoun." The genealogists assure us, that Elizabeth Steward, the mother of the Protector, was "indubitably descended from the Royal Stuart family of Scotland," and could, still count kindred with them. Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 31.] ARCHBISHOP OF SPALATRO'S SERMON ON RoMANS XIII. 12.-In a sermon before me, preached in July 1618, reference is made to a sermon by the celebrated Mark Antony De Dominis, "Arch. of Spalat. Ser. on Rom. 12, 13." As the page is added, it seems to be a separate publication. I should be much obliged to any one who would give me the title and date of this sermon, and should be glad to get a sight of it if possible. Q. Q. [It is entitled "A Sermon preached in Italian, by the most Reverend father, Marc' Antony De Dominis, Archb. of Spalato, the first Sunday in Advent, Anno 1617, in the Mercers Chappel in London, to the Italians in that City, and many other Honorable Auditors then assembled, upon the 12. verse of the 13. Chapter to the Romans, being part of the Epistle for that day. First published in Italian by the Author, and thereout translated into English. London, Printed by John Bill, 1617, 4to." Copies of both the Italian and English editions are in the British Museum and in the Bodleian.] 24TH OF FEBRUARY.-Will any of the wellinformed correspondents of your valuable journal say if the year of the nineteenth century in which a document bearing in it the day of the week Tuesday, and also the day of the month, Feb. 24, can be discovered? The only result that I can obtain from Nicolas's Chronology of History, p. 49, 50, "Tables of Dominical Letters, tables D and E," is, that it was in one of certain given years of the several solar cycles of the present century. TH. [We find no difficulty in our correspondent's question. If the 24th Feb. be a Tuesday, the 22nd is a Sunday. Sir Harris Nicolas's Table E, in his Chronology of History, at p. 50, shows that whenever the 22nd Feb. is a Sunday the Dominical letter is D; and his Table D, at p. 49, shows, that during the nineteenth century, the years 1801, 1807, 1812, 1818, 1824, 1829, 1835, 1840, 1846, 1852, 1857, and 1863, have been the years on which D, either alone or jointly, has been the Dominical letter. In one of these years, therefore, the document in question was written. Our correspondent will find the same information, given in perhaps an easier form, in Mr. Bond's Handy Book of Rules for Verifying Dates, 8vo, 1866.] LEASINGS LEWD.-What is the meaning of this expression in the Prologue to Gay's "Shepherd's Week"? "Ye weavers, all your shuttles throw, Philadelphia. BAR-POINT. [This passage from Gay is quoted among the examples under the word "Leasing," both in Todd's Johnson and in Richardson's Dictionary. The word leasing is there explained as meaning "lying rumour, false report; lying, falsehood; leasing-mongers, dealers in lying." The word occurs in Psalm iv. 2.] QUOTATION.-Can you tell me whence the wellknown line "Pleased with a feather, tickled with a straw," is taken ? C. P. M. [Pope, Epistle ii. line 275, has the following couplet :-"Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw."] |