OIL PAINTING, c. 1626.-I have in my possession an oil picture of some person painted after death-presumably on the death-bed. The painting is on a panel, and shows the head and shoulders only. The fact of a crucifix being placed on the body and a lighted candle at the bedside leads me to think the person must have been a Roman Catholic. The painting bears the words, "Obit Anno 1626, 12 June." I should be glad if I could learn if any person of note (English or otherwise) died on this date. N. S. RICHARDSON. 49, Altenburg Gardens, Clapham, S. W. POST-MORTEM EXAMINATIONS.-May I ask for your assistance in the matter of finding the earliest instance of medical evidence being taken by a coroner after a post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased? STANLEY B. ATKINSON. 10, Adelphi Terrace, W.C. MISERERE CARVINGS. Does any archæological journal give a full account of the misericords in (1) New College Chapel, Oxon, (2) Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon? I have Miss Emma Phipson's Choir Stalls and their Carvings' (1896) and the Rev. J. Harvey Bloom's Shakespeare's Church' (1902). St. Margaret's, Malvern. 666 A. R. BAYley. supply me with the date of the erection of Baltimore House, Bradford. · JOHNSON'S VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES.' -The opening couplet of this poem is well known : Let observation, with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru. Almost equally well known is the paraphrase: "Let observation, with extensive observation, observe mankind extensively." But the authorship of the paraphrase is not certain. Dr. Birkbeck Hill ('Boswell,' i. 194), says that De Quincey Works,' Edinburgh, some writer." 1862, x. 72) quotes it from Miss Caroline Spurgeon ('The Works of Dr. Johnson,' 1898) attributes it to Goldsmith, in the form : Let observation with observant view, Locker Lampson, in his recollections of a Swiss tour with Tennyson in June, 1869 (see the Memoir' of Tennyson, by his son, ii. 73), · says: "Tennyson admired Samuel Johnson's grave earnestness, and said that certain of his couplets, for these qualities and for their high moral tone,' were not surpassed in English satire. However, he ventured to make merry over (the first couplet]. Why did he not say, "Let observation, with extended observation, observe extensively"?'" Here the reader is led to suppose that Tennyson was the originator of the mot. It would be interesting to assign it to its right owner. Byron (Diary,' 9 Jan, 1821) quotes "Conversation Sharp's remark that Johnson's first line was superfluous. L R. M. STRACHAN. BRIDEWELL ITS HISTORY.-In John Bowyer Nichols's catalogue of the Hoare Library there appears History of Bridewell Hospital,' by Thomas Bowen, 4to. London, 1798." Does such a work exist? I have a copy of Bowen's Extracts from the Records and Court Books of Bridewell Hospital; together with other Historical Information respecting the Objects of the Charter,' &c., 1798, which was published in reply to William Waddington's address to the Governors, &c. Bowen was also the author of other pamphlets more or less relating to Bridewell and its prisoners, but I cannot trace any History' from his pen. Neither Mr. Copeland, 'Bridewell Royal Hospital, 1888, nor Timbs's Walks actually did this phrase signify to our foreand Talks about London,' p. 31, refers to Bowen's contributions on the subject. ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N. [Thomas Bowen published in 4to, 1783, an Account of the Origin, Progress, and Present State of Bethlehem Hospital.' Has some confusion arisen ?] NEWCHAPEL CHURCH.-The village of Newchapel, Staffordshire, was known as Thursfield prior to the church (a chapel of ease to Wolstanton) being erected. Can any one Heidelberg, Germany. SELLING ONESELF TO THE DEVIL.-What fathers? MEDICULUS. "BRELAN."-Lady Nugent, in vol. ii. p. 105 of her West Indian journal, says, "Try to learn to play at brelan." Can any reader say whether "brelan " was a game of cards? H. M. C. [Beaujean's abridgment of Littré (Hachette, 1875) says, s.v. Brelan': "Jeu qui se joue avec trois cartes données à trois ou quatre ou cinq joueurs. Avoir brelan, avoir trois cartes de même figure ou de même point."] Beylies, LORD MAYOR'S DAY. (10th S. iv. 448.) 29 October, but also "admitted and sworn at the Guildhall on 28 October.* This fact was overlooked in framing the Michaelmas Term Act; and obviously great inconvenience might have been caused by the interval of the two ceremonies if the Legislature had twelve days which must have elapsed between not intervened. In 1752, therefore, was passed the third of the above-mentioned Acts, to remedy this and other defects in the two previous statutes. That Act recites the fact of the proceedings on 28 and 29 October, the provision above quoted as to meetings of bodies corporate, and the enactment that the Lord Mayor is to be "presented and sworn" on 9 November; and enacts that he shall be "admitted and sworn ber. Thus the two ceremonies necessary to on 8 Novemthe Lord Mayor's assumption of office (but not the date of his election) were moved be said to have been the result, except inforward by eleven days, though this cannot directly, of the change of style. How Lord Mayor's Day came to be changed from 29 October to 9 November has been discussed on more than one occasion in N. & Q.'; but the facts do not appear to have been at any time completely stated. The question is somewhat involved, and depends on three Acts of Parliament: the Calendar (New Style) Act, 1750 (24 Geo. II. c. 23); the Michaelmas Term Act, 1750 (24 George II. c. 48); and the Calendar Act, 1751 (25 Geo. II. c. 30). These are the titles given by the Short Titles Act, 1896, but it should be noted that the Acts were in fact passed a year later than the titles indicate. Apparently the draftsman saved himself trouble by attributing every Act to the calendar year in which the regnal year commenced. The result is especially ludicrous in the case of the last-mentioned Act, which itself refers to the year 1752 in no An interesting note in Mr. Wheatley's fewer than four places as "6 this present year," "monumental edition of Pepys's 'Diary' fully or this year." explains the change in this date. The By the first of these Acts the famous diarist had recorded on 29 October, 1660, "I "eleven days" were dropped, and 3 Sep-up early it being my Lord Mayor's Day," tember, 1752, became 14 September; but this and the following is the note:would not of itself have shifted Lord Mayor's Day, since it was enacted that 66 "all meetings and assemblies of any bodies politic or corporate, either for the election of any officers or members thereof, or for any such officers entering upon the execution of their respective offices, or for any other purpose whatsoever, which...... are to be holden and kept on any fixed or certain day of any month," shall continue to be held on the same nominal days as at the passing of the Act. F. W. READ. "The change of Lord Mayor's Day from the 29th of October to the 9th of November was not (24 Geo. II. c. 23), but by another Act of the same made by the Act for reforming the calendar session (c. 48), entitled An Act for the Abbreviathat from and after the said feast of St. Michael, tion of Michaelmas Term,' by which it was enacted, which shall be in the year 1752, the said solemnity of presenting and swearing the mayor of the city of London, after every annual election to the said office, in the manner and form heretofore used on the 29th day of October, shall be kept and year, unless the same shall fall on a Sunday, and observed on the ninth day of November in every in that case on the day following.""-H. B. Wheat It is of interest to add that, owing to this change, all English mayors are affected, though such was not contemplated, for they are now chosen, under the Municipal Cor The change to 9 November was, however, made by the second statute mentioned, passed shortly after the first. It was deemedley's 'Pepys,' i. 25ln. expedient to keep Michaelmas Term approximately to the same period of the year, notwithstanding the change of style, and it was therefore enacted that it should henceforth begin on 3 November. But this would have made Lord Mayor's Day out of term, so that again was shifted to 9 November. This account is substantially the same as the explanation given by NEMO at 7th S. iv. 49, as noted by MR. LYNN at 9th S. v. 344; but no reference, I believe, has hitherto been made to the ceremony at the Guildhall on the day previous to Lord Mayor's Day, which has also been the subject of statutory enactment. The Lord Mayor was not only "presented and " sworn at Westminster on Probably some confusion with the latter proceeding is responsible for the statement (10th S. iv. 448) that the Lord Mayor was formerly chosen on 28 October. The day of election was and is 29 September. is mistaken in thinking that the reason why Lord + This recital is sufficient to show that MR. LYNN Mayor's Day required a special enactment to change it was because it "partook of the nature of a sacred 29 October is called "the morrow of the Feast of festival in its dating" (see 9th S. v. 344). That St. Simon and St. Jude" does not make it any the less a "fixed or certain day." porations Act, on 9 November; but the City of London alone continues to choose its chief magistrate on the original day, 29 September, and presents him on 9 November. ALFRED F. ROBBINS. growling river is a different matter from the roaring ice at a time of thaw, to which it bears no resemblance whatever. It may be observed, however, that it is not the whole river, but "the whole imprison'd river," to which the poet's description refers, and that SAMUEL WHITCHURCH, POET (10th S. iv. what he says is illustrative at once of his 429, 516). - With reference to PRINCIPAL accurate observation and his felicitous use of SALMON'S inquiry about Samuel Whitchurch, expressive phraseology. The allusion to the I may say that he was my husband's grand-roaring and howling ice of 'The Ancient father on the mother's side, and I possess a Mariner' is apposite and useful. small volume of his poems, called Hispaniola, and other Poetical Pieces,' printed by Meyler, Bath, 1804. He also wrote The Battle of the Dogger Bank.' at which he himself was present, and, as G. F. R. B. mentions, contributed to The Monthly Magazine in the beginning of the nineteenth century; He was an admiral's secretary in the Royal Navy, and it is supposed that in later life he entered trade in Bath. He belonged to a Somersetshire family, and his great-uncle John Whitchurch owned Nunney Castle, near Frome, in the middle of the eighteenth century, at the same time that another Samuel Whitchurch was rector of Nunney. His father fought at Dettingen and Fontenoy, as he mentions in a poem addressed to My Father.' The poet married a Miss Reed, whose father was a friend of Coleridge and Southey. M. E. S. BEN JONSON AND BACON (10th S. ii. 469; iii. 35, 94). This is a very interesting question, and I should be glad to see what further information on the point Rawley gave to Tenison. But neither the British Museum nor the Bodleian Catalogue records Tenison's 'Baconiana.' Perhaps MR. STRONACH will be so good as to give particulars of the part of Tenison's works to which he refers-titles, volume, page, edition, &c. Q. V. SPLITTING FIELDS OF ICE (10th S. iv, 325, 395, 454, 513).—To keep matters in order, it may be well to say that the passage from Lowell to which MR. JARRATT directs attention is precisely that on which this whole discussion hinges. The quotation and criticism of it at the first reference stimulated all that has followed. To prevent the possibility of advancing a thing in illustration of itself, it would be useful if readers would carefully examine all that has previously been said before offering fresh contributions to a subject under dispute. MR. JARRATT meanwhile is quite justified in his assumption that Lowell misunderstood Wordsworth, and it is interesting to have his corroboration of the view expressed in the initial note, which, apparently, he has not seen. Thomson's THOMAS BAYNE. "THESE ARE THE BRITONS, A BARBAROUS The book your RACE" (10th S. iv. 510). American correspondent inquires about was entitled 'The History of England in Rhyme from the Conquest to the Restoration,' and was published in 1854 by Hope & Co., It was really 16, Great Marlborough Street. 8vo of 332 pages, and was published at 58. very cleverly done in parts. It is a crown R. B. MARSTON. St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.C. PRISONER SUCKLED BY HIS DAUGHTER (10th S. iv. 307, 353, 432). Lempriere's Classical Dictionary' includes Perone, the daughter of Cimon, a prisoner. The legend may be of Greek origin, but was common to the Romans, who, if memory plays me not false, are recorded to have called the heroine Euphrasia (name identical with that of the plant we call "eyebright" Milton's euphrasy," Drayton's euphrasy," Drayton's "eyebright for the eye"). I have what is perhaps one of the oldest extant "portraits" of the lady, figured in her act of filial piety on a fragment of Samian ware, part of a bowl used in Britain when Rome ruled the world. I. CHALKLEY GOULD. BAYHAM ABBEY (10th S. iv. 448).-In Francis Grose's 'Antiquities of England and Wales,' 1773-6, vol. iii., is a view of 'Begeham, or Beyham Abbey, Sussex,' engraved by Godfrey in 1774, together with a short account of the abbey. According to a note at the end, this view was drawn in 1761, but in 1760 according to the county index of vol. iii. at the end of vol. iv. The latter mentions a view by S. and N. Buck (north aspect) taken in 1737. There is a small woodcut of Bayham Abbey on the first page of vol. ii. of The Anti quarian Itinerary,' London, 1816. It is the employing this solecism: "Not you was, head-piece to the description of Roslin Castle if you please, but you were. The phrase and Chapel (see last page of vol. Index). In is not you is,' but you are'-a charming of John Wilkes, Esq., Gough's 'Camden's Britannia,' 1789, vol. i. girl" ("Letters p. 205, the name is Beigham. A foot-note addressed to his Daughter,' London, 1804, refers to Tanner, 561. Yet in his earlier years he ROBERT PIERPOINT. vol. ii. p. 188). TOBY'S DOG (10th S. iv. 508, 535). My respondents do not seem to have understood the difficulty about "Toby's dog." Of course the reference is to Tobit's dog in the Apocry. phal book; but why should "the making of a preachment on Toby's dog," on 22 February, 1640, have been considered so serious an offence as to entail imprisonment in the Fleet and a fine of 2001. ? That is the question. RICHARD O. ASSHETON. was himself equally blameworthy, for the your At home, and sitting in elbow-chair, You praise Japan, though you was never there. But I think, if he had not died in early manhood, he would have also condemned this vicious locution, which was so common in the first half of the eighteenth century, and which Dr. Lowth's Short Introduction to English Grammar,' published in 1762, had so clearly shown to be wrong, JOHN T. CURRY. ENIGMA BY C. J. Fox (10th S. iv. 530).-The last three lines clearly indicate the answer. "My post" must be a bed-post, and "I" a H. H. bedfellow. AINSTY (10th S. ii. 25, 97, 455, 516; iii. 133, 256, 335).—If Mr. Solloway (whose ingenious speculation is alluded to at the first reference) will turn to the King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Roll for the year 26-7 Edward I., m. 83, he will find separate accounts of the Tenth for the "Decanatus Christianitatis Eboracensis" and the "Decanatus de Aynesty" -clear evidence that the two deaneries were co-existing entities in 1299, and that, con"PASSIVE RESISTER" (10th S. iv. 508).—As sequently, the latter name cannot be derived "passive obedience" was implicit submission from the former. Q. V. to kingly authority, whether legal or illegal, AFFERY FLINTWINCH IN LITTLE DORRIT those Nonjurors who, having taken the oath of allegiance to James II., were unable to (10th S. iv. 466).—It is quite possible that, as transfer that allegiance to William of Orange suggested by H. P. L., Dickens took the name from the tombstone (of what date?), especially during the lifetime of his predecessor, appear to have been the first with whom the attitude, as the two forms agree; but it is of interest if not the phrase, of "passive resistance to note that, according to Bardsley's 'Curiosi- became identified. In 'The Heart of Midties of Puritan Nomenclature,' p. 64, it was lothian,' which appeared in 1818, Scott says common in Kent, the registers of Canterbury Cathedral teeming with it. It occurs as Afra, Aphara, Aphora, and Apherie. In addition to these I note that Sir Anthony Aucher, Knt., married Affra, daughter of William Cornwallis (Hasted's Kent, ii. 501). AYEAHR. "WAS YOU?" AND "YOU WAS" (10th S. i. 509; ii. 72, 157). In a letter dated 29 December, 1779, which was written from Bath to his daughter Polly, John Wilkes thus humorously takes her to task for (ed. 1867, chap. vi.): "The passive resistance 6, Elgin Court, W. There are some very striking literary assopassive ciations attached to the phrase " 66 resistance." Isaac of York, in 'Ivanhoe' same. We now learn, on the authority of (chap. xxii.), was in a "humour of passive PROF. SKEAT, unless I am mistaken in his resistance when awaiting the terrors of language, that there were two different Front de Bœuf in the dungeon of the Castle places, Cealchyth" and "Celchyth," each of Torquilstone; and in 'Pickwick' the cod- of which was celebrated for its synods. Or fish which Mr. Weller was taking by the can Cealchyth" be a possible mistake of Muggleton Telegraph back to the Manor the scribe for "Celchyth"?. Farm, Dingley Dell, as a Christmas present to Mr. Wardle, suddenly ceased its "passive resistance" to being packed into the boot, to the discomfiture of the guard, and "the unsmotherable delight of all the porters and bystanders." ALAN PITT ROBBINS. "FAMOUS" CHELSEA (10th S. iv. 366, 434, 470, 517).--Certainly there is a place named "Ceoles ig" in two MSS. of the A.-S. Chronicle. an. 1006. But, unluckily, it is near Wallingford, and the modern name happens to be Cholsey. What we really want is not suggestions, but old spellings quoted from old documents. But this would require research, and it is so very much easier to guess. The spelling of charter No. 60 in Birch is of no value at all; it gives "Ethrel wedi" (sic) for Ethelrædi, and Pershora" (sic) for Perscora. So it is nothing but a late Norman copy, and is misdated.* The spelling in No. 247 is not "Celchyd," but Celchyth; for the dis 66 crossed." WALTER W. SKEAT. 66 It is quite true, as PROF. SKEAT says, that the two charters which I quoted from Thorpe will be found in Birch. But I cannot see that I repeated what PROF. SKEAT had already said‘“ as if it were new. PROF. SKEAT merely showed that "Celchyth" was "famosus" or celeber," while my object was to demonstrate, for the benefit of those readers who had not the leisure or the opportunity to consult the Cartularium,' that the reason for its being "famous was that so many synods were held there, and in support of this contention I gave particulars of two. I did not profess that this information was new, as it is, of course, to be found in Birch or Thorpe; but it was so far new that I do not think it has been recorded in any history of Chelsea. I quoted from Thorpe because his collection happened to be the handiest at the moment. As regards Cealchyth," PROF. SKEAT had pointed out that Mr. Plummer had made a mistake in regard to this place. I only wished to assure myself that other writers, in copying from the MSS., had not done the As for " With regard to MR. ADDY's theory, there can be no doubt that the second constituent of the name was "hyth," and not "ig." There is no authority whatever for the latter ending, and MR. ADDY merely repeats an old guess of Bosworth's. A place named "Ceoles-ig" or "Ceols-ig" certainly occurs in the charters, but it represents Cholsey, in Berkshire, and in all probability the first constituent is not "Ceol,” a name theme, but Ceol," a boat. The earliest mention of Chelsea after Domesday times that I can find is in the 'Calendar to the Feet of Fines for London and Middlesex,' i. 2, under date 8 Ric. I. (1196), where it is spelt Chelchud'. The transition to the modern form, as I have before pointed out, is shown in the will of Richard Laykyn, mercer, dated 1535, where the name is spelt Chelsehyth (Sharpe's Calendar of Husting Wills,' ii. 639).* 66 W. F. PRIDEAUX. Somner, in his 'Dictionarium SaxonicoLatino Anglicum,' 1659, has "Ceoles-ige, loci nomen, villæ insularis olim, et navibus accommodata, ut nomen significat.'" "Ceol is A.-S. for ship. Bosworth, in his A.-S. Dict.,' quotes Somner, and identifies "Ceolesig' with Chelsea. Lewis, in his "Topographical Dict.' (seventh ed., 1848), says that Chelsea was anciently called Chelcheth, or Chelchith, "probably from the S. ceosl, cesol, sand; and hythe, a harbour, from which its present name is derived." Bosworth has ceosel, ceosl, gravel, sand. Camden (Gibson's trans.) says: Chelsey [sic] is so called from a bed or shelf of sand in the river Thames (as some suppose), but in records it is named Chelche-hith. 'Cealc" in A.-S. place-names would generally be pronounced "Cawk," as Calke Abbey, Derby; also Cawkwell in Linc., so named from the calx or chalk pits there. Somner mentions "Cealca ceaster, oppidi nomen (ie. chalk city), which Camden thought was Tadcaster. 66 ་་ The etymology of the name Chelsea and the identity of the place were discussed at 2nd S. viii. 205 and ix. 132, 189. W. R. H. Barton-under-Needwood. |