been taken from the old kirk, which was demolished in 1783. Built into the west gable of the kirk is a gaunt human effigy, about three feet in height, but much mutilated. The writer of the New Statistical Account of the Parish, 1843, describes it as a representation of St. John the Baptist, to whom, he adds, the church was originally dedicated. The idea is certainly erroneous, for apart from a small hamlet of houses, with a ne spring and knoll, close to the kirk, known by the name of St. Madden, there is extant in the charter-chest at Cortachy Castle, a document bearing date 1447, in which mention is made of "the bell of the Kirk of St. Madden of Airlie," and he doubtless was the patron saiut of the kirk. His festival is held on May 17, and as he is specially said to have devoted certain days to the celebration of the Eucharist and the Passion of Christ, the emblems on the ambry and coping-stone have most probably reference to that tradition. It may, however, be noticed, though the parish kirk was dedicated to St. Madden, there was formerly, about a mile to the south-west a chapel, which had for its patron saint, St. John, and to which William de Fenton, in 1362, presented the adjoining lands of Lunross; yet to this, the statue cannot by the most distant probability have any reference. ment. No description, or print of ancient armour, known to the writer, represents the peculiarity observable in the singularly formed apron of plate mail, as shewn on this figure. The carving appears to indicate scale armour, small round plates of iron, lapping one over the other like fish scales, and terminating in a point, to which is pendant an oval or heart-shaped ornaSome Correspondent of Current Notes may possibly be able to explain this curious appendage of old costume. The animal on the book is possibly intended to represent a lamb; hence, it may be inferred, the fore finger of the right hand points to "the Lamb's book of life," an allegory not unworthy of a much later time than that to which the statue appears to belong. The Fenton estate in the fifteenth century became the property of the younger sons of Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, and Halkett of Pitfirran. Baikie Castle stood on a rising ground, near the west side of the loch of Baikie, but has long been demolished, and a new mansion, a little to the south, erected some years since. Brechin. A. J. MEN often make others unfaithful by thinking them so.-Seneca. * Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 118. † Reg. Mag. Sigilli, p. 25. PAISLEY BLACK BOOK. CAN any of the readers of Current Notes furnish particulars as to the authorship, contents, and present place of deposit of this book? It is not mentioned under the head of "Paisley" in Bishop Nicolson's Historical Library, Macray's Manual of British Historians, or in the Cottonian, Harleian, or Lansdowne Catalogues. Ashton-under-Lyne, Jan. 15. J. R. C. the monks Refer to Crawford's History of the Shire of Renfrew, first printed in 1710, continued by William Semple, printed at Paisley, 1782, 4to. p. 281, where it is said, of the abbey of Paisley wrote a Chronicle of Scotland, called the Black Book of Paisley, of which an authentic copy was burned in the Abbey of Holyrood House, during the English usurpation." This assertion is derived from Dunlop's Description of the Shire of Renfrew. Another copy is noticed in Sibbald's Theatrum Scotia, as having been in the President Sir Robert Spottiswood's library, whence it was taken by General Lambert, and presented by him to Colonel, afterwards Thomas, Lord Fairfax. There are here also other references respecting this supposed record, of which after all, Chalmers, in his Caledonia, vol. III., p. 125, quoting Bp. Nicolson's Scottish Historical Library, p. 93, thus summarily disposes-" The monks of Paisley are said to have written a Chronicle of Scotland, which was called the Black Book of Paisley, from the colour of its cover; but this like the Black Book of Scone, appears to have been merely a transcript of Fordun's Scotichronicon." ED. WEIGHT OF TOBACCO SMOKE DETERMINED. HOWELL in his Letters, Book III. Letter 7, tells the story of Sir Walter Raleigh winning a wager of Queen Elizabeth, by ascertaining the weight of smoke in a pound of tobacco. The incident was recently noticed in an hebdomadal contemporary, but neither the communicant, nor the editor allude to the fact of the trick having been practised more than a thousand years before, as we find in the Dialogues of Lucian, who died in the year 180. In Franklin's translation, 1781, 8vo. vol. III. p. SS, we read, "Somebody asked him (Demonax) one day in a scoffing manner, this question-Pray, if you burn a thousand pounds of wood, how many pounds will there be of smoke? Weigh the ashes, said he, and all the rest will be smoke." F. R. A. Howell's Letters are fictions, written by him while confined in the Fleet Prison for debt, and the story of the wager with the Queen doubtless originated in one of his literary embellishments. Lucian's Dialogues were translated by Hickes, and printed at Oxford in 1634, where possibly Howell met with the jocosery, or, as he was quite capable, he read it in one of the Latin versions, and, adopting the tradition of Raleigh's being the introducer of tobacco from Virginia, made it an illustration of his intimacy with her Majesty, in compliment to whom that country was so named. ED. THE DEATH OF COWPER. With her expiring breath O Cowper! had'st thou touch'd the strings What glorious, what mellifluous strains And was it then indeed despair, With genius high combin'd. O had the darkness pass'd away, Then how his raptur'd soul of fire Had kindled into praise; And struck while here an angel's lyre, This was denied-to mental gloom Thro' midnight shadows of the tomb, A death that wore so stern a frown, Peckham, Dec. 1841. W. B. COLLYER. MARY RUSSELL MITFORD, born at Alresford, in Hampshire, Dec. 16, 1786, authoress of Our Village, and other popular works, died at Swallowfield, near Reading, on Wednesday, the 10th inst., in her sixtyninth year. These dates are based on the beginning of a letter addressed to one of her most intimate friends“Swallowfield, Dec. 16, 1854. "My dear Friend. This is a day I never thought to see again-my 68th birth-day." GARRICKIANA.-Mr. O. Smith, the eminent comedian, having been obliged by deafness and declining health, to relinquish his connection with the stage, which he has trodden with so much credit for upwards of half a century, his library and choice collection of MSS. and Engravings illustrative of the Drama, will be sold by auction by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, at the close of next month. His GARRICKIANA, illustrative of Garrick and his contemporaries, comprising almost every known engraving connected therewith, will form one of the most interesting features. ROSEMARY BLOSSOMS. Let some kindly hand make up a gathering. My thoughts have been wandering in scented chambers, and I wish some one would edit on paper of appropriate blush, the association of Rosemary, Lavender, and Rue-three favourites, long popularly united. In the old music books, of an elementary character, the air of "Lavender's blue," is frequently found, but it has grown vulgar, and both the words and tune are descending into mere traditionary matters- Lavender's blue, diddle, diddle, rosemary's green, Mihi est propositum in taberna mori; which may be thus rendered May it be my good hap, Gerard, gardener to Lord Burleigh, notices in his Herbal, Rosemary grew in Languedoc in such plenty that the inhabitants burned scarcely any other fuel. In the gardens of Italy and England, he adds, they made hedges of it as an ornament, and it was called Rosemarinus Coronaria, "because women have been accustomed to make crowns and garlands thereof." Hence the propriety of its standing for the queen's emblem in the old oral stanzas. Gerard, moreover, mentions it serving as spice in German kitchens and in other cold countries, in his day, as well as used in wine for inebriating, and as oil for medicinal purposes. And hereupon follows another enumeration of bless ings: Rosemary green, And Lavender blue, Thyme and sweet Margerum, Hyssop and rue. membrance, and was anciently supposed to strengthen Rosemary has long been considered as a symbol of recinal treatises for that purpose. the memory; prescriptions are found in the old mediPerdita, in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3; with the flowers presented to Polyxenes and the guests, as a welcome to the sheep-shearing, adds For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep Ophelia, too, presents Laertes a sprig of rosemary, observing There's rosemary, that's for remembrance ;* Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5. So Drayton, in his ninth eclogue, has lines to the same purpose Him rosemary his sweetheart [sent], whose intent On the festive occasion at Christmas, of bringing in the boar's head, at Queen's College, Oxford, and elsewhere, various carols were sung. One printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1521, commences thus Rosemary was also adopted as an essential at funerals, possibly for its odour, and as a token of remembrance of the deceased And lavender is passing sweet, And so's the rosemary; And yet they deck the winding sheet, Friar Lawrence on the discovery of Juliet's corpse, bids the bystanders Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary On this fair corse; and as the custom is, Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. v. Shakespeare was here referring to the custom as observed in England. On some occasions rosemary was buried with the dead. When to make room for the burial of an ordinary gentlewoman, the body of William Parr, the brother of Queen Catherine, was dug up in the choir of the collegiate church at Warwick, "it was found perfect, the skin entire, dried to the bones, with rosemary and bays in the coffin, fresh and green."* Cartwright also alludes to the custom, on the bearing of the body to the grave Prithee see they have A sprig of rosemary, dipp'd in common water, The Ordinary, 1651, 8vo. act v. sc. 1. The practice is noticed so late as the time of Gay, who in his Shepherd's Week, describing Blouselinda's funeral, says― To show their love, the neighbours far and near Fifth Pastoral; The Dirge, lines 133-138. Henry Kirke White too, bade the rosemary "scatter about his tomb-a sweet decaying smell;" and the Rosemary Lane of Newcastle, anciently known as St. John's Chare, if in name only, keeps watch and ward over the graveyard of the beloved apostle. During the civil commotions in the reign of King Charles the First, it appears to have escaped notice, a sprig of rosemary was the distinctive badge of the Parliamentarians. Baillie, in his diary, Dec. 2, 1640, writes On Saturday, Burton and Prynne came through most of the City triumphantly; never here such a show; about a thousand horses, and above a hundred coaches, with a world of foot, every one with a rosemary branch. Nathan Drake, in his manuscript Diary of the first siege of Pontefract, in 1644, in which he was a volunteer * Dugdale's Baronage, as quoted by Nicolson and Burn. defender, expresses the apprehension of an immediate assault by the roundheads; the enemy's horse being "drawn up in the parke, and many of their foote with roasemary in theire hattes." One of the marks for the archers in Finsbury Fields, was named the Rosemary Branch; and in an old map the position is represented as a tree, inscribed Ros' Bra'ch, but in 1737, here was a hostelry, called the Rosemary Branch, or Nevil's House. It was long celebrated as a place of public entertainment, but at length having become part of Walker's lead-works, a new Rosemary Branch was in 1783, erected just beyond the former, at the junction of the parishes of Shoreditch and Islington. W. HYLTON DYER LONGSTAFFE, F.S.A. Gateshead, Jan. 4. IN your Current Notes, for December, you have treated your readers with a specimen of Belfry Poetry: similar may be found in many belfries. Allow me to send you a copy from a tower in Cornwall. Perhaps some of your readers will be able to multiply other variations of Belfry Poetry. H. T. ELLACOMBE. Rectory, Clyst St. George, Jan. 17. VERSES IN LANDULPH CHURCH BELFRY, CORNWALL. Let awful silence first proclaimed be, PATTERN VICTORIA FLORINS. THOUGH the want of a coin of a value between the shilling and half-crown had long been felt, it is only within the last few years that it was determined to supply it. It was considered also a favourable opportunity for an attempt at the introduction of a decimal system of coinage. In the present case considerable trouble was taken and many trials even made before one suitable to the taste of the exalted individuals whose pleasure is taken on the subject was produced. The success of the experiment has not, unfortunately, answered the expectations of the public, while the mistakes arising from the slight difference in size between it and the halfcrown leads to continual dissatisfaction. Few persons are aware of the varied patterns which were made in the hope of gratifying the desire of making a handsome coin, but the collection of choice patterns and rare coins, of Mr. Chaffers, 20, Old Bond Street, has enabled the writer to enumerate the following varieties Obv. the Queen's head, crowned, to the left, VICTORIA REGINA, 1848. Reverse, an oak wreath, the prong of a trident, from the early coins of Greece, placed within. ONE DECADE. Above the wreath, 100 MILLES. Below the wreath, ONE-TENTH OF A POUND, as shewn in the woodcut. Obv. the same. Reverse, the same, but in place of One Decade, are the words ONE CENTUM. Obv. the same. Reverse, within the wreath, ONE FLORIN, and below it, ONE-TENTH OF A POUND. Obv. the Queen's head, to the left, a riband binds the hair, VICTORIA REGINA; 1848 below the head. Rev. the field, within a quatrefoil, occupied by a shapeless V. R. conjoined, the Shamrock, Rose, and Thistle, in the three upper quarters; the Prince's plume in the lower compartment. The legend, ONE CENTUM. ONE-TENTH OF A POUND, as shewn in the woodcut. ONE FLORIN. These constitute no less than nine varieties of pattern pieces; the first issue of the florin was a junction of the dies, the obverse first shown of the Queen's head crowned, the date altered to 1849, with the reverse of the ninth pattern. The omission of the initials D. G. or DEI GRATIA, on the obverse, combined with the dumpy character of the piece, occasioned much dissatisfaction. Another variety, struck on a wider flan, has the obverse legend in old English characters, Victoria: D:g: brit: reg: f: d: mocccliii. Reverse, the arms as before, but a quadrupled trefoil ornament displaces the double rose in the centre. The legend, One Florin, and below, one-tenth of a pound. The high rim in which they are struck deprives them of their metallic sound as silver, and occasions many to be doubted as counterfeits. CONCORDANCE.-The first to any portion of the English Bible was entitled "A Concordance of the New Testament, most necessary to be had in the handes of all soche as desire the communication of any place contayned in ye New Testament. Imprinted by me T. Gibson, 1535, sm. 8vo." From the Epistle to the reader, it appears that Gibson, the printer, was asisted in the compilation by John Daye. It is of extreme rarity; a copy, defective of the title and four leaves, sold on the 11th inst., among Mr. Pickering's books, for 97. 17s. 6d. STRUTT'S QUEEN-HOO HALL. SOME years since, I purchased of the author's son a printed copy of "Queen-Hoo Hall," by the late Joseph Strutt, containing manuscript memoranda by him, which, among other matters stated, the original manuscript of that romance, prior to its being printed, was submitted to Mr., subsequently Sir Walter Scott, who retained it a long time. In that writer's" Waverley" Mr. Strutt junior, accuses Sir Walter of taking facts and hints from his parent's work. He also states the story of the illuminator in Queen-Hoo Hall, is a memoir of his father, the author of so many popular works in elucidation of English antiquities. These four volumes, printed at Edinburgh, in 1808, I presented to my friend and patron, Mr. John Broadley, whose very fine and choice library was, after his decease, sold by auction. Can any reader of Current Notes say, in whose possession is now this copy of Strutt's QueenHoo Hall? I have a beautiful miniature portrait of Joseph Strutt, by J. Jackson, R.A. J. BRITTON, Jan. 15. LOVE AND HONOUR.-Mrs. Jameson, in her "Ethical Fragments," gives the following as a wise saying of Landor's : primary in those who love least; he who is inspired by it Love is a secondary passion in those who love most, a in the strongest degree is inspired by honour in a greater. ever, is certainly not his, it belongs to a poet of Charles The expression as quoted is Landor's; the idea howthe First's time, I think, as the two following lines will prove: I should not love thee half so well, I do not remember where these lines are, and should be obliged if any of your readers will assist my memory? Apropos of ideas borrowed-borrowed is too strong a word when applied to minds like Landor's and Cowper's -do you not think that our poet Cowper got his cue for his beautiful lines, beginning Yon cottager who weaves at her own door; from Corneille's paraphrase of the "Imitation of Jesus Christ," chap. ii.? Un paysan stupide et sans expérience, J. W. 3. |