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Notes and Queries, Number 196, July 30, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle.

No. 196.

Saturday, July 30. 1853.

Price Fourpence
Stamped Edition 5d.

CONTENTS.

Notes:—

Page

Books chained to Desks in Churches: Font Inscription: Parochial Libraries, by W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A.

Real Signatures versus Pseudo-names, by the Rev. James Graves

Popular Stories of the English Peasantry, by Vincent T. Sternberg

Shakspeare Correspondence, by Cecil Harbottle, &c.

Epitaph and Monuments in Wingfield Church, Suffolk

Original Royal Letters to the Grand Masters of Malta

Minor Notes:—Meaning of "Clipper"—Anathema, Maran-atha—Convocation and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts—Pigs said to see the Wind—Anecdote of the Duke of Gloucester

100

Queries:—

Lord William Russell

100

Ancient Furniture—Prie-Dieu

101

Minor Queries:—Reynolds' Nephew—Sir Isaac Newton—Limerick, Dublin, and Cork—Praying to the West—Mulciber—Captain Booth of Stockport—"A saint in crape"—French Abbés—What Day is it at our Antipodes?—"Spendthrift"—Second Growth of Grass—The Laird of Brodie—Mrs. Tighe, Author of "Psyche"—Bishop Ferrar—Sir Thomas de Longueville—Quotations wanted—Symon Patrick, Bishop of Ely: Durham: Weston: Jephson—The Heveninghams of Suffolk and Norfolk—Lady Percy, Wife of Hotspur (Daughter of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March)—Shape of Coffins—St. George Family Pictures—Caley (John), "Ecclesiastical Survey of the Possessions, &c. of the Bishop of St. David's," &c.—Adamson's "Lusitania Illustrata"—Blotting-paper—Poetical Versions of the Fragments in Athenæus

102

Replies:—

Robert Drury

104

The Termination -by

105

The Rosicrucians, by William Bates

106

Inscriptions on Bells, by W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A.

108

Was Cook the Discoverer of the Sandwich Islands? by C. E. Bagot

108

Megatherium Americanum, by W. Pinkerton

109

Photographic Correspondence:—Stereoscopic Angles—Yellow Bottles for Photographic Chemicals

109

Replies To Minor Queries:—Earth upon Earth, &c.—Picalyly—Mr. Justice Newton—Manners of the Irish—Arms of the See of York—"Up, Guards, and at 'em!"—Coleridge's Christabel: the 3rd Part—Mitigation of Capital Punishment—The Man with the Iron Mask—Gentleman executed for Murder of a Slave—Jahn's Jahrbuch—Character of the Song of the Nightingale, &c.

110

Miscellaneous:—

Books and Odd Volumes wanted

114

Notices to Correspondents

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114

Notes.

BOOKS CHAINED TO DESKS IN CHURCHES: FONT INSCRIPTION: PAROCHIAL LIBRARIES.

It would be interesting to have a complete list of the various books still to be found chained to desks in our ancient churches. The "Bible of the largest volume," the "Books of Homilies allowed by authority," and the Book of Common Prayer, are ordered by Canon 80. to be provided for every church. In some places this regulation is still complied with: at Oakington, Cambridgeshire, a copy of a recent (1825) edition of the Homilies lies on a small desk in the nave. But besides these authoritative works, other books are found chained to their ancient desks: at Impington, Cambridgeshire are, or were, "three black-letter volumes of Fox's Martyrs chained to a stall in the chancel." (Paley's Ecclesiologist's Guide, &c.) At St. Nicholas, Rochester, chained to a small bracket desk at the south side of the west door, is a copy of A Collection of Cases and other Discourses to recover Dissenters to the Church of England, small 8vo., 1718. The Paraphrase of Erasmus may probably be added to the list (see Professor Blunt's Sketch of the History of the Reformation, 10th edit., p. 130.), though I cannot call to mind any church in which a copy of this work may now be found. In the noble minster church at Wimborne, Dorsetshire, is a rather large collection of books, comprising some old and valuable editions: all these books were, and many still are, chained to their shelves; an iron rod runs along the front of each shelf, on which rings attached to the chains fastened to the covers of the works have free play; these volumes are preserved in an upper chamber on the south side of the chancel. The parochial library at St. Margaret's, Lynn, Norfolk, is one of considerable interest and importance; amongst other treasures are a curious little manuscript of the New Testament very neatly written, a (mutilated) black-letter copy of the Sarum Missal, and many fine copies of the works of the Fathers, and also of the Reformers; these are preserved in the south aisle of the chancel, which is fitted up as a library, and are in very good order. At Margate Church are a few volumes, of what kind my note-book does not inform me. I may also mention, in connexion with St. Nicholas, Rochester, that the font is octagonal, and inscribed with the following capital letters, the first surmounted by a crown:

C . R . I . * . * . * . A . N.

The large panel on each side contains one of the letters; the font is placed close to the wall, so that the remaining letters, indicated by asterisks, cannot now be read: the sexton said that the whole word was supposed to be "Christian," or rather "Cristian." Beside the font is a very quaint iron bracket-stand, painted blue and gold, "constructed to carry" two candles.

W. Sparrow Simpson.

P. S.—Permit me to correct an error of the press in my communication at p. 8. of your present volume, col. 1. l. 10. from bottom; for "worn," read "won."

REAL SIGNATURES VERSUS PSEUDO-NAMES.

It is pleasant to see so many of the correspondents of "N. & Q." joining in the remonstrance against the anonymous system. Were one to set about accumulating the reasons for the abandonment of pseudo-names and initials, many of the valuable columns of this periodical might be easily filled; such an essay it is not, however, my intention to inflict on its readers, who by a little thought can easily do for themselves more than a large effusion of ink on the part of any correspondent could effect. I shall content myself with recounting the good which, in one instance, has resulted from a knowledge of the real name and address of a contributor.

The Rev. H. T. Ellacombe (one of the first to raise his voice against the use of pseudo-names) having observed in "N. & Q." many communications evincing no ordinary acquaintance with the national Records of Ireland, and wishing to enter into direct communication with the writer (who merely signed himself J. F. F.), put a Query in the "Notices to Correspondents," begging J. F. F. to communicate his real name and address. There in all probability the matter would have ended, as J. F. F. did not happen to take "N. & Q.," but that the writer of these lines chanced to be aware, that under the above given initials lurked the name of the worthy, the courteous, the erudite, and, yet more strange still, the unpaid guardian of the Irish Exchequer Records—James Frederick Ferguson,—a name which many a student of Irish history will recognise with warm gratitude and unfeigned respect. Now it had so happened that by a strange fortune Mr. Ellacombe was the repository of information as to the whereabouts of certain of the ancient Records of Ireland (see Mr. Ellacombe's notice of the matter, Vol. viii., p. 5.), abstracted at some former period from the "legal custody" of some heedless keeper, and sold by a Jew to a German gentleman, and the result of his communicating this knowledge to Mr. Ferguson, has been the latter gentleman's "chivalrous" and successful expedition for their recovery. The English Quarterly Review (not Magazine, as Mr. Ellacombe inadvertently writes), in a forthcoming article on the Records of Ireland, will, it is to be hoped, give the full details of this exciting record hunt, and thus exemplify the great utility, not to speak of the manliness, of real names and addresses, versus false names and equally Will-o'-the-Wisp initials.

James Graves.

Kilkenny.

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

The old Corrector on "The Winter's Tale."—I am glad to find that you have another correspondent, and a very able one too, under the signature of A. E. B., who takes the same view of "Aristotle's checks" as I have done; though I think he might have paid me the compliment of just noticing my prior remonstrance on this subject. It is to be lamented, that Mr. Collier should have hurried out his new edition of Shakspeare, adopting all the sweeping emendations of his newly-found commentator, without paying the slightest heed to any of the suggestions which have been offered to him in a friendly spirit, or affording time for the farther objections which are continually pouring in. At the risk of probably wearying some of your readers, I cannot forbear submitting to you a few more remarks; but I shall confine them on this occasion to one play, The Winter's Tale: which contains, perhaps, as many poetical beauties as any single work of our great dramatic bard. With reference to the passage quoted in p. 437., I can hardly believe that Shakspeare ever wrote such a poor unmeaning line as—

" . . . they are false as dead blacks."

nor can I perceive any possible objection to the original words "o'er dyed blacks." They may either mean false mourners, putting an over dark semblance of grief; or they may allude figuratively to the material of mourning, the colours of which if over-dyed will not stand. In either of these senses, the passage is poetical; but there is nothing like poetry in "our dead blacks."

In p. 450. the alteration of the word "and" to "heaven" may be right, though it is difficult to conceive how the one can have been mistaken for the other. At all events, the sense is improved by the change; but I do not see that anything is gained by the substitution in the next line of "dream" for "theme." Whatever the king said in his ravings about Hermione, might as aptly be called part of his "theme" as part of his "dream." The subject of his dream was in fact his theme!

Neither can I discover any good reason for changing, in p. 452.,

" . . . and one may drink, depart,

And yet partake no venom,"

into "drink a part." The context clearly shows the author's meaning to have been, that if any one departed at once after tasting of the beverage, he would have no knowledge of what he had drunk; but if he remained, some one present might point out to him the spider in the cup, and then "he cracks his gorge," &c.

In p. 460. Mr. Collier says that the passage, "dangerous, unsafe lunes i' the king," is mere tautology, and therefore he follows the old corrector in substituting "unsane lunes." Now it strikes me that there is quite as much tautology in "unsane lunes" as in the double epithet, "dangerous, unsafe." It is, in fact, equivalent to "insane madness;" and, moreover, drags in quite needlessly a very unusual and uncouth word.

In p. 481. we have the last word of the following passage—

"I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,

So fill'd and so becoming,"—

converted into "o'er-running." This may possibly be the correct reading; but, seeing that it is immediately followed by the words—

" . . . in pure white robes,

Like very sanctity,"

I question whether "becoming" is not the more natural expression.

"There weep—and leave it crying,"

is made—

"There wend—and leave it crying,"

which I submit is decidedly wrong. I will not be hypercritical, or I might suggest that in that case the words would have been "thither wend;" but I maintain that the change is contrary to the sense. The spirit of Hermione never could have been intended to say that the child should be left crying. She would rather wish that it might not cry! The meaning, as it seems to me, is, that Antigonus should weep over the babe, and leave it while so

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weeping.

In p. 487. the words "missingly noted" are altered to "musingly noted," which is a very questionable improvement. Camillo, missing Florigel from court, would naturally note his absence; and he may have mused over the causes of it, but there could be no necessity for musing to note the fact of his absence: and I cannot help thinking that the word missingly is more in Shakspeare's style.

I cannot subscribe at all to the alteration in p. 492. of the word "unrolled" to "enrolled." To be enrolled and placed in the book of virtue is very like tautology; but I conceive Shakspeare meant Autolycus to wish that his name might be unrolled from the company of thieves and gypsies with whom he was associated, and transferred to the book of virtue.

I am entirely at issue with the old corrector upon his emendation in p. 498.:

" . . . Nothing she does or seems,

But smacks of something greater than herself;"

he says, ought to be: "Nothing she does or says." And how does Mr. Collier explain this misprint? Why, by stating that formerly "says" was often written "saies." Now, I cannot for the life of me discover why the word "saies" should have been mistaken for "seems," any more than the word "says." But surely the phrase, "nothing she does or seems," is far more poetical and elegant than the other. It says in effect: there is nothing either in her acts or her carriage, "but smacks of something greater than herself." We have positive evidence, however, that the passage could not have been "nothing she does or says," viz. that this speech of Polixenes immediately follows a long dialogue between Florizel and Perdita, which could not have been overheard, because Camillo directly afterwards says to the king:

" . . . He tells her something,

That makes her blood look out."

Thereby clearly proving, that the king could not have been remarking on what she said.

The transformation of the last-mentioned line into—

"That wakes her blood—look out!"

cannot, I think, be justified on any ground. He tells her something which "makes her blood look out." That is, something which makes her blush rush to the surface to look out upon it! What can be more natural? The proposed alteration is not only unnecessary, but awkward!

In p. 499., if the words "unbraided wares" must be altered, I see no reason for the change to "embroided" wares. It seems to me that embraided would be the most proper word.

What possible reason can there be for converting "force and knowledge," in p. 506., to "sense and knowledge?" If I may be excused a play upon the words, I should say the sense of the passage is not at all improved, and the force is entirely lost.

I must protest most decidedly against the correction of the following lines, p. 507.:

" . . . Can he speak? hear?

Know man from man? dispute his own estate?"

Dispute his own estate means, defend his property, dispute with any one who questions his rights. The original passage expresses the sense quite perfectly, while "dispose his own estate" appears to me poor and insipid in comparison.

Mr. Collier's objection to the speech of Camillo, in p. 514.,

" . . . it shall be so my care

To have you royally appointed, as if

The scene you play were mine;"

is, that to make the scene appear as if it were Camillo's, could be of no service to the young prince. Now Camillo says nothing about the scene appearing as his. He says he will have the prince royally appointed, as if the scene he played were really his own: that is, as if he were the party interested in it, instead of the prince.

The reading of the old corrector—

" . . . . As if

The scene you play were true,"

would be nonsense; because, so far as the prince appearing to be Bohemia's son (which was what he was most anxious about), the scene to be played was really true!

The last correction I have now to notice is in the soliloquy of Autolycus in p. 522.: where Mr. Collier proposes to read, "who knows how that may turn luck to my advantage," instead of "may turn back to my advantage." I see no advantage in the change, but the very reverse. "Who knows but my availing myself of the means to do the prince my master a service, may come back to me in the shape of some advancement?" This seems to me to be the author's meaning, and it is legitimately expressed. How frequently it has been said that an evil deed recoils upon the head of the perpetrator! Then why not a good deed turn back to reward the doer?

Cecil Harbottle.

P. S.—It is rather singular that A. E. B., who, as I have already shown, has so completely shelved me in his remarks upon "Aristotle's checks," should now complain of the very same thing himself, and say that his "humble auxilia have been coolly appropriated, without the slightest acknowledgment." However, as our opinions coincide upon the passage in question, I am not disposed to pick a quarrel with him. I cannot, however, at all concur in his alteration of the passage in King Lear: "Our means secure us," to "Our means recuse us." I will certainly leave him "in the quiet possession of whatever merit is due to this restoration," or rather this invention! Can A. E. B. show any other instance in which Shakspeare has used the verb recuse; or will he point out any other author who has adopted it in the sense referred to? Johnson calls it a "juridical word:" and I certainly have no recollection of having met with it, except in judicial proceedings.

I can neither subscribe to the emendation of A. E. B., nor to that of the old commentator, but infinitely prefer the original words, which appear to me perfectly intelligible. The sense, as it strikes me, is, that however we may desire things which we have not, the means we already possess are sufficient for our security; and even our defects prove serviceable. Blindness, for instance, will make a man more careful of himself; and then the other faculties he enjoys will secure him from harm.

"King Lear," Act IV. Sc. 1.—

"Our means secure us, and our mere defects

Prove our commodities."

I should not object to your correspondent A. E. B.'s conjectural emendation, "recuse" for "secure," but that, unless my memory and Ayscough are both deceptive, the word "recuse" is nowhere to be found in Shakspeare; nor, as far as I know, in any dramatist of the age. If it be used by any of the latter, it is probably only in the strict legal meaning, which is quite different from that which A. E. B. would attach to it. This is conclusive with me; for I hold that there is no sounder canon in Shakspearian criticism than never to introduce by conjecture a word of which the poet does not himself elsewhere make use, or which is not at least strongly sanctioned by contemporary employment.

I therefore, as the passage is flat nonsense, return to the well-abused "corrector's" much modester emendation, "wants" for "means."

And now permit one word in defence of this deceased and untoward personage.

I think

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much of the unpopularity into which he has fallen with a certain class of critics, is owing to their not allowing him fair play.

Suppose a MS. placed in our hands, containing, beyond all doubt, what Mr. Collier's corrected second folio is alleged to contain, authoritative emendations of the text: what should we, à priori, expect to find in it?

That text is abominably corrupt beyond a doubt; it contains many impossible readings, which must be misprints or otherwise erroneous; it contains also many improbable readings, harsh, strained, mean, inadequate, and the like.

Now it is excessively unlikely that a truly corrected copy, could we find one, would remove all the impossible readings, and leave all the improbable ones.

It is still more unlikely that, in correcting the improbable passages, it would leave those to which Mr. A., or Mr. B., or Mr. C., ay, or all of us together, have formed an attachment from habit, predilection, or prejudice of some kind. Such phrases as "the blanket of the dark," "a man that hath had losses," "unthread the rude eye of rebellion," and many more, have become consecrated in our eyes by habit; they have assumed, as it were, the character of additions to our ordinary vocabulary; and yet I think sound reason itself, and that kind of secondary reason or instinct which long familiarity with critical pursuits gives us, combine to suggest that, occurring in a corrupt text, they are probably corruptions; and corruptions in lieu of some very common and even prosaic phrases, such as the corrector substitutes for them, and such as no conjectural critic would venture on.

In short, the kind of disappointment which many of these corrections unavoidably give to the reader, is with me an argument in favour of their genuineness, not against it.

And, lastly, in so very corrupt a text, it is à priori probable that many phrases which appear to need no correction at all, are misprints or mistakes nevertheless. It is probably that the true text of the poet contained many variations utterly unimportant, as well as others of importance, from the printed one. Now here it is precisely, that we find in the corrector what we should anticipate, and what it is difficult to account for on any theory disparaging his authority. What could have induced him to make such substitutions as swift for "sweet," then for "there," all arose for "are arose," solemn for "sorry," fortune for "nature," to quote from a single play, the Comedy of Errors, which happens to lie before me,—none of them necessary emendations, most of them trivial, unless he had under his eye some original containing those variations, to which he wished his own copy to conform? It is surely wild guessing to attribute corrections like these to a mere wanton itch for altering the text; and yet no other alternative is suggested by the corrector's enemies.

I am myself as yet a sceptic in the matter, being very little disposed to hasty credulity on such occasions, especially where there is a possibility of deceit. But I must say that the doctrine of probabilities seems to me to furnish strong arguments in the corrector's favour; and that the attacks of professed Shakspearian critics on him, both in and out of "N. & Q.," have hitherto rather tended to raise him in my estimation.

H. M.

Aristotle's Checks v. Aristotle's Ethics.—

"Only, good master, while we do admire

This virtue, and this moral discipline,

Let's be no stoicks, nor no stocks, I pray;

Or so devote to Aristotle's checks,

As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd."

Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Sc. 1.

The following are instances of the use of the substantive check by Shakspeare:

"Orlando. A man that had a wife with such a wit, might say,—'Wit whither wilt?'
"Rosalind. Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed."

"Falstaff. I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valour."

"Antony. This is a soldier's kiss; rebukable,

And worthy shameful check it were to stand

On more mechanic compliment."

"Belarius. . . . O, this life

Is nobler, than attending for a check."

"Iago. However, this may gall him with some check.

"Desdemona. And yet his trespass, in our common reason

. . . . is not almost a fault

To incur a private check."

These instances may show that the word in question was a favourite expression of the poet. It is true there was a translation of the Ethics of Aristotle in his time, The Ethiques of Aristotle. If he spelt it ethiques, no printer would have blundered and substituted checks.

Judge Blackstone suggested ethicks, but Johnson and Steevens kept to checks. And Johnson, in his Dictionary, sub voce Devote, quotes the passage, but which, by a strange printer's misreading, is referred to "Tim. of Ath." instead of Tam. of Sh. in Todd's edit. of Johnson's Dictionary (1818).

W. N.

Pall Mall.

EPITAPH AND MONUMENTS IN WINGFIELD CHURCH, SUFFOLK.

I am not aware if the following epitaph has yet appeared in print; but I can safely assert that it really has a sepulchral origin; unlike those whose doubtful character causes them to be placed by your correspondent Mr. Shirley Hibberd among the "gigantic gooseberries" ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 190.). I copied it myself from a gravestone in the churchyard of the village of Wingfield, Suffolk. After the name, &c. of the deceased is the following verse:

"Pope boldly says (some think the maxim odd),

'An honest man's the noblest work of God;'

If Pope's assertion be from error clear,

The noblest work of God lies buried here."

Wingfield Church itself is an interesting old place, but has been a good deal mauled in times past; and the brasses, of which there were once several, are all gone. It is, I believe, a good deal noted for a parvise, or room over the porch, from which, by an opening in the wall, a view of the altar is obtained. There are two or three piscinas in different parts of the church, and a sedilla near the altar. The most interesting objects are, however, three altar tombs, with recumbent figures of the Earls of Suffolk; the earliest, which is of wood, representing either the first or second peer of the family, with his spouse. The next in date is that of the celebrated noble who figures in Shakspeare's Henry VI. The monument is, if I recollect right, of alabaster. The figure is attired in complete armour, and was originally painted; a good deal of the colour still remaining. This and the following monument are partly let into the wall, and are surmounted by beautiful Gothic canopies. The third is, I believe, also of alabaster, and is the effigy of (I think) the nephew of Margaret of Anjou's earl, and who lies by the side of his wife, one of Edward IV.'s family.

It is very likely that all I have been writing is no news to any one. In that case I have but to ask your pardon for troubling you with such a

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worthless Note.

Pictor.

ORIGINAL ROYAL LETTERS TO THE GRAND MASTERS OF MALTA.

In searching through the manuscripts now filed away in the Record Office of this island with Dr. Villa, who has charge of them, and for whose assistance in my search I am greatly indebted, I have been gratified by seeing several original letters, addressed by different monarchs of England to the Grand Masters of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Each of the royal letters in the following list bears the signature of the writer:

Writer. Date. In what language
written. To whom addressed, or by
whom received. Henry VIII. 8th January, 1523 Latin Villiers de L'Isle Adam. Ditto 1st August, 1524 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 14th January, 1526 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 10th day, 1526 (month omitted) Ditto Ditto. Ditto 22nd November, 1530 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 17th November, 1534 Ditto Ditto. Charles II. 17th January, 1667-8 Ditto Nicholas Cotoner. Ditto 29th April, 1668 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 26th January, 1675-6 Ditto Ditto. Ditto Last day of November, 1674 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 21st June, 1675 Ditto Ditto. James II. 13th July, 1689 French Gregory Carafa. Anne 8th July, 1713 Ditto Raymond Perellos de Roccaful. George I.* 24th August, 1722 Latin Anthony Manoel de Villena. James (the Pretender) 14th September, 1725 French Ditto. George II. 19th June, 1741 Latin Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca. Ditto 8th December, 1748 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 6th November, 1756 Ditto Ditto.

* The letter of George I. is countersigned "Carteret;" those of George II. by "Harrington," "H. Fox," and "Bedford." None of the other letters in the above list bear any signature but that of the king or queen who wrote them. Among the letters of Henry VIII., addressed to Villiers de L'Isle Adam, there is one of much interest. I refer to that of the earliest date, in which his majesty strongly recommended the Grand Master to accept of Tripoli, on the coast of Barbary, and the islands of Malta and Gozo, as a residence for the convent, which Charles V. had offered him. The importance of Malta as a military station was known in England three hundred years ago. L'Isle Adam (with the exception of La Valetta), the most distinguished of all the Maltese Grand Masters, died on the 21st of August, 1534. The last letter of Henry VIII., addressed to him, came to his successor, Nicholas Cotoner. On the mantle which covered the remains of this great man these few words were inscribed,—"Here lies Virtue triumphant over Misfortune."]

Intending in a short time to examine these royal letters more closely, and hoping to refer to them again in "N.& Q.," I refrain from writing more at length on the present occasion.

W. W.

La Valetta, Malta.

P.S.—Perhaps the following chronological table, referring to the Maltese Grand Masters who are mentioned in the above Note, may not be uninteresting to the readers of "N. & Q.":

Name. When elected. When deceased at Malta. Villiers de L'Isle Adam At Rhodes, 1521 1534, 21st of August. Nicholas Cotoner At Malta, 1663 1680. Gregory Carafa Ditto 1680 1690. Raymond Perellos Ditto 1697 1720. Anthony Manoel de Villena Ditto 1722 1736. Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca Ditto 1741 1773.

Minor Notes.

Meaning of "Clipper."—I have more than once been asked the meaning and derivation of the term clipper, which has been so much in vogue for some years past. It is now quite a nautical term, at least among the fresh-water sailors: and we find it most frequently applied to yachts, steamers, fast-sailing merchant vessels, &c. And in addition to the colloquial use of the word, so common in praising the appearance or qualities of a vessel, it has become one quite recognised in the official description given of their ships by merchants, &c. Thus we often see an advertisement headed "the well-known clipper ship," "the noted clipper bark," and so forth. This use of the word, however, and its application to

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vessels, is somewhat wide of the original.

The word in former times meant merely a hackney, or horse adapted for the road. The owners of such animals naturally valued them in proportion to their capabilities for such service, among which great speed in trotting was considered one of the chief: fast trotting horses were eagerly sought after, and trials of speed became the fashion. A horse then, which was pre-eminent in this particular, was termed a clipper, i.e. a hackney, par excellence.

The original of the term is perhaps the following: Klepper-lehn was a feudal tenure, so termed among the old Germans, where the yearly due from the vassal to the lord was a klepper, or, in its stead, so many bushels of oats: and the word klepper, or kleopper, is explained by Haltaus. Glos. Germ. Med. Ævi, 1758:

"Equus qui corripit gradum, et gressus duplicat. Nomen habet a celeri correptorum passuum sonitu."

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

Anathema, Maran-atha.—Perhaps the following observation on these words may be as instructive to some of the readers of "N. & Q." as it was to me. Maran-atha means "The Lord cometh," and is used apparently by St. Paul as a kind of motto: compare ὁ κύριος εγγύς, Phil. iv. 5. The Greek word has become blended with the Hebrew phrase, and the compound used as a formula of execration. (See Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, p. 64., note 4.)

F. W. J.

Convocation and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.—

"When the committee I have mentioned was appointed, March 13, 1700, to consider what might be done towards propagating the Christian Religion as professed in the Church of England in our Foreign Plantations; and the committee, composed of very venerable and experienced men, well suited for such an inquiry, had sat several times at St. Paul's, and made some progress in the business referred to them, a charter was presently procured to place the consideration of that matter in other hands, where it now remains, and will, we hope, produce excellent fruits. But whatever they are, they must be acknowledged to have sprung from the overtures to that purpose first made by the lower house of Convocation."—Some Proceedings in the Convocation of 1705 faithfully represented, p. 10. of Preface.

W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Pigs said to see the Wind.—In Hudibras, Independant says to Presbyter: