NOTES AND QUERIES:

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

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

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No. 80.

Saturday, May 10. 1851.

Price Threepence
Stamped Edition 4d.

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CONTENTS.

CONTENTS.

Page

The Great Exhibition, Notes and Queries, and Chaucer's Prophetic View of the Crystal Palace

361

Notes:—

On "The Lay of the Last Minstrel"

364

Poems discovered among the Papers of Sir Kenelm Digby

367

Folk-Lore:—The Christmas Thorn—Milk-maids—Disease cured by Sheep—Sacramental Wine—"Nettle in Dock out"

367

Metropolitan Improvements, by R. J. King

368

Minor Notes:—Meaning of Luncheon—Charade upon Nothing translated—Giving the Lie—Anachronisms of Painters—Spenser's Faerie Queene—Prayer of Mary Queen of Scots—A small Instance of Warren Hastings' Magnanimity—Richard Baxter—Registry of Dissenting Baptisms in Churches

369

Queries:—

Notes and Queries relating to Scandinavia, by W. E. C. Nourse

370

The Rotation of the Earth, by Robert Snow

371

Minor Queries:—William ap Jevan's Descendants—"Geographers on Afric's Downs"—Irish Brigade—Passage in Oldham—Mont-de-Piété—Poem upon the Grave—When self-striking Clocks first invented—Clarkson's Richmond—Sir Francis Windebank's elder Son—Incised Slab—Etymology of Balsall—St. Olave's Churches—Sabbatical and Jubilee Years of the Jews—Arms of the Isle of Man—Doctrine of the Resurrection—National Debts—Leicester's Commonwealth

372

Replies:—

Histoire des Sévarambes

374

Was there an "Outer Temple" in the Possession of the Knights Templars or Knights of St. John? by Peter Cunningham

375

Obeism, by H. H. Breen

376

San Marino

376

The Bellman and his History, by C. H. Cooper

377

Replies to Minor Queries:—"God takes those soonest," &c.—Disinterment for Heresy—The Vellum-bound Junius—Pursuits of Literature—Dutch Books—Engilbert, Archbishop of Treves—Charles Lamb's Epitaph—Charles II. in Wales—"Ex Pede Herculem"—God's Acre—Abbot Eustacius—Vox Populi Vox Dei—Francis Moore and his Almanack

377

Miscellaneous:—

Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c.

381

Books and Odd Volumes wanted

382

Notices to Correspondents

382

Advertisements

382

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THE GREAT EXHIBITION, NOTES AND QUERIES, AND CHAUCER'S PROPHETIC VIEW OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

The first of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, will be remembered in the Calendar for centuries after those who witnessed its glories shall have passed away. Its memory will endure with our language; and the Macaulays and Hallams of the time to come will

add brilliancy to their pages by recounting the gorgeous yet touching ceremonial of this great Apotheosis of Peace. Peace has occasionally received some foretaste of that day's glory; but only at times, when the sense of its value had been purchased by the horrors which accompany even the most glorious warfare. But never until the reign of Victoria were its blessings thus recognised and thus celebrated, after they had been uninterruptedly enjoyed for upwards of a quarter of a century. Who then, among the thousands assembled around our Sovereign in that eventful scene, but felt his joy heightened by gratitude, that his lot had been cast in these happy days.

It was a proud day for Queen Victoria, for her Illustrious Consort, for all who had had "art or part" in the great work so happily conceived, so admirably executed. And we would add (even at the risk of reminding our readers of Dennis' energetic claim, "That's my Thunder!") that it was also a proud day for all who, like ourselves, desire to promote intercommunication between men of the same pursuits,—to bring them together in a spirit, not of envious rivalry, but of generous emulation,—to make their powers, faculties, and genius subservient to the common welfare of mankind. In our humble way we have striven earnestly to perform our share in this great mission; and although in the Crystal Palace cottons may take the place of comments, steam-engines of Shakspeare, the palpable creations of the sculptor of the super-sensual imaginings of the poet, the real of the ideal,—still the GREAT EXHIBITION OF THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS is, in more senses than one, merely a MONSTER NUMBER OF "Notes and Queries." So palpable, indeed, is this similarity, that, if the long-talked-of Order of Civil Merit should be instituted, (and certainly there was never a more fitting moment than the present for so honouring the cultivators of the peaceful arts), we make no doubt that "Notes and Queries" will not be forgotten. Should our prophecy be fulfilled, we need scarcely remind our readers of Captain Cuttle's injunction and our Motto.

And here, talking of prophecy, we would, first reminding our readers how, in the olden time, the Poet and the Prophet were looked upon as identical, call their attention to the following vision of our Queen in her Crystal Palace, which met the eye when in "fine phrensy rolling" of the Father of English Poetry, as he has recorded in his House of Fame. Had Chaucer attended the opening of the Exhibition as "Our own Reporter," could his description have been more exact?

Streight downe to the doores wide,

From the deis many a pillere

Of metall, that shone not full clere,

But though ther were of no richesse

Yet were they made for great noblesse.

There saw I, and knew by name

That by such art done, men have fame.

There saw I Coll Tragetour

Upon a table of sicamour

Play an uncouth thing to tell,

I saw him carry a wind-mell

Under a walnote shale.

Then saw I sitting in other sees,

Playing upon sundrie other glees,

Of which I n' ill as now not rime,

For ease of you and losse of time,

For time ylost, this know ye,

By no way may recovered be.

What should I make longer tale?

Of all the people that I sey

I could not tell till domisdey.

Then gan I loke about and see

That there came entring into the hall

A right great company withall,

And that of sondry regions

Of all kind of condicions

That dwelle in yearth under the Moone,

Poore and riche; and all so soone

As they were come into the hall

They gan on knees doune to fall

Before this ilke noble queene.

"Madame," sayd they, "we bee

Folke that here besechen thee

That thou graunt us now good fame,

And let our workes have good name;

In full recompensacioun

Of good worke, give us good renoun."

And some of hem she graunted sone,

And some she warned well and faire,

And some she graunted the contraire.

Now certainly I ne wist how,

Ne where that Fame dwelled or now,

Ne eke of her descripcion,

Ne also her condicion,

Ne the order of her dome

Knew I not till I hider come.

    *      *      *      *      *      *  

At the last I saw a man,

Which that I nought ne can,

But he semed for to bee,

A man of great auctoritie

And therewithall I abraide,

Out of my slepe halfe afraide,

Remembring well what I had sene,

And how hie and farre I had bene

In my gost, and had great wonder

Of that the God of thonder

Had let me knowen, and began to write

Like as you have herd me endite,

Wherefore to study and rede alway,

I purpose to do day by day.

Thus in dreaming and in game,

Endeth this litell booke of Fame.

We are indebted for this interesting communication to our correspondent A. E. B., whose admirable Illustrations of Chaucer in our columns have given so much pleasure to the admirers of the old poet. Our correspondent has sent it to us in the hope that it may be made available in helping forward the good work of restoring Chaucer's tomb. We trust it will. The Committee who have undertaken that task could, doubtless, raise the hundred pounds required, by asking those who have already come forward to help them, to change their Crown subscriptions into Pounds. With a right feeling for what is due to the poet, they prefer, however, accomplishing the end they have in view by small contributions from the admiring many, rather than by larger contributions from the few. As we doubt not we number among the readers of "Notes and Queries" many admirers of

to them we appeal, that the monument which was erected by the affectionate respect of Nicholas Brigham, nearly three centuries ago, may not in our time be permitted to crumble into dust; reminding them, in Chaucer's own beautiful language,

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NOTES.

ON "THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL."

I resume the subject commenced in the comments on "a Passage in Marmion," printed in No. 72., March 15, 1851; and I here propose to consider the groundwork and mechanism of the most original, though not quite the first production of Scott's muse, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. In the Introduction prefixed to this poem, nearly thirty years after its publication, Sir Walter Scott informs the world that the young Countess of Dalkeith, much interested and delighted with the wild Border tradition of the goblin called "Gilpin Horner" (which is given at length in the notes appended to the poem), enjoined on him the task of composing a ballad on the subject:

"And thus" (says Sir Walter) "the goblin story objected to by several critics as an excrescence upon the poem, was, in fact, the occasion of its being written."

Yes, and more than this; for, strange as it may appear to those who have not critically and minutely attempted to unravel the very artful and complicated plot of this singular poem, the Goblin Page is, as it were, the key-note to the whole composition, the agent through whose instrumentality the fortunes of the house of Branksome are built up anew by the pacification of ancient feud, and the union of the fair Margaret with Henry of Cranstoun. Yet, so deeply veiled is the plot, and so intricately contrived the machinery, that I question if this fact be apparent to one reader out of a thousand; and assuredly it has never been presented to my view by any one of the critics with whose comments I have become acquainted.

The Aristarchus of the Edinburgh Review, Mr. Jeffrey, who forsooth thought fit to regard the new and original creations of a mighty and inventive genius "as a misapplication, in some degree, of very extraordinary talents," and "conceived it his duty to make one strong effort to bring back the great apostle of this (literary) heresy to the wholesome creed of his instructor," seems not to have penetrated one inch below the surface. In his opinion "the Goblin Page is the capital deformity of the poem," "a perpetual burden to the poet and to the readers," "an undignified and improbable fiction, which excites neither terror, admiration, nor astonishment, but needlessly debases the strain of the whole work, and excites at once our incredulity and contempt."

Perhaps so, to the purblind vision of a pedantic formalist; but, nevertheless, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, that poem, whose varied imagery and vivid originality, combined with all its other beauties, have been, and ever will be, the delight and admiration of its readers, could not exist without this so-called "capital deformity." This I shall undertake to demonstrate, and in so doing to prove the "capital absurdity" of such criticism as I have cited.

Let us therefore begin with the beginning. The widowed Lady of Branksome, brooding over the outrage which had deprived her husband of life, meditates only vengeance upon all the parties concerned in this affray. The lovely Lady Margaret wept in wild despair, for her lover had stood in arms against her father's clan:

The first Canto of the poem contains that singular episode, when—

Ladye knew it well!

It was the Spirit of the Flood that spoke,

And he called on the Spirit of the Fell."

And when the River Spirit asks concerning the fair Margaret, who had mingled her tears with his stream:

the Mountain Spirit replies, that, amid the clouds and mist which veil the stars,—

I must here transcribe the following Section xviii.:

In pursuance of this stern resolution, "the Ladye sought the lofty hall" where her retainers were assembled:

She then gives him the commission, well remembered by every reader, to proceed on that night to Melrose Abbey to unclose the grave of Michael Scott, and to rifle it of the magical volume which was accessible only on St. Michael's night, at the precise moment when the rays of the moon should throw the reflexion of the red cross emblazoned in the eastern oriel upon the wizard's monumental stone,—expecting that the possession of this "Book of Might" would enable her to direct the destiny of her daughter according to the dictates of her own imperious nature. "Dîs aliter visum." Fate and Michael Scott had willed it otherwise. And here I must beg my readers to take notice that this far-famed wizard, Michael Scott, although dead and buried, is supposed still to exert his influence from the world of spirits as the guardian genius of the house of Buccleuch; and he had been beforehand with the Ladye of Branksome in providing Henry of Cranstoun with one of his familiar spirits, in the shape of the Goblin Page, by whose agency alone (however unconscious the subordinate agent may be) a chain of events is linked together which results in the union of the two lovers. After this parenthesis I resume the thread of the narrative.

Deloraine rides to Melrose in the night, presents himself to the Monk of St. Mary's aisle, opens the sepulchre of the wizard, and presumes to take

in spite of the ominous frown which darkened the countenance of the dead. He remounts his steed and wends his way homeward

while the aged monk, having performed the last duty allotted to him in his earthly pilgrimage, retired to his cell and breathed his last in prayer and penitence before the cross.

Ere Deloraine could reach his journey's end, he encounters a feudal foeman in the person of Lord Cranstoun, attended by his Goblin Page, who is here first introduced to the reader. A conflict takes place, and Deloraine being struck down wounded and senseless, is left by his adversary to the charge of this elf, who in stripping off his corslet espied the "Mighty Book." With the curiosity of an imp he opens the iron-clasped volume by smearing the cover with the blood of the knight, and reads ONE SPELL, and one alone, by permission; for

But he had read sufficient for the purposes of his mission, and we shall see how he applies the knowledge so marvellously acquired.

By the glamour of this spell he was empowered to make one thing assume the form of another.

The first use he makes of his power is to convey the wounded knight, laid across his weary horse, into Branksome Hall

Having deposited him at the door of the Ladye's bower, he repasses the outer court, and finding the young chief at play, entices him into the woods under the guise to him of a "comrade gay."

and, leading him far away "o'er bank and fell," well nigh frightens the fair boy to death by resuming his own elvish shape.

Here let me observe that all this contrivance is essential to the conduct of the narrative, and if we simply grant the postulate which a legendary minstrel has a right to demand, to wit, the potency of magic spells to effect such delusions (pictoribus atque Poetis Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas), all the remainder of the narrative is easy, natural, and probable. This contrivance is necessary, because, in the first place, if it had been known to the warders that William of Deloraine had been brought into the castle wounded almost unto death, he could not be supposed capable of engaging Richard Musgrave in single combat two days afterwards; nor, in the second place, would the young chief have been permitted to stroll out unattended from the guarded precincts.

To proceed: the boy thus bewildered in the forest falls into the lands of an English forayer, and is by him conveyed to Lord Dacre, at that time one of the Wardens of the Marches, by whom he is detained as a hostage, and carried along with the English troops, then advancing towards Branksome under the command of the Lord Wardens in person.

And there, according to his own malicious nature, played likewise a score of monkey tricks, all of which, grotesque and "undignified"!

as they may be, yet most ingeniously divert the mind of the reader from the real errand and mission of this supernatural being.

Shortly afterwards, on his exhibiting symptoms of cowardice at the expected contest, he is conveyed from the castle by the Ladye's order, and speedily rejoins his lord, after the infliction of a severe chastisement from the arm of Wat Tinlinn. He then procures Cranstoun's admission within the walls of Branksome (where the whole clan Scott was assembling at the tidings of the English Raid) by the same spell—

And on the following day, as Deloraine did not appear in the lists ready to engage in the appointed duel with Richard Musgrave, we are told,—

The conflict takes place, and ends in favour of the Scottish knight; when the following scene occurs:

Then is described the struggle that takes place in the maternal breast:

The mission of the elf is now accomplished, his last special service having been to steal the armour of William of Deloraine "while slept the knight," and thus to enable his master to personate that warrior.

It may be remarked that hitherto there is no direct evidence that the Page was sent by Michael Scott. That evidence is reserved for the moment of his final disappearance.

On the same evening, after the celebration of the nuptials, a mysterious and intense blackness enveloped the assembled company in Branksome Hall.

After this final consummation, it is amusing to notice a slight "incuria" on the part of the poet, which I wonder has never been corrected in the later editions. Having described the nuptial ceremony of Cranstoun and Margaret in the early part of the last Canto, he says in Section xxviii.,

I think I have now succeeded in proving that the Goblin Page, so far from being a mere "intruder" into this glorious poem—so far from being a mere after-thought, or interpolation, to "suit the taste of the cottagers of the Border," as Mr. Jeffrey "suspects,"—is the essential instrument for constructing the machinery of the plot. We have, indeed, the author's word that it formed the foundation of the poem. My readers will therefore form their own estimate of the value of Mr. Jeffrey's criticisms, couched as they are in no very considerate, much less complimentary phraseology. I cannot but admire the "douce vengeance" of the gentle-spirited subject of his rebukes, who has contented himself with printing these worthless sentences of an undiscerning critic along with the text of his poems in the last edition,—there to remain a standing memorial of the wisdom of that resolution adhered to throughout the life of the accomplished author, who tells us,

"That he from the first determined, that without shutting his ears to the voice of true criticism, he would pay no regard to that which assumed the form of satire."

In point of

fact, Sir Walter had no very exalted opinion of the genus Critic; and I could give one or two anecdotes, which I heard from his own lips, strongly reminding one of the old fable of the painter who pleased nobody and everybody.

In conclusion, I beg leave to observe, that in these "Notes" I do not presume to underrate, in any degree, Mr. Jeffrey's acknowledged powers of criticism. He and Scott have alike passed away from the stage of which they were long the ornaments in their respective spheres; but I must consider that in the passages here cited, as well as in many others, he has proved himself either incompetent or unwilling to appreciate the originality, the power, and, above all, the invention of Sir Walter Scott's genius.

A Borderer.

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POEMS DISCOVERED AMONG THE PAPERS OF SIR KENELM DIGBY.

Since I last wrote to you on the subject of these poems, I have discovered the remaining portions of Ben Jonson's poem on the Lady Venetia: I have therefore no doubt now that my MS. is a genuine autograph; and if so, not only this, but the "Houreglasse," which was inserted in your 63rd No., is Ben Jonson's. This last has, I think, never been published; nor have I ever seen in print the followings lines, which are written in the same hand and on the same paper as the "Houreglasse." They were probably written after Lady Venetia's death.

If I am wrong in supposing this never to have been printed, I shall feel much obliged by one of your correspondents informing me of the fact.

H. A. B.

Trin. Col. Cambridge.

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FOLK LORE.

The Christmas Thorn.—In my neighbourhood (near Bridgewater) the Christmas thorn blossoms on the 6th of January (Twelfth-day), and on this day only. The villagers in whose gardens it grows, and indeed many others, verily believe that this fact pronounces the truth of this being the day of Christ's birth.

S. S. B.

Milk-maids in 1753.—To Folk-lore may be added the following short extract from Read's Weekly Journal, May 5, 1733:

"On May-Day the Milk-Maids who serve the Court, danced Minuets and Rigadoons before the Royal Family, at St. James's House, with great applause."

Y. S.

Diseases cured by Sheep (Vol. iii., p. 320.).—The attempted cure of consumption, or some complaints, by walking among a flock of sheep, is not new. The present Archbishop of Dublin was recommended it, or practised it at least, when young. For pulmonary complaints the principle was perhaps the same as that of following a plough, sleeping in a room over a cowhouse, breathing the diluted smoke of a limekiln, that is, the inhaling of carbonic acid, all practised about the end of the last century, when the knowledge of the gases was the favourite branch of chemistry.

A friend of mine formerly met Dr. Beddoes riding up Park Street in Bristol almost concealed by a vast bladder tied to his horse's mouth. He said he was trying an experiment with oxygen on a broken-winded horse. Afterwards, finding that oxygen did not answer, he very wisely tried the gas most opposite to it in nature.

C. B.

Sacramental Wine (Vol. iii., p. 320.).—This idea is a relic of Roman Catholic times. In Ireland a weakly child is frequently brought to the altar rails, and the priest officiating at mass requested to allow it to drink from the chalice of what is termed the ablution, that is, the wine and water with which the chalice is rinsed after the priest has taken the communion, and which ablution ordinarily is taken by the priest. Here the efficacy is ascribed to the cup having just before contained the blood of Our Lord. I have heard it seriously recommended in a case of hooping-cough. Your correspondent Mr. Buckman does not give sufficient credit for common sense to the believers in some portion of folk lore. Red wine is considered tonic, and justly, as it contains a greater proportion of turmic than white. The yellow bark of the barberry contains an essential tonic ingredient, as the Jesuit's bark does quinine, or that of the willow salicine. Nettle juice is well known as a purifier of the blood; and the navelwort, like Euphrosia, which is properly called Eyebright, is as likely to have had its name from its proved efficacy as a simple, as from any fancied likeness to the region affected. The old monks were shrewd herbalists. They were generally the physicians of their neighbourhood, and the names and uses of the simples used by them survive the ruin of the monasteries and the expulsion of their tenants.

Kerriensis.

"Nettle in Dock out" (Vol. iii., pp. 133. 201. 205.).—I can assure A. E. B. that in the days of my childhood, long before I had ever heard of Chaucer, I used invariably, when I was stung with nettles, to rub the part affected with a dock-leaf or stalk, and repeat,