NOTES AND QUERIES:
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No. 235.
Saturday, April 29. 1854
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CONTENTS.
Notes:—
Page
Curious Old Pamphlet
391
Errata in Printed Bibles
391
Impossibilities of History
392
Unregistered Proverbs, by C. Mansfield Ingleby
392
Mr. Justice Talfourd, by H. M. Bealby and T. J. Buckton
393
The Screw Propeller
394
Ancient Chattel-Property in Ireland, by James F. Ferguson
394
Bishop Atterbury
395
Minor Notes:—"Milton Blind"—Hydropathy—Cassie—The Duke of Wellington—Romford Jury—Edward Law (Lord Ellenborough), Chief Justice—Chamisso—Dates of Maps—Walton—Whittington's Stone on Highgate Hill—Turkey and France
395
Queries:—
A Female Aide-Major
397
Minor Queries:—"Chintz Gowns"—"Noctes Ambrosianæ"—B. Simmons—Green Stockings—Nicholas Kieten—Warwickshire Badge—Armorial—Lord Brougham and Horne Tooke—Rileys of Forest Hill—Fish "Lavidian"—"Poeta nascitur, non fit"—John Wesley and the Duke of Wellington—Haviland—Byron—Rutabaga—A Medal—The Black Cap—The Aboriginal Britons
397
Minor Queries with Answers:—"Gossip"—Humphry Repton—"Oriel"—"Orchard"—"Peckwater"—Richard III.—Binding of old Books—Vessel of Paper
399
Replies:—
King James's Irish Army List, 1689, by John D'Alton
401
Quotations Wanted, by G. Taylor, &c.
402
Oaths, by James F. Ferguson, &c.
402
Remuneration of Authors, by Alexander Andrews
404
Occasional Forms of Prayer, by the Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, &c.
404
Photographic Correspondence:—
Photographic Query—Improvement in Collodion—Printing Positives—Photographic Excursions
406
Replies to Minor Queries:—"To Garble"—"Lyra Apostolica"—John Bale, Bishop of Ossory—Burial in an erect Posture—"Carronade"—"Largesse"—Precious Stones—"A Pinch of Snuff"—Darwin on Steam—Gale of Rent—Cobb Family—"Aches"—"Meols"—Polygamy—Wafers
407
Miscellaneous:—
Notes on Books, &c.
410
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted
Notices to Correspondents
411
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Notes.
CURIOUS OLD PAMPHLET.
Grubbing among old pamphlets, the following has turned up:
"A Fragment of an Essay towards the most ancient Histories of the Old and New Worlds, connected. Intended to be carried on in four Parts or Æras. That is, from the Creation of all Things to the Time of the Deluge: thence to the Birth of Abraham: from that Period to the Descent of Jacob and his Family into Egypt: and, lastly, to the Time of the Birth of Moses. Attempted to be executed in Blank Verse, 8vo. pp. 59. Printed in the year 1765."
This Miltonic rhapsody supposes Adam, when verging on his nine hundreth year, to have assembled his descendants to a kind of jubilee, when sacrifices, and other antediluvian solemnities, being observed, "Seth, the pious son of his comfort, gravely arose, and, after due obedience to the first of men, humbly beseeched the favour to have their memories refreshed by a short history of the marvellous things in the beginning." Then Adam thus:—Hereupon the anonymous author puts into the mouth of the great progenitor of the human race a history of the Creation, in blank verse, in accordance with the Mosaic and orthodox account. Concluding his revelations without reference to the Fall, Seth would interrogate their aged sire upon what followed thence, when Adam excuses himself from the painful recital by predicting the special advent in after times of a mind equal to that task:
"But of this Fall, this heart-felt, deep-felt lapse,
This Paradise thus lost, no mortal man
Shall sing which lives on earth.
Far distant hence
In farther distant times, fair Liberty
Shall reign, queen of the Seas, and lady of
The Isles; nay, sovereign of the world's repose.
And Peace!
In her a mighty genius shall
Arise, of high ethereal mould, great in
Renown, sublime, superior far to praise
Of sublunary man—or Fame herself.
Though blind to all things here on earth below,
The heav'ns of heav'ns themselves shall he explore,
And soar on high with strong, with outstretched wings!
There sing of marvels not to be conceived,
Express'd, or thought by any but himself!"
This curious production is avowedly from the other side of the Tweed, and I would ask if its paternity is known to any of your antiquarian correspondents there or here.
The Fragment is preceded by a very remarkable Preface, containing "some reasons why this little piece has thus been thrown off in such a loose and disorderly manner;" among which figure the desire "to disperse a parcel of them gratis,—because they are, perhaps, worth nothing; that nobody may pay for his folly but himself; that, if his Fragment is damned, which it probably may be, he will thenceforth drop any farther correspondence with Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c.; and, lastly, that he may be benefited by the criticisms upon its faults and failings, while he himself lurks cunningly behind the curtain. But if, after all," says the facetious author, "this little northern urchin shall chance to spring forward under the influence of a more southern and warmer sun, the author will then endeavour to bring his goods to market as plump, fresh, and fair as the soil will admit."
I presume, however, the public did not call for any of the farther instalments promised in the title.
J. O.
ERRATA IN PRINTED BIBLES.
Mr. D'Israeli, in his Curiosities of Literature, has an article entitled "The Pearl Bibles and Six Thousand Errata," in which he gives some notable specimens of the blunders perpetrated in the printing of Bibles in earlier times. The great demand for them prompted unscrupulous persons to supply it without much regard to carefulness or accuracy; and, besides, printers were not so expert as at the present day.
"The learned Ussher," Mr. D'Israeli tells us, "one day hastening to preach at Paul's Cross, entered the shop of one of the stationers, as booksellers were then called, and inquiring for a Bible of the London edition, when he came to look for his text, to his astonishment and his horror he discovered that the verse was omitted in the Bible! This gave the first occasion of complaint to the king, of the insufferable negligence and incapacity of the London press; and first bred that great contest which followed between the University of Cambridge and the London stationers, about the right of printing Bibles."
Even during the reign of Charles I., and in the time of the Commonwealth, the manufacture of spurious Bibles was carried on to an alarming extent. English Bibles were fabricated in Holland for cheapness, without any regard to accuracy. Twelve thousand of these (12mo.) Bibles, with notes, were seized by the King's printers as being contrary to the statute; and a large impression of these Dutch-English Bibles were burned, by order of the Assembly of Divines, for certain errors. The Pearl (24mo.) Bible, printed by Field, in 1653, contains some scandalous blunders;—for instance, Romans, vi. 13.: "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin"—for unrighteousness. 1 Cor. vi. 9.: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God?"—for shall not inherit.
The printer of Miles Coverdale's Bible, which was finished in 1535, and of which only two perfect copies, I believe, are known to exist—one in the British Museum, the other in the library of the Earl of Jersey—deserves some commendation for his accuracy. At the end of the New Testament is the following solitary erratum:
"A faute escaped in pryntyng the New Testament. Upon the fourth leafe, the first syde in the sixth chapter of S. Mathew, 'Seke ye first the kingdome of heaven,' read, 'Seke ye first the kingdome of God.'"
Abhba.
IMPOSSIBILITIES OF HISTORY.
"That unworthy hand."
I am not aware that the fact of Cranmer's holding his right hand in the flames till it was consumed has been questioned. Fox says:
"He stretched forth his right hand into the flames, and there held it so stedfast that all the people might see it burnt to a coal before his body was touched."—P. 927. ed. Milner, London, 1837, 8vo.
Or, as the passage is given in the last edition,—
"And when the wood was kindled, and the fire began to burn near him, he put his right hand into the flame, which he held so stedfast and immovable (saving that
Burnet is more circumstantial:
"When he came to the stake he prayed, and then undressed himself: and being tied to it, as the fire was kindling, he stretched forth his right hand towards the flame, never moving it, save that once he wiped his face with it, till it was burnt away, which was consumed before the fire reached his body. He expressed no disorder from the pain he was in; sometimes saying, 'That unworthy hand;' and oft crying out, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' He was soon after quite burnt."—Hist. of the Reformation, vol. iii. p. 429., ed. 1825.
Hume says:
"He stretched out his hand, and, without betraying either by his countenance or motions the least sign of weakness, or even feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed."—Hume, vol. iv. p. 476.
It is probable that Hume believed this, for while Burnet states positively as a fact, though only inferentially as a miracle, that "the heart was found entire and unconsumed among the ashes," Hume says, "it was pretended that his heart," &c.
I am not about to discuss the character of Cranmer: a timid man might have been roused under such circumstances into attempting to do what it is said he did. The laws of physiology and combustion show that he could not have gone beyond the attempt. If a furnace were so constructed, that a man might hold his hand in the flame without burning his body, the shock to the nervous system would deprive him of all command over muscular action before the skin could be "entirely consumed." If the hand were chained over the fire, the shock would produce death.
In this case the fire was unconfined. Whoever has seen the effect of flame in the open air, must know that the vast quantity sufficient entirely to consume a human hand, must have destroyed the life of its owner; though, from a peculiar disposition of the wood, the vital parts might have been protected.
The entire story is utterly impossible. May we, guided by the words "as the fire was kindling," believe that he then thrust his right hand into the flame—a practice I believe not unusual with our martyrs, and peculiarly suitable to him—and class the "holding it till consumed" with the whole and unconsumed heart?
I may observe that in the accounts of martyrdoms little investigation was made as to what was possible. Burnet, describing Hooper's execution, says, "one of his hands fell off before he died, with the other he continued to knock on his breast some time after." This, I have high medical authority for saying, could not be.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.
UNREGISTERED PROVERBS.
In Mr. Trench's charming little book on Proverbs, 2nd ed., p. 31., he remarks:
"There are not a few (proverbs), as I imagine, which, living on the lips of men, have yet never found their way into books, however worthy to have done so; either because the sphere in which they circulate has continued always a narrow one, or that the occasions which call them out are very rare, or that they, having only lately risen up, have not hitherto attracted the attention of any one who cared to record them. It would be well, if such as take an interest in the subject, and are sufficiently well versed in the proverbial literature of their own country to recognise such unregistered proverbs when they meet them, would secure them from that perishing, which, so long as they remain merely oral, might easily overtake them; and would make them at the same time, what all good proverbs ought certainly to be, the common heritage of all."
"Note.—The pages of the excellent Notes and Queries would no doubt be open to receive such, and in them they might be safely garnered up," &c.
I trust this appeal of Mr. Trench's will be at once responded to by both the editor and correspondents of this periodical. With the former must rest the responsibility of withholding from reproduction any proverbs, which though sent him as novelties, may be already registered in the recognised collections.
Mr. Trench's first contribution to this bouquet of the wild flowers of proverbial lore is the following, from Ireland:
"'The man on the dyke always hurls well.' The looker on," says Mr. Trench in explanation, "at a game of hurling, seated indolently on the wall, always imagines that he could improve on the strokes of the actual players, and if you will listen to him, would have played the game much better than they, a proverb of sufficiently wide application."—P. 32.
Each proverb sent in should be accompanied with a statement of the class among whom, or the locality in which, it is current. The index to "N. & Q." should contain a reference to every proverb published in its pages, under the head of Unregistered Proverbs, or Proverbs only. Correspondents should bear in mind the essential requisite of a proverb, currency. Curt, sharp sayings might easily be multiplied; what is wanted, however, is a collection of such only as have that prerequisite of admission into the ranks of recognised proverbs. And while contributors should not lose sight of "the stamp of merit," as that which renders the diffusion of proverbs beneficial to mankind, still they should not reject a genuine proverb for want of that characteristic, remembering that,—
"'Tween man and man, they weight not every stamp;
Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake."
And that the mere form of a proverb often affords some indication of its age and climate, even where the matter is spurious. I have a large MS. collection of English proverbs by me, from which I doubt not I shall be able to extract some few which have never yet been admitted into any published collection. Of these at some future time.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
[We shall be happy to do all in our power to carry out this very excellent suggestion.—Ed. "N. & Q."]
MR. JUSTICE TALFOURD.
The noble sentiments uttered by Justice Talfourd in his last moments gave a charm to his sudden death, and shed a hallowed beauty about the painfully closing scenes of this great man. I want them to have a niche in "N. & Q.," and along with them a passage from his beautiful tragedy of Ion, which may be considered as a transcript of those thoughts which filled his mind on the very eve of quitting the high and honourable duties of his earthly course. It forcibly illustrates the loving soul, the kind heart, and the amiable character of this deeply lamented judge.
After speaking of the peculiar aspect of crime in that part of the country where he delivered his last charge, he goes on to say:
"I cannot help myself thinking it may be in no small degree attributable to that separation between class and class, which is the great curse of British society, and for which we are all, more or less, in our respective spheres, in some degree responsible, and which is more complete in these districts than in agricultural districts, where the resident gentry are enabled to shed around them the blessings resulting from the exercise of benevolence, and the influence and example of active kindness. I am afraid we all of us keep too much aloof from those beneath us, and whom we thus encourage to
Act I. Sc. 2. After Clemanthe has told Ion that, forsaking all within his house, and risking his life with strangers, he can do but little for their aid, Ion replies: