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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.


VOL. III.--NO. 83--SATURDAY, MAI 31. 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4_d._




CONTENTS.



                                                                    Page

      On the Proposed Record of Existing Monuments                   417

      NOTES:--

      Illustrations of Chaucer, No. VII.: The star Min Al Auwa       419

      Traditions from remote Periods through few Links, by Rev.
      Thos. Corser                                                   421

      Dr. Young's Narcissa                                           422

      Minor Notes:--Curious Epitaph--The Curse of Scotland--The
      Female Captive--Pictorial Antiquities                          422

      QUERIES:--

      English Poems by Constantine Huyghens, by S. W. Singer         423

      The Rev. Mr. Gay, by Edward Tagart                             424

      Minor Queries:--Carved Ceiling in Dorsetshire--Publicans'
      Signs--To a T.--Skeletons at Egyptian Banquet--Gloves--Knapp
      Family in Norfolk and Suffolk--To learn by "Heart"--Knights--
      Supposed Inscription in St. Peter's at Rome--Rag Sunday in
      Sussex--Northege Family--A Kemble Pipe of Tobacco--Durham
      Sword that killed the Dragon                                   424

      MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--"At Sixes and Sevens"--Swobbers--
      Handel's Occasional Oratorio--Archbishop Waldeby's
      Epitaph--Verstegan--Royal Library                              425

      REPLIES:--

      Hugh Holland and his Works, by Bolton Corney                   427

      The Milesians                                                  428

      The Tanthony                                                   428

      Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury                                   429

      Replies to Minor Queries:--Shakespeare's Use of
      "Captious"--Inscription of a Clock--Authors of the Anti-Jacobin
      Poetry--"Felix, quem faciunt," &c.--Church Bells--Chiming,
      Tolling, and Pealing--Extraordinary North Briton--Fitzpatrick's
      Lines of Fox--Ejusdem Farinae--The Sempecta--"Nulli fraus
      tuta latebris"--Voltaire, where situated--By the Bye--Bigod de
      Loges--Knebsend--Mrs. Catherine Barton--Peter Sterry--Wife of
      James Torre--Ramasse--Four Want Way--Dr. Owen's Works--Bactrian
      Coins--Baldrocks--Tu Autem--Commoner marrying a Peeress--Ancient
      Wood Engraving--Vegetating Insects--Prayer at the Healing--M.
      or N., &c.                                                     430

      MISCELLANEOUS:--

      Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c.                         438

      Books and Odd Volumes wanted                                   438

      Notices to Correspondents                                      439

      Advertisements                                                 439




ON THE PROPOSED RECORD OF EXISTING MONUMENTS.


  Although disappointed in the hope we had entertained of being, by this
  time, in a position to announce that some decided steps had been taken
  to carry out, in a practical manner, the great scheme of preserving a
  record of our existing Monuments, we are gratified at being enabled to
  bring under the notice of our readers several communications which
  show the still increasing interest which is felt upon the subject.

  The first, by Sir Thomas Phillipps, besides some valuable information
  upon the matter immediately under consideration, contains several very
  useful suggestions upon other, though kindred points.

In approving of the design mentioned in your "NOTES" by MR. DUNKIN, it
has surprised me that in no one of the communications which you have
there printed is any allusion to the multitude of inscriptions already
collected, and now preserved in the British Museum and other libraries.
A list of what are already copied should _first_ be made, which would
considerably abridge the labour of collecting. For instance, the whole
of Gloucestershire has been preserved by Bigland, and nearly two-thirds
of these have been printed. I should recommend his plan to be adopted,
being _multum in parvo_, as to the headstones in the churchyards, and
the clearest for reference by its alphabetical order of parishes. He
copies them about 1780; so that now seventy years remain to be obtained.
His collection would make two, or at most three, volumes folio, by which
we can form an approximate idea as to the extent for the kingdom, which
I estimate at one hundred volumes for the forty counties, because some
of these are very small, and many monuments have been destroyed by the
barbarous Gothlike conduct of church renovators and builders. (_A
propos_ of which conduct, I believe they are liable to an _action at
law_ from the next of kin: at all events, it is sacrilege.) In many
county histories, _all_ the monuments inside the churches, up to nearly
the date of the publication, have been printed, as in Nichols's
_Leicestershire_. I have myself printed the greater part of those for
Wiltshire; but some are incorrectly printed, not having been collated;
for I merely printed a few as handbooks to accompany me in my personal
correcting survey of each church at another time. I have also printed as
far as letter "E" of Antony a Wood's and Hinton's _Oxfordshire
Monuments_, of which, I believe, MR. DUNKIN has a MS. copy. Now, it
would be useless to reprint those which have been printed; consequently
I should imagine twenty-five or thirty volumes, on Bigland's plan, would
comprise all the villages; and I should imagine five or ten volumes at
most would comprise all the capital towns. Allow me here to suggest the
absolute necessity of taking "Notes" of the residence, parentage, and
kindred of _every one_ of the families of that vast tide of emigration
now quitting our shores; and I call Lord Ashley's and Mr. Sidney
Herbert's attention to it. These poor people will, many of them, become
rich in half a century; will then probably die without a kindred soul in
America to possess their wealth; and their next of kin must be sought
for in the mother land, where, unless some _registered memorial_ of
their departure and connexions is kept, all traces of their origin may
be lost for ever. It was the neglect of an act like this which has
involved the beginning of nations in such profound obscurity. It was the
neglect of such a register as I here propose, that makes it so difficult
now for the American to discover the link which actually connected him
with England. There is a corporate body, long established in this
country, whose sole occupation is to make such registers; but at present
they confine themselves to those called gentlemen. Why not make them
useful as registers of the poor, at a small remuneration for entering
each family. These poor, or their descendants, will some day become
gentlemen, and perhaps not ashamed of their ancestry, although they may
derive it through poverty. How gratified they may feel to be able, by
means of this proposed registry, clearly to trace themselves to Great
Britain (once the mistress of half the world), when their now adopted
country has risen up in her place, and the mother has become subject to
the daughter.

And then, too, how valuable will Americans and Canadians, Australians
and New Zealanders, find the proposed _Monumentarium_ of MR. DUNKIN.

                                                THOS. PHILLIPPS.
      Middle Hill, April, 1851.

  The next is from a frequent contributor to our pages, and we have
  selected it for publication from among many which we have received
  promising assistance in the carrying out of the great scheme, because
  it shows very strikingly how many of the memorials, which it is the
  especial object of that scheme to preserve, have disappeared within
  the last few years.

Your valuable remarks on this head have induced me to send you a few
observations in the same direction. You have justly said that the means
by which the object can be accomplished fall into the three distinct
operations of Collection, Preservation, and Publication. The first will
require the help of all antiquaries throughout the kingdom who will
volunteer their services, and of the clergymen resident in country
parishes. Where possible, it would be well to find a co-operator in
every county town, who would undertake the collection of all ancient
memorials in his own district, either by personal inspection, or by the
aid of the clergy. For this county we have, fortunately, a record of
all or most of the monuments existing in the time of James I., published
in Burton's History. Besides the monuments, there are also mentioned the
coats of arms preserved in the churches. In the useful and voluminous
world of Nichols, the record is brought down nearly to the commencement
of the present century. But in late years, many ancient memorials have
been removed altogether, or displaced. A day or two ago, I found only
one monument in a village church, where Burton says there were two in
his time. The chancel of St. Martin's Church, Leicester, a few years
ago, contained a large number, of which many have been placed elsewhere,
in order to "improve" the appearance of this part of the edifice. I
believe a list of the monuments is preserved somewhere. This kind of
proceeding has been carried on very generally throughout the country
since the desire for "church restoration" has prevailed, and has led to
great alterations in the interiors of our old parish churches. I should
be happy to lend a helping hand in the collections for Leicester and the
neighbourhood.

                                                JAYTEE.

  From our next communication, it will be seen that the Scottish
  Antiquaries, whose zeal and intelligence in the preservation and
  illustration of objects of national interest, are beyond all praise,
  are working in the same direction; and although we have not seen the
  _Origines Parochiales_, we can readily believe in the great value of a
  work of such a character when undertaken by the Bannatyne Club.

It may interest some of your "Monumental" and "Ecclesiological"
correspondents to be informed that in 1834 there was collected and
published by D. Macvean, bookseller, Glasgow, a volume of _Epitaphs and
Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland_. Also, that there has just been
published by Lizars, Edinburgh, for the Bannatyne Club, the first volume
of the _Origines Parochiales Scotiae_.

The former of these books (_Epitaphs_, &c.) is perhaps of no great
value, being badly selected and worse arranged; but the latter
(_Origines_, &c.) seems to be exactly such a work as W. J. D. R. (Vol.
iii., p. 314.) has in his mind's eye for England.

                                                              Y.

  A correspondent, MERCURII, has also directed our attention to a small
  volume, published in 1848, by one of the most valued contributors to
  our own columns, MR. DAWSON TURNER, under the title of _Sepulchral
  Reminiscences of a Market Town, as afforded by a List of the
  Interments within the Walls of the Parish Church of St. Nicholas,
  Great Yarmouth, collected chiefly from Monuments and Gravestones still
  remaining, June, 1845_. This little volume may be regarded as a public
  testimony on the part of MR. DAWSON TURNER to the value of the plan
  under consideration, and there are few antiquaries whose opinions are
  entitled to greater respect upon this or any other point to which he
  has devoted his talents and attention. Can we doubt, then, the success
  of a plan which has met with such general approbation, and is
  undertaken with so praiseworthy an object,--an object which may well
  be described in the words which Weever used when stating the motive
  which led him to undertake the publication of his _Funeral Monuments_,
  viz., "To check the unsufferable injury, offered as well to the living
  as to the dead, by breaking down and almost utterly ruinating
  monuments with their epitaphs, and by erasing, tearing away, and
  pilfering brazen inscriptions, by which inhumane deformidable act, the
  honorable memory of many virtuous and noble persons deceased is
  extinguished, and the true understanding of divers families is so
  darkened, that the course of their inheritance is thereby partly
  interrupted."




Notes.


ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VIII.

_The Star Min Al Auwa._

  "Adam Scrivener, if ever it thee befall Boece, or Troilus, for to
  write newe, Under thy long locks thou mayst have the scull But, after
  my making, thou write more trew; So oft a day I mote thy worke renew,
  It to correct, and eke to rubbe and scrape, And all thorow thy
  negligence and rape."

  _Chaucer to his own Scrivener._

If, during his own lifetime, and under his own eye, poor Chaucer was so
sinned against as to provoke this humorous malediction upon the head of
the delinquent, it cannot be a matter of surprise that, in the various
hands his text has since passed through, many expressions should have
been perverted, and certain passages wholly misunderstood. And when we
find men, of excellent judgment in other respects, proposing, as
Tyrwhitt did, to alter Chaucer's words to suit their own imperfect
comprehension of his meaning, it is only reasonable to suspect that
similar mistakes may have induced early transcribers to alter the text,
wherever, to their wisdom, it may have seemed expedient.

Now I know of no passage more likely to have been tampered with in this
way, than those lines of the prologue to the _Persone's Tale_, alluded
to at the close of my last communication. Because, supposing (which I
shall afterwards endeavour to prove) that Chaucer really meant to write
something to this effect: "Thereupon, as we were entering a town, the
moon's rising, with Min al auwa in Libra, began to ascend (or to become
visible),"--and supposing that his mode of expressing this had been,

      "Therewith the mone's exaltacioun,
      In libra men alawai gan ascende,
      As we were entrying at a towne's end:"

--in such a case, what can be more probable than that some ignorant
transcriber, never perhaps dreaming of such a thing as the Arabic name
of a star, would endeavour _to make sense_ of these, to him, obscure
words, by converting them into English. The process of transition would
be easy; "min" or "men" requires little violence to become "mene" (the
modern "mean" with its many significations), and "al auwa" (or "alwai,"
as Chaucer would probably write it) is equally identical with "alway."
The misplacement of "Libra" might then follow as a seeming necessity;
and thus the line would assume its present form, leaving the reader to
understand it, either with Urry, as,

      "I mene Libra, that is, I _refer to_ Libra;"

or with Tyrwhitt:

      "In mene Libra, that is, In _the middle of_ Libra."

Now, to Urry's reading, it may be objected that it makes _the thing
ascending_ to be Libra, and does not of necessity imply the moon's
appearance above the horizon. But since the rising of the moon is a
_visible_ phenomenon, while that of Libra is theoretical, it must have
been _to the former_ Chaucer was alluding, as to something witnessed by
the whole party as they

      "Were entrying at a towne's end;"

or otherwise this latter observation would have no meaning.

The objection to Tyrwhitt's reading is of a more technical nature--the
moon, if in _the middle_ of Libra, _could not_ be above the horizon, in
the neighbourhood of Canterbury, at four o'clock P. M., in the month of
April. Tyrwhitt, it is true, would probably smooth away the difficulty
by charging it as another inconsistency against his author; but I--and I
hope by this time such readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" as are interested
in the subject--have seen too many proofs of Chaucer's competency in
matters of science, and of his commentator's incompetency, to feel
disposed to concede to the latter such a convenient method of
interpretation.

But there is a third objection common to both readings--that they do not
satisfactorily account for the word "alway;" for although Tyrwhitt
endeavours to explain it by _continually_, "was _continually_
ascending," such a phrase is by no means intelligible when applied to a
single observation.

For myself, I can say that this word "alway" was, from the first, the
great difficulty with me--and the more I became convinced of the studied
meaning with which Chaucer chose his other expressions, the less
satisfied I was with this; and the more convinced I felt that the whole
line had been corrupted.

In advocating the restoration of the reading which I have already
suggested as the original meaning of Chaucer, I shall begin by
establishing the _probability_ of his having intended to mark the moon's
place by associating her rising with that of a known fixed star--a
method of noting phenomena frequently resorted to in ancient astronomy