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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.

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No. 196.]
SATURDAY, JULY 30. 1853..
[Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

  NOTES:--                                              Page
  Books chained to Desks in Churches: Font Inscription:
  Parochial Libraries, by W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A.        93
  Real Signatures _versus_ Pseudo-names, by the Rev.
  James Graves                                            94
  Popular Stories of the English Peasantry, by Vincent
  T. Sternberg                                            94
  Shakspeare Correspondence, by Cecil Harbottle, &c.      95
  Epitaph and Monuments in Wingfield Church, Suffolk      98
  Original Royal Letters to the Grand Masters of Malta    99

  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 Abbes--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 Athenaeus        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                              114
  Advertisements                                         115

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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
{94} 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."

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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.

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POPULAR STORIES OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY.

(Vol. v., p. 363. &c.)

Will you allow me, through the medium of "N. & Q.," to say how much obliged
I should be for any communications on this subject. Since I last addressed
you (about a year ago) I have received many interesting contributions
towards my proposed collection; but not, I regret to say, quite to the
extent I had anticipated. My own researches have been principally confined
to the midland counties, and I have very little from the north or east.
Such a large field requires many gleaners, and I hope your correspondents
learned in Folklore will not be backward in lending their aid to complete a
work which Scott, Southey, and a host of illustrious names, have considered
a desideratum in our national antiquities.

I propose to divide the tales into three classes--Mythological, Humorous,
and Nurse-tales. Of the mythological I have already given several specimens
in your journal, but I will give the following, as it illustrates another
link in the transmission of MR. KEIGHTLEY'S Hindustani legend, which
appeared in a recent Number. It is from Northamptonshire.

_The Bogie and the Farmer._

Once upon a time a Bogie asserted a claim to a field which had been
hitherto in the possession of a farmer; and after a great deal of
disputing, they came to an arrangement by agreeing to divide its produce
between them. At seed time, the farmer asks the Bogie what part of the crop
he will have, "tops or bottoms." "Bottoms," said the spirit: upon which the
crafty farmer sows the field with wheat, so that when harvest arrives the
corn falls to his share, while the poor Bogie is obliged to content himself
with the stubble. Next year the spirit, finding he had made such an
unfortunate selection in the bottoms, chose the tops; whereupon cunning
Hodge set the field with turnips, thus again outwitting the simple {95}
claimant. Tired of this unprofitable farming, the Bogie agrees to hazard
his claims on a mowing-match, thinking that his supernatural strength would
give him an easy victory; but before the day of meeting, the cunning
earth-tiller procures a number of iron bars which he stows among the grass
to be mown by his opponent; and when the trial commences, the unsuspecting
goblin finds his progress retarded by his scythe coming into contact with
these obstacles, which he takes to be some very hard--very hard--species of
dock. "Mortal hard docks, these," said he; "Nation hard docks!" His blunted
scythe soon brings him to a stand still, and as, in such cases, it is not
allowed for one to sharpen without the other, he turns to his antagonist,
now far ahead, and inquires, in a tone of despair, "When d'ye wiffle-waffle
(whet), mate?" "Waffle!" said the farmer, with a well-feigned stare of
amazement, "O, about noon mebby." "Then," said the despairing spirit, "That
thief of a Christian has done me;" and so saying, he disappeared and was
never heard of more.

Under _Nurse-tales_, I include the extremely puerile stories of the
nursery, often (as in the German ones) interlaced with rhymes. The
following, from the banks of the Avon, sounds like an echo from a German
story-book.

_Little Elly._

In the old time, a certain good king laid all the ghosts, and hanged all
the witches and wizards save one, who fell into a bad way, and kept a
school in a small village. One day Little Elly looked through a chink-hole,
and saw him eating man's flesh and drinking man's blood; but Little Elly
kept it all to herself, and went to school as before. And when school was
over the Ogee fixed his eyes upon her, and said--

 "All go home but Elly,
  And Elly come to me."

And when they were gone he said, "What did you see me eat, Elly?"

 "O something did I see,
  But nothing will I tell,
  Unto my dying day."

And so he pulled off her shoes, and whipped her till she bled (this
repeated three days); and the third day he took her up, and put her into a
rose-bush, where the rain rained, and the snow snowed, and the hail hailed,
and the wind blew upon her all night. Quickly her tiny spirit crept out of
her tiny body and hovered round the bed of her parents, where it sung in
mournful voice for evermore--

 "Dark, weary, and cold am I,
  Little knoweth Gammie where am I."

Of the Humorous stories I have already given a specimen in Vol. v., p. 363.

Any notes of legends, or suggestions of any kind, forwarded to my address
as below, will be thankfully received and acknowledged.

VINCENT T. STERNBERG.

15. Store Street, Bedford Square.

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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