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[Transcriber's note: Original spelling varieties have not been
standardized. Characters with macrons have been marked in brackets with
an equal sign, as [=e] for a letter e with a macron on top; [th] was
used for the letter thorn, [dh] for eth, and [gh] for yogh. Saxon
characters have been marked in braces, as in {Eafel}. Underscores have
been used to indicate _italic_ fonts (or emphasis in Greek). A list of
volumes and pages in "Notes and Queries" has been added at the end.]




NOTES and QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION

FOR

LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

VOL. IV.--No. 99 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4_d._




CONTENTS.

                                                                Page


      NOTES:--

      Venerable Bede's Mental Arithmetic                         201

      Hyphenism, Hyphenic, Hyphenization                         203

      Gray and Cowley                                            204

      Minor Notes:--[Greek: Hypopiazo]--Meaning of
      Whitsunday--Anagrammatic Pun by William Oldys--Ballad of
      Chevy Chase: Ovid--Horace Walpole at Eton                  205

      QUERIES:--

      Continental Watchmen and their Songs                       206

      Minor Queries:--Quotation from Bacon--Carmagnoles--The
      Use of Tobacco by the Elizabethan Ladies--Covines--Story
      referred to by Jeremy Taylor--Plant in Texas--Discount
      --Sacre Cheveux--"Mad as a March Hare"--Payments for
      Destruction of Vermin--Fire unknown--Matthew Paris's
      Historia Minor--Mother Bunche's Fairy Tales--Monumental
      Symbolism--Meaning of "Stickle" and "Dray"--Son of the
      Morning--Gild Book                                         208

      REPLIES:--

      Pope and Flatman                                           209

      Test of the Strength of a Bow                              210

      Baskerville the Printer                                    211

      Replies to Minor Queries:--Mazer Wood and Sin-eaters--"A
      Posie of other Men's Flowers"--Table Book--Briwingable
      --Simnels--A Ship's Berth--Suicides buried in Cross-roads
      --A Sword-blade Note--Domesday Book of Scotland--Dole-bank
      --The Letter "V"--Cardinal Wolsey--Nervous--Coleridge's
      Essays on Beauty--"Nao" or "Naw," a Ship--Unde derivatur
      Stonehenge--Nick Nack--Meaning of Carfax--Hand giving the
      Benediction--Unlucky for Pregnant Women to take an
      Oath--Borough-English--Date of a Charter                   211

      MISCELLANEOUS:--

      Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c.                     215

      Books and Odd Volumes wanted                               215

      Notices to Correspondents                                  215

      Advertisements                                             216




Notes.


VENERABLE BEDE'S MENTAL ALMANAC.

If our own ancient British sage, the Venerable Bede, could rise up from
the dust of eleven centuries, he might find us, notwithstanding all our
astounding improvements, in a worse position, in one respect at least,
than when he left us; and as the subject would be one in which he was
well versed, it would indubitably attract his attention.

He might then set about teaching us from his own writings a mental
resource, far superior to any similar device practised by ourselves, by
which the day of the week belonging to any day of the month, in any year
of the Christian era, might easily and speedily be found.

And when the few, who would give themselves the trouble of thoroughly
understanding it, came to perceive its easiness of acquirement, its
simplicity in practice, and its firm hold upon the memory, they might
well marvel how so admirable a facility should have been so entirely
forgotten, or by what perversion of judgment it could have been
superseded by the comparatively clumsy and impracticable method of the
Dominical letters.

Let us hear his description of it in his own words:

  "QUAE SIT FERIA IN CALENDIS.

  "Simile autem huic tradunt argumentum ad inveniendam diem
  Calendarum promptissimum.

  "Habet ergo regulares Januarius II, Februarius V, Martius V,
  Apriles I, Maius III, Junius VI, Julius I, Augustus IIII,
  September VII, October II, November V, December VII. Qui videlicet
  regulares hoc specialiter indicant, quota sit feria per Calendas,
  eo anno quo septem concurrentes adscripti sunt dies: caeteris vero
  annis addes concurrentes quotquot in praesenti fuerunt adnotati ad
  regulares mensium singulorum, et ita diem calendarum sine errore
  semper invenies. Hoc tantum memor esto, ut cum imminente anno
  bisextili unus concurrentium intermittendus est dies, eo tamen
  numero quem intermissurus es in Januario Februarioque utaris: ac
  in calendis primum Martiis per illum qui circulo centinetur solis
  computare incipias. Cum ergo diem calendarum, verbi gratia,
  Januarium, quaerere vis; dicis Januarius II, adde concurrentes
  septimanae dies qui fuerunt anno quo computas, utpote III, fiunt
  quinque; quinta feria intrant calendae Januariae. Item anno qui sex
  habet concurrentes, sume v regulares mensis Martii, adde
  concurrentes sex, fiunt undecim, tolle septem, remanent quatuor,
  quarta feria sunt Calendae Martiae."--Bedae Venerabilis, _De Temporum
  Ratione_, caput xxi.

The meaning of this may be expressed as follows:--Attached to the twelve
months of the year are certain fixed numbers called regulars, ranging
from I to VII, denoting the days of the week in their usual order. These
regulars, in any year whereof the concurrent, or solar epact, is 0 or 7,
express, of themselves, the commencing day of each month: but in other
years, whatever the solar epact of the year may be, that epact must be
added to the regular of any month to indicate, in a similar manner, the
commencing day of that month.

It follows, therefore, that the only burthen the memory need be charged
with is the distribution of the regulars among the several months;
because the other element, the solar epact (which also ranges from 1 to
7), may either be obtained from a short mental calculation, or, should
the system come into general use, it would soon become a matter of
public notoriety during the continuance of each current year.

Now, these solar epacts have several practical advantages over the
Dominical letters. 1. They are numerical in themselves, and therefore
they are found at once, and used directly, without the complication of
converting figures into letters and letters into figures. 2. They
increase progressively in every year; whereas the Dominical letters have
a crab-like retrogressive progress, which impedes facility of practice.
3. The _rationale_ of the solar epacts is more easily explained and more
readily understood: they are the accumulated odd days short of a
complete week; consequently the accumulation must increase by 1 in every
year, except in leap years, when it increases by 2; because in leap
years there are 2 odd days over 52 complete weeks. But this irregularity
in the epact of leap year does not come into operation until the
additional day has actually been added to the year; that is, not until
after the 29th of February. Or, as Bede describes it, "_in leap years
one of the concurrent days is intermitted, but the number so intermitted
must be used for January and February; after which, the epact obtained
from cyclical tables_ (or from calculation) _must be used for the
remaining months_." By which he means, that the epacts increase in
arithmetical succession, except in leap years, when the series is
interrupted by one number being passed over; the number so passed over
being used for January and February only. Thus, 2 being the epact of
1851, 3 would be its natural successor for 1852; but, in consequence of
this latter being leap year, 3 is intermitted (except for January and
February), and 4 becomes the real epact, as obtained from calculation.

To calculate the solar epact for any year, Bede in another place gives
the following rule:

  "Si vis scire concurrentes septimanae dies, sume annos Domini et
  eorum quartum partem adjice: his quoque quatuor adde, (quia)
  quinque concurrentes fuerunt anno Nativitatis Domini: hos partire
  per septem et remanent Epactae Solis."

That is: take the given year, add to it its fourth part, and also the
constant number 4 (which was the epact preceding the first year of the
Christian era), divide the sum by 7, and what remains is the solar
epact. (If there be no remainder, the epact may be called either 0 or
7.)

This is an excellent rule; the same, I believe, that is to this day
prescribed for arriving at the Dominical letter of the Old Style. Let it
be applied, for example, to find upon what day of the week the battle of
Agincourt was fought (Oct. 25, 1415). Here we have 1415, and its fourth
353, and the constant 4, which together make 1772, divided by 7 leaves 1
as the solar epact; and this, added to 2, the _regular_ for the month of
October, informs us that 3, or Tuesday, was the first day of that month;
consequently it was the 22nd, and Friday, the 25th, was Saint Crispin's
day.

But this rule of Bede's, in consequence of the addition, since his time,
of a thousand years to the number to be operated upon, is no longer so
convenient as a _mental_ resource.

It may be greatly simplified by separating the centuries from the odd
years, by which the operation is reduced to two places of figures
instead of four. Such a method, moreover, has the very great advantage
of assimilating the operation of finding the solar epact, in both
styles, the Old and the New; the only remaining difference between them
being in the rules for finding the _constant number_ to be added in each
century. These rules are as follow:--

_For the Old Style._--In any date, divide the number of centuries by 7,
and deduct the remainder from 4 (or 11); the result is the constant for
that century.

_For the New Style._--In any date, divide the number of centuries by 4,
double the remainder, and deduct it from 6: the result is the constant
for that century.

_For the Solar Epact, in either Style._--To the odd years of any date
(rejecting the centuries) add their fourth part, and also the constant
number found by the preceding rules; divide the sum by 7, and what
remains is the solar epact.

As an example of these rules in _Old Style_, let the former example be
repeated, viz. A.D. 1415:

First, since the centuries (14), divided by 7, leave no remainder, 4 is
the constant number. Therefore 15, and 3 (the fourth), and 4 (the
constant), amount to 22, from which eliminating the sevens, remains 1 as
the solar epact.

For an example in _New Style_, let the present year be taken. In the
first place, 18 divided by 4 leaves 2, which doubled is 4, deducted from
6 results 2, the constant number for the present century. Therefore 51,
and 12 (the fourth), and 2 (the constant), together make 65, from which
the sevens being eliminated, remains 2, the solar epact for this year.

But in appreciating the practical facility of this method, we must bear
in mind that _the constant_, when once ascertained for any century,
remains unchanged throughout the whole of that century; and that _the
solar epact_, when once ascertained for any year, can scarcely require
recalculation during the remainder of that year: furthermore, that
although the rule for calculating the epact, as just recited, is so
extremely simple, yet even that slight mental exertion may be spared to
the mass of those who might benefit by its application to current
purposes; because it might become an object of general notoriety in each
current year. And I am not without hope that "NOTES AND QUERIES" will
next year set the example to other publications, by making the current
solar epact for 1852 a portion of its "heading," and by suffering it to
remain, incorporated with the date of each impression, throughout the
year.

Let us now recur to the allotment of _the regulars_ at the beginning of
Bede's description. Placed in succession their order is as follows:--

      April and July                 I, or Sunday
      January and October           II, or Monday
      May                          III, or Tuesday
      August                      IIII, or Wednesday
      March, Feb., and November      V, or Thursday
      June                          VI, or Friday
      September and December       VII, or Saturday

There is no great difficulty in retaining this in the memory; but should
uncertainty arise at any time, it may be immediately corrected by a
mental reference to the following lines, the alliterative jingle of
which is designed to house them as securely in the brain as the immortal
and never-failing, "Thirty days hath September." The order of the
allotment is preserved by appropriating as nearly as possible a line to
each day of the week; while the absolute connexion here and there of
certain days, by name, with certain months, forms a sort of interweaving
that renders mistake or misplacement almost impossible.

      "April loveth to link with July,
      And the merry new year with October comes by,
      August for Wednesday, Tuesday for May,
      March and November and Valentine's Day,
      Friday is June day, and lastly we seek
      September and Christmas to finish the week."

Now, since we have ascertained, from the short calculation before
recited, that the solar epact of this present year of 1851 is 2, and
since the regular of October is also 2, we have but to add them together
to obtain 4 (or Wednesday) as the commencing day of this next coming
month of October. And, if we wish to know the day of the month belonging
to any other day of the week in October, we have but to subtract the
commencing day, which is 4, from 8, and to the result add the required
day. Let the latter, for example, be Sunday; then 4 from 8 leaves 4,
which added to 1 (or Sunday), shows that Sunday, in the month of October
1851, is either 5th, 12th, 19th, or 26th.

This additional application is here introduced merely to illustrate the
great facilities afforded by the purely numerical form of Bede's
"_argumentum_,"--such as must gradually present themselves to any person
who will take the trouble to become thoroughly and practically familiar
with it.

    A. E. B.

  Leeds, September, 1851.


HYPHENISM, HYPHENIC, HYPHENIZATION.

Where our ancestors wanted words, they made them, or imported them ready
made. But we are become so particular about the etymological force of
newly coined words, that we can never please ourselves, but rather
choose to do without than to tolerate anything exceptionable. We have to
learn again that a word cannot be like Burleigh's nod, but must be
content to indicate the whole by the expression of some prominent part,
or of some convenient part, prominent or not.

Among the uses to which the "NOTES AND QUERIES" might be put, is the
suggestion of words. It very often happens that one who is apt at
finding the want is not equally good for the remedy, and _vice versa_.
By the aid of this journal the blade might find a handle, or the handle
a blade, as wanted, with the advantage of criticism at the formation;
while an author who coins a word, must commit himself before he can have
much advice.

The above remarks were immediately suggested by my happening to think of
a word for a thing which gives much trouble, and requires more attention
than it has received, but not more than it may receive if it can be
fitly designated by a single word. A _clause_ of a sentence, both by
etymology and usage, means any part of it of which the component words
cannot be separated, but must all go together, or all remain together:
it is then a component of the sentence which has a finished meaning in
itself. The proper mode of indicating the clauses takes its name from
the means, and not from the end: we say _punctuation_, not
_clausification_. This may have been a misfortune, for it is possible
that punctuation might have been better studied, if its name had
imported its object. But there is another and a greater misfortune,
arising from the total want of a name. In a sentence, not only do
collections of words form minor sentences, but they also form compound
words: sometimes eight or ten words are really only one. When two words
are thus compounded, we use a hyphen: but those who have attempted to
use more than one hyphen have been laughed out of the field; though
perspicuity, logic, and algebra were all on their side. The _Morning
Post_ adopted this practice in former days; and Horace Smith (or James,
as the case may be,) ridiculed them in a parody which speaks of "the
not-a-bit-the-less-on-that-account-to-be-universally-detested monster
Buonaparte." It is, I think, much to be regretted that the use of the
hyphen is so restricted: for though, like the comma, it might be
abused, yet the abuse would rather tend to clearness.

But, without introducing a further use of the hyphen, it
would be desirable to have a distinct name for a combination
of words; which, without being such a recognised and permanent
compound as _apple-tree_ or _man in the moon_, is nevertheless
one word in the particular sentence in hand. And the name is
easily found. The word hyphen being Greek ([Greek: hyph' hen]),
and being made a substantive, we might join Greek suffixes to it,
and speak of _hyphenisms_ and _hyphenic_ phrases. For example,
the following I should call a hyphenic error. When the British
Museum recently published _A Short Guide to that Portion of
the Library of printed Books now open to the Public_, a review
pronounced the title a misnomer; because the _books_ are not
open to the public, but are in locked glass cases. The reviewer
read it "library of printed-books-now-open-to-the-public," instead
of "library-of-printed-books now open to the public." And though in
this case the reviewer was very palpably wrong, yet there are many
cases in which a real ambiguity exists.

A neglect of mental hyphenization often leads to mistake as to an
author's meaning, particularly in this age of morbid implication. For
instance, a person writes something about "a Sunday or other
day-for-which-there-is-a-special-service;" and is taken as meaning "a
Sunday-or-other-day for which," &c. The odds are that some readers will
suppose him, by speak of Sundays _with_ special service, to imply that
some are _without_.

    M.


GRAY AND COWLEY.

Some spirited publisher would confer a serious obligation on the
classical world by bringing out an edition of Gray's _Poems_, with the
parallel passages annexed. "Taking him for all in all," he is one of our
most perfect poets: and though Collins might have rivalled him (under
circumstances equally auspicious), he could have been surpassed by
Milton alone. In 1786, Gilbert Wakefield attempted to do for Gray what
Newton and Warton had done for Milton (and, for one, I thank him for
it); but his illustrations, though almost all good and to the point, are
generally from books which every ordinary reader knows off by heart.
Besides, Wakefield is so very egotistical, and at times so very puerile,
that he is too much for most people. However, his volume, _The Poems of
Mr. Gray, with Notes_, by Gilbert Wakefield, B.A., late Fellow of Jesus
College, Cambridge: London, 1786, would furnish a good substratum for
the volume I am now recommending.

Not to speak of Milton's English poems and the great masterpieces of
ancient times, with which so learned a scholar as Gray was, of course,
familiar, he draws largely from the Greek anthology, from Nonnus, from
Milton's Latin poems, from Cowley, and I had almost said from the prose
works of Bishop Jeremy Taylor. His admiration of the great "Shakspeare
of Divinity" is proved from a portion of one of his letters to Mason;
and some other day I may furnish an illustration or two. Indeed, were
any publisher to undertake the generous office I mention, I dare say
that many a secret treasure would be unlocked, and many an "orient pearl
at random strung" be forthcoming for his use. Let me first mention
Gray's opinion of Cowley, and then add in confirmation one or two
passages out of many. He says in a note to his "Ode on the Progress of
Poesy:"

  "We have had in our language not other odes of the sublime kind
  than that of Dryden 'On St. Cecilia's Day:' for _Cowley (who had
  his merit) yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony for such a
  task_. That of Pope is not worthy of so great a man."

We must submit to Gray's oracular sentence, for he himself was
pre-eminently gifted in the three great qualities in which he declares
the deficiency of Cowley (at least if we are to judge from his English
poems; for the prosody of his Latin efforts seems sadly deficient). At
times Cowley's "harmony" is not first-rate, and his "style" is deeply
impregnated with the fantastic conceits of the day; but he is still a
poet, and a great one too. And I think that in some of his writings Gray
had Cowley evidently in mind; _e.g._ in the _epitaph_ to his "Elegy in a
Country Churchyard:"

      "Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
        Heaven did a recompence as largely send:
      He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear;
        He gained from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend."

Cowley had previously written:

      "Large was his soul; as large a soul as e'er
      Submitted to _inform_ a _body_ here.
      High as the place 'twas shortly in _Heav'n_ to have,
          But low, and humble as his _grave_.
      So _high_ that all the _virtues_ there did come,
          As to their chiefest seat,
          Conspicuous, and great;
      So _low_ that for _me_ too it made a room."

            _On the Death of Mr. William Hervey._
            _Miscellanies_, page 18. London, 1669.

Again--

      "The attick warbler pours her _throat_
      Responsive to the cuckoo's note,
        The _untaught_ harmony of spring."

            Gray, Ode I. _On the Spring._

      "Hadst thou all the charming notes
      Of the wood's poetic _throats_."

            Cowley, _Ode to the Swallow_.

      "Teaching their Maker in their _untaught_ lays."

            Cowley, _Davideis_ lib. i. sect 63. p. 20.

Again:

      "Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch
        A broader browner shade,
      Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech
        O'ercanopies the glade,
      Beside some water's rushy brink,
      With me the Muse shall sit, and think," &c.

            Gray, Ode I. _On the Spring._

      "O magnum Isacidum decus! O pulcherrima castra!
      O arma ingentes olim paritura triumphos!
      Non sic herbarum vario subridet Amictu,
      Planities pictae vallis, montisque supini
      Clivus, perpetuis Cedrorum versibus altus.
      Non sic aestivo quondam nitet hortus in anno,
      Frondusque, fructusque ferens, formosa secundum
      Flumina, mollis ubi viridisque supernatat umbra."

            Cowley, _Davideidos_ lib. i. ad finem.

I do not mean that Gray may not have had other poets in his mind when
writing these lines (for there is nothing new or uncommon about them);
but rather a careful going over of Cowley's poems convinces me that Gray
was sensible of his "merits," and often corrects his want of "judgment"
by his own refined and most exquisite taste. I must give one more
instance; and I think that Bishop Hall's allusion to his life at
Emmanuel College, and Bishop Ridley's "Farewell to Pembroke Hall," must
every one fall into the background before Cowley. Gray's poem ought to
be too well known to require quoting:

      "Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
        That crown the wat'ry glade,
      Where grateful Science still adores
        Her Henry's holy shade;
      And ye that from the stately brow
      Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below
        Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,
      Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
      Wanders the hoary Thames along
        His silver winding way.

      "Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!
        Ah, fields beloved in vain!
      Where once my careless childhood stray'd,
        A stranger yet to pain.
      I feel the gales that from ye blow,
      A momentary bliss bestow,
        As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
      My weary soul they seem to soothe,
      And, redolent of joy and youth,
        To breathe a second spring."

            Ode III. _On a distant Prospect of Eton College._

Cowley was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; and if I rightly
remember Bonney's _Life of Bishop Middleton_, his affecting allusions to
Cambridge had the highest praise of that accomplished scholar and
divine:

      "O mihi jucundum Grantae super omnia nomen!
        O penitus toto corde receptus amor!
      O pulchrae sine luxu aedes, vitaeque beatae,
        Splendida paupertas, ingenuusque decor!
      O chara ante alias, magnorum nomine Regum
        Digna domus! Trini nomine digna Dei
      O nimium Cereris cumulati munere campi,
        Posthabitis Ennae quos colit illa jugis!
      O sacri fontes! et sacrae vatibus umbrae
        Quas recreant avium Pieridumque chori!
      O Camus! Phoebo multus quo gratior amnis
        Amnibus auriferis invidiosus inops!
      Ah mihi si vestrae reddat bona gaudia sedis,
        Detque Deus docta posse quiete frui!
      Qualis eram cum me tranquilla mente sedentem
        Vidisti in ripa, Came serene, tua;
      Mulcentem audisti puerili flumina cantu;
        Ille quidem immerito, sed tibi gratus erat.
      Nam, memini ripa cum tu dignatus utraque
        Dignatum est totum verba referre nemus.
      Tunc liquidis tacitisque simul mea vita diebus,
        Et similis vestra candida fluxit aqua.
      At nunc coenosa luces, atque obice multo
        Rumpitur atatis turbidus ordo mea.
      Quid mihi Sequana opus, Tamesisve aut Thybridis unda?
      Tu potis es nostram tollere, Came, sitim."

            _Elegia dedicatoria, ad illustrissimam Academiam
            Cantabrigiensem_, prefixed to Cowley's Works,
            Lond. 1669, folio.

    RT.

  Warmington, Sept. 8. 1851.


Minor Notes.

[Greek: _Hypopiazo_]--I "keep under my body," &c. 1 Cor. ix. 27. One can
scarcely allude to this passage without remembering the sarcastic
observations of Dr. South upon a too literal interpretation of it.
(_Sermons_, vol. i. p. 12. Dublin, 1720.) And yet deeper and more
spiritual writers by no means pass the literal interpretation by with
indifference. Bishop Andrewes distinctly mentions [Greek: hypopiasmos],
or _suggillatio_, amongst the "circumstantiae orationis;" as also
[Greek: ekdikesis], _vindicta_, or _revenge_, 2 Cor. vii. II. (_Preces
Privatae_, pag. 14. Londini, 1828.) Bishop J. Taylor is equally explicit
in a well-known and remarkable passage:

    "If the lust be upon us, and sharply tempting, by inflicting any
  smart to overthrow the strongest passion by the most violent pain,
  we shall find great ease for the present, and the resolution and
  apt sufferance against the future danger; and this was St. Paul's
  remedy: 'I bring my body under;' he used some rudeness towards
  it."--_Holy Living_, sect. iii. _Of Chastity. Remedies against
  Uncleanness_, 4.

The word [Greek: hypopia] occurs only once in the LXX, but that seems in
a peculiarly apposite way: "[Greek: _hypopia kai syntrimmata synanta
kakois_, plegai de eis tamieia koilias.]" As our English version
translates it: "The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil (or, is a
purging medicine against evil, margin), so do stripes the inward parts
of the belly." (Proverbs xx. 30.) If it were not absolute presumption to
differ from the great Dr. Jackson, one would feel inclined to question,
or at least to require further proof of some observations of his. He
says, in treating of our present passage:

  "The very literal importance of those three words in the
  original--[Greek: hypopiazo], [Greek: keryxas], and
  [Greek: adokimos]--cannot be so well learned from any Dictionary
  or Lexicon, as from such as write of the Olympic Games, or of that
  kind of tryal of masteries, which in his time or before was in
  use. The word [Greek: hypopiazo] is proper (I take it) unto
  wrestlers, whose practice it was to keep under other men's bodies,
  not their own, or to keep their antagonists from all advantage of
  hold, either gotten or aimed at. But our apostle did imitate their
  practice upon his own body, not on any others; for his own body
  was his chief antagonist."--_Works_, vol. ii. p. 644. Lond. 1673.

Suidas makes some remarks upon the word, but they are not very much to
our purpose.

    RT.

  Warmington.

_Meaning of Whitsunday._--I long ago suggested in your pages that
Whitsun Day, or, as it was anciently written, Witson Day, meant Wisdom
Day, or the day of the outpouring of Divine wisdom; and I requested the
attention of your learned correspondents to this