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MINOR NOTES:-Charles Leigh: Sir Oliph Leigh-Submerged Houses Folk Lore Moreton-in-the-Marsh and King Charles I., 514. QUERIES:- Baron-Bailie Courts in Scotland-Sir Geoffrey Congreve-S. B. Haslam - May: Tri-Milchi-Early Marriages Old Medal Quotations Paper-Makers' Trade Marks-Sanderson -Vincent Bourne-Watson of Lofthouse, Yorkshire, 515. QUERIES WITH ANSWERS: Party Patches Francis Charles Weedon Thomas Throckmorton - Richard Lassels, Gent.-Joseph Washington, 516. REPLIES:- The Monogram of Constantine, 517- Workhouse at Amsterdam, 518-O'Reilly at Algiers: Carthagena, Ib.Cowthorpe Oak, 520-The first Book printed in Birmingham, Ib.- Mustache, 521- Dictionaries-Mrs. Fitzherbert, &c. - Ram and Teazle-Mother Douglas"Orios and "Ayios-Scottish-Mother and Son-Thomas Chapman-Jamaica- Ganymede - Female Fools Aubrey's Staffordshire Ghost Story - Tedded Grass-Modern Corruptions: "Reliable"- Curious Circumstance-Christian Names Phrases Incongruous Signs Price, alias Patch - Rev. William Peters- Quotations — The Great Duke a Child-eater - Lines on Punning-Cumberland Auctions-"Forgive, blest Shade"- The Faultbag- Longevity of the Raven-Muffled Peals in Memory of the late Alderman Cubitt - Burial-Place of John Harrison- Socrates' Dog Samuel Jones-Richard Adams Anthony Parker, &c., 521.

Notes on Books, L'Envoy, &c.

Notes.

Charles

STRAY NOTES ON CHRISTMAS.* VIII. Old Church Christmas Carols. - -IX. Opinion of Pagans: how affected by the Great Event; Cicero and Macrobius; a Contrast.

VIII. "The great event" that had occurred at Bethlehem, in the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, was thus announced by angels to shepherds keeping the night-watch over their flocks:

"This day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you: you shall find the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger."

The

With this event came a great change: not merely in the condition of mankind, but, according to ancient legends, in nature itself. following lines may be regarded as the Christmas Carol of the Christian poet Prudentius :

"Vagitus ille exordium
Vernantis orbis prodidit:
Nam tunc renatus sordidum
Mundus veternum depulit.
Sparsisse tellurem reor
Rus omne densis floribus,
Ipsasque arenas Syrtium
Fragrasse nardo et nectare,
Te cuncta nascentem, puer,
Sensere dura et barbara:
Victusque saxorum rigor
Obduxit herbam cotibus,
Jam mella de scopulis fluunt."

* Concluded from 3rd S. iv. 488,

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Abraham a Sancta Clara (observes Herr Cassel, to whom we are indebted for the preceding quotation) specifies some of the old traditions; for in

one of his sermons he mentions:

"At the time that God's Son was born, there came to pass a great many wonderful circumstances. First of all, a countless multitude of angels flew from heaven, and paid their homage to the celestial Child in various loving hymns instead of the usual lullabies sung to babies. Next the deep snow, which had covered the ground in the same neighbourhood, at once disappeared; and in its place were to be seen trees covered with a thick foliage of leaves, whilst the earth was decorated with a rich thick crop of the most beautiful flowers."

The firm belief in the truth of such legend still lives in England, and is identified with the many stories told of the flowering of Glastonbury and other thorns, and even oaks, on Christmas Day; whilst, in Germany, there is an acrostic made upon the flowers that constantly come into bloom with Christmas.*

"It is at midnight," is said in an old carol or hymn; "the Stranger from His own bright land is born in the raw coldness of winter in a stable, and placed in a manger: He is wretchedly covered, and warmed alone by the breathing of an ox and an ass. He-the Creator of all things-chose to be born in winter; in order that, by the fire of His charity, He might enkindle our faith, and remove from us the numbing chill of infidelity."

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The tradition as to the ox and the ass being in the stable on the birth of Our Lord, is, not only that these animals recognised their Creator, but also worshipped him :

"In præsepe ponitur,
Sub fœno asinorum,
Cognoverunt Dominum,
Christum Regem cœlorum,
Et a brutis noscitur,
Matris velo tegitur."

IX. Rohrbacher (vol. iv. p. 53) fixes the date of the birth of Our Saviour in the year of Rome, 749. It is very difficult to convey to the mind of one who has been reared in the bosom of Christianity a notion of the change that Birth effected, not merely in the morals and customs of mankind, but in the thoughts of all as to their condition in this life, and their expectations as to an after state of existence. Even Paganism felt the benign influence of "the Light," to which it wilfully closed its eyes, and against which its understanding was darkened. Let us, for example, look to the sentiments expressed by two Pagan authors: the one writing fifty years before the Nativity, and the second living at an early period in the fifth century. The first of these, Cicero, was gifted beyond most other beings that ever existed, by his marvellous genius, science, philosophy, and learning. The other, Macrobius, was nothing more than a clever antiquary and shrewd critic.

The

read likewise in treatises that have been written on this subject. Death,' say those philosophers, cannot be considered as an evil; because, if any consciousness remains after our dissolution, it is rather an entrance into immortality than an extinction of life: and if none remains, there can be no misery where there is no sensibility.'"-Epistolæ Familiares, lib. v. ep. 16.

Macrobius lived in the reign, and was an official in, the court of the Emperor Theodosius. He was so little of a Christian that, when he refers

incidentally to the first "infant martyrs," he does horror against the monster who had ordered the so with no feeling of compassion for them, nor of massacre of "the Holy Innocents." He mentions the fact simply, as illustrative of one of the witticisms of Augustus :—

"Cum audisset inter pueros, quos in Syria Herodes rex Judæorum intra bimatum jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait: Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium."-Suturn. lib. ii. c. 4.

And yet, even upon such an obdurate Pagan as Macrobius, the precepts and morality of the Gospel had (unconsciously to himself) produced their effect; or we should never find in his book the following sentiment, when explaining the old Roman custom of sending presents of wax candles during the Saturnalia:

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"Some, however," says Macrobius, "put a different interpretation upon this custom of making presents of wax-lights: it reminds us that we are born into this world in order that we may pass from the ways of a gross and dark life, into the knowledge and practice of good works, which are the true lights that should illuminate us in our mortal career."-Saturn, lib. i. c. 7.

Whilst Cicero lived, Rome, the ruler of the

We quote a passage from Cicero, written at a remarkable period in his eventful career. battle of Pharsalia had been fought, and the despotism of Julius Cæsar had not yet been firmly established. Long years of misery and carnage were, in 704 (u.c.), foreseen by Cicero; and, writ-world, had become the slave of every superstition: ing in that year, he could find no other terms in which to console a father for the loss of a son than the words of lamentation as to this life, and of incredulity as to the next, which are here annexed. They express dismay as to the present, and despair as to the future.

"There are no arguments inculcated in the writings of

the philosophers that seem to have so strong a claim to
success (in affording consolation), as those which may be
drawn from the present unhappy situation of public
affairs, and that endless series of misfortunes which is
rising upon our country. They are such, indeed, that
one cannot but consider those to be most fortunate who

never knew what it was to be a parent: and as to those
persons who are deprived of their children, in these times
of general anarchy and misrule, they have much less
reason to regret their loss, than if it had happened in a
more flourishing period of the commonwealth, or while
yet the republic had any existence. If your tears flow,
indeed, from this accident, merely as it affects your own
personal happiness, it may be difficult, perhaps, entirely
to restrain them. But if your sorrow takes its rise from
a more enlarged and benevolent principle-if it be for the
sake of the dead themselves that you lament-it may be
an easier task to assuage your grief. I shall not here!
insist upon the argument, which I have frequently heard
maintained in speculative conversations, as well as often

"Dominator orbis, omni superstitione obnoxius." When Macrobius wrote, the imperial diadem had been surmounted with the emblem of Redemption. Apostles, disciples, priests, bishops, confessors of every age and rank, had in countless numbers followed the footsteps of their Masterfrom the joys of Bethlehem to the horrors of Golgotha. The Mystery, which no ancient sage nor philosopher could penetrate, had been revealed. The value of this life was fully known, and its cessation no longer dreaded as the worst of calamities. A Pagan who had been converted to Christianity truly described the results of the new doctrine upon all who were in heart and soul, in word and action, followers of the Infant God, born, in the year of Rome, 749.

"Dum mori post mortem timent, interim mori non timent."* WM. B. MAC CABF.

Dinan, Cotes du Nord, France.

* Minutius Felix, Octavius.

TOM MOORE'S HOUSE.

Near the pretty little village of Mayfield, in Staffordshire, stands a small farm-house, once the residence of the poet Moore. But few relics are shown of the poet, except an inscription scratched on a pane in a bedroom window, and said by the occupant of the house, though without any good authority quoted, to be in his own handwriting. These lines I subjoin in case they may not be publicly known, and shall be glad to ascertain if they are really Moore's: :

"I ask not allways in your breast
In solitude to be;

But whether mournful, whether blest,
Sometimes remember me.

Old Moore's Almanack.

"I ask not allways for thy smiles,
Lot of some happier one,

But sometimes be with feelings fraught,

O'er joys now past and gone.

"I ask not allways for those smiles
Which make thy bosom swell;
But still in this fond heart of mine
Those strong affections dwell."

Are we to consider the first four lines merely a quotation from Old Moore's Almanack, and the following eight the poet's expansion of the same idea?

On the next pane are these four lines, which the occupant of the house ascribes to Byron, who, they affirm, often visited the poet here:

"Can I forget those hours of bliss

I've passed with love and thee?
Can I forget the parting kiss

Thy fondness gave to me?

No."

The last word is, I think, not improbably added by another hand.

determined by the following specimen of his powers in that line, which I extract from Maitland's History of Edinburgh (1753), p. 61. He paid a visit to his native country in 1618, and took occasion to attend a philosophical disputation in the College of Edinburgh.

"The Disputations (says Maitland), being over, the king withdrew to supper, after which he sent for the disputants, whose names were John Adamson, James Fairlie, Patrick Sands, Andrew Young, James Reid, and William King, before whom he learnedly discoursed on the several subjects controverted by them; and began to comment on their several names, and said these gentlemen, by their names, were destined for the acts they had had in hand this day, and proceeded as follows:

"Adam was father of all, and Adam's son had the first part of this act. The defender is justly called Fairlie (Wonder.) His thesis had some Fairlies in it, and he sustained them very fairly, and with many fairlies given to the oppugners.

"And why should not Mr. Sands be the first to enter the sands? But now I clearly see that all sands are not barren, for certainly he hath shewn a fertile wit.

"Mr. Young is very old in Aristotle. Mr. Reid need not be red with blushing for his acting this day. Mr. King disputed very kingly, and of a kingly purpose, concerning the royal supremacy of reason above anger and all passions.

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"The King being told there was one in company his Majesty had taken no notice of, namely, Henry Charteris, Principal of the College, who, though a man of great learning, yet by his innate bashfulness was rendered unfit to speak in such an august assembly, James answered, His name agrees well with his nature, for Charters contain much matter yet say nothing, yet put great matters in men's mouths.'

"The King having signified that he would be pleased to see his remarks on the professors' names versified, it was accordingly done as follows."

And then comes some miserable doggrel, quite worthy of its parent stock, which any one who While on this subject, I may remark that this may wish to see it will find in Maitland at the neighbourhood is full of interesting memorials of place I have referred to. Enough has been quoted Prince Charles and the Jacobites, and among other to show that his majesty's puns, so far from being things, there are shown in the church door several" tolerable," would obviously be refused admission bullet-holes (in one of which the lead remains), in the present day by even the most Catholic Joe which the common people affirm were made by Miller, or Encyclopædia of Wit. G. the Royalists, a strange outrage, if true, on the Edinburgh. part of men who fought for true Church and State principles, however much their motives now are maligned. Jos. HARGRove.

Clare Coll., Cambridge.

KING JAMES'S PUNS.

It is said in the Spectator, No. 61, that— "The age in which the pun chiefly flourished was in the reign of King James the First. That learned monarch was himself a tolerable punster, and made very few bishops or privy counsellors that had not sometime or other signalized themselves by a clinch or a conundrum."

Whether his Majesty is here accurately described as a "tolerable punster" may perhaps be

ANONYMA: STERNE.

In 1862 appeared a tentative letter in The Times, describing the appearance of some attractive Anonyma, with a gay equipage in the Park. The topic very properly was not pursued: and living hundreds of miles from the scene pourtrayed, I need scarcely disclaim any knowledge of the person pointed at by the writer in the newspaper. But I saw some short time afterwards a passage in French which presented so close a parallel to the circumstance that I thought it worth transcribing. An alleged English visitor writes of a certain boulevard in Paris:

"A travers des tourbillons de poussière, une file de carosses circule aux petits pas sur un demi-mille d'Angleterre, où, malgré la lenteur de la marche, et les efforts de l'escouade qui y met l'ordre, souvent on s'embarrasse et on se heurte. Les oisifs qui s'y font trainer, s'occupant à s'y considérer; des regards effrontés vont y décontenancer les femmes jusques dans l'enforcement de la berline la plus modeste. On y voit, il est vrai, peu de pareils équipages: le sexe, qui vient y figurer pour la plupart, ne s'en offense pas: au contraire, il répond au coup d'œil le plus hardi, avec une assurance, ou plutôt un air triomphant, qui décèle le faste et la fierté avec lesquels la prostitution et la déshonneur marchent front levé au milieu des dépouilles éclatantes du libertinage et de la sottise. Souvent les victimes de ces Sirènes insolentes et cruelles s'assemblent en foule et les adorent sans pudeur sur leurs chars, aux yeux du public indigné de tant de bassesse et de duperie. J'en vis une dans un superbe équipage tout brillant de dorures, qui rehaussoit le plus éclatant vernis; six beaux Anglois, couverts de plumes, d'or et de soie, la trainoient en pompe; une livrée riche et imposante occupoit le devant et le derrière. Ce jour là un monde infini se pressoit au boulevard. Au moment où son char triomphal déboucha d'une rue qui y conduit, un peuple immense, qui occupoit les contre-allées à pied, se porta avec rapidité du côté par où elle arrivoit: on auroit cru d'abord à cet empressement q'une reine bienfaisante et chérie venoit s'offrir aux hommages d'une nation enchantée. Je le pensai; mon guide m'apprit que c'étoit la fameuse ...

This report is not to the credit of the French Anonymas of the last century; but the most curious thing is, that the extract given by us is

ascribed to Sterne. The work bears the title:

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Sir Oliph, the elder brother, who fitted out and defrayed the charges of the expedition, survived till March 14, 1611-12; and was buried at Addington, in Surrey.

Information respecting them may be obtained from Purchas's Pilgrims, ii. 1156, 1250-1262, 1269; Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 76, n.; ii. 138, 142, 423, 425, 524, 525, 543, 560, 564, 578; Collect. Topogr. and Geneal., v. 169, 173; vii. 286-290; Topographer and Genealogist, ii. 265; Hasted's Kent, 8vo edit., ii. 196, 198; MS. Addit., 12505, f. 477; Devon's Excheq. Issues, James I.,

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SUBMERGED HOUSES.-Dio Cassius gives us an interesting reference of this kind, amongst the foreboding signs of the great insurrection of the He says: 66 οἰχίαι τέ

Britons in Nero's time.

τινες ἐν τῷ Ταμέσᾳ ποταμῷ ὕφυδροι ἑωρῶντο.” (Ziphilin., Epit. Dionis Cassii, 62.) H. C. C.

FOLK LORE. It is a popular belief that when the white thorn bears an abundant crop of fruit, a hard winter is indicated, from the notion of its being a provision for a class of birds that would otherwise be in danger of starving. Now, although it may be a species of sacrilege to throw any doubt on a belief that connects itself with the idea of a benevolent Providence, truth compels me to say that the connection in this instance is founded more on sentiment than fact. In the summer of bushes were loaded with them; but the succeeding 1862 there was an unusual crop of haws — the

winter was one of the mildest ever known in this

island. So much for the prognostication and its

fulfilment !

W. W. S.

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"When friends were few, and dangers near,
King Charles found rest and safety here.
KING CHARLES IST

Slept at this Inn on his way
to Evesham, Tuesday, July 2,
1644."

The ink is faded by time, and the handwriting is in that hard style so fashionable in years gone by. Upon inquiry in the hotel, I found that the bedroom bore the name of King Charles I.'s room, and was still the best bed-room in the hotel.

I have also noticed, in a walk through Moreton this morning, painted upon a board in front of the toll house, a Table of Tolls, to be levied under a charter granted to this town by King Charles I. in the thirteenth year of his reign.

The town has undergone but little alteration since King Charles saw it. The majority of the houses have stone mullions to their windows, and some of the spandrils above the doorways are very interesting.

The toll-house, now a public-house, is a very curious specimen of architecture. The town bell hangs in the gable, above a species of tower. From the appearance of the door, which is closely studded with iron nails, the lower portion was probably used for a lock-up, or cage. This tower is fifteenth-century work. ALFRED JOHN DUNKIN.

Dartford.

Queries.

BARON-BAILIE COURTS IN SCOTLAND. - Will any of your correspondents favour me with information as to the constitution and jurisdiction of these Courts, or refer me to authorities on the subject other than Erskine? I believe I am correct in understanding, that they have jurisdiction in small debt causes for sums not exceeding 21.; and in criminal causes can exact a fine not exceeding 1.; or sentence to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month. How many such Courts are there now existing and acting? And what is the extent of their criminal jurisdiction, or, rather, in what crimes have they jurisdiction? G. S. SIR GEOFFREY CONGREVE. In the Heralds' Visitation of Staffordshire, in 1583, 25th Elizabeth (Harl. MSS., British Museum), appear the name and arms of Sir Geoffrey Congreve, being the same as those of Congreve of Congreve; but I cannot find this name in any of the pedigrees of this family in the British Museum, or the Heralds' College. I wish to know whose son he was, and what is known of him? H.

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QUOTATIONS.-Can any of your correspondents inform me where the quotations-"Aut tu Morus aut nullus!" "Aut tu es Erasmus, aut diabolus,"-occur, and to what they refer? J. W. M.

PAPER-MAKERS' TRADE MARKS. - Have the trade marks of the different paper-makers of bygone ages, as they were employed in the "watermarks" in paper, ever been classified or identified? or, by a knowledge of the water-marks apart from the date, is it possible to approximate the age of a paper, and hence the possible date of the work printed or written therein ?

Hoc.

SANDERSON.-The Rev. Anthony Nourse Sanderson, Rector of Newton Longueville, Bucks, died and was buried there in 1793 or 1794. I shall be obliged by information of the Christian name and residence of his father. R. W.

VINCENT BOURNE. Can any correspondent of N. & Q." tell me whether the following epitaph, composed by Vincent Bourne himself, is inscribed upon his tombstone? He was buried in 1747 at Fulham,* I believe, and not in the cloisters at Westminster :

S. B. HASLAM. -I have a few numbers of a periodical issued occasionally, in 1825, by S. B. Haslam, minister of Zion Chapel, Waterloo Road," London, and termed Zion's Banners. He also published a hymn-book. Any information regarding Mr. Haslam, his previous or ultimate history, or that of his publications, would oblige. He seems to have been charged with Socinianism. DEBIT.

MAY: TRI-MILCHI. Our Saxon forefathers were in the habit of applying this latter designation to our present month of May, as is supposed from their cows affording milk thrice a day during its continuance. Is any such phenomenon distinguishable by our dairy farmers of the present day?

M. D.

EARLY MARRIAGES. Where may I find the statement made or proved, that early marriages have an essential influence in maintaining the healthy moral tone and domestic purity of a nation, of which illustrative examples are to be found in the case of Ireland, and many parts of America? Proofs and illustrations will oblige.

VECTIS.

"PIETATIS SINCERE
SUMMÆQUE HUMILITATIS,
NEC DEI USQUAM IMMEMOR
NEC SUI,

IN SILENTIUM QUOD AMAVIT

DESCENDIT
V. B."

The epitaph aptly describes the "secretum iter, and friend of Cowper delighted. et fallentis semita vitæ," in which the classic poet OXONIENSIS.

WATSON OF LOFTHOUSE, YORKSHIRE.-Is this family (of which there is a pedigree in the British Museum, see Sims's Index,) connected with the family of Bilton Park, near Knaresborough? I observe there is a Lofthouse Hill, near the latter place. SIGMA THETA.

[* The following is the entry in the Fulham Register: "1747, Mr. Vincent Bourne, 5 Decr."-ED.]

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