_Long Lonkin_ (Vol. ii., pp. 168. 251.).--This ballad does not relate to
Cumberland, but to Northumberland. This error was committed by Miss
Landon (in the _Drawing-room Scrap-book_ for 1835), to whom a lady of
this town communicated the fragment through the medium of a friend. Its
real locality is a ruined tower, seated on the corner of an extensive
earth-work surrounded by a moat, on the western side of Whittle Dean,
near Ovingham. Since this period, I have myself taken down many
additional verses from the recitation of the adjacent villagers, and
will be happy to afford any further information to your inquirer,
SELEUCUS.
G. BOUCHIER RICHARDSON.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sept. 7. 1850.
_Havock_ (Vol. ii., p. 215.).--The presumed object of literary men being
the investigation of truth, your correspondent JARLTZBERG will, I trust,
pardon me for suggesting that his illustration of the word _havock_ is
incomplete, and especially with reference to the line of Shakspeare
which he has quoted:
"Cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war."
Grose, in his _History of English Armour_, vol. ii. p. 62., says that
_havok_ was the word given as a signal for the troops to disperse and
pillage, as may be learned from the following article in the _Droits of
the Marshal_, vol. ii. p. 229., wherein it is declared, that--
"In the article of plunder, all the sheep and hogs belong to
such private soldiers as can take them; and that on the word
havok being cried, every one might seize his part; but this
probably was only a small part of the licence supposed to be
given by the word."
He also refers to the ordinance of Richard II.
In agreeing with your correspondent that the use of this word was the
signal for general massacre, unlimited slaughter, and giving no quarter,
as well as taking plunder in the manner described above, the omission of
which I have to complain is, that, in stating no one was to raise the
cry, under penalty of losing his head, he did not add the words, "the
king excepted." It was a royal act; and Shakspeare so understood it to
be; as will appear from the passage referred to, if fully and fairly
quoted:--
"And CÊsar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With AtÈ by his side, come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, _with a monarch's voice_,
Cry Havock! and let slip the dogs of war."
_Julius CÊsar_ Act iii.
It is not at this moment in my power to assist F.W. with the reference
to the history of Bishop Berkeley's giant, though it exists somewhere in
print. The subject of the experiment was a healthy boy, who died in the
end, in consequence of over-growth, promoted (as far as my recollection
serves me) principally by a peculiar diet.