the _Italics_ used in this communication are those of the
pamphlet], and indeed whose measure seem'd to be the hardest of
all, was this honorable person _William_ Lord _Russel_, who was
generally lamented for his excellent Temper and good Qualities;
being allowed to be one of the most sober and judicious
Noblemen in the Kingdom, which even his Enemies could not deny;
and the Merit and Esteem he bore was more cause of Offence
against him than any Matter that was reap'd up at his Tryal;
all which in effect was merely grounded upon Malice (I mean
_Popish_ Malice) that could not be forgot, from his Lordship's
being one of those earnest sticklers for _Protestant_
Liberty, and even the very foremost that prefer'd the Bill of
Exclusion," &c.
Then follows the trial, headed "July 13, 1683, the _Lord_ Russel _came to
his Tryal at the_ Old Bailey." The indictment is described; the names of
the jury are given; judges and counsel named; the evidence, examinations,
and cross-examinations (by Lord Russel) very interestingly narrated: the
Report concluding, after a short address from Lord Russel, "Then the
Court adjourned till four in the afternoon, and brought him in guilty."
These particulars are followed by "_The last Speech and Carriage of the
Lord_ Russel _upon the Scaffold, &c._" As to the executioner's work, all
other accounts that I have seen state that after "two" strokes the head
was severed from the body. The publication says:
"The Executioner, missing at his first Stroke, though with
that he took away his Life, at two more severed the Head from
the Body.... Mr. Sheriff [continues the account] ordered his
Friends or Servants to take the Body, and dispose of it as they
pleased, being given them by His Majesty's _Favour and Bounty_."
The narrative proceeds:
"His Body was conveyed to _Cheneys_ in _Buckinghamshire_, where
'twas Buried among his Ancestors. There was a great _Storm_,
and many loud _Claps_ of _Thunder_ the Day of his _Martyrdom_.
An _Elegy_ was made on him immediately after his Death, which
seems, by what we have of it, to be writ with some _Spirit_,
and a great deal of Truth and Good-will; only this Fragment
on't could be retriev'd, which yet may not be unwelcome to the
Reader:
'_'Tis done--he's_ Crown'd, _and one bright_ Martyr _more_,
_Black_ Rome, _is charg'd on thy too bulky score._
_All_ like himself, _he mov'd so calm, so free_,
_A general whisper question'd_--Which is he?
_Decked like a_ Lover--_tho' pale Death's his_ Bride,
_He_ came, _and_ saw, _and_ overcame, _and_ dy'd.
_Earth weeps, and all the vainly pitying Crowd_:
_But Heaven his Death in_ Thunder _groan'd aloud.'_"
A "sketch of his character" closes the account. Perhaps W. S. M. may deem
these particulars not wholly uninteresting, but tolerably conclusive,
considering the time of publication, when the fact must have been
notorious.
A HERMIT AT HAMPSTEAD.
* * * * *
OAKEN TOMBS, ETC.
(Vol. vii., p. 528.)
At Banham, Norfolk, in a recess in the wall of the north aisle of the
church, is an oaken effigy of a knight in armour in a recumbent position.
Blomefield says:
"It is plain that it was made for Sir Hugh Bardolph, Knight,
sometime lord of Gray's Manor, in this town, who died in 1203,
for under his left arm there is a large cinquefoil, which is
the badge of that family," &c.
Since he wrote, however (1739), with a view to the better preservation
of this interesting relic, some spirited churchwarden has caused it to
be {180} well painted and sanded so that it now looks _almost_ as well
as stone. At the same time, the marks by which Blomefield thought to
identify it are necessarily obliterated.
T. B. B. H.
William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who was slain at Bayonne in
1296,--his effigy in wood is in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey,
covered with enamelled brass. There is also in Abergavenny Church,
amongst the general wreck of monumental remains there, a cross-legged
effigy in wood, represented in chain mail; which the late Sir Samuel
Meyrick supposed to have been that of William de Valence. It is mentioned
in Coxe's _Monmouthshire_, p. 192.
The effigy of Aymer de Valence referred to in Whitaker ("N. & Q.," Vol.
vii., p. 528.) is not of wood; he evidently refers to that of William de
Valence.
In Gloucester Cathedral there is the wooden monument of a cross-legged
knight attributed to Robert Duke of Normandy, the eldest son of the
Conqueror; but it is probably of a little later period.
THOMAS W. KING (York Herald).
College of Arms.
In the Cathedral of Gloucester, there is a wooden effigy of the
unfortunate Robert Duke of Normandy, eldest son of the Conqueror. It is
so many years since I saw it, that I do not offer any description: but,
if my memory be correct, it has the legs crossed, and (what is curious)
is loose, and can be turned about on the tomb.
A. C. M.
Exeter.
On the south side of the chancel of St. Giles' Church, Durham, is a
wooden effigy in full armour; the head resting on a helmet, and the hands
raised as in prayer. It is supposed to be the tomb of John Heath, who
became possessed of the Hospital of St. Giles Kepyer, and is known to
have been buried in the chancel of St. Giles' Church. He died in 1590. At
the feet of the wooden effigy, are the words "HODIE MICHI." The figure
was restored in colours about ten years ago.
CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A.
* * * * *
"COULD WE WITH INK," &c.
(Vol. viii., p. 127.)
The _bonâ fide_ author of the following lines--
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the heavens of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretch'd from sky to sky."
is Rabbi Mayir ben Isaac. The above eight lines are almost a literal
translation of four Chaldee ones, which form part of a beautiful ode on
the attributes of God, not unmixed with a considerable proportion of the
fabulous, which is sung in every synagogue during the service of the
first day of the feast of Pentecost.
May I now be permitted to ask you, or any of your numerous
correspondents, to inform me who was the _bonâ fide_ translator of Rabbi
Mayir ben Isaac's lines? The English lines are often quoted by itinerant
advocates of charity societies as having been found inscribed, according
to some, on the walls of a lunatic asylum, according to others, on the
walls of a prison, as occasion requires; but extempore quotations on
platforms are sometimes vague.
MOSES MARGOLIOUTH.
Wybunbury.
The verses are in Grose's _Olio_ (p. 292.), and are there said to be
written by nearly an idiot, then living (March 16, 1779) at Cirencester.
It happens, however, that long before the supposed idiot was born, one
Geoffrey Chaucer made use of the same idea, and the same expressions,
although applied to a totally different subject, viz. in his "Balade
warnynge men to beware of deceitful women:"--
"In soth to saie though all the yerth so wanne
Wer parchment smoth, white and scribbabell,
And the gret see, that called is th' Ocean,
Were tourned into ynke blackir than sabell,
Eche sticke a pen, eche man a scrivener able,
Not coud thei writin woman's treacherie,
Beware, therefore, the blind eteth many a flie."
Again in the "Remedie of Love," the same lines occur with a few slight
alterations.
In vol. x. of the _Modern Universal History_, p. 430. _note_, I meet with
this sentence:
"He was succeeded by Jochanan; not in right of descent, but
of his extraordinary merits; which the Rabbies, according to
custom, have raised to so surprising a height, that, according
to them, if the whole heavens were paper, all the trees in the
world pens, and all the men writers, they would not suffice to
pen down all his lessons."
In later times, in Miss C. Sinclair's _Hill and Valley_, p. 25., we have:
"If the lake could be transformed into an ink-stand, the
mountains into paper; and if all the birds that hover on high
were to subscribe their wings for quills, it would be still
insufficient to write half the praise and admiration that are
justly due."
C. I. R.
These lines are by Dr. Watts. I cannot just now distinctly recollect
_where_ they are to be found, but I think in Milner's _Life of Watts_.
My recollection of them is that they were impromptu, given at an evening
party.
H. S. S.
{181}
* * * * *
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
_Washing or not washing Collodion Pictures after developing, previous to
fixing._--Since the question has been mooted I have tried both ways, and
have come to the conclusion that there is very little difference in the
resulting appearance of the picture. The hypo. is certainly deteriorated
when no washing is adopted. I think it is best to pour off the first
quantity applied into a cup kept for the purpose; this is discoloured: I
then pour on more clean hypo., and let it remain till the picture clears,
and pour _this_ into another cup or bottle for future use. What was
poured into the first cup may, when a sufficient quantity is obtained,
be filtered, and by adding more of the salt is not useless. I pour on
merely enough at first to wash off the developing fluid, and pour it
off at once. The picture is cleared much sooner if the saturated hypo.
solution is warmed, which I do by plunging the bottle into a pewter pint
pot filled with hot water.
W. M. F.
_Stereoscopic Angles_ (Vol. viii., pp. 109. 157.).--I perfectly
agree with your correspondent MR. T. L. MERRITT (p. 109.) respecting
"stereoscopic angles," having arrived at the same conclusion some months
since, while at Hastings, where I produced stereoscopic pictures by
moving the camera _only two inches_: having in one, _seven_ houses and
_five_ bathing-machines; and in the other, _five_ houses and _eight_
bathing-machines. If I had separated the two pictures more, I should have
had _all bathing-machines_ in one and _all houses_ in the other; which
convinced me that nothing more is required than the width of the two eyes
for all distances, or, slightly to exaggerate it, to three inches, which
will produce a pleasing and natural effect: for it is quite certain that
our eyes do not become wider apart as we recede from an object, and that
the intention is to give a true representation of nature as seen by one
person. Now, most stereoscopic pictures represent nature as it never
could be seen by any one person, from the same point of view; and I feel
confident that all photographers, who condescend to make stereoscopic
pictures, will arrive at the same conclusion before the end of this
season.
If this be correct, all difficulty is removed; for it is always advisable
to take two pictures of the same prospect, in case one should not be
good: and two very indifferent negatives will combine into one very good
positive, when viewed by the stereoscope: thus proving the old saying,
that two negatives make an affirmative.
HENRY WILKINSON.
Brompton.
_Sisson's Developing Solution._--In answer to S. B.'s inquiry, I beg to
say, that I have not tried the above solution as a bath. I have always
poured it on, believing that it was easier to observe the progress of
the picture by that mode. If S. B. will forward me his address, I shall
be happy to enter more minutely into my mode of operating with it than
I can through the medium of "N. & Q." I have received other favourable
testimony as to the value of my developing fluid for glass positives.
While I am writing, will you allow me to ask your photographic
correspondents whether any of them have tried Mr. Müller's paper process
referred to by Mr. Delamotte at p. 145. of his work? It was first
announced in the _Athenæum_ of Nov. 2, 1851. When I first commenced
photography (June, 1852), I tried the process; and from what I did
with it, when I was almost entirely ignorant of the manipulation, I am
inclined to think it a valuable process. The sharpness of the tracery in
my church windows, in a picture I took by the process, is remarkable.
Mr. Delamotte truly says: "This is a most striking discovery, as it
supersedes the necessity of any developing agent after the light has
acted on the paper." Mr. Müller says, that simple washing in water seems
to be sufficient to fix the picture. This is also a striking discovery,
and totally unlike any other very sensitive process that I am acquainted
with; and more striking still, that the process should not have been more
practised.
J. LAWSON SISSON.
Edingthorpe Rectory.
* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Robert Drury_ (Vol. v., p. 533.; Vol. vii., p. 485.; vol. viii., p.
104.).--I believe the _Journal_ of Robert Drury to be a genuine book of
travels and adventures, and here is my voucher:
"The best and most authentic account ever given of Madagascar
was published in 1729, by Robert Drury, who being shipwrecked
in the Degrave East Indiaman, on the south side of that island,
in 1702, being then a boy, lived there as a slave fifteen
years, and after his return to England, among those who knew
him (and he was known to many, being a porter at the East India
House), had the character of a downright honest man, without
any appearance of fraud or imposture."--John Duncombe, M. A.,
one of the six preachers in Christ Church, Canterbury, 1773.
Mr. Duncombe quotes several statements from Drury which coincide with
those of the Reverend William Hirst, the astronomer, who touched at
Madagascar, on his voyage to India, in 1759. Ten years afterwards Mr.
Hirst perished in the Aurora, and with him the author of _The Shipwreck_.
BOLTON CORNEY.
_Real Signatures versus Pseudo-Names_ (Vol. vi., p. 310.; Vol. viii.,
p. 94.).--There is no doubt that the straightforwardness of open and
undisguised communications to your excellent miscellany {182} is
desirable; but a few words may be said on behalf of your anonymous
contributors. If the rule were established that every correspondent
should add his name to his communication, many of your friends might,
from motives of delicacy, decline asking a question or hazarding a reply.
By adopting a _nom-de-guerre_, men eminent in their various pursuits can
quietly and unostentatiously ask a question, or contribute information.
If the latter be done with reference to standard works of authority, or
to MSS. preserved in our public depositories, the disclosure of the name
of the contributor adds nothing to the matter contributed, and he may
rejoice that he has been the means of promoting the objects of the "N.
& Q." without the "blushing to find it fame." It should, however, be a
_sine quâ non_ that all original communications, and those of matters of
fact, should be authenticated by a real signature, when no reference can
be given to authorities not accessible to the public; and it is to be
regretted that such authentication has not, in such cases, been generally
afforded.
THOS. WM. KING (York Herald).
_Lines on the Institution of the Garter_ (Vol. viii., p. 53.).--
"Her stocking's security fell from her knee,
Allusions and hints, sneers and whispers went round."
May I put a Query on the idea suggested by these lines--that the
accidental dropping of her garter implied an imputation on the fair fame
of the Countess of Salisbury. Why should this be? That it did imply an
imputation, I judge as well from the vindication of the lady by King
Edward, as also from the proverbial expression used in Scotland, and to
be found in Scott's _Works_, of "casting a leggin girth," as synonymous
with a female "faux pas." I have a conjecture, but should not like to
venture it, without inquiring the general impression as to the origin of
this notion.
A. B. R.
Belmont.
_"Short red, God red," &c._ (Vol. vii., p. 500.).--Sir Walter Scott has
committed an oversight when, in _Tales of a Grandfather_, vol. i. p. 85.,
he mentions a murderer of the Bishop of Caithness to have made use of the
expression, "Schort red, God red, slea ye the bischop." Adam, Bishop of
Caithness, was burnt by the mob near Thurso, in 1222, for oppression in
the exaction of tithes; John, Earl of Orkney and Caithness, was killed in
retaliation by the bishop's party in 1231.
The language spoken at that time on the sea-coast of Caithness must
have been Norse. Sutherland would appear to have been wrested from
the Orkney-Norwegians before that period, and the Celtic tongue and
race gaining on the Norse; but on the sea-coast of Caithness I should
apprehend the Norse continued to be the spoken tongue till a later
period, when it was superseded by the Scottish. The Norwegians in the
end of the ninth century colonised Orkney, and expelled or destroyed the
former inhabitants. The Western Isles were also subjugated by them at
that time, and probably Caithness, or at all events a little later. It
would be desirable to know the race and tongue previously existing in
Caithness, and if these were lost in the Norwegians and Norse, and an
earlier Christianity in Scandinavian Paganism. This may, however, lead
to the unfathomably dark subject of the Picts. Is it known when Norse
ceased to be spoken in Caithness? The story of the burning of the Bishop
of Caithness forms the conclusion of the _Orkneyinga Saga_; and vide
Torfæus, _Orcades_, p. 154., and Dalrymple's _Annals of Scotland_, of
dates 1222 and 1231.
F.
_Martha Blount_ (Vol. vii., pp. 38. 117.).--At "Brandon," the seat of the
Harrisons on the James River, Virginia, is a likeness of Miss Blount by
Sir Godfrey Kneller; and at "Berkeley," also on the James River, and the
residence of another branch of the same family, is one of the Duchess
of Montagu, also by Kneller. Thus much in answer to the Query. But in
this connexion I would mention, that on the James River are many fine
pictures, portraits of worthies famous in English history. At "Shirley"
there is one of Col. Hill, by Vandyke; at Brandon, one of Col. Byrd, by
Vandyke; also Lord Orrery, Duke of Argyle, Lord Albemarle, Lord Egmont,
Sir Robert Walpole, and others, by Kneller.
These pictures are mentioned in chap. ix. of _Travels in North America
during the Years_ 1834-1836, by the Hon. Charles Augustus Murray; a
gentleman who either is, or was, Master of the Queen's Household.
T. BALCH.
Philadelphia.
_Longevity_ (Vol. viii., p. 113.).--As W. W. asserts that there is a
lady living (or was two months ago) in South Carolina, who is _known_
to be 131 years old, he will no doubt be good enough to let the readers
of "N. & Q." _know_ it also. And although W. W. thinks it will not be
necessary to search in "annual or parish registers" to prove the age of
the singular Singleton, yet he must produce documentary evidence of some
sort; unless, indeed, he _knows_ an older person who remembers the birth
of the aged Carolinian.
Having paid the well-known Mr. Barnum a fee to see a negress, whom the
_cute_ showman exhibited as the nurse of the great Washington, I have
fifty cents worth of reasons to subscribe myself
A DOUBTER.
_Its_ (Vol. vii., p. 578.).--B. H. C. is perfectly correct in saying,
that I was mistaken in my quotation from Fairfax's _Tasso_. It only
remains for {183} me to explain how I fell into the error. It was, then,
from using Mr. Knight's edition of the work for though the orthography
was modernised, which I like, I never dreamed of an editor's taking the
liberty of altering the text of his author. I love to be corrected when
wrong, and here express my thanks to B. H. C. I inform him that there is
another passage in Shakspeare with _its_ in it, but not having marked it,
I cannot find it just now: I think it is in _Lear_.
I have said that I like modernised orthography. We have modernised that
of the Bible, and of the dramatists; why then are we so superstitious
with respect to the barbarous system of Spenser? I am convinced that the
_Fairy Queen_, if printed in modern orthography, would find many readers
who are repelled by the uncouth and absurd spelling of the poet, who
wanted to rhyme to the eye as well as to the ear. Let us then have a
"Spenser for the People."
THOS. KEIGHTLEY.
_Oldham, Bishop of Exeter_ (Vol. vii., pp. 14. 164. 189. 271.).--MR.
WALCOTT will be interested to learn, that Bishop Hugh Oldham was _not_ a
native of Oldham, but was born at Crumpsall, in the parish of Manchester;
as appears from Dugdale's _Visitation of Lancashire_, and the "Lancashire
MSS.," vol. xxxi. His brother, Richard Oldham, appointed 22nd Abbot of
St. Werburgh's Abbey, Chester, in 1452, was afterwards elevated to the
bishoprick of Man, and, dying Oct. 13, 1485, was buried at Chester Abbey,
Chester.
T. HUGHES.
Chester.
_Boom_ (Vol. vii., p. 620.).--This word, expressive of the cry of the
bittern, is also used as a _noun_:
"And the loud bittern from his bull-rush home
Gave from the salt-ditch side his bellowing boom."
Crabbe, _The Borough_, xxii.
Ebenezer Elliott is another who uses the word as a _verb_:
"No more with her will hear the bittern boom
At evening's dewy close."
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
_Lord North_ (Vol. vii., p. 317.).--If C. can procure a copy of Lossing's
_Pictorial Field-book of the American Revolution_, he will find in one of
the volumes a woodcut from an _English_ engraving, presenting to our view
George III. as he appeared at the era of the American Revolution. It may
serve to modify his present opinion as to the king's figure, face, &c.
M. E.
Philadelphia.
_Dutch Pottery_ (Vol. v., p. 343.; Vol. vi. p. 253.).--At Arnhem, about
sixty-five or seventy years ago, there existed a pottery founded by two
Germans: H. Brandeis, and the well-known savant H. von Laun, maker of the
planetarium (orrery) described by Professor van Swinden, and purchased
by the Society _Felix Meritis_ in Amsterdam. The son of Mr. Brandeis has
still at his residence, No. 419. Rapenburgerstraat, several articles
manufactured there: such as plates, &c. What I have seen is much coarser
than the Saxon porcelain, yet much better than our Delft ware. Perhaps
Mr. Van Embden, grandson and successor of Von Laun, could give farther
information.
S. J. MULDER.
P.S.--Allow me to correct some misprints in Vol. vi., p. 253. Dutch
and German names are often cruelly maltreated in English publications.
In this respect "N. & Q." should be an exception. For "L_i_chner" read
L_ei_chner; for "Dorp_h_eschrÿver" read Dorp_b_eschrÿver; for "Bl_a_sse"
read Bl_ü_ss_é_; for "H_e_eren" read H_a_eren; for "Palland_h_" read
Palland; for "Dae_n_b_a_r" read Dae_u_b_e_r.--From the _Navorscher_.
_Cranmer's Correspondences_ (Vol. vii., p. 621.).--Will MR. WALTER be so
good as to preserve in your columns the letter of which Dean Jenkyns has
only given extracts?
Two points are to be distinguished, Cranmer's wish that Calvin should
assist in a general union of the churches protesting against Romish
error--Calvin's offer to assist in settling the Church of England. The
latter was declined; and the reason is demonstrated in Archbp. Laurence's
_Bampton Lectures_.
S. Z. Z. S.
_Portable Altars_ (Vol. viii., p. 101.).--I am not acquainted with any
treatise on the subject of portable altars, from which your correspondent
can obtain more information, than from that which occupies forty-six
pages in the _Decas Dissertationum Historico-Theologicarum_, published,
for the second time, by Jo. Andr. Schmidt, 4to. Helmstad. 1714.
R. G.
_Poem attributed to Shelley_ (Vol. viii., p. 71.).--The ridiculous
extravaganza attributed to Shelley by an American newspaper, was
undoubtedly never written by that gifted genius. It bears throughout
unmistakeable evidence of its transatlantic origin. No person, who had
not actually witnessed that curious vegetable parasite, the _Spanish
moss_ of the southern states of America, hanging down in long, hairy-like
plumes from the branches of a large tree, would have imagined the lines,--
"The downy clouds droop
Like moss upon a tree."
Who, again, could believe that Shelley, an English gentleman and scholar,
could ever, either in writing or conversation, have made use of the
common American vulgarism, "play hell!"
{184}
The question of the authorship of such a production, apart from its being
attributed to Shelley, is, in my humble opinion, a matter of little or no
interest. But as a probable guess, I should say that it carries strong
internal evidence of having been written by that erratic mortal, Edgar
Poe.
W. PINKERTON.
Ham.