account of the festival of Robin Hood, which was so popular with our
ancestors, that Bishop Latimer could get no one to come to hear him preach
on that day?
In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Helens, Abingdon, published in the
first volume of the _Archæologia_, there is an entry in 1566 of the sum of
18d. paid for "setting up Robin Hood's Bower."
R. W. B.
[The best account of Robin Hood's festival on the first and succeeding
days of May is given in _Robin Hood: a Collection of all the Ancient
Poems, Songs, and Ballads, relative to that celebrated Outlaw_; [by
Joseph Ritson], among the notes and illustrations in vol. i. pp.
xcvii--cx. Consult also _A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode_, by John Matthew
Gutch, vol. i. pp. 60--64.; and George Soane's _New Curiosities of
Literature_, vol. i. pp. 231--236.]
_Church in Suffolk._--In restoring a church in Suffolk, apparently of the
date of Henry VII., except two Norman doors, the walls were found full of
Norman mouldings of about 1100, or not much after. Will you kindly give me
a list of the works where I may be likely to find an account of this
original church? Davy and Jermyn's _Suffolk_, in the British Museum, says
nothing about it. The two Norman doors are universally admired, and the
church is now Norman still throughout. In the reconstruction of about 1100,
the two doors do not seem to have been in any way restored or meddled with.
G. L.
[Our correspondent may probably find some account of this church either
in Suckling's _Antiquities of Suffolk_, 4to., 2 vols., Gage's _History
of Suffolk_ (Thingoe Hundred), 4to., or in H. Jermyn's Collections for
a General History of Suffolk, in the British Museum, Add. MSS.
8168--8196.]
* * * * *
{623}
Replies.
CHILDREN CALLED IMPS.
(Vol. viii., p. 443.)
"Heere resteth the bodye of the noble Impe, Robert of Duddeley, Baron of
Denbigh, sonne of Robert, Earle of Leicester, nephew and heire unto
Ambrose, Earle of Warwick, brethren, both sonnes of the mighty Prince John,
late Duke of Northumberland, that was cosin and heire to Sir John Grey,
Vicount L'Isle, nephew and heire unto the Lady Margaret, Countesse of
Shrewsbury, the eldest daughter and coheire of the noble Earle of Warr: Sir
Richard Beauchampe here interred; a childe of great parentage, but of farr
greater hope and towardnesse, taken from this transitory unto everlasting
life in his tender age, at Wanstead in Essex, on Sunday, 19th of July, in
the yeare of our Lord God 1584, being the 26th yeare of the happy raine of
the most virtuous and godly Princesse, Queene Elizabeth, and in this place
layd up among his noble auncestors, in assured hope of the generall
resurrection."--_Lady's Chapel, St. Mary's Church, Warwick._
H. B.
Warwick.
An inscription on a tomb at Besford, near Pershore, Worcestershire, of the
same period as that at Aylesbury (mentioned by MR. BROOKS), contains also
the word _imp_. The tomb at Besford is a most singular one, consisting of
two large folding doors fixed against the wall, their panels and the
interior being painted over with figures and inscriptions. From the latter,
which are of some length, the following extracts will be sufficient to
illustrate the subject:
"An _impe_ entombed heere doth lie."
"... elder ... from Christ to straie,
When such an _impe_ foreshewes the waie."
The old poetical word _sugared_, "Noe sugred word," occurs in the
inscription.
The "impe" is supposed to be Richard Harewell, who died in 1576, aged 15
years, to whom a second monument, of alabaster (close by the former), was
also erected; a rare circumstance, I should suppose. The Harewells appear
to have been a family at the time of the Conquest; the two following lines
are a part of one of the inscriptions:
"Of Harewell's blodde ere Conquest made,
Knowne to descende of gentle race."
Nash, in his _History of Worcestershire_, makes mention of this singular
monument, but is anything but correct in giving its inscriptions.
CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A.
T. W. D. BROOKS will find this word used by some modern authors to denote a
child. In _Moral and Sacred Poetry_, selected and arranged by the Rev. T.
Willcocks and the Rev. T. Horton (Devonport, W. Byers, 1834), there is at
p. 254. a piece by Baillie, addressed "To a Child," the first line of which
runs thus:
"Whose _imp_ art thou, with dimpled cheek?"
And in a poem by Rogers, on the following page, the children of a gipsy are
called _imps_.
J. W. N. KEYS.
Plymouth.
* * * * *
THE DIVINING ROD.
(Vol. viii., pp. 293. 479.)
The inclosed extract from a letter which I have just received from a friend
on the subject of the divining rod, will probably interest your readers as
an answer to a Query which appeared some weeks ago in your excellent work.
You may entirely rely on the accuracy of the facts stated.
J. A. H.
"However the pretended effect of the divining rod may be attributed to
knavery and credulity by philosophers who will not take the trouble of
witnessing and investigating the operation, any one who will pay a visit to
the Mendip Hills in Somersetshire, and the country round their base, may
have abundant proof of the efficacy of it. Its success has been very
strikingly proved along the range of the Pennard Hills also, to the South
of the Mendip. The faculty of discovering water by means of the divining
rod is not possessed by every one; for indeed there are but few who possess
it in any considerable degree, or in whose hands the motion of the rod,
when passing over an underground stream, is very decided; and they who have
it are quite unconscious of their capability until they are made aware of
it by experiment.
"I saw the operation of the rod, or rather of a fork, formed of the shoots
of the last year, held in the hands of the experimentor by the extremities,
with the angle projecting before him. When he came over the spot beneath
which the water flowed, the rod, which had before been perfectly still,
writhed about with considerable force, so that the holder could not keep it
in its former position; and he appealed to the bystanders to notice that he
had made no motion to produce this effect, and used every effort to prevent
it. The operation was several times repeated with the same result, and each
time under the close inspection of shrewd and doubting, if not incredulous,
observers. Forks of any kind of green wood served equally well, but those
of dead wood had no effect. The experimentor had discovered water, in
several instances, in the same parish (Pennard), but was perfectly unaware
of his capability till he was requested by his landlord to try. The
operator had the reputation of a perfectly honest man, whose word might be
safely {624} trusted, and who was incapable of attempting to deceive any
one--as indeed appeared by his open and ingenuous manner and conversation
on this occasion. He was a farmer, and respected by all his neighbours. So
general is the conviction of the efficacy of the divining rod in
discovering both water and the ores of calamine or zinc all over the
Mendip, that the people are quite astonished when any doubt is expressed
about it. The late Dr. Hutton wrote against the pretension, as one of many
instances of deception founded upon gross ignorance and credulity; when a
lady of quality, who herself possessed the faculty, called upon him, and
gave him experimental proof, in the neighbourhood of Woolwich, that water
was discoverable by that means. This Dr. Hutton afterwards publicly
acknowledged.
"The above I suppose will suffice for your present purpose; I could,
however, say a great deal more, for I wrote a very long account many years
ago to our friend ----, of what I have now only briefly stated. That letter
was treated by certain scientific friends of his with contempt; but when I
afterwards saw poor Dr. Turner, he said he would go down to Somerset to see
it himself; but alas! he did not live to carry his intention into effect."
* * * * *
CHANGE OF MEANING IN PROVERBIAL EXPRESSIONS, ETC.
(Vol. viii., pp. 464, 465.)
Very hesitatingly I venture to express dissent from MR. KEIGHTLEY'S
ingenious suggestion of a change of meaning in the proverb "Tread on a worm
and it will turn." I support my dissent, however, by the following lines
from Shakspeare:
"Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting?
Not he that sets his foot upon her back.
The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on;
And doves will peck in safe-guard of their brood."
Third Part of _King Henry VI._, Act II. Sc. 2.
King Henry says, Withhold revenge, dear God!
Clifford replies, The lion, the bear, the serpent, the smallest worm, and
doves, if injured, will make an effort at revenge or defence. It is clear
that Shakspeare uses the word _worm_ as meaning, not a venomous serpent,
but the most defenceless of reptiles.
Again, I do not think that MR. KEIGHTLEY'S quotation from Schiller's
_Wallenstein's Tod_ supports his view. I am not a German scholar, but I
find that the translator of _Wallenstein's Tod_ (I believe Lord Ellesmere)
has translated or paraphrased the lines quoted by MR. KEIGHTLEY as follows:
"But nature gave the very worm a sting,
When trampled on by man, to turn again."
The sense of the passage (spoken by Butler) requires that "wurm" should be
understood to mean a harmless despised reptile, not a venomous serpent.
It seems that Schiller had Shakspeare in his mind when he wrote the lines
in question; indeed, they are almost a copy of Shakspeare's line. I
consider them as parallel passages.
It may not be irrelevant to observe that _worm_ in some places still means
a serpent; but I believe it has usually a prefix, as "hag-worm" in
Westmoreland and the West Riding of Yorkshire; so also in the latter
"slow-worm" means a species of small snake or viper found on some of the
moors. (For "slow-worm," see "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., pp. 33. and 479.) I
have been told that "blind-worm" in Surrey means a viper. I conclude with a
Query, Does _Wurm_ in modern German ever mean a serpent?
F. W. J.
"To put a spoke in one's wheel," is not singular in its _double entendre_
(Vol. viii., pp. 262. 351. 464.). "There is no love lost between them" is
in a similar predicament. We now speak of no love being lost between A. and
B., when we would intimate that the warmth of their mutual affection may be
accurately represented by 32° Fahrenheit. That this has not always been the
meaning of the phrase, the following verse from the old ballad of _The
Children in the Wood_ will testify:
"Sore sick he was, and like to die,
No help that he could have;
His wife by him as sick did lie,
And both possess'd one grave.
_No love between these two was lost_,
Each was to other kind;
In love they lived, in love they died,
And left two babes behind."
R. PRICE.
St. Ives.
* * * * *
SNEEZING.
(Vol. viii., p. 366.)
A collection of "facts, theories, and popular ideas" upon this subject
would fill a volume. I send, however, a few extracts, &c., which may
interest your correspondent MEDICUS:
"Et n'esternuay point regardant le soleil."
"And did not sneeze as he looked upon the sun."
Ronsard, tom. v. p. 158., quoted in Southey's
_Common Place Book_, 3rd series, p. 303.
Here, not to sneeze appears to be looked on as an ill omen.
Ammianus has an epigram upon one whose nose was so long that he never heard
it sneeze, and therefore never said [Greek: Zeu sôson], God bless.--_Notes
on the Variorum Plautus_ (ed. Gronov., Lugd. Bat.), p. 720. {625}
Athenæus, says Potter in his _Archæologia Græca_, proves that the head was
esteemed holy, because it was customary to swear by it, and adore as holy
the sneezes that proceeded from it. And Aristotle tells us in express terms
that sneezing was accounted a deity: "[Greek: Ton Ptarmon theon
hêgoumetha]"--_Archæol. Græc._ (5th ed.), p. 338.
"Oscitatio in nixu letalis est, sicut
Sternuisse a coitu abortivum."
Quoted from Pliny by Aulus Gellius,
_Noct. Att._ III. xvi. 24.
Erasmus, in his _Colloquies_, bids one say to him who sneezes, "Sit faustum
ac felix," or "Servet te Deus," or "Sit salutiferum" or "Bene vertat Deus."
"Quare homines sternutant?
"Respondetur, ut virtus expulsiva et visiva, per hoc purgetur, et
cerebrum a sua superfluitate purgetur, etc. Etiam qui sternutat
frequenter, dicitur habere forte cerebrum."--_Aristotelis Problemata_:
Amstelodami, anno 1690.
Query whether from some such idea of the beneficial effect of sneezing,
arose the practice of calling for the divine blessing on the sneezer?
When Themistocles was offering sacrifice, it happened that three beautiful
captives were brought him, and at the same time the fire burnt clear and
bright, and a sneeze happened on the right hand. Hereupon Euphrantides the
soothsayer, embracing him, predicted the memorable victory which was
afterwards obtained by him, &c.
There is also mention of this custom (the observation of sneezing) in
Homer, who has introduced Penelope rejoicing at a sneeze of her son
Telemachus:
"[Greek: Ouch horaas ho moi huios epeptaren]"
Sneezing was not always a lucky omen, but varied according to the
alteration of circumstances--"[Greek: Tôn ptarmôn hoi men eisin ôphelimoi,
hoi de blaberoi]," "Some sneezes are profitable, others
prejudicial"--according to the scholiast upon the following passage of
Theocritus, wherein he makes the sneezing of the Cupids to have been an
unfortunate omen to a certain lover:
"[Greek: Simichida men erôtes epeptaron.]"
If any person sneezed between midnight and the following noontide it was
fortunate, but from noontide till midnight it was unfortunate.
If a man sneezed at the table while they were taking away, or if another
happened to sneeze upon his left hand, it was unlucky; if on the right
hand, fortunate.
If, in the undertaking any business, two or four sneezes happened, it was a
lucky omen, and gave encouragement to proceed; if more than four, the omen
was neither good nor bad; if one or three, it was unlucky, and dehorted
them from proceeding in what they had designed. If two men were
deliberating about any business, and both of them chanced to sneeze
together, it was a prosperous omen.--_Archæol. Græc._ (5th ed.), pp. 339,
340.
FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.
Tewkesbury.
The custom your correspondent MEDICUS alludes to, of wishing a person "good
health," after sneezing, is also very common in Russia. The phrases the
Russians use on these occasions are--"To your good health!" or "How do you
do?"
J. S. A.
Old Broad Street.
* * * * *
BOOKS BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN.
(Vol. viii., pp. 272. 346.)
To the list of these literary _auto da fé's_ we may well add the burning of
Bishop Burnet's famous _Pastoral Letter_, which was censured by the House
of Commons, January, 1692, and was burned by the common hangman. The
offence contained in it was the ascribing the title of William III. to the
crown of England to a right of conquest. A recollection of this gives
additional point to the irony of Atterbury in attacking Wake:
"William the Conqueror is another of the pious patterns he recommends,
'who would suffer nothing,' he says, 'to be determined in any
ecclesiastical causes without leave and authority first had from
him.'... His present majesty is not William the Conqueror; and can no
more by our constitution rule absolutely either in Church or State than
he would if he could: his will and pleasure is indeed a law to all his
subjects; not in a conquering sense, but because his will and pleasure
is only that the laws of our country should be obeyed, which he came
over on purpose to rescue, and counts it his great prerogative to
maintain; and contemns therefore, I doubt not, such sordid flattery as
would measure the extent of his supremacy from the Conqueror's
claim."--Atterbury's _Rights, Powers, and Privileges of Convocation_,
pp. 158--160.
Atterbury never misses a hit at Burnet when he can conveniently administer
one, and the Bishop endeavours to smile even while he winces:
"He writes with just and due respect of the king and the present
constitution. This has come so seldom from that corner that it ought to
be the more considered. I will not give that scope to jealousy as to
suspect that this was an artifice; but accept it sincerely," &c.--The
Bishop of Sarum's _Reflections on the Rights, Powers, &c._. p. 4.
W. FRASER.
Tor-Mohun.
The following, may come under the list wanted by BALLIOLENSIS:
"The covenant itself, together with the act for erecting the high court
of justice, that for subscribing the engagement, and that for declaring
England a {626} Commonwealth, were ordered to be burned by the hands of
the hangman. The people assisted with great alacrity on this
occasion."--From Hume, Reign of Charles II., edit. London, 1828, p.
762.
On a copy of _La Défense de la Réformation, &c_., par I. Claude, à La Haye,
1683, I noted the following about thirty years ago as a striking passage,
but cannot now recollect from whence I took it. This book was condemned by
the Pope to be burned, on which circumstance the editor of an old edition
of it very appositely observes:
"Books have souls as well as men, which survive their martyrdom, and
are not burnt, but crowned by the flames that encircle them. The Church
of Rome has quickly felt there was nothing combustible but the paper.
The truth flew upward like the angel from Manoah's sacrifice, untouched
by the fire, and unsullied by the smoke, and found a safe refuge at the
footstool of the God of Truth."
G. N.
* * * * *
JEWS IN CHINA.
(Vol. viii., p. 515.)
The only people known as descendants of any of the ten tribes are the
Spomerim, or Samaritans; whose chief peculiarity is, that they acknowledge
as sacred only the five books of Moses: for, although other books held
sacred by the Jews are known to them, such books are not written in the
same ancient alphabetic character as those of the Samaritan Pentateuch. The
ten tribes were then taken captive B.C. 721 (2 Kings xvii. 24--41.). The
inference is, therefore, that all the books, from Joshua to Malachi
inclusive, had not been composed or admitted into the holy canon till after
that date. The criterion then for ascertaining whether the Chinese Jews are
descended from the ten tribes, appears to be their adherence to the
Pentateuch _alone_ as sacred. I. The Chinese Jews have not the ancient
Hebrew character, but the comparatively modern square Chaldee one, as in
our printed Bibles. II. Gozani states that the Jews of Kaafung Foo, in
Honan, had some traditions from the Talmud. The Mishnah, constituting the
text of the Talmud, is manifestly a compilation _subsequent_ to the closing
of the Jewish canon; the quotations from the books following those of Moses
being constantly in use therein. III. On Gozani mentioning Jesus the
Messiah, the Chinese Jew said they had a knowledge of Jesus the son of
Sirach. As, however, the book of the last-named writer is unknown in
Hebrew, Gozani, who was ignorant of that language, may have mistaken him
for Jesus (=Joshua) the son of Nun, with which book the Chinese Jew was
acquainted.[3] In either case, _more_ books than the Pentateuch were
undoubtedly held sacred by these Chinese Jews; therefore the connexion with
the ten tribes (house of Israel), as distinct from the house of Judah (the
Jews properly so called), cannot be inferred. The authorities for the
Samaritans are Scaliger, Ludolf, Prideaux, Jahn, Huntington, Winer,
Schnurrer, and Kitto. For the eastern Jews: Josephus, Peritsol, Manasseh,
Basnage, Büsching; Fathers Ricci, Aleni, Gozani, and other Jesuits, in the
_Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, vol. xviii.; and the _Chinese
Repository_, vol. i. pp. 8. 44., vol. iii. p. 175.
Circumcision is too general a practice in the hotter regions of the south
and east, to permit such practice to be deemed proof of Jewish descent,
unless corroborated by other customs peculiar to the Jews. Besides the
physiological characteristics of the native Australians preclude us from
deducing their natural descent from either the _Jews_ or the ten tribes.
T.J. BUCKTON.
Lichfield.
[Footnote 3: The opprobrious name of Christ amongst the Jews is Jesus son
of Sadta, which Gozani may have mistaken for Sirach; indeed,--the Chinese
pronunciation of Hebrew is quite peculiar, as they cannot pronounce, for
instance, the letters _b_, _r_, _th_, naming them respectively _p_, _l_,
_z_.]
* * * * *
POETICAL TAVERN SIGNS.
(Vol. viii., pp. 242. 452.)
I made a note of the following specimen of poetical tavern sign, in one of
Mr. Mark Lemon's Supplements to _The Illustrated London News_ (Dec. 27,
1851). I here transcribe it to add to MR. WARDE'S collection:
"The following is a literal copy of a sign conspicuously displayed in
front of a small public-house in the village of Folkesworth,[4] near
Stilton, Hunts. It contains as much poetry as, perhaps, the rustic
Folkesworth folks are worth; and doubtless they think it to be (in the
Stilton vernacular) 'quite the cheese:'
[A rude figure of a Fox.]
'I . HAM . A . CUNEN . FOX
YOU . SEE . THER . HIS
NO . HARME . ATCHED
TO . ME . IT . IS . MY . MRS.
WISH . TO . PLACE . ME
HERE . TO . LET . YOU . NO
HE . SELS . GOOD . BEERE.'
"The Captain Rawlinson of the district has deciphered this inscription,
and conjectures its meaning to be as follows:
'I am a cunning fox, you see;
There is no harm attach'd to me;
It is my master's wish to place me here,
To let you know he sells good beer.'"
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
[Footnote 4: It was in the lane between Folkesworth and the Norman Cross
Barracks, that Borrow was first induced to try the gipsy life. (Vide
_Lavengro_.)]
{627}
Bradford:
"Who lives here? who do you think?
Major Lister: give him a drink.
Give him a drink--for why?
Because, when he's sweeping,
He's always dry."
"John Thompson doth live here,
He sweeps your chimney not too dear.
And if your chimney should get on fire,
He puts it out at your desire.
Sweep that chimney clean,
And then come down and drink."
The public-houses to which the above are appended are kept by sweeps.
"Call here, my boy, if you are dry.
The fault's in you, and not in I.
If Robin Hood from home is gone,
Step in and drink with Little John."
The name of the public-house is "The Robin Hood."
Over another tavern door I noticed the following very pithy and brief
sentence:
"Tobacco given away to-morrow."
CHARLES WILLISON.
Bradford, Yorkshire.
A sign at Newhouse, a small public-house on Dartmoor, hard by a
rabbit-warren, on the roadside leading from Moreton to Tavistock, six miles
from the former town. John Roberts was the worthy landlord some
considerable time since. It ran thus:
"John Roberts lives here,
Sells brandy and beer,
Your spirits to cheer;
And should you want meat,
To make up the treat,
There be rabbits to eat."
(A verbatim copy.)
A swinging sign on the front of a public-house on the borders of Dartmoor
could once boast of like following quaint invitations.
The side presented to view, prior to entering the wild waste, underneath a
rude painting of a weary traveller in a storm, had the following rude
couplet:
"Before the wild moor you venture to pass,
Pray step within and take a glass."
The attempt at poetry on the reverse side, below a highly-coloured daub
representing a Christmas fire on the hearth, surrounded by a goodly band of
jolly fellows, read thus:
"Now that the bleak moor you've safely got over,
Do stop a while, your spirits to recover."
Over the door of a spirit and beer shop at the lower end of Market or High
Street, Plymouth, may be seen the following very salutary aid disinterested
piece of advice. It is printed in the triangle formed by the spread of a
gigantic pair of compasses, which gives name to the house:
"Keep within compass,
And then you'll be sure,
To avoid many troubles,
That others endure."
The house is located near the quay; and it is devoutly to be wished that
the jolly tars of the neighbourhood, who make it a constant place of
resort, would profit by its wise counsel.
H. H. H.
There is (or was some two or three years since) at Coopersale, in Essex, a
sign-board in front of the "Queen Victoria" (only a beer-house by the way),
with these lines:
"The Queen some day,
May pass this way,
And see our Tom and Jerry;
Perhaps she'll stop,
And stand a drop,
To make her subjects merry."
On the other side are some different lines, which I forget.
ALEXANDER ANDREWS.
* * * * *
1. At Overseal, Leicestershire:
"Robin Hood is
Dead and gone:
Pray call, and drink
With Little John."
2. The sign of "The Bee Hive," in Birmingham and other places: