be found? Not at the Horse Guards, as the records there go back only to
1795. I want particulars of many officers in both centuries; some of them
who came to Ireland temp. Charles I., and during Cromwell's Protectorate,
and others early in the last century.
Y. S. M.
_Anonymous Poet._--
"It is not to the people of the west of Scotland that the energetic
reproach of the poet can apply. I allude to the passage in which he
speaks of--
'All Scotia's weary days of civil strife--
When the poor Whig was lavish of his life,
And bought, stern rushing upon Clavers' spears,
The freedom and the scorn of after years.'"
_Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_, vol. iii. p. 263. Edin. 1819.
Who is "the poet?"
ANON.
_John Bale._--Strype, in his _Life of Parker_, book iv. sec. 3. p. 539.
edit. 1711, speaking of Bale, says: "He set himself to search many
libraries in Oxford, Cambridge," &c.
Bale himself, in the list of his own writings, enumerates "ex diversis
bibliothecis."
Did this piece contain any account of his researches in libraries alluded
to? If so, has it ever been published? Tanner makes no mention of it in his
_Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica_.
H. F. S.
Cambridge.
_A short Sermon._--In an essay on Benevolence, by the Rev. David Simpson of
Macclesfield, it is reported of Dean Swift, that he once delivered in his
trite and laconic manner the following short sermon, in advocating the
cause of a charitable institution, the text and discourse containing
thirty-four words only:
"He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which
he hath given will He pay him again. Now, my brethren, if you like the
security, down with your money."
When and where did this occur, and what was the result?
HENRY EDWARDS.
* * * * *
Minor Queries with Answers.
_Quakers' Calendar._--What month would the Quakers mean by "12th month," a
century and a half since?
D.
[Before the statute 24 Geo. II., for altering the Calendar in Great
Britain, the Quakers began their year on the 25th of March, which they
called the _first_ month; but at the yearly meeting for Sufferings in
London, Oct. 1751, a Committee was appointed to consider what advice
might be necessary to be given to the Friends in relation to the
statute in question. The opinion of the Committee was, "That in all the
records and writings of Friends from and after the last day of the
month, called December, next, the computation of time established by
the said act should be observed; and that, accordingly, the first day
of the eleventh month, commonly called January, next, should be
reckoned and deemed by Friends the first day of the _first_ month of
the year 1752." Consequently the twelfth month, a century and a half
since, would be _February_. See Nicolas's _Chronology_, p. 169.]
"_Rodondo, or the State Jugglers._"--Who was the author of this political
squib, three cantos, 1763-70; reproduced in _Ruddiman's Collection_,
Edinburgh, 1785? In my copy I have written Hugh Dalrymple, but know not
upon what authority. It is noticed in the _Scots Mag._, vol. xxv., where it
is ascribed to "a Caledonian, who has laid about him so well as to
vindicate his country from the imputation of the _North Briton_, that there
is neither wit nor humour on the other side the Tweed."
J. O.
[A copy of this work in the British Museum contains the following MS.
entry: "The author of the three Cantos of _Rodondo_ was Hugh Dalrymple,
Esq. He also wrote _Woodstock_, an elegy reprinted in Pearch's
_Collection of Poems_. At the time of his death he was Attorney-General
for the Grenades, where he died, March 9, 1774. His daughter married
Dr., afterwards Sir John Elliott, from whom she was divorced, and
became a celebrated courtezan."]
_Rathlin Island._--Has any detailed account of this island, which is
frequently called Rahery, {590} and is a few miles from the northern coast
of Ireland, appeared in print? The locality is most interesting in many
particulars, historical and geological, and might therefore be made the
subject of an instructive paper. A brief account was inserted, I think, a
few years ago in an English periodical.
ABHBA.
[An interesting and detailed account of this island, which he calls
Raghery, is given in Hamilton's _Letters concerning the Northern Coast
of the County of Antrim_, 1790, 8vo., pp. 13-33. Consult also Lewis's
_Topographical History of Ireland_, vol. ii. p. 501.]
_Parochial Registers._--When and where were parochial registers first
established? The earliest extant at the present day?
ABHBA.
[We fear our correspondent has not consulted that useful and amusing
work, Burn's _History of Parish Registers in England, also of the
Registers of Scotland, Ireland, the East and West Indies, the Fleet,
King's Bench, Mint, Chapel Royal, &c._, 8vo. 1829, which contains a
curious collection of miscellaneous particulars concerning them.]
_"Trevelyan," &c._--Who was the author of two novels, published about
twenty years ago, called _A Marriage in High Life_ and _Trevelyan_: the
latter the later of the two?
UNEDA.
Philadelphia.
[These works are by the Hon. Caroline Lucy Scott, at present residing
at Petersham, in Surrey.]
_Grammar School of St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester._--Can you give me the
name of the master of the Grammar School of St. Mary de Crypt in 1728?
SIGMA (1).
[Daniel Bond, B.A., was elected master March 25, 1724, and was also
vicar of Leigh. He died in 1750.]
* * * * *
Replies.
CRANMER'S MARTYRDOM.
(Vol. ix., pp. 392. 547.)
I thank G. W. R. for his courteous remarks on my note on Cranmer. Perhaps I
have overstated the effect of pain on the nervous system; certainly I was
wrong in making a wider assertion than was required by my case, which is,
that no man could hold his hand over unconfined flame till it was "entirely
consumed" or "burnt to a coal." "Bruslée à feu de souphre" does not go so
far as that, nor is it said at what time of the burning Ravaillac raised
his head to look at his hand.
J. H. has mistaken my intention. I have always carefully avoided everything
which tended to religious or moral controversy in "N. & Q." I treated
Cranmer's case on physiological grounds only. I did not look for
"cotemporaneous evidence against that usually received," any more than I
should for such evidence that St. Denis did not walk from Paris to
Montmartre with his head in his hand. If either case is called a miracle, I
have nothing to say upon it _here_; and for the same reason that I avoid
such discussion, I add, that in not noticing J. H.'s opinions on Cranmer, I
must not be understood as assenting to or differing from them. J. H. says:
"It would surely be easy to produce facts of almost every week from the
evidence given in coroners' inquests, in which persons have had their
limbs burnt off--to say nothing of farther injury--without the shock
producing death."
If favoured with one such fact, I will do my best to inquire into it. None
such has fallen within my observation or reading.
The heart remaining "entire and unconsumed among the ashes," is a minor
point. It does not seem impossible to J. H., "in its plain and obvious
meaning." Do the words admit two meanings? Burnet says:
"But it was no small matter of astonishment to find his heart entire,
and not consumed among the ashes; which, though the reformed would not
carry so far as to make a miracle of it, and a clear proof that his
heart had continued true, though his hand had erred; yet they objected
it to the Papists, that it was certainly such a thing, that if it had
fallen out in any of their church, they had made it a miracle."--Vol.
ii. p. 429.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.
Permit me to offer to H. B. C.'s consideration the case of Mutius Scævola,
who, failing in his attempt to kill Porsenna in his own camp, and being
taken before the king, thrust his right hand into the fire, and held it
there until burnt; at the same time declaring that he knew three hundred
men who would not flinch from doing the same thing. To a certain extent, I
am inclined to think with ALFRED GATTY (Vol. ix., p. 246.), "that an
exalted state of feeling may be attained;" which, though it will not render
the religious or political martyr insensible to pain, it will yet nerve him
to go through his martyrdom without demonstration of extreme suffering.
This ability to endure pain may be accounted for in either of the following
ways:
1. An exalted state of feeling; instance Joan of Arc.
2. Fortitude; instance Mutius Scævola.
3. Nervous insensibility; which carries the vanquished American Indian
through the most exquisite tortures, and enables him to fall asleep on the
least respite of his agony.
Should these three be united in one individual, it is needless to say that
he could undergo any bodily pain without a murmur.
JOHN P. STILWELL.
{591}
* * * * *
COLERIDGE'S UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS.
(Vol. ix., pp. 496. 543.)
Every admirer of Coleridge's writings must feel, as I do, grateful to MR.
GREEN for the detailed account he has rendered of the manuscripts committed
to his care. A few points, however, in his reply call for a rejoinder on my
part. I will be as brief as possible.
I never doubted for an instant that, had I "sought a private explanation of
the matters" comprised in my Note, MR. GREEN would have courteously
responded to the application. This is just what I did _not_ want: a public
explanation was what I desired. "N. & Q." (Vol. iv., p. 411.; Vol. vi., p.
533.; Vol. viii., p. 43.) will bear witness to the fact that the public
required to know the reason why works of Coleridge, presumed to exist in
manuscript, were still withheld from publication: and I utterly deny the
justice of MR. GREEN's allegation, that because I have _explicitly_ stated
the charge _implied_ by Mr. Alsop (the editor of _Letters, Conversations,
and Recollections of Coleridge_) in his strictures, I have made an
inconsiderate, not to say a coarse, attack upon him (MR. GREEN). When a
long series of appeals to the fortunate possessor of the Coleridge
manuscripts (whoever he might turn out to be) had been met with silent
indifference, I felt that the time was come to address an appeal personally
to MR. GREEN himself. That he has acted with the approbation of Coleridge's
family, nobody can doubt; for the public (thanks to Mr. Alsop) know too
well how little the greatest of modern philosophers was indebted to that
family in his lifetime, to attach much importance to their approbation or
disapprobation.
No believer in the philosophy of Coleridge can look with greater anxiety
than I do for the forthcoming work of MR. GREEN. That the pupil of
Coleridge, and the author of _Vital Dynamics_, will worthily acquit himself
in this great field, who can question? But I, for one, must enter my
protest against the publication of MR. GREEN's book being made the pretext
of depriving the public of their right (may I say?) to the perusal of such
works as do exist in manuscript, finished or unfinished. Again I beg most
respectfully to urge on MR. GREEN the expediency, not to say paramount
duty, of his giving to the world _intact_ the _Logic_ (consisting of the
_Canon_ and other parts), the _Cosmogony_, and, as far as possible, the
_History of Philosophy_. If his plea, that these works are not in a
finished state, had been heretofore held good in bar of publication, we
should probably have lost the inestimable privilege of reading and
possessing those fragmentary works of the great philosopher which have
already been made public.
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.
Birmingham.
* * * * *
LIFE.
(Vol. vii., pp. 429. 560. 608.; Vol. viii., pp. 43. 550.)
Your correspondent H. C. K. (Vol. vii., 560.) quotes a passage from Sir
Thomas Browne's _Religio Medici_, sect. xlii. The following passage from
the same writer's _Christian Morals_ is much more to the point:
"When the Stoic said ('Vitam nemo acciperet, si daretur
scientibus'--_Seneca_) that life would not be accepted if it were
offered unto such as knew it, he spoke too meanly of that state of
being which placeth us in the form of men. It more depreciates the
value of this life, that _men would not live it over again_; for
although they would still live on, yet _few or none can endure to think
of being twice the same men upon earth, and some had rather never have
lived than to tread over their days once more_. Cicero, in a prosperous
state, had not the patience to think of beginning in a cradle again.
('Si quis Deus mihi largiatur, ut repuerascam et in cunis vagiam, valdè
recusem.'--_De Senectute._) Job would not only curse the day of his
nativity, but also of his renascency, if he were to act over his
disasters and the miseries of the dunghill. But the greatest
underweening of this life is to undervalue that unto which this is but
exordial, or a passage leading unto it. The great advantage of this
mean life is thereby to stand in a capacity of a better; for the
colonies of heaven must be drawn from earth, and the sons of the first
Adam are only heirs unto the second. Thus Adam came into this world
with the power also of another; not only to replenish the earth, but
the everlasting mansions of heaven."--Part III. sect. xxv.
"Looking back we see the dreadful train
Of woes anew, which, were we to sustain,
We should refuse to tread the path again."
Prior's _Solomon_, b. iii.
The crown is won by the cross, the victor's wreath in the battle of life:
"This is the condition of the battle[9] which man that is born upon the
earth shall fight. That if he be overcome he shall suffer as thou hast
said, but if he get the victory, he shall receive the thing that I
say."--2 _Esdr._ vii. 57.
Our grade in the other world is determined by our probation here. To use a
simile of Asgill's, this life of time is a university in which we take our
degree for eternity. Heaven is a pyramid, or ever-ascending scale; the
world of evil is an inverted pyramid, or ever-descending scale. Life is
motion. There is no such thing as stagnation: everything is either
advancing or retrograding. Corruption itself is an activity, and evil is
ever growing. According to the _habits_ formed within us, we are ascending
or descending; we cannot stand still.
A man, then, in whom the higher life predominates, were he to live life
over again, would {592} grow from grace to grace, and his status in the
spirit world would be higher than in the first life, and _vice versâ_; an
evil man[10] would be more completely evil, and would rank in a darker and
more bestial form. They who hear not the good tidings will not be persuaded
though one rose from the dead; and those with whom the experience of one
life failed would not repent in the second.
The testimony of the Shunamite's son, Lazarus, and of those who rose from
the dead at the crucifixion, is not recorded; but they who have escaped
from the jaws of death, by recovery from sickness or preservation from
danger, may in a certain sense be said to live life over again. After the
fright is over the warning in most cases loses its influence, and we have a
verification of the two proverbs, "Out of sight out of mind," and--
"The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;
The devil was well, the devil a monk would he."
In a word, this experiment of a second life would best succeed with him
whose habits are formed for good, and whose life is already overshadowed by
the divine life. Even of such an one it might be said, "Man is frail, the
battle is sore, and the flesh is weak; even a good man may fall and become
a castaway." The most unceasing circumspection is ever requisite. The most
polished steel rusts in this corrosive atmosphere, and purest metals get
discoloured.
Finally, it is very probable that God gives every man a complete probation;
that is to say, He cuts not man's thread of life till he be at the same
side of the line he should be were he to live myriads of years. Every man
is made up of a mixture of good and evil: these two principles never become
soluble together, but ever tend each to eliminate the other. They hurry on
in circles, alternately intersecting and gaining the ascendancy, till one
is at last precipitated to the bottom, and pure good or evil remains. In
the nature of things there are critical moments and tides of circumstances
which become turning-points when time merges into eternity and mutability
into permanence: and such a crisis may occur in the course of a short life
as well as in many lives lived over again.
EIRIONNACH.
[Footnote 9:
"A field of battle is this mortal life!"
_Young_, N. viii.
[Footnote 10: See a recent novel by Frederick Souillet, entitled _Si
Jeunesse savait, Si Vieillesse pouvait_.]
_Life and Death_ (Vol. ix., p. 481.).--The following is on a monument at
Lowestoft, co. Suffolk, to the memory of John, son of John and Anne Wilde,
who died February 9, 1714, aged five years and six months:
"Quem Dii amant moritur Juvenis."
SIGMA.
The following may be added to the parallel passages collected by
EIRIONNACH. Chateaubriand says, in his _Memoirs_, that the greatest
misfortune which can happen to a man is to be born, and the next greatest
is to have a child. As Chateaubriand had no children, the most natural
comment on the last branch of his remark is "sour grapes."
UNEDA.
Philadelphia.
* * * * *
INSCRIPTIONS ON BELLS.
(Vol. ix., p. 109.)
_St. Nicholas Church, Sidmouth._--Having, on October 21, 1850, taken
intaglios in pressing-wax of the inscription forwarded by MR. GORDON, from
which plaster casts were made, the writer is able to speak of it with some
degree of confidence. The inscription, however, is not peculiar to
Sidmouth: it is found at other places in the county of Devon, and perhaps
elsewhere. In Harvey's _Sidmouth Directory_ for March, 1851, there is an
article descriptive of all the six bells at this place, in which there is a
fac-simile, engraved on wood, of the inscription in question. The words run
all round the bell; and each word is placed on a cartouche. The Rev. Dr.
Oliver of Exeter, in his communication to the writer on this subject, calls
the bell the "Jesus Bell." The _Directory_ observes:
"It was formerly the practice to christen bells with ceremonies similar
to, but even more solemn than, those attending the naming of children;
and they were frequently dedicated to Christ (as this is), to the
Virgin, or some saint."
Dr. Oliver to the writer says:
"I have met with it at Whitstone, near this city [Exeter], at East
Teignmouth, &c.; _michi_ for _mihi_; [ihc (black-letter)], the
abbreviation for Jesus. Very often the word _veneratum_ occurs instead
of _amatum_, and _illud_ instead of _istud_."
The [ihc (black-letter)] stands thus: [=i]h[=c]. The _Directory_, on this
abbreviated word, remarks,--
"The IHS, as an abbreviation for Jesus, is a blunder. Casley, in his
_Catalogue of the King's MSS._, observes, p. 23., that 'in Latin MSS.
the Greek letters of the word Christus, as also Jesus, are always
retained, except that the terminations are changed according to the
Latin language. Jesus is written [=IHS], or in small characters ihs,
which is the Greek [Greek: [=IÊS]] or [Greek: [=iês]], an
abbreviation for [Greek: iêsous]. However, the scribes knew nothing of
this for a thousand years before the invention of printing, for if they
had they would not have written [=ihs] for [Greek: iêsous]; but they
ignorantly copied after one another such letters as they found put for
these words. Nay, at length they pretended to find _Jesus Hominum
Salvator_ comprehended in the word [=IHS], which is another proof that
they took the middle letter for _h_, not [eta]. The dash also over the
word, which is a sign of abbreviation, some have changed to the sign of
the cross' [Hone's _Mysteries_, p. 282.]. The old way of {593} spelling
Jhesus with an _h_ may perhaps be referred to the same mistake. The
inscription, then, runs thus:
[Est mihi collatum Jesus istud nomen amatum],
which may be rendered, Jesus, that beloved name, is given to me. The
bell bears no date, but is of course older than the period of the
Reformation. But it remains to be observed that the last letter of the
three is not an _s_ but a c. It seems that in the old Greek
inscriptions the substitution of the _c_ for the _s_ was common.
Several examples are given in Horne's Introduction, vol. ii. pt. 1. ch.
iii. sect. 2., but we have not room to quote them. Suffice it to say
that at p. 100., in speaking of the MSS. of the Codex Vaticanus, he
says, 'The abbreviations are few, being confined chiefly to those words
which are in general abbreviated, such as [theta]C, KC, IC, XC, for
[Greek: Theos], [Greek: Kurios], [Greek: Iêsous], [Greek: Christos],
_God_, _Lord_, _Jesus_, _Christ_.' At the end of these words, in the
abbreviations, the _c_ is used for the _s_.--_Peter._"
This fourth bell is the oldest in the tower. The third, dated 1667, has
quite a modern appearance as compared with it. The second, fifth, and sixth
are all dated 1708, and the first, or smallest, was added in 1824.
PETER ORLANDO HUTCHINSON.
Sidmouth.
An appropriate inscription is to be found on the bell of St. John's
Cathedral in this colony, date London, 1845. It is in the words of St.
Paul's mission, Acts xxii. 21.: "I will send thee far hence unto the
Gentiles."
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
Here is a modern achievement in this kind of literature. It exists on one
of the eight bells belonging to the church tower of Pilton, Devon:
"Recast by John Taylor and Son,
Who the best prize for church bells won
At the Great Ex-hi-bi-ti-on
In London, 1--8--5 and 1."
R. W. C.
I continue (from Vol. viii., p. 248.) my Notes of inscriptions on bells.
Mathon, Worcestershire. A peal of six bells:
1. "Peace and good neighbourhood."
2. "Glory to God."
3. "Fear God and honour the King."
4. "God preserve our Church and State."
5. "Prosperity to the town."
6. "The living to the church I call,
And to the grave do summon all."
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. Ten bells; the inscriptions on two are as
follows, the rest merely bearing the names of churchwardens, &c.:
5. "God prosper the parish. A. R. 1701."
10. "I to the church the living call,
And to the grave do summon all. 1773."
The latter seems to be a favourite inscription. The REV. W. S. SIMPSON
mentions it (Vol. viii., p. 448.) on a bell in one of the Oxfordshire
churches.
Fotheringay, Northamptonshire. Four bells:
1. "Thomas Norris made me. 1634."
2. "Domini laudem, 1614, non verbo sed voce resonabo."
The two others respectively bear the dates 1609, 1595, with the initials of
the rector and churchwarden, and (on the fourth bell) the words "Praise
God." On a recent visit to this church I copied the following inscription
from a bell, which, being cracked, is no longer used, and is now placed
within the nave of the church. This bell is not mentioned by Archdeacon
Bonney in his _Historic Notices of Fotheringay_, though he gives the
inscriptions on the four others.
"Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure Dei. A. M. R. R. W. W. I. L. 1602."
The inscription is in Lombardic characters. MR. SIMPSON notes the same at
Girton, Cambridgeshire (Vol. viii., p. 108.).
Godmanchester, Hunts. Eight bells:
1. "Thomas Osborn, Downham, _fecit_, 1794.
Intactum sillo. Percute dulce cano."
4. "T. Osborn {Our voices shall with joyful sound}
_fecit_. {Make hills and valleys echo round.} 1794."
8. "Rev. Castel Sherard, rector; Jno. Martin, Robert Waller, bailiffs;
John Scott, Richard Mills, churchwardens; T. Osborn _fecit_. 1794."
Morborne, Hunts. Two bells:
1. "Cum voco ad ecclesiam, venite."
2. "Henry Penn _fusore_. 1712."
Stilton, Hunts. Two bells:
1. "Thomas Norris made me. 1689."
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
At Bedale, in Yorkshire, is a bell weighing by estimation twenty-six
hundredweight, which is probably of the same date, or nearly so, as the
Dyrham bell. It measures four feet two inches and a half across the lip,
and has the following inscription round the crown:
"[+] IOU : EGO : CUM : FIAM : CRUCE : CUSTOS : LAUDO : MARIAM : DIGNA :
DEI : LAUDE : MATER : DIGNISSIMA : GAUDE;"
the commencement of which I do not understand. There are five smaller bells
belonging to the peal at Bedale, and a prayer bell. They bear inscriptions
in the following order:
The prayer bell:
"Voco. Veni. Precare. 1713."
S.S.
{594}
The first, or lightest of the peal: