facility of obtaining a Doctor's degree is useful; and I deny that it is hurtful in any way to the public. It serves as a corrective for what would otherwise speedily grow up to be a most intolerable nuisance; viz. the bigoted and exclusive corporation spirit! Real honour is most effectually supported by resting upon liberal principles, good sense and sound discretion being those desirable qualities, for which no examination can give any the slightest security at all; and when a man has learned his lesson of life well, it surely can be of small moment where, or from whom, he has learned it." Quite so! Who cares a rap for mere conventional location, or desires to have his feet for ever ensnared in the wily and restrictive fetters of a corporation cunning?-nay, rather, is not the art of healing a pure and intuitive Dei donum, alike independent of time or place, and alone to be practised as it should be PRO AMORE DEI? Queries. THE ENGLISH APE, 1588.- In 1588 appeared a pamphlet, by W. R., called The English Ape, of which the full title will be found in the new edition of Lowndes, under the initials of the author. It seems to have been rather popular for a time, and two editions were printed in the same year. One of these purports to be "printed by Robert Robinson for Richard Jones, and are to be sold," &c.; a copy is among Malone's books at Oxford. The second, or, indeed, it may be the first (as it is impossible to ascertain the priority), has at the foot of the titlepage," At London. Printed by Robert Robinson, dwelling in Feter Lane, neere Holborne." Of this impression or issue (as it may, perhaps, be), a copy is in private hands; and the title page is among Bagford's singular collections (Harl. MS., 5019). What I wish to point out is, that in MR. COLLIER's very interesting "Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company " (" N. & Q.," 2nd S. xii. 3, et seq.), there is no mention of any license of the English Ape, either to Robinson or Jones, and I should therefore like to know whether the book was really entered, or whether it is allowable to presume that it was printed without the knowledge and sanction of the company? Perhaps, at his leisure, Mr. Collier will oblige me with this piece of information. W. CAREW Hazlitt. NAMES OF ANGLO-SAXON GODS. - At p. 124 of the late Earl of Ellesmere's Guide to Northern Archæology, I find it stated that the volume for 1846 of the Transactions of the Society of Northern Antiquaries, contains, inter alia, "A fragment of an alliterative Anglo-Saxon homily, in which are named some of the heathen deities of the North, taken from a Codex in the British Museum." Has this fragment been published in England? If so, in what publication? What are the names of the gods so given in it? C. BEST FAMILY.-Can any of your readers inform me who is the present representative of the Bests of Allington Castle, in the county of Kent? According to the Visitation of Kent [by Philipott] in 1619, John Best, of Allington Castle, the son of Richard Best of Bibrook, by Dorothy his wife, daughter and co-heiress of John Barrow of Hinxhill, in the county of Kent, had numerous issue by his two wives, Anne, daughter of Laurence Brooke of Horton Monachorum, and Anne, daughter of Reginald Knatchbull of Saltwood Castle. His eldest son John was of the age of seventeen years at the time of Philipott's Visitation. The arms of Best and Barrow, quarterly, are tricked at the commencement of the pedigree. I am unable to ascertain when, and by whom, the Best and Barrow arms were granted. - A copy of these grants in extenso would be much esteemed. J. J. H. THE CANONS OF 1640. I have a copy of the original edition of these Canons, which, it is well known, were authorised by the king, and soon after abolished by the parliament. A publication so curious must have some bibliographical history, and my object in writing this Note is to ask where I can find any account of subsequent editions. I have looked in Watt, and only trace an edition of 1641. B. H. C. "CLARA CHESTER," ETC.-There was published at Edinburgh in 1823, by Oliver and Boyd, Clara Chester; a poem, by the author of Rome, and The Vale of Chamouni. I gather from the poet's lively introduction, that he was a rambling soldier and engaged in the disastrous expedition to Buenos Ayres in 1807. Is his name known to any correspondent? J. O. ORIGIN OF CROCKETS. In Sir Christopher Wren's report to the Bishop of Rochester on the state of Westminster Abbey, printed in the Parentalia, p. 296, &c., he describes the spire he intended to have placed on the central tower, and says: "The angles of pyramids [i. e. spires] in Gothic architecture were usually enriched with the flower the botaworkmen to ascend on the outside to amend any defects, nists call calceolus, which is a proper form to help without raising large scaffolds upon every slight occasion." Is there any ground for these statements? Sir Christopher was not a man to make assertions without sound reasons; and it is said, particularly by the Freemasons, that he carefully preserved all the traditions of the old builders. The early crockets certainly have no resemblance to this flower, though those of later date, which bulge so much, are not unlike to one cut in half when just breaking open. If the latter assertion be true, it will afford another proof of the desire of the Gothic architects to make all their detail and even their ornaments useful. I think I have heard of a man at Newcastle who used to ascend spires by the help of the crockets, to put the weather-cocks in order. Can any of your readers A. A. give me an account of the fact? Poets' Corner. DIMINUTIVE CROSS-LEGGED FIGURES. In Dr. Stukeley's Itinerary, vol. i. p. 74, on his visit to Tenbury, in Worcestershire, he describes "A niche in the chancel there, containing a figure a yard long, of a child of Lord Arundel of Sutton, as they say, dressed like a knight and cross-legged." Nash gives a fuller description: "Under an arch in the north wall of the chancel, somewhat raised from the ground, is the figure of a child in compleat armour and a surcoat; between his hands, which are raised on the breast, a large heart; his legs crossed, and at his feet a talbot." The church at Tenbury has suffered much from modern innovations. Several of its ancient monuments are literally incased in pews, and mutilated to accommodate their size to these erections of later times; but happily this beautiful little figure remains nearly perfect under its canopied niche. Except the conjecture mentioned by Stukeley, no record of its history has reached us. In a late number of the Archeolog. Journal, there is an account of a diminutive figure at Abbey Dore, which the writer supposes to have been erected over the heart of Bishop Bruton. Nash alludes to a similar monument he had heard of at Maypowder in Dorset. What is the supposed history of this remarkable class of tombs? They cannot, in the Abbey Dore case, represent children; and the armour forbids the supposition in this beautiful example at Tenbury. Are there many other instances of these diminutive figures in England? The church at Tenbury is about to be restored, and I trust this, its far most interesting feature, will receive the careful attention of the architect. "Habes lector candide fortiss. ac invictis. Ducis Draeck ad vivum imaginem, qui isto terrarum orbe duorum annorum et mensium decem spatio zephyris faventibus circumducto, Angliam sedes proprias 4 Cal. Octobris, anno a partu virginis 1580, revisit, cum antea portu solvisset Id. Decemb. anno 1577. "Le vray portraict du cappitaine Draeck, lequel a circuit toute la terre en trois années, moins deux mois et 17 jours. Il partit du royaulme d'Angleterre le 13 de Decembre, 1577, et fist son rétour audict royaulme le 26 jour de Sept. 1580. Ad amplissimum et illust. virum D.D. Edoardum Staffart apud Henr. 3 Christ. Franc. Regem legatum D.S. observantiss. Jo. Rabel pinxit; Thomas de Leu sculpsit, et excudit a Paris." In this portrait Drake is represented with deeply furrowed lines on the forehead, having curling hair, but very thin at the temples, with a mouth evincing much determination, giving the idea of a weather-beaten sea-captain. A very similar portrait, at least as to the costume, is prefixed to the expedition of 1585, printed at Leyden, 1588; the engraver is marked there as "Paulus de la Houue excudit." So much doubt has been thrown upon portraits engraved by Dutch artists, who are known in many instances to have made a plate serve for likenesses of more than one individual by some slight alterations, that I feel desirous of ascertaining how far reliance may be placed upon this identical portrait, which is among the Rawlinson ABRACADABRA. MSS. at Oxford. "THE FRETFUL LADY."-I have in my possession an unfinished miniature by Cooper, on the back of which is written, in a contemporary hand, "The Fretful Lady." I have not been able to find, in any memoirs of the time, mention made of a person with this sobriquet. Could any of your readers inform me who "The Fretful Lady" might be? C. S. KELD. In the North Riding of Yorkshire the word Keld, meaning a well, is commonly found in the name of a spring of water, but always followed by well. Thus in Manfield parish, is Ladykeld-well; in Scorton, Cuddy- (i. e. Cuthbert) keld-well; and at the south-west corner of Middleham Moor, Wray-keld-well. When did the word keld become obsolete, or (in other words) what is the latest period at which keld is found without the adjunct well? G. O. W. BISHOP KEN. Ken's Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Winchester Scholars, with the Three Hymns. Can any of your correspondents kindly inform me whether there were any editions of the above published between 1705 and 1712? And if so, the different dates? There is a considerable variation in the text of the Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns in the edition of 1712, as compared with the editions of 1697, 1700, and 1705, which are all alike; and as Ken died in 1710 [1711], the writer is wishful to know when the alterations were made? If they were not made in Ken's lifetime, by whom was the text altered? In The Life of Bishop Ken, by a Layman, 1854, the "Three Hymns" are given exactly as in the earlier editions of the Manual, 1697, 1700, and 1705; but other modern editions print the hymns from the 1712 and later editions.* G. W. N. ESCUTCHEON OF LOUIS XIV. - Mr. Mathew Lumsden's editor, in his entertaining introduction to the Genealogy of the House of Forbes, says, apropos of people not being too vain of their descent, "Even Louis XIV. in all his glory had a blank, or, as heralds call it, a window, in his old books on building. What is its meaning? scutcheon." Was this the case? and through what line of his descent did the window come? and endurance of Prometheus. If, after these instances have been fairly weighed and adjudicated upon, without reference to the very different genius of the modern drama, they shall be pronounced wanting in passion, there will then be room and pretext for asking whether Aristophanes possessed humour or Menander wit?". Saturday Review, Sept. 6, 1862, p. 282. "The Roman imitation, combined with the numerous and sometimes considerable fragments, are sufficient to give us a clear conception of a comedy of Menander, in its general plan and in its details. A person who possessed the peculiar talents requisite for such a task, and had acquired by study the acquaintance with the Greek language, and the Attic subtlety of expression necessary for the execution of it, might without much difficulty restore a piece of Menander's so as to replace the lost original."-Müller's History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, p. 439. London, 1847. Public admiration, and the testimony of sound judges, who had read his works, forbid us to dispute Menander's excellence. What evidence have we of his wit? FITZHOPKINS. Garrick Club. PAMMENT-BRICK. · This word occurs in several A. R. I. B. A. RIGHT OF CREATING BARONETS.-The first Earl of Stirling had peculiar privileges conferred upon him by James and Charles in connection with the colony of Nova Scotia, which he established and governed. The late claimant of the earldom created Thos. Christopher Banks, the genealogical writer, a Baronet of Nova Scotia. I desire to know whether the power to do so was ever extended to the first earl; or whether similar power has at any time been exercised by a subject? Where is Banks's patent? its date, &c.? And is his the only known instance? STAMINA. S. T. "Did the Greeks, and, above all, the unsteady and impulsive Athenians, permit the decorum which art demands How came this word to be used to quench, or even unduly to damp, the genuine fire of to denote healthy vigour, or strength of constipassion? We think not; and among our reasons for ques-tution? Always, too, as a singular noun? One tioning the grounds of this assertion are the entire play of the Bacchanals, the rapid movements and almost modern variety of the Rhesus, the intense interest attendant on the evolutions of King Edipus, the passion of Medea — a fable suited to every stage and to every nation—and, lastly, those transcendant scenes in the second half of the Agamemnon, from the moment when the King of Men is drawn on in his chariot to that in which the Chorus and the guilty pair, Ægisthus and Clytemnestra, hurl defiance at each other. The scholar requires not any reminiscence of these scenes, or of the suspense and solemn agony of Electra, of Antigone, of the opening and the closing acts of the Eumenides, or of the superhuman woe chiefly hears the word, I think, from people of a certain age, and it seems to be rather going out of fashion. I had often observed that one never found the term used by medical writers; but-no rule without an exception-and in the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review for October of this year (p. 286), the English are said to be superior to the Russians in stamina. A botanist may truly describe one flower as having more stamina than another; but how can this be asserted of a human being? JAYDEE. [We may as well state that since the second edition JUDGE STREET. - Nash, the historian of Worof The Life of Bishop Ken, by a Layman, 1854, was pub-cestershire, states that Sir Thomas Street, to lished, the British Museum has been presented with a copy of the first edition of Ken's Manual, 12mo, 1674, which does not appear to have been seen by Mr. Anderdon when he wrote his admirable work. The reading of the title-page varies from the entry as quoted by him (at p. 107, edit. 1854), from Robert Clavel's Catalogue. It reads as follows: A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester Colledge [arms of William of Wykeham]. London, Printed for John Martyn, 1674. Pp. 69. The Three Hymns are found for the first time in the seventh edition, 1700.-ED.] whom there is a marble monument, with eulogistic inscription, in Worcester Cathedral, erected by Edward Combe, had a granddaughter living about the year 1749. Sir Thomas Street married Penelope, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Rowland Berkeley of Cotheridge, but by her had no family. Can any of your readers inform me if he had a wife before this marriage; and if so, who the lady was? M. N. "AND SHALL TRELAWNY DIE ?"-Would C. J. P. be so good as to give, per "N. & Q.," a copy of the nursery version of "Shall Trelawny die" which he says still exists at Bristol? C. TAKING TIME BY THE FORELOCK.-Having been requested, by the Rev. J. Erskine Clarke, to design a drawing wherewith to illustrate an editorial paper on the above subject in The Parish Magazine for January, 1863; and also being asked, "What was the origin of this proverbial saying? and being unable to reply thereto, except to plead ignorance, I very naturally turned to that invaluable repertory of knowledge, "N. & Q.," feeling sure that it would enlighten our ignorance. But, although receiving the valuable aid of the two General Indices to the two series, I cannot find the slightest reference to, or mention of, the above saying; and nothing nearer to it (by way of illustration) than the discussion on the hexameter verse, Fronte capillatâ," &c. (1st S. i. 427; iii. 8, 43, 92, 124, 140, 286; 2nd S. vi. 290.) Neither is it given in Kelly's Proverbs of all Nations (2nd ed., 1861). Nor can I find it mentioned in such books as Hone's Every-day and Table Books, Chambers's Book of Days, Taylor's Old Sayings, Martyndale's Calendar of Popular Customs, &c. I therefore now beg to ask, in these pages, the following questions: What was the origin of the above saying? by what early writers has it been used? CUTHBERT Bede. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN AND THE LADIES. In the Parentalia (p. 211) is a letter from France, in which Wren complains, "The women, as they make here the language and the fashions, and meddle with politics and philosophy, so they sway also in architecture. Works of filgrand and little trinkets are in great vogue, but buildings ought certainly to have the attribute of eternal." In a letter to the Commissioners for building St. Paul's, who had desired to have an ornamented balustrade at the top, he says: "I take leave first to declare I never designed a balustrade. Ladies think nothing well without an edging. I should have gladly complied with the vulgar taste, but I suspended for the reasons following." Are these merely general remarks, or are they pointed at any person in particular? The tone of the last document would lead us to suppose the latter. By" filgrand" probably what we call filagree" is meant. Is this word to be found in any other author? A. A. ANCIENT LAND-TENURE. Some years ago circumstances brought me acquainted with the constitution of a parish in Cambridgeshire, that of Over, near St. Ives, the character of which-as I was no antiquary-appeared to me not a little remarkable. I have since met with a somewhat similar example in the Archæological Journal; but whether the case of Over deserves further inquiry, I leave to your readers to determine. To enable them to judge, I will state as much of it as remains in my memory. The parish or manor mainly consisted of three large tracts, all unenclosed. The first, arable, was required, by custom, to be cultivated in each year in one stated kind of crop. The second, also arable, might be cropped according to the various owners' pleasure. The third, a vast open pasture, owned in various and rather small portions, which were cut yearly by each owner for hay; but the whole grazed as common of pasture by the cattle of all the commoners between appointed days. The There were besides ancient homesteads, or sites of such, each conferring a right of common. number I forget; it was some multiple of 4,— say 48,-and there were also just as many ancient enclosures, 4 acres each of old pasture, as there were common rights; that is, on this supposition, 48 of such enclosures, apparently indicating an ancient allocation of 4 enclosed acres to each family of original settlers. If so, a proportionate allotment to each in the arable fields also might be presumed; but changes of ownership may well have prevented its detection at the present day. A remarkable peculiarity existed in some of the unenclosed pasture ownerships: a defined portion would interchange yearly with another portion; that is, the property in each, of each of the two owners (being in fact the right to cut hay) would shift from one owner to the other in yearly alternations. Thus, if A. mowed Whiteacre this year, and B. Blackacre; next year A. would cut Blackacre, and B. Whiteacre, the interchange being singular ownership being of a freehold, or at least, always between the same two portions; and this a heritable nature. Mr. Morgan in his England under the Norman Occupa tion, p. 87, observes: "The system of common field is so nearly obsolete, that it may be well to insert a few descriptions of unenclosed parishes from the Reports to the Board of Agriculture. It may seem a long step to pass from the reign of Henry III. to the reign of George III., and yet Mr. Delisle assures us that there was little advance or change of any kind in Norman agriculture in the course of eight centuries, and I fear that as much might be said of England. During the last years of the last cen tury, the parish of Stewkley afforded the best example in Buckinghamshire of the open field system of cultivation. Stewkley was then a village of farmers and labourers upon an eminence, environed by three extended fields; the one fallow, the second wheat, and the third beans; and the main roads running through the fields could not be readily distinguished by a stranger from the driftways leading to the different properties." Nothing is more common in feoffments of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, than to find the land the subject of the feoffment, described as lying in "campo" (i. e. the "common field ") or "campis," &c., A. or B. (naming the parish) with its particular abutments, as separating the portion of one owner from that of another, specifically set out.] OLDE'S "ACQUITAL OR PURGATION OF EDWARDE THE VI." ETC. - In Mr. James D. Haig's List of Books printed in England, prior to the Year MDC., in the Library of the King's Inns, Dublin (1858), p. 14, I find the following entry: "Olde (John). The acquital or purgation of the moost catholyke christen prince, Edwarde the VI. Kyng of Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande, &c., and of the Churche of England refourmed and gouerned vnder hym, agaynst al suche as blasphemously and traitorously infame hym or the sayd church, of heresie or sedicion. [By John Olde.] Emprinted at Waterford, the 7 daye of Nouembre, 1555. 80." Will you oblige me with a few particulars of this volume, which, as stated in Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual (Bohn's ed.), p. 1721, is the work of John Bale, and is "supposed to be the second book printed in Ireland? I have never seen a copy. May I likewise ask what is the title, and what the date, of the first book printed in Ireland? ABHBA. [The Acquital or Purgation of the moost Catholyke Christen Prince, Edwarde the VI. by John Olde, may be considered as a defence of the Reformed Catholic Faith, and the writing of this work was occasioned from the preachers of England in Queen Mary's time, in their sermons at St. Paul's Cross, and in other pulpits, "spewing out," as the author expresseth it, "with scolding, roaring, and railing, the poison of antichrist's traditions, and infaming the order, form, and use of preaching, prayers, and administration of the holy sacraments, set forth and exercised by common authority in the Church of England, reformed under the government of Edward VI. and vilely slandering of his father King Henry VIII. for banishing the violent usurped power and supremacy of the Romish ancient antichrist for his brother's known wife, and for taking justly upon him the title and estate of supremacy, incident and appertaining, by the undoubted ordinance of God, to his regal office and imperial crown." John Olde was presented by the Duchess of Somerset to the vicarage of Cubington, co. Warwick, and was a prebendary of Lichfield. In the reign of Queen Mary he became an exile for religion. For notices of him consult Strype's Works (see Index), and Becon's Works, published by the Parker Society. Dr. Cotton (Typog. Gazetteer, p. 321, ed. 1831) doubts if printing was exercised at Waterford so early as 1555. The earliest work printed in Ireland was The Boke of Common Prayer, imprinted by Humfrey Powell, 1551. See "N. & Q." 2nd S. vii. 48.] LICH-GATES. -Why called Trim-Trams in some parts of Devon and Cornwall, in which English counties, and in Wales, they mostly prevail? (See Church Builder, No. 2.) The terms would appear to have more significance than a nickname, as there suggested. Did the bearers, halting at the "church style," change places or give place to another set, by which the corpse was carried into church and to the grave? Such supposition agrees with the meaning of the first part of the compound word. But what of the second, which I can find neither in Bosworth, Bailey, Johnson, nor Walker (the only dictionaries I have at command). With tram-ways, i. e. the primitive railways of the iron and coal districts, I am of course acquainted. R. L-X-M. [We quite agree with our correspondent in thinking that the term Trim-Tram, as applied to a Lich-gate, is not to be taken as a mere nickname. Tram, as an old word, bore several meanings. It was a train. TrimTram, therefore, may have been Trim-Train, i. e. the halting place at the entrance of the churchyard where the train, that is, not only the pall, but the whole funeral party, might be trimmed, or duly adjusted and brought into proper order, so as to be in a state of preparation for the officiating minister, on his coming forth to meet them there, and commence the burial service. Tram, also, was and is a car mounted on wheels; so that if the bier or feretrum were so mounted, this idea might also be comprehended in the term Trim-Tram.] FATHER MANSFIELD. -I want information con cerning the family and birthplace of Father Mansfield, Doctor of the College of English Jesuits at Rome, A.D. 1699. He is mentioned in the edition of Pepys's Diary, published by Colburn in 1854, in a letter from J. Jackson to Samuel Pepys, dated Dec. 25th, 1699. Also, whether Father Mansfield's work on St. Peter's, alluded to by Pepys in a letter to Jackson, dated Feb. 8th, 1699-1700, were ever published? If published, where is it to be seen? R. M. |