OBSCURE SCOTTISH SAINTS.-St. Eurit, or St. Urit. I know only of one instance in which this name occurs, and it is given to a fine spring, in a lonely spot, on the north bank of the river South Esk, near Brechin Castle, Forfarshire. It is about a mile distant from any known place of worship, old or new.

St. Braoch.-The rector of the church of the island of St. Braoch is, so far as I am aware, only mentioned in a charter of King Robert the Bruce, printed by the Bannatyne Club, in Reg. Vet. de Aberbrothoc, and the island of St. Braoch, now called Inchbrayock, is in the middle of the river South Esk, near Montrose.

Highland Stob.-In many parts of Scotland and Lowland- I find the name of "Stob" given to fairs, crosses, and wells. Near the old town of Markinch, Fife, a much effaced sculptured stone stands upon a hillock or knoll, and is called "Stob's Cross." "Stob's Fair" is held near Dundee, Forfarshire. I am inclined to think that it is the corruption of the name of some old saint, but cannot guess of what name.

Ronald or Ranald.-An old riven bell, or skellach, at the church of Birnie, Morayshire, composed of two pieces of black sheet iron, is called "the Ronald," or "Ranald Bell." A place called "Ranald's" or "Ronald's Cross," is upon a rising ground, near Fochabers, in the same province.

"Rume," or "Rome's Cross," is the name of a hillock or knoll, now within Lord Southesk's deer park at Kinnaird Castle, Forfarshire, and about a mile N. of the parish church of Farnell, where an old sculptured stone was found some time ago, with a fine interlaced cross, and other embellishments.

St. Arland, or St. Orland, is the name given to a fine sculptured obelisk at Cossins, Forfarshire,

near Glamis Castle.

Sinavee, or Sinavey.-A copious spring near the old kirk of Mains, Forfarshire, bears this

quaries of Scotland, and in the Sculptured Stones of Scotland, published by the Spalding Club; also with the notices which have appeared in recently published books on the history of the district in which they are situated. A. J.

ST. DIGGLE.-A tower in the neighbourhood of Dover, and not far from St. Radegund's Abbey, is known by the name of St. Diggle's Tower, and is sometimes called St. Diggle's Folly. As I have never met with this saint in any other locality, I should feel obliged if your correspondents would tell me something about his history, and the grounds of his canonisation. Qy. Was he in any way connected with the above sainted lady, the interest? ruins of whose abbey are the objects of so much Q? SERIOUS AND COMICAL ESSAYS. Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me who was the author of Serious and Comical Essays, London, J. King, 1710? B. M.

"The Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf, whereinto England is like to be swallowed by an other French mariage, if the Lord forbid not the banes, by letting her Maiestie see

the sin and punishment thereof. Anno. 1579.”

No place or printer's name on title. From the appearance of the type, I should infer it was printed W. G. abroad.

[Mr. Douce has a manuscript of this tract, supposed to be the autograph copy (MS. Douce, No. 259). It is dated August, 1579, with the following note prefixed: “This is published by John Stubbe, of Lincoln's Inn, and which the original MS. of that book which was written and was dispersed by Page, being printed by Singleton. Queen Elizabeth, incensed at it as puritanical (Stubbe's

sister having married Thomas Cartwright, the father of the Puritans), prosecuted Stubbe and Page, upon a statute made in the reign of Philip and Mary against writing and dispersing seditious libels; and though the ablest judges and lawyers were not satisfied as to the force of that statute, yet were Stubbe's and Page's right hands both cut off with a butcher's knife and a mallet in the market-place at Westminster. This marriage with the Duke of Anjou was strenuously pushed on by the Queenmother of France, upon a superstitious notion she had imbibed, that all her sons should be kings; and the Queen (by her conduct) was inclinable enough to it, though, upon the change of the face of affairs abroad, she appeared so much mistress of herself to the last, as to disengage herself from it; so that this author's prayers were heard, though he suffered for pressing them with zeal and fervour." At the end of the MS. is the following passage, which is omitted in the printed tract: "Thus endeth the discovery of the Gaping Gulfe, seene in a dreame, allowed in a traunce, published by the autority of feareful douting, and rewarded with a common hyre to proffered servitours. Non credo." The publication of this work no doubt_greatly incensed the Queen and her ministers; but, as Mr. Hallam remarks (Constitutional Hist., i. 227): "This pamphlet is very far from being, what some have ignorantly or unjustly called it, a virulent libel; but is written in a sensible manner, and with unfeigned loyalty and affection towards the Queen. But, besides the main offence of addressing the people on state affairs, he had, in the simplicity of his heart, thrown out many allusions proper to hurt her pride: such as dwelling too long on the influence her husband would acquire over her, and imploring her that she would ask her physicians whether to bear children at her years would not be highly dangerous to her life." In Park's edition of Harington's Nuge Antiquæ, i. 143-165, will be found much curious matter respecting this work; and for a most carefully written biographical sketch of John Stubbe, see Cooper's Athena Cantabrigienses, ii. 111.]

YORKSHIRE POETS.-1. John Smith, author of Cytherea, or the Enamouring Girdle, a new comedy licensed by Sir Roger L'Estrange, May 30, 1677; and published in London, 1677. 2. John Ashmore, author of Certain selected Odes of Horace, published, 4to, 1621; and Epigrammes, Epitaphes, Anagrammes, &c., 1621. Any information as to birthplaces and biographies of the above-named authors, is requested by

Horton Hall, Bradford.

EDWARD HAILSTONE.

[John Smith, of Snenton in Yorkshire, Gent., so he writes himself in the title-page of Cytherea, or the Enamouring Girdle, a New Comedy, 4to, 1677, conscious, no doubt, that the simple John Smith was in England no name at all. It is dedicated to the Northern Gentry, from which we learn that it had never been performed; but that he had been informed that "one of the best comical poets in London (whose judgment is without exception) did approve of it, and seriously presented it to the players as worthy to be acted; but they were unwilling, because (as they said) it was not writ in so plain familiar words as the taking comedies of the time, which did hit the present humours of the city better than mine." Another objection was "the expense in contriving scenes and machines to their great loss." But, he adds, "the main objection was, that the Scene being laid at the city of York, I make some persons in the play speak higher language than may rationally be expected from Northern

men and women!" No compliment this to our Yorkshire friends. At page 52 of the play, it is said that the part of Oblivio was intended for Mr. Underhill.

Snenton, or Sneaton, is in Pickering Lythe, N. R. Smith was living there at the time of Dugdale's Visitation, 1665, and then aged fifty three; so that he was sixty-five when he ventured to print this comedy, which, we regret to add, is occasionally lascivious. His father James was of the same place, and he had an uncle William, a councillor at law, who resided at Durham. His mother was Helen, daughter of Francis Sayer of Worsall. John Smith, the dramatist, married Catherine, daughter of Christopher Green, citizen of London; and he had a son named Henry, aged eleven at the time of the Visitation, and three daughters, Catherine, Helen, and Anne, of whom Catherine was then married to William Fairfax of Furnival's Inn. To complete the view of the family connections of this obscure Yorkshire poet, he had three brothers, James of Cave, Ralph of Cottingham, and Francis of Ruston; and four sisters, Anne and Catherine, to whom no marriages are given; Helen, who married William Hunter; and Sarah, the wife of John Sare of Rudby. The will of John Smith, the poet, is dated 1st June, 1681.

Of John Ashmore, the translator of Certain Selected Odes of Horace, 4to, 1621, nothing appears to be known of his personal history. His work is noticed in the Censura Literaria, ii. 411, ed. 1815; Corser's Anglo-Poetica, i. 66; and Bib. Anglo-Poetica, No. 890. It is clear that John Ashmore must have lived at Ripon or in its neighbourhood, by the names of the persons to whom many of his poems are addressed. It is dedicated to Sir George Calvert, a Yorkshire man, born at Kiplin near Richmond, who in 1624 was created Lord Baltimore. There are Commendatory Verses signed G. S. [George Sandys?]; John Owen, most likely the author of the Epigrams; Samuel Pulleine, no doubt he who was afterwards Archbishop of Tuam, and who was born at Ripley near Ripon. It is probable some few particulars may be gleaned of the life of the author from a perusal of his work for that express purpose; also something may be gathered conWe learn from the following lines that at one time he cerning the persons to whom his poems are addressed. was not in very comfortable circumstances:

"De Seipso.

--

[Before the term passover came into use, we find older writers employing the words pask, pasch, phase, or paske. Thus in Exodus xii. 11 and 21, where our Authorised Version has " passover," we find in the Wiclif Bible "phase," and "offre 3e paske." See also Luke xxii. 15; 1 Cor. v. 7, &c. Paske is originally from the Heb. pesakh (transire).

Any attempt to name the first writer who used the term passover would be hazardous. Something, however, may be done towards tracing the gradual formation of the word, though we cannot pretend to give every step. Where, in our received version, we find the words: "I will pass over you" (Exodus xii. 13), the Wiclif version

It is worthy of observation that, in the older Dutch Bible (that of 1562, translated from Luther's), we find, "Het is het Passah offer des Herren" (Exodus xii. 27), which, in the national Dutch Bible of 1663 becomes, "Dit is den Heere een Paesch-offer." The affinity, however, of the Dutch Passah offer and Paesch-offer to our own passover, is more apparent than real-the Dutch words signifying paschal sacrifice, or paschal victim. The case is much the same as in respect to Ger. Wasserscheide and Eng. watershed, in which geographers have recently discovered a difference in meaning.]

[There have been frequent inquiries after this early poet; but nothing is known of his personal history. His curious poem, formerly in the possession of Mr. William Yates of Manchester, was printed at the expense of William Bateman, Esq. of Darley, near Matlock, the impression being limited to forty copies only for private distribution. It is entitled The Five Wounds of Christ. A Poem. From an ancient Parchment Roll. By William Billyng, 4to. Black letter. Manchester: Printed by R.

and W. Dean. 1814. The Advertisement states that "the following theological poem, with fac-similes, is printed from a finely written and illuminated parchment roll, in perfect preservation, about two yards and three quarters in length. It is without date, but by comparing it with other poetry, it appears to have been written early in the fifteenth century. The illuminations and ornaments with which it is decorated correspond with those of missals written about the reign of Henry V.; the style may therefore fix its date between the years 1400 and 1430. The author gives his name and mark at the bottom of the roll - William Billyng, probably a monk." A copy of this work fetched at Midgley's sale 37. 5s.]

LADY ELIZABETH LEE. I should be obliged greatly if any of your numerous correspondents could inform me into what family of the Broons Charles II.'s granddaughter, Lady Elizabeth Lee, married? In Burke's Dormant Peerage I find :"Lady Elizabeth Lee, daughter of Edward, 1st Earl of Litchfield, by his wife Charlotte Fitzroy (natural daughter of the Duchess of Cleveland and King Charles II.), married, first, her cousin Col. Lee; and secondly George,

son of Sir George Broon, Bart."

:

If any of your readers can answer this question, and furthermore state where, and in what year such marriage was performed, they will clear up a doubt in the mind of GEORGE LEE.

[Here is clearly some error. Lady Elizabeth Lee, the daughter of Edward, the first Earl of Litchfield, was wife of Dr. Edward Young, the poet. (Collins's Peerage, by Brydges, ix. 403.) Dr. Doran also, in his Life of Dr. Young, vol. i. p. li., states that, "In May, 1731, or, ac

cording to Croft, in April, 1732, Young married the Lady Elizabeth Lee, daughter of the Earl of Lichfield, and widow of Colonel Lee."]

QUOTATIONS.-Can you inform me where I shall find the following familiar quotations?

1. "Strike but hear."

2. "A niche in the temple of Fame."

SIGMA.

[1. "Eurybiades, lifting up his staff, as if he intended to strike him, Themistocles said, Strike, if you please, but hear me!'"-Plutarch's Life of Themistocles, cap. xi. 2. The phrase, "A niche in the temple of Fame," apparently owes its origin to the French Panthéon, which, though originally a church, was made in 1791 by a demains of illustrious Frenchmen. Hence the figurative cree of the National Assembly, a receptacle for the rephrase, "Sa place est marquée dans le panthéon de l'histoire," which is nearly equivalent to our own expression, "He has secured a niche in the temple of Fame." The practice of placing statues in niches also, though by no means confined to France, is eminently French. "Les élégantes niches de l'Hôtel-de-Ville ont déjà reçu en grande partie les statues des personnages célèbres qu'elles doivent abriter."-Encyc, des Gens du Monde, 1843.]

Replies.

JACOB'S STAFF.

(3rd S. iv. 70.)

fectly different instruments, though used for the The Jacob's staff and the astrolabe are two persame purposes. The staff was an old instrument in the fifteenth century: the astrolabe was an introduction from the East in, perhaps, the fourteenth century. The poet Chaucer, who died in 1400, wrote on the astrolabe: and his work is extant. I suspect that the users of the astrolabe, quadrant, or any circular instrument, were for a time the scientific navigators, as opposed to It is for those who come much in the way of the old hands who did not get beyond the staff. early voyages and travels to inquire whether, when the navigator is represented as holding a circular instrument, it be not intended to symbolise him as one of the higher sort. Columbus, for instance, just at the period when I conjecture that the distinction was made, stands on the quarter-deck with a quadrant big enough to sink the ship. The symbolism of portraits is a branch of study by itself: and is often detective. University College possesses an oil picture of a man who holds a glove to his heart: it was given as the portrait is fair tradition, and agreement with some of the of Harvey, the circulator of our blood; and there other portraits, as evidence for its genuiness. But tradition and likeness are very much helped by its being since made known that Harvey used to illustrate the action of the heart in his public lectures by inflating a glove.

The word astrolabe, though Greek, comes to us

through Arabic: usturláb is the English orthography given to the Arabic word. The instrument has lately had a very full consideration from an excellent Oriental scholar, my friend the late Wm. H. Morley: but a mammoth folio (27 inches by 20 when uncut) is not for general circulation. The title is

"Description of a planispheric astrolabe, constructed for Shah Sultán Husain Safawi, King of Persia, and now preserved in the British Museum; comprising an account of the astrolabe generally, with notes illustrative and explanatory to which are added, concise notices of twelve other astrolabes, Eastern and European, hitherto undescribed. By William H. Morley. London: Williams & Norgate, 1856."

The size of the work is necessitated by the plates, which are fac-simile copies, by the anastatic process, of the very instruments they represent, even to the accidental scratches of wear and tear.

The Jacob's staff is the radius astronomicus, the baculus Jacobi, the cross-staff (a name applied in modern time to another instrument), the forestaff, the ballastell, ballastella, or bella stella (Spanish), &c. &c. It consists of a long and a short ruler; the short ruler rides at right angles upon the long one, which perforates the middle of it. If the long ruler be graduated with equal divisions, heights and distances may be obtained by the rule of three: if the long ruler be made to carry a scale of cotangents, angles may be taken directly from the instrument. Both graduations were used.

The earliest printed description appears to be that in the notes to Werner's Latin Version of Ptolemy's Geography, said to be of 1514. Peter Apian reprinted the first book of this version in 1533 (Ingolstadt, fol.), with additional notes of his own. He says that this instrument, vetus inventum, had been of two kinds up to his own time; which two kinds he had joined in one. This refers to the two modes of graduation of the long ruler. Gemma Frisius, De Radio Astronomico, Antwerp, 1545, gave a full account; and in Schoner's Op. Math., Nuremberg, 1561, there is a brief account. Mentions, some amounting to descriptions of structure and use, will be found in Blundevile's Exercises; Digges's Ala seu Scale; Ramus's Geometria, or Bedwell's translation; | Hood on the cross-staff (1596); Digges's Tectonicon; Bourne's Treasure for Travailers, and also his Regiment of the Sea; Hopton's Baculum Geodaticum; Riccioli's Geographia Reformata, &c.

Now as touching the name, Jacob's staff. The word theodelite has shown us that we must expect much license. The "Catholic explanation" attached to the precursor (we want a word to signify the article on which reply or comment is written), namely, that the graduations resembled the steps of Jacob's ladder, shows very considerable ignorance of the Roman circumstances, as we shall

see. Peter Ramus gives the name as expressive of the supposition that Jacob invented it—" vulgo baculus Jacobi dicitur, tanquam a sancto Patriarcha illo jam olim inventus sit." He quotes two uses of the word radius by Virgil, in which he seems to think this very instrument is alluded to. He also makes Hipparchus number the stars by it, rem diis improbam. These words are from Pliny; and Bedwell, the translator, gives a version which has been repeated in our own time, non sine risu. His translation is "a haynous matter in the sight of God." The meaning of course is that the number of the stars was unproved-i. e. never attempted-by the gods themselves. To the above derivation Hood, and others after him, add the following:

"Scholler. Why doe they call it Jacob's staffe? Was he the first inventor of the thing?

"Maister. I know not that: but they take occasion to call it so, by reason of those words which are written, Gen. xxxii. 10, where the Patriarch sayth, That with his Staffe he came over Jordane: Wherein I thinke, they misconstrue his meaning. Notwithstanding, by whom soever it was invented, the Instrument questionlesse is of singular use."

There are two things which have been treated with injustice. First, Jacob's well: with a few steps, or courses of bricks, there would be something about it like enough to graduation to allow it to compete. Still more may this be said of the rods in which (Gen. xxx. 37) the astute patriarch "pilled white strakes" that he might get a little more stock out of his bargain with Laban. These may all go together, as of the valeat quantillum class: I propose the following, which I take to be an omnino valebit.

The instrument was not merely a cross-staff, but a cross in the common sense of the word. In Apian's diagram the cross-ruler is about the fifth part of the staff, and something more in all the pictures of people using it: so that it looks exactly like the usual design for the cross of the crucifixion. Now Jacob's staff (Hebrews xi. 21) was generally supposed to be a cross, and frequently represented as one. The Vulgate has Fide Jacob, moriens, singulos filiorum Joseph benedixit: et adoravit fastigium virga ejus: the Rhemish has it "adored the top of his rod." At this time it is frequent, on the part of those who must follow the Vulgate, to interpret the honour and veneration as paid to "the top of the rod or sceptre of Joseph, as to a figure of Christ's sceptre and kingdom: " but in the sixteenth century and earlier, the vulgar notion was that Jacob carried a cross, an anticipatory symbol. Hence, I have no doubt, the origin of the name.

As this article is occasioned by a misapplication of a name, I add the names of a number of distinct astronomical instruments: - Astrolabium, Noctilabium, Quadrans, Torquetum, Sphæra, Triangulus geometricus, Baculus Jacobi, Umbraculum

visorium, Virga geometrica, Horologium manuale, Cylindrum.

The common architect's word transom, formerly also transame, is a corruption of transversorium. Both original and corruption occur in the Latin and English accounts of this instrument.

I add a few words to my derivation of theodelite (3rd S. iv. 51). I did not insist on the great range of forms which medieval spelling allows, because I had no example ready except the very word in question. My impression, derived from all I have read, is that a word in frequent use generally gains various forms, while one of rarer occurrence remains steady. I found, since my article was printed, a remarkable instance of this in the Astrolabii Declaratio of Jacob Koebel, Paris, 1552, 8vo. The central perforation, the axis which traverses it, and the nut which keeps it in, are things which would be little mentioned, except by the makers: accordingly, each of them has but one name-the hole is almehan, the axis is alchitot, the nut is alphorat. But the ring through which the thumb passes when the astrolabe is to hang vertically would be often mentioned by those who use the instrument: and the name is Latinised, and it is sometimes alan thica, sometimes alphantia, sometimes abalhantica. Accordingly, the travelling radius, which would be more often named than even the ring, did not exceed its rights in going through alhidada, athelida, and theodela. As to astrolabe itself, the Arabic word was seen to be Greek, and so the Greek form came into universal use. The reader must try to conjecture for himself what would have become of usturlab, if its true origin had not been noticed. A. DE MORGAN.

To fully comprehend what the inventors of these names intended in their formation, we must take both together as exponents of each other. Jacob's staff seems the generic of what our Bible translation gives as rods (Gen. xxxv. 37), which, by a stratagem suggested to him in a dream, and consequently, according to patriarchal views, from heaven, gained him the best and finest of the flocks of Laban, his father-in-law. As the astrolabe had its derivation from the Greek ȧorpo and Aaße, taking the stars, the inventor of the theodolite thought he could do no less than seek in that language for some equivalent for Jacob's staff; and from Beov and Soxos, God's counsel, coined his theodolite. It is from my view of Jacob's staff that Shakspeare so appropriately introduces the grasping crafty Shylock using it as an oath

"I swear by Jacob's staff."

WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.

The paper furnished by PROFESSOR DE MORGAN in the 18th of July number of " N. & Q." is sug

gestive of a few remarks on the above subject. The half dozen Greek derivations recapitulated by the distinguished Professor from various sources being admittedly conjectural, to guess among guessers can be no great presumption. And as the whole result is included in ringing as many changes on the given syllables as invention has suggested, to add to the number one which certainly satisfies more literal conditions than any of those already given may, it would seem, be fairly permitted.

My guess is, that the word embodies three notions, expressed by θεάομαι, ὁδός, λιτός ; and that the name of the instrument implies "scanner-ofexact- (or finely drawn) lines-of-direction." The recommendations of this derivation seem to consist in its expressing very simply and plainly the functions of the instrument, and in its accounting for nine out of the ten letters of which the English name consists, an approximation not reached by any of its predecessors.

PROFESSOR DE MORGAN'S Own most ingenious theory, which would take the word out of the sphere of Greek derivation altogether, is, I venture to think, little likely to overcome the almost intuitive impression which the prima facie look of the word seems necessarily to produce.

Whilst a captain, he was taken prisoner by the king's forces, and confined in Portland, whence he made his escape. On Dec. 4, 1644, the Parliament voted eighty pounds to him, and twenty pounds to the man that procured his escape.(Lords' Journals, vii. 81, 87, 88; Commons' Journals, iii. 712.)

He was governor of Weymouth for the Parliament from about Dec. 1647, till Oct. 1651, when he set out from that port on the expedition against Jersey.-(Hutchins's Dorset, ii. 64; Commons' Journals, vi. 45, 327, 415.)

The Parliament, on May 22, 1650, ordered that Major Heane should have a commission as Colonel, and should be authorised to complete the four companies then under his command into a regiment of ten companies, and 1200 men.-(Commons' Journals, vi. 415.)

For particulars of his share in the capture of the island and forts of Jersey, and of his conduct whilst in command of Castle Elizabeth, see Whitelock's Memorials, 511, 513-515, 517, 518; Falle's Jersey, 2nd edit., 110, seq.; Commons' Journals, vii. 31, 37, 62, 84; Thurloe's State Papers, iv. 258.