Images de page
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

-

Sir

Don

QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:-Chancellor Livingston
Robert Howard, K.B.-Treacle Bible-"The History of
of Miss Clarinda Cathcart and Miss Fanny Renton".
The Right Hon. George Smith-Pimlico, 327.
REPLIES:-The Devil, 328-Sir Francis Drake, 330-St.
Anthony of Padua preaching to the Fishes, 331-Bed-gown
and Night-dress, 332 Quaint Surnames, 333
Quixote, Ib.- Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford-"God
save the King" in Church-Innocente Coate- - Terrier-
Sketching Club or Society-Executions for Murder - Ber-
nard Gates, Tuner of the Regals-St. Luke, the Patron of
Painters Arms of Milan - Um-Elia: Amelia - Robert
Davenport-Third Buffs-The Rev. Peter Thompson-
Riddle- Mrs. Cokain of Ashburne - Party- Major Rud-

yerd-Sir Bernard de Gomme-Philomathic Journal"

-Zincography - Greek Phrase, &c., 334.

Notes.

BISHOP GUNDULF AND HIS ARCHITECTURE. In the current number of the Gentleman's Magazine (p. 448), in the account of the meeting of the Archæological Institute at Rochester, Professor Willis is reported to have said that Gundulf erected the western portion of the crypt, and perhaps the lateral tower, "but certainly not another stone" of the cathedral. It is with the greatest diffidence one ventures even to offer a remark on the expressed opinions of so learned and careful an antiquary, but the testimonies of the monastic writers, though few, are strong to the contrary.

The first to which I allude is that of the anonymous author of the good Bishop's life, which is printed in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 273, &c. Whoever the writer was, and however warmly, perhaps partially, he reverenced the memory of the subject of his biography, he seems to have compiled it with the utmost care as to facts. He assures us in his "prologus" he relates nothing as to the Bishop in which he was not one of the parties present, or which he did not receive from credible eye-witnesses. He tells us the circumstances of Gundulf's succession to the see, mainly through the exertions of Lanfranc, and the state in which he found it; and then goes on to relate that, first he claimed and obtained many

of the old possessions of the bishopric; then, that he began to collect together a body of monks, and to reform the statutes; and then he says:

"A new church, the old one being destroyed, is begun, a circle of offices (ambitus officinarum) are conveniently arranged, the whole work within a few years is completed (perficitur), Lanfranc privately contributing (subministrante) much money."

Our author then goes on to relate how "all things being finished" (igitur perfectis omnibus) Gundulf kept on increasing the number of the monks, and how well, how steadily, and how kindly he presided over them.

The other authority is that of the celebrated Textus Roffensis (p. 143 of Hearne's edition, 1720). Here the account of Gundulf's elevation to the see is given much as before; and then the author tells us :

"He built the church of Saint Andrew, almost destroyed by old age, new entirely, as at this day it appears' (Ecclesiam Sancti Andreæ, pene vetustate dirutam, novam ex integro ut hodie apparet, ædificavit), "and he constructed all the offices necessary for the monks, as well as the capacity of the site would permit."

Thus we have two direct testimonies; one from a contemporary who knew the bishop personally, the other from a MS. of the highest estimation, which (even taking the lowest date assigned to it) would not be very long after his time, and these agree that Gundulf did build, and that he did complete the cathedral at Rochester and the monastic buildings necessary thereto.

Nevertheless, few architects who have studied the early works of the Normans would deny, that, in the words of the discerning Professor, "The work is of a more refined and advanced character than his (Gundulf's) times would present, and therefore it must be assigned to a period in the reign of Henry I., after the death of the prelate." We are so accustomed to connect the name of Gundulf with the Tower of London and the Conqueror, that we are led to fancy all his buildings must be early Norman. We know there was another bishop between him and Ernulf, and therefore it is also natural to believe there must have been considerable difference in the styles of their architecture. But we forget his was comparatively a late consecration, 1077, "eleven years after the coming of the Normans into England under Count William," as his biographer says; and that he held the bishopric till 1107, nearly the third of a century. Radulf was translated to Canterbury in 1114, and Ernulf elected in 1115, so that there are only eight years between Gundulf and Ernulf. In fact, the former lived seven years under the reign of Henry I.

That the work differs from what we generally judge to be early Norman there can be no doubt; but does this necessarily prove it to be that of Ernulf? It seems impossible to conceive that two

chroniclers of the first class; one, at least, living at the very time such work was carried on; the other very shortly after, should make such clear straightforward statements if they were not true; and that as to the buildings which must have been as familiar to them as Westminster Hall is to our lawyers. May not the difficulty be solved thus?Either the work in the nave was planned and executed late in Gundulf's life, when in fact he was within the reign of Henry I.; or he was in advance of his age, and his design then would hold the same reference to Norman as those at Lincoln do to the Early English and the Decorated; or as those at Gloucester do to the Perpendicular. We must remember styles of architecture do not spring into fashion all at once,. like the airs of a new opera, or the pattern of a new dress. They have all been of slow growth; like forest trees rather than fungi.

Is it not possible then, that there may be truth in both, namely, that the nave of Rochester may have been comparatively a late work of Gundulf, and also far in point of style before any other of the same period? He had much to do before he could recover the revenues of his impoverished see, and get his monks together. Then he had to build the church (possibly very slowly), as money came in; the crypt first, then, according to the practice of medieval times, the choir over it, and in all probability the nave last of all. All these works must necessarily have occupied much of the time between his consecration and the succession of Ernulf.

66

an

As to his ability in the arts of design, the Textus Roffensis (p. 146) describes him as "in opere cæmentarii plurimum sciens et efficax," which one of our day would translate as architect of first rate ability, both theoretically and practically." It seems to be conceded that he was the architect, or to have been concerned more or less in building, not only this cathedral, but also the Abbey at Malling, the Castle at Rochester (of which more anon, if I do not intrude too much upon your space), and of higher renown than all, the Tower of London. Is it not reasonable to suppose the designs of such a man were before his age? Are we to take certain examples, and average them down to a year or two, and deny to an architect the merit of his own work, or doubt the truth of a narration of facts, which the chronicler must have seen with his own eyes, because it does not fit our scale of dates?

There is another reason to believe that Gundulf finished the cathedral, besides the plain words of the chroniclers, and that is, that Edmund de Hadenham, who carefully records all benefactions to the undertaking (Ang. Sacr. i. 362), has given a list of those things presented by Radulf, the successor to Gundulf, and the predecessor of Ernulf. These gifts are all chasubles, stoles, albs,

"but

precious stones, shrines, illuminated books, and such things as might be expected to be wanted in a new church, but not a word of any expense in building. Of Ernulf, who had the see from 1115 to 1123, he records that he built the dormitory, chapter-house, and refectory. Of these there are sufficient remains to lead one to suppose that he may also have lengthened the nave one bay, and erected the gorgeous west front. But all this is beside the question we started with, which isdid Gundulf erect the crypt and the tower, certainly not another stone," or did he build the nave, or the greater part of it? If he did not, the monks must have been without a church for nearly forty years, except one pene vetustate dirutam," and Radulf would have done more wisely during his seven years' episcopate to have laid out his money in building than in jewelled vestments and gorgeous service-books. It seems also incredible that Edmund de Hadenham, when treating of Ernulf's buildings, should enumerate the offices and quite forget the church. I hope for a reply from abler pens than mine: and then if you will permit me to offer a few remarks of the same nature as to Rochester Castle, the architectural merits of this good bishop may be further elucidated. A. A.

Poets' Corner.

[ocr errors]

SIR ROBERT HONYWOOD.

He was eldest surviving son of Sir Robert Honywood of Pett, in the parish of Charing, Kent, by Alice, daughter of Sir Martin Barnham of Hollingbourne, in that county; and was born at the latter place, August 3, 1601.

On June 15, 1625, he received the honour of knighthood. Subsequently, he served abroad for many years in the wars of the Palatinate, having the rank of Colonel, and being steward to the Queen of Bohemia; who in her letters occasionally refers to him by the familiar appellation of Sir Robin. On July 3, 1646, the parliament granted a pass for him to transport himself into Holland, with his lady, two daughters, three maids, four men servants, all their necessary baggage, and eight horses for his own use.

It is said that he was returned for Romney to the Parliament which met Jan. 27, 1658-9; but this must be an error, as, on May 16, 1659, he was appointed one of the Council of State as one of the members of that body who had not seats in Parliament. In March, 1659-60, he, Algernon Sidney, and Thomas Boone, were dispatched by the Parliament on an embassy to the King of Sweden. Boone returned before the Restoration, and Sidney and Honywood were recalled by a royal proclamation, to which the latter paid due obedience; and he caused to be delivered up at Whitehall, on August 31, 1660, all his majesty's

plate and household stuff. In December following, the Parliament made order for payment of 22007., the amount of bills of exchange drawn by the ambassadors for their allowance, and for mourning at the King of Sweden's death.

In 1673 appeared his translation of The History of the Affairs of Europe, but more particularly of the Republic of Venice, written in Italian by Battista Nani (London, folio). In the dedication to his brother-in-law, Sir Walter Vane, Knight, Colonel of his Majesty's Holland regiment, he states that he began this translation in the circumstances of an uncomfortable old age and ruined fortune, brought on him rather by public calamity than private vice or prodigality; and he undertook it to divert the melancholy hours arising from the consideration of either.

His death occurred April 15, 1686, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and he was buried at Charing; where is a monument, with an inscription, commemorating him and Frances his wife, who died Feb. 17, 1687-8, in the seventy-fourth year of her age.

By this lady, who was daughter of Sir Henry Vane, Secretary of State to Charles I., he had Robert his heir, eight other sons, and seven daughters. C. H. & THOMPSON COOPER. Cambridge.

GIOVANNI PICO, PRINCE OF MIRANDOLA.* Most biographies tell us wonderful things of this "phoenix of genius"- -a term by which he was generally known in the fifteenth century. It is said, "that he had a most extraordinary memory; that he was acquainted with two-andtwenty languages; that he was skilled in almost every branch of learning-viz. philosophy, law, philology, poetry, astrology, and general litera

ture," &c.

But, in perusing the History of Girolamo Savonarola and his Times,† I met with the following passage, which has considerably lessened my opinion of this "phoenix of genius." I believe it to be a correct judgment of his real worth, as a literary prodigy. Perhaps you may consider the extract deserving a corner in "N. & Q.: "

“Not only in languages but in science also, he aspired to universal knowledge, and expected to be able to master the omne scibile of his time. So great were the praises he received on all hands, and so high an opinion had he formed of himself that, on going to Rome, he announced that he was ready to respond publicly to nine hundred propositions, which he pretended contained the whole science of his time; and he sent invitations, in his name, to the

He was uncle of the Francesco Pico della Mirandola, who wrote a Life of Savonarola.

+ By Professor Villari of the University of Pisa. It has lately been translated into English by Leonard Horner, F.R.S. (2 vols. Longman & Co.)

learned, promising to those who stood in need of such assistance, to defray the expenses of their journey. and substantially contained nothing of any importance. "These propositions were, after all, very insignificant, Some of them, however, related to judicial astrology, and were at once all condemned by the Pope. The whole challenge fell to the ground. Pico without delay wrote an apology, and tendered his submission to the Roman court Posterity has treated him somewhat hardly, for his name gradually sank into oblivion. It must, however, be confessed that his learning was not very profound, and that he was far inferior in erudition to Politian, and in philosophy to Ficino. Of the two-and-twenty languages that he made a boast of knowing, so little was he in reality conversant with them, that a Jew was able to sell him sixty separate manuscripts as having been written by the command of Esdras, while the whole sixty formed together one work- the Cabbala; of some others he only knew the alphabet. He wrote Italian without elegance, and his literary judgment was so little to be relied upon, that he was one of those who preferred the poetry of Lorenzo de' Medici to that of Petrarch and Dante." (Vol. i. p. 81-2.)

One great merit, however, Pico possessed-viz. that he was the first, in his age, who applied to the study of the Oriental languages, which before no attention from his time attracted little or European scholars. His works consist of two large folio volumes, which are now almost worthless. (See Miscellaneous Essays by the Rev. W. Pair Greswell, Manchester, 1805.)

Norwich.

Minor Notes.

J. DALTON.

MRS. HEMANS AND HER BROTHER.-MR. JOHN PAVIN PHILLIPS's Note on Mrs. Hemans's Forgeries (3rd S. iv. 261) has reminded me of an incident which I well remember to have heard my father relate many years ago, as having occurred during a visit he paid to Canada in, I believe, the year 1819; and which, from its connection with the family of that gifted poetess, may perhaps be deemed worth preserving in "N. & Q." A number of gentlemen, mostly strangers to each other, were seated over their wine after dinner at the hotel, in Montreal-one being my father, and another a military officer named Browne. In a spirit of fun it was suggested, and at once agreed to, that every one present should write impromptu some lines of poetry; and that the writer of the worst should the dinner bill. pay

As might be expected, considerable mirth was created by the badness of several of these effusions; and eventually, amid much laughter, it was agreed that the lines signed "Browne" were decidedly the worst.

In this verdict the writer, with the greatest good humour, fully acquiesced, saying (what was before, of course, quite unknown to his companions,) that "he was a brother of Mrs. Hemans,

and that it could not be expected there should be two poets in one family!"

This was of course, Claude Scott Browne, one year younger than his sister; who, as we learn from the Memoir of Mrs. Hemans prefixed to her Works (1839, vol. i. p. 8, note), "died at Kingston, in Upper Canada (where he was employed as a Deputy-Assistant Commissary General), in 1821;" and to whom his sister thus alludes in The Graves of a Household:

"They grew in beauty, side by side,
They fill'd one home with glee;
Their graves are severed far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.

"One, 'midst the forest of the west,
By a dark stream is laid-
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade."

WILLIAM Kelly.

NAMES OF SERIALS. — Good Words owes its name to "holy" Herbert; Household Words derived its name from Shakspeare, as has also its successor All the Year Round. I do not know whether the titles of the serial established contemporarily with All the Year Round was, consciously on the projector's part, favoured with a poetic baptism. It is, however, to be found in the concluding lines of the otherwise prose epilogue to Eastward Ho !" which are as follow:"O may you find in this our pageant here,

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

The same contentment which you came to seek; And as that show but draws you once a year, May this attract you hither once a week.' This is rather a strange circumstance, when we remember that, in the third line of the prologue to the same play, the authors Jonson, Chapman, and Marston assert, "We have evermore been imitated." SAML. NEIL.

CUSTOM AT RIPON. I copy the following from a north country newspaper, in hope that some correspondent of "N. & Q." may afford some illustration of the custom, or that, at all events, it may be placed on record.

Y. B. N. J. "KING ALFRED OF NORTHUMBERLAND. At Ripon

[ocr errors]

every night at nine o'clock the watchman of the market

blows, in front of the town hall, an ancient horn, said to be the gift of King Alfred of Northumberland. It is said that on the blowing of this horn depends the maintenance of the city's charter; and, as nine o'clock is the hour fixed for the ceremony, it appears probable that it has a place in the local economy as a substitute for the curfew, which is still rung in some towns of the north and of Ireland at the same hour."

THE BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A.-The following deserves, I think, to find a place in "N. & Q.;" and, accordingly, I send

it:

"TO THE EDITOR OF SAUNDERS'S NEWS-LETTER.

National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, West, Dublin, 2nd October, 1863. "SIR-I perceive in your publication an extract from a letter to the Scotsman, signed Nemo,' which throws

some doubt on the generally accepted fact of Mulready having been by birth an Irishman. I am happy to be able to state to my own knowledge that he always avowed himself Irish by birth. I knew him so far back as the year 1831, when he received me in London kindly and cordially as a fellow-countryman; and in last June, but three or four weeks previous to his death, I met him at an evening party, when, in course of conversation, he stated precisely that he was born in Ennis, in the county Clare. This should set at rest for ever the doubt raised "GEORGE F. MULVANY."

6

by Nemo.'-Yours truly,

Mr. Mulready was one of whom his native land may well be proud. ABHBA.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: SWIFT IN THE NURSERY.-I heard the following story from my nurse more than fifty years ago: it was the first time I ever heard of the great Conqueror. I asked why he was called Alexander the Great, and was instructed as follows:-"Why, you see, my dear, he was once out hunting, and lost his way, all alone. At last he came to a cottage, and the people took him in, and gave him dry clothes [I think they wrung his umbrella, but I am not quite sure], and set him down by the fire. And then it was, what would he have for supper? Would he have a fowl? No! no fowl; thank you, of course, that people always say. Would he have a rasher? No! no rasher. Would he have roasted eggs? Yes! he would have roasted eggs. Then the good man of the house called out to his wife, All eggs under the grate: and he was so pleased with the sound of it, for you see, my dear, he was very hungry, that he went to church next Sunday, and had himself christened so." The mere play on the words is Swift's; the rest is a nursery formation, which the Dean himself would not have disdained.

WIFE SALE.

A. DE MORGAN.

working man living in Gloucester, finding that his Some twenty-two years ago a wife, with whom he had lived uncomfortably a long time, had been unfaithful to him, obtained an interview with her paramour, to whom he agreed to sell her. Accordingly on the following Saturday (market day), attired in a black gown and a new white bonnet, with a halter round her neck, the frail wife was led by her husband into the market, where, it seems, a sort of auction was got up, and the woman, who was a consenting party half a crown, the money being duly paid down by to the transaction, was sold to her paramour for the "purchaser," who then led the woman away. eye-witness of the extraordinary (for so it was) I believe these particulars, as related to me by an gular part of the occurrence remains to be menoccurrence are perfectly credible. The most sin

tioned.

The woman, it is averred, proved an excellent manager to her second lord, who frequently congratulated himself on his "bargain." It is possible that the woman is still living, but both the men are dead. F. G. B.

Queries.

ALFEKNIGHT.-Mr. Harwood, in his interesting Gleanings among the Castles and Convents of Norfolk, says (p. 227, note):

-

"A Ralph Alfeknight is a witness to an early deed [of the fourteenth century, in the Chartulary of Bromholm, preserved in the Public Library at Cambridge]. In another he appears as Ralph Demychyvaler, and some of the family subsequently figure as Halfknights. Some of the speculators on the origin of names may amuse themselves with the investigation of the origin of this." May not the surname referred to have been conferred on the possessor of half a knight's fee, which was settled at 40l. a-year early in the fourteenth century? Or may it not have had its rise in the doctrine then in force, that the personal attendance of a single knight was equivalent to that of two men-at-arms not being knights? (See Mr. F. M. Nichols's learned paper on "Feudal and Obligatory Knighthood," Archæologia, xxxix. 213, 222.) JOB J. BARDWELL Workard, M.A.

ANONYMOUS. - Who are the authors of the two following poetical volumes ?-1. Leisure Moments, by M. N. A., London, Cleaver, 1843.-2. Fragments, Original and Translated, by M. C. R., 1857. R. INGLIS.

ARMS.-Argent, a saltire azure. Whose ?

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

BOUCHER AND BOWDEN: ST. DUNSTAN'S CLOCK. Can any reader of "N. & Q." explain who Boucher and Bowden were? for such appears to have been the names of the two figures who struck the hours on the old St. Dunstan's clock.

I quote from A Pacquet from Wills; or a New Collection of Original Letters, &c., London, 1701 :"A Lady of Pleasure being the Escutcheon of Iniquity, and the Cully and Pully her two Supporters, hanging

thus like St. Dunstan's Clock, between Boucher and Bowden for both to knock at in their turns," p. 47.

I can find no allusion to Boucher and Bowden in Londiniana, Cunningham's Hand-Book, or Timbs's Curiosities of London; and Cowper, who, in his Table Talk, likens a lame poet to them"When labour and when dulness, club in hand, Like the two figures at St. Dunstan's stand," seems to have been equally ignorant of the names of what Strype describes as "two Savages or Hercules." W. J. T. CANDLES. Is it known when candles were invented, or when they were first used for religious purposes? Pliny and Martial allude to rush

lights, and Baronius and Muratori show that wax candles were employed in the church in the third century; is there any earlier record of their use? Is there any evidence or reason to suppose that the Hebrews were acquainted with them prior to their expulsion from their own land? OPIFEX CANDELARUM.

EDWARD WALTON CHAPMAN.-This gentleman, a son of Capt. William Chapman of Whitby (who died 1793), was engaged under his brother William Chapman, a famous engineer (who died at Newcastle-upon-Tyne at a very advanced age, May 29, 1832), on important public works in Ireland, and is subsequently described as of Newcastleupon-Tyne, and Willington-Ropery, in the parish of Wallsend, Northumberland. The date of his death will oblige. He appears to have been living in 1817.

S. Y. R.

THE REV. THOMAS CRAIG, minister of the Associate Congregation of Whitby, 1789, removed to Leeds in 1793, and subsequently settled at or near Bocking. He published Three Sermons on Important Subjects, Whitby, 8vo, 1791; Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Fitch Bocking, 8vo, 1815; Funeral Sermon for John Tabor, Esq., Bocking, 8vo, 1815. When did he die? S. Y. R.

FAMILIES OF TREPSACK AND FORSTER.-I should be greatly obliged for any information respecting the Rev. John Trepsack of Canterbury. His wife, who died in 1699, is buried in the cathedral. Was he a member of the Chapter, or connected with Canterbury? The name has rather a foreign sound, and I believe his arms are given on the monumental slab belonging to his wife.

His brother-in-law was "John Fforster, of Dover, Gent.;" who appears, from his marriage license, to have been born in 1662. Was there a family of this name at Dover at the period indicated? C. J. R.

JAMES FORDYCE.-Who was James Fordyce, who published at Edinburgh, in 1788, A Collection of Hymns and Sacred Poems? I take it for granted, that he was an entirely different person from his namesake, the celebrated preacher, who also published a poetical volume in 1786. J. O.

JOHN FREER.-Any information regarding John Freer, an ensign in the 66th Foot in 1768, will be thankfully received.

Σ. Θ.

"LONDON AND LITERARY MUSEUM."-Can any one inform me as to the authors of the following articles in this periodical, published in 1822:Vol. i. "The Bridal Eve," a dramatic scene, pp. 155-56. "The Masque of the Seasons," by R., p. 166. Agnes," a dramatic scene, by M., pp. 204-5. "Roman Conversations at Bignor," p. 426. - Vol. ii. "The Witches," a dramatic sketch, 492. "Jephtha," by R., p. 796.

[ocr errors]

R. INGLIS.

« PrécédentContinuer »