Page images
PDF
EPUB

when he stated Johnson commenced with the forty-fifth number, on April 10th, for his own share; the three previous papers being sold to Payne for Dr. Bathurst's personal advantage, and possibly all the share the latter had in any way in the Adventurer.

Chalmers' assertion "Dr. Hawkesworth's share of the Adventurer amounts exactly to a half, or seventy papers," is, by this letter, proved to be a flourish upon fancy; it is not sufficiently clear what portion of the first thirty-eight were really from his pen, as by Payne's letter it appears of the remaining one hundred and two papers Hawkesworth wrote but thirty-nine. Nos. 77, 78, and 79, subscribed FIDELIA, and bearing the mark Y, were written by Miss Mulso, who, in 1760, became Mrs. Chapone. No. 90, printed Saturday, Sept. 15, 1753, with the signature & was contributed by Colman, subsequently the conductor of The Connoisseur; it displays an erudite knowledge of literary history and criticism; and was, in fact, no mean merit to have produced such a paper at the early age of twenty.

The arrangements spoken of by Payne as to the completion were ultimately otherwise, as Hawkesworth contributed Nos. 135 and 136; Johnson, Nos. 137 and 138; and Warton, in No. 139, undertook to explain the design of the critical papers in the Adventurer; Hawkesworth, in the last, giving an account of the general plan and conclusion of the work-in this he pathetically concludes Time, who is impatient to date my last paper, will shortly moulder the hand that is now writing it in the dust, and still the breast that now throbs at the reflection; but let not this be read as something that relates only to another; for a few years only can divide the eye that is now reading, from the hand that has written. This awful truth, however obvious, and however reiterated, is yet frequently forgotten; for, surely, if we did not lose our remembrance, or at least our sensibility, that view would always predominate in our lives, which alone can comfort us when we die.

SCHULTZ AB ASCHERADE.-Res sub Evo gestas Memoriæ tradidit Carl Gust. Schultz ab Ascherade Hagae Comitum apud P. F. Goffe, 1787; 8vo. pp. 295.

The volume printed on a thick paper, in Octavo, has the pages of type of a duodecimo size, with wide margin, and contains two portraits, one of Frederick II., King of Prussia, the other of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Some notice of the author C. G. Schultz ab Ascherade is particularly required, and most biographical and bibliographical Dictionaries, English and Foreign, have been consulted but in vain, with the exception of the Dictionary partially published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, in which under Ascherade, reference is made to Schultz, but the seven volumes of that work only extended to the end of the letter A. Qu., What was the source from which the Editors derived their notes respecting this Schultz? Ascherade is a town in Bavaria, six miles north of Carlstadt.

[blocks in formation]

RESEARCHES IN FORFARSHIRE.

The hill of Laws, in Forfarshire, an isolated position, about two miles north of the point where the river Tay falls into the sea, has hitherto been considered a tend to overturn that idea, and here are found the revitrified site; but the excavations now going on rather mains of a loose stone work, gigantic in size, and so far as is known to the writer, unique in character. excavations are being made by the proprietor, James Neish, Esq., solely for the purpose of clearly ascertaining the character of the work which covers the summit of the hill. debris at a considerable depth, it is nearly four inches The pin here shewn, was found among

These

[blocks in formation]

ANNE MUFF, wife of WILLIAM MUFF,
who departed this Life

17 May, 1842, aged 50 years.

Deplore with me my Friends

My Wife she is dead,

The pride of my House it is gone,

On a pillow of turf she reposes her head;
And her bosom is bound with the green.

Those Lips were my own, where in kisses perfumed
Yield now a coldness to the worm
Soon in dust and decay

Must her charms be consumed
And no relic be left of her form.

Her death Bed fresh flowers shall religiously grace
As each mornings Dews & Sunbeams return,
And the hand of affection shall tremblingly trace
This record one the best of her Urn.
Here rests a fine Woman who was sent from above
To teach graces and virtue to man,

But God when he saw her in bad hands
Took pity and recalled her to Heaven again.

A

SCOT AND LOT.-We read in some of the Cornish | Saxon, Stonehenge can mean nothing but the stonehistories that the right of voting extended to all the in- gallowses.' habitants paying Scot and Lot.' I shall feel greatly obliged to any reader of Current Notes who will inform me what this term means? Penzance, Feb. 16.

W.

The various accounts that have been given of these wonderous stones would fill a volume; but I question whether any, even an Antediluvian and Mammoth hypothesis, is as startling as Mr. Kemble's. As he quotes no authorities for any assertion that he makes, we must deal with his statements as we best can; and I think I can shew that there is no foundation for his strange opinion that the Triliths had been used as gallowses, seeing that his analysis of the name is not at all to be depended on.

Scot and Lot are words adopted from the Saxons by our ancestors, and incorporated by them into our vernacular tongue; the former from sceat, a part or portion, the latter from Llot, lot or chance. The term signified a customary contribution laid upon all subjects according to their ability. In the laws of William the Conqueror, ch. 125, it is directed -all Frenchmen, as well as English, should, according to Stánhengen, if there ever was such a word, did not, the English law, observed in the reign of his predecessor and could not, mean 'stone-gallows.' We find the word King Edward, pay Scot and Lot. The words are there hengen occurring several times in the Anglo-Saxon Anhlote and Anscote. Again, Hoveden, under 1088, states Laws. In King Ethelred's (p. 142) hengen-witnung, -Rex omne injustum Scottum interdixit. Scot, at times is translated imprisonment, and in the Laws of Cnut, in early records written Scoth, is also in the sense of a con- (p. 170) a friendless man must submit to prison, and tributory payment to any particular object or tax, frequently abide there-pone gebuge he hengenne and pær gebide, so indicated by early foreign jurists and lawyers. The etc. In Mr. Thorpe's Glossary, Hengen is defined charter of William, Earl of Flanders, confirming the Cus-Ergastulum, a prison in which those confined were contoms of St. Omer, in 1127, enacts-Nullum Scot, nullum demned to hard labour;' and Hengwite is the fine for talliam, nullam pecuniæ suæ petitionem, ab eis requiro. Spelman derives the origin of the terms Scot and Lot as letting an offender escape from prison, hengen. Stánalready stated, from William the Norman, nor are these old hengen therefore means a stone prison, and can mean words grown obsolete, for whoever in like manner (though nothing but a stone-prison; but the real word is Stonenot by equal proportion) are assessed to any contribution, henge, and the form given in Henry of Huntingdon, are generally said to pay Scot and Lot. See Statute 33 apud Stanenges,' proves that hengen was not the Henry VIII. cap. 9. latter part of it. Whether henge is adjective or substantive, or what its precise meaning was, there is, I fear, no evidence to shew; but till we find this in an intelligible form, we may as well acknowledge our ignorance; bold assertions, assuredly, will not help us at all.

MEANING OF THE WORD STONEHENGE.

One never thinks it worth while to notice the innumerable etymologies with which we are so often favoured by gentlemen who con over their Welsh or Hebrew Dictionaries. They may be very clever and ingenious, but satisfactory only to the discoverer himself. When, however, a scholar like Mr. J. M. Kemble publishes his interpretation of a word, and that word Anglo-Saxon, it becomes a very different matter, and I dare say 999 people out of a thousand would receive the explanation without doubt or questioning. It seems, therefore, most desirable to have any errors, if errors there be, from such a source, at once set right; and for this reason I now trouble you with some remarks upon A Note about the word Stonehenge,' which will be found in a late number of your excellent contemporary, Notes and Queries.

[ocr errors]

In this 'Note,' Mr. Kemble says: Now, the proper form of word in Anglo-Saxon was Stánhengena, or possibly Stanhengen, in the first case being plural, in the second singular, therefore either the 'stone-gallowses,' or the 'stone-gallows.' After a column of remarks, some true enough, but not much to the purpose, and others to the purpose, but more than doubtful, he concludes thus: I think it however quite possible that the Triliths may have served as gallowses on some grand occasion'; and that after a defeat, some British leaders may have been sacrificed by tying them up to Woden on the same. But as long as the Anglo-Saxon language is Anglo

[ocr errors]

IOTA.

Lord Lyndhurst's expression which occasioned so
much umbrage, that the Irish were aliens in blood,
and language, and religion,' appears to have a classical
authority in Livy, XXIV., 3.

Morituros se, affirmabant Crotoniatæ, citius quam
immixti Bruttiis in alienos ritus mores legesque ac mox
linguam etiam verterentur.
F. E. G.

ST. IVES' LOVING CUP. When this town was first denominated a borough has become a disputed question, but it was fully incorporated in 1639. The charter of Incorporation was procured by Sir Francis Basset, then member for St. Ives, who in honour of the event presented to the Corporation, a cup on which was engraved the following inscription: If any discord 'twixt my friends arise, Within the Borough of beloved St. Ives, It is desyned that this my Cupp of Love, To every one a peace-maker may prove: Then I am blest to haue given a legacie So like my harte unto posteritie.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Recently reading a volume of Popular Stories, I found hares are there designated Saint Monacella's Lambs; but on referring to the list of Saints' days in Nicolas's Chronology of History, no such saint is there noticed. Can any reader of Current Notes kindly inform me who Saint Monacella was, and why hares are so particularly under her tutelage?

Hastings, March 10.

M. A. G.

PROVINCIAL RHYMES.

some 'scholastic' lines-
Halliwell in his Nursery Rhymes, 1844, p. 47, notices

In fir tar is, in oak none is.

In mud eel is, in clay none is.
Goat eat ivy, man eat oats.

and observes the joke consists in saying these lines
so quick that it cannot be told whether it is English or
gibberish. For the version now printed, more complete
than the one given by Chambers, I am indebted to Pro-
fessor De Morgan, who has heard it in Dorsetshire.' As
words in the last line are quoted in a manuscript of the
a reference to their probable antiquity, he also states the
fifteenth century, Sloane Coll. 4; see Reliquæ Antiquæ,
vol. i. p. 324.

The legend of St. Monacella relates that she was the daughter of an Irish Monarch, who had determined to marry her to a nobleman of his court. She had however vowed celibacy, fled from her father's dominions, and took refuge in Wales, where she lived fifteen years without seeing the face of man. At length, Brochwel Yscythrog, Prince of Powis, one day hare-hunting, pursued his game till he came to a great thicket, when he was amazed to find In Buckinghamshire, there is a similar jocosery that a virgin of surprising beauty, engaged in deep devotion, has escaped him: the words are spoken so rapidly by with under her robe the hare he had been pursuing, boldly most speakers, that few persons are able during the refacing the dogs, who retired howling to a distance, not-petition to catch one word, or even the probable sense of withstanding all the efforts of the prince's followers to what is there spoken. make them seize their prey. Even when the huntsman attempted to blow his horn, it stuck to his lips. The prince heard her story, and gave to God and to her a parcel of land, to be a sanctuary to all that fled there. He desired her to found an Abbey on the spot; she did so, and died Abbess thereof in a good old age. She was buried in the neighbouring church, called Pennant, distinguished from her burial there by the addition of Melangell.

Pennant, Tour in Wales, vol. ii. p. 347, notices-At about two miles distance from Llangynog, I turned up a small valley to the right, to pay my devotions to the shrine of St. Monacella, or as the Welsh style her, Melangell. Her hard bed is shewn in the cleft of a neighbouring rock; and her tomb was in a little chapel, or oratory adjoining to the church of Pennant Melangell, now used as a vestry-room. This room is still (1784) called Cell-y-bedd, or the Cell of the Grave; but her reliques, as well as her image, have long since been removed. The last is, I think, still to be seen in the churchyard, and the legend is perpetuated by some rude wooden carvings of the saint, with numbers of hares scuttling to her for protection. She properly became their patroness, and they were called Mwyn Melangell-St. Monacella's Lambs. The superstitious opinion so generally prevailed till the last century, that no person in the parish would kill a bare; and even later, when a hare was pursued by the dogs, it was as positively believed, that it was sure to escape, if any one said-God and Saint Monacella be with thee!

Saint Melangle's day is noticed by Sir N. H. Nicolas as occurring on January 31.

The Fairs hitherto held at Easter and Whitsuntide at Greenwich, have this year been suppressed.

VOL. VII.

As I was going up trictable tractable present,
There I spied unicle crunicle cronicle current;
I called my man Richard, a doctor of physic,
To bring out his ficarige facarige fan,
To shoot unicle crunicle cronicle current,

That sat upon trictable tractable present.
Possibly other counties had their popular rhymes, now
fast passing into desuetude, and in many instances to be
irrecoverably forgotten, unless occasionally transmitted
to the pages of your widely diffused Current Notes.
Great Missenden, March 9.

N. H.

[blocks in formation]

I sit here on a rock whilst I'm raising the wind,
When the storm is abated I'm gentle and kind;
I have kings at my feet who await but my nod,
To kneel in the dust on the ground where I trod;
I am seen by the world, yet am known but to few;
The Gentiles detest me, I'm Pork to the Jew.

I never have passed but one night in the dark,
And that was with Noah alone in the ark;
My weight is three pounds, my length is a mile;
And when I'm discover'd you'll say with a smile
My first and my last are the best in the Isle.
A solution in rhyme would be very acceptable. Ed.

D

TOUCHING FOR THE KING'S EVIL.

M. V.'s Enquiry in Current Notes for January last, induces me to forward the following paper, which was directed to the Company of Barbers and Surgeons, in the reign of Charles the Second, when it appears the Stuarts practised this with other deceptions, in accordance with their imbibed notions of the monarchical Right Divine. This mesmeric delusion was continued during the reign of Queen Anne, and the Evil Angels or Tokens were gold pieces; but those presented by the Old Pretender were silver. The original document, of which this is a transcript, is endorsed - Proposals for Regulating the Healings, in King Charles the Second's Reign;" but though designated Proposals, these instructions were delivered to the Officials of the Barbers and Surgeons, as a Mandate for their observance.

[blocks in formation]

For the better regulating of the Healings, his Majestie is pleased to Order as followeth :

That the Public Healings be limited to the months of March and Aprill for the Spring Season, and October and November for the Fall. The disease at those times being most apparent, and the weather then most temperate, both for his Majestie to touch, and the poore people to travell.

That a convenient House, Tent, or other Place be appointed for the viewing of the diseased-having one door to enter in, and another to goe forth at; and that at each door, two of his Majesties Guards be ordered to stand; and next to the first door, within shall stand the Serjeant Chyrurgeon in waiting with the rest of the Serjeant Chyrurgeons, and the Chyrurgeon in Ordinary to his Majesties Person, and at least, one of his Majesties Physitians in Ordinary to view the diseased people.

And that no Tickett be given but by the Serjeant Chyrurgeon in writing, and that in the presence and with the approbation of the rest before mentioned; and that the names and dwelling places of such as receive Ticketts be registered in a Booke by the Serjeants man.

That the Serjeant Chyrurgeon in waiting shall admit and passe any to be healed, who shall be sent to him from any of his Majesties Physitians in Ordinary, bringing a note signed under his hand.

That all such as present themselves to be healed shall bring a Certificate under the hands of the Minister and Churchwardens of the parish wherein they live, that they have never been touched by his Majestie.

That a command be sent to the Bishops of London, Winchester, and Rochester, that the Minister of each parish within the Citties of London and Westminster, and within ten miles distance round about be ordered by them to send their hands and seals in a small piece of parchment, to be kept always in readiness, to compare with their hands which they sett to Certificates; And that every Minister register what Certificates he gives to prevent the abuse of certifying more than once for one person, which hath been too frequently done.

That no person, be it his Majesties Servant, or other, upon paine of his Majesties displeasure, presume to bring into his Majesties presence any one to be touched for the Evill, who hath not been viewed and received a Token for

the same.

That neither for viewing the sicke, registering their names, giving Tokens, or presenting them to his Majestie,

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

That none presume to wait at the Healing, but the Serjeant Chyrurgeon, and such other of his Majesties Chyrurgeons as are necessary; the Apothecary to his Majesties Person, and what other of his Majesties Servants shall be appointed, that so his Majestie may not be pressed upon, and the Ceremony hindred by officious Waiters.

That whereas when there was but one Serjeant Chyrurgeon, the Chyrurgeon to the Person did otheiate in his absence as Serjeant, since now there are by his Majesties favour three Serjeants,

That the Chyrurgeon to the Person may not be deprived of the Rights of his Place, and rendered useless by the Serjeants waiting one for another,

Be it ordered, That in the sickness or absence of each Serjeant, the Chyrurgeon to the Person wait in his room as when there was but one Serjeant, and alsoe that he takes his turns in Hunting and Journeys with each Serjeant in his month as heretofore.

And that the rather, because his Majestie hath declared by an Act of Counsell, that the Serjeants as they die shall be reduced to one as before.

ROY'S WIFE OF ALDIVALLOCH.

Mrs. Grant was certainly the authoress of Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch. In the additional Illustrations to Johnson's Scottish Musical Museum, Edinb. 1839, vol. IV., p. 368,* is an extract of a letter from George Thomson, the correspondent of Burns; concerning this lady— the writer says, 'Mrs. Grant of Carron is the same lady who married Dr. Murray of Bath, but I know not her maiden name, nor whether she be alive or dead-dead probably, for she was well up in years, when she married the Doctor, whom I knew well, a warm hearted Irishman, and a very good flute-player. She was generally understood to be the writer of Roy's Wife, but Í cannot help you to any written authority for the fact. You are quite right in suspecting traditional authorities in general-they are little to be relied on.'

Mr. David Laing, the erudite editor of the Museum, adds-Through the obliging enquiries of J. P. Grant, Esq., son of the late Mrs. Grant of Laggan; I have since learned the following particulars of this lady. Her maiden name was Grant, and she was born near Aberlour, on the banks of the river Spey, about the year 1745. She was twice married, first to her cousin, Grant of Carron, near Elchies, on the river Spey, about 1763, and secondly to a Physician in Bath, whose name is stated to have been Dr. Brown, not Murray. She died at Bath, sometime about 1814, and is not known to have written any other song than Roy's Wife.'

I may, however, state, it is quite certain that the name of the lady's second husband was Murray, not Brown; and that I have in a manuscript collection attributed to her pen, several songs written by her. They are chiefly on local subjects.

[blocks in formation]

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF LITERARY PERSONS.

The following extracts from the parish register of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, may possibly interest some readers

of Current Notes.

Burrille in Aprille 1587.

John Fox, householder, preacher, the 20 day.

This entry, it is almost nugatory to observe, refers to the great Martyrologist.

Under those of Weddings in August, 1620, is notified the marriage of the Protector.

Oliver Crumwell and Elizabeth Bourchг. 22.

Among the Burials in November, 1674, is recorded the sepulture of the immortal author of Paradise Lost. John Milton, Gentleman, Consumpscōn, Chancell, 12.

Daniel de Foe was born in this parish in 1661; his literary career, memorable as it was, did not avail to secure him against penury and want at the close of life. He is believed to have died in insolvent circumstances, at an obscure lodging in this parish, and under 'burying in April, 1731, occurs

Daniel De Foe, Gentleman, to Tindalls, Lethargy, 26. 'To Tindall's' implied that the corpse was borne thence to Tindalls burying ground, more generally known by the appellation of Bunhill Fields.

Old Jewry, March 2.

EPITAPHS IN PERTH AND FORFARSHIRE.

S. G.

Travel where you will, the eye of the observer will frequently discern among the memorials of the dead much to interest him, and arrest his attention, and although much that is quaint may be often too broadly expressed to correspond with the generally received notions of the solemnity of the scene, yet there these memorials are; our railing at them does not displace them, or alter the effect which their reality creates; we must comply with the fact to receive them with all their inconsistencies, and make them available either for the purposes of history, or of mental consideration. Embued with these feelings, in my journeys I have not passed the depositories of the departed without casting a longing, lingering look behind, and have noted many an epitaph which doubtless will conduce to the amusement, if not of the instruction, of the reader; and as Current Notes are read in situations far distant from the Metropolis, or the busy haunts of the artisan or the commercial man, your columns are often the vehicle of much to gratify the desultory as well as the studious reader, and believing that epitaphs are at all times acceptable, I enclose the following for your adoption.

In Grey Friars' churchyard, Perth, lie the remains of the Rev. William Wilson, who died in his fifty-first year, in 1741. He was originally a minister of the Middle Church, Perth, to which he was ordained in 1716; and being the first to join and support Ebenezer Erskine in his views against the laws of Church Patronage in the Church of Scotland, was by the General

Assembly in 1740, with several other parish ministers, deposed from his official capacity. Thus deprived of his old church, and followed by the greater part of his congregation, he became the founder of the Secession Church in Perth. His epitaph thus pronounces his eulogium

More brave than David's mighty men,

This Champion fought it fair
In Truth's defence, both by the pen,
The pulpit, and the chair.
He stood with his associates true
To Scotland's solemn oath;
And taught to render homage due
To God, and Cæsar both.
Earth, raging from his sacred post
Debarred the worthy sage;
Heaven frown'd and sent a furious host
To, venge the sacriledge.

Mourn Zion, your Elijah's gone

And wafted to the skies

Mourn, till his fiery car bring down

A soul of equal size.

On a memorial in the Grey Friars, Perth, to Robert Vallance, Deacon of the Weavers, who died in 1781, aged 65, are these lines—

Muse, here assist me now, I surely must,
Relate brave Vallance character that's just.
Renowned, much justice will join his cause,
Of tradesmen, he in Perth, deserves applause
Betrayed no trust was put into his hand,
Endeavouring allways by the truth to stand.
Ready he was, and that at any hour,

To make address [redress ?], or to relieve the poor.
Vallance, whose virtuous actions shone so bright,
Always did stand up for the City's right;
Let monuments or some recorded verse
Loud unto Ages his bright fame rehearse.
All craftsmen who him knew will yet declare
None in the Country could with him compare.
Grief now, nor pain, no more his peace annoys;
Enter'd the Choir, he lives in perfect joys.
It will doubtless be observed this is composed as an
acrostic.

In Dunfermline Abbey churchyard, on Elizabeth Meiklejohn, who died 1761, aged 27, we read—

Reader, see how death all doun puls,
And nought remains but shanks and skulls;
For the greatest Champion ere drew breath,
Was all-wise conquered by Death.

In Forfarshire, I have noted the following distich in the old kirkyard of Kinnaird, Farnell, A.D. 1600.

HVE [WE]. DOE. THIS. FOR. NO. WTHER. END

BVT. THAT. OWR. BVRIAL. MAY. BE. KEND.

Within the old kirk of Nevay, the stone in a mutilated condition

Heir lye the Tyries in Nevay
Honest men and brave follows.

« PreviousContinue »