Notes and Queries, Number 185, May 14, 1853

Are Dr. Diamond's Notes published yet?

    S. S. B., Jun.

Replies to Minor Queries

Gibbon's Library (Vol. vii., p. 407.).—I visited it in 1825, in company with Dr. Scholl, of Lausanne, who took charge of it for Mr. Beckford. It was sold between 1830 and 1835, partly by auction, partly by private sale in detail.

    James Dennistoun.

Robert Drury (Vol. v., p. 533.).—I am afraid that the credit attachable to Drury's Madagascar is not supported or strengthened by the announcement that the author was "every day to be spoken with" at Old Tom's Coffee House in Birchin Lane. The Apparition of Mrs. Veal, and other productions of a similar description, should make us very doubtful as regards the literature of the earlier part of the eighteenth century. Might not a person have been suborned to represent the fictitious Robert Drury, to the benefit of the coffee-house keeper as well as the publisher? I am induced to express this suspicion by a parallel case of the same period. The Ten Years' Voyages of Captain George Roberts, London, 1726, is universally, I believe, considered fictitious, and ascribed to Defoe; yet at the end of the work we find:

"N. B.—The little boy so often mentioned in the foregoing sheets, now lives with Mr. Galapin, a tobacconist, in Monument Yard; and may be referred to for the truth of most of the particulars before related."

    W. Pinkerton.

Ham.

Grub Street Journal (Vol. vii., p. 383.).—Mr. James Crossley, after quoting Eustace Budgell's conjectures as to the writers of this paper, leaves it as doubtful whether Pope was or was not one of them. The poet has himself contradicted Budgell's insinuation when he retorted upon him in those terrible lines (alluding to his alleged forgery of a will):

"Let Budgell charge low Grub Street to my quill,
And write whate'er he please—except my will!"

    Alexander Andrews.
Wives of Ecclesiastics (Vol. i., p. 115.).—In considering "the statutes made by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas, Archbishop of York, and all the other bishops of England," ann. 1108, interdicting the marriage of ecclesiastics, might it not be worth investigating, by such of your correspondents as are curious on the subject, what had been the antecedents of the several bishops themselves?

With respect to Thomas II., Archbishop of York, it is historically certain, that he was the son of an ecclesiastic, and likewise the grandson of an ecclesiastic (his father being one of the bishops who concurred in these statutes). Neither does it seem altogether unlikely that Thomas himself also had spent some part of his early life in bonds of wedlock, since we learn from the Monasticon (vol. iii. p. 490. of new edit.), that "Thomas, son of Thomas (the second of that name), Archbishop of York, confirmed what his predecessors, Thomas and Girard, had given," &c. If this be correct, as stated[4 - Robertus Bloëtus also, who was still Bishop of Lincoln, and Rogerus, Bishop of Salisbury, appear to have had sons, though, perhaps, not born in wedlock; but query.], the conclusion is inevitable; but possibly some error may have arisen out of the circumstance, that Thomas I. and Thomas II., Archbishops of York, were uncle and nephew.

    J. Sansom.

Blanco White.—In Vol. vii., p. 404., is a copy of a sonnet which is said to be "on the Rev. Joseph Blanco White." This sonnet is one which I have been in search of for some years. I saw it in a newspaper (I believe the Athenæum), but not having secured a copy of it at the time, now ten or twelve years ago, I have had occasion to regret it ever since, and am consequently much obliged to Balliolensis for his preservation of it in "N. & Q." "It is needless," as he well observes, "to say anything in its praise." I should add, that my strong impression is that this sonnet was written by Blanco White.

    H. C. K.

—– Rectory, Hereford.

Captain Ayloff (Vol. vii., p. 429.).—Your correspondent will find a short notice of Capt. Ayloff in Jacob's Poetical Register (1719-20, 8vo., 2 vols.), and two of his poetical pieces—"Marvell's Ghost" and the "Cambridge Commencement"—in Nichols's Collection of Poems (vol. iii. pp. 186-188.), 1780, 12mo. There is considerable vigour in his "Marvell's Ghost;" and had he cultivated his talent, he might have taken a respectable place as a poet amongst the writers of his time.

    Jas. Crossley.

General Monk and the University of Cambridge (Vol. vii., p. 427.).—I cannot doubt that "W. D." was Dr. William Dillingham, Master of Emmanuel College, and Vice-Chancellor of the University, from November 1659 till November 1660.

The election to which his letter relates took place April 3, 1660. The votes were:

Lord General Moncke – 341

Thomas Crouch, M.A., Fellow of Trin. Coll. – 211

Oliver St. John, Chancellor of the University – 157

The Vice-Chancellor, in his accounts, makes this charge:

"Paid to two messengers sent to wait on y

Lord Generall about y

burgesship, 4l. 10s."—M. S. Baker, xl. 59.

On the 22nd of May, General Monk, who had been also chosen for Devonshire, made his election to sit for that county.

    C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge.

In reply to Leicestriensis, I beg leave to inform him that "W. D." was Wm. Dillingham, D.D., master of Clare Hall, and at the time Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The letter in question, which was the original draft, was, with a variety of other family papers, stolen from me in 1843.

    J. P. Ord.

P.S.—Query, from whom did the present possessor obtain it?

The Ribston Pippin (Vol. vii., p. 436.).—The remarks of your correspondent H. C. K., respecting the uncertain origin of the Ribston pippin, reminded me of a communication which I received about fifty years ago, from one of the sisters of the late Sir Henry Goodricke, the last of the family who possessed Ribston. Though it leaves the question concerning the origin of that excellent apple unsettled, yet it may not be uninteresting to H. C. K. and some others of your numerous readers. I therefore send a transcript:

"Tradition of the Ribston Pippin Tree

"About the beginning of the last century, Sir Henry Goodricke, father of the late Sir John Goodricke, had three pips sent by a friend in a letter from Rouen in Normandy, which were sown at Ribston. Two of the pips produced nothing: the third is the present tree, which is in good health, and still continues to bear fruit."

"Another Account

"Sir Henry, the father of the late Sir John Goodricke, being at Rouen in Normandy, preserved the pips of some fine flavoured apples, and sent them to Ribston, where they were sown, and the produce in due time planted in what then was the park. Out of seven trees planted, five proved decided crabs, and are all dead. The other two proved good apples; they never were grafted, and one of them is the celebrated original Ribston pippin tree."

The latter tradition has, I believe, always been considered as the most correct.

    S. D.

Cross and Pile (Vol. vi., passim.).—The various disquisitions of your correspondents on the word pile are very ingenious; but I think it is very satisfactorily explained as "a ship" by Joseph Scaliger in De Re nummaria Dissertatio, Leyden, 1616:

"Macrobius de nummo ratito loquens, qui erat æreus: ita fuisse signatum hodieque intelligitur in aleæ lusu, quum pueri denarios in sublime jactantes, Capita aut Navia, lusu teste vetustatis exclamant."—P. 58.

And in Scaligerana (prima):

"Nummus ratitus—ce qu'aujourd'hui nous appellons jouer à croix ou à pile, car pile est un vieil mot français qui signifiait un Navire, unde Pilote. Ratitus nummus erat ex ære, sic dictus ab effigie ratus."—Tom. ii., Amsterdam, 1740, p. 130.

See also, Auctores Latinæ Linguæ, by Gothofred, 1585, p. 169. l. 53. Also, Dictionnaire National of M. Bescherelle, tome ii. p 885., Paris, 1846, art. Pile (subst. fém.)

En passant, allow me to point out a very curious and interesting account of this game, being the pastime of Edward II., in the Antiquarian Repertory, by Grose and Astle: Lond. 1808, 4to., vol. ii. pp 406-8.

    Φ.

Richmond, Surrey.