Notes and Queries, Number 189, June 11, 1853

Raise such a cloud of dust as I?'"

    MORAL.
"My judgment turn'd the whole debate!
My valour saved the sinking state!"

    Cowgill.
This fable is found in the collection assigned to Babrius. It is the eighty-fourth in the excellent edition of these fables by Mr. G. Cornewall Lewis: Oxford, 1846.

    W. H. G.

Winchester.

Collar of SS. (Vols. iv. and v., passim).—In the discussion on the subject of the collar of SS., in the columns of "N. & Q.," I find no mention of an incidental observation of Thomas Fuller, which occurs in the notice of John Gower, the poet, in the Worthies of Yorkshire, and is deserving of some notice:

"Another author (Stow) unknighteth him, allowing him only a plain esquire, though in my apprehension the collar of SSS. about his neck speaketh him to be more. Besides (with submission to better judgments) that collar hath rather a civil than a military relation, proper to persons in place of judicature; which makes me guess this Gower some judge in his old age, well consisting with his original education."

Mr. Foss, I see, mentions (Vol. iv., p. 147.) the existence of the collar on the poet's monument, and suggests that he might have worn it as a court poet.

    H. C. K.

—– Rectory, Hereford.

Chaucer's Knowledge of Italian (Vol. vii., p. 517.).—To the proofs that Chaucer was well acquainted with Italian literature, brought forward in "N. & Q." by J. M. B., it may seem unnecessary to add any more. Yet, if it were only for the purpose of recalling your readers' attention to the elegant and instructive Dissertation on the State of English Poetry before the Sixteenth Century, by the late Dr. Nott, of All Souls' College, will you permit me to adduce that learned writer's authority, in opposition to the opinion of Sir Harris Nicolas, that Chaucer was not versed in Italian literature? Dr. Nott's Dissertation is entombed in the two quarto volumes of his edition of the Works of Surrey and Wyatt (London, 1815); and it is much to be wished that it were reprinted in a separate and more accessible form.

    J. M.

Oxford.

Pic Nic (Vol. vii., p. 387.).—The following extract from an Italian newspaper raises a considerable presumption that this word is not now considered in Italy as an Italian one; the date is Sept. 1841.

"Se qualche delirante vi ha dato ad intendere che i Bagni di Lucca sono il soggiorno prediletto dell' Italiano, ci vi ha detto una solenne bugia.

"I Bagni di Lucca appartengono, come tant' altre cose in Italia, esclusivamente allo straniero."

Then follows a description of the numerous English arrivals, while the Italian—

"Spera di rinvenir sulle alture di que' colli un piè di patria tutto per lui, e ascende i sentieri ornati di bosco. Ma abbassando gli occhi ci s' accorge che non è solo. Un' Amatore a cui forse l' ignobile itinerario della Starke ha rivelate quella sublime veduta, sta colassu scarabocchiando uno sbozzo pell' Album del suo drawing room. Più lunge, povero Italiano! più lunge! Ecco la scena si cambia … i sentieri divengono più ardui … in fondo, mezzo nascosto dal fitto fogliame apparisce … un casolare; un villano lo invita ad entrare … e gli parla in Inglese, in Francese, ed in Tedesco!… ci s' allontana impazientito, e corre più lunge!… I castagni divengono rari.... Aride roccie annunziano il vertice dell' Apennin. Ancora una breve salita, e poi ci sarà sul più alto pinacolo del Prato Fiorite. Ma al piè del viattolo è un inciampo! e l'occhio sconfortato scorge la livrea di un groom e da un lato una sentimentale Lady, che si è arrampiccata più lassa e prosaicamente seduta sulla sua sedia portatile sta scrivendo una lettera sopra un foglio a vignetta. L' Italiano continua ad ascendere … e giunte alla vetta … all' amplissima libera vista, il cuore dell' Italiano batte più forte … la mente s' esalta, e i più energici pensieri vi bollono.... Ma gli occhi ritornano svegliati dei passi dei Cavalli, appiè del ripiane s' affaccia una numerosa comitiva … è un pique nique! Fuggi fuggi mal capitate Italiano la straniero l' inseque anco nel nido dell aguila!"

Here the "pique nique" is evidently the climax of all that is "straniero."

    K. E.

Canker or Brier Rose (Vol. vii, p. 500.).—I suspect that this term refers to the beautiful mossy gall, so commonly seen on the branches of the wild rose, which has been called the bedeguar of the rose. This is the production of a cynips; and, from its vivid tints of crimson and green, might well pass at a short distance for a flower, brilliant, but scentless. Hence Shakspeare's allusion:

"The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses."

    W. J. Bernhard Smith.
Temple.

Cancre and crabe in French are synonymous, meaning the same; Anglicè, crab (fish).

Now, we have crab-tree, a wild apple-tree; a canker rose, a wild rose; dog rose, dog-violet, horse leech, horse chestnut. In all these cases the prefix denotes inferiority of species.

    H. F. B.

Door-head Inscriptions (Vol. vii., pp. 23. 190.)—In Watson's History of Halifax (1775, 4to., p. 257.), in describing the High Sunderland, an ancient mansion near Halifax, formerly the residence of the Sunderlands, he notices that "over the north door is written, Ne subeat Glis serdus, a mistake for surdus; and over a door on the south side, Ne entret amicus hirudo."

As some of your correspondents doubt as to the proper reading I have thought it worth while to give this duplicate version. I recollect the inscription well, having been sorely puzzled, when a schoolboy, in my frequent walks to High Sunderland, to understand these two inscriptions. I must not omit the inscription on the south front:

"Omnipotens faxet, stirps Sunderlandia sedes
Incolet has placide, et tueatur jura parentum,
Lite vacans, donec fluctus formica marinos
Ebibat et totum testudo perambulet orbem!"

The commentary of the worthy historian is edifying:

"The writer of these, or his son, alienated this very estate, which the then owner so earnestly wished might continue in the family for ever!"

    James Crossley.

On the portico of Arley Hall, the seat of the ancient family of Warburton, and about four miles from the town of Northwich, Cheshire, the following "free pass" to visitors appears, carved in stone:

"This gate is free to all men, good and true;
Right welcome thou, if worthy to pass through."

    T. Hughes.
Chester.

"Time and I," &c. (Vol. vii., p. 181.).—Who was the author of this adage? Lord Mahon gives it as a favourite saying of Mazarin (History of England, vol. ii. p. 100., small edition). Mr. Stirling (Cloister Life of Charles V., p. 151., 2nd edition) tells us that it was a favourite adage of that temporising monarch. Perhaps it was a well-known Spanish proverb.

    Cheverells.

Lowbell (Vol. vii., p. 181.).—The inclosed was taken from the Northampton Herald of the 16th April, 1853:

"On Monday last this village was thrown into a state of great excitement by the tidings that a married labourer, named Samuel Peckover, had taken poison, with the intent of destroying himself. This was found to be the case. He had swallowed a dose of mercury, such as is commonly used for sheep, and, but for the timely arrival of Mr. Jones, surgeon, from Brackley, who administered him a powerful antidote, he would have expired within a short time. The circumstance which led the misguided man to attempt this rash act was as follows:—Although a married man, and wedded to a very respectable woman, he had seduced a young female of the village, named Adelaide Hirons, who was delivered of a female child on Saturday last. This disgraceful affair, of course, had become known to the neighbours, who expressed great indignation at his most disreputable conduct, and they in consequence determined to put him to open shame by 'lowbelling' him in front of his cottage in the evening, when all the old pots and kettles in the village were put in requisition, and a continual discord was kept up for two or three hours, by way of administering him a wholesome punishment for his breaking the marriage vows. It is supposed that the fear of this impending disgrace, and also remorse for his crime, were the cause of his thus attempting to make away with himself, and to rush unprepared and unpardoned into the presence of his Maker!"

    F. James.

Overseers of Wills (Vol. vii., p. 500.).—J. K. will find what he seeks about, overseers and supervisors of wills, in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law.

    F. O. Martin.

Detached Belfry Towers (Vol. vii., pp. 333. 416. 465.).—I have also to inform you that the tower of Terrington St. Clement's Church, about five miles from Kings Lynn, is detached from the church.

    J. N. C.

King's Lynn.