Notes and Queries, Number 211, November 12, 1853

"It is evident, from several passages in the writings of Luther, that he was by no means averse to the use of images, but that, on the contrary, he looked upon them as adapted to excite and animate the devotion of the people."

Mosheim, and Merle D'Aubigné, and probably any other historian of the Reformation in Germany, may be cited as witnesses for the notorious fact, that Carlstadt excited the citizens of Wittemberg to break the images in their churches when Luther was concealed in the Castle of Wartburg, and that he rebuked and checked these proceedings on his return. See Mosheim, as cited before, or D'Aubigné, book IX. ch. vii. and viii.

    H. W.

Rev. Urban Vigors (Vol. viii., p. 340.).—My great-great-grandmother was a sister of Bishop Vigors, who was consecrated to the see of Leighlin and Ferns, March 8, 1690. He, I know, was a near relative of the Rev. Urban Vigors. An Urban Vigors of Ballycormack, co. Wexford, also married my great-great-aunt, a Miss Thomas, sister of Vigors Thomas, Esq., of Limerick. I should, equally with your correspondent Y. S. M., wish to know any particulars of the "Vigors" family; and should be delighted to enter into correspondence with him.

    W. Sloane Sloane-Evans.

Cornworthy Vicarage, Totnes.

Portrait of Baretti (Vol. VIII., p. 411.).—In reply to Mr. G. R. Corner's Query regarding Sir Joshua Reynolds' picture of Baretti, I can give him the information he requires.

This very interesting portrait is now at my brother's, Holland House, Kensington.

My late father, Lord Holland, had a pretty picture of the late Lord Hertford's mother (I believe), or some near relation of his. Not being connected with that family, my father offered it to Lord Hertford, leaving it to his lordship to give him such picture as he might choose in exchange. Some time afterwards this portrait of Baretti was sent, and was much prized and admired. It represents Baretti reading a small book, which he holds close to his face with both hands; he is in a white coat, and the whole carries with it a certainty of resemblance. This occurred about twenty-five years ago. Perhaps it may interest your readers to learn that our distinguished painter, Watts, painted for my brother, Lord Holland, a portrait of another distinguished Italian, Mr. Panizzi, and pendant to the former. He is represented leaning forward and writing, and the likeness is very striking.

    C. Fox.

Addison Road.

Passage in Sophocles.—In Vol. viii., p. 73., appears an article by Mr. Buckton, in which he quotes the following conclusion of a passage in Sophocles:

"Ὅτῳ φρένας
Θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν·
Πράσσειν δ' ὀλιγοστὸν χρόνον ἐκτὸς ἄτας."

This, πέτρῳ στάθμην ἁρμόζων, he translates,—

"Whose mind the God leads to destruction; but that he (the God) practises this a short time without destroying such an one."

But for the Italics it might have been an oversight: they would seem to imply he has some authority for his translation. I have no edition of Sophocles by me to discover, but surely no critical scholar can acquiesce in it. The only active sense of πράσσειν I remember at the moment is to exact. It surely should be translated, "And he, whom the God so leads to ἄτη, fares a very short time without it." The best translation of ἄτη is, perhaps, infatuation. Moreover, how is the above translation reconciled with the very superlative ὀλίγοστον?

    M.

Brothers of the same Name (Vol. viii., p. 338.).—It is not unusual in old pedigrees to find two brothers or two sisters with the same Christian name; but it is unusual to find more than two living at the same time with only one Christian name between them: this, however, occurs in the family of Gawdy of Gawdy Hall, Norfolk. Thos. Gawdy married three wives, and by each had a son Thomas. The eldest was a serjeant-at-law, and died in 1556. The second was a judge of the Queen's Bench, and died in November, 1587 or 1588. The third is known as Sir Francis Gawdy, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; but he also was baptized by the name of Thomas. Lord Coke, who succeeded him as Chief Justice, says (Co. Lit. 3. a.):

"If a man be baptized by the name of Thomas, and after at his confirmation by the bishop he is named John, he may purchase by his name of confirmation; and this was the case of Sir Francis Gawdie, late C. J. of C. B., whose name of baptism was Thomas, and his name of confirmation Francis; and that name of Francis, by the advice of all the judges in anno 36 Henry VIII. (1544-5), he did bear and after used in all his purchases and grants."

The opportunity afforded by the Roman Catholic Church of thus changing the baptismal name may help to account for this practice, which probably arose from a desire to continue the particular name in the family. If one of two sons with the same name of baptism died in childhood, the other continued the name: if both lived, one of them might change his name at confirmation. There is no name given at confirmation according to the form of the Church of England.

    F. B.

High Dutch and Low Dutch (Vol. viii., p. 413.).—Considerable misapprehension appears to have arisen with regard to these expressions, from the fact of the German word Deutsch being sometimes erroneously understood to mean Dutch. But German scholars very well know that in Germany nothing is more common than to speak of Hoch Deutsch and Nieder Deutsch (High German and Low German), as applied respectively to that language when grammatically spoken and correctly pronounced, and to the bad grammar and worse pronunciation indulged in by many of the provincials, and also by the lower class of people in some of the towns where High German is supposed to prevail. Thus, for examples Dresden is regarded as the head-quarters of Hoch Deutsch, because there the language is spoken and pronounced with the most purity: Berlin, also, as regards the well-educated classes, boasts of the Hoch Deutsch; but the common people (das Volk) of the Prussian capital indulge in a dialect called Nieder Deutsch, and speak and pronounce the language as though they were natives of some remote province. Now, the instance of Berlin I take to be a striking illustration of the meaning of these expressions, as both examples are comprised in the case of this city.

The German word for "German" is Deutsch; for "Dutch" the German is Holländisch; and I presume it is from the similarity of Deutsch and Dutch that this common error is so frequently committed. For the future let it be remembered, that Dutch is a term which has no relation whatever to German; and that "High German" is that language spoken and written in its purity, "Low German" all the dialects and mispronunciations which do not come up to the standard of correctness.

    James Spence Harry.

8. Arthur Street.

Translations of the Prayer Book into French (Vol. vii., p. 382.; Vol. viii., p. 343.).—Besides the editions already mentioned, a 4to. one was published at London in 1689, printed by R. Everingham, and sold by R. Bentley and M. Magnes. Prefixed to it is the placet of the king, dated 6th October, 1662, with the subsequent approbation of Stradling, chaplain to Gilbert (Sheldon), Bishop of London, dated 6th April, 1663.

It seems ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 92.) that a copy is in the British Museum; one is also in my possession.

I presume that there were other editions between the years 1663 and 1689.

    H. P.

Divining-rod (Vol. viii., p. 293.).—For a full account of the divining rod see La Physique occulte, ou Traité de la Baguette Divinatoire, &c., par Père L. de Vallemont, a work by no means uncommon, having passed through several editions. Mine is "à Paris, chez Jean Boudot, avec priv. 1709, in 12

. avec figures," with the addition of a "Traité de la Connoissance des Causes Magnétiques, &c., par un Curieux."

A Cornish lady informs me that the Cornish miners to this day use the divining-rod in the way represented in fig. 1. of the above-mentioned work.

    R. J. R.

In the 351st number of the Monthly Magazine, dated March 1st, 1821, there is a letter to the editor from W. Partridge, dated Boxbridge, Gloucester, giving several instances of his having successfully used the divining-rod for the purpose of discovering water. He says the gift is not possessed by more than one in two thousand, and attributes the power to electricity. Those persons in whose hands it will work must possess a redundancy of that fluid. He also states that metals are discovered by the same means.

    K. B.

Slow-worm Superstition (Vol. vii., p. 33.).—The belief that the slow-worm cannot die until sunset prevails in Dorsetshire. In the New Forest the same superstition exists with regard to the brown adder. Walking in the heathy country between Beaulieu and Christ Church I saw a very large snake of this kind, recently beaten to death by the peasant boys, and on remarking that the lower jaw continued to move convulsively, I was told it would do so "till the moon was up."

An aged woman, now deceased, who had when young been severely bitten by a snake, told me she always felt a severe pain and swelling near where the wound had been, on the anniversary of the occurrence. Is this common? and can it be accounted for?

    W. E.

Pimperne, Dorset.

Ravailliac (Vol. viii., p. 219.).—The destruction of the pyramid erected at Paris upon the murder of Henry IV., is mentioned by Thuanus, Hist., lib. 134. cap. 9. In your correspondent's Query, Thesaur. is, I presume, misprinted for Thuan.

    B. J.

Lines on the Institution of the Garter (Vol. viii., p. 182.).—A. B. R. says, "as also from the proverbial expression used in Scotland, and to be found in Scott's Works, of 'casting a leggin girth,' as synonymous with a female 'faux pas.'" I may mention to your correspondent (if he is not already aware) that the expression is taken from Allan Ramsay's continuation of Christ's Kirk on the Green (edit. Leith, 1814, 1 vol. p. 101.):

"Or bairns can read, they first maun spell,
I learn'd this frae my mammy;
And coost a legen girth mysell,
Lang or I married Tammie."

and is explained by the author in a note, "Like a tub that loses one of its bottom hoops." In the west of Scotland the phrase is now restricted to a young woman who has had an illegitimate child, or what is more commonly termed "a misfortune," and it is probable never had another meaning. Legen or leggen is not understood to have any affinity in its etymology to the word leg, but is laggen, that part of the staves which projects from the bottom of the barrel, or of the child's luggie, out of which he sups his oatmeal parritch; and the girth, gird, or hoop, that by which the vessel at this particular place is firmest bound together. Burns makes a fine and emphatic use of the word laggen in the "Birthday Address," in speaking of the "Royal lasses dainty" (Cunninghame, edit. 1826, vol. ii. p. 329.):

"God bless you a', consider now,
Ye're unco muckle dantet:
But ere the course o' life be thro'
It may be bitter santet.
An I hae seen their coggie fou,
That yet hae tarrow't at it;
But or the day was done, I trow,