Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850

North Side of Churchyards (Vol. ii., p. 253.).—In reference to the north region being "the devoted region of Satan and his hosts," Milton seems to have recognised the doctrine when he says—

"At last,
Far in the horizon to the north appear'd
From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched
In battailous aspect, and nearer view
Bristled with upright beams innumerable
Of rigid spears, and helmets throng'd, and shields
Various, with boastful argument pourtray'd,
The banded powers of Satan hasting on
With furious expedition."—Book vi.

    F.E.
Welsh Money (Vol. ii., p. 231.).—It is not known that the Welsh princes ever coined any money: none such has ever been discovered. If they ever coined any, it is almost impossible that it should all have disappeared.

    GRIFFIN.

Wormwood (Vol. ii., pp. 249. 315.).—The French gourmands have two sorts of liqueur flavoured with wormwood; Crême d'Absinthe, and Vermouthe. In the Almanac des Gourmands there is a pretty account of the latter, called the coup d'après. In the south of France, I think, they say it is the fashion to have a glass brought in towards the end of the repast by girls to refit the stomach.

    C.B.

Puzzling Epitaph (Vol. ii., p. 311.).—J. BDN has, I think, not given this epitaph quite correctly. The following is as it appeared in the Times, 20th Sept., 1828 (copied from the Mirror). It is stated to be in a churchyard in Germany:—

"O     quid   tua    te
be    bis    bia    abit
ra     ra     ra
es
et     in
ram     ram     ram
i   i
Mox eris quod  ego  nunc."

The reading is—

"O superbe quid superbis? tua superbia te superabit. Terra es et in terram ibis. Mox eris quod ego nunc."

    E.B. PRICE.

October 14. 1850.

[The first two lines of this epitaph, and many similar specimens of learned trifling, will be found in Les Bigarrures et Touches de Seigneur des Accords, cap. iii., autre Façons de Rebus, p. 35., ed. 1662.]

Umbrella (Vol. ii., pp. 25. 93.).—In the collection of pictures at Woburn Abbey is a full-length portrait of the beautiful Duchess of Bedford, who afterwards married the Earl of Jersey, painted about the year 1730. She is represented as attended by a black servant, who holds an open umbrella to shade her.

Cowper's "Task," published in 1784, twice mentions the umbrella:

"We bear our shades about us; self-deprived
Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread,
And range an Indian waste without a tree."
Book i.

In book iv., the description of the country girl, who dresses above her condition, concludes with the following lines—

"Expect her soon with footboy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train and her umbrella all her care."

In both these passages of Cowper, the umbrella appears to be equivalent to what would now be called a parasol.

    L.

Pope and Bishop Burgess (Vol. ii., p. 310.).—The allusion is to the passage in Troilus and Cressida:

"The dreadful sagitary appals our numbers."

which Theobald explained from Caxton, but Pope did not understand.

    C.B.

[Not the only passage in Shakspeare which Theobald explained and Pope did not understand; but more of this hereafter.]

Book of Homilies (Vol. ii., p. 89.).—Allow me to inform B. that the early edition of Homilies referred to in his Query was compiled by Richard Taverner, and consists of a series of "postils" on the epistles and gospels throughout the year. It appears to have been first printed in 1540 (Ames, i. 407.), and was republished in 1841, under the editorial care of Dr. Cardwell.

    C.H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

Roman Catholic Theology (Vol. ii., p. 279.).—I beg to refer M.Y.A.H. to the Church History of England by Hugh Tootle, better known by his pseudonyme of Charles Dod (3 vols. folio, Brussels, 1737-42). A very valuable edition of this important work was commenced by the Rev. M.A. Tierney; but as the last volume (the fifth) was published so long ago as 1843, and no symptom of any other appears, I presume that this extremely curious book has, for some reason or other, been abandoned. Perhaps the well-known jealousy of the censor may have interfered.

A useful manual of Catholic bibliography exists in the Thesaurus Librorum Rei Catholicæ, 8vo. Würzburg, 1850.

    G.R.

Modum Promissionis (Vol. ii., p. 279.).—Without the context of the passage adduced by C.W.B., it is impossible to speak positively as to its precise signification. I think, however, the phrase is equivalent to "formula professionis monasticæ." Promissio frequently occurs in this sense, as may be seen by referring to Ducange (s.v.).

    C.H.

Bacon Family (Vol. ii., p. 247.).—The name of Bacon has been considered to be of Norman origin, arising from some fief so called.—See Roman de Rose, vol. ii. p. 269.

    X.P.M.

Execution of Charles I. and Earl of Stair (Vol. ii., pp. 72. 140. 158.).—MATFELONENSIS speaks too fast when he says that "no mention occurs of the Earl of Stair." I distinctly recollect reading in an old life of the Earl of Stair an account of his having been sent for to visit a mysterious person of extreme old age, who stated that he was the earl's ancestor (grandfather or great-grandfather, but whether paternal or not I do not remember), and that he had been the executioner of Charles I.

    T.N.

[The story to which our correspondent alludes is, probably, that quoted in Cecil's (Hone's) Sixty Curious and Authentic Narratives, pp. 138-140., from the Recreations of a Man of Feeling. The peerage and the pedigree of the Stair family alike prove that there is little foundation for this ingenious fiction.]

Water-marks on Writing-paper (Vol. ii., p. 310.).—On this subject C., will, I think, find all the information he seeks in a paper published in the Aldine Magazine, (Masters, Aldersgate-st., 1839). This paper is accompanied by engravings of the ancient water-marks, as well as those of more modern times, and enters somewhat largely into the question of how far water-marks may be considered as evidence of precise dates. They are not always to be relied upon, for in December, 1850, there will doubtless be thousands of reams of paper issued and in circulation, bearing the date of 1851, unless the practice is altered of late years. Timperley's Biographical, Chronological, and Historical Dictionary is much quoted on the subject of "Water-marks."

    E.B. PRICE.