Notes and Queries, Number 42, August 17, 1850

Mickleham, August 6. 1850.

"News," Origin of the Word (Vol. i., pp. 270. 369. 487.; vol. ii., pp. 23. 81. 106.).—Your correspondents who have written upon this subject may now have seen the following note in Zimperley's Encyclopædia, p. 472.:—

"The original orthography was newes, and in the singular. Johnson has, however, decided that the word newes is a substantive without a singular, unless it be considered as singular. The word new, according to Wachter, is of very ancient use, and is common to many nations. The Britons, and the Anglo-Saxons, had the word, though not the thing. It was first printed by Caxton in the modern sense, in the Siege of Rhodes, which was translated by John Kay, the Poet Laureate, and printed by Caxton about the year 1490. In the Assembly of Foulis, which was printed by William Copland in 1530, there is the following exclamation:—

"'Newes! newes! newes! have ye ony newes?'

"In the translation of the Utopia, by Raphe Robinson, citizien and goldsmythe, which was imprinted by Abraham Nele in 1551, we are told, 'As for monsters, because they be no newes, of them we were nothynge inquysitive.' Such is the rise, and such the progress of the word news, which, even in 1551, was still printed newes!"

    W.J.

Havre.

FOLK LORE

Charming for Warts (Vol. i., p. 19.; vol. ii. p. 150.).—In Lord Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum, or a Natural History in Ten Centuries (No. 997.), the great philosopher gives a minute account of the practice, from personal experience, in the following words:—

"The taking away of warts, by rubbing them with somewhat that afterwards is put to waste and consume, is a common experiment; and I do apprehend it the rather, because of mine own experience. I had from my childhood a wart upon one of my fingers; afterwards, when I was about sixteen years old, being then at Paris, there grew upon both my hands a number of warts (at least an hundred), in a month's space; the English Ambassador's lady, who was a woman far from superstition, told me one day she would help me away with my warts; whereupon she got a piece of lard with the skin on, and rubbed the warts all over with the fat side, and amongst the rest, that wart which I had from my childhood; then she nailed the piece of lard with the fat towards the sun, upon a post of her chamber window, which was to the south. The success was, that within five weeks' space all the warts went quite away, and that wart which I had so long endured for company; but at the rest I did little marvel, because they came in a short time and might go away in a short time again, but the going of that which had stayed so long doth yet stick with me. They say the like is done by rubbing of warts with a green elder stick, and then burying the stick to rot in muck."

    J.M.B.

MINOR NOTES

Capture of Henry the Sixth.—At Waddington in Mytton stands a pile of building known as the "Old Hall," once antique, but now much indeed despoiled of its beauty, where for some time the unfortunate king, Henry the Sixth, was concealed after the fatal battle of Hexham, in Northumberland. Quietly seated one day at dinner, "in company with Dr. Manting, Dean of Windsor, Dr. Bedle, and one Ellarton," his enemies came upon him by surprise, but he privately escaped by a back door, and fled to Brungerley stepping-stones (still partially visible in a wooden frame), where he was taken prisoner, "his legs tied together under the horse's belly," and thus disgracefully conveyed to the Tower in London. He was betrayed by one of the Talbots of Bashall Hall, who was then high-sheriff for the West Riding. This ancient house or hall is still in existence, but now entirely converted into a building for farming purposes: "Sic transit gloria mundi." Near the village of Waddington, there is still to be seen a meadow known by the name of "King Henry's Meadow."

In Baker's Chronicle, the capture of the king is described as having taken place "in Lincolnshire," but this is evidently incorrect; it is Waddington, in Mytton, West Yorkshire.

    CLERICUS CRAVENSIS.

The New Temple (Vol. ii., p. 103.).—As your correspondent is interested in a question connected with the occupants of the New Temple at the beginning of the fourteenth century, I venture to state, at the hazard of its being of any use to him, that I have before me the transcript of a deed, dated at Canterbury, the 16th of July, 1293, by which two prebendaries of the church of York engage to pay to the Abbot of Newenham, in the county of Devon, the sum of 200 marks sterling, at the New Temple in London, in accordance with a bond entered into by them before G. de Thornton and others, the king's justices.

    S.S.S.

QUERIES

ESSAYES OF CERTAIN PARADOXES: POEM ON NOTHING

Who was the author of a thin 4to. volume with the above title, printed for Tho. Thorpe, 1616? The contents are, "The Praise of K. Richard the Third—The French Poetes—Nothing—That it is good to be in Debt."

The late Mr. Yarnold has a MS. copy of the "Praise of K. Richard," to which was prefixed the following dedication:—

"TO THE HONOURABLE SIR HENRY NEVILL, KNIGHTE."

"I am bolde to adventure to your honors viewe this small portion of my privatt labors, as an earnest peny of my love, beinge a mere Paradoxe in prayse of a most blame-worthie and condemned Prince, Kinge Richard the Third; who albeit I shold guilde with farre better termes of eloquence then I have don, and freate myself to deathe in pursuite of his commendations, yet his disgrace beinge so publicke, and the worlde so opinionate of his misdoings, as I shold not be able so farre to justifie him as they to condemne him. Yet that they may see what may be saide, and to shew how farre they haue mispraysed his vertues, this following Treatise shall make manyfest. Your honour may peruse and censure yt at your best leisure, and though yt be not trickt up wth elegance of phrase, yet may it satisfye a right curious judgmente, yf the reasons be considered as they ought. But, howsoever, yf you please to accepte it, I shall thinke my labors well bestowed; who, both in this and what ells may, devote myself to your honour, and rest,

"Your honours most affectionat servant,

"HEN. W."

The praise of Nothing is very well versified from the Latin of Passerat, whose verses Dr. Johnson thought worthy of a place in his Life of Lord Rochester. Besides Rochester's seventeen stanzas "Upon Nothing," there appears to have been another copy of verses on this fertile subject; for Flecknoe, in his Epigrams of All Sorts, 1671, has "Somewhat to Mr. J.A. on his excellent poem of Nothing." Is anything known of this Nothing?

    S.W. SINGER.

Mickleham, July 29. 1850.

MINOR QUERIES

Papers of Perjury.—In Leicester's Commonwealth occurs the following passage:—

"The gentlemen were all taken and cast into prison, and afterwards were sent down to Ludlow, there to wear papers of perjury."

Can any of your readers refer me to a graphic account of the custom of perjurers wearing papers denoting their crime, to which I suppose this passage alludes?

    S.R.

Church Rates.—CH. would be obliged to any of your readers who could refer him to the volume of either the Gentleman's or the British Magazine which contains some remarks on the article on Church Rates in Knight's Political Dictionary, and on Cyric-sceat.

St. Thomas of Lancaster's Accomplices.—In No. 15. I find an extract from Rymer, by MR. MONCKTON MILNES, relative to some accomplices of St. Thomas of Lancaster, supposed to have worked miracles.—Query, Was "The Parson of Wigan" one of these accomplices, and what was his name? Was he ever brought to trial for aiding the Earl, preaching sedition in the parish church of Wigan, and offering absolution to all who would join the standard of the barons? and what was the result of that trial—death or pardon?

    CLERICUS CRAVENSIS.

Prelates of France.—P.C.S.S. is desirous to know where he can meet with an accurate list of the Archbishops and Bishops of France (or more properly of their Sees) under the old régime.

Lord Chancellor's Oath.—The gazette of the 16th July notified that the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wilde, in council, took the oath of Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland on the 15th inst.; and the same gazette announced the direction of the Queen that letters patent be passed granting the dignity of baron to the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wilde, Knt., Lord Chancellor of that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Great Britain.

Why, when he is only Chancellor of Great Britain, should he take the oath of Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland?

    J.

Mediæval Nomenclature.—In what work is to be obtained the best information explanatory of the nomenclature of the useful arts in mediæval times?

    δ.

Sir Christopher Sibthorp.—Can any of your readers furnish me with information as to the ancestry of Sir Christopher Sibthorp, whose name appears in the title-page of the following tract: A friendly Advertisement to the pretended Catholics of Ireland, by Christopher Sibthorp, Knt., one of H.M. Justices of his Court of Chief Place in Ireland, 1622, Dublin and also as to the crest, arms, and motto borne by him.

    DE BALDOC.

Alarm (Vol. ii., p. 151.).—The derivation of alarm, and the French alarme, from à l'arme, which your correspondent M. has reproduced, has always struck me as unsatisfactory, and as of the class of etymologies suspiciously ingenious. I do not venture to pronounce that the derivation is wrong: I merely wish to ventilate a doubt through "NOTES AND QUERIES," and invite some of your more learned readers to lily to decide the question.

Of the identity of the words alarm and alarum there is no doubt. The verb alarm is spelt alarum in old writers, and I have seen it so spelt in manuscripts of Charles II.'s reign, but unfortunately have not taken a "Note." Dr. Johnson says alarum is a corruption of alarm. Corruption, however, usually shortens words. I cannot help having a notion that alarum is the original word; and, though I may probably be showing great ignorance in doing so, I venture to propound the following Queries:—

1. How far back can the word alarum be traced in our language, and how far back alarm?

2. Can it be ascertained whether the French took alarme from our alarm, or we alarm from them?

3. Can any explanation be given of alarum, supposing it to be the original word? Is it a word imitative of sound?

A l'arme, instead of aux armes, adds to the suspiciousness of this derivation.