Notes and Queries, Number 07, December 15, 1849

I have now only to consign the learned Powell to future biographers, and to recommend the volume as one which deserves a place in every choice collection of English books.

    BOLTON CORNEY.

MINOR NOTES

Quotations from Pope.

D***N**R. (p. 38.), gives, as an instance of misquotation, a passage from Pope, as it appeared in the Times, and adds a correction of it. As my memory suggested a version different from both that of the Times, and the correction of your correspondent, I turned to Pope (Bowles edition, 1806), and found the passage there, precisely as it is given from the Times. Has your correspondent any authority for his reading? No various reading of the lines is given by Bowles.

While on the subject of Pope, I will make a note (as I have not seen it noticed by his commentators), that the well-known line,

"The proper study of mankind is man,"

is literally from Charron (De la Sagesse, I. i. ch. 1.)—

"La vraye science et le vray etude de l'homme c'est l'homme."

    F.F.B.

[We may add, that in the Aldine edition of Pope, which was produced under the editorial superintendence of the Rev. A. Dyce, the lines are given as quoted from the Times, and without any various reading. See vol. ii. p. 55.]

Angels' Visits.

Campbell's famous line,

"Like angels visits, few and far between,"

has been clearly shown by a correspondent in another paper, to be all but copied from Blair:—

—– "like an ill-used ghost Not to return;—or if it did, its visits Like those of angels, short and far between."

    Blair's Grave.

But the same phrase, though put differently, occurs in a religious poem of Norris of Bemerton, who died in 1711:—

"But those who soonest take their flight, Are the most exquisite and strong, Like angels visits, short and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long."

    WICCAMECUS.

Extract from Parish Register of North Runcton, Norfolk.

Sir,—As a pendant to the extracts from the register of East Peckham, Kent, in your third number, I send the following, which I copied some time ago from one of the register books of the parish of North Runcton, Norfolk, and which may prove interesting to some of your readers.

    C.W.G

"Jun. 12. 1660.

"Reader,—Lest whatever pseudography (as there is much thereof) occurring to thy intentionall or accidentall view of the following pages in this book should prove offensive to thee, I thought good to give thee an account of what hath occasioned the same, viz. In the woful days of the late usurper, the registring of births, not baptisms, was injoyned and required, to give a liberty to all the adversaries of Pedobaptisme, &c., and, besides some circumstances, too unhandsome for the calling and person of a minister, were then allso annexed to him that was to keep a register of all, &c.; and so it came to passe, that persons of no learning, for many places, were chosen by y'e parish, and ministers declined the office.

    NATH ROWLES."

The Norman Crusader.

"The Norman Crusader," in the horse-armoury in the Tower of London, or a part of it, came from Green's Museum. He obtained the hauberk from Tong Castle. At the dispersion of the Museum, the hauberk was purchased by Bullock, of Liverpool (afterwards of the Egyptian Hall), in whose catalogue for 1808 it appears as a standing figure, holding a brown bill in the right hand, and resting the left upon a heater shield.

Bullock at this time added the chauses.—In 1810, the "London Museum" was opened at the "Egyptian Temple" (Hall), the figure as before; but, in the catalogue for 1813, we have the man and horse standing in front of the gallery, and named "The Norman Crusader."

At the "decline and fall" of Bullock's Museum, Mr. Gwennap purchased the Crusader for, it is said, 200 guineas; and after being put in thorough repair, it was placed in the "Aplotheca," Brook Street, Mr. Gwennap, jun. adding the sword.

During its repair, it was discovered that the armour was not originally made for a horse, but for an elephant; and, on inquiry, it appeared that Bullock had purchased it, together with other curiosities, of a sailor, had taken it to pieces, and formed the armour for the horse.

At the sale of Gwennap's collection, "The Norman Crusader" was knocked down by Geo. Robins to a Mr. Bentley, for 30l., and he being unable to polish it, as he had intended, sold it to the authorities at the Tower for one hundred guineas, where it is exhibited as "The Norman Crusader."

    NASO.

Lady Jane of Westmoreland.

Sir,—On page 206. of Mr. Collier's second volume of Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, the following entry occurs:– "1585-6. Cold and uncoth blowes, of the lady Jane of Westmorland." And on page 211., "A songe of Lady Jane of Westmorland." Mr. Collier considers these entries to refer to the same production.

The name of Lady Jane of Westmoreland does not occur in Park's edition of Royal and Noble Authors; but it would clearly be entitled to a place there, if we can ascertain who she was.

I have little doubt she was Jane, daughter of Thomas Manvers, first Earl of Rutland, and first wife of Henry Nevill, fifth Earl of Westmoreland, by whom she was mother of Charles, Earl of Westmoreland, one of the chiefs of the northern rebellion.

Collins, under the title "Rutland," states that Anne, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Rutland, married Henry, Earl of Westmoreland; but under the title "Abergavenny" he states that the same Henry, Earl of Westmoreland, married Jane, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Rutland. The last statement I presume to be the correct one.

I can find no other person, at the period in question, to whom the title of Lady Jane of Westmoreland could have been attributed; and her sister Frances, who also married a Henry Nevill (fourth Lord Abergavenny of that name), is known to have been an authoress. An account of her will be found in the first volume of the Royal and Noble Authors, by Park. Lady Frances Abergavenny (whose work is entered on page 52. of Mr. Collier's second volume), had an only daughter, who married Sir Thomas Fane, and from this marriage the present Earl of Westmoreland is descended.

    Q.D.

NOTES IN ANSWER TO QUERIES

The Lobster in the Medal of the Pretender.

Your correspondent, Mr. B. NIGHTINGALE, desires an answer to his Query (in your No. 4), Why is the figure of a Lobster introduced into the impression upon the rare medal struck 20th June, 1688, in contempt or ridicule of Prince James Edward, the newly-born son of King James II.?

A reference to the two following works will, perhaps, supply the answer:—

1st. In Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History (a great authority at the time) this passage occurs in book ix. cap. 30.:—

"Lobsters, so long as they are secure of any fear and danger, go directly straight, letting down their hornes at length along their sides;… but if they be in any fear, up go their hornes straight—and then they creep byas and go sidelong."

And in the next chapter (31.):—

"Crabs" (which were often confounded with lobsters) "when they will be afraid, will recule backward, as fast as they went forward."

2nd. In the celebrated work of Sebastian Brandt, entitled Stultifera Naxis (which went through many editions after its first appearance in 1494), is an engraving of a fool, wearing cap and bells, seated astride on the back of a lobster, with a broken reed in his hand, and a pigeon flying past him as he stares vacantly at it with open mouth. The following lines are attached:—

DE PREDESTINATIONE