Notes and Queries, Number 09, December 29, 1849

The inscriptions vary, and are sometimes double in two concentral rings. The most usual is that alluded to by your correspondents, and though obviously German, neither old nor obsolete; having been viewed even by native decipherers, through the mist of a preconceived hypothesis, have never yet been by them satisfactorily accounted for. It is always repeated four times, evidently from the same slightly curved die; when, however, the enlarged circumference of the circle required more than this fourfold repetition to go round it, the die was set on again for as much of a fifth impression as was necessary: this was seldom more than four or five letters, which, as pleonastic or intercalary, are to be carefully rejected in reading the rest; their introduction has confused many expositors.

The readings of some of your correspondents who understand German is pretty near the truth. I have before said that the centre type of Eve's Temptation is the most common, and to it the words especially refer, and seem at the place of their manufacture (most probably Nuremburg) to have been used for other centres without any regard to its fitness. The letters, as I can safely aver from some very perfect specimens, are

DER SELEN INFRID WART;

in modern German "der Seelen Infried wort." To the German scholar the two latter words only require explanation. Infrid for Unfried, discord, disturbance, any thing in opposition to Frieden or peace. The Frid-stools at Beverley, Ripon, and Hexham, still bear the old theotise stamp. Wart, or ward, may be either the past tense of werden, to be (our was), or an old form of währen, to endure, to last: our English wear is the same word. The sense is pretty much the same in both readings alluding to Eve. In the first:

(By her) the soul's disturbance came (was).

By the second:

(Through her) the soul's disturbance continues.

I may here observe that the words ICH WART are particularly distinct on a helmet, pictured in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, which the Secretary, Mr. Planche, in such matters the highest authority, regards as a tilting helmet. It may there have been in the original ICH WARTE, meaning I bide (my time).

But the centres and this inscription are the least difficulty. A second, frequently met with, is by far more puzzling. I could not give your readers any idea of it without a drawing: however it is found imperfectly depicted on the plates I have before mentioned in Nash's Worcestershire, and the Gentleman's Magazine, and I think I recollect also a very rude copy in a volume of Hearne's Miscellaneous Works, which I examined in the Gottingen Library, but whether belonging to the work or a MS. addition I cannot now call to mind. The fanciful and flowery form of its letters gives great scope to the imagination in assigning them their particular position in the alphabet, and the difficulty of reading them is enhanced by the doubts of German archæologists whether they are initials or component parts of a sentence. Herr Joseph v. Hammer Purgstall, however, in his version RECORD DE SCI GNSI, or in full Recordamini de sancta Gnosi, deduces thence his principal proof of Gnostic heresy amongst the calumniated Templars, in which I am sorry to say he has been too servilely followed in England: e.g. by Mr. Godfrey Higgins, in his posthumous Anaclypsis (p. 830 note), as well as by E.G. Addison, The Temple Church (p. 57), and by Mr. R.W. Billings more especially, who tacks to his account of this building an "Essay on the symbolical Evidences of the Temple Church, where the Templars are proved Gnostic Idolators, as alleged by Edward Clarkson, Esq." Had the learnedly hypothetic Austrian seen the engravings of the Crypt at Canterbury Cathedral (Archæologia, viii. p. 74.), and Ledwick's remarks on it in conjunction with the carvings at Glendalloch (History of Ireland, p. 174.), or those of Grymbald's Crypt at Oxford, he might have been expected to have attributed their monstrosities to his order, with as little hesitation and as thorough a contempt of chronology, or proved connection, as he has the curious and innocent sculptures of the church at Schöngrabern in Bohemia (vide Curiositäten, vol. viii. p. 501.).

    WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.

MINOR NOTES

Prince Modoc.—At p. 57., "ANGLO-CAMBRIAN" refers to the report of the Proceedings of the British Association at Swansea, in Aug. 1848, extracted from the Athenæum newspaper. In the course of a discussion which took place on Prof. Elton's address, it was observed (if I recollect rightly) by the learned Dr. Latham, that a vocabulary of the so-called Welsh-Indian dialect has been formed, and that it contains no trace of any Celtic root.

    J.M.T. December 10. 1849.

St. Barnabas.—About the time of the Reformation, it was strongly debated whether the festival days of St. Paul and St. Barnabas should be admitted into the calendar; and, in the 2d Book of K. Edward, the conversion of St. Paul is put down in black, and St. Barnabas is omitted altogether! No wonder, therefore, if, in Suffolk, liberties were taken with the name of St. Barnabas, and it was transferred to doggerel rhyme, to be repeated by children.

    J.I.

Register of Cromwell's Baptism.—The communication of your correspondent C.W.G. at p. 103. of your last number, induces me to offer you the inclosed copy from the Register of All Saints' Church, Huntingdon, of the birth and baptism of Oliver Cromwell:—

"Anno Domini 1599 Oliverus filius Roberti Cromwell generosi et Elisabethæ huxoris ejus Natus vicesimo quinto die Aprilis et Baptisatus vicesimo nono ejusdem mensis."

Then follow the words "England's plague for many years," written in a different hand.

    R.O.

The Times.—A correspondent (NASO) informs us of the following fact in the history of this widely circulated and influential journal; namely, that it is stated in that the paper of the 12th of March, 1788, that it was printed "Logographically!" We wish our correspondent had furnished us with the precise words of this very curious statement.

Roland Monoux.—I have in my possession a brass monumental plate, said to have been taken from some church in Middlesex, and bearing the following lines, engraved in black letter:—

"Behold what droupinge Dethe maye doe, consume
y'e corse to duste,
What Dethe maie not shall lyue for aye, in spite of
Dethe his luste;
Thoughe Rouland Monoux shrowdeth here, yet
Rouland Monoux lives,
His helpynge hand to nedys want, a fame for ever
geves;
Hys worde and dede was ever one, his credyth never
quaylde,
His zeall' to Christ was stronge, tyll' dethe w'th latest
panges asaylde.
Twyse thre and one he Children had, two sones, one
kepes his name,
And dowghters fyve for home he carde, y't lyve in
honest fame.
What booteth more, as he be kynde dyd come of
Jentyll race,
So Rouland Monoux good Desertes this grave can
not Deface."

I should be obliged to any of your readers for some account of this Rouland Monoux, and when he died. I may also add; that I should be very willing to restore the brass to its original site, did I know the spot from whence it has been sacrilegiously torn.

    M.

Wessel Cup Hymn.—The following Wassail Song is taken from a little chap-book printed at Manchester, called A Selection of Christmas Hymns. it is obviously a corrupted version of a much older song:—

"Here we come a wesseling,
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wandering,
So fair to be seen.

"Cho.—Love and joy come to you,
And to your wessel too,
And God send you a happy new year,
A new year,
And God send you a happy new year.

"Our wessel cup is made of the rosemary tree,
So is your beer of the best barley.

"We are not daily beggars,
That beg from door to door,
But we are neighbours' children,
Whom you have seen before.

"Call up the butler of this house,
Put on his golden ring,
Let him bring us up a glass of beer,
And the better we shall sing.

"We have got a little purse,
Made of stretching leather skin,
We want a little of your money,
To line it well within.

"Bring us out a table,