Notes and Queries, Number 44, August 31, 1850

MINOR NOTES

Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper.—Two centuries ago furs were so rare, and therefore so highly valued, that the wearing of them was restricted by several sumptuary laws to kings and princes. Sable, in those laws called vair, was the subject of countless regulations: the exact quality permitted to be worn by persons of different grades, and the articles of dress to which it might be applied, were defined most strictly. Perrault's tale of Cinderella originally marked the dignity conferred on her by the fairy by her wearing a slipper of vair, a privilege then confined to the highest rank of princesses. An error of the press, now become inveterate, changed vair into verre, and the slipper of sable was suddenly converted into a glass slipper.

    Jarltzberg.

Mistletoe on Oaks.—In Vol. ii., p. 163., I observed a citation on the extreme rarity of mistletoe on oaks, from Dr. Giles and Dr. Daubeny; and with reference to it, and to some remarks of Professor Henslow in the Gardeners' Chronicle, I communicated to the latter journal, last week, the fact of my having, at this present time, a bunch of that plant growing in great luxuriance on an oak aged upwards of seventy years.

I beg leave to repeat it for the use of your work, and to add, what I previously appended as likely to be interesting to the archæologist of Wales or the Marches, that the oak bearing it stands about half a mile N.W. of my residence here, on the earthen mound of Badamscourt, once a moated mansion of the Herberts, or Ab-Adams, of Beachley adjacent, and of Llanllowell.

    George Ormerod.

Sedbury Park, Chepstow.

Omnibuses.—It may be interesting to your readers at a future time to know when these vehicles, the use of which is daily extending, were introduced into this country; perhaps, therefore, you will allow me to state how the fact is. Mr. C. Knight, in his Volume of Varieties, p. 178., observes:

"The Omnibus was tried about 1800, with four horses and six wheels; but we refused to accept it in any shape till we imported the fashion from Paris in 1830."

And Mr. Shillibeer, of the City Road, the inventor of the patent funeral carriage, in his evidence before the Board of Health on the general scheme for extra-mural sepulture, incidentally mentions that he

"Had had much experience in cheapening vehicular transit, having originated and established the Omnibus in England."—Report, p. 124., 8vo. ed.

    Arun.

Havock.—Havock is a term in our ancient English military laws: the use of it was forbidden among the soldiery by the army regulations of those days; so in the Ordinances des Batailles in the ninth year of Richard II, art. x.:

"Item, que nul soit si hardi de crier havoick sur peine d'avoir la teste coupe."

This was properly a punishable offence in soldiers; havock being the cry of mutual encouragement to general massacre, unlimited slaughter, that no quarter should be given, &c. A tract on "The office of the constable and Mareshall in the tyme of Warre," contained in the black book of the Admiralty, has this passage:

"Also, that no man be so hardy to crye havock upon peyne that he that is begynner shall be deede therefore: and the remanent that doo the same, or follow, shall lose their horse and harneis … and his body in prison at the king's will."

And this appears to answer well to the original term, which is taken from the ravages committed by a troop of wild beasts, wolves, lions, &c., falling on a flock of sheep. But some think it was originally a hunting term, importing the letting loose a pack of hounds. Shakspeare combines both senses:

"Cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war."

In a copy of Johnson's Dictionary before me, I find

"HAVOCK (haroc, Sax.), waste; wide and general devastation." Spenser.

"HAVOCK, interj, a word of encouragement to slaughter." Shakspeare.

"TO HAVOCK, v. a., to waste; to destroy; to lay waste." Spenser.

    Jarltzberg.

Schlegel on Church Property in England.—Fr. Schlegel, in his Philosophy of History, says, p. 403., "in England and Sweden church property remained inviolate:" what the case may be in Sweden I do not know, but it appears strange that a man of such general knowledge as F. Schlegel should make such an assertion as regards England.

    S.N.

QUERIES

P. MATHIEU'S LIFE OF SEJANUS

In a letter from Southey to his friend Bedford, dated Nov. 11, 1821 (Life and Correspondence, vol. v. p. 99.), he desires him to inform Gifford that

"In a volume of tracts at Lowther, of Charles I.'s time, I found a life of Sejanus by P.M., by which initials some hand, apparently as old as the book, had written Philip Massinger. I did not read the tract, being too keenly in pursuit of other game; but I believe it had a covert aim at Buckingham. I have not his Massinger, and, therefore, do not know whether he is aware that this was ever ascribed to that author; if he is not, he will be interested in the circumstance, and may think it worthy of further inquiry."

As others may be led by this hint to enter on such an inquiry, I would suggest that it may save much trouble if they first satisfy themselves that the Life of Sejanus by P. Mathieu may not have been the tract which fell in Southey's way. It is to be found in a volume entitled

"Unhappy Prosperity, expressed in the History of Ælius Selanus and Philippa the Catanian, with observations upon the fall of Sejanus. Lastly, Certain Considerations upon the life and Services of Monsieur Villeroy, translated out of the original [French] by S'r T. H.[awkins], second edition, 12'o. London, 1639."

This was just eleven years after Buckingham met his fate at the hands of Felton. How long the interval between the first and this, the second edition, may have been, I cannot tell. Nor do I know enough of the politics of the time to determine whether anything can be inferred from the fact that the translation is dedicated to William Earl of Salisbury, or to warrant me in saying that these illustrations of the fate of royal favourites may have been brought before the English public with any view to the case of George Villiers. A passage, however, in Mathieu's dedication of the original "to the king," seems to render it not improbable, certainly not inapplicable:

"You (Sir) shall therein [in this history] behold, that a prince ought to be very carefull to conserve his authority entire. Great ones [court favourites] here may learne, it is not good to play with the generous Lyon though he suffer it, and that favours are precipices for such as abuse them."

Having referred to this work of Mathieu's, I shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who will favour me with a notice of it, or of the author.

    Balliolensis.

THE ANTIQUITY OF SMOKING

I feel much interested in the Query of your correspondent Z.A.Z. (Vol. ii., p. 41.) I had a "Query" something similar, with a "Note" on it, lying by me for some time, which I send you as they stand.—Was not smoking in use in England and other countries before the introduction of tobacco? Whitaker says, a few days after the tower of Kirkstall Abbey fell, 1779, he

"Discovered imbedded in the mortar of the fallen fragments several little smoking pipes, such as were used in the reign of James I. for tobacco; a proof of a fact which has not been recorded, that, prior to the introduction of that plant from America, the practice of inhaling the smoke of some indigenous plant or vegetable prevailed in England." (Loidis and Elmete.)

Allowing, then, pipes to have been coeval with the erection of Kirkstall, we find them to have been used in England about 400 years before the introduction of tobacco. On the other hand, as Dr. Whitaker says, we find no record of their being used, or of smoking being practised; and it is almost inconceivable that our ancestors should have had such a practice, without any allusion being made to it by any writers. As to the antiquity of smoking in Ireland, the first of Irish antiquaries, the learned and respected Dr. Petrie, says:

"The custom of smoking is of much greater antiquity in Ireland than the introduction of tobacco into Europe. Smoking pipes made of bronze are frequently found in our Irish tumuli, or sepulchral mounds, of the most remote antiquity; and similar pipes, made of baked clay, are discovered daily in all parts of the island. A curious instance of the bathos in sculpture, which also illustrates the antiquity of this custom, occurs on the monument of Donogh O'Brien, king of Thomond, who was killed in 1267, and interred in the Abbey of Corcumrac, in the co. of Clare, of which his family were the founders. He is represented in the usual recumbent posture, with the short pipe or dudeen of the Irish in his mouth."

In the Anthologia Hibernica for May 1793, vol. i. p. 352., we have some remarks on the antiquity of smoking "among the German and Northern nations," who, the writer says, "were clearly acquainted with, and cultivated tobacco, which they smoked through wooden and earthen tubes." He refers to Herod. lib. i. sec. 36.; Strabo, lib. vii. 296.; Pomp. Mela 2, and Solinus, c. 15.

Wherever we go, we see smoking so universal a practice, and people "taking to it so naturally," that we are inclined to believe that it was always so; that our first father enjoyed a quiet puff now and then; (that, like a poet, man "nascitur non fit" a smoker); and that the soothing power of this narcotic tranquillised the soul of the aquatic patriarch, disturbed by the roar of billows and the convulsions of nature, and diffused its peaceful influence over the inmates of the ark. Yes, we are tempted to spurn the question, When and where was smoking introduced? as being equal to When and where was man introduced? Yet, as some do not consider man as a smoking animal "de natu et ab initio," the question may provoke some interesting replies from your learned correspondents.

    Jarltzberg.

SIR GREGORY NORTON, BART

I am desirous to be informed of the date and particulars of the above baronetcy having been created. In The Mystery of the good old Cause briefly unfolded (1660), it is stated, at p. 26., that Sir Gregory Norton, Bart. (one of the king's judges), had Richmond House, situated in the Old Park, and much of the king's goods, for an inconsiderable value. Sir Gregory Norton has a place also in The Loyal Martyrology of Winstanley (1665), p. 130.; and also in History of the King-killers (1719), part 6. p. 75. It is unnecessary to refer to Noble's Regicides, he having simply copied the two preceding works. Sir Gregory died before the Restoration, in 1652, and escaped the vindictive executions which ensued, and was buried at Richmond in Surrey. There was a Sir Richard Norton, Bart., of Rotherfield, Hants (Query Rotherfield, Sussex, near Tunbridge Wells), who is mentioned by Sylvanus Morgan in his Sphere of Gentry; but he does not record a Sir Gregory. Nor does the latter occur in a perfect collection of the knights made by King James I., by J.P. (Query John Philipot?), London, Humphrey Moseley, 1660, 8vo. I have examined all the various works on extinct and dormant baronetcies ineffectually. In the Mercurius Publicus of Thursday, 28th June, 1660, it appears that on the preceding Saturday the House of Commons settled the manor of Richmond, with house and materials, purchased by Sir Gregory Norton, Bart., on the queen (Henrietta Maria) as part of her jointure.

    D.N.

MINOR QUERIES

City Offices.—Can any of your correspondents recommend some book which gives a good history of the different public offices of the city of London, with their duties and qualifications, and in whom the appointments are vested?

    A Citizen.

Harefinder, Meaning of.—Can any of your readers kindly give a feasible explanation of phrase harefinder, as it occurs in Much Ado about Nothing, Act i. Sc. 1.? A reference to any similar term in a contemporary would be very valuable.