Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853

Perhaps some of your correspondents will kindly furnish me with notices of other works by these writers, and by others who have written on similar subjects, as Paracelsus, &c.

    E. S. Taylor.

Passage in Schiller.—In the Memoirs of a Stomach, lately published, the editor asks a question of you: "Is it Schiller who says, 'The metaphysical part of love commences with the first sigh, and terminates with the first kiss'?" I pray you look to the merry and witty and learned little book, and respond to his Query.

    Amicus.

Sir John Vanbrugh.—This eminent architect and poet of the last century is stated by his biographers to have been "born in Cheshire." Can anybody furnish me with the place and date of his birth?

    T. Hughes.

Chester.

Historical Engraving.—I have an ancient engraving, size 14¾ in. wide and 11¾ in. high, without title or engraver's name, which I should be glad to authenticate. It appears to represent Charles II. at the Hague in 1660.

The foreground is occupied by groups of figures in the costume of the period. In the distance is seen a street in perspective, down which the royal carriage is proceeding, drawn by six horses. On one side is a row of horses, on the other an avenue of trees. To the right of this is a canal, on the bank of which a battery of seven guns is firing a salute. The opposite bank is occupied by public buildings.

In the air a figure of Fame holds a shield charged with the royal arms of England, surrounded by a garter, without the motto. Five cherubs in various positions are dispersed around, holding respectively a globe, a laurel crown, palm branches, &c., and a crowned shield bearing a lion rampant, and a second with a stork, whose beak holds a serpent.

A portion of the zodiacal circle, containing Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, marks, I suppose, the month in which the event took place.

    E. S. Taylor.

Hall-close, Silverstone, Northamptonshire.—Adjoining the church-yard is a greensward field called "Hall-close," which is more likely to be the site of the mansion visited by the early kings of England, when hunting in Whittlebury Forest, than the one mentioned by Bridles in his History of the county. About 1798, whilst digging here, a fire-place containing ashes was discovered; also many large wrought freestones.

The well, close by, still retains the name of Hall-well; and there are other things in the immediate vicinity which favour the supposition; but can an extract from an old MS., as a will, deed, indenture, &c., be supplied to confirm it?

    H. T. Wake.

Stepney.

Junius's Letters to Wilkes.—Where are the original letters addressed by Junius to Mr. Wilkes? The editor of the Grenville Papers says, "It is uncertain in whose custody the letters now remain, many unsuccessful attempts having been recently made to ascertain the place of their deposit."

    D. G.

The Reformer's Elm.—What was the origin of the name of "The Reformer's Elm?" Where and what was it?

    C. M. T.

Oare.

How to take Paint off old Oak.—Can any of your correspondents inform me of some way to take paint off old oak?

    F. M. Middleton.

Minor Queries with Answers

Cadenus and Vanessa.—What author is referred to in the lines in Swift's "Cadenus and Vanessa,"—

"He proves as sure as God's in Gloster,
That Moses was a grand impostor;
That all his miracles were tricks," &c.?

    W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.

[These lines occur in the Dean's verses "On the Death of Dr. Swift," and refer to Thomas Woolston, the celebrated heterodox divine, who, as stated in a note quoted in Scott's edition, "for want of bread hath, in several treatises, in the most blasphemous manner, attempted to turn our Saviour's miracles in ridicule."]

Boom.—Is there an English verb active to boom, and what is the precise meaning of it? Sir Walter Scott uses the participle:

"The bittern booming from the sedgy shallow."

    Lady of the Lake, canto i. 31.
    Vogel.

[Richardson defines Boom, v., applied as bumble by Chaucer, and bump by Dryden, to the noise of the bittern, and quotes from Cotton's Night's Quatrains,—

"Philomel chants it whilst it bleeds,
The bittern booms it in the reeds," &c.]

"A Letter to a Member of Parliament."—Who was the author of A Letter to a Member of Parliament, occasioned by A Letter to a Convocation Man: W. Rogers, London, 1697?

    W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

[Attributed to Mr. Wright, a gentleman of the Bar, who maintains the same opinions with Dr. Wake.]

Ancient Chessmen.—I should be glad to learn, through the medium of "N. & Q.," some particulars relative to the sixty-four chessmen and fourteen draughtsmen, made of walrus tusk, found in the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, and now in case 94. Mediæval Collection of the British Museum?

    Hornoway.

[See Archæologia, vol. xxiv. p. 203., for a valuable article, entitled "Historical Remarks on the introduction of the Game of Chess into Europe, and on the ancient Chessmen discovered in the Isle of Lewis, by Frederick Madden, Esq., F.R.S., in a Letter addressed to Henry Ellis, Esq., F.R.S., Secretary."]

Guthryisms.—In a work entitled Select Trials at the Old Bailey is an account of the trial and execution of Robert Hallam, for murder, in the year 1731. Narrating the execution of the criminal, and mentioning some papers which he had prepared, the writer says: "We will not tire the reader's patience with transcribing these prayers, in which we can see nothing more than commonplace phrases and unmeaning Guthryisms." What is the meaning of this last word, and to whom does it refer?

    S. S. S.

[James Guthrie was chaplain of Newgate in 1731; and the phrase Guthryisms, we conjecture, agrees in common parlance with a later saying, that of "stuffing Cotton in the prisoner's ears."]

Replies

CORRESPONDENCE OF CRANMER AND CALVIN

(Vol. vii., p. 501.)

The question put by C. D., respecting the existence of letters said to have passed between Archbishop Cranmer and Calvin, and to exist in print at Geneva, upon the seeming sanction given by our liturgy to the belief that baptism confers regeneration, is a revival of an inquiry made by several persons about ten years ago. It then induced M. Merle d'Aubigné to make the search of which C. D. has heard; and the result of that search was given in a communication from the Protestant historian to the editor of the Record, bearing date April 22, 1843.