Notes and Queries, Number 203, September 17, 1853

SAAL D' ASAI D' GRANT GARNAMVT.

Workmanship of about the fourteenth century; use unknown; but it has been employed for sealing burgess letters for many years past, until 1847.

Can it have reference to the staple? (Vid. Statutes at Large, Anne; 27 Ed. III. stat. 2.; 43 Ed. III. cap. 1.; 14 Ric. II. cap. 1.)

3. Circular (size 1.1 in. diameter). On an escutcheon a herring hauriant; the only instance of this bearing in connection with Yarmouth. Legend:

S. offic : corrotulat : í : nove : Iernmuth.

Of this seal nothing whatever is known. Its workmanship is of the fifteenth century. The suggested extension of the legend is "Sigillum officii contrarotulatoris"—in nova Jernemutha, or in nave Jernemuthe. But was Yarmouth ever called nova Gernemutha? or what was the office alluded to?

The above are required for a literary purpose; and as speedy an answer as possible would much oblige me.

    E. S. Taylor.

Minor Queries

Hand in Bishop Canning's Church.—In Bishop Canning's Church, Wilts, is a curious painting of a hand outstretched, and having on the fingers and thumb several inscriptions in abbreviated Latin. Can any correspondent tell me when and why this was placed in the church; and also the inscriptions which appear thereon?

    Russell Gole.

"I put a spoke in his wheel."—What is the meaning of the phrase, "I put a spoke in his wheel?"

In April last, a petition was heard in the Rolls Court on the part of the trustees of Manchester New College, praying that they might be allowed to remove that institution to London; and a single trustee was heard against such removal. One of the friends of the college was on this occasion heard to remark, "the removal to London was going on very smoothly, and it would have been done by this time, if this one trustee had not put his spoke in the wheel:" meaning, that the conscientious scruple of this trustee was the sole impediment to the movement. Is this the customary and proper mode of using the phrase; and, if so, how can putting a spoke to a wheel impede its motion?

On the other hand, having heard some persons say that they had always understood the phrase to denote affording help to an undertaking, and confidently allege that this must be the older and more correct usage, for "what," say they, "is a wheel without spokes?" I inquired of an intelligent lady, of long American descent, in what way she had been accustomed to hear the phrase employed, and the answer was "Certainly as a help: we used to say to one who had anything in hand of difficult accomplishment, 'Do not be faint-hearted, I'll give you a spoke.'"

Dr. Johnson, in the folio edition of his Dictionary, 1755, after defining a spoke to be the "bar of a wheel that passes from the nave to the felly," cites:

"      .       .       .       .       All you gods,
In general synod, take away her power,
Break all the spokes and fellies to her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of Heaven."—Shakspeare.

    G. K.
Sir W. Hewit.—At p. 159. of Mr. Thoms's recent edition of Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium, Sir W. Hewit, the father-in-law of Edward Osborne, who was destined to found the ducal family of Leeds, is said to have been "a pin-maker." Some other accounts state that he was a clothworker; others again, that he was a goldsmith. Which is correct; and what is the authority? And where may any pedigree of the Osborne family, previous to Edward, be seen?

    H. T. Griffith.

Passage in Virgil.—Dr. Johnson, in his celebrated Letter to Lord Chesterfield, says, in reference to the hollowness of patronage: "The shepherd, in Virgil, grew at last acquainted with Love; and found him a native of the rocks." To what passage in Virgil does Johnson here refer, and what is the point intended to be conveyed?

    R. Fitzsimons.

Dublin.

Fauntleroy.—In Binns' Anatomy of Sleep it is stated that a few years ago an affidavit was taken in an English court of justice, to the effect that Fauntleroy was still living in a town of the United States.

Can any of your correspondents refer me to the circumstance in question?

    C. Clifton Barry.

Animal Prefixes, descriptive of Size and Quality.—Will somebody oblige me by pointing out in the modern languages any analogous instances to the Greek βον, English horse-radish, dog-rose, bull-finch, &c.?

    C. Clifton Barry.

Punning Devices.—Sir John Cullum, in his Hist. of Hawsted, 1st edit. p. 114., says that the seal of Sir William Clopton, knight, t. Hen. VII., was "a ton, out of which issues some plant, perhaps a caltrop, which might be contracted to the first syllable of his name." This appears to be too violent a contraction. Can any of your readers suggest any other or closer analogy between the name and device?

    Buriensis.

"Pinece with a stink."—In Archbishop Bramhall's Schism Guarded (written against Serjeant) there is a passage in which the above curious expression occurs, and of which I can find no satisfactory, nor indeed any explanation whatever. The passage is this (Works, vol. ii. p. 545., edit. Ox.):

"But when he is baffled in the cause, he hath a reserve,—that Venerable Bede, and Gildas, and Foxe in his Acts and Monuments, do brand the Britons for wicked men, making them 'as good as Atheists; of which gang if this Dinoth were one,' he 'will neither wish the Pope such friends, nor envy them to the Protestants.'

"What needeth this, when he hath got the worst of the cause, to defend himself like a pinece with a stink? We read no other character of Dinoth, but as of a pious, learned, and prudent man."

Can any of your readers furnish an explanation?

    R. Blakiston.

Soiled Parchment Deeds.—Having in my possession some old and very dirty parchment deeds, and other records, now almost illegible from the accumulation of grease, &c., on the surface of the skins, I am desirous to know if there be any "royal road" to the cleansing and restoration of these otherwise enduring MSS.?

    T. Hughes.

Chester.

Roger Wilbraham, Esq.'s Cheshire Collection.—Can any of your correspondents say where the original collection made by the above-named gentleman, or a copy of them, referred to in Dr. Foote Gower's Sketch of the Materials for a Cheshire History, may now be met with?

    Cestriensis.

Cambridge and Ireland.—In the first volume of the Pictorial History of England, p. 270., it is stated that—

"Martin skins are mentioned in Domesday Book among the commodities brought by sea to Chester; and this appears from other authorities to have been one of the exports in ancient times from Ireland. Notices are also found of merchants from Ireland landing at Cambridge with cloths, and exposing their merchandise to sale."

The authority quoted for this statement is Turner, vol. iii. p. 113.

On referring to Turner's Anglo-Saxons, I find it stated:

"We read of merchants from Ireland landing at Cambridge with cloths, and exposing their merchandise to sale."

Mr. Turner refers to Gale, vol. ii. p. 482.

I do not know to what work Mr. Turner refers, unless to Gale's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veteres; on examining this I can find no passage at the page and volume indicated, on the subject.

Can any of your readers state where it is to be found? It appears remarkable that the merchants from Ireland should land at the inland town of Cambridge, and it seems a probable conjecture that Cambridge is a mistake for Cambria.

William of Malmesbury speaks of a commerce between Ireland and the neighbourhood of Chester, and it seems much more probable that the merchants of Ireland landed in Wales than in Cambridge.

    John Thrupp.