Notes and Queries, Number 58, December 7, 1850

    J. Eastwood.

Ecclesfield.

Lærig (Vol. i., p. 292.).—Have we not a relic of this word in the vulgar leary, used of a tough customer, one not easily taken in?

    J. W. H.

MS. History of Winchester School.—

"In the year 1715, proposals were published for an exact account of the History and Antiquities of this College of St. Mary; and large collections are made for that end, now dormant in a private hand."—Rawlinson's English Topographer, p 63., London, 1720.

Can any of your readers tell me where this invaluable MS. (if existing) may be found? and also what became of the late Rev. Peter Hall's collections in manuscript?

    Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.

Benedicite.—When a priest saluted or was asked for his blessing,, he said "Benedicite," Bless ye,—Domino, or, in worse Latin, nomen Dei. understood. Can any one say why Benedicat or Benedicimini was not used, as the use of Benedicite was intended to convey or invoke a blessing, not an exhortation to bless.

    Peter Corona.

The Church History Society.—As one who feels greatly interested in the scheme for the establishment of The Church History Society, given in your number for the 2nd November last, and which you properly describe as "a proposal calculated to advance one of the most important branches of historical learning," will you permit me to inquire, through the medium of "Notes and Queries," whether Dr. Maitland's scheme has met with so much encouragement as to justify the expectation, and I will add the hope, that it may ever be fully carried out?

    Laicus.

Pope Ganganelli.—There was a Life of Pope Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) published in London in 1785. It was a distinct work from that by Caraccioli. Can any of your readers inform me of the author's name; or is there any one who has seen the book, or can tell where a copy may be found?

    Cephas.

Sir George Downing.—I should be glad to obtain any information respecting Sir George Downing, of East Halley, Cambridgeshire, and Gamlingay Park, or his family. He was ambassador from Cromwell and Charles II. to the States-General of Holland, secretary to the Treasury, and the statesman who caused the "Appropriation Act" to be passed, the 17th of Charles II. The family is of most ancient origin in Devonshire, and I have heard that a portrait of him is possessed by some person in that county.

    Alpha.

Solemnization of Matrimony.—In the service of the Church for this occasion, on the ring being placed upon the woman's finger, the man is prescribed to say: "With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow," &c. How is this last sentence to be reconciled with the law? or is the vow to be considered revocable?

    A. A.

Abridge.

Passage in Bishop Butler.—In Bishop Butler's sermon "Upon the Government of the Tongue" occurs the following passage:

"There is in some such a disposition to be talking, that an offence of the slightest kind, and such as would not raise any other resentment, yet raises, if I may so speak, the resentment of the tongue, puts it into a flame, into the most ungovernable motions. This outrage, when the person it respects is present, we distinguish in the lower rank of people by a peculiar term."

Now I should be glad if any one could offer a conjecture as to the Bishop's meaning in this last sentence? I have shown it to several people, but no one has been able to think of this "peculiar term."

    R.

The Duke of Wharton's Poetical Works.—Ritson prepared an edition of this nobleman's poetical works for the press. It contained nearly as much again as the printed edition of 1732. What has become of the MS.?

    Edward F. Rimbault.

Titus Oates.—Can any of your correspondents refer me to an autograph of Titus Oates?

    Edward F. Rimbault.

Erasmus' Colloquies—Apuleius' Golden Ass, Translations of.—Will any of your readers be kind enough to enlighten a provincial ignoramus by answering the following Queries:—

1. Which is the best and most complete English translation of Erasmus' Colloquies?

2. Is there an English translation of Apuleius' Golden Ass?

3. Is the French translation of the latter work considered a good one?

    G. P. I.

The Molten Sea.—In 1835, Captain J. B. Jervis, of the Bombay Engineers, published at Calcutta an essay, entitled Records of Ancient Science, in which he endeavours to reconcile the discrepancy between the 1 Kings, vii. 23. 26. and the 2 Chron. iv. 2. 5. by proving that a vessel of oblate spheroidal form—of 30 cubits in the periphery, and 10 cubits in the major axis—would (according to the acknowledged relation of the bath to the cubit) hold exactly 2,000 baths liquid measure, and 3,000 baths when filled and heaped up conically with wheat (as specified in Ezekiel, xlv. 11.).

I do not possess any means of criticising this explanation of the difficulty, and having searched in various modern commentaries for a notice of it without success, I venture to submit it in your columns to the attention of others.

    Tyro-Etymologicus.

"Sedem Animæ", &c.—Will any of your correspondents inform me where the following quotation is taken from:—

"Sedem animæ in extremis digitis habent."

It will be found in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, folio edition (7th), p. 55., and in the 8vo. edition of 1837, vol. iv. p. 80. Burton cites it as from Sallust, but the verbal index of that author has been consulted in vain for it.

    W. S.

Richmond, Surrey.

Old St. Pancras Church.—Old St. Pancras has always been a noted burial-place for Roman Catholics that reside in or near London; and it has been assigned as a reason for that being their mausoleum and cemetery, that prayers and mass are said daily in a church dedicated to the same saint, in the south of France, for the repose of the souls of the faithful whose bodies are deposited in the church of St. Pancras near London (England), where crosses and Requiescat in Pace, or the initial of those words, R.I.P., are found on the sepulchral monuments. It is said prayer and mass are said at St. Peter at Rome, also for the same purpose.

Can any of your readers inform me where that church is in the south of France; and when such prayers and masses were first said?

It is also understood that this church was the last whose bell tolled in England for mass, and in which any rites of the Roman Catholic religion were celebrated after the Reformation.

    S. S. N. H.

Replies

HOLME MSS.—THE CRADOCKS

(Vol. ii., p. 429.)

In answer to the Query of Mr. Ellacombe, "I should like to know whether the MSS. of Randle Holme, of Chester, 1670, which afterwards were penes Dr. Latham, are still accessible?"

1. The MSS. alluded to are those of four successive antiquaries of that name, of whom an account will be found in Ormerod's Hist. Chesh., vol. ii., under "Tranmere."

2. The person intended was not Dr. Latham, but Mr. William Latham, of Eltham, afterwards of Quenby Hall, Leicestershire, brother of Dr. Latham, of Romsey, the naturalist.