Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850

    THE GOVERNOR.

Mr. Macaulay and Bishop Burnet.—The passage in which Mr. Macaulay calls Burnet "a rash and partial writer," alluded to by your correspondent in No. 3. p. 40., occurs towards the end of his Essay on "Sir William Temple," p. 456. of the new edition in one volume.

    ETONIENSIS.

Circulation of the Blood.—"A.W." (No. 13. p. 202.) is referred to Smith's Dictionary of Biography, article NEMESIUS.

    J.E.B. MAYOR.

Genealogy of European Sovereigns.—I send the full title of a book which I would recommend to your correspondent "Q.X.Z.," (No. 6. p. 92.):—

GÉNÉALOGIE ASCENDANTE,

JUSQU'AU QUATRIÈME DÉGRÉ INCLUSIVEMENTS,

De tous les Rois et Princes de Maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans; réduite en CXIV. Tables de XVI. Quartiers, composées selon les Principes du Blazon; avec une Table Générale.

"La noblesse, Daugaux, n'est point une chimère, Quand sous l'étroite loi d'une vertu sévère, Un homme, issu d'un sang fécond en demi-dieux, Suit, comme toi, la trace où marchaient ses ayeux." Boileau, S.v.

A BERLIN:

Au Dépens de l'Autheur: se vend chez Etienne de Bourdeaux, Libraire; imprimé chez Frédéric Guillaume Birnstiel.

MDCCLXVIII.

I presume that it is of some rarity, never having met with any other copy than the one from which I transcribed this title.

Some of your correspondents may, perhaps, be able to give the name of the Author who, as far as I have had occasion to refer, seems to have done his work carefully.

    T.W.

Sir Stephen Fox.—I have seen it stated in some biographical dictionary, that Sir Stephen Fox was a younger brother of "John Fox, Esq.," who was a devoted Royalist at the time of the great Rebellion, and fought at the battle of Worcester, and after the Restoration was Clerk of the Acatry, in the household of Charles the Second.

Mr. Suckling, in his History of Suffolk, claims for a family some time seated at Stradbrook, in that county, a consanguinity with the descendants of Sir Stephen.

On an altar-tomb in Stadbrook churchyard are inscribed notices of many members of this family, but without dates. One is rather extraordinary, making the lives of a father and son together to amount to 194 years. Amongst them is this:—

"Here is hourly expected, Simon the next descendant, with his son Simon, who died young, tho' still preserved to be interr'd with his father at the earnest request of his pious mother the Lady Hart. And also Major John Fox, with his issue, who during the late rebellion loyally behav'd himself, undergoing with great courage not only the danger of the field, but many severe imprisonments."

The arms on this tomb differ from those of Lords Ilchester and Holland, being simply three foxes' heads erased.

Should this note supply a clue for your correspondent "VULPES" to identify Major John Fox with the brother of Sir Stephen, on knowing that he has found the scent I shall be able to assist him in unearthing the whole litter.

    VENATOR.

French Maxim.—The maxim inquired after by "R.V." (No. 14. p. 215.) undoubtedly belongs to Rochefoucault. I have met with a somewhat similar passage in Massillon:—

"Le vice rend hommage à la vertu en s'honorant de sus apparences."

    J.B.M.

Feb. 5. 1850.

Shipster.—A scip-steora among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors was a pilot ("ship-steerer"). The word has descended to our own times in the surname of the family Shipster. As a common noun it was not obsolete in the days of Wynkyn de Worde, who printed that curious production "Cock Lorelle's Bote," one line of which runs thus:—

"With gogle-eyed Tomson, shepster of Lyn."

It is pretty certain, however, that this masculine occupation was not the one followed by "Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk!"

Pray accept this "Reply" for what it is worth. Perhaps I might have done better by meeting Mr. John R. Fox's "Query" (No. 14. p. 216.) with another. Should not the designation of Marie F. be Spinster instead of Shipster?

    MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Lewes, Feb. 2.

Sparse.—Permit me to refer your correspondent "C. FORBES" for a reply to his query, p. 215. of your last Number, to the article "Americanism" in the Penny Cyclopædia, the author of which observes:—

"Sparse is, for any thing we know, a new word, and well applied; the Americans say a sparse instead of a scattered population; and we think the term has a more precise meaning than scattered, and is the proper correlative of dense."

In the Imperial Dictionary (avowedly based upon Webster's American work, which I cannot at this moment refer to in its original form), the word in question is given both as an adjective and as a verb, and the derivatives "sparsed," "sparsedly," "sparsely," and "sparseness," are also admitted. The reference given for the origin of "sparse" is to the Latin "sparsus, scattered, from spargo;" and the definitions are, 1. "Thinly scattered, set or planted here and there; as, a sparse population:" and, 2., as a botanical term, "not opposite, not alternate, nor in any regular order; applied to branches, leaves, peduncles, &c."

    J.T. STANESBY.

Cosmopolis—Complutensian Polyglot.—Though in considerable haste, I must send replies to the fourth and eighth queries of my friend Mr. Jebb, No. 14. p. 213.

Cosmopolis was certainly Amsterdam. That the Interpretationes paradoxæ quatuor Evangeliorum, by Christophorus Christophori Sandius, were there printed, appears from this writer's Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitarionum, p. 169., Freistad, 1684. I may add that "Coloniæ" signifies "Amstelædami" in the title-page of Sandius's Nucleus Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ, 1676, and in the Appendix Addendorum, 1678, 4to.

With regard to the MSS. used in the formation of the text of the Complutensian Polyglot, Mr. Jebb will find an account of their discovery in a letter addressed by Dr. James Thompson to the editor of The Biblical Review. See also The Irish Ecclesiastical Journal for April 1847.

    R.G.

Complutensian Polyglot.—The following extract from "The Prospectus of a Critical Edition of the New Testament," by the learned Mr. S. Prideaux Tregelles, affords a satisfactory reply to Mr. Jebb's query, No. 14. p. 212.:—

"However there is now more certainty as to the MSS. belonging to the University of Alcala. Dr. James Thompson has published (Biblical Review, March, 1847), the result of inquiries made thirty years ago by Dr. Bowring, and more recently by himself. Hence it appears that all the MSS. which formerly were known as belonging to Cardinal Ximenes, and which were preserved in the library of Alcala, are now with the rest of that library, at Madrid....Dr. José Gutierrez, the present librarian at Madrid, communicated to Dr. J. Thomson a catalogue of the Complutensian MSS., and from this it appears that the principal MSS. used in the Polyglott are all safely preserved."

    J. MILNER BARRY.

Totnes, Feb. 6. 1850.

Christmas Hymn.—Your correspondent "E.V." (No. 13. p. 201.) asks for the author of the Christmas Hymn—

"Hark! the Herald Angels sing."

I believe it to be the composition of the Rev. Charles Wesley, the younger brother of the celebrated John Wesley: he was born in 1708, and died in 1788. He was the author of many of the hymns in his brother's collection, which are distinguished for their elegance and simplicity. I am not able to find out, for certain, whether he had another name; if he had, it was probably the occasion of the initials (J.C.W.) your correspondent mentions.

    J.K.R.W.

Sir Jeffery Wyattville.—Sir Jeffery Wyattville, respecting whom "J.P." inquires (No. 14. p. 215.), was knighted at Windsor Castle, Dec. 9, 1828., on the king entering into possession after the restoration.