Notes and Queries, Number 68, February 15, 1851

In the collection of songs entitled The Rump, 1666, may be found two ballads relative to Hewson, viz., "A Hymne to the Gentle Craft; or Hewson's Lamentation. To the tune of the Blind Beggar:"

"Listen a while to what I shall say
Of a blind cobbler that's gone astray
Out of the parliament's high way,
Good people pity the blind."

"The Cobbler's Last Will and Testament; or the Lord Hewson's translation:"

"To Christians all, I greeting send,
That they may learn their souls to amend
By viewing, of my cobbler's end."

Lord Hewson's "one eye" is a frequent subject of ridicule in the political songs of the period. Thus in "The Bloody Bed-roll, or Treason displayed in its Colours:"

"Make room for one-ey'd Hewson,
A Lord of such account,
'Twas a pretty jest
That such a beast
Should to such honour mount."

The song inquired for by my friend Mr. Chapell, beginning, "My name is old Hewson," is not contained in any of the well-known printed collections of political songs and ballads, nor is it to be found among the broadsides preserved in the King's Pamphlets. A full index to the latter is now before me, so I make this statement positively, and to save others the trouble of a search.

    Edward F. Rimbault.

Old Hewson and Smollett's "Strap."—Perhaps the enclosed extract from an old newspaper of April, 1809, will throw some light upon this subject:

"SMOLLETT'S CELEBRATED HUGH STRAP

"On Sunday was interred, in the burial-ground of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the remains of Hugh Hewson, who died at the age of 85. The deceased was a man of no mean celebrity. He had passed more than forty years in the parish of St. Martin's, and kept a hair-dresser's shop, being no less a personage than the identical Hugh Strap, whom Dr. Smollett rendered so conspicuously interesting in his life and adventures of Roderick Random. The deceased was a very intelligent man, and took delight in recounting the scenes of his early life. He spoke with pleasure of the time he passed in the service of the Doctor; and it was his pride, as well as boast, to say, that he had been educated at the same seminary with so learned and distinguished a character. His shop was hung round with Latin quotations, and he would frequently point out to his acquaintance the several scenes in Roderick Random, pertaining to himself, which had their foundation, not in the Doctor's inventive fancy, but in truth and reality. The Doctor's meeting with him at a barber's shop at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the subsequent mistake at the Inn, their arrival together in London, and the assistance they experienced from Strap's friend were all of that description. The deceased, to the last, obtained a comfortable subsistence by his industry, and of late years had been paid a weekly salary by the inhabitants of the Adelphi, for keeping the entrances to Villiers-walk, and securing the promenade from the intrusion of strangers."

    John Francis.

Rodolph Gualter (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—From letters to and from Rodolph Gualter (in Zurich, and Original Letters, Parker Society) little can be gathered; thus much have I gleaned, that though mention is oftentimes made of Scotland, yet not sufficient to identify Gualter as being a native of that country; yet it should be observed that he dedicated his Homilies on the Galatians to the King of Scotland, Zurich Letters (second series) cxviii., see also, cxxix., cxxx. These remarks may tend perchance to put J. C. R. on the right track for obtaining true information.

    N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)

Burning the Hill (Vol. ii., pp. 441. 498.).—The provision for burning out a delinquent miner, contained in the Mendip mine laws, called Lord C. J. Choke's laws, first appeared in print in 1687; at least I can find no earlier notice of them in any book; but as the usages sanctioned by them are incidentally mentioned in proceedings in the Exchequer in 21 and 22 Elizabeth, they are no doubt of early date. Article 6. certainly has a very sanguinary aspect; but as the thief, whose hut and tools are to be burnt, is himself to be "banished from his occupation before the miners for ever," it cannot be intended that he should be himself burnt also. If any instance of the exercise of a custom or law so clearly illegal had ever occurred within recent times, we should have assuredly found some record of it in the annals of criminal justice, as the executioner would infallibly have been hanged. The regulations are probably an attempt by some private hand to embody the local customs of the district, so far as regards lead mining; and they contain the substance of the usual customs prevalent in most metallic regions, where mines have been worked ab antiquo. The first report of the Dean Forest Commission, 1839, f. 12., adverts to a similar practice among the coal and iron miners in that forest. It seems to be an instance of the Droit des arsins, or right of arson, formerly claimed and exercised to a considerable extent, and with great solemnity, in Picardy, Flanders, and other places; but I know of no instance in which this wild species of metallifodine justice has been claimed to apply to anything but the culprit's local habitation and tools of trade. I need not add that the custom, even with this limitation, would now be treated by the courts as a vulgar error, and handed over to the exclusive jurisdiction of the legal antiquaries and collectors of the Juris amœnitates.

    E. Smirke.

"Fronte capillata," &c. (vol. iii., pp. 8. 43.).—The couplet is much older than G. A. S. seems to think. The author is Dionysius Cato,—"Catoun," as Chaucer calls him—in his book, Distichorum de Moribus, lib. ii. D. xxvi.:

"Rem tibi quam nosces aptam, dimittere noli:
Fronte capillata, post est Occasio calva."
Corp. Poet. Lat., Frankfurt, 1832, p. 1195.

The history of this Dionysius Cato is unknown; and it has been hotly disputed whether he were a Heathen or Christian; but he is at least as old as the fourth century of the Christian era, being mentioned by Vindicianus, chief physician in ordinary to the emperor, in a letter to Valentinian I., A.D. 365. In the illustrations of The Baptistery, Parker, Oxford, 1842, which are re-engraved from the originals in the Via Vitæ Eternæ, designed by Boetius a Bolswert, the figure of "Occasion" is always drawn with the hair hanging loose in front, according to the distich.

    E. A. D.

Time when Herodotus wrote (vol. ii., p. 405.; Vol. iii., p. 30.)—The passage in Herodotus (i. 5.) is certainly curious, and had escaped my notice, until pointed out by your correspondent. I am unable at present to refer to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology; but I doubt whether the reading of the poem or title, in Aristotle's Rhetoric (II. 9. § 1.), has received much attention. In my forthcoming translation of the "Pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer" prefixed to the Odysseia (Bohn's Classical Library), note 1., I have thus given it:—

"This is the exposition of the historical researches of Herodotus of Thurium," &c.

Now Aristotle makes no remark on the passage as being unusual, and it therefore inclines me to think that, at the time of that philosopher and critic, both editions were in use.

The date of the building of Thurium is B.C. 444, and Herodotus was there at its foundation, being then about forty years of age. Most likely he had published a smaller edition of this book before that time, bearing the original date from Halicarnassus, which he revised, enlarged, corrected, and partly re-wrote at Thurium. I think this would not be difficult to prove; and I would add that this retouching would be found more apparent at the beginning of the volume than elsewhere. This may be easily accounted for by the feeling that modern as well as ancient authors have, viz., that of laziness and inertness; revising the first 100 pages carefully, but decreasing from that point. But to return: Later editors, I conceive, erased the word Thurium used by Herodotus, who was piqued and vexed at his native city, and substituted, or restored, Halicarnassus; not, however, changing the text.

A learned friend of mine wished for the bibliographical history of the classics. I told him then, as I tell the readers of the "Notes and Queries" now, "Search for that history in the pages of the classics themselves; extend to them the critical spirit that is applied to our own Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Milton, and your trouble will not be in vain. The history of any book (that is the general history of the gradual development of its ideas) is written in its own pages." In truth, the prose classics deserve as much attention as the poems of Homer.

    Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.

January 20. 1851.

Herstmonceux Castle (Vol. ii., p. 477.).—E. V. asks for an explanation of certain entries in the Fine Rolls, A.D. 1199 and 1205, which I can, in part, supply. The first is a fine for having seisin of the lands of the deceased mother of the two suitors, William de Warburton and Ingelram de Monceaux. As they claim as joint-heirs or parceners, the land must have been subject to partibility, and therefore of socage tenure. If the land was not in Kent, the entry is a proof that the exclusive right of primogeniture was not then universally established, as we know it was not in the reign of Henry II. See Glanville, lib. vii. cap. 3.

The next entry records the fine paid for suing out a writ de rationabili parte against (versus) one of the above coheirs. The demandant is either the same coheir named above, viz. Ingelram, altered by a clerical error into Waleram,—such errors being of common occurrence, sometimes from oscitancy, and sometimes because the clerk had to guess at the extended form of a contracted name,—or he is a descendant and heir of Ingelram, claiming the share of his ancestor. I incline to adopt the former explanation of the two here suggested. The form of writ is in the Register of Writs, and corresponds exactly with the abridged note of it in the Fine Roll. The "esnecia," mentioned in the last entry (not extracted by E. V.), is the majorat or senior heir's perquisite of the capital mansion. E. V. will pardon me for saying, that his translation of the passages is a little deficient in exactness. As to E. V.'s query 4., does he think it worth while to go further in search of a reason for calling the bedroom floor of Herstmonceux Castle by the name of Bethlem, when the early spelling and common and constant pronunciation of the word supply so plausible an explanation? I myself knew, in my earliest days, a house where that department was constantly so nicknamed. But there certainly may be a more recondite origin of the name; and something may depend on the date at which he finds it first applied.

    E. Smirke.

Camden and Curwen Families (Vol. iii., p. 89.).—Camden's mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Gyles Curwen, of Poulton Hall, in the county of Lancaster. In the "visitation" of Lancashire made in 1613, it is stated that this Gyles Curwen was "descended from Curwen of Workenton in co. Cumberland;" but the descent is not given, and I presume it rests merely on tradition.

    Llewellyn.

Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance (Vol. ii., p. 517.).—Your correspondent Mac asks for the "correct date" of the Cushion Dance. Searching out the history and origin of an old custom or ballad is like endeavouring to ascertain the source and flight of December's snow. I am afraid Mac will not obtain what he now wishes for.

The earliest mention, that I have noticed, of this popular old dance occurs in Heywood's play, A Woman kill'd with Kindness, 1600. Nicholas, one of the characters, says:

"I have, ere now, deserved a cushion: call for the Cushion Dance."

The musical notes are preserved in The English Dancing Master, 1686; in The Harmonicon, a musical journal; in Davies Gilbert's Christmas Carols (2nd edition); and in Chappell's National English Melodies. In the first-named work it is called "Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance, an old Round Dance."

In a curious collection of old songs and tunes, Neder-Landtsche Gedenck-clank door Adrianum Valerium, printed at Haerlem in 1626, is preserved a tune called "Sweet Margaret," which, upon examination, proves to be the same as the Cushion Dance. This favourite dance was well known in Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century, and an interesting engraving of it may be seen in the Emblems of John de Brunnes, printed at Amsterdam in 1624.

The last-named work (a copy of the edition of 1661 of which is now before me) is exceedingly curious to the lovers of our popular sports and pastimes. The engravings are by William Pass, C. Blon, &c., and among them are representations of Kiss in the Ring, the game of Forfeits, rolling Snow-balls, the Interior of a Barber's Shop, with citherns and lutes hanging against the wall, for the use of the customers, &c.

    Edward F. Rimbault.

North Sides of Churchyards (Vol. ii., p. 93.).—In an appendix to our registers I find the following entry, where I conceive the backside means the northside. Though now the whole of our churchyard is so full that we have much difficulty in finding any new ground, what we do find, however, is on the north side.

"1750, Oct. 23. One Mary Davies, of Pentrobin, single woman, though excommunicated with the Greater Excommunication, was on this day, within night, on account of some particular circumstances alleged by neighbours of credit in her favour (as to her resolving to come and reconcile herself, and do penance if she recovered), indulged by being interred on the backside the church, but no service or tolling allowed."

From this I conclude that here at least there was no part of the churchyard left unconsecrated for the burial of persons excommunicate, as one of your correspondents suggests; or burial in such place would have been no indulgence, as evidently it was regarded in this case. It would be interesting to ascertain from accredited instances how late this power of excommunication has been exercised, and thereby how long it has really been in abeyance. I expect the period would not be found so great as is generally imagined.

    Waldegrave Brewster.

Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi (Vol. ii., p. 466.).—Dugald Stewart, in his Dissertation prefixed to the Encyclopædia Britannica, ed. 7., p. 30., points out two passages of writers anterior to Lord Bacon, in which this thought occurs. The first is in his namesake, Roger Bacon, who died in 1292: