Notes and Queries, Number 79, May 3, 1851

"There were, it seems, three of the Tradescants, grandfather, father, and son: the son is the person here meant: the two former were gardeners to Queen Elizabeth, and the latter to King Charles I."

The epitaph above quoted satisfactorily proves, I think, that the Tradescants were never gardeners to the maiden Queen. "The rose and lily queen" was certainly Henrietta Maria, the queen of Charles the First. I have now before me (from the cabinet of a friend) a small silver medal struck to commemorate the marriage of Charles the First. It has on the obverse the busts of Charles and Henrietta, the sun shining from the clouds above them: the inscription is CH: MAG: ET: HEN: MA: BRIT: REX: ET: REG. The reverse contains in the field, Cupid mixing lilies with roses; the legend being FVNDIT: AMOR: LILIA: MIXTA: ROSIS. In the exergue is the date 1625. The Tradescant mentioned by Walton in 1653 was the second of that name, not the son, as stated by Sir John Hawkins.

The editor of the last edition of Evelyn's Diary (vol. ii. p. 414.) says, speaking of the Tradescants:

"They were all eminent gardeners, travellers, and collectors of curiosities. The two first came into this country in the reign of James I., and the second and third were employed in the Royal Gardens by Charles I."

Here is a positive statement that the elder Tradescant and his son came into England in the reign of James I. But there is no proof of this given. It is merely the writer's assertion. At the end of the same note, speaking of Tradescant's Ark, the editor observes:

"It formed the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and a catalogue of its contents was printed by the youngest John Tradescant in 1656, with the title of Museum Tradescantianum. He died in 1652."

It was not the youngest John Tradescant that died in 1652, but the oldest, the grandfather—the first of that name that settled in England.

The following is a list of the portraits of the Tradescant family now in the Ashmolean Museum; both father and son are in these portraits called Sir John, though it does not appear that either of them was ever knighted. Mr. Black, in his excellent catalogue of the Ashmolean Library, also calls the elder Tradescant Sir John. (See p. 1266.)

1. Sir John Tradescant, sen., three-quarter size, ornamented with fruit, flowers, and garden roots.

2. The same, after his decease.

3. The same, a small three-quarter piece, in water colours.

4. A large painting of his wife, son, and daughter, quarter-length.

5. Sir John Tradescant, junior, in his garden, with a spade in his hand, half-length.

6. The same with his wife, half-length.

7. The same, with his friend Zythepsa of Lambeth, a collection of shells, &c. upon a table before them.

8. A large quarter piece inscribed Sir John Tradescant's second wife and son.

Granger says he saw a picture at a gentleman's house in Wiltshire, which was not unlike that of the deceased Tradescant, and the inscription was applicable to it:

"Mortuus haud alio quam quo pater ore quiesti,
Quam facili frueris nunc quoque nocte doces."

I may add, in conclusion, that several beautiful drawings of the Tradescant monument in Lambeth churchyard are preserved in the Pepysian library. These drawings were engraved for the Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxiii. p. 88.; and are printed from the same plates in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, vol. ii.

    Edward F. Rimbault.

MEANING OF VENVILLE

(Vol. iii., pp. 152. 310.)

I observe, in p. 310. of the present volume, that two correspondents, P. and K., have contributed conjectures as to the meaning and origin of the term venville, noticed and explained antè, p. 152. The origin of the word is of course to some extent open to conjecture; but they may rest assured that the meaning of it is not, nor ever has been, within the domain of mere conjecture with those who have had any opportunities of inquiry in the proper quarter. The term has not the slightest reference to the ceremony of delivering possession, which P. has evidently witnessed in the case of his father, and which lawyers call livery of seisin; nor is there on Dartmoor any such word as ven signifying peat, or as fail, signifying turf. No doubt a fen on the moor would probably contain "black earth or peat," like most other mountain bogs; and if (as K. says) fail means a "turf or flat clod" in Scotland, I think it probable that a Scotchman on Dartmoor might now and then so far forget himself as to call peat or turf by a name which would certainly not be understood by an aboriginal Devonian. The local name of the peat or other turf cut for fuel is vaggs, and this has perhaps been confounded in the recollection of K.'s informant with ven. At all events, I can assure both P. and K. (who, I presume, are not familiar with the district) that the tenants of venville lands have no functions to perform, as such, in any degree connected with either turf-cutting, or "fenging fields," and that they do not necessarily, or generally, occupy peat districts, or rejoice in

"All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats," &c.;

but, on the contrary, they are the owners of some of the most valuable, salubrious, and picturesque purlieus of the forest. With regard to the name "fengfield," although I am pretty familiar with the records of the forest extant for the last five hundred years past, I do not remember that it is ever so named or spelt in the muniments of the manor or forest. It is so written by Risdon, and in some few other documents entitled to little weight, and from which no safe inference can be drawn. Whatever be the etymological origin of the term, it should be assumed as indisputable by any one who may hereafter exercise his ingenuity or his fancy upon it, that the four most prominent incidents to the tenure are—1. payment of fines; 2. situation in an ancient vill; 3. attendance on the lord's court; 4. enjoyment of certain rights of common. It may be that neither the fine nor the vill forms a component part of the name; but K. need have no scruple in believing that an abbreviated Latin or "legal term" (invented, of course, by the stewards or bailiffs of the lord) may have become naturalised among those of the inhabitants of the Moor whom it concerns. The tenants or retainers of a manor have no alternative but to submit to any generic name by which the steward may please to distinguish them. Thus the "priors" and "censors" of Dartmoor forest are content to be called by those names, because they were designated as "prehurdarii" and "censarii" in the court rolls some hundred years ago. The tenants of a certain lordship in Cornwall know and convey their tenements by the name of landams to this day, merely because the stewards two hundred years ago, when the court rolls were in Latin, well knowing that landa was the Latin for land, and that transitive verbs in that language require an accusative case, recorded each tenant as having taken of the lord "unam landam, vocatam Tregollup," &c. Indeed so easily does a clipt exotic take root and become acclimated among the peasantry of the Moor, whose powers of appropriation are so much disparaged by the sceptical doubts of K., that since the establishment of local courts the terms fifa and casa have become familiar to them as household words and the name and uses of that article of abbreviated Latinity called a 'bus are, as I am credibly informed, not unknown to them.

    E. Smirke.

Replies to Minor Queries

Newburgh Hamilton (Vol. iii, p. 117).—In Thomas Whincop's List of Dramatic Authors, &c., the following notice of Hamilton occurs:—

"Mr. Newburgh Hamilton

A Gentleman, who I think was related to, at least lived in the family of Duke Hamilton; he wrote two Plays, called

I. The Doating Lovers, or The Libertine Tam'd; a Comedy acted at the Theatre in Lincoln's Inn-Fields, in the year 1715, with no success: but supported to the third night, for the Author's Benefit; when the Boxes and Pit were laid together at the unusual Price of six Shillings each Ticket.

II. The Petticoat Plotter; a Comedy of two Acts, performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane."

    T. C. T.

Pedigree of Owen Glendower (Vol. iii., p. 222.).—A contributor who is not a Cambrian, sends the following pedigree of Owen Glyndowr, with the authority from whence he has obtained it, viz. Harl. MS. 807., Robert Glover's Book of Pedigrees and Arms, drawn up in part about 1574.

    H. E.

Mind your P's and Q's (Vol. iii., p. 328.)—This expression arose from the ancient custom of hanging a slate behind the alehouse door, on which was written P. or Q. (i. e. Pint or Quart) against the name of each customer, according to the quantity which he had drunk, and which was not expected to be paid for till the Saturday evening, when the wages were settled.

The expression so familiar to schoolboys of "going tick," may perhaps be traced to this, a tick or mark being put for every glass of ale.

    C. De la Pryme.

The Sempecta at Croyland (Vol. iii., p. 328.).—He was not there, however; and I am sorry to say, I do not remember where he was personally, or exactly where the account of him is to be found. I have no doubt of its being in one or other of the fourteen volumes of Martene's Thesaurus et Amplissima Collectio. I do not now possess those books, and have not access to them; but I think your correspondent will find what he wants without much difficulty if (as I suspect) it is with some other pieces in rhyme, and therefore likely to catch the eye in turning over a volume chiefly in prose. Perhaps the name "Francis" may be in the index. If he does not, I shall be happy to seek for information.

    S. R. Maitland.

Gloucester.

Solid-hoofed Pigs (Vol. iii., p. 263.).—I saw a pig of this kind a few years ago, in possession of Sir William Homan, Bart., of Dromroe, near Cappoquin, in the county of Waterford.

I do not know whether he has any of that breed at present; but have little doubt that a note, addressed to Sir William on the subject, would receive a courteous reply.

    H. C.

Thurles, April 9. 1851.

Porci solide-pedes (Vol. iii., p. 263.).—A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" inquires about the breed of solid-hoofed pigs. Some years, perhaps twenty years, ago there were several pigs of that sort in the possession of Robert Ramsden, Esq., of Coulton Hall, Notts, of which he was good enough to give some to my father. I believe they were considered of Chinese origins, but how remotely I do not know. They were very easily fattened, but always of small size; and I think, unless my memory much deceives me, on removing the horny portion of the hoof, the rudiments of a cloven hoof, like that of the ordinary swine, were to be seen.

    E. G. Selwyn.

Blackheath, April 17. 1851.

Sir Henry Slingsby's Diary (Vol. iii., p. 323.).—The council of "The Camden Society" will no doubt be pleased to find that your correspondents are good enough to keep in view the welfare of that Society, and to suggest works suitable for their publication.