Notes and Queries, Number 211, November 12, 1853

    C. S. W.

Vida on Chess.—I have had in my possession for more than five years a translation of Vida on Chess. It is in the handwriting of a celebrated poet of the last century; but whether a mere transcript or a version of his own, is more than I can affirm. Now, I shall feel obliged by any information on the subject, whether positive or negative, and transcribe the exordium with that view. It is not the version which was made by George Jeffreys, and revised by Alexander Pope[1 - The only one which I have seen.]:

"Vida's Scacchis, or Chess."

"Armies of box that sportively engage,
And mimick real battels in their rage,
Pleas'd I recount; how smit with glory's charms,
Two mighty monarchs met in adverse arms,
Sable and white: assist me to explore,
Ye Serian nymphs, what ne'er was sung before."

    Bolton Corney.

Minor Queries with Answers

Thornton Abbey.—Can any of your readers give me some information respecting an old and ruinous building called "Thornton Abbey," situate about ten miles from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and also about two miles from the river Humber?

    Victor.

Grimsby.

[Tanner states, the house was called Thorneton Curteis, and Torrington. It was founded by William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle, and Lord of Holderness, about the year 1139, for Austin Canons, and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Dugdale says, that when first founded it was a priory, and the monks were introduced from the monastery of Kirkham; but was changed into an abbey by Pope Eugenius III., A.D. 1148. Though Henry VIII. suppressed the Abbey, he reserved the greater part of the lands to endow a college, which he erected in its room, for a dean and prebendaries, to the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. From the remains it must have been a magnificent building. Originally it consisted of an extensive quadrangle, surrounded by a deep ditch, with high ramparts, and built in a style adapted for occasional defence. To the east of the gateway are the remains of the abbey church. The chapter-house, part of which is standing, was of an octangular shape, and highly decorated. On the south of the ruins of the church is a building, now occupied as a farm-house, which formerly was the residence of the abbots. It was afterwards the seat of Edward Skinner, Esq., who married Ann, daughter of Sir William Wentworth, brother to the unfortunate Earl of Strafford. The estate was purchased from one of the Skinner family by Sir Richard Sutton, Bart.; it is now in the possession of Lord Yarborough. In taking down a wall in the ruins of the abbey, a human skeleton was found, with a table, a book, and a candle-stick. It is supposed to have been the remains of the fourteenth abbot, who, it is stated, was for some crime sentenced to be immured—a mode of capital punishment not uncommon in monasteries. Four views of the abbey are given in Allen's History of Lincolnshire, vol ii., and some farther notices of its ancient state will be found in Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. vi. pl. i. p. 324.; Tanner's Notitia, Lincolnshire, lxxvii.; and Beauties of England and Wales, vol. ix. p. 684.]

Bishop Wilson's "Sacra Privata."—In the new edition of this work, p. 381., there is given a table of "The Collects, with their Tendencies." Under the head of Fasting, references are made to the First Sunday in Lent, and the Tenth and Twenty-third after Trinity.—There must be some mistake in this, as the last two collects refer to prayer. This for your correspondent Mr. Denton, to whom I understand the Church is indebted for the redintegration of the good bishop's journal.

    A. A. D.

[We have submitted the above to the Rev. William Denton, who expresses his obligations to A. A. D. for pointing out the error, which seems to have escaped the notice of all the previous editors of the Sacra Privata. The second edition is now at press, and, if not too late, the correction will be made. Mr. Denton doubts whether the list after all is the bishop's; but thinks it was only copied by him from some work. Can any one point out the source? It is singular that another mistake of the bishop's should have escaped the notice of all previous editors, namely, the tendency of the collect for Whit-Sunday being described as Humiliation instead of Illumination.]

Derivation of "Chemistry."—Are there any historical reasons for deriving the word chemistry from Chemi, the name of Egypt, as is done by Bunsen and others?

    T. H. T.

[Dr. Thomson, the writer of the article "Chemistry" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, thus notices this derivation: "The generally received opinion among alchymistical writers was, that chemistry originated in Egypt; and the honour of the invention has been unanimously conferred on Hermes Trismegistus. He is by some supposed to be the same person with Chanaan, the son of Ham, whose son Mizraim first occupied and peopled Egypt. Plutarch informs us that Egypt was sometimes called Chemia: this name is supposed to be derived from Chanaan. Hence it was inferred that Chanaan was the inventor of chemistry, to which he affixed his own name. Whether the Hermes of the Greeks was Chanaan, or his son Mizraim, it is impossible to decide; but to Hermes is assigned the invention of chemistry, or the art of making gold, by almost the unanimous consent of the adepts." Dr. Webster says, "The orthography of this word has undergone changes through a mere ignorance of its origin, than which nothing can be more obvious. It is the Arabic kimia, the occult art or science, from kamai, to conceal. This was originally the art or science now called alchemy; the art of converting baser metals into gold." Webster says the correct orthography is chimistry.]

Burning for Witchcraft.—When and where was the last person burned to death for witchcraft in England?

    W. R.

[We believe the last case of burning for witchcraft was at Bury St. Edmunds in 1664, tried by Sir Matthew Hale, although some accounts state that the victims, Amy Duny and Rose Callender, were executed. In the same year Alice Hudson was burnt at York for having received 10s. at a time from his Satanic majesty. The last case of burning in Scotland was in Sutherland, A.D. 1722: the judge was Captain David Ross, of Little Dean. At Glarus, in Ireland, a servant girl was burnt so late as 1786. The last authenticated instance of the swimming ordeal occurred in 1785, and is quoted by Mr. Sternberg from a Northampton Mercury of that year:—"A poor woman named Sarah Bradshaw, of Mears Ashby, who was accused of being a witch, in order to prove her innocence, submitted to the ignominy of being dipped, when she immediately sunk to the bottom of the pond, which was deemed to be an incontestable proof that she was no witch!"]

The Small City Companies.—Where does the fullest information appear respecting their early condition, &c.? Herbert's work only occasionally refers to them, and I am aware of many incidental notices of them in Histories of London, &c.; but it does not amount to much, and I should be glad to know if there is no fuller account of them. The companies of Pewterers or Bakers, for example.

    B.

[Beside the incidental notices to be found in Stow, Maitland, and Seymour, our correspondent must consult the Harleian MSS.; and if he will turn to the Index volume at p. 294., he will find references to the following companies:—Bakers', Drapers', Painters', Stainers', Pinners', Scriveners', Skinners', Wax-chandlers', Wharfingers', Weavers', and other miscellaneous notes relating to the city of London generally.]

Rousseau and Boileau.—Are there any full and complete English translations of Rousseau's Confessions and Boileau's Satires?

    Alledius.

[The following translations have been published:—The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, in two Parts, London, 12mo., five vols., 1790; Boileau's Satires, 8vo., 1808: see also his Works made English by Mr. Ozell and others, two vols. 8vo., London, 1711-12, and three vols. 8vo., London, 1714.]

Bishop Kennett's MS. Diary.—Where is Bishop Kennett's MS. Diary, from which his often-cited description of Dean Swift is taken, to be found? Sir Walter Scott (Swift's Works, vol. xvi. p. 76.) says "it was formerly in the possession of Lord Lansdowne, and is now in the British Museum." I have never been able to find it.

    F. B.

[The Diary here referred to by Sir Walter Scott will be found at p. 428. in Lansdowne MS. 1024., which forms the third and last volume of Bishop Kennett's "Materials for an Ecclesiastical History of England."]

Replies

MILTON'S WIDOW

(Vol. vi., p. 596.; Vol. vii., pp. 12. 134. 200. 375.)

It may be worth recording, that among the MS. papers of the late James Boswell, which were I believe sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby and Co., there was the office copy and probate of the will of Milton's widow. She was described as Elizabeth Milton of Namptwich, widow; and it was dated the 27th of August, 1727. In the will she bequeathed all her effects, after the payment of her debts, to be divided between her nieces and nephews in Namptwich; and named as her executors, Samuel Acton and John Allcock, Esqs. Probate was granted to John Allcock, October 10, 1727.

Beside this, there was a bond or acquittance, dated 1680 from Richard Mynshull, described of Wistaston in Cheshire, frame-work knitter, for 100l. received of Mrs. Elizabeth Milton in consideration of a transfer to her of a lease for lives, or ninety-nine years, of a messuage at Brindley in Cheshire, held under Sir Thomas Wilbraham.

There were also receipts or releases from Milton's three daughters, Anne Milton, Mary Milton, and Deborah Clarke (to the last of which Abraham Clarke was a party): the first two dated Feb. 22, 1674; the last, March 27 in the same year; for 100l. each, received of Elizabeth Milton their step-mother in consideration of their shares of their father's estate. The sums were, with the consent of Christopher Milton and Richard Powell, both described of the Inner Temple, to be disposed of in the purchase of rent-charges or annuities for the benefit of the said daughters.

Two of these documents appear to be now in the possession of your correspondents Mr. Marsh and Mr. Hughes; but I have met with no mention hitherto of the destination of the others.

These may seem trifling minutiæ to notice, but nothing can fairly be considered unimportant which may lead to the elucidation of the domestic history of Milton.

    S. W. Singer.

Mickleham.

OATHS

(Vol. viii., p. 364.)

There can be no doubt that, as your correspondent suggests, the judicial oath was originally taken without kissing the book, but with the form of laying the right hand upon it; and, moreover that this custom is of Pagan origin. Amongst the Greeks, oaths were frequently accompanied by sacrifice; and it was the custom to lay the hands upon the victim, or upon the altar, thereby calling to witness the deity by whom the oath was sworn. So Juvenal, Sat. XIV. 218.:

"Falsus erit testis, vendet perjuria summa
Exigua, et Cereris tangens aramque pedemque."

Christians under the later Roman emperors adopted from the Greeks a similar ceremony. In the well-known case of Omychund v. Barker, heard in Michaelmas Term, 1744, and reported in 1 Atk. 27., the Solicitor-General quoted a passage from Selden, which gives us some information on this point:

"Mittimus hic, principibus Christianis, ut ex historiis satis obviis liquet, solennia fuisse et peculiaria juramenta, ut per vultum sancti Lucæ, per pedem Christi, per sanctum hunc vel illum, ejusmodi alia nimis crebra: Inolevit hero tandem, ut quemadmodum Pagani sacris ac mysteriis aliquo suis aut tactis aut præsentibus jurare solebant, ita solenniora Christianorum juramenta fierent, aut tactis sacrosanctis evangeliis, aut inspectis, aut in eorum præsentia manu ad pectus amota, sublata aut protensa; atque is corporaliter seu personaliter juramentum præstari dictum est, ut ab juramentis per epistolam, aut in scriptis solummodo præstitis distingueretur, inde in vulgi passim ore."

Lord Coke tells us, in the passage quoted at p. 364., that this was called the corporal oath, because the witness "toucheth with his hand some part of the Holy Scripture;" but the better opinion seems to be, that it was so called from the ancient custom of laying the hands upon the corporale, or cloth which covered the sacred elements, by which the most solemn oath was taken in Popish times.

As to the form of kissing the book, I am inclined to think that it is not of earlier date than the latter part of the sixteenth century, and that it was first prescribed as part of the ceremony of taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. In the Harl. Misc., vol. vi. p. 282. (edit. 1810), is an account of the trial of Margaret Fell and George Fox, for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, followed by "An Answer to Bishop Lancelot Andrewe's Sermon concerning Swearing." At p 298., Fox brings forward instances of conscientious scruples among Christians in former times, respecting the taking of oaths. He says:

"Did not the Pope, when he had got up over the churches, give forth both oath and curse, with bell, book, and candle? And was not the ceremony of his oath, to lay three fingers a-top of the book, to signify the Trinity; and two fingers under the book, to signify damnation of body and soul if they sware falsely? And was not there a great number of people that would not swear, and suffered great persecution, as read the Book of Martyrs but to Bonner's days? And it is little above an hundred years since the Protestants got up; and they gave forth the oath of allegiance, and the oath of supremacy: the one was to deny the Pope's supremacy, and the other to acknowledge the kings of England; so we need not tell to you of their form, and show you the ceremony of the oath; it saith, 'Kiss the book;' and the book saith 'Kiss the Son,' which saith 'Swear not at all.'"