Notes and Queries, Number 54, November 9, 1850

A series of SSes (SSS) by themselves would certainly be a galling badge, whatever honour might be considered to be conferred with it.

    B. (original),

    in future SS., as my initial has been
    usurped by some unknown friend.

October. 30. 1850.

Collar of Esses.—I am glad to see the interest shown by your correspondents upon this curious subject, and the various opinions expressed by them as to the actual formation of the collar; the signification of the letter, if a letter be intended (of which I think there can be no reasonable doubt); and the persons who were privileged to wear it. The first two questions will for ever occasion discussion; but allow me to suggest that one step towards the solution of the third, would be a collection in your pages of the names of those persons who, either on their monumental effigies or brasses, or in their portraits or otherwise, are represented as wearing that ornament; together with a short statement of the position held by each of these individuals in the court of the then reigning monarch, seeming to warrant the assumption. Some notices of this sort have been already given, and your antiquarian correspondents will readily supply others; so that in a little time you will have obtained such a list as will greatly assist the inquiry. It may serve as a commencement if I refer to the atchievement of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, in the reign of Richard II., a representation of which is given in Archæologia, vol. xxix. p. 387., where the Collar of Esses is introduced in a very peculiar manner.

    Edward Foss.

[As we think the origin and probable meaning of the Collar of Esses have now been discussed as far as they can be with advantage in the present state of our knowledge, we propose to adopt Mr. Foss's suggestion, and in future to limit our columns to a record of such facts as he points out.]

DANIEL DE FOE

Having been much interested with Daniel Defoe's description of a Gravesend Tiltboat in the year 1724, as recorded by Alpha in Vol. ii., p. 209., I think some of your readers may be pleased to learn that it is quite possible that "it may be a plain relation of matter of fact," as De Foe was engaged in the business of brick and tile making near Tilbury[1 - Traces of these tile-works are still discoverable in a field some three or four hundred yards on the London side of Tilbury.[Wilson, in his Life of Defoe, vol. i. pp. 228. et seq., gives some interesting particulars of Defoe's share in these pantile works, and of his losses in connexion with them. Pantiles had been hitherto a Dutch manufacture, and brought in large quantities into England; the works at Tilbury were erected for the purpose of superseding the necessity for such importation, and providing a new channel for the employment of labour.—Ed.]], and must consequently have had frequent occasion to make the trip from Gravesend to London. That De Foe was so engaged at Tilbury we learn from the following Proclamation for his apprehension, taken from the London Gazette, dated St. James's, January 10, 1702-3:—

Whereas Daniel de Foe, alias Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled The Shortest Way with the Dissenters. He is a middled siz'd spare man, about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth; was born in London, and, for many years an hose-factor in Freeman's Yard, Cornhill, and is now owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort, in Essex. Whoever shall discover the said Daniel de Foe to one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, or any one of Her Majesty's justices of the peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of fifty pounds, which Her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid on such discovery."

He soon gave himself up; and having been tried, he stood in the pillory with great fortitude: for soon after he published his poem, entitled A Hymn to the Pillory, in which are the following singular lines:—

"Men that are men, in thee can feel no pain,
And all thy insignificants disdain;
Contempt, that false new word for shame,
Is, without crime, an empty name;
A shadow to amuse mankind,
But never frights the wise or well fix'd mind—
Virtue despises human scorn,
And scandals innocence adorn."

Referring to a design of putting the learned Selden into the pillory for his History of Tithes, he says smartly:—

"Even the learned Selden saw
A prospect of thee thro' the law;
He had thy lofty pinnacles in view,
But so much honour never was they due.
Had the great Selden triumph'd on thy stage,
Selden, the honour of his age,
No man would ever shun thee more,
Or grudge to stand where Selden stood before."

This original poem ends with these remarkable lines, referring to himself:

"Tell them, the men that placed him here,
Are scandals to the times,
Are at a loss to find his guilt,
And can't commit his crimes."

De Foe, however, was afterwards received into favour without any concessions on his part, and proceeded straight onwards in the discharge of what he deemed to be his duty to mankind. He certainly was an extraordinary man for disinterestedness, perseverance, and industry.

    W. Crafter.

Gravesend.

"ANTIQUITAS SÆCULI JUVENTUS MUNDI."

(Vol. ii., pp. 218. 350.)

T. J. and his Dublin friend (Vol. ii., p. 350.), appear to refer, one to the Latin version, the other to the original English text of Lord Bacon's Instauration; and, oddly enough, the inference to which either points, as a reason for disbelieving in the previous existence of the phrase "Antiquitas" &c., extends not to the authority consulted by the other. Thus, the circumstance of "ordine retrogrado" being printed also in Italics, is true only in respect of the English text; while, on the other hand, "ut vere dicamus" is an expression to be found only in the Latin.

But it may be doubted whether the originality of the phrase "Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi" is, after all, worth speculating upon. In the sense in which Lord Bacon used it, it is rather a naked truism than a wise aphorism. It does not even necessarily convey the intended meaning; nor, if unaccompanied by an explanation, would it be safe from a widely different interpretation. A previous correspondent of "Notes and Queries" had termed it "this fine aphoristic expression;" and yet, when Lord Bacon himself expands the thought into an aphorism, he does so without recurring to the phrase in question, which is a tolerably fair proof that he did not look upon it as a peculiarly happy one. (Novum Organum, lib. 1., Aphorismus LXXXIV.)

T. J. infers that if the phrase were a quotation it would have been preceded by "ut dictum est" rather than by "ut dicamus"—but even if it had been introduced by the first of these forms, it does not appear that it would thereby have been proved to be a quotation; because there are instances wherein Lord Bacon directly refers to the source from which he professes to quote, and yet prefers to give the purport in his own words rather than in those of his author. Thus, in citing one of the most exquisite and familiar passages of Lucretius, he introduces it by the prefix, "Poeta elegantissime dixit." And yet what follows, although printed in italics with every appearance of strict quotation, is not the language of Lucretius, but a commonplace prose version of its substance. (Sermones Fideles, De Veritate.)

With reference to Lord Bacon's works, there are two Queries which I wish to ask.

T. J.'s friend mentions a rare translation into English by Gilbert Wats, Oxford, as existing in Primate Marsh's library. Query, Of what is it a translation?

In Lord Bacon's life, by William Rawley, it is stated that his lordship was born in a house "infra plateam dictum Le Strand juxta Londinum."

Query, Was the Strand ever known as Le Strand, similarly to Adwick-le-street in Yorkshire?

    A. E. B.

Replies to Minor Queries

Sir Gammer Vans (Vol. ii., pp 89. 280.).—The story related by S. G. is the same that I inquired after, and I admire the accuracy of his memory, for his version is, for the greater part, literally the same that I heard in Ireland sixty years ago. A few passages, as that about hipper switches, I do not recollect; and one or two that I remember are wanting—the one, that the narrator was received in "a little oak parlour" of, I forget what, different character; the other, that Sir Gammer's "mother," or "aunt, was a justice of peace, and his sister a captain of horse." I find that Goldsmith's allusion is to this last passage, with some variation. Tony Lumpkin tells Marlow that Hardcastle will endeavour to persuade him that "his mother was an alderman and his aunt a justice of peace." (She Stoops to Conquer, A. i. sub fine.) I have not been able to find the allusion in Swift; nor can I see how it could have been a political satire. It seems rather to be a mere tissue of incongruities and contradictions—of Irish bulls, in short, woven into a narrative to make folks laugh; and it is much of the same character as many other pieces of ingenious nonsense with which Swift and Sheridan used to amuse each other.

    C.

Sir Gammer Vans.—This worthy is mentioned in that curious little chap-book, A Strange and Wonderful Relation of the Old Woman that was drowned at Ratcliff Highway, in two parts. I now quote the passage from a copy of the genuine Aldermary churchyard edition:—

"At last I arrived at Sir John Vang's house. 'Tis a little house entirely alone, encompassed about with forty or fifty houses, having a brick wall made of flint stone round about it. So knocking at the door, Gammer Vangs, said I, is Sir John Vangs within? Walk in, said she, and you shall see him in the little, great, round, three square parlour. This Gammer Vangs had a little old woman her son. Her mother was a churchwarden of a large troop of horse, and her grandmother was a Justice of the Peace; but when I came into the said great, little, square, round, three corner'd parlour, I could not see Sir John Vangs, for he was a giant. But I espied abundance of nice wicker bottles. And just as I was going out he called to me and asked me what I would have? So looking back I espied him just creeping out of a wicker bottle. It seems by his profession he was a wicker bottle maker. And after he had made them, he crept out at the stopper holes."

There are two notes worth recording with respect to this curious medley, which is obviously a modern version of a much older composition. Query, is any older edition known?

1. That the wood-cut on the title page, which has been re-engraved for Mr. Halliwell's Notices of Fugitive Tracts and Chap-books, printed for the Percy Society, is one of the few representations we have of the old Ducking Stool.

2. That it is said that the Rev. Thomas Kerrich, the well-known librarian of the University of Cambridge, could repeat by heart the whole of the eight and forty pages of this strange gallimawfrey.

    W. J. Thoms.

Hipperswitches (Vol. ii., p. 280.).—I saw a story which was copied into the Examiner of Oct. 5. from "Notes and Queries," entitled "Sir Gammer Vans." The correspondent who has furnished you with the tale says that he is ignorant of the meaning of "hipper switches." Now hipper is a word applied in this part of the country to a description of osiers used in coarse basket making, and which were very likely things to be bound up into switches. A field in which they grow, near the water side, is called a "hipper-holm." There is a station on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, which takes its name from such a meadow. My nurse, a Cornwall woman, tells me hipper withies fetch a higher price than common withies in her country.

    E. C. G.

Lancaster.