Notes and Queries, Number 58, December 7, 1850

Audley End.

Replies to Minor Queries

Cromwell Poisoned (Vol. ii., p. 393.).—Your correspondent P. T. queries if there be any other statement than that which he adduces respecting Cromwell having been poisoned. I would refer him to the Athenæ Oxoniensis of Anthony à Wood, vol. ii. p. 303.,[2 - I allude to the old edition, 2 vols. Lond. 1691-2, folio; not having any other at hand.] in which it is stated that Dr. George Bate's friends gave him credit for having given a baneful dose to the Protector, to ingratiate himself with Charles II. Amidst all the mutations of those changeful times, and whether Charles I., Cromwell, or Charles II. were in the ascendant, Dr. George Bate always contrived to be the chief state physician. In Whitelock's Memorials of the English Affairs (1732), p. 494, it appears that the Parliament, in 1651, ordered Dr. Bate to go into Scotland to attend the General (Cromwell), and to take care of his health; he being his usual physician in London, and well esteemed by him. He wrote a work styled Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Angliâ. This was severely scrutinised in another, entitled Elenchus Elenchi; sive Animadversiones in Georgii Batei, Cromwelli Paricidæ, aliquando Protomedici, Elenchi Motuum nuperorum in Angliâ. Autore Robt. Pugh; Parisiis, 1664.

Dr. Bate, who died 19th April, 1669, was buried at Kingston upon Thames.

    § N.

Nov. 9. 1850.

"Never did Cardinal bring Good to England" (Vol. ii., pp. 424, 450.).—Beruchino is right in his suggestion that Dr. Lingard may accidentally have omitted a reference to the place from whence he really derived this saying; for Hall tells us in his Chronicle (ed. 1809, p. 758.), that

"Charles, Duke of Suffolke, seeing the delay, gave a great clappe on the table with his hande and said, 'By the masse, now I see that the olde saied sawe is true, that there was never Legatt nor Cardinall that did good in Englande.'"

Whether Charles Brandon was a reader of Piers Ploughman, I know not; but the following passage from that poem proves he was giving expression to a feeling which had long been popular in this country. I quote from Mr. Wright's edition, published by Pickering:

"I knew nevere Cardinal
That he ne cam fra the Pope;
And we clerkes, whan thei come,
For hir comunes paieth,
For hir pelure and hir palfreyes mete,
And pilours that hem folweth.

"The comune clamat cotidie
Ech a man til oother,
The contree is the corseder
That Cardinals comme inne;
And ther thei ligge and lenge moost,
Lecherie there regneth."

    L. 13789—13800.
Mr. Wright observes in a note upon this passage, that "the contributions levied upon the clergy for the support of the Pope's messengers and agents was a frequent subject of complaint in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."

    Thetas.

Gloves not worn in the Presence of Royalty (Vol. i., p. 366.).—

"This week the Lord Coke, with his gloves on, touched and kissed the King's hand; but whether to be confirmed a counsellor, or cashiered, I cannot yet learn."—Letter in Court and Times of Charles I., dated April, 1625.

    W. Dn.

Nonjurors' Oratories in London (Vol. ii., p. 354.).—

"Nothing, my lord, appears so dreadful to me, as the account I have of the barefaced impudence of your Jacobite congregations in London. The marching of the King's forces to and fro through the most factious parts of the kingdom, must (in time) put an end to our little country squabbles; but your fifty churches of nonjurors could never be thus daring, were they not sure of the protection of some high ally."—Letter from Bishop Nicholson to Archbishop Wake, dated Rose, Sept. 20. 1716. in Ellis's Letters, Series iii.

    W. Dn.

"Filthy Gingran" (Vol. ii., p. 335).—I have found the following clue to the solution of my Query on this point:—

"Gingroen (gin-croen) s. f., the toad-flax, a kind of stinking mushroom."—Owen's Welsh Dictionary.

There is, however, some mistake (a high authority informs me) in the explanation given in the dictionary. Toad-flax is certainly not a "mushroom," neither does it "stink." Is the Welsh word applied to both equivocally as distinct objects? In Withering's Arrangement of British Plants, 7th edit., vol. iii., p. 734., 1830, the Welsh name of Antirrhinum Sinaria, or common yellow toad-flax, is stated to be Gingroen fechan.

I must still invite further explanation.

    A. T.

Michael Scott (Vol. ii., p. 120.).—A correspondent wishes to know what works of Michael Scott's have ever been printed. In John Chapman's Catalogue for June, 1850, I see advertised

"Michael Scott's Physionomia, Venet. 1532.
—– Chyromantia del Tricasso da Ceresari, 2 vols. in 1, 1532."

    H. A. B.
The Widow of the Wood (Vol. ii., p. 406.).—Your correspondent is referred to Lowndes's Bibliographical Manual, vol. iii. p. 1868, for some mention of this work. It is there stated that the late eminent conveyancer, Francis Hargreave, the step-son of the lady, "bought up and destroyed every copy of this work that he could procure."

    J. H. M.

Bath.

The Widow of the Wood, 1775, 12mo., pp. vi. and 208. (Inquired after at Vol. ii, p. 406.)—I have this book. It appears to be a Narrative of Complaint of the widow of "John Wh—y, Esq.," of "Great H-y-w—d" (Great Heywood, near Stafford), against Sir W—m W—y in the same neighbourhood.

    Thomas Kerslake.

Bristol.

Modum Promissionis (Vol. ii., pp 279. 347.).—Your correspondent C. H. has not solved my difficulty as to modum promissionis. In the hope that he, or others, will still kindly endeavour to do so, I subjoin the context in which it stands:—

"Noluit Jethro legem posteris figere: sed, quoad quietam stationem adeptus esset populus, remedium præsentibus incommodis, atque (ut vulgo loquitur) modum promissionis ostendit."

An old French translation renders it:—

"Il n'a point donc voulu mettre loy pour la posterité: mais seulement remedier aux incommoditez presentes par maniére de provision (comme on dit)," &c.

The general import of the passage is, that Jethro's counsel to Moses, as to the appointment of rulers over the people, was not intended to apply to Canaan, but only to their sojourn in the wilderness.

I do not see how the "formula professionis monasticæ" helps us; unless, indeed, "modus promissionis" were a kind of temporary and conditional vow, which does not appear in Ducange.

    C. W. B.

End of Easter (Vol. ii., p. 9).—Should not the end of Easter be considered its octave—Low Sunday?

    J. W. H.

First Earl of Roscommon (Vol. ii., p. 325.).—There was, in the burying-ground of Kilkenny-West, some thirty-five years or more ago, an old tombstone belonging to the Dillon Family, on which was traced the genealogy of the Roscommon branch from one of the sons of the first earl (if I remember right, the third or fourth), down to a Thomas, who had, I have heard my father say, a son called Garrett, who had issue two sons, Patrick and Thomas. Patrick was always, in that part of the country, considered the heir to this title. Patrick and Thomas had issue, (living or dead I know not), but should imagine dead; as, had they been living, they would no doubt have come forward when the late earl claimed the title, as he claimed it as being descended from the youngest son of the first earl, whereas Patrick and Thomas were certainly the descendants of one of the elder sons of the first earl; and therefore, had the sons of either Patrick or Thomas come forward, it would no doubt have been decided in their favour. On this account, it was several years before the late earl's claim was fully confirmed, as it was thought that some of the descendants of the elder branches might come forward. This would have attracted my attention earlier had I not been abroad.

    An Hibernian.