Notes and Queries, Number 185, May 14, 1853

    Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

Bankruptcy Records.—Where can I search for evidence of a bankruptcy, probably about 1654? The Chief Registrar's indices do not go back nearly so far.

    J. K.

Golden Bees.—Napoleon I. and II. are said to have had their imperial robes embroidered with golden bees, as claiming official descent from Carolus Magnus. Query, what is the authority for this heraldic distinction, said to have been assumed by Charlemagne?

    James Graves.

Kilkenny.

The Grindstone Oak.—Can any of your topographical correspondents state what is the earliest mention made of an oak tree well known in this part of the country, and the destruction of which by fire, on the 5th of November, 1849, was the subject of regret to all who had seen or heard of it? It was called the Grindstone Oak, and had been a denizen of the forest of Alice Holt, as many suppose, since the days of the Confessor. It measured thirty-four feet in circumference, at the height of seven feet from the ground; and is mentioned by Gilbert White, in his History of Selborne, as "the great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. Marsham to be the biggest in this island."

    L. L. L.

Near Selborne, Hants.

Hogarth.—About the year 1746, Mr. Hogarth painted a portrait of himself and wife: he afterwards cut the canvass through, and presented the half containing his own portrait to a gentleman in Yorkshire.

If any of your numerous readers are in possession of any portrait of Mr. Hogarth, about three feet in length, and one foot eight inches wide, or are aware of the existence of such a portrait, they will confer a favour by addressing a line to

    J. Phillips,
    5. Torrington Place, London.

Adamsons of Perth.—Can any of your Scottish correspondents inform me what relationship existed between Patrick Adamson, titular Archbishop of St. Andrew's, and the two learned brothers, Henry Adamson, author of the Muses' Threnodie, and John Adamson, principal of the college at Edinburgh, and editor of the Muses' Welcome; and whether any existing family claims to be descended from them? They were all born at Perth. Henry and John were the sons of James Adamson, a merchant and magistrate of the fair city. Probably the archbishop was a brother of this James Adamson, and son of Patrick Adamson, who was Dean of the Guild when John Knox preached his famous sermon at St. John's. Mariota, a daughter of the archbishop, is said by Burke to have married Sir Michael Balfour, Bart., of Nortland Castle Orkney. Another daughter would appear to have become the wife of Thomas Wilson, or Volusenus, as he calls himself, the editor of his father-in-law's poems and other publications.

    E. H. A.

Cursitor Barons of the Exchequer.—Will you allow me to repeat a question which you inserted in Vol. v., p. 346., as to a list of these officers, and any account of their origin and history? Surely some of your correspondents, devoted to legal antiquities, can give note a clue to the labyrinth which Madox has not ventured to enter. The office still exists—with peculiar duties which are still performed—and we know that it is an ancient one; all sufficient grounds for inquiry, which I trust will meet with some response.

    Edward Foss.

Syriac Scriptures.—I am very anxious to know what editions of the Scriptures in Syriac (the Peshito) were published between Leusden and Schaaf's New Testament, and the entire Bible in 1816 by the Bible Society.

    B. H. C.

Replies

PSALMANAZAR

(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 435.)

Having long felt a great respect for this person, and a great interest in all that concerns his history, I am induced to mention the grounds on which I have been led to doubt whether the letter in the Gentleman's Magazine, to which Mr. Crossley refers, is worthy of credit. When I first saw it, I considered it as so valuable an addition to the information which I had collected on the subject, that I was anxious to know who was the writer. It had no signature; but the date, "Sherdington, June, 1704," which was retained, gave me a clue which, by means not worth detailing, led me to the knowledge that what thus appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1765, had issued from "Curll's chaste press" more than thirty years before, in the form of a letter from the person now known in literary history as "Curll's Corinna," but by her cotemporaries (see the index of Mr. Cunningham's excellent Handbook of London) as Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, sometime of Dyot Street, St. Giles's, and afterwards of a locality not precisely ascertained, but within the rules of the Fleet, and possibly (though Mr. Cunningham does not corroborate this) at some period of her life resident in the more genteel quarters which Curll assigns to her. To speak more strictly, and make the matter intelligible to any one who may look at it in the Magazine, I should add that the first paragraph (seventeen lines, on p. 78., dated from "Sherdington," and beginning "I dined," says the letter writer, "last Saturday with Sir John Guise, at Gloucester") is part of a letter purporting to be written by her lover; while all the remainder (on pp. 79-81.) is from Corinna's answer to it.

The worthless and forgotten work of which these letters form a part, consists of two volumes. The copy which I borrowed when I discovered what I have stated, consisted of a first volume of the second edition (1736), and a second volume of the first edition (1732). The title of the second volume (which I give as belonging to the earlier edition) is:

"The Honourable Lovers: or, the second and last Volume of Pylades and Corinna. Being the remainder of Love Letters, and other Pieces (in Verse and Prose), which passed between Richard Gwinnett, Esq.; of Great Shurdington, in Gloucestershire, and Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, Jun., of Great Russel Street, Bloomsbury. To which is added, a Collection of familiar Letters between Corinna, Mr. Norris, Capt. Hemington, Lady Chudleigh, Lady Pakington, &c. &c. All faithfully published from their original Manuscripts. London: printed in the Year M.DCC.XXXII. (Price 5s.)"

The title-page of the first volume (second edition) differs principally in having the statement that the book was "printed for E. Curll" (whose name does not appear in the earlier second volume, though perhaps it may have done so in the first of that earlier edition), and an announcement that the fidelity of the publication is "attested, by Sir Edward Northey, Knight."

The work is a farrago of low rubbish utterly beneath criticism; and I should perhaps hardly think it worth while to say as much as I have said of it, had it not been that, in turning it about, I could not help feeling a suspicion that Daniel Defoe's hand was in the matter, at least so far as that papers that had belonged to him might have come into Curll's hands, and furnished materials for the work. It would be tedious to enter into details; but the question seemed to me to be one of some interest, because, in my own mind, it was immediately followed by another, namely, whether Daniel had not more to do than has been suspected with the History of Formosa? Those who are more familiar with Defoe than I am, will be better able to judge whether he was, as Psalmanazar says, "the person who Englished it from my Latin;" for the youth was as much disqualified for writing the book in English, by being a Frenchman, as he would have been if he had been a Formosan. He acknowledges that this person assisted him to correct improbabilities; but I do not know that he anywhere throws further light on the question respecting the help which he must have had. Daniel would be just the man to correct some gross improbabilities, and at the same time help him to some more probable fictions. Under this impression I recently inquired (see "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 305.) respecting the authorship of Pylades and Corinna, and the possibility that it might be the work of Defoe; but I believe that my question has not been answered.

I have already trespassed unreasonably on your columns; but still I must beg, in justice to a man whose character, as I have said, I very highly respect, to add one remark. When his imposture is referred to, it is not always remembered that when he came to this country he was not his own master. It seems that he rambled away from his home in the South of France, when about fifteen years old; that he spent about two years in wandering about France and Germany, and astonishing people by pretending to be, at first a converted, and afterwards an unconverted, Formosan; that when performing this second, pagan, character, he arrived at Sluys, where a Scotch regiment in the Dutch service, under Brigadier Lauder, was stationed; that the chaplain, named Innes, detected the fraud, but instead of reproving the lad for his sin and folly, only considered how he might turn the cheat to his own advantage, and render it conducive to his own preferment. The abandoned miscreant actually went through the blasphemous mockery of baptizing the youth as a convert from heathenism; named him after the brigadier, who stood godfather: claimed credit from the Bishop of London for his zeal; and was by the kind prelate invited to bring his convert to London. The chaplain lost no time in accepting, was graciously received by the bishop and the archbishop, snapped up the first piece of preferment that would answer his views (it happened to be the office of chaplain-general to the forces in Portugal), and made off, leaving his convert to bear the storm which was sure to burst on him, as best he might. That a youth thus tutored and thus abandoned, before Johnson was born, should have lived to attract his society, and win from him the testimony that he was "the best man" whom he had ever known, gives him a claim to our respect, which seems to me to be strengthened by everything which I have been able to learn respecting him.

    S. R. Maitland.

Gloucester.

CONSECRATED ROSES, ETC

(Vol. vii., p. 407.)

Had G.'s Query referred solely to the consecration of The Golden Rose, I might have given him a satisfactory answer by referring him to Cartari's essay on the subject entitled La Rosa d'Ora Pontificia, &c., 4to. 1681, and to the account (with accompanying engraving) of the Rose, Sword, and Cap consecrated by Julius III., and sent by him to Philip and Mary; and to Cardinal Pole's exposition of these Papal gifts, which are to be found in the 1st volume of F. Angeli Rocca, Opera Omnia (fol. Rome, 1719). In the authors to whom I have referred, much curious information will, however, be found. I take this opportunity of saying, that as I am about to submit a communication on the subject of The Golden Rose to the Society of Antiquaries, I shall feel obliged by any hints which may help me to render it more complete; and of putting on record in "N. & Q." the following particulars of the ceremonial, as it was performed on the 6th of March last, which I extract from the Dublin Weekly Telegraph of the 9th of April.

"On Sunday, the 6th [March, 1853], the Benediction of the Golden Rose, was, according to annual usage, performed by the Pontiff previously to High Mass, in the Sistine Chapel, celebrated by a cardinal, at which he assists every Sunday during Lent. To the more ancient practice of blessing, on the fourth Sunday of 'Quaresima,' a pair of gold and silver keys, touched with filings from the chains of St. Peter (which are still preserved in Rome), the Holy See has substituted that of the Benediction of the 'Rosa d'Oro,' to be presented, within the year, to some sovereign or other potentate, who has proved well deserving of the Church. The first positive record respecting the Golden Rose has been ascribed to the Pontificate of Leo IX. (1049-53); but a writer in the Civitta Catolica states that allusion to a census levied for its cost may be found in the annals of a still earlier period. The Pontiffs used formerly to present it annually to the Prefect of Rome, after singing Mass, on this Sunday, at the Lateran, and pronouncing a homily, during which they lifted the consecrated object in one hand whilst expounding to the people its mystic significance. Pius II. (1458) is the last Pope recorded to have thus preached in reference to and thus conferred the Golden Rose; and the first foreign potentate recorded to have received it from the Holy See is Fulk, Count of Anjou, to whom it was presented by Urban II. in 1096. A homily of Innocent III. also contains all explanation of this beautiful symbol—the precious metal, the balsam and musk used in consecrating it, being taken in mystic sense as allusion to the triple substance in the person of the Incarnate Lord—divinity, soul, and body. It is not merely a single flower, but an entire rose-tree that is represented—the whole about a foot in height, most delicately wrought in fine lamina of gold. This being previously deposited between lighted candelabra, on a table in the sacristy, is taken by the youngest cleric of the camera, to be consigned to his Holiness, after the latter has been vested for the solemnity, but before his assuming the mitre. After a beautiful form of prayer, with incense and holy water, the Pontiff then, holding the object in his hand, imparts the Benediction, introducing into the flower which crowns the graceful stem, and is perforated so as to provide a receptacle, balsam of Peru and powder of musk. He then passes with the usual procession into the Sistine, still carrying the rose in his left hand; and during the Mass it remains beneath the crucifix over the altar. If in the course of the year no donation of the precious object is thought advisable, the same is consecrated afresh on the anniversary following. Some have conjectured that the Empress of France will be selected by Pius IX. to receive this honour in the present instance; but this is mere conjecture. On a former occasion, it is true, the Golden Rose was conferred by him on another crowned head of the fairer sex—one entitled to more than common regards from the Supreme Pastor in adversity—the Queen of Naples."

    William J. Thoms.

CAMPBELL'S IMITATIONS

(Vol. vi., p. 505.)

It is curious that two of the passages pointed out by Mr. Breen, as containing borrowed ideas, are those quoted by Alison in his recent volume (Hist. Eur., vol. i. pp. 429, 430.) to support his panegyric on Campbell, of whose "felicitous images" he speaks with some enthusiasm.

The propensity of Campbell to adapt or imitate the thoughts and expressions of others has often struck me. Let me then suggest the following (taken at random) as further, and I believe hitherto unnoticed, illustrations of that propensity:

1.   "When front to front the banner'd hosts combine,
Halt ere they close, and form the dreadful line."

    Pleasures of Hope.
"When front to front the marching armies shine,
Halt ere they meet, and form the lengthening line."

    Pope, Battle of Frogs and Mice.
2.   "As sweep the shot stars down the troubled sky."

    Pleasures of Hope.
"And rolls low thunder thro' the troubled sky."

    Pope, Frogs and Mice.
3.   "With meteor-standard to the winds unfurl'd."

    Pleasures of Hope.
"The imperial standard which full high advanc'd,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind."