Notes and Queries, Number 58, December 7, 1850

Mivart's Hotel, London.

Dryden's "Absolom and Achitophel" (Vol. ii. p. 423.).—The passage in Absolom and Achitophel is taken from Fuller's Profane State, speaking of Alva:

"He was one of a lean body and visage, as if his eager soul, biting for anger at the clog of his body, desired to fret a passage through it;"

and from Carew, p. 71.,

"The purest soul that ere was sent
Into a clayey tenement."

    C. B.
Cabalistic Author (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—"W. C. or twice five hundred." The meaning is very evident. V. signifies five, and C. one hundred. W. is two V's, therefore W. C. twice five hundred.

    Terra Martis.

\[ [Another correspondent points out that W. C., the author, may probably be William Cooper the printer.] \]

Twickenham—Did Elizabeth visit Bacon there? (Vol. ii., p. 408.).—

"At Twickenham Park, either in this [1592] or the following year, through the immediate interest of his steady patron, the Earl of Essex, Mr. Francis Bacon had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth, where he presented her with the sonnet in honour of that generous nobleman."—Nichols's Progresses of Queen Eliz., 2d ed. iii. p. 190.

    J. I. D.

Legend of a Saint and Crozier (Vol. ii., p. 267.)—The incident is related of St. Patrick and one of the kings of Cashel, and formed the subject of the first picture exhibited by James Barry. In the Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties, London, 1831, (art. Barry, p. 159.) it is stated that:

"The picture was painted in his twentieth or twenty-first year, on the baptism by St. Patrick of one of the kings of Cashel, who stands unmoved while the ceremony is performed, amidst a crowd of wondering spectators; although the saint, in setting down his crosier, has, without perceiving it, struck its iron point through the royal foot."

    Este.

Becket (Vol. ii., pp. 106. 270. 364.).—It so happens that, before seeing, Mr. Venables' communication, with his quotations from the Monasticon (Vol. ii., p. 364), I had taken an opportunity of looking into a friend's copy of that work, and had there found what seems to be a key to the origin of the designation "St. Thomas of Acon or Acres." It is stated, in a quotation from Bp. Tanner, that

"The hospital [in Cheapside] consisted of a master and several brethren, professing the rule of St. Austin, but were of a particular order, which was about this time instituted in the Holy Land, viz. Militiæ Hospitales S. Thomæ Martyris Cantuariensis de Acon, being a branch of the Templars."—Monast. vi. 646.

and the same title occurs in the charter of Edward III. (ibid.) Now it appears to me that the words de Acon here relate, not to the saint, but to the order which took its name from him; and this view is confirmed by the passage which Mr. Venables quotes from Matthew of Westminster, as to the foundation of a chapel in honour of St. Thomas, at Acre, in Syria, A. D. 1190. It is easy to suppose that in course of time, especially when the origin of the designation had been cast into the shade by the cessation of the Crusades, and the ruin of the great order to which the brethren of St. Thomas were at first attached, the patron himself may have come to be styled de Acon or of Acres: and this seems to be the case in the Act of 23 Hen. VI. (Monast. vi. 247.)

Allow me to ask a question as to another point in the history of Becket. Among his preferments is said to have been the parish of "St. Mary Littory or ad Litters," which is commonly supposed to mean St. Mary-le-Strand.[3 - We have in the name of this church an answer to A. E. B.'s Query, Vol. ii., p. 396., as to whether the Strand was ever known as Le Strand,—the Church of St. Mary-le-Strand.—Ed.] My friend Mr. Foss, in his elaborate work on The Judges of England, contradicts this, on the ground that there was then no parish of that name; and he supposes St. Mary-at-Hill to be intended. Now the words ad Litters would be alike applicable as a description in either case but it appears to me that, if the city church were meant, it would be styled, as it usually is, ad Montem, and that ad Litters is Latin for le Strand. Was there not then an ancient church so called, until the demolitions of Protector Somerset in that quarter? And is not the common belief as to Becket's parish correct? I ask in great ignorance, but not without having vainly searched some books from which information might have been expected.

    J. C. R.

Aërostation (Vol. ii., pp. 199. 317. 380.).—I happen to remember a few old verses of a squib on Lunardi, which may be enough seasoned with the dust of oblivion to interest some of your readers.

"Good folks, can you believe your eyes?
Vincenzo di Lunardi
Has made a voyage to the skies,
That foreigner foolhardy!

"He went up in a round baloon
(For moon is luna, Latin),
To pay a visit to the moon;
A basket-boat he sat in.

"And side by side the moon, he cried
'How do, fair cousin moon? eh!'
Through telescopes they were espied,
Baloon—Lunardi—Luna.

*       *       *       *       *

"When weary on the wing, to perch
Once more, and air abandon,
Quite apropos he swooped in search
Of solid earth to 'Stand-on.'[4 - Standon, Herts, where he alighted.]

*       *       *       *       *

"Now after all remains to tell
How learned Mr. Baker,
Set up a moonstone where he fell,
And called the field 'wise-acre.'

Perhaps some of your correspondents could supply the remaining stanzas. I fancy there were several more. As far as I can remember, they chiefly related to M. Lunardi's conversation with the moon, which, involving some political allusions, did not so much hit my youthful imagination at the time. When a boy, I have frequently heard my father repeat the lines.

    C. J. F.

Aërostation, Works on (Vol. ii., pp. 317. 380.).—If your correspondent who inquires respecting works on aërostation will look into the Revue des Deux Mondes for October 15, he will find an article on that subject, detailing the various attempts made from the time of Montgolfier down to a very recent period.

A still later communication has been made to the world in the French newspaper, La Presse, of yesterday's date (Nov. 7th), relating, in terms of exultation, a successful experiment made in Paris by Messrs. Julien and Arnault to steer a machine against the wind, in which hitherto impracticable attempt they are said to have completely succeeded at repeated times, and the mechanical means by which they attained their object are detailed.

    J.M.

Oxford, Nov. 8.

Kilt (Vol. ii., p. 62.).—Your correspondent Σ. will find some information regarding the introduction of the kilt into Scotland in a volume entitled Notes to assist the Memory in various Sciences, 2d edition, London, Murray, 1827. I quote the passage, p. 297.:

"The Pheliebeg. Thomas Rawlinson, an iron-smelter and an Englishman, was the person who, about or prior to A. D. 1728, introduced the pheliebeg, or short kilt, worn in the Highlands. This fact, very little known, is established in a letter from Ewan Baillie, of Oberiachan, inserted in the Edinburgh Magazine for 1785, and also by the Culloden Papers."

The writer of that work, and of that daring statement, was, I have been informed, a Scottish military gentleman of the name of Hamilton. This origin of the kilt is also mentioned by Mr. Robert Chambers in his Life of Duncan Forbes, of Culloden. See his Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen.

    Scotus Secundus.

Edinburgh, Nov. 22.

Bacon Family (Vol. ii., p. 247.).—The origin, of this surname is to be found, I conceive, in the word Beacon. The man who had the care of the Beacon would be called John or Roger of the Beacon. Beacon Hill, near Newark, is pronounced in that locality as if spelt Bacon Hill.

    W. G. S.

Mariner's Compass (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—The "fleur de lis" was made the ornament of the northern radius of the mariner's compass in compliment to Charles of Anjou (whose device it was), the reigning king of Sicily, at the time when Flavio Gioja, the Neapolitan, first employed that instrument in navigation.

    O. P. Q.