Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851

Taylor's Holy Living.—I should be obliged by any of your readers kindly informing me whether there is any and what foundation for the statement in the Morning Chronicle of Dec. 27th last, that that excellent work, Holy Living, which I have always understood to be Bishop Taylor's, "is now known" (so says a constant reader) "not to be the production of that great prelate, but to have been written by a Spanish friar. On this account it is not included in the works of Bishop Taylor, lately printed at the Oxford University Press." I do not possess the Oxford edition here mentioned, so cannot test the accuracy of the assertion in the last sentence but if the first part of the above extract be correct, it is, to say the least, singular that Mr. Bohn, in his recent edition of the work, should be entirely silent on the subject. I should like to know who and what is this "Spanish friar?" has he not "a local habitation and a name?"

    W.R.M.

[A fraud was practised on the memory of Bishop Jeremy Taylor soon after his death, in ascribing to him a work entitled Contemplations of the State of Man in this Life, and in that which is to come, and which Archdeacon Churton, in A Letter to Joshua Watson, Esq., has shown, with great acuteness and learning, was in reality a compilation from a work written by a Spanish Jesuit, named John Eusebius Nieremberg. The treatise Holy Living and Dying is unquestionably Bishop Taylor's, and forms Vol. III. of his works, now in the course of publication under the editorship the Rev. Charles Page Eden.]

Portrait of Bishop Henchman (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—Your correspondent Y.Y. is informed, that there is in the collection of the Earl of Clarendon, at the Grove, a full-length portrait of Bishop Henchman, by Sir Peter Lely. This picture, doubtless, belonged to the Chancellor Clarendon. Lord Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion, b. xiii. (vol. vi. p. 540. ed. Oxford, 1826), describes the share which Dr. Henchman, then a prebendary of Salisbury, had in facilitating the escape of Charles II., after the battle of Worcester. Dr. Henchman conducted the king to a place called Heale, near Salisbury, then belonging to Serjeant Hyde, afterwards made chief justice of the King's Bench by his cousin the chancellor.

    L.

Lines attributed to Charles Yorke (Vol. ii., p. 7.).—The editor of Bishop Warburton's Literary Remains is informed, that the lines transcribed by him, "Stript to the naked soul," &c., have been printed lately in a work entitled The Sussex Garland, published by James Taylor, formerly an eminent bookseller at Brighton, but now removed to Newick, Sussex. The lines appear to have been written on Mrs. Grace Butler, who died at Rowdel, in Sussex, in the 86th year of her age, by Alexander Pope, but, according to Taylor, not inserted in any edition of Pope's works. The lines will be found in the 9th and 10th Nos. of The Sussex Garland, p. 285., under "Warminghurst."

    W.S.

Richmond, Surrey.

Rodolph Gualter (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—

"Rodolph Gualter naquit à Zurich en 1519, et y mourut en 1586. Il fit ses études dans sa ville natale, à Lausanne, à Marbourg, et en Angleterre. Rodolph, son fils, mort en 1577, avait fait de très bonnes études à Genève, en Allemagne, et à l'université d'Oxford."

The above I have extracted from the account of him given in the Biographie Universelle, which refers as authority to "J.B. Huldrici Gualtherus redivivus seu de vita et morte Rod. Gualtheri oratio, 1723," in the Biblioth. Bremens., viii. p. 635. In this memoir I find it stated:

"quod Gualtherus noster unà cum Nicolao Partrigio Anglo in Angliam iter suscepit. Quatuor illud mensibus et aliquot diebus finitum est, inciditque in annum seculi trigesimum."

But neither in this, nor in the account of his life by Melchior Adam, nor in that contained in Rose's Biographical Dictionary, can I find any trace of the opinion that he was a Scotchman; and as Huldricus was himself a professor in the Athenæum at Zurich, he would probably be correctly informed on the subject.

    TYRO.

Dublin.

"Annoy" used as a Noun (Vol. ii., p. 139.).—Your correspondent CH. will find three good instances of the use of the word annoy as a noun (in addition to the lines cited by him from Wordsworth) by Queen Elizabeth, George Gascoigne, and Mr. Keble:

"The doubt of future woes exiles my present joy,
And wit me warns to shun such snares as threaten mine annoy."

    See Ellis' Specimens of Early English Poets, ii. p. 136.
"And as they more esteeme that merth
Than dread the night's annoy,
So must we deeme our dayes on erth
But hell to heauenly joye."

    Good morrowe; see Farr's Select Poetry, &c., p. 38.
"High heaven, in mercy to your sad annoy,
Still greets you with glad tidings of immortal joy."
Christian year, "Christmas Day."

    H.G.T.
Culprit, Origin of the Word (Vol. ii., p. 475.).—See Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England, iv. 408. note (p).

    C.H. COOPER.

Cambridge, Dec. 14. 1850.

Passage in Bishop Butler (Vol. ii., p. 464.).—The "peculiar term" referred to by Bishop Butler is evidently the verb "to Blackguard." It is for this reason that he inserts the condition, "when the person it respects is present." We may abuse, revile, vituperate an absent person; but we can only "blackguard" a man when he is present. The word "blackguard" is not recognised by Johnson. Richardson inserts it as a noun, but not as a verb.

    L.

Wat the Hare (Vol. ii., p. 315.).—Your correspondent K. asks what other instances there are of Wat as the name of a hare? I know of one. On the market-house at Watton the spandrils of an Elizabethan doorway have been placed, taken from some old building in the town. This has a hare on one side, a ton on the other,—a rebus of the town name Watton.

    H.H.

The Letter

(Vol. ii., p. 492.).—Yerl for Earl, and yirth for earth, &c., are, to this day, quite common in Scottish orthoëpy among many of the lower classes.

    G.F.G.

Did Elizabeth visit Bacon at Twickenham Park? (Vol. ii., pp. 408. 468.).—To this question your correspondent J.I.D. replies with a quotation from Nicols (edition of 1823), who dates her visit in 1592 or 1593. I had looked into Nichols's first edition (1788) without finding the subject mentioned; and I am now inclined to think, as at first, that it is altogether a misapprehension. Sir Francis Bacon, in His Apologie in Certaine Imputations concerning the late Earl of Essex, written to the Right Hon. his very Good Lord the Earle of Devonshire, Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Lond. 1604, in 16mo. pp. 74., says, at p. 32.:—

"A little before that time, being about the middle of Michaelmas terme, her Maiestie had a purpose to dine at my Lodge at Twicknā Parke, at which time I had (though I professe not to be a poet) prepared a Sonnet, directly tending and alluding to draw on her Maiesties reconciliation to my Lord," &c. &c.

This I conceive to have reference to an intention of Elizabeth, rather than to an accomplished fact.

At p. 14. of this work, Bacon says he had sold Twickenham park some time ago to Reynold Nicholas. I consider Lysons to have been the first author who mentions the subject and at Environs, vol. iii. (1795), p. 565., there is a note: "From the information of the Earl of Orford." And I therefore conclude it to have been some mistake of Lord Orford's.

    YOUR FORMER CORRESPONDENT.

Dec. 27. 1850.

Mock-Beggar (Vol. ii., p. 478.).—The origin of this term was discussed in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1840. Two localities so called were cited (vol. xiv. p. 114.), with the opinion of Sir William Burrell, that some buildings so named at Brighton had been "a mendicant priory." Another writer (p. 331.) suggested that the term was applied to country houses when deserted or unoccupied; or to rocks, as one near Bakewell, where the semblance of a ham might attract a wayfarer from the high road, only to deceive his expectations of relief.

    J.G.N.

Cardinal Chalmers (Vol. ii., p. 493.).—The insignia mentioned by your correspondent S.P., in No. 60, are very common among Roman Catholic ecclesiastics on the Continent, and are frequently to be seen on tombs. The hat and tassels are appropriated to Notaries Apostolic of the Holy Roman See, as well as to Cardinals and the dignity having some privileges attached to it, it is sought after by ecclesiastics of standing.

    HYDE CLARKE.

Binsey, God help me! (Vol. i., p. 247.).—I remember the same words respecting the village of Binsey, half-way between Oxford and Godstow. During the winter and spring months it was nearly all under water, like Port Meadow, on the opposite side of the river: so if you asked a Binseyite in winter where he came from, the answer was as above; if in summer, "Binsey, where else?"

    CHAS. PASLAM.

Midwives Licensed (Vol. ii., p. 408.).—On this subject I would refer S.P.H.T. to Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, under the head of "Midwives," which is all nearly that can be ascertained at present on that head. Among other things it says in the oath taken of them,—

"You shall not in anywise use or exercise any manner of witchcraft, charm, or sorcery, invocation, or other prayers, than may stand with God's law and the king's."

    M.C.R.

Dr. Timothy Thruscross (Vol. ii., p. 441.)—There are frequent notices of Dr. Thristcross, or Thruscross, in Dr. Worthington's correspondence. (See Vol. i. of same, edited for the Chetham Society. Index, voc. "Thristcross.") Dr. Worthington observes, p. 219., "I did love to talk with worthy Mr. Thirstcross, who knew Mr. Ferrar and Little Gidding."

    JAS. CROSSLEY.