Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851

History of Bohemian Persecution (Vol. ii., p. 358.).—See note to Worthington's Diary and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 154., for a notice of this work of Comenius, and his other publications relating to the Bohemian church.

    JAS. CROSSLEY.

"Earth has no Rage" (Vol. iii., p. 23.).—

"Earth has no rage like love to hatred turn'd,
And hell no fury like a woman scorn'd."

These are the concluding lines of Act III. of Congreve's Mourning Bride. They stand, however, thus, in the edition to which I have referred:

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turn'd,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorn'd."

    JAS. CROSSLEY.
Manchester, 11. Jan. 1851.

Couplet in De Foe (vol. ii., p. 310.).

"Restraint from ill is freedom to the wise,
And good men wicked liberties despise."

The couplet is altered from the following couplet in De Foe's True Born Englishman:—

"Restraint from ill is freedom to the wise,
But Englishmen do all restraint despise."

See collection of his writings, vol. i. p. 20., edit. 1703.

    JAS. CROSSLEY.

Private memoirs of Queen Elizabeth (Vol. iii., p. 23.).—"The Secret History of the most renowned Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex. In two parts. By a person of Quality. Cologne: printed for Will with the Wisp, at the Sign of the Moon in the Ecliptick. M.D.CLXXXI."—is the title of a small volume in my possession, containing some curious hints corroborative of the first part of Mr. Ives' MS. note mentioned in "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. iii. p. 11.). If this be the book to which your correspondent, J.E.C., refers in your last number, he is perfectly welcome to the perusal of my copy.

    WILLIAM J.D. ROPER.

Vane House, Hampstead, Jan. 18. 1851.

Abbot's House at Buckden (Vol. ii., p. 494.).—MR. C.H. COOPER asks, "will M.C.R. explain his allusion to the Abbot's House at Buckden?" Being only an occasional visitor there, I can give no other explanation than it is universally called so by the inhabitants of the place. The house is very low-roomed, and only one story high; it has been compoed over, so that there is nothing very ancient in the look of the brickwork, excepting the chimneys, which form a cluster in the centre. The door I mentioned, evidently is an ancient one. A good deal of iron about it, and in square compartments.

When I was there recently, I was informed of a discovery in a public-house formerly called the Lion—now, the Lamb. A gentleman in the place came into possession of some pamphlets respecting Buckden; in one of which it is said, that this house was originally the hostel where the visitors and domestics used to go when the bishop had not room at the palace for them, and that it would be found there was an "Agnus Dei" in the ceiling of one of the lower rooms. The consequence was, search was made for it: and what seemed a plain boss, where two beams crossed each other, on being cleansed and scraped, turned out to be as the book said, and which I saw only last week. The clergyman has the pamphlet above alluded to. Whether this, and the abbot's house, belonged to the palace I cannot say. The road now runs between them.

The "Agnus Dei" is seven or eight inches in diameter; the lamb, &c., in the centre, and the words "Ecce Agnus Dei" in a circular border round it.

This is all the information I can now give.

    M.C.R.

Bab in the Bowster (Vol. ii., p. 518.).—In your valuable periodical your correspondent "MAC." makes an observation regarding "Bab in the Bowster," which is not correct so far as regards this part of the country at least. He says "it is now danced with a handkerchief instead of a cushion," whereas the fact is I have never seen it danced but with a pillow, as its name "Bab in the Bowster (Anglice bolster)" would seem to denote. The manner of dancing it is, the company having formed itself into a circle, one, either male or female, goes into the centre, carrying a pillow, and dances round the circle with a sort of shuffling quick step, while the others sing,—

"Wha learn'd you to dance, you to dance, you to dance,
Wha learn'd you to dance, Bab in the Bowster brawly?"

To which the dancer replies:

"Mother learn'd me to dance, me to dance, me to dance,
Mother learn'd me to dance, Bab in the Bowster brawly."

He or she then lays down the pillow before one of the opposite sex, when they both kneel on it and kiss; the person to whom the pillow has been presented going over the above again, &c, till the company tires.

I may add that the above is a favourite dance here, particularly among young people, and at children's parties in particular it is never omitted. If your correspondent wishes the air to which it is danced, I shall be glad to send it to him.

    GLENIFFER.

Paisley.

Sir Cloudesley Shovel (Vol. iii., p. 23.).—"H.J." will find a "Note" in Cunningham's Lives of Eminent Englishmen (vol. iv. p. 47.), of the circumstances attendant upon Sir Cloudesley's death, as preserved in the family of the Earl of Romney, detailing the fact of his murder, and the mode of its discovery. I shall be happy to supply your correspondent with an extract, if he has not the above work at hand.

    J.B. COLMAR.

Noli me tangere (Vol. ii., p. 153.).—In addition to the painters already enumerated as having treated this subject, the artist Le Sueur, commonly called the Raphael of France, may be mentioned. In his picture, the figures are somewhat above half nature.

    W.J. MERCER.

Cad (Vol. i., p.250.).—Jamieson derives this word, or rather its Scotch diminutive, "cadie," from the French, cadet. I have heard it fancifully traced to the Latin "cauda."

    W.J. MERCER.

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

Mr. Disraeli's work, entitled Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First, has been pronounced by one of the great critical authorities of our own days, "the most important work" on the subject that modern times have produced. Those who differ from Mr. Disraeli's view of the character of the king and the part he played in the great drama of his age may, in some degree, dissent from this eulogy. None will, however, deny that the work, looking to its anecdotical character, and the great use made in it of sources of information hitherto unemployed, is one of the most amusing as well as interesting histories of that eventful period. While those who share with the editor, Mr. B. Disraeli, and many reflecting men, the opinion that in the great questions which are now agitating the public mind, history is only repeating itself; and that the "chapters on the Genius of the Papacy; on the Critical Position of our earlier Protestant Sovereigns with regard to their Roman Catholic Subjects, from the consequences of the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy; on the Study of Polemical Divinity prevalent at the commencement of the Seventeenth Century, and kindred themes, are, in fact, the history of the events, the thoughts, the passions, and the perplexities of the present agitated epoch," will agree that the republication of the work at this moment is at once opportune and acceptable.

We have received a copy of Dr. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: a Collection of Old Ballad Tunes, chiefly from rare MSS. and Early printed Books, deciphered from the obsolete Notation, and harmonized and arranged according to Modern Usage. If any thing could add to the extensive popularity which Percy's work has continued to enjoy ever since its first appearance, (for have we not Washbourne's handsome reprint of it, published within this year or two?) it must be the quaint and racy melodies, the "old antique strains," to which these fine old ballads were anciently sung. Dr. Rimbault, who combines great musical acquirements with a rich store of antiquarian knowledge, in giving us these, has produced a work as carefully executed as it is original in its character; one which can only be exceeded in interest by the Musical Illustrations of Shakspeare's Plays, which we are glad to see promised from the same competent authority.

We are at length enabled to announce that The Treatise on Equivocation, so often referred to in our columns, is about to be published under the editorship of Mr. Jardine, whose attention has long been directed to it from its connexion with the Gunpowder Conspiracy; and whose intimate acquaintance with that subject, as shown in his Criminal Trials, is a sufficient pledge for his ability to do justice to this curious and important historical document.

We regret to learn, from the Catalogue of the Museum of Mediæval Art, collected by the late Mr. Cottingham, which has been very carefully drawn up, with a preface by Mr. Shaw, that, if the Family are disappointed in disposing of the Museum to the Government, or by private contract, it will be submitted to Public Sale in April next, and a Collection of the most ample and varied examples of Mediæval Architecture ever brought together, which has been formed at a vast outlay both of labour and cost, will be dispersed, and be thereby rendered inaccessible and valueless to the architectural student.

The Rev. W.H. Kelke has published some Notices of Sepulchral Monuments in English Churches, a work which is not intended for professed antiquaries, but for that large class of persons who, although they have some taste for the subject of which it treats, have neither time nor inclination to enter deeply into it, and as will, we have no doubt, be very acceptable to those to whom it is immediately addressed.

We regret to announce the death of one of our earliest and most valued contributors, Professor T.S. Davies of Woolwich. "Probably few men in England," says the Athenæum, "were better versed in the methods of the old geometers, or possessed a more critical appreciation of their relative merits." His death is a great loss to geometrical science, as well as to a large circle of friends.

We have received the following Catalogues:—Stacey and Co. (19. Southampton Street, Strand) Catalogue of Books chiefly relating to History, Commerce, and Legislation; G. Bumstead's (205. High Holborn) Catalogue of Interesting and Rare Books on the Occult Sciences, America, Asia, &c.

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