very imperfect eyesight" thus attributed to the magi in not being able to distinguish distinctly two heavenly bodies at such a distance from each other. To me, I must confess, the matter does not seem of any great importance, for if an astrological significance was attributed to the approach of the planets, the exact amount of proximity would not alter it much; whilst as to the notion suggested in some books, such as the earlier editions of Alford's Greek Testament (before the publication of Prof. Pritchard's investigation), that the superposed planets would look like " one star of surpassing brightness," it is simple nonsense, for if Saturn were centrally behind Jupiter, the latter would appear scarcely, if at all, brighter than usual, and a very close approach of Saturn would (as Prof. Pritchard justly remarks) rather confuse than add to the brilliancy of Jupiter. Dr. Upham, of New York, has published a small work in which he suggests that the attention of the magi was indeed attracted by the close approach of the planets, but the guiding object was a new star, which may have come into view about the same time. A similar idea has been expressed by Wieseler, of Hamburg, that this was a comet which appears from the Chinese records to have been seen for a considerable time in the year of Rome 750. (Our Lord was, however, in all probability, born in the year 749.) But the objection, which seems to me to be insuperable, to the guiding star being a heavenly body, either a conjunction of planets, a new fixed star, or a comet, is the impossibility of such a body appearing to move before a traveller, and then to stop and stand over a house or particular spot. We must go back, then, to the opinion of St. Chrysostom, and believe that it was a strictly miraculous appearance resembling a star : Ὅτι γὰρ οὐ τῶν πολλῶν εἰς ὁ ἀστὴρ οὗτος ἦν, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ἀστηρ, ὡς ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ, ἀλλὰ δύναμις τις ἀόρατος εἰς ταύτην μETασXημATIO Vεîσarvov. This does not affect the question of any significance that may have been attributed by the magi to the near approach of Jupiter and Saturn in B.C. 7 (year of Rome 748), and of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars in B.C. 6 (year of Rome 749). Another question on this subject was started many years ago in "N. & Q." by MR. HENRY WALTER (2nd S. iii. 293), as to the place to which the magi repaired to find and worship the infant Christ. This is usually supposed to have been Bethlehem; but most modern commentators think that the flight into Egypt must have been after the presentation in the temple, which could hardly have taken place subsequently to the Massacre of the Innocents. Now, as St. Luke records that after the presentation the holy family returned to Nazareth, MR. WALTER suggested that it was there that the visit of the magi took place; and that, although they were directed when at Jeru salem to proceed to Bethlehem, the reappearance of the star caused them to change their direction and repair to Nazareth instead, taking care not to let the king know where they had gone. Bp. Wordsworth, however, thinks that their visit took place after another journey made by the holy family to Bethlehem on the occasion of one of the great annual feasts at Jerusalem. A flight into Egypt certainly seems more natural from Judæa than from Galilee. W. T. LYNN. Blackheath. EDMUND HALLEY, THE CELEBRATED ASTRONOMER.-In 1692 Edmund Halley, the celebrated astronomer, was consulted by a friend as to the acreage of England and Wales. His process was very original. He took the best map of England which he could get, cut out the part which represented the land, weighed it, and compared the weight with that of an inch taken from the middle of the map, the centre of which was a point equiSevern. He found that the land, with the islands distant from King's Lynn and the mouth of the of Wight, Anglesey, and Man, was four times the His calculation gave him weight of his circle. He then in the same manner 38,660,000 acres. cut out and weighed the several counties. found, after carefully drying the pieces humidity of the air was the great difficulty in his The above note is a singular illustration of the calculation that 40,000 acres weighed a grain. manner in which, before a proper survey, an able The actual acreage is, excluding the Isle of Man, mathematician tried to solve a difficult problem. 37,319,221; and Halley pleads that he should be licensed to the extent of a million acres or so, especially as he had to include rivers and roads. Oxford. He - the JAMES E. THOROLD ROGERS. BULLOCK CARTS.-Mr. Edward B. Tylor, in his Anthropology, p. 200, tells us that in Portugal the old classic bullock cart may still be seen. In these carts the wheels do not revolve on the axle, but the axle turns round with the wheels. It may be well to note that such carts have been used in this part of Lincolnshire within the memory of our grandfathers. My father, who was born in 1793, could not remember ever to have seen one, but his father, who was born in 1766, was familiar with them. They were thought to be better for use on very heavy roads than those with fixed axles. Bottesford Manor, Brigg. EDWARD PEACOCK, A FRENCH TICHBORNE CASE.-I do not know whether any of your correspondents have read a case of disputed identity similar to the famous, or infamous, Tichborne case; but it may be worth while to record here the reference to a French trial in the sixteenth century, bearing, in most of its rubbish in rare binding; I remarked contemptuously, "Where do you expect to get customers for these?" "Oh! I beg your pardon," said the bookseller; we frequently have orders from country gentlemen for so many yards of folio, and so many yards of quarto, to fit up their libraries, and they pay as well as anything." G. G. HARDINGHAM. Temple. FIRST INTRODUCTION OF THE WORD TORY.The following passage seems to me to be well entitled to a place in "N. & Q.": details, a remarkable analogy to our own modern scandal. I happened to find in a large old trunk the other day, among all sorts of discarded literature I had never ventured to examine since it came into my possession some thirty-three years ago, a somewhat entertaining book called the Harvest Home (Salford, A.D. 1807). In vol. i. p. 153, under the head of "The Husband of Two Wives" (related by Thuanus), is a tale of an impostor, one Arnold du Tilb, who claimed to be husband of the wife of one Martin Guerre, and actually lived with her as such for three years-Guerre having been absent altogether eleven years, but just turning "I being at Wallinwells Oct. 24, 1681, they were disup in time to convict the prisoner, who had pre-coursing about a new name lately come into fashion for viously been tried on suspicion and found H. of Chesterfield told me a gentleman was at their house Ranters calling themselves by the name of Torys. Ms. guilty, upon an enormous collection of all sorts of and had a red Ribband in his hat, she askt him what it evidence. One remarkable thing was the testi- meant, he said it signifyed that he was a Tory, whats mony in his favour of Guerre's four sisters; but the that sd she, he ans. an Irish Rebel,-oh dreadful that wife would not swear either one way or the other. any in England dare espouse that interest. I hear T. H. further since that this is the distinction they make instead of Cavalier and Roundhead, now they are called SOLECISMS IN WRITING.-Here is an illustra- Torys and Wiggs, the former wearing a red Ribband, tion of Addison's dictum that "there is scarce a the other a violet-thus men begin to commence war, solecism in writing that the best_author is not other a Scotch title for fanaticks or dissenters, and the the former is an Irish title for outlawd persons, the guilty of." The hero of Lord Lytton's novel Torys will Hector down and abuse those they have Devereux, when visiting the Palace of Versailles, named Wigs in London and elsewhere frequently. was much impressed with the grand idea of term- Theres a book called the character of a Tory wherin ing the avenues which led to it the roads "to it runs, A Tory, a Whory, a Roary, a Scory, a Sory: vid." Spain, to Holland," &c.; upon which the friend of Oliver Heywood's Diaries, &c., 1630-1702, vol. ii. Bolingbroke remarks, that "in London they would P. 285 (edited by J. Horsfall Turner, 1881). have been the roads to Chelsea and Pentonville." Of this word Prof. Skeat, in his Dict., says, Pentonville received its present name from Henry used about 1680"; hence this contemporaneous Penton, Esq., M.P. for Winchester, who died in evidence is well worthy of record. 1812. Mr. Pinks says that the first buildings in Penton Street were erected in 1773. Exeter. CH. ELKIN MATHEWS. MR. RUSKIN ON POETRY.-In Mr. Ruskin's Elements of English Prosody, at p. 30, it is said: "If only straightforward prose, arranged so as to fall into metric time, were poetry, any one with an ear could write it. But the strength of poetry is in its thought, not in its form; and with great lyrists their music is always secondary, and their substance of saying primary -so much so that they will even daringly and wilfully leave a syllable or two rough, or even mean, and avoid a perfect rhythm, or sweetness, rather than let the reader's mind be drawn away to lean too definitely on sound." If "great lyrists" do so, with this or any other object, or by carelessness or chance, is it not a step in the direction of mere prose? The doctrine enunciated by Mr. Ruskin seems to me so questionable as to be worth a little discussion in "N. & Q." But he does not stand alone. Athenæum Club. C. M. I. THE BECKFORD LIBRARY SALE: THE RAGE FOR RARE BINDINGS.-This reminds me of an incident that occurred to me in the shop of a second-hand bookseller. In grubbing, I came across some literary first F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. A FIELDING RELIC.-The following cutting from the Pall Mall Gazette of December 1, 1882, will probably interest many of the readers of "N. & Q.": "At a meeting of the Somerset Archæological Society, which was held at Taunton last week, it was announced that Mr. Merthyr Guest had presented the members with a piece of furniture known as the Fielding table.' It was made for Fielding during his residence at East Stour Manor House, and was left there by him. The table has remained in the house till quite recently, although the estate (which now belongs to the Marchioness of Westminster) has changed hands more than once, and the old manor house is now occupied by a farmer. It is a large, massive oak table, and a brass plate affixed to it bears the following inscription:This table belonged to Henry Fielding, Esq., novelist. He hunted from East Stour, 1718, and in three years dissipated his fortune keeping hounds."" Queries. G. F. R. B. We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. YOOLE-GIRTHOL YOOLE-GITHE.-The following edifying account of the mode of celebrating "Yoole" in the northern metropolis is extracted from a history of York in two volumes, printed by Wilson & Spence, High Ousegate, 1788, and dedicated to Sir William M. Milner, Bart. and Lord Mayor of York :— "The Sheriffs of the city of York have anciently used, on St. Thomas's day the Apostle before Yoole, at toll of the bell, to come to Allhallows Kirk in the Pavement, and there to hear a mass of St. Thomas at the high quiere, and to offer at the mass; and when mass was done to make proclamation at the pillory of the Yoole-Girthol, in the form that follows, by their serjeant: We command that the peace of our Lord the King be well keeped and mayntayned by night and by day, &c. [as was used in the proclamation on the Sheriffs' riding]. Also, that all manner of wh-s, thieves, diceplayers and all other unthrifty folk be wellcome to the town, whether they come late or early, at the reverence of the high feast of Yoole, till the twelve days be passed. The proclamation made in form aforesaid, the four serjeants shall go and ride whither they will, and one of them shall have a horne of brass of the tollbooth, and the other three serjeants shall have each of them a horn, and so go forth to the four bars of the city and blow the Yoole-Githe," &c. Can any of your readers inform me what is meant by the Yoole-Girthol and the Yoole-Githe, or otherwise illustrate the passage quoted? EBORACENSIS. HOOKES'S "AMANDA," 1653.-I should feel obliged if any bibliographical correspondent would give me an exact collation of this book. Lowndes (Bohn's edit., p. 1108) states that it contains a frontispiece and 191 pages, besides title, epistle dedicatory to the Hon. Edward Mountague, complimentary verses, and errata, eleven leaves. Mr. Hazlitt (Handbook, p. 282) gives the collation as 109 leaves, including a leaf before the frontispiece with the word "Amanda" printed upon it, and a leaf of Errata. In his Collections and Notes, 1876, he says that copies of this volume with the half-title, frontispiece, and leaf of Errata are of the utmost rarity. The collation of my copy, which formerly belonged to Mr. Ouvry and Sir Francis Freeling,* agrees with that given by Lowndes. It has, therefore, 107 leaves, instead of 109, as stated by Mr. Hazlitt. It has not the halftitle nor the separate leaf of Errata. Is it certain that these two leaves were ever printed with the book? As for the leaf of Errata, there are six lines of Errata on the verso of a4, the last leaf of the introductory portion. The verso of N8, or p. 192, is blank, and any additional misprints (of which it must be confessed there are many) would naturally have been corrected on it, if they had been discovered before the type was distributed. The leaf of Errata, therefore, if it exists, must have been printed afterwards, and attached to the copies remaining in the bookseller's hands, as was the Mr. Hazlitt says Sir F. Freeling gave Dick of Bury five shillings for a fine copy of this book, doubtless the one in my possession, CUMELING. In a Latin document of 12 Edw. III. (1338) Reginald de Montfort releases to Philip de Wellesleigh all his rights as lord of the hundred of Wellow, co. Somerset, including "butesiis levatis" (hue and cry), "et weifs, extrahuris" (strays), "cumeling in dicto Hundredo advenientibus." I do not find the word cumeling in glossaries. In the Camden Society's volume, Register of Priory of B.V.M., Worcester, p. 16a, among the "Capituli Hundredorum," or heads of inquiry to be made at the Hundred Court of the Sheriff, is this, "Si Kimelingi fuerint arestati et volume, the late Archdeacon Hale, gives no exnon monstrati ut esse debent." The editor of the planation of kimelingi, nor is it in the index. Dictionary for a stranger or guest, and as used The word comeling is given in Halliwell's Archaic in Northumberland for "vagabond" or "gadling." I presume, therefore, that cumeling, following 'strays," in the deed quoted above, signifies a lost animal, but I should be glad of any other instances of the use of the word. J. E. JACKSON. Leigh Delamere, Chippenham. "THE ECONOMY OF PROVIDENCE."-About forty years ago I read a book with the above title. Whether the compiler's name was given on the title-page or elsewhere I cannot call to mind, neither do I know where it was published; but I have a strong impression that it was the work of some local press in Lincolnshire or Yorkshire. The book consisted of a series of extracts from theological writers, showing how, in the compiler's belief, good men had been assisted by the intervention of Providence. Can any of your readers give me such a description of the book as will enable me to identify it? ANON. MEDALS.-I should be greatly obliged if any one could identify for me the following medals. Each is rather larger than a shilling, and the workmanship is alike in all four: 1. Obv., female figure, with shield charged with a lion rampant, reclining in an enclosure; five soldiers with banner advancing in background; men coming to her assistance through the gate; date, 1591; inscription, "Pax Patet Insidiis." swords in enclosure; three other soldiers driving Rev., same female, and two soldiers with uplifted away the enemy, two of whom lie dead; inscription, "Tuta Salus Bello." 2. Obv., trophy of arms and flags; ships on background, inscribed "Rhenus Flu"; over, letters "D.O.M." Rev., inscription, "Signis Ad. Turnhout [?] xxxix. Post Oppidis Trans Rhenum iii. Cis vi. Hispano Trimestri Ereptis"; date, MDXCVII. 3. Obv., half-clothed figure of a man (resembling Job), seated in an attitude of misery; cloud over his head, with Hebrew inscription; round, "Afflictos Docet Viam suam." 1577. Rev., same figure in an enclosure, praying; cloud, with Hebrew writing; inscription, "Liberat a Condemnantibus Animam Ejus." 4. Obv., hand holding a pair of scales; inscription under, "Justa Ratio"; round," Firmum Servandi Fœderis Vinculum." Rev., inscription, "Calculus a Rationibus Provinciarum Foeder: Infer. Germ. Habitis MDXCIIII." The medals are all silver. I should be grateful for an early reply, as also for an estimate of their value. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. The Library, Claremont, Hastings. [2. Turnhout. Maurice of Nassau defeated the Spaniards there, 1597.] charged in the commons fees at the Middle Temple? ALL SOULS.-Is there any church in England dating anterior to A.D. 1500 which bears the dedication of " All Souls"? Deeping Waterton Hall, EDMUND WATERTON. AN OLD LICENSING LAW.-In the year 1440 a code of laws for the "gode rule and governaunce of the Boroughe" of Walsall was issued by the "Mayer and his brethern." From this it appears "that even in those far-off days strict watch had to be kept over the conduct of ale-house keepers. This is evident from the following extract: CIRENCESTER. Near Cirencester (Rudder's Hist. of Glouc.) is "Tor-barrow-hill," as to which there is "a strange account in a paper printed by William Budden, 1685, and preserved in the Bodleian Library among Dr. Rawlinson's papers (p. 347). This paper contains an account of the breaking in upon a large vault by two men who were employed in a gravel pit, and who saw in it a man with a truncheon and a burning lamp, which was extinguished upon their entrance, in the usual manner. Is this paper to be met with elsewhere? If not, will any one at the Bodleian, if it is not too long, transcribe, or fully abstract it, for insertion in "N. & Q.," with the Editor's permission? It is likely to be of general interest if it is not commonly known. Is anything else known of this pit? ED. MARSHALL. "BUSHY-POINTS."-Prefixed to Newton's edition of Milton (sixth edition, 8vo. 1763) are some lines addressed to the poet by Marvell. He says: "Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure With tinkling rime, of thy own sense secure; While the Town-Bays writes all the while and spells, And like a pack-horse tires without his bells: Their fancies like our bushy-points appear, The poets tag them, we for fashion wear." The "Town-Bays" is, I suppose, the Poet Laureate. To whom does their refer? "Readers" is the last antecedent, but such a construction seems to convey no meaning. What were bushy-points? When doublet and hose were worn, they were fastened together by a series of tagged ribbons called points. Nares has "busk-point," as an appendage to a woman's attire; but that is altogether a different affair. J. DIXON. "CALF'S-HEAD ROLL."--Can any of your correspondents explain the origin of this item, formerly "XI. Also it is ordeyned, that if eny man kepe at appoynted, to make a fyne therfore, and to sessed by the Mayer. And if by ons or twyes warnyng do not amend, then the same ale house to be put downe by the comandment of the Mayer and his brethren." Can any of your correspondents supply further information as to the power of local authorities over ale-houses in the olden time? the ale or sportynge in theyre houses, aft. the howers TROWBRIDGE.-What is the origin of the name of this place, seeing that the first syllable does not represent the name (at any rate, the present name) of any river? Can that syllable be connected with the Welsh tru, a whirl or bend (i.e., of the small river near the town), which the English may have adopted and affixed to the bridge (literally and verbally) in later times? The place is not mentioned in Domesday, and appears to owe its origin to a castle erected there during the civil war between Stephen and Matilda. W. T. LYNN. Blackheath. HERALDIC ANOMALIES.-The husband, instead of impaling his wife's coat of arms with his own, wears her coat surmounted by his own crest. His own coat does not appear at all. The same man changes his family crest-an eagle displayed-to an eagle displayed with the legs cut off. His son restores the legs to the crest. Is there any reason for these apparent whims? The man lived in the time of George II., and was a supporter of the Hanoverian succession. His father and his son (who restored the legs) were Jacobites. Does this throw any light on it? IGNORAMUS. inasmuch as, now that I have shown the word buffetier to have had a very distinct existence, he can no longer say, "I do not find......buffetier.” As for my words, "the opinion now so commonly entertained," to which PROF. SKEAT seems to take exception, they were intended not to express my own view, but to give that of PROF. SKEAT himself, when he says, "I suppose it is hopeless to protest against what all believe." I cannot see either that I have strained the meaning of buffetier in any way. The word buffet in its early days meant, among other things, the counter, dresser, or, as we should now say, bar of a tavern, upon which stood the mixed wine (hence of the tavern sold across the counter. From the called vin de buffet, or bar-wine) which the owner word buffet in this sense came buffetier, which, therefore, properly speaking, meant bar-man, but came to mean taverner, tavern-keeper, because in such small establishments the man who served at the bar was commonly the proprietor of the establishment also. At a later period the word buffet rose in the world, and came to mean a sideboard in the houses of the more wealthy, and even in royal residences, and this is still the ordinary meaning of the word.* All that I attempted to show, therefore, was that, as when buffet meant bar the derived noun buffetier meant one who waited or served at a bar, so when buffet came to signify sideboard, buffetier might well have meant one who waited at a sideboard. And that it did so, or was about to do so, surely the definition given by Godefroy (who does not mention, and probably does not know, the word beef-eater, and is therefore quite unprejudiced), viz., sommelier, which is more or less the equivalent of our butler, goes some way to show. I say "or was about to do so," because there is one point which PROF. SKEAT either forgets or ignores, and which yet must be taken into consideration when the words buffetier and beef-eater are considered, and that is, that between the beginning of the sixteenth century and 1755 (when, I believe, Johnson's Dictionary appeared), that is to say, during two hundred and fifty years, there is no full or trustworthy dictionary of the English or French spoken and written during that period.† It is impossible to say, therefore, for certain what meanings buffetier had during all this time, and Buffet is now also used in France of the table or tables upon which, at balls, are arranged the refreshments constituting a stand-up supper; and in France and England of the refreshment counters, or even of the refreshment rooms, at railway stations. The word has, therefore, returned in some degree to its former level. (6th S. vi. 361, 432, 491.) PROF. SKEAT now writes as if I had advocated the derivation of beef-eater from buffetier; but this is not the case. I was simply anxious to secure for the derivation from buffetier fairer treatment than it f Stratmann's Old Eng. Diet, does not go beyond the had received at the hands of PROF. SKEAT, and, as fifteenth century, neither does the Old French dictionary I said in my note, to show that PROF. SKEAT of Godefroy, whilst Littré's Dict., though it contains much would have to modify somewhat his article on able as a reference for it, because no article is, I believe, Old French belonging to the period named, is not availbeef-eater; and it is clear that, whatever repug-written upon any word which is not still more or less in nance he may feel to do so, he must modify it, use. |