1

are more worn than the use of the chamber at the assumed period would warrant. The existence of this sacred asylum must have been familiar to the heads of the family for several generations; indeed, evidence of this was afforded by a packingcase directed "For the Right Honble. the Lady Petre, at Ingates tall Hall, in Essex;" the wood of which was very much decayed, and the writing in a firm and antiquated style. The Petre family left Ingatestone Hall between the years 1770 and

1780.

The "hiding-place" measures fourteen feet in length, two feet one inch in width, and ten feet in height. Its floor-level is the natural ground line; the floor is composed of nine inches of remarkably dry sand, so as to exclude damp or moisture. The Hall itself is of the age of Henry VII.; but it is difficult to determine whether this chamber is coeval therewith, or the work of the next century. The style of brickwork of the party wall is very similar to that of the main walls, with this difference, that the bricks in the latter, with few exceptions, are two and a quarter inches in thickness, while those in the former agree only in this respect to the height of four feet, above which the majority of them are two and a half inches in thickness. The mortar joints throughout are large; the courses of brick range round the four walls, and the party wall is slightly toothed into the external walls. The top of the party wall gathered over in six courses receives a "double floor sixteen inches thick over the "hiding-place," while the rest of the room above is a single floor measuring only seven inches,- -a circumstance affording strong evidence that the "secret chamber" is an addition to the original structure. A cursory examination of the sand composing the floor brought to light a few bones, small enough to be those of a bird, and in all probability the remains of food supplied to some unfortunate occupant during confinement.

alternately under and over, and thickly nailed; the nails are clenched at the back, and each of the cross-bands is made into a hinge, so that the lid hangs upon five hinges. There are two hasped locks, each rivetted on by three long staples made ornamental by chisel-cuts on the face; a projecting rib formed like the letter S encircles the keyholes; and there is a third means of fastening adapted for a padlock in the centre. At the ends are long thin handles in quaint character like the rest. Considering its antiquity and the original lightness of its make, the chest is in good preservation; the lining is nearly gone; the wood, iron, and leather of the bottom, and the metal of the top, are all much decayed.

These few notes would be incomplete if a small and rudely-modelled clay candle-holder, stuck firmly against the end wall about three feet from the floor, passed unnoticed. Since it bears no peculiar stamp of age, it would be useless to speculate upon its origin: the surface, hollowed to receive a candle, contains some particles of sand.

Other examples of "priests' hiding-places" I understand are to be met with at Lawston Hall, Cambridgeshire; Coldham Hall, Suffolk; Maple Durham, and Upton Court, Berkshire; and at Stonyhurst, the ancient seat of the Sherbourne family, in Lancashire. HENRY TUCK.

ON A PASSAGE IN SHAKSPEARE'S "KING HENRY
VIII.," ACT IV. sc. 2.

Mr. Charles Kean, in his splendid revival of Shakspeare's King Henry VIII., having laudably restored the vision scene; on recurrence to it an emendation has suggested itself to me, of which I think he will gladly avail himself; and although, as my own edition of the play is printed, I cannot insert it in the text, I have no doubt that in all future editions it must be adopted.

After the vision vanishes, and the music ceases, the queen's attendants are struck with her altered appearance, and, as it stands in the folio, Patience, one of her women, is made to say:

46

Do you note

How much her grace is alter'd on the sodaine?
How long her face is drawne? How pale she lookes,
And of an earthy cold? Marke her eyes?"
Griffith replies,

The most interesting relic is the chest, in which no doubt was deposited the vestments, crucifix, altar-furniture, and sacred vessels. Care was taken that the apartment should be perfectly dry; the chest was moreover kept off the floor by two pieces of oak for bearers. It measures four feet two and a half inches in length, one foot seven inches in width, and one foot ten and a half inches to the top of the arched lid. The wood appears to be yew, and is only three quarters of an inch in thickness, very carefully put together and entirely covered with leather, turned over the edges inside and glued down. The chest was farther lined with strong linen, securely nailed, and the outside edges iron-bound; five iron bands pass In the variorum edition the passage is thus given: round the skirt-way, two others lengthways, and two girt it horizontally. The metal is thin, hard hammered, one and one eighth and one and a quarter inches in breadth, and as it were woven

"She is going, Wench. Pray, pray." On which Patience adds:

"Heaven comfort her."

Do you note

How much her grace is alter'd on the sudden?
How long her face is drawn? How pale she looks,
And of an earthly cold? Mark you her eyes?"

And the following note is subjoined by Steevens: "Mark YOU her eyes?] The modern editors read, Mark her eyes,' but in the old copy, there being a stop of interrogation after this passage, as after the foregoing clauses of the speech, I have ventured to insert the pronoun you, which at once supports the ancient pointing, and completes the measure."

Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier, in their respective editions, of course reject the interpolation by Steevens, and correct the absurd corruption earthly, but leave the line defective as it appears in the folio, only substituting a note of admiration after "Mark her eyes!" and both without any remark.

In Mr. Collier's Notes and Emendations, founded on his mysterious second folio, we have the passage

thus noticed:

And of an earthy coldness? Mark her eyes.' Such we may confidently believe was the original reading; to say that a dying person looks of an earthy cold,' is at least a peculiar expression, though 'cold' is very often used as a substantive."

It is marvellous that this last remark, "to say that a dying person looks of an earthy cold, is at least a peculiar expression," had not led Mr. Collier to see that it was also applicable to coldness. I read the passage thus :

66

Do you note How much her grace is alter'd on the sudden? How long her face is drawn! How pale she looks, And of an earthy colour! Mark her eyes!" Whoever consults the passage in the first folio, will see how easily the misprint arose. Cold? is thus huddled together with the note of interrogation; and color, as written, would easily be mistaken for it.

Your Lordship has heard that yesterday, about better. By his death are some vacancies; and noon, worthy Mr. Carstairs left this world for a among them that of being one of His Majesty's chaplains. The Lord Advocate will recommend to his Grace and your Lordship's favour, Mr. Simple, Minister of Libberton, to succeed Mr. Carstairs as chaplain. He being my old and good acquaintance, and with me once at London, I humbly beg liberty to tell your Lordship of his being a sufficient man, and of his being employed to compile the history of this church, wherein he has been at great pains and charge in collecting materials here and in England, and has several Acts of Assembly in his favour, which will make the countenancing him one obligation upon our clergy. What at this time will recommend him to your Lordship is, that he has given equal and successful marks of his zeal; and with 250 men accompanied his Grace to Leith, and afterwards went thence to Seaton House, and for three months has kept up about 120 men at Libberton, on his own charge. He was the first who apprehended any of the rebels who came over the Frith [of Forth], having taken a sergeant and eight private men with the hazard of his life, and afterwards apprehended Mr. Douglas, by whom considerable discoveries were made, being sent from Kenmure to Mar, and was honoured with thanks from Mr. Stanhope by His Majesty's command. I presume your noble family will wish him the better, that Brunstaine is in the parish of Libberton; and I know in his history he will do justice to the family, being a most sincere well-wisher of it, and will value their countenance in this matter above that

of all others. I hear the salary is about 150%.

* The Duke of Argyle.

That this simple correction restores the metre, and renders the passage more effective as well as more rhythmical, there can be no doubt; and that it is what the poet wrote, I think we may safely conclude. It completes the picture of the suffering queen; her attendants could hardly say that she looked of an earthy or earthly coldness, but they saw that earthy colour, the dusky hue so common on the approach of death, suffused with pallor o'er her countenance. The subsequent "Mark her eyes!" alludes to that almost super-longs to his Grace of Buccleugh. natural brightness which often supervenes in the last moments of the dying. I trust there can be but one opinion about the propriety of the adoption of this simple restoration, and that it may

ANON.

The well-known friend of William III., and called by the episcopalians Cardinal Carstairs.

One of the seats of the Duke of Argyle; it now be

66 ENGLISH, PAST AND PRESENT."

In reading Mr. Trench's interesting book, English, Past and Present, some remarks and illustrations have occurred to me which perhaps may be worth insertion in "N. & Q."

Page 8. Punctilio.] Bacon uses punto (Advancement of Learning, ii. 23. 2., Parker's edition). Page 41. Arride.] Used by Charles Lamb, but with some affectation of eccentricity:

Page 80. Schimmer.] In Kenilworth, in the description of the bedchamber at Cumnor Hall, we find the expression "trembling and twilight seeming shimmer."

Page 80. Heft.] Is not this the same word as haft, the weight by which the blade of the knife or axe is heaved ?

Page 84. Mixen.] Midden or mixen is still heard in Worcestershire, and maybe in the neighbouring counties. Nor is the word used only by labourers. I heard it at Cambridge from the lips of a Wor

"Above all thy rarities, Old Oxenford, what do most arride and solace me are thy repositories of moulderingcestershire man of good birth and connexions, learning, thy shelves."- Oxford in the Long Vacation.

Page 41. Statua.] Collier (on Rich. III. 3. 7.) says that the old folios and quartos give no countenance to the reading statua. He prints statue there and elsewhere, saying that it was pronounced as trisyllable. Bacon has statua; at least the word is so printed in the old editions of the Advancement of Learning.

Fage 51. Silvicultrix.] Better sylv-, as siren than syren (vide p. 191.).

pas

Page 53. Starvation.] It is remarked in the sage alluded to in "N. & Q.," that the word starve is mostly used in old English of cold; and that "starved with cold" is still a common expression in Cumberland. Clem is the word used for starve, as applied to hunger in the Midland and Northern Counties. I have heard a lady (Staffordshireborn) tell a story of an old woman who lived at a distance from her usual place of worship, and being kept at home by a fall of snow for some time, complained that "her soul had been clemmed these three weeks."

and he was surprised that I did not understand him.

Page 92. Nuncheon.] Compare nuncle for uncle, which occurs fourteen times in King Lear, though Shakspeare has used it nowhere else. There is a common saying, "Nunky pays for all." I have met with the word naunt, but I cannot remember where. In Old Poz, Miss Edgeworth makes Mrs. Bustle complain that her servants talk of their sandwich instead of their luncheon. With respect to the derivation of the word from the hour at which the meal was taken, compare the Cambridgeshire words levens and fours, used by labourers for the refreshment they take (when they can get it) at eleven and four.

Page 93. Sad.] Bacon uses this word in its original sense of unmoved, grave (Adv. of L., ii. 23, 4.). It occurs oftenest in old English writers, as applied to clothes of a grave colour.

Page 94. (Note.) Is not the word fall, for autumn, still in common use in America? It remains in England only in the phrase "spring and fall.”

The word fen, mentioned by an American correspondent of "N. & Q," I perfectly remember from my schoolboy days; used, too, exactly in the sense he gives, "je défends." Perhaps he recollects the word jaw for good advice, and crack-jaw as an epithet for a hard word.

Page 56. Perhaps Sir Walter Scott has done as much as any writer of modern times to make Chaucer intelligible to ordinary readers. A great number of Saxon (and French, as flesher, douce, gigot, bonnally, gardyloo, jeisticor, tron,) words are preserved in the Lowlands of Scotland. A sojourn of a few weeks there, in two or three Page 97. Hearten.] Is this quite gone? I have summer tours, and familiarity with Sir Walter's certainly heard it used, particularly of heartening, works, made many expressions in Chaucer's writ-refreshing food; and I think met with it in Enings seem like old friends to me, which I think Iglish books of our own day. should otherwise have found it hard to understand.

Page 58. As Mr. Trench notices a word current among miners, perhaps it may not be amiss to note a few from the railway vocabulary. The navvies (navigators) call the materials of their iron way, plates or rails; the blocks on which they rest, chairs; the timbers laid across for their support, sleepers; the machine used for driving piles, a monkey. Not that these words are new, or changed in form, but they are well chosen, and do credit to their Saxon users. The last must be excepted; at least I have no right to say it is well chosen, since I cannot understand it. There is, I believe, an instrument used on board ship for a somewhat similar purpose, called "a monkey's

tail."

Page 98. Twybill (as it is commonly spelt) survives in many parts of England as a surname.

Page 100. Lightsome.] Burns has "Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose;" and Dryden speaks of "the lightsome realms of love," adopting the word probably from Chaucer. In Northumberland a skittish horse is called boglesome, from bogle; the notion being that he shies at bogles, or spirits, unseen by his rider.

Toothsome occurs in the Ingoldsby Legends. Mettlesome is still in common use.

Page 102. Pinchpenny.] Compare lichpenny (Scott); splitplum, a word I never saw in print, but remember applied to a schoolmaster's wife who was overthrifty.

Page 121. Creep, crope.] Does this form ex