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Burton, of Heath, Dr. of Physick and Mary Henson, of St. Delpike parish in York, by License." Dr. Burton died on Jan. 19, 1771, and was buried in the church of the Holy Trinity, in Micklegate, York. His wife, who died on Oct. 28 following, aged fifty-eight, was interred near her husband. An admirable memoir of the learned author of the 'Monasticon Eboracense' appears in the Yorkshire Archæological and Topographical Journal, 1871–2, Lond., 1873, vol. ii. p. 403.

17, Hilldrop Crescent, N.

DANIEL HIPWELL.

BURIAL BY TORCHLIGHT.-In the Athenaeum of Feb. 4 (No. 3406, p. 148) are the remarks:"In the seventeenth century and the earlier part of the eighteenth, burial by torchlight was a common custom among the upper classes. We know of one case which has occurred almost within the memory of living people."

There is detailed support for this assertion in Mr. A. F. Robbins's 'Launceston, Past and Present,' in which it is stated (pp. 298-9), in explanation of an entry in the parish sexton's note-book, that, at a burial by torchlight, the church was "Crowded with Spectator's, Some Very Disorderly ":—

"This was of Christopher Morshead Lawrence, who died at the age of sixteen, and was interred at eight o'clock in the evening on March 2, 1816. His father, Humphry Lawrence, who died at Whitely, Lifton, on April 2, 1811, had received a similar funeral, the remains being met at the head of Race Hill, at half-past eleven at night, by the mayor. corporation, and tradesmen of the town, and, amid muffled peals, escorted by torchlight to St. Mary Magdalene's, where they arrived exactly at midnight, and were buried in the family vault."

The following extract from the St. James's Gazette of April 30, 1886, brings the matter down to a much more recent date :

"The burial by torchlight a few nights since of Mr. Robert Staples, a landlord and magistrate of Queen's County, recalls one of the most striking scenes in The Antiquary, where the Countess of Glenallan was interred in the Abbey of St. Ruth's to the smoky light of many flambeaus.' Until the early years of the present century, torchlight burials were by no means uncommon...... The prohibition of burials first in churches and next in churchyards had much to do with the practical extinction of an old and picturesque custom."

DUNHEVED.

PALFREY AND POST.-Palfrey is undoubtedly the modern form of the Low Latin paraveredus; but does the latter really mean an extra post horse, as Lewis and Short, Skeat, and others tell us? We all know that horses were kept by the state for use on the cursus publicus of the Roman empire. These horses were animalia publica, that is, owned by the state, and employed as Occasion required. There was no occasion for extra horses on the cursus publicus; in a case of need the public stock was increased at the public cost, and a horse so added was called veredus, like any other Roman post horse that carried couriers

on the cursus publicus. When the courier left the post road, he was entitled to a paraveredus, which means and was intended to mean a horse pressed into the public service for use away from the regular post road. The veredus served on the post road; the paraveredus served on the cross road, and was private property, temporarily supplied by the local authority for imperial uses. A glance at the Theodosian Code, 'De Cursu Publico,' especially with the luminous notes of Gothofredus, will prove convincing. The terms survive to this day, veredus being the German Pferd (which is not derived from paraveredus), while paraveredus has become palefroi in French, and palfrey in English. The palfrey was the horse supplied to the king or his representative, and thus came to mean a noble and gentle horse, as distinguished from a war horse; but this meaning came only with the days of chivalry. The cursus publicus, together with the supplementary service on cross roads, had disappeared; the public veredus, as state property, was gone; but the obligation of towns and communes to supply paraveredi for royal use, especially on state occasions, remained, chiefly in France, though traces of it are found in England and elsewhere. Originally, then, the vulgar German Pferd and the gentler palfrey are post-office terms; for the cursus pubiicus was a real post office, though used for government purposes only or mainly. The post office fell with other things when the barbarians broke over Europe. In 1464, to give the date of the first postal law in more recent days, the modern post office began, in France, and with it came new words in the place of veredi, &c., the first use of post in the present sense being, perhaps, the term "chevaucheurs en postes" (post-riders) in the French ordinance of 1487. The word immediately became the property of all Europe, meaning a messenger, and then simply haste, as in many English writers of the sixteenth century, in Shakespeare, and in the English Bible. How the later postilion was coined, is not clear. It is a little hard to imply dissent from Lewis and Short, Skeat, Ducange, and Grimm; but their postal articles do not always tally with the service they denoted. A solution appears in the Cod. Theod., in the decrees of the Roman emperors, and in the history of the postal establishment, both ancient and more recent. C. W. ERNST. Boston, Mass.

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worst for blame; all fair and above board. No one now doubts which was the fairer; if Alfred Tennyson is still more laughed at than wept over, it is for the same reason that the philosophy of Democritus was more easily learnt than that of Heraclitus; any body can laugh-some eyes are naturally dry."

In No. 3, November 1, 1834, p. 446, it is said that the title of Graham's Vision of Fair Spirits' was "suggested by Alfred Tennyson's Vision of Fair Women.' W. C. B.

"PREVENTATIVE."-I am surprised to find that this gross vulgarism is gaining ground, in spite of its being so plainly against analogy, another instance of the loose way in which too many people express themselves in these days of school boards and what not. An adjective ending in -tative is usually formed from a substantive ending in -tation, as argumentative from argumentation, augmentative from augmentation, representative from representation, &c., whereas from such substantives as attention, invention, deception, prevention, &c., are formed adjectives like attentive, inventive, deceptive, preventive, &c. Indeed it would seem that, as some might say, we needed no ghost to tell us that. Yet this spurious word, like so many others, has passed muster and is getting more and more into use, though there is not an "Academy in England, as there is in France, to spoil the good old mother-tongue by authority.

Queries.

F. E. A. GASC.

We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only privato interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

OCTAGONAL FONTS, WHEN INTRODUCED.-In the Rochdale parish churchyard has recently been discovered an ancient stone font. It is two feet high, eight feet seven inches outside diameter at its widest part, across the top it measures two feet eight inches, the basin being one foot eleven inches wide and twelve inches deep. On the brim (which is four and half inches wide) are the four holes showing where the staples or iron rods were inserted to which was attached the lid or cover (fonts before the Reformation being locked). At one side of bottom is the hole through which the water was drawn off. This font is made of native coarse sandstone, is without any ornamentation, but is massive and symmetrical and it is octagonal. When did this shape first come into use? Are there any examples of Saxon or Norman fonts which are octagonal ?

HENRY FISHWICK.

LOOPS. Was it customary at any date to fasten garments with loops instead of buttons, each loop having the succeeding one drawn through it,

the last of the set being secured by a buckle and
strap, after the fashion of some modern gaiters ?
My reason for asking the question is that in a
rough Plough Monday play, lately noted down
from the dictation of a village lad, when "the
Soldier" threatens "the Fool" with the words,
"I'll make your buttons fly," the latter retorts,
"All my buttons is loops," a response which seems
to require explanation.
Z. Y. X.

'CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL STRIPT AND-
WHIPT.'-Is there any copy of 'The Children of
the Chapel Stript and Whipt,' 1569, known to
exist? It is mentioned by Warton, and it would
greatly help me could I meet with it.
C. C. STOPES.

HENRY MADDOCK.-I should be very grateful to any reader of N. & Q.' who would furnish me with biographical information concerning Henry Maddock (died 1824), author of a 'Life of Lord Chancellor Somers,' and some other works. J. M. RIGG.

9, New Square, Lincoln's Inn.

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HERALDIC.-ID Whalley's Northamptonshire," vol. ii. p. 131, the following coat appears, viz.: "Lane, impaling Argent, three chevrons engrailed sable, which is not to be found in Papworth's 'Ordinary,' the only one at all similar being Arg., three chev. engr. az., for Cother. Can any correspondent supply information as to the above coat? H. M.

SHAKSPEARE AND GREEN.-In a small volume published anonymously, entitled 'The British Theatre,' Dublin, 1750, there is a brief biographical notice of "Mr. William Shakespear." In it the writer makes the following statement :

"His first Acquaintance with the Play-house is said to have commenced about this Time, where it is not unnatural to suppose he was introduced by Thomas Green the Comedian, who, we have learned, was born in the same Town with our Author. But as this is only Conjecture, we shall not think it improper to alledge Reasons for such a Presumption. In the Interlude to the Two Maids of Morelack,' Green, who acted the Clown, entere singing and repeating Verses. One of the Country Girls says to him, Why how now Tom! how long have you been in this Veine? Green answers,

I prattled Poesie in my Nurses Arms,
And born where late our Swan of Avon sung
In Avon's Streams, we both of us have lavéd,
And both come out together—
The other takes him up short,

He the sweetest Swan, and thou a cackling Goose."

There is a foot-note, written possibly by the owner of the book: "No such passage is there to be found, however he probably met those lines in some ancient play, but forgot the name.-Malone." Malone, who made this comment, evidently held no high opinion of the industrious compiler of this little work. In the fly-leaf is written "The author of this book was Chetwood-who also wrote the

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'Life of Ben Jonson' and 'History of the Stage.' Malone gives this character of him in the present work, 'Chetwood deserves but little credit, having certainly forged many of his dates.' Have these lines or the play ever been traced?

Dublin,

'PHENIX

W. A. HENDERSON.

lesson to be in every man's mind, and have also in Holland their poor-boxes." Pepys thought this worthy of being recorded by him, and indeed it is; but the following inscription, which I found in St. Michael's Church, Derby, deserves also to be mentioned: "Forget not to give, but give and forget." A list of inscriptions of this kind would, in my opinion, be of great interest. PerAND PHOENIX.'-I recently bought The Phenix; or, a Revival of scarce and valu-haps some of your readers will send in those they have remarked in their own circle. able Pieces from the remotest Antiquity, &c.' (1707), expecting to find in it an account of "The Troubles at Frankfort,' the third edition of this tract having been published in the 'Phoenix' of that date (see Introduction to Petheram's reprint in 1846). The title-page of my 'Phenix' gives no promise of a second volume. Are the two works totally distinct in their contents as well as in their spelling of the fabulous bird, or did "a Second Phenix like the First arise"? G. L. FENTON. Clevedon.

66

FATHER ARTHUR O'LEARY.-In the Scottish Review for January, it is stated by the critic, in dealing with Fitzpatrick's' Secret Service under Pitt' (second edition, Longmans & Co.), that Father Arthur O'Leary, the celebrated patriot priest of Ireland, was 8 D.C.L. of Oxford" (Scottish Review, p. 242). What authority is there for this statement? which, if true, is very curious, for O'Leary says that in those days of sectarian prejudice he existed as a friar only by connivance. Mr. Froude essays to show that Father O'Leary was a spy (English in Ireland,' ii. 413, Lib. Ed.). Mr. Fitzpatrick devotes several chapters to an examination of his remarkable career.

FRED. WALCOTT.

BARTON.-Can any reader oblige me with information as to the parentage and immediate descendants of William Andrew Barton, who purchased the estate of Dean water, in Cheshire, in 1616 He is commonly said to have been of the family of Barton, of Smithells, in the county of Lancaster, but his name does not occur in Whitaker's pedigree of that family. Assuming his origin to be as stated, are the Bartons, of Stapleton Park, in Yorkshire, his later descendants, the only remaining representatives of the Lancashire family? W. G.

'ANTAGONISM.'-Can any one say when and where a lecture so named was delivered? The lecturer was some prominent public character, and the date must have been at least some five or six years ago. The lecture was probably given in London.

L.

INSCRIPTIONS ON POOR-BOXES.-Pepys, in his 'Diary' (Sept. 23, 1662), relates that he was told by Sir G. Carteret "how in most cabarets in France they have written upon the walls, in fair letters to be read, 'Dieu te regarde,' as a good

51, Sale Street, Derby.

CHAS. BURION.

ROYAL MIXED MARRIAGES.-When was the last of these, before that of Sigmaringen, between a Romanist and a Protestant? E. L. G.

"JINGO."-Can the use of the word "Jingo" be traced in English to a time prior to the return of Wellington's troops from their campaign in the Basque provinces (1813)? Dr. Brewer says it was introduced with the arrival of the Basque mountaineers used by Edward I. in his Welsh wars; but I doubt the existence of any record to this effect. C. E. E. CLARK.

[See 7th S. vii, 440; ix. 115, 337, 396.] "COUSIN BETTY."-What is a "Cousin Betty," as used by Mrs. Gaskell in the following passage in chapter xiv. of 'Sylvia's Lovers'?—

"I dunnot think there's a man living or dead, for that matter, as can say Fosters wronged him of a penny, or gave short measure to a child or a Cousin Betty." JAMES HOOPER.

Norwich.

"A BOOK CALLED 'CENE.'"-In the 'Firms Burgi' of Thomas Madox (pp. 111-2) is given an account of a curious transaction, in which Stephen, Prior of Launceston, in 1398-9, with several of his canons and other persons unknown, came in the night, armed as for war, into the town of Liskeard, and rescued from arrest its vicar, Henry Frend, and carried away, among other articles, 66 unum librum vocatum Cene pretii xiiis. iiiid.” What would have been this book called Cene," which was worth a mark ? DUNHEVED.

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THE CELEBRATED WAITE.-Readers of Moore's 'Life of Bryon' have long been familiar with the name of Waite. "Went to Waite's. Teeth are all right and white; but he says that I grind them in my sleep, and chip the edges" (Journal,' Feb. 19, 1814). Six years later (Nov. 18, 1820): "The death of Waite is a shock to the teeth, as well as to the feelings of all who knew him." I possess the copy of a long letter which Contessa Guiccioli wrote to her father, June 20, 1837, in which there is a paragraph relating to a prescription that Waite had given her for strengthening the gums: "Mi è stata data dal celebré Waite mio dentista a Londra, e dentista di Lord Byron."

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"In the earliest times of our Christian story our forefathers crowned both the bride and groom with chaplets of flowers; but when the wreath had become a religious symbol and scared ornament, its use was confined to female spouses."-Extract from Brides and Bridals,' by J. Cordy Jeaffreson.

When did this take place? I find from Smith's 'Dictionary of Christian Antiquities' that both bride and groom were crowned as late as 860 A.D. in the Western Church, and probably later in the Eastern, as the crowning was a much more important part of the marriage ceremony there than in the East. Was it ever the custom for the groom to wear a wreath in England? Selden, in his 'Uxor Hebraica,' seems to imply this when he says:

"But it is clear enough from that saying of Sidonius Apollinaris that the custom of crowning bride and groom was prevalent in the most ancient times, both in the east and west, as it is in some places to-day among ourselves."

Can this refer to England? What is the custom of the modern Greek Church? Does the bride wear a wreath ; if so, of what material? Avis.

CARTER'S TRUE RELATION.'-Who was Sir C. K., to whom M. C. addresses "The Author's Letter to the Publisher" in the rare little first edition issued without a publisher's name? The title runs :

"A Most True And exact Relation of That as Honourable as unfortunate Expedition of Kent, Essex, and Colchester. By M. C. A Loyall Actor in that Engagement, Anno Dom. 1648. Printed in the Yeere 1650." The same C. K. writes the address "To the I. C. GOULD.

Reader."

Loughton.

SCOTTISH COUNTIES.-I inquired some time ago of a Scottish Writer to the Signet where I could find any account of the origin of the Scottish counties. Although a man of antiquarian tastes, he could give me no information. The English shires, with one or two exceptions, were in being

previous to the compilation of the Domesday survey, but those of Scotland are, for the most part, of far more recent date. An English student of Scottish history (and, strange as it may seem to the Philistine herd, there are such folk) is puzzled ever and anon by territorial divisions which he can find in no modern map. Surely some Scottish antiquary should take pity on us who have the misfortune to have been born and brought up south of Tweed. ASTARTE.

REFERENCE IN MACAULAY.-In an admirable

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little essay on Culture,' by the late Mr. Thomas Dunmore, in the Universal Instructor,' I find in the closing sentences of it he says:—

"The aim of the student should be to possess a mind such as that attributed to one of the greatest scholars of the present century, of whom Macaulay says: His mind was a vast magazine, admirably arranged. Everything was there; and everything was in its place......The article which you required was not only there, it was ready. It was in its own proper compartment. In a moment it was brought down, unpacked and displayed.""

Might I ask whether any of your readers could enlighten me who it is that Macaulay is here speaking of?

WM. WHYTE.

BIRD FAMILY.-John Bird was born probably between the years 1620 and 1630; his mother, Judith, was living and remarried in 1653. She had dower of lands in Chester (both the county palatine and the city). Can any correspondent help me to identify him or to discover where his parents were married? F. D. HUNTER FAMILY.-I should feel greatly obliged if any of your readers could enlighten me on the following points:

1. Is there any portrait extant of Major-General Robert Hunter, of Croyland Abbey, Lincolnshire, who was Governor of New York, and finally of Jamaica from 1728 to 1734? Where was he buried?

2. Was Major John Banks Hunter, son of the celebrated surgeon John Hunter, ever married? If so, to whom; and what were the date and place of his marriage; and did he have any family? Are any of his descendants now living; and when and where did Major Hunter die ?

3. Were George and Robert Hunter, sons of Robert Hunter, of Kirkland, who married, in 1791, Miss Jean Boyd, of Carlung, ever married? If so, to whom, and what family had they? VENATOR.

'ROOK THE ROBBER.'-Who was the author of a work entitled "Rook the Robber; or, London Fifty Years Ago. By the author of "The Daughter of Midnight.' With thirty illustrations. Drawn by W. H. Thwaites. London, John Dicks, 313, Strand, and all Booksellers"? No date, but presumably somewhere about 1850. A story in the

G. W. M. Reynolds style, running to 240 doublecolumn pages in small type. Also, who was W. H. Thwaites? Was he the same person as Mr. Thwaites, who furnished the illustrations to 'The Lamplighter' in 1855 ? GEORGE C. BOASE.

36, James Street, Buckingham Gate, S.W.

MRS. ANN FRANKS.-The following announcement is to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1771: "Mrs. Ann Franks, aged near 100, at Dulwich. Granddaughter to Theophilus, Earl of Suffolk." Can any readers of N. & Q' inform me who were her parents? I have been unable to find them in the peerages I have consulted. C. H. J. G.

Beplies.

THE POETS IN A THUNDERSTORM. (8th S. ii. 422, 482; iii. 22, 95, 175.) I should be sorry to differ in opinion from so scholarly a writer as your correspondent C. C. B., seeing that I am in sympathy with him as to the relations between poetry and science, as expressed in his own eloquent words (8th S. ii. 133):—

"Until it has been proved that knowledge kille feeling, and that truth is incompatible with beauty, we must believe that the more we know the richer will be our life, and therefore the nobler our poetry."

When I remarked (ante, p. 22) that descriptive poetry is exhausted, I was vain enough to suppose that those readers of 'N. & Q.' who are interested in the subject would remember the argument brought forward by me (8th S. ii. 132) in support of the opinion that art and literature had already attained the highest degree of perfection of which human effort is capable; that the finite mind dealing with finite subjects is capable of exhaustion; but that science, which is infinite, and incapable of exhaustion, will profitably occupy the mind of the future, to the manifest advantage of humanity, because much, if not most, of the suffering to which mankind has been, and is, subject is due to the infraction of natural laws of divine origin; and that they are divine is proved by the rigour with which they inflict their own penalties. And they do this upon the ignorant as well as upon the instructed transgressor, and even extend the penalties to the third and fourth generation. But, by a merciful provision, the recuperative force which follows a return to obedience to the outraged law is more prompt in its action than the slow, death-like working out of the penalty, thus "showing mercy unto thousands that keep My commandments."

If, then, while scientific discovery moves on with accelerated pace, science, instead of the dead languages, were made the basis of education, human beings might be brought to a knowledge of, and

obedience to, those great natural laws on which their happiness and wellbeing for the most part depend. These laws are not only moral, but physical, chemical, mechanical, physiological, social, &c.

I was surprised and pleased a few days ago, on opening for the first time The Life and Letters of George Eliot,' edited by Mr. Cross (new edition, no date), to read the following extract from a letter written about the beginning of 1848:possible. Great subjects are used up, and civilization "The older the world gets, originality becomes less tends ever more to repress individual predominance, highly-wrought agony, or ecstatic joy. But all the gentler emotions will be ever new, ever wrought up into more and more lovely combinations, and genius will probably take their direction."

I have my doubts as to "the gentler emotions being ever new." The poetry that will express them in the future is likely to be but an echo, many times reverberated, from the poetry of the past.

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Since writing the above, I have read, at the last reference, MR. BAYNE'S acute critical remarks on descriptive poetry. I beg to assure him that "that no it has never been assumed by me living poet is equal to description of natural beauty," or that no one attempts such work." What I said was that if the poetry of the future should aim at anything higher than a reflex of the poetry of the past it must borrow wings from science. My argument is that the best marbles have been sculptured, the best pictures painted, the best poetry and prose have been written. The world has not produced a second Phidias, a second Raffaelle, or a second Shakspere. When Goethe produced his 'Götz von Berlichingen,' he took Shakspere as bis model, but was compelled to admit that he could not soar so high; or, as Gervinus puts it, "He had once wished to emulate him; but he felt that the great poet would sink him to the bottom." Even the attempt in the 'Wilhelm Meister' to remodel Hamlet' always appeared to me in the light of an ingenious failure. Among other outrageous changes, he proposed to reduce the acting play to three acts, "the last two lagging sorrily on, scarcely uniting with the rest.” One reason why Goethe failed was that the dramatic ground had been already tilled, and so many harvests gathered in from it that the soil was exhausted; and the success of 'Faust' proved that a comparatively fertile spot had still been left to the rare and judicious cultivator. But as time went on the open spaces became more and more rare; they had been occupied and built over. And this is true not only of the drama, but of the epic, the lyric, the descriptive. Dramas, epics, and lyrics will doubtless continue to be written; but will they live in literature? Ariosto and Tasso produced a crowd of imitators, but I never met with an Italian scholar who could name more than one or two of them. So in descriptive poetry

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