and antiquarian tastes as Thomas Percy, the rector of this small country village; but we may, at all events, hold up his example as worthy of their imitation. It does honour to the memory of the author of Reliques of English Poetry to find him thus usefully employed in preserving the humble annals of his parish for the benefit of those that should come after him.

The title-page to the registers bears the following inscription in his own hand:

"These old Registers were rescued from Destruction, and for their further Preservation gathered into this volume in 1767.

"THOMAS PERCY, Rector."

"Thomas Percy, A.M. (Vicar of Easton Maudit), Instituted Aug. 14, 1756. Appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Geo 3d in 1769, and Dean of Carlisle in 1778 [and Bishop of Dromore in Ireland in 1782.*]

"At the end of this Volume is a Fragment of an an

"A Levy made the 5 Day of ffebruary of 64 a yard land for the carriage of a lode of Coales for her Mats. Šaltpeeter man from Yaxley to Ringstead."

66

that deserved to be preserved.

"Memorandum.

"Feby 25th, 1767. This day I transcribed into the three following Leaves of Parchment all the Articles of Births, Baptisms, and Burials during the years 1756, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764, 1765, 1766, which I found entered in a Paper Register of the Baptisms and Burials of this Parish of Wilbye, viz. all that have happened since I have been Rector of this Parish; and after a very exact Collation of this Copy with the said Originals, I hereby declare it to be very correct and perfect.

"THOMAS PERCY, Rector of Wilbye."

The "fragment" of the "ancient book of rates" contains many curious and interesting entries in reference to the period when the court of Charles I. took up its abode at Wellingborough, in order that the queen might drink the chalybeate water of the "red well." And it appears from them that the adjoining parish of Wilby was laid under contribution for the supplies of her majesty's household. Specimens of the entries as

follows:

boundaries, and the general as well as the local annalist will be grateful to the worthy rector for the care bestowed on its preservation.

W. W. S.

GREEK AND ROMAN GAMES (3rd S. iii. 490; iv. 19, 65); GREEK PROVERBS (iv. 286; v. 104.) In compliance with your correspondent, UUYTE'S request, I here supply the extracts required to illustrate the subject of his communications.

In order that they may occupy little room, I have only occasionally given the Greek original : 1. Meursius, De Ludis Græcorum. (Opp. iii. 1009.) "Quintanus contax prius cum fibula ludebatur, postea illa interdicta, Justinianus Imperator in L. Victum, 1 Cod.

de Aleatoribus. Dumtaxat autem ludere liceat Monobolon, Contomonobolon, Quintanum contaca sine fibula. Iterum in L. Alearum 3 ibid. Deinceps vero ordinat quinque ludos, monobolon, contomonobolon, Quintanum contaca sine fibula, perichyten et hippicen. Erat autem jaculatio, fiebatque sine cuspide ulla, aut ferro; et a Quincto auctore nomen habebat. Balsamon ad Photii Nomocan. tit. xiii. [cap. 29.] Quintanus contax præter fibulam, jaculatio (est) sine fibula, seu ferro; ab Quinto quodam ita nominatus. Meminit hujus ludi etiam Robertus Monachus, Histor. Ierosol. lib. v. [in Bongarsio, p. 51.] Tentoria variis ornamentorum generibus venustantur; terræ infixis sudibus scuta adponuntur, quibus in crastinum Quintanæ ludus scilicet equestris exerceretur. Ubi amplius observa, in equis lusitari solitum, adpensis ad sudes, in terram impactas, scutis."†

called "Hippas," I subjoin another extract from Meursius, ibid. s. v. ἀγκοτύλη:

"Et lusus aliquis luditur, dictus in vola (èv korúλŋ); procedit autem sic: Circumducens quidam retro manus connectit digitos, alius autem quis in concavis manuum quæ sunt volæ, genibus impositis, et ita attollens se, portatur firmiter, obstruens oculos* portantis," &c.

The words, 'Ev korúλy pépei, describing this vehicular or equestrian sport, came to be used as a proverbial saying.

"Ludi hoc genus puerile KOTÚλns copiose explicat Julius Pollux, lib. ix. [122]; Athenæus, libro xi. [P. 479 A]; Eustathius in Homerum [ Il. e. p. 550.] Dictum videtur de iis qui aliena pascuntur liberalitate: quale illud, Equus me portat, alit Rex. Schottus ad Proverbia Zenobii, lib. iii. 60. Gaisford, Oxonii, 1836.

"ii. Du Cange Du Fresne, Glossarium Media et Infime Latinitatis. Quintana, Quintena, Decursio equestris ludicra, &c. Vide Froissartum, 4 vol. cap. 63, p. 187, et quæ de hoc ludicro congessimus in Dissert. 7, ad Join

villum."

Annals of Scotland, ii. 214); the letters upon the stone run from left to right, but Dr. MOORE has been compelled to make them read from right to left, to suit his theory, which requires us to believe that the author of this inscription wrote Hebrew in a style and idiom unknown to the literature of the language. I defy any scholar to show that the translation of Dr. M. can be extorted out of his Hebrew, or that the Hebrew letters you have printed accurately represent either their supposed English equivalents, or what is offered as a translation. is not Hebrew at all; certainly no such noun occurs in the Lexicons, and if it did, it would not be represented by begababa, but by begabeb, or begabab. The Doctor's word is found in Chaldee, where it means 1, stubble; 2, a fleece of wool. Another word with similar consonants has the meaning of "a hill." For the real Hebrew word 21 in the sense of" vault," see the lexicons. 'n' (domiti, as the word is given "in English letters ") can only be derived from

This exercise seems to have been invented to teach those who used the lance to point it well; for in tilts they were bound to give their thrusts between the four members, or they were blamed for their awkwardness."-Memoirs of John Lord de Joinville. To which are added the Notes and Dissertations of M. Du Cange, on the above, &c. Translated by Thomas Johnes, Esq. Vol. ii. pp. 103, 4. BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.

THE NEWTON STONE. (3rd S. v.110.)

If DR. MOORE is right, the man who carved the Newton stone must have been one of no or

dinary attainments. He was familiar with the alphabets called Phoenician, Bactrian, and Lát, and he was acquainted with the Hebrew and Chaldee languages. It is not too much to say, that Dr. M. considers five languages to be represented upon this stone by this one inscription; if we include the Ogham line, there are six. Now it is not easy to conceive the motive for employing five languages in recording the vapid memorial of forty-two letters, as Dr. M. explains it; and in truth I believe that explanation utterly unfounded. To arrive at it, we have to suppose other marvellous suppositions. I mention one or two of them: that the 42 letters on the stone can become 48 when" transliterated" upon paper; that these letters not only change their number, but their order on the stone (Wilson's Prehistoric Does this feature in the game account for the substitution of the word ὀπτική for ἱππική, in the Textus of Balsamon?

66

ineans either to resemble, or to come to an end, to destroy. The very form occurs in Hos. iv. 5, and Jer. vi. 2, where it is translated "lay waste and "destroy" by Gesenius, but in our Bible, "liken" and "destroy." In Ps. cii. 6, it is "I am like." Not one example can be found where the word means silently I rest," as Dr. M. translates it. n, babeth, is rendered" in the house; but in Hebrew the form na means "daughter," and not "home," or "house," which is never so written. The next word Лt, or zuth, is a pure invention of your correspondent's, so far as Hebrew is concerned. What follows refuses to obey even the open sesame" of the magician, and it is left as a most eccentric proper name,-Ab-hamof a wrong-doing, or perverse people; " very perhowha, of which the suggested sense is, "father Hebrew word, or say that they cannot find the verse, no doubt, if they do not believe yy to be a others upon the Newton stone; but assuredly no like Hebrew compound exists as a proper name. We come to the fourth line: min phi nesher, and here I should like to see a genuine specimen of such I was taught that min, as a preposition, dropped a combination as min-phi. When I learned Hebrew, its n before certain letters, of which pe was one. This is not all. Dr. M. gives us new spelling the word for, or rather D. as well as new grammar and lexicon, and writes And what of phi? Fie! It should be written pi, and only means "doctrine" in the vocabulary of your amiable correspondent. The next word, Nesher (eagle) is correctly written and translated; but that it was the name of an eminent Buddhist teacher is only revealed in the pages of "N. & Q." The fifth line, chii caman, is translated "my life was as an overflowing vessel!" A beautiful and quite oriental image. Chayai truly signifies "my

life;" and man is a Chaldee word for vessel; but it would be very hard to show that it means a vessel in the sense put upon it by the new translator of the Newton stone. Both in Chaldee and in Syriac the word has a significance as extensive as the Greek σkevos, or the Hebrew, and would include the arms, armour, and baggage of an army, the clothes they wear, or the ships they sail in. It would therefore include a vessel or vasculum, but only as our own word thing; in fact Dr. M.'s fifth Hebræo-Chaldee line is nonsense. His sixth, sh'p'ha joati hodhi, is no better. "My wisdom was my glory," is a sense which lies not in the Hebrew letters, and certainly not in their fancied English equivalents. In this line we get eleven Hebrew characters for nine in the inscription, as in the preceding line we get nine for seven. But for my knowledge of DR. MOORE's character and previous achievements, I own I should have suspected a hoax in his reading, or at least an experiment, and especially in this last line. Sh'p'ha is taken as an adjective (participial), meaning" overflowing!" The word is found but once (Deut. xxxiii. 19), and then as a noun. The next word, Joati, translated "my wisdom," occurs but twice (Ezr. vii. 14, 15), is properly rendered "counsellors," and is a Chaldee word. Of the last word, I only say that it refers to personal or external beauty or splendour. That your correspondent has lost a fine opportunity of showing that he could say "My wisdom was my glory," is, I think, now apparent. I am sorry, and I am astonished, that after the experience he has had since the publication of The Lost Tribes and the Saxons of the East and West, DR. MOORE should still cling to a shadow, and endeavour to propagate a theory which no scholar in the world will adopt. I had a strong reluctance to reply to the article in your pages, and now I only touch upon a portion of it; and this I do for the sake of those whose studies have not lain in this direction, and who are likely to be led astray. The Newton Sphinx has not found an Edipus in your correspondent, and he has not proved that Hebrew Buddhist missionaries of the tribe of Dan preached in either Ireland or Scotland. Although allusion is made to another like experiment, upon a passage given by Rev. E. Davies, I do not touch that here; is it not recorded in The Lost Tribes, pp. 172, 173? But even of this, I should like to see a copy in the original form. I respect DR. MOORE, but when he ventures to put forth such strange speculations as those above discussed, my spirit prompts me to reply. As I have had direct correspondence with him upon the subject of his book (The Lost Tribes), where he turns Sanscrit into Hebrew, I shall append my name to these remarks upon what seems to me a turning of some Celtic inscription into what DR. MOORE Confesses to be a medley composition of five languages.

B. H. Cowrer.

SIR ROBERT VERNON (3rd S. v. 476; v. 200.)In the Warrington Register of Sept. 13, 1643, there occurs the burial of Sir Robert Vernon, and on April 27, 1667, the same register records the burial of Lady Mary Vernon, widow. It seems probable that these entries relate to the Sir Robert Vernon who, in 1609, was on the council of the Lords Marchers at Ludlow, and to his wife, Mary, the daughter of Robert Needham. Will your correspondent W. F. V., who has so obligingly noticed this query, say on what grounds he states Sir Robert to have died in 1623? W. B.

SORTES VIRGILIANE (3rd S. v. 195.) - Besides Homer and Virgil, it was common among the ancients to practise divination by consulting the works of the Greek poet Museus. This is mentioned by Herodotus (lib. vii. in Polyb.). When this pagan practice was superseded by the use of the Sortes Apostolorum, and Sortes Sanctorum among the Christians, these practices were censured by St. Augustin in these terms: —

"Hi qui de paginis Evangelicis sortes legunt, etsi optandum est ut hoc potius faciant quam ut ad dæmonia consulenda concurrant, tamen etiam ista mihi displicet consuetudo, ad negotia sæcularia et ad vitæ hujus vanitatem propter aliam vitam loquentia oracula divina velle convertere.""—Ep. 119, ad Januar. c. 20.)

F. C. H.

Though unable to answer all the inquiries of SIMON AND THE Dauphin (3rd S. v. 194.)HISTORICUS respecting Simon the shoemaker, and debilitate the body of the unfortunate child, whose infamous charge was to corrupt the morals Louis XVII., I can give the following information:-Simon's Christian name was Anthony; he guillotined the day after him, which was July 29, was involved in the fall of Robespierre, and was native of Troyes. 1794. He was fifty-eight years of age, and was a

F. C. H.

POSTERITY OF HAROLD, KING OF ENGLAND (3rd S. v. 135.)-There is, I believe, no doubt that Harold left issue, though the exact names and number of his children have been disputed. His first wife was Gyda, whose children wereGoodwin; 2. Edmund; 3. Magnus; 4. Gyda.

-1.

His second wife, Edith, Algitha, or Agatha, daughter of Leofric and Godiva, appears to be identical with the Edith so generally called his mistress. Her children were Wolfe and Gunilda, married to the Emperor Henry III.

Another daughter, named by some, is apparently identical with Gyda; and Harold, also spoken of as a son of this monarch, seems a rather doubtful personage; perhaps an illegitimate son.

The above is the conclusion to which I have arrived as respects the children of Harold II., but many of them appear to be considered doubtful by genealogists. The first three enumerated seem to be the least questioned. HERMENTRude.

HARVEY FAMILY (3rd S. v. 42.) — I, like MR. SAGE, am interested in collecting notes about this family, and find his notes very useful. If he has not already the information, I beg to supply the following addenda.

Sir James Harvey, Alderman, Sheriff 1573, and Lord Mayor 1581, was a "Citizen and Ironmonger" of London; and, to judge from Sir Harris Nicolas's Memoirs of Sir Christopher Hatton, had little reverence for clergy or the bishops of that day, which drew from Aylmer, the Bishop of London, a scolding letter, dated March 1, 1581-2- a very model of a letter of sneers and sarcasms. In some notes on funerals, supplied by John Nicholl, Esq., F.S.A. (the respected Master of the Company in 1859), to Mr. Nichols as editor of the Diary of John Machyn (Camden Soc., No. 42), appears an extract from the Ironmongers' books, stating that Alderman Harvey's wife was buried on Monday, June 27, 1580; and that John Masters and Harry Page were appointed stewards, to see to the management for the livery funeral feast at the Hall. Alderman Harvey, who died in 1583, was a "benefactor" to his Company in the year 1573, and by bequests, which came to the guild by their books, 1590.

His son, Sir Sebastian Harvey, Alderman, Sheriff 1609, and Lord Mayor 1618, was also of the same Company; and it is worthy of note that, on November 12 that year, "Izaac Walton, late apprentice to Thomas Grinsell," was "admitted and sworne a free brother" of the same guild; "paying for admission 13d., and 10d. for enrollment." Alderman Harvey's funeral feast is thus described :

"1620. A Court the 12th March, whereas, the lady Harvey hath paid to the Wardens xxi for a dynner for the Companye, the 21 of this moneth, being the funeral day of Sir Sebastian Harvey deceased. It is ordered, that Mr. Thomas Large and Mr. John Wilson shall join with the Wardens for the provision of that dinner, to husband the same to the Company's best profit."

T. C. N.

OWEN GLYNDWR'S PARLIAMENT HOUSE (3rd S. v. 174.)—An engraving of this old building, as it

appeared in the year 1836, may be seen in the Gwladgarwr (a Welsh magazine) for February of the same year. It is there described as being, at that time, in the possession of Col. Edwards, the then M.P. for the Montgomeryshire boroughs. X. Y. Z.

There is a small engraving of the above in the Youth's Instructor and Guardian for August, 1845, accompanied by three or four pages of letterpress respecting it and Owain Glyndwr. G. J. COOPER.

Woodhouse, Leeds.

QUOTATIONS WANTED (3rd S. v. 62, 83, 105.)— I have lately seen another form of the verse enquired for. It occurs in the parish register of Easton-Maudit, Northamptonshire; and is thence copied into the Mirror, vol. xxvi. p. 338:

"Si Christum discis, nihil est si cætera nescis;
Si Christum nescis, nihil est si cætera discis."

F. C. H.

GREAT BATTLE OF CATS (3rd S. v. 133.)-The Catus domesticus has not ceased, I see, to be a myth and a mystery. Successively an idol, an imp, and an inmate, Tybalt or Maudlin, Tom or Tabby, the hic et hæc puss has finally achieved a niche in "N. & Q."

Ireland is the especial field of feline celebrity. Well for her that the witch-finding "reign of terror" has passed away: when any one of the numberless cat-stories which I have heard right seriously narrated would have brought its narrator to the stake! Among them, not one has retained a longer or a stronger hold on my memory than has MR. REDMOND'S Bellum Catilinarium. In my ears it is more than septuagenarial, first and frequently heard when I was quite old enough to estimate (I detest the verb "appreciate") its actual worth; not from the unread cottiers only, but in my own circle of society, with some of whom it was not altogether so apocryphal as the caudal relics of the Kilkenny combatants. In the nineteenth century, were it not for the pleasure of MR. REDMOND's reminiscences, I might be tempted to exclaim-Quousque tandem, Catilina? E. L. S.

ROSARY (3rd S. v. 154.) — Though the institution of the devotion of the Rosary has been attributed to various persons who lived before St. Dominic, such as the Abbot Paul, contemporary with St. Anthony, St. Benedict, Venerable Bede (if this is not a mere play upon a word), and Peter the Hermit, it is well established that St. Dominic was the real founder of the Rosary, about the year 1208. It is certain that the ancient hermits had various methods of counting their prayers. Some used small pebbles, and others had studs in their girdles, upon which they reckoned a certain number of Our Fathers. In

the tombs of St. Gertrude of Nivelles, who died in 667, and of St. Norbert, whose death occurred in 1134, there were found certain beads strung together, which may have been used in a similar manner to our Rosaries; but the devotion, as we have it now, was undoubtedly instituted by St. Dominic. F. C. H.

"RETREAT" (3rd S. v. 119, 202.)-It is ordered in Her Majesty's Regulations for the Army, p. 253, that"The Retreat is to sound or beat at sunset; after which no trumpet is to sound, or drum to beat, in the garrison, except at Watchsetting and Tattoo, and in case of fire or other alarm."

The word is only the French retraite, signifying the retirement of the men from their daily duties, or, perhaps originally, to their quarters; as the Réveille is used for the morning alarm at sunrise. This is the only signification of the word in military parlance, the word retire being always used to express a backward movement.

J. D. M'K.

AN EASTERN KING'S DEVICE (3rd S. v. 5, 173.) I have met with other instances of gardens in the form of maps. The following extract, from the Hull Advertiser newspaper, March 26, 1796, describes a most interesting one:

"The garden of the Thuileries, at Paris, once planted with potatoes, when the wants of the people required the sacrifice, offers now a beautiful and correct map of France. It comprises Jemappe, Savoy, and the other departments which have been conquered and united to the Republic. This idea, which is most carefully conceived to flatter the vanity of the Parisians, is as beautifully executed. Each path marks the boundary of a department. Every mountain is represented by a hillock, every forest by a thicket, and every river has its corresponding streamlet. Thus, every Parisian in his morning walk can now review the whole of the Republic, and of her conquests."

Bottesford Manor.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

INCHGAW (3rd S. v. 154.)—This is not Inchgarvie, as your correspondent conjectures. He will find various references to the name in the Index to Scotch Retours (voce “Fife"), from which it appears to be near to Loch Gelly, in that county; and it will be seen from Thomson's Map of Fife (1827) that Inchgaw Mill is in the parish of Abbotshall, close on the borders of that of Kinghorn, in the same shire. G.

EPIGRAM ATTRIBUTED TO POPE (3rd S. v. 156.) I am much obliged by your double-shotted reply to my query; which, however, did not remove my doubts, and my incredulity has since been rewarded by the discovery of the genuine history of this witticism. It is to be found at p. 287 of Singer's edition of Spence's Anecdotes, and runs thus:

"There was a Club, held at the 'King's Head' in Pall Mall, that arrogantly called itself The World.' Lord

Stanhope (now Lord Chesterfield), Lord Herbert, &c., &c., were members. Epigrams were proposed to be written on the glasses by each member after dinner. Once, when Dr. Young was invited thither, the Doctor would have declined writing, because he had no diamond. Lord Stanhope lent him his, and he wrote immediately:'Accept a miracle instead of wit;

See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ."" When Spence ascribes the epigram to another than Pope, there can, I think, be no doubt about the matter.

The punctuation should be as above, not with the semicolon after the word "miracle."

v.

United Arts Club.

H. W. H.

JEREMIAH HORROCKS, THE ASTRONOMER (3rd S. 173.)—Doctor Olmsted, in his Mechanism of the Heavens, states that Horrocks "died in the twenty-third year of his age." He was only twenty when the transit appeared" (1639). He must therefore have been born in 1619. The register of his birth, if it still exists, will probably be found at the church of Walton-on-theHill, to which, until the year 1698, the oldest church in Liverpool (St. Nicholas) was a chapel of ease; and Lower Lodge, the house were Horrocks was born, is situate in the parish of

Walton.

H. FISHWICK.

TORRINGTON FAMILY (3rd S. v. 56.)-Chauncy, Hist. of Herts, p. 584, in describing the monu ment of Richard Torrington and Margaret his wife, in the church of Berkhampstead St. Peters,

says:

"There is a tradition that this T. was the founder of this church, a man of especial favour with Edmund Plantagenet, Duke of Cornwall, who was son of Richard Plantagenet, the second son of King John, Earl of Cornwall, and King of the Romans, which Richard, full of honours and years, ended his life here, at his castle of Berkhampstead, but was buried at his Abbey of Hales."

His wife Margaret was probably of the family of the Incents, who formerly resided at Berkhampstead, and are interred in that part of the church called St. John's Chapel. One member of this family, John Incent, Doctor of Laws and Dean of St. Paul's, founded the Grammar School in his native town in the 15th year of Hen. VIII. The arms of Torrington (a St. George's Cross), with those of Incent (a bend charged with three roses) are engraved on the monument in quesin stone on the corbels which sustain the upright tion, and bear a great similarity to those carved timbers of the ceiling of the nave, and this circumstance strengthens the tradition I have alluded to, that this Torrington either built the church, or rebuilt that particular portion of it.

H. C. F.

JOHN BRISTOW (3rd S. v. 97.)-The answer to your correspondent S. Y. R. involves a curious example of the progress of error by transmission,