fraudibus: miles saucio hostem ense; lictor macto furem mors duorum erit triumphus æternus, et terminus vitæ ter "Terrificaverunt Otthomannopolitanos Intempestivis anxietudinibus. Debellaverunt Gratianopolitanos, Terriculamentis, Carlomontesii. Depugnaverunt Constantinopolitani, Öpprobramentis illachrymabilibus." Versus recurrentes seu reciproci, ex heroico Pentametrum. "Agros cultor aro non pigra sedulitate. Sedulitate pigrâ non aro cultor agros." Litera Retrograda.-This is a letter regarding a young man to his father, which, read from the beginning, expresses praise, and, from the end (the punctuation at the same time being slightly altered), censure. One sentence, forming about one-fifth of the whole, will suffice : "Pater, filius tuus frugi vivit, nec preciosius tempus, et pecuniam dilapidat; frequentandis identidem templis et gymnasiis, non compotationibus, comessationibus, venatui, aleis, ludis operam dat. Vice versa. "Dat operam ludis, aleis, venatui, comessationibus, compotationibus, non gymnasiis et templis identidem frequentandis: dilapidat pecuniam et tempus preciosius, nec vivit frugi tuus filius, pater." Lusus in litera A. Laus Gulielmi III., &c. "Agglomerata acies, addensans agminis alas, Advolat auxiliis, arvoque affalget aperto: Auriacusque ardens animis, animosior arte, Auctoratus adest, arma aureus, aureus arma Adfremit; auratis armis accingitur armos.' And so on for thirty-three lines more. Echo in Ignaticolas.-This is a long poetical invective against the followers of Ignatius Loyola, extending to fifty-two pages, and containing many references to notorious members of the order and their nefarious doings. Each line ends with an "echo," thus "Patres, Jesu nomen sibi arrogantes, furantur,-urantur. Est societas superba, famosa, passim invisa, orbi fatalis; -talis. Patres quærunt gloriam sui, non Dei majorem ;-o rem! Ignatium, hominem militarem Deo, assimulant,-simulant." Logogriphi.-Virtus, virus, vir, tus. T si sustuleris medio de nomine; rerum Mas caput est; mea cauda petit sibi funus, et ignes." Enigmata. Of these there are upwards of three hundred. We subjoin the sixty-ninth, on a telescope: "Non video; per me facio vidisse remota: Extendor, minuor; manus adjuvat. Aspicis ex me Sidera, quæ fugiunt oculos. Ego servio nautis." We also subjoin one of a different class:"Oo papapa, ii mamama: mors rumrum erit phusphusphus ææænns, et mimiminus vitæ rererenæ: felicicici iii ad pammm mimiminare popopount. "Sic legito voces præcedentes: Obis pater, ibis mater: renæ : feliciter iter ad patriam terminare poterunt." Among some Sententiæ retrograda, p. 414, occurs the famous line which has been discussed in "N. & Q.": "Sator erepo tenet opere rotas." It will be observed there is a slight difference between this version and the common one. If we suppose Erepo to be a proper name, then, some such meaning as this might be educed from this puzzling line, which it is worth noting Bisschop speaks of as ancient (antiquum)—The planter Erepo holds (or arrests) by an effort the wheels. Anagrammata. "Quid est veritas? Est vir qui adest. Cornelius Jansenius. Calvini sensus in ore." I have now furnished the readers of “ N. & Q." with sufficient materials for forming an estimate of this extraordinary volume. Their astonishment will be immeasurably enhanced when they read the following sentence, which comprises the whole of a preliminary address to the reader, with the exception of a reference to the very numerous typographical errors which occur throughout the work: "Si poematum meorum fontes, ingenii tui palato sapiunt, addam præterea ferculorum delicias, quinque alia volumina, eadem, ut hic libellus, forma in octavo imprimenda; quorum secundum volumen erit Heroicorum poematum; tertium Elegiacorum variorum plurimorum: quartum Elegiacorum in Patrem Commire Jesuitam Gallum, qui MARIE STUARTE reginæ Manes consceleravit: quintum Lyricorum: sextum Elogiorum: septimum undecim millium sententiarum fere novarum: octavum Comoediarum ac Tragoediarum Latinarum: nonum denique imaginem secundi sæculi Jesuitarum." The discrepancy between the general and specific enumeration of these MS. volumes is very curious, and not corrected in the list of errata. I suspect the work is rare. Besides my own copy, I have only traced it in three Cataloguesone of these that of Dr. Parr's Library, where it occurs under the head of "Recentiores Poetici, Satirici, Faceti, &c." No note appears to have been found in Dr. Parr's copy, but I may quote what he says of the whole class in which he had placed it: "Most of them very rare, and very expensive; all expensive except one, and that not a very cheap one." Should any of the readers of " N. & Q." desire to see some further specimens of Bisschop's labours, I shall be happy to transmit a few for insertion in its pages. J. D. Edinburgh. ESQUIRE. I have just found the following among some papers, which may be interesting to readers of " N. & Q. : " "In the year 1825, at the Gloster Spring Quarter Sessions, three vinegar-makers indicted certain thieves for a robbery, and called themselves Esquires in the indictment. In proving the case they proved themselves to be vinegar-makers, and the witnesses who swore to that fact, were cross-examined at length as to the fact of their being esquires, which they negatived. On this, Counsellor Ludlow took an objection to the indictment on the ground of misdescription, which was fully argued. He said, that if the culprits were convicted on such an indictment, they might be indicted at a future time for the same offence by the same parties under the true designation of vinegar-makers, without being able to support a plea of autrefois acquit, by the production of the first indictment. It was argued on all hands, that if a person be an esquire, and also a vinegar-maker, he may call himself by his more worthy addition; but it was contended that a person who was not an esquire had no right to call himself so to the detriment of a party accused. In support of the indictment, it was said among other things, that the vinegar-makers might be esquires by reputation, such esquires being mentioned in some old law books; but this was opposed by the dictum of Coke, Reputatio est vulgaris opinio ubi non est veritas. The Court decided against the validity of the indictment, and the thieves were acquitted. Shutt and Justice were the counsel for the prosecutors."-From a note given many years ago by a Barrister who was in the court at the time. H. T. E. LORD GARDENSTON, one of the Judges of the summary of contents the passage is thus indicated: A TESTIMONY TO OUR CLIMATE.-The Times of the 20th instant chronicles the death of eight persons between seventy and eighty, of five between eighty and ninety, and of four over ninety. The united ages of these seventeen persons giving an average of eighty-two years for each. On the 21st we read of fifteen dying between seventy and eighty, of eight between eighty and ninety, and one over ninety. The average of these twentyfour being very nearly seventy-six years a-piece. On the 22nd there appeared two over ninety, six between eighty and ninety, and ten between seventy and eighty. The average here being nearly seventy-nine. On the 23rd, thirteen between seventy and eighty, seven between eighty and ninety, and one over ninety, making an average of seventy-nine and a half each. We suppose our American cousins would say, if these eighty individuals, whose longevity we have noticed, had lived anywhere else but in our own land of fogs and changeable weather, they would never have died at all. Queries. BACH OF NANTWICH. R. C. L. Court of Session in Scotland founded about a century ago the present village of Laurencekirk, on his property in Kincardineshire. To encourage strangers to settle in it, he gave Free Rights (copyholds) at an unusually low rate, and consequently got several of them taken by parties of question- MILTON'S THIRD WIFE AND ROGER COMBERable respectability. He built an inn in the village, and put into one of the rooms an album, inviting travellers to write in it any suggestions or observations; and he called frequently to look at the contents. It is said that he felt much nettled on finding in it one morning the following lines:"From small beginnings Rome of old Became a great and populous city, Though peopled first, as we are told, By outcasts, blackguards, and banditti; Quoth Thomas, Then the time may come When Laurencekirk shall equal Rome."" Edinburgh. ENGLISH WOOL IN 1682.-In turning over the pages of a learned disquisition written by a German and published "Francofurti ad Viadrum' in 1682, I found the following passage relative to the merits of English wool, which may be worth transferring to your columns: "Post Hispanicam præcipua bonitas est lana Anglicana; ut enim oves Anglicanæ nostras Germanicas magnitudine ac pinguedine superant; sic melior etiam illarum lana; cujus rationem reddunt, tum quod pabulis alantur minus lætis, quæ opiliones fugere jubent, tum quod ea regione oves vix bibant, sed ad sitim extinguendam cœlesti fere rore sint contentæ. Quibus alia adhunc adjicitur quod Angli lac agnis non subducant, ut in Germania contingit, sed ejus usum continuum ipsis concedant." This occurs at section 64 of a Dissertatio juridica de Lana et Lanificis, by David Coffler. In the In turning over the leaves the other day of a little book, entitled Description of Nuneham-Courtney, in the County of Oxford, 1797, 8vo, I met with the following note, in the catalogue of pictures in the library, given at p. 28: "Milton, by Vandergucht, after the original in the possession of Lord Onslow; at the back of which is the following inscription: "This original picture of Milton* I bought in the year 1729 or 1730, and paid twenty guineas for it, of Mr. Cumberbatch, a gentleman of very good consideration in Chester, who was a relation and executor of the will of Milton's last wife, who died a little while before that time. He told me it hung up in her chamber till her death, and that she used to say her husband gave it her, to show her what he was in his youth, being drawn when he was about twenty-one years of age. AR. ONSLOW.' In Mitford's edition of Milton's Works (p. vii., note), I read: "The picture of Milton, when about twenty, was in the possession of the Rt. Hon. Arthur Onslow." This portrait forms a frontispiece to Masson's Life of Milton. My object in troubling you with this Note, is, to ascertain the connection between Mr. Comberbach and Mrs. Milton, alluded to in the above * An account of the different portraits of Milton will be found in the Lancashire and Cheshire Hist. Society Publications, vol. xii. p. 135. extract; and I may add, that any information relative to the family of Comberbach, or, as it is frequently spelt, Cumberbatch, will be very acceptable to and gratefully received by me. In the first volume of Pickering's edition of Milton's Works, 1851, there is a pedigree of the family of Milton by Sir Charles Young, Garter. From this, it appears that Milton married three times: first, to Mary, daughter of Richard Powell; second, to Catherine, daughter of Captain Woodcock; both of whom died in child-bed, having had issue. By his third wife-" Elizabeth Minshull of Stoke, near Nantwich, co. Chester, marr. lic. dated 11 Feb. 1662; died, very old, at Nantwich, in 1729 (a relation to Dr. Paget); will, in which she is described as Elizabeth Milton of Nantwich, co. Chester, wid., dated 22 Aug. 1717, proved at Chester, Oct. 10, 1727," he had no issue. To this extract (from Sir G. C. Young's pedigree) there is this note: "Elizabeth Milton, after payment of debts and funeral expences, gives the residue of her effects to her nephews and nieces in Namptwich equally to be divided, without naming them, and appoints her loving friends Samuel Acton and John Allcock, both of Namptwich, exors: the latter only proved the will." From this it would appear that Mr. Comberbach was not an executor. That he knew something of the Milton family, is shown by the annexed extract and note from Peck's New Memoirs of Milton, p. 1:— "Mr. Milton's mother (I am informed *) was a Haughton of Haughton Tower in Lancashire." "* From a letter of Roger Comberbach, of Chester, Esq., to William Cowper, Esq., Clerk of the Parliament, dated 15 Dec. 1736." This letter is, I suppose, lost; but, if extant, it might afford some information. I have consulted the accounts of the Minshull family given by Ormerod (History of Cheshire, vol. iii. pp. 181, 191), and in the Publications of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (Session II. pp. 85, 232), but am not able to discover the connection between Elizabeth Minshull and Mr. Comberbach from them. Mr. Masson (Life of Milton, vol. i. p. 23), AMERICAN AUTHORS.-Can any of your American readers give me any biographical particulars regarding two American poets and dramatists? 1. Jonas B. Phillips, author of Camillus, a play, acted at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, in 1833. He was also author of several other plays. 2. Dr. Ware, author of Dion, a Play, acted at Philadelphia, about 1828. Who was this Dr. Ware? There are two or three American Dr. Wares. I find these authors mentioned in Rees's Dramatic Authors of America, Philadelphia, 1845. R. I. AN ALDINE BOOK.-Looking over a very high shelf of classical books during the Christmas holydays, I met with Pomponius Mela and Solinus, commencing with an address by Franciscus Asolanus, 12mo, Venice, 1518. On consulting A. A. Renouard, I find that it is an interesting edition, considered as science or literature; but I am only concerned here with it bibliographically. Renouard (I write from memory) describes the book on two 8vo pages, but he omits to say that it is printed in Italic letter, that large square spaces have been left for an illuminated or ornamental letter at the beginning of each chapter, which (in my copy) is only a piccolo in the middle of the square. But, in the collation, after mentioning that there should be 233 feuillets and three more, the last with the anchor (one of the most elegant and delightful bookmarks I know), he says nothing of four at the beginning of the book, which there should be to make it complete. The register says that a, b, &c. are in quaternions. Renouard has omitted altogether the four leaves with the star. Will some of those who enjoy the luxury of Aldus's editions, and of Renouard's Alde in 3 vols., be so good as to tell me whether I am correct, and whether the title-page is given literally correct by Renouard, and how it is arranged lineatim? WM. DAVIS. Hill Cottage, Erdington. BEECH TREES NEVER STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. This is an opinion which prevails in Kent, but, strange to relate, in Buckinghamshire, which abounds in these trees, the saying is unknown. On taking some long rides through the woods there last summer, we observed Oak, Elm, and Ash, which had evidently suffered more or less from the thunder-stroke, but not one Beech, though they are often the loftiest trees in the forests. Since this time my friend has made repeated inquiries on the subject, and cannot meet with any one who has seen such a thing. Can any of your readers assist me with any further information? If it be true that the Beech is proof to the electric fluid, it will be very valuable information, as lives are lost almost every year by persons taking shelter from storms of rain beneath trees which are not so favoured. The same thing is said of the Bay (Laurus nobilis) in Italy.* A. A. Poets' Corner. JOHN BRISTOW. - Mr. Samuel Tymms, in his Family Topographer (vi. Cumberland, 37), makes the following statement: "Of Stainton was Mr. John Bristow, who published a Survey of the Lakes after attaining his 94th year. He never employed a surgeon or physician, nor gave a fee to a lawyer; his clothes were spun in his house, and made of the wool of his own sheep." It will be seen that the material matter known as a date is wanting in this account. I cannot trace the publication alluded to. Under the circumstances I have recourse to your columns, in the hope of obtaining from Mr. Tymms or from some other quarter more definite and precise information respecting John Bristow and his book. S. Y. R. BRITISH GALLERY and BRITISH INSTITUTION.I possess a landscape thus inscribed on its back: "Exhibited at the British Gallery, 1821." I want to know in what this designation differs from that of the British Institution (so called at present), where are exhibited the works of the ancient masters, in Pall Mall? L. F. N. CURIOUS ESSEX SAYING. They say in this county "Every dog has his day, and a cat has two Sundays." The former half of the proverb in some form or other may be said to be cosmopolitan, but what can the latter half mean? Does it allude to the supposed tenacity of life of the feline race, or is there any special folk lore attached to it? Poets' Corner. A. A. TO COMPETE.-Can any correspondent favour me with the earliest recognition, in an English work, of this verb? In reading an old smoke [For several articles on this subject see "N. & Q." 1st S. vi. 129, 231; vii. 25; x. 513.-ED.] dried Scotch book, Guthrie's Great Interest, Glasgow, 1736, I find the verb, and I find Jamieson has no other authority than the passage in which I found it independently. He mentions that the verb has no existence in English. It is not in Walker's Dictionary, 1831. J. D. CAMPBELL. EARLDOM OF DUNBAR. Can any of your -- readers inform me whether anything more than may be read in Douglas's Peerage, is known respecting this earldom having been claimed or assumed after the death of George Home, or Hume, A "Lord created Earl of Dunbar in 1605? Dunbar" is mentioned in a paper now before me, dated Feb. 2, 1613-14: who was he? George, Earl of Dunbar, died in January, 1610-11. JOHN BRUCE. 5, Upper Gloucester Street, Dorset Square. ELMA, A NEW FEMALE CHRISTIAN NAME. The late much-lamented Earl of Elgin and Kincardine has left an only surviving daughter by his first wife Elizabeth-Mary, only child of Charles Lennox Cumming-Bruce, Esq. Her name is Lady Elma Bruce. This name of Elma is one I never saw before. Is it a composition from the first syllables of her mother's two names-Elizabeth and Mary? J. G. N. FREEMASONS.-I have lately found an allusion to the craft in a place where it would be least expected. In the edition of the letters and panegyric of Pliny the younger, published at Leipsic in 1805, with notes by Gesner and others, I find the following passage in a note of Gesner: "Novimus, quid nuper de Collegii Fabrûm Liberalium Britannici coloniis per Franciam et Italiam metuerint quidam principes."-P. 528. Perhaps some member of the craft will elucidate this historical allusion of the German annotator. H. C. C. GAINSBOROUGH PRAYER-BOOK. Is anything known of the editor of an edition of the Common Prayer Book, with notes, and "ornamented with a set of elegant copper plates;" bearing the imprint, "Gainsborough: Printed by J. Mozley, MDCCLXXVIII?" The volume is octavo, and contains the Common Prayer; the New Week's Preparation; a Manual of Private Devotions; and Brady and Tate's Psalms. The plates are original enough, and are all inscribed "Gurnill, Sculpt." The book is curious as an edition of the Prayer Book, and as a specimen of the Lincolnshire press. Probably, with a view to escape danger from prosecution, Mr. Mozley put at the head of his title-page: "The Christian's Universal Companion." B. H. C. HACCOMBE AND ITS PRIVILEGES. - Prince, in his Worthies of Devon, under "Thomas Carew," speaking of Haccombe, says thereof." "It is, as to the number of dwellings, the smallest parish in England; consisting but of two dwellings, the mansion-house and the parsonage; but it enjoys privileges beyond the greatest. For it is out of any hundred, and beyond the precincts of any officer, civil or military, to take cognizance of any proceeding therein. And by royal grant from the crown, it is exempted from all duties and taxes, for some noble service done by some of the ancestors of this family [Carew], towards the support What were the services rendered, to gain for this parish such extraordinary privileges? Mr. Maclean, in his Life and Times of Sir Peter Carew, reproduces in a note this account from Prince, but offers no explanation. It is also given in Gorton and other topographical dictionaries. It appears from the Carew pedigree given by Mr. Maclean, that the founder of the Haccombe branch was Nicholas Carew, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century; it is therefore to be presumed that the services in question were rendered by him, or at a subsequent period. I have not been able to find a notice of any grant of the kind in Rymer, but the Index to that work is very faulty. Prince further says that the Rector of Haccombe "'tis said," may claim the privilege of wearing lawn sleeves, and of sitting next the bishop; and is under the visitation only of the archbishop of Canterbury: a kind of chorepiscopus. Lysons, however (Hist. of Devon), denies that the rector has any such privileges.* E. V. THE HAIGHT FAMILY.-I would feel truly obliged for any facts regarding the locality and genealogy of the Haight family which any of your correspondents may be able and willing to communicate. I believe its origin is undoubtedly English, and the limited information I now have, tends to show that one branch of it, at least, settled in this country some little time prior to the middle of the last century, at Rye, Westchester County, N. Y. Perhaps your correspondent, A, who so kindly furnished important facts respecting the Tylee family, may possess and be willing also to impart information touching this inquiry. D. K. N. New York. IRENEUS QUOted. "Irenæus ascribes to the personifications and suspension of the powers of nature by the evil spirits, the apparition of Castor and Pollux, the water carried in a sieve, the ship towed by a lady's hand, and the black beard which became red at a touch."-A Letter to Dr. Gortin, by Thomas Severn, B.D., London, 1759, p. 22. The author quotes abundantly, but seldom by chapter or page. I have found him accurate in those quotations which I could trace. I cannot find the above, and shall be obliged by being told where it is, or where the delusions are mentioned. C. T. H. [These privileges are noticed in our 1st S. ix. 185.— ED.] THOMAS LEE OF DARNHALL, CO. CHESHIRE. According to the pedigree of the Lee family given in Ormerod's History of Cheshire, vol. i. p. 466, Thomas Lee of Darnhall married Frances, daughter and coheiress of R. N. Venables, of Antrobus and Wincham. The issue of this marriage was Nathaniel, born 1655; Thomas, born 1661; Robert, born 1664; John, and Elizabeth. Ormerod says nothing of this marriage or issue of the Thomas is said to have married Jane, daughter of Thomas Lee born in 1661. In a pedigree I have seen, he Davis, Esq. of Corby Park, Northamptonshire. Can any of your correspondents give me any information on this point? D. S. E. LEPEL.-I should be obliged by any information on the following points relating to BrigadierGeneral Nicholas Lepel, father of the celebrated Mary Lepel, who was married in 1720 to Lord Hervey: 1. When did he enter the army? 2. What were his arms? 3. What the date of his death? 4. What is the name of his father? FUSILIER. COL. JAMES LOWTHER.- Col. James Lowther, who was M.P. for Westmoreland, died at Caen, in France, in 1837. Can any of your readers state the day and month? Also, the date of his birth and marriage? F. R. A. WM. RUSSELL M'DONALD. This gentleman, of the Gent. Mag. Feb. 1855, as editor or prowho died Dec. 30, 1854, is noticed in the obituary prietor of a work called The Literary Humourist. What is the date of this publication? Was it a magazine? R. I. КАРРА. POOR COCK ROBIN'S DEATH. Is it a fact that in a church, the name of which I forget, about twenty miles from Stamford, there is a colored glass window containing a representation of the death of poor Cock Robin? If so, could you or any of your readers tell me the name of the church? And are there supposed to be any similar instances ? W. P. P. "LI SETTE SALMI."-Under this title I have a metrical version of the Seven Penitential Psalms, in MS. It comprises 118 verses of eight lines each; one verse to a page, with the Latin text above. The seven psalms are followed by fifteen lines, which I give below for the sake of the interweaving of the Latin lines. Book-worms have |