Queries.

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.

whether in those days it was regarded with such contempt as might seem implied if the term were referable only to these riffraff menials, and the like of them. 3. In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, under date 1532, there is this remarkable entry: "It'm receyvid for the lycens of iiij torchis of the blake garde vjd" (earliest known example of the word). The record suggests more than one question. First, For what were these torches employed? Probably, as suggested by the annotator of Brand's Popular Antiquities' (ii. 215), they were carried in a funeral procession, for the licence of which the parish authorities charged a fee. But who and what were the black guard of torchbearers Were they the palace scullions; or the retinue of "Harry hangman"; or can they have been, as suggested in one modern book of reference, mere link-boys? None of these suppositions seems very probable. Brand's annotator (ubi supra) shows that it was not uncommon for rich men to provide by will for a procession of torchbearers and taper-bearers at their funerals, and also at the "month's mind," poor men to whom a gift in money and meat should be made on each occasion; and it is far more likely that the persons chosen should be just such decent poor men-each having a black garment of his own, perhaps as are got together in villages at the present day to carry a corpse to burial; at least it is unlikely they should be mere riffraff. They might, indeed, be none other than the men whom now we call mutes, who, marching solemnly in attendance on the corpse, might, not inappropriately, and with no external reference, be called "the black guard," as we learn from a passage in a play of Beaumont and Fletcher that they were, in fact, called "blacks." In 'Mons. Thomas,' III. i., Francisco says to the Physicians,

BLACKGUARD. This was originally a collective noun, and has been much discussed in the early volumes of N. & Q.' Setting aside the suggestion of SIR J. E. TENNANT, that for the modern word we may be indebted to Fr. Blagueur, and the whimsy of another correspondent who would assign to the word a Russian (!) origin, we shall acquiesce, up to a certain point, in what has been said about it by Gifford (Note on Ben Jonson,' ii. 169), followed by Abp. Trench and Prof. Skeat. In its early days the word was certainly applied to the lowest dependents of a royal or noble household-scullions, coal-carriers, and guardians of the pots and kettles on a progress from one house to another. If a note in N. & Q.,' 2nd S. viii. 376, may be trusted, the Calendar of State Papers contains a letter bearing date Aug. 17, 1535, which mentions the black guard of the king's kitchen-the earliest known mention in this sense, but I cannot find whether the letter has ever been published. However, it may be doubted whether Gifford's account covers the whole of the ground. 1. What, for instance, does the word mean in this passage of Bp. Jewel (answer to Cole's third letter), writing in 1560" Have the learned men of your side none other doctors? for alas these that ye alleage are scarcely worthy to be allowed amongst the blacke garde." I am disposed to think that he means, "they are not the póμayot, the foremost champions of your Church, but the mere suttlers, the non-fighting camp followers." So the word is certainly used at a later date; e.g., a book called 'The English Theophrastus' (1704) speaks of "the Muses Black guard, that like those of our camp, though they have no share in the Danger or Honour, yet have the greatest in the Plunder.' 2. Again, in an interlude called 'Like wil to like' (1568), a speaker says, "Thou art served as Harry hangman Captain of the black garde"; and the reply is, "Nay, I am served as Haman." Whence it may be gathered with some certainty that Harry (the) hangman was a real personage of the day, whose end had been to be hanged like Haman on his own gibbet. But what was this black guard, with its captain ?-at least it can scarcely have consisted of the palace scullions; and, though the hangman's office would never have been regarded with much favour, it may perhaps be doubted

I lately wrote to the editor, making inquiry about this note and the writer of it, but I have not had a reply.

I do pray ye

To give me leave to live a little longer. You stand about me like my Blacks. It may be worth while to add that later on, towards the end of the seventeenth century, the homeless vagabonds of the town, the "street arabs," were commonly called the black guardthe link-boys, errand-boys, shoeblacks, &c.; but at present no positive evidence is forthcoming to show that the term was applied to them before the time of Charles II.

Here, then, we have two or three usages of the term which do not seem to be covered by Gifford's account of it. The rabble of camp followers may be thought not to differ greatly in occupation or character from the semi-rabble of a palace kitchen; but the black guard of Harry hangman and the black guard of St. Margaret's must surely need further explanation. Is it possible that any earlier mention or allusion may yet be discovered which shall give unity to these

OLD INN SIGNS: "THE WHITE HART."-In the county of Lincoln The White Hart' is found in almost every town, and invariably appears to have been an ancient hostelry sign. What is its origin and why was it so popular in this county? for it does not seem to have been the crest or cognizance of any great family therein. It is generally represented as a stag couchant ar, with chain and collar or. "The Duke of Cumberland" was the sign of an old public-house on my own estate some years ago, presumably representing the " Butcher of Culloden," and the following distich was written on either side of the figure of the man in uniform and on horseback:

Stop, Traveller, do not be in haste, But call and of my liquor taste. And on the reverse side:

Gentlemen, you are welcome, sit at your ease, Pay what you call for, drink what you please. In one town in the county the chief owner, being a strong politician, gave all the inns the prefix of his own political colour, "The Blue Pig," Blue Cow," &c. As every street had one or more of these azure signs, some wags many years ago thought it appropriate to add another upon the owner coming to visit the town, and depicted a blue ass over the door of the house that entertained him. Whether the gentleman relished the joke tradition does not relate. If any one can explain the frequency in Lincolnshire of The White Hart " I shall be much pleased to learn it.

Frampton Hall.

66

C. T. J. MOORE, F.S.A.

"THE STONE AXE."-In the town or village of Sandy, co. Bedford, is an inn with the sign of "The Stone Axe." Is not this a very uncommon inn sign? and what may be its presumed origin ? D. G. C. E.

ARMS OF ARCHDEACON AND WYVILLE.-From what family did the Archdeacons, Wyvilles, and other Westmoreland and Cumberland families derive their arms? Erchediacne is given as bearing Ar., three chevrons sa. bezantée. The Wyvilles of Johnby bear three chevronels braced in base, but differing in tincture. When arms are identical in form, but differing only in colour, is it not a proof of consanguinity to the baronial house who originated the arms? ADA M. CASH.

BLACK-FOOT.-This is a Scotch word, meaning an intermediary in love affairs. I am told that such an agent is, or till lately was, not uncommon in Scotland; and that if ever he be so perfidious as to woo the lady on his own account under cover of his commission, the black-foot is said to have become a white-foot. Jamieson gives black-leg,

black-sole, as equivalents. Can anything be suggested as to the origin or reason of the title? C. B. MOUNT.

14, Norham Road, Oxford.

BLACK-LEG.-The earliest known appearance of this word is in a book called 'Newmarket; or, an Essay on the Turf,' by Philip Parsons, 1771. He adduces it with many other words of turf slang, which he says are "exoticks," unknown beyond the regions of horse-racing. Grose ('Canting Dict.,' 1785) says that turf-sharpers were So called either from their habit of wearing long black whose boots, or in allusion to game-chickens, legs are always black." (Are they ?) Has any one a better suggestion to make? As a mere guess I would ask whether the Scotch word black-foot, black-leg, may have travelled south, and been transferred from agency in love affairs to agency in betting transactions. C. B. MOUNT.

14, Norham Road, Oxford.

SIR RICHARD Cox, BART., LORD CHANCELLOR of Ireland.—1. Can any of your Dublin correspondents tell me if the portrait of Sir Richard Cox, presented by himself to the hospital at Kilmainham, is still in the dining hall of that institution? Has it ever been engraved; if so, by whom? 2. On what ground does the Rev. G. W. Cox claim this baronetcy, which is supposed to have become extinct in 1873? Though this gentleman's name appears in some of the smaller books, he is not acknowledged by Burke, and in Foster (1882) the baronetcy figures in "Chaos." G. F. R. B.

SONG WANTED.-Where can I find the remainder of a song, of which the following is one verse, possibly the first? This verse used to be sung or repeated by an old Irish lady, now dead many years, and was probably picked up by her in her youth, that is, before the commencement of the present century:

Come let us dance and sing

While all Barbadoes bells do ring,
Love plays the fiddle-string
And Venus plays the lute.
Let's be gay while we may,
This is Hymen's holiday.

W. H. PATTERSON.

ORDERS.-Has any history or account of the various orders of knighthood in England, as well as the foreign orders, such as the Black Eagle, Christ, Sun, &c., ever been published? Any information affording materials on this subject would greatly oblige. EDWARD R. VYVYAN.

GAINSBOROUGH'S 'BOY AT THE STILE.'-Can any reader of N. & Q.' inform me where this now is? Smith, in his life of Nollekens, relates that he once found Barthélémon playing exquisitely on his violin to Gainsborough, and the artist exclaiming, "Go on, go on, and I will give you the pic

1

ture of The Boy at the Stile' which you have so often wished to purchase of me." Barthélémon proceeded, and the painter stood speechless-tears of admiration running down his cheeks at Barthélémon's incomparable adagio. Barthélémon having finished, called for his carriage and carried his picture away with him. Supposed to have been sold at his death in 1808. S. V. H.

FAITHORNE.-He married the daughter of Hy. Grant, of St. Michael's parish, Cornhill. The register of St. Dunstan's in the West says the banns were published in Newgate Market three several market days in 1654. Walpole says she was the daughter of the famous Capt. Cround. Now John Graunt, F.R.S., of the Bills of Mortality,' is called Captain in the title-page. Allibone says he was a haberdasher of London. Evelyn says that Petty wrote the book that goes by the name of Mr. Graunt. McCullock thinks not, and that Petty only helped. Pepys calls him Capt. Grant once, but usually Mr. Grant. Burnet says it was Petty's work, and that he did it in the name of one Grant, a Papist, confirming what Evelyn reports. They seem to me to be all wrong together. Walpole, I think, meant to say Graunt, and that the wife of Faithorne was the daughter of Henry, the brother of Capt. Graunt or Grant; but can the haberdasher of the Royal Society be shown to be the brother of Henry of Cornhill? Then I want to know why in the Commonwealth banns were published in the open market. Was this anticipatory of the registrar? C. A. WARD. Haverstock Hill,

PICKELL HERINGE.-I have before me a letter 1 from the late Col. Chester; the question he put to me seven years ago might well be put before your

readers:

I have," he says, "been spending something like a month over the parish registers of St. Olave's, Southwark, extracting anything likely ever to be of use to my. self or anybody else. [So like him that was.] Among other entries I came upon the burial of Peter van Duraunte, alias Pickell Heringe, brewer.' It struck met that the man's brewery might have been upon the spot and so his name given to the wharf and the stairs...... Whether Pickell Heringe is Dutch or German, and if so what is its English equivalent, I do not know; but if it is a legitimate foreign name it is easy to see how it became corrupted into Pickle Herring."

This is the problem I crave to put before your readers. Let me add that a notable place at Horslydown by the river side is named Pickle Herring, wharf and stairs, &c. ; further, Mr. Chaloner Smith, of the Probate Registry, has handed me a note of the will of this man, dated 1584, in which will he directs his body to be buried in the chancel of St. Olave's Church. Perhaps on a further perusal of that will he can help us.

I may add that this exact spot Pickle Herring was once the property of Sir John Fastolfe, close

to his palatial house in Stoney Street, St. Olave's, Southwark. I believe a great deal of business, outside the quasi-regal living at Fastolle Place, was done there. Fastolfe was engaged in Yarmouth trade-then chiefly herrings. The 'Paston Letters' (Kingsley ed., let. cii.) show Sir John as "disburseing money in shipping and boats, keeping house at Yarmouth to his great harm." Further, he was once dispatched to the English soldiers starving in France with a cargo of herrings, out of which mission came the "battle of herrings" in 1429. All these points work well together, and help us to some very interesting knowledge; but this I did not know when Col. Chester wrote to me. Another curious item: that Sir John Fastolfe's place was at Pickle Herring, and that Sir John Falstaff should be in every sense of the word buffoon, or what you will; it might have got its name from him in that character. WILLIAM RENDLE.

"TIME, SPACE, AND ETERNITY.'-Can any of your readers tell me where I can find a small shilling book by Gombach, entitled 'Time, Space, and Eternity'? It was published, I think, about the year 1866.

6

X. P. A.

ANGLO-SAXON NAMES.-The prefix Os to the to be derived from Hús, a house or building; pernames of Anglo-Saxon celebrities is said by some sonal qualities, appearance, or deeds gave the name to the Anglo-Saxon, and not his dwellingplace; for example, Osbald would not mean bold house, nor Oswald house ruler, nor yet Oswyn pleasant house. Bosworth, in his A.-S. Dict.,' gives Os to mean a hero, hence a chief, so that the names quoted would be more likely Bold chief, the prefix be derived from Hús it is strange that ruler, or governing chief; Beloved chief, &c. If we do not meet with these names spelt Huswald, &c. I hope these few examples may induce some one learned in Anglo-Saxon to offer remarks upon the subject. JOHN ASTLEY.

Coventry.

original meaning of this family name, which has THE LYTE FAMILY.-Can any one explain the been variously written Le Lyt (1316), Le Leyt, Lit, Lite, Light? In The Norman People' (Henry S. King & Co.) the name of Radulphus Licheyt or Lichait occurs in 1198, Mrs. and Roger Lete in England in 1272. Could this ancient family have derived their surname from St. Sauveur Lesset in the Cotentin or any other hamlet in Normandy? This family was connected with the baronial house of De Maltravers, of Dorset. The manor of Lycet-Mautravers was in the latter county. In 1349 John de Maltravers was governor of the island of Guernsey. The name of Le Geyt, also Le Guette, occurs in the Channel Islands, and would seem to imply, in Norman

French, "the watch tower." In Mr. George's description of the manor of Lytes-Carey he says, between the oriel windows of the south front is a shield bearing the arms of Lyte and Horsey. The finials of the gables in the east front contain a swan with wings expanded, the other a horse sejant, each holding a shield, modifications of the Lyte and Horsey families. The De Perchevals, surnamed Lovel, were lords of the Castle of Carey, in Somersetshire, and may not the name De Horsey be merely a modification or Anglicized form of De Percheval? The ancient arms of the house of Carey, viz., Gules, chev. ar. between three swans, are precisely those of Lyte. Besides the swan as crest the Guernsey branch of the Carey family anciently bore a horse's head and neck. T. N. CAREY. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.— Circumstance, thou unspiritual God. Where in Byron shall I find this passage? A. B. "The limb lopped off holds strange commerce with the mutilated stump." CAROLUS KERR.

Replies.

JOSEPH GAY.

(7th S. i. 127.)

This name was a convenient literary alias assumed by John Durant Breval, son of the Rev. Dr. Francis Durant de Breval, Prebendary of Rochester from 1671 till his death in 1707. J. D. Breval was educated at Westminster; elected to Trinity Coll., Camb., in 1697; took his degree of B.A. in 1700; became Fellow in 1702, and M. A. in 1704. In 1708 he was expelled in a very harsh and arbitrary manner by Dr. Bentley (see Monk's 'Life of Bentley,' p. 171). Having recently lost his father, and having no resources, he enlisted as a volunteer, and went to the army in Flanders. With considerable talents and great power of language, he soon attracted the notice of the Duke of Marlborough, who promoted him to the rank of captain, and employed him in diplomatic services, which he executed in a most satisfactory manner. His first publication appears to have been 'The Petticoat,' printed in 1716, with the assumed name of "Joseph Gay." Probably no special circumstance led to this, further than the great approbation with which John Gay's 'Fan' and 'Trivia' had been received. He therefore was led to write a poem on an article of ladies' dress, and, in accordance with the common custom of the time, assumed a false name, taking that of Joseph Gay, and pretending in the preface that he was cousin german to John Gay. His next poem, The Art of Dress,' was printed in 1717, and the preface was signed with his initials, J. D. B. In the same year he brought out a farce, The Confederates,' intended to ridicule

од

Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot; this appeared under the name of Joseph Gay. In time it brought him under the lash of Pope, and gave him a place in the 'Dunciad.' But Breval was no dunce. He was the author of four plays, "The Confederates,' 1717; 'The Play is the Plot,' 1718; 'The Strollers,' 1727; and the Rape of Helen,' 1737 (see 'Biographia Dramatica'). His most important work was his 'Remarks Various Parts of Europe,' in four volumes, folio, 1723-38, which was handsomely reprinted for subscribers by Lintot. A smaller work, ‘The History of Nassau,' 1734, was far more read than his "Travels.' There is a valuable note about Breval in Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes,' i. 255, and some further facts are to be found in Welch's 'Alumni Westmonasterienses,' 1852, p. 233. Breval died at Paris in 1738, Baker tells us, universally beloved." EDWARD SOLLY. Joseph Gay was the assumed name of John Durant Breval, the son of Dr. Breval, a prebendary of Westminster. He was educated at Westminster School, and admitted into college in the year 1693. In 1697 he obtained his election to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. in 1700. Having been elected a Fellow of his college, he proceeded M.A. in 1704. He was deprived of fellowship on April 5, 1708, by Bentley, the Master of the College, who appears to have acted only upon rumour of Breval's misconduct and without adducing any proof of his guilt. Thrown upon his own resources, Breval joined the army in Flanders as a volunteer. He was afterwards employed by the Duke of Marlborough in various diplomatic missions, and was raised by him to the rank of captain in the army. After the war he travelled over Europe with Lord Malpas. Upon his return to London Breval devoted himself to literature. The facility with which he acquired a knowledge of foreign languages was remarkable. He was pilloried in the 'Dunciad' for writing the 'Confederates.' Breval died at Paris in January, 1738. He wrote the following works:

1. The Petticoat: an heroi-comical poem, 1716, 8vo.; second edit., same date; third edit., 1720, and entitled The Hoop Petticoat: an heroi-comical poem.' 2. The Art of Dress, a poem, 1717, 8vo.

3. The Westminster Ballad; or, the Earl of Oxford's Tryal (included in part ii. of Pope's ' Miscellany '), 1717, 12mo.

4. The Confederates, a farce, 1717, 8vo. 5. Calpe or Gibraltar, a poem, 1717.

6. MacDermot; or, the Irish Fortune-Hunter, a poem, 1717, 8vo.

7. The Play is the Plot: a comedy, 1718, 4to. From this play were taken, The Strollers,' 1727 (other editions, 1729, 1761, and 1767), and The Mock Countess.' characters in that play, with observations thereon, 1718, 8. A Compleat Key to the 'Non-Juror,' explaining the 8vo.; second and third editions the same date.

9. Ovid in Masquerade; being a burlesque upon the thirteenth book of his 'Metamorphoses,' &c., 1719, 8vo.

10. The Church Scuffle; or, News from St. Andrews, a ballad. This appeared in No. 1 of the Court Miscellany. 1719, 8vo.

11. Remarks on several Parts of Europe, relating chiefly to the history, antiquities, and geography of France, the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and Spain, 1726, fol.

12. The Lure of Venus; or, a Harlot's Progress, an heroi-comical poem, 1783, 8vo.

13. The History of the House of Nassau, &c., Lond., 1734, 8vo.; another edition published in Dublin' of the

same date.

14. The Rape of Helen, a mock opera, 1737, 8vo. 15. Remarks, &c., collected in Several Tours since the year 1723......in Sicily and the South of France, &c., 1738, fol.

See Baker's' Biog. Dram.,'Chalmers's Biog. Dict.,' Lowndes's Allibone,' Alumni Westmonasterienses,' and Brit. Mus. Cat.

Since writing the above note I have examined the two copies of 'The Rake's Progress; or, the Templar's Exit' of 1769 and 1784 in the British Museum. Though attributed to him in the Catalogue, The Rake's Progress' does not appear to be by Joseph Gay. On the title-pages of both editions it is stated the book is written "by the author of 'The Harlot's Progress."" Gay wrote The Lure of Venus; or, a Harlot's Progress,' but the author of 'The Rake's Progress' wrote The Harlot's Progress: being the life of the noted Moll Hackabout, in six hudibrastick canto's' (sic), the sixth edition of which was published in 1753.

·

G. F. R. B.

Capt. John Durant Breval, whose nom de plume was, much to the disgust of the friends of the author of A Beggar's Opera,' not remote from the true name of John Gay, wrote a number of more or less obscene and offensive poems, plays, parodies, and what not of the libertine and sham-moral orders. Among these was, as advertised in the Grub Street Journal, December 6, 1733, "Lately publish'd (Illustrated with six Prints, neatly engraved from Mr. Hogarth's Designs) The Lure of Venus; or, a Harlot's Progress.' An heroi-comical Poem. In six Cantos, by Mr. Joseph Gay." It is hardly needful to say that this precious poem" was a part of an impudent piracy on Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress'; the prints being mere colourable imitations of Hogarth's works. In a recent number of the Portfolio, with facsimiles of the original designs and the false copies, I gave a history of the sufferings of the great satirist in this and similar matters as regards 'A Rake's Progress' and the like works of his. The scandalous manner in which Hogarth was thus robbed and the woeful experience of his brother engravers led to the passing of what is called "Hogarth's Act," which granted, although it did not secure, copyright in prints to their authors. The "six Prints were, in fact, the last ounce which settled the question and evoked the wrath of Hogarth and his fellow sufferers. Joseph Gay wrote also 'The

Petticoat,' 1716; 'The Rape of Helen'; and 'The Confederates,' a farce, 1717, for which he was put in the 'Dunciad,' ii. 127-30:

Curll stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone,
He grasps an empty Joseph for a John;
So Proteus, hunted in a nobler shape,
Became, when seiz'd, a puppy, or an ape.

It is needless to say that a Joseph, here described as "empty," was an outer coat as well as a man's name, see "A List of Books, Papers, and Verses in which our Author (Pope) was abused before the publication of The Dunciad,' with the true names of the Authors." Appendix II. to 'The Dunciad.' We ought to be slightly grateful to Breval, because his verses attached to the pirated' A Harlot's Progress' really preserved some light on the original tragedy, which no commentators had laid up for us. Breval's books are uncommon, but not rare. F. G. S.

[MR. EDWARD PARFITT supplies from the same sources an account only less full than that of MR. SOLLY. The REV. W. E. BUCKLEY, MR. L. PETTY, and other valued contributors send answers concurring with those printed. We are compelled to select three representative replies. The others are at the service of MR. WRIGHT should further information be required.]

CAMPBELL OF CRAIGNISH (7th S. i. 109, 158).As one whose interest in the Clan Dougal Craignish is purely that of a student of Scottish family history, rendered the more keen in regard to West Highland clans from olden residence in the Western Highlands, I would like to say a word on a question which I am glad to find arousing so much interest among the readers of 'N. & Q.'

The true Ronald de Craignish, to use the old territorial surname of the Clan Dougal Craignish, is undoubtedly the son and heir apparent (now in his second year, and therefore unable as yet to enjoy his 'N. & Q') of your correspondent MR. CAMPBELL of Craignish, the present and twentyseventh MacDougal Craignish, by Agnes, second daughter of George E. White, Esq., of Porchester Gate, London.

The present chieftain was served heir Jan. 11, 1875, to his great-grandfather, Dougall Campbell of Craignish. The German baron who has, contrary to the usage of Scottish houses, assumed a title connoting the chiefship of his name, is, as has been amply pointed out, simply a cadet of the Clan Dougal Craignish.

The same must be said of the Inverneil family, who, according to Burke's 'Landed Gentry' (1879), claim to be the present heads of the Clan Chearlach, or Sliocht Tiarlich Dhu, formerly of Ardeonaig, in Breadalbane (descended of Charles, second son of the third MacDougal Craignish), and bloody, headstrong race they were," writes Mr. Alexander Campbell, of the Craignish family, in a MS. account of the Clan Dougal Craignish, now before me. The claim of Inverneil to represent