duly recorded in Dickens's 'Dictionary of London,' S.V. "Prisons"; but I do not know of its having been placed on record that the word is one formed from "Bastille," on the same principle as bus from "omnibus." Since the taking of the original Bastille, indeed, the word has passed into common use as a synonym alike for a prison and a workhouse. The other derivation is a little less obvious, but hardly less certain. "The Steel" is generally known as Coldbath Fields Prison, and the history of this particular cold bath is thus related :— "The most noted and first about London was that near Sir John Oldcastle's, where, in the year 1697, Mr. Bains undertook and still manages this business of Cold Bathing, which they say is good against Rheumatisms, Convulsions in the Nerves, &c., but of that those who have made the Experiments are the best judges. The Baths are 2s. 6d. if the Chair is used, and 2s. without it. Hours are from 5 in the Morning to 1 Afternoon."* dated "Charter-House, 1714/15"; and that Conyers had then been dead for some time is evident from a passage on p. lxviii. Until the date of Conyers's death is ascertained, which would give the latest limit, the nearest safe approximation to the date of the discovery is "about the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century." I have entered into these details because this is by a whole century the earliest recorded discovery of any of those implements to which Sir John Lubbock has given the name of "paleolithic," the rediscovery of which in our own time has vindicated for our race an antiquity beyond the dreams of Egyptian chronology. 6 This flint, in fact, though chipped instead of worn, is considerably older than the one on which the Ousel of Cilgwri sat when the Eagle of Gwernabwy came to consult him before marrying Bagnigge Wells, which a hundred years later his second wife, the Owl of Cwmcawlwyd, as related had altogether eclipsed the fame of Mr. Bains's in the tale of the Ancients of the World."*"The establishment, are not mentioned, though they Eagle," says the story, "found the Ousel sitting were almost within a stone's throw of "the Cold on a small bit of hard flint, and he asked him the Bath," which I believe still exists. It is tolerably age and history of the Owl, and the Ousel ancertain, therefore, that the name was given after swered him thus: See, here, how small this 1708, when the 'New View of London' was pub- stone is under me; it is not more than a child of lished, and it seems highly probable that Bag-seven years would take up in his hand, and I nigge Wells were originally a rival establish- have seen it a load for three hundred yoke of the ment, to which the enterprising proprietor gave largest oxen, and it never was worn at all exceptthe more ambitious name of "The Bagnios -a ing by my cleaning my beak upon it once every word which, not being generally understanded of night before going to sleep, and striking my wings the people, gave rise to the later appellation, in upon it every morning."" Save the backbone of which, by the way, the double g was always the world itself, the historian goes on to say, there sounded soft. Battle Bridge lay a little to the is nought older of the things that had their benorth-west of "Black Mary's," but the only record ginning in the age of this present world than the of it left in modern topography is the Battle Eagle of Gwernabwy, the Stag of Rhedynvre, the Bridge Road, which runs at the back of King's Salmon of Llyn Livon, the Ousel of Cilgwri, the Cross and St. Pancras stations. Toad of Cors Vochno, and the Owl of Cwmcawlwyd. Yet the senior resident of these zoological antiques was, it is probably safe to assert, unborn and unthought of at the time when our nameless granduncle chipped this flint weapon and inadvertently bequeathed it, first to Mr. John Conyers, then to Dr. Charlet, then to Mr. Kemp, then to Sir Hans Sloane, and through Sir Hans Sloane to the British nation. Thousands of tools like it have since been found, not only in Britain, but France, Italy, Greece, Palestine, India, and a whole atlasful of other countries; and likely enough any day still earlier traces of man may turn up, possibly have already turned up, in lands more likely to have been the cradle of our race. But in the meanwhile science cannot point to one single monument of the existence of man on our planet which is known to be older than this worked flint found opposite Black Mary's. It is the first found of the earliest known records of humanity. BROTHER FABIAN. Whether the "River of Wells," the Fleet brook or river, and the Old Bourne were, as Pennant seems to think, three different streams which united about the bottom of Holborn Hill, or whether the Fleet brook is simply an alias of the Old Bourne, of which the River of Wells was a tributary, may perhaps form the subject of a future chapter on the buried affluents of the Thames. In the meanwhile, the particular gravel pit where the flint weapon was found "in the presence of the foresaid Mr. Conyers" may safely be localized within a few yards of the northern corner of the House of Correction, where Calthorpe Street joins Cross Street. The date of the discovery is not so definitely determinable as the place. Prof. Boyd Dawkins+ assigns it to "about 1690," which may be correct, but requires confirmation. Bagford's letter is * A New View of London' (2 vols. 8vo., 1708, compiled, says a MS. note in my copy by a Mr. Christopher Hatton, an agent for a fire office), s.v. "Cold Bath," vol. ii. p. 785. Early Man in Britain,' p. 159. (To be continued.) Iolo MSS., p. 601. THE 'DECAMERON' IN ENGLISH, A year or two ago I remember seeing a question asked in the Athenæum whether there does not exist, or ever has existed, in Middle English a translation of Boccaccio's novels. The question was founded upon a statement in an old Italian writer, and I think the conclusion arrived at was that the allusion in the Italian writer was to Chaucer, with whose works that writer was imperfectly, or not at all, acquainted. The Italian writer may not, after all, have intended to refer to Chaucer, and I think there is a good deal of evidence pointing to the former existence of a translation now, perhaps, lost. In 1741 Charles Balguy, M.B., a physician practising in Peterborough, published anonymously a translation of the Decameron. This he dedicated to his friend Bache Thornhill, of Stanton, in Derbyshire, and in the preface he says:— "Two translations there are in French that have come to my knowledge, and the same number in our own language, if they may be styled so; for such liberties are taken everywhere in altering everything according to the people's own taste and fancy, that a great part of both bears very little resemblance to the original." Now here is a distinct reference to two English translations. But what were they? What else was there except the edition printed by Jaggard in 1620-5 and the subsequent reprint or reprints thereof? An anonymous edition of The Novels and Tales of the Renowned John Boccacio,' printed for Awnsham Churchill in 1684, lies before me. It is described on the title-page as "6 'the fifth edition, much corrected and amended." I have no copy of the edition of 1620-5, but as this edition of 1684 contains a dedication to Sir Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, I take it to be a slightly altered reprint of the edition of 1620-5. I do not understand why this book is called "the fifth edition." I never saw or heard of a second, third, or fourth edition, and Lowndes does not mention them. The writer of the dedication to the Earl of Montgomery thus speaks of the novels : "I know, most worthy Lord, that many of them have long since been published before, as stoln from the first original author, and yet not beautified with his sweet stile and elocution of phrase, neither savouring of his singular moral applications. For as it was his full scope and aim by discovering all vices in their ugly deformities to make their mortal enemies, the sacred vertues, to shine the clearer, being set down by them and compared with them, so every true and upright judgment, in observing the course of these well-carried novels, shall plainly perceive that there is no spare made of reproof in any degree whatsoever where sin is embraced, and grace neglected." An English edition of the 'Decameron,' without date, and somewhat altered from that of 1741, has been lately published by Messrs. Chatto & Windus, "with Introduction by Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A.," in which are the following words : "Before the year 1570, William Paynter, clerk of the office of arms within the Tower of London, and who Kent, printed a very considerable part of Boccaccio's seems to have been master of the school of Sevenoaks in novels. His first collection is entitled "The Palace of Pleasure," the first volume, containing sixty novels out of Boccaccio. London, 1566.' It is dedicated to Lord Warwick. A second volume soon appeared, ""The Palace novels. London, 1567.' This is dedicated to Sir George of Pleasure," the second volume, containing thirty-four Howard, and dated from his house near the Tower, as is the former volume." The reader is thus led to believe that Paynter translated and published no fewer than ninety-four of the hundred novels which make up the 'Decameron.' But what are the facts? I have no copy of the edition of 1567, but I have that of 1575, which is dedicated to the Earl of Warwick from "" Ianuarie, 1566." After referring, in an epistle to nere the Tower of London, the first of the reader, to the authors from whom his novels are derived, Paynter goes on to say :— "Certaine haue I culled out of the Decamerone of Nouelles, amonges whiche there be some (in my iudgeGiouan Boccaccio, wherein be conteined one hundred ment) that be worthy to be condempned to perpetual prison, but of them such haue I redemed to the libertie of our vulgar as may be best liked, and better suffered. Although the sixt part of the same hundreth may full well be permitted. And as I my selfe haue already done many other of the same worke yet for this present I haue thought good to publish only tenne in number, the reste I haue referred to them that be able with better stile to expresse the authours eloquence, or vntil I adioyne to this another tome, if none other in the meane time do preuent me, which with all my heart I wishe and desire: because the workes of Boccaccio for his stile, order of writing, grauitie, and sententious discourse, is worthy of intire promulgation." sixty-six novels, only ten of these and not sixty Thus, although this edition of 1575 contains -are taken from the 'Decameron.' The second volume of 'The Palace of Pleasure' in my possession is that known as the third edition, said to have been printed about 1580. It has no titlepage, but it contains an "epistle" to "Sir George Howard, Knight, Maister of the Quene's Maiesties Armarye," ,"dated "from my pore house besides the Towre of London, the iiij of Nouember, 1567." It contains thirty-five novels. Following an address to the reader is a list of "authorities from whence these Nouelles be collected and in the same avouched." Including Boccaccio there are twentyfour of these authorities, and, so far as I can make out, only two or three of the tales are taken from Either, then, the editions of 1566 and 1567 are entirely different books from that of 1575 and that of circa 1580, or else Wright made a mistake which in such an able and scholarly writer is quite unaccountable. the Decameron.' Considering the great rarity, even in an imperfect state, of copies of 'The Palace of Pleasure,' it is not unreasonable to suppose that prose translations of many of the novels have been altogether lost, or yet remain to be unearthed. A novel or romance is more than any other book liable to be damaged by excessive use, and to require frequent rebinding. Hence the binder-durus arator, as Mr. Lang calls him-ploughs the book down to the quick, and in the end it perishes as though it had never been. Paynter himself gives us reason to suppose that romances were carried by travellers on foot or on horseback for amusement. He says: "Pleasaunt [they be] so well abroade as at home, to auoyde the griefe of winters night and length of sommers day, which the trauailers on foote may vse for a staye to ease their weried bodye, and the iourneors on horsback for a chariot or lesse painful meane of trauaile in steade of a merie companion to shorten the tedious toyle of wearie wayes." The small size of the two volumes of "The Palace of Pleasure' would make them suitable to be carried in the pocket. My copy, in an old binding, is strongly perfumed. As the leaves are turned over a fragrance as of bergamot arises from them. I forget where I have seen it stated that Burton, in 'The Anatomy of Melancholy,' first published in 1621, alleges that Boccaccio's novels were commonly related at English firesides. I have not been able to find the passage, as the various editions are imperfectly indexed. If found it would add weight to the evidence that, either in the time of Paynter or before his time, there existed in English translations of the novels other than the few which are contained in 'The Canterbury Tales' and The Palace of Pleasure,' and other than the metrical versions of one or two tales which appeared in the time of Elizabeth. It will have been seen above that Paynter declares that he himself had in 1566 "done many other" of the novels. It is interesting to note that he speaks of his collection as these newes or nouelles." S. O. ADDY. YORK MINSTER AND THE OUSE. In the year 1802 William Colquett, of Christ's College, Cambridge, published at Chester a quarto volume of poems, one of which poems is, I believe (for I have not seen the book), a description of York Minster. I do not know, but doubtless all really well-informed schoolboys know, whether any other poem on York Minster exists in print. Even such a boy, however, cannot be expected to have heard of the MS. poem now in question, a neatly written volume of about a hundred pages, dated 1808, and marked "Second edition," as if to show that it had been circulated in manuscript, for certainly it was never published. It is a mock epic, with mock criticisms at the end, such as those which long afterwards were made popular by Mr. Hosea Bigelow and others. It deals mainly with the people and the doings of York and its neighbourhood as they were at the end of the last century and at the beginning of this. And in deference to the feelings of some masculine contributors of 'N. & Q'(for as to the women, they are not so sensitive) I respectfully suppress what my author says on those subjects. It is, I regret to say, very far from favourable. There are, however, two episodes in the poem which may be of some slight general interest, and therefore may deserve place in N. & Q' One of these is an attempt, evidently sincere, to describe the effect of medieval architecture upon minds familiar, indeed, with Gray and Walpole, but ignorant of the "revival" that was yet to come. It is this: Whoe'er thou art, whom torturing griefs molest, The The other episode describes, in strains quite as good as it deserves, the valley of the Ouse, one of the dullest and tamest of English rivers. author is pleased to speak of it thus:How sweet the change, from harsh forensic broils, From crowded haunts of busy men, and toils To Nature's ever-grateful solitudes, Of anxious litigation's bootless feuds, Or temp'rate pleasures of the rural life, Remote from Cities and exempt from strife! Fair shines the stream, where lazy craft amuse Their leisure on the sleepy tide of Ouse; The fields and auburn woods beneath display'd: High in mid-heaven, light purple clouds o'ershade In distant sunny gleam, a golden haze Veils the blue champaign and the slanting rays I make no comment on the merits or demerits Trendrant time behoves to hurry P. 53. Or bow above the tempest pent.-P. 199. The fact that Emerson's style is obscure and "Nature is erect and serves as a deferential thermometer."-P. 148. Cor.: differential. "Sufficeth them to bodge vp a blanke verse with ifs Cor. Trenchant, i. e., disposed to "slit the and ands, and other while for recreation after their thin-spun life." Up! where airy citadel O'erlooks the purging landscape's swell.-P.73. Cor.: surging. Gentle pilgrim, if thou know And how the hills began.-P. 82. Cor.: of old. Beningbrough Hall, on the Ouse. caudle stuffe, hauing starched their beardes most curiouslie, to make a peripateticall path into the inner parts of the Citie."-Arber's reprint, 1880, p. 10. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. KEATS.-In the Athenæum, p. 709, for Dec. 12, Mr. W. Rendle gives some interesting researches into the hospital books as to Keats at Guy's Hospital. He shows that Keats was a dresser, March 3, 1816. This is an indication that Keats was entered for the higher study of the profession, Margaret Earle, née Boucher, widow of Giles Earle. and he must have paid an extra fee for the dresser The author. ship. This was, in those days, a perquisite of the SOCIAL CLUBS OF LAST CENTURY: THEIR RELATIONS WITH FREEMASONRY.-In an interesting pamphlet which treats of the higher grades of Freemasonry, published in Dublin towards the end of last century, I find, in a collection of Masonic songs, several relating to the strange associations which then existed for social purposes. I was not aware that these clubs had any possible relation to Freemasonry, but the collection of songs appended to this pamphlet makes me desirous of ascertaining any particulars which may be known to your readers with reference to such a possible connexion. HOW TO FIND A DROWNED CORPSE.-The fol lowing extract is from the Stamford Mercury, Dec. 18, 1885: There are three songs relating to the "Society of Bucks"; two for the "Honorable Order of Select Mr. Sheild, coroner, touching the death of Harry Baker, "At Ketton, on Tuesday, an inquest was held by Albions"; one for the "Honorable Lumper Troop"; aged twenty-three, who was missed on the night of the two for the "Ancient Corporation of Stroud 27th of November, after the termination of the polling Green"; one for the "Corporation of Gray's Inn for the county election, and was believed to have walked Lane" (this society is stated to have been founded into the ford near the stone bridge during the darkness. in 1740); three for the "Laudable Corporation had no companions with him. The dragging irons from The river at the time was running strongly, and deceased of Southwark"; four for the "Ancient Family of Stamford were obtained, and a protracted search was Leeches"; one in honour of the "Worthy Court made in the river, but without result. However, in of Do-Right"; one for the "Free and Easy Coun- obedience to the wish of Baker's mother, a loaf charged sellors under the Cauliflower "; one for the "Birth with quicksilver (said to be scraped from an old looking glass) was cast upon the waters, and it came to a standstill Night Club at the Harrow in Grey Friars, New-in the river at the bottom of Mrs. Lewin's field. Here the gate Street"; one for the "Bright Stars of Isling- grappling hooks were put in, and at four o'clock on W. FRAZER, F.R.C.S.I. Monday afternoon last the corpse was brought to the surface, having been in the water seventeen days. The river at this spot had been dragged several times before. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the ton." a8 "FILIUS POPULI."-While the phrase "Filius Dei" is being discussed in 'N. & Q' it may be as well to note that John Kington (vicar of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, 1606-1613) designated a child "who had no father "filius populi." For instance: "Johannes filius patience & filius populi (1608); Maria filia populi (1611); Henry & beneta fillij populi (1612)." I may add, for the information of the readers of N. & Q.,' that I am copying these registers with a view to their publication. Afterwards I hope to edit the registers of St. Peter's, Canterbury. J. M. CowPER. Canterbury. SEVENTH DAUGHTER SUPERSTITION.-At 6th S. xii. 204, 501, are several communications on the supposed healing powers of seventh sons; but no mention is made of seventh daughters. From the following paragraph, from the Post Man, Oct. 6-9, 1711 (cited in Fennell's Ant. Chron. and Lit. Adv., p. 190), it would seem that the seventh sons are not to have a monopoly of this power, but that seventh daughters share the same honour :— "There is lately come to town Martha Sneath, a gentlewoman who is the seventh daughter, who hath cured the evil for this twenty years, both in town and evidence." |