66 by name, to many students of heraldry. At last I HERALDIC.-I shall be much obliged to any Elm Grove House, Exeter. NEYTE BRIDGE.-A Saturday reviewer, lately (vol. lvii. p. 47), speaking of old London, says, "The Neyte Bridge still remains in a mutilated form." Is Knightsbridge the modern_name referred to? A. SMYTHE PALMER. Woodford, Essex. 1621, and died July 18, 1711. I shall feel much the antiquarian journals there appeared, some In PATTISON'S MILTON'S "SONNETS." "N. & Q.," 5th S. viii. 168, I quoted the following passage from Ticknor's Life and Letters (vol. i. p. 472): "Tieck told me to-day (Jan. 20, 1836) that he thinks Milton superintended the edition of Shakespeare to which his sonnet is prefixed, because the changes and emendations made in it upon the first folio are poetical, and plainly made by a poet. It would be a beautiful circumstance if it could be proved true." I inquired if Tieck ever expressed this opinion in print; if so, where; and if the question had been considered elsewhere. Sonnet 1: Mr. "Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day, First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, Portend success in love." Pattison has this note: Mr. Pattison, in his edition (1883) of Milton's "THE THREE LADIES WALDEGRAVE."-The Sonnets, refers to the above note in "N. & Q.," other day I bought in London an impression of but pronounces against the possibility (pp. 79, 80). this engraving, in a very poor condition, and from The first part of my query has remained unanwhich the margins and title had been cut. Pro-swered; may I, therefore, repeat it? bably had it been in good condition and an early impression it would have been worth a considerable sum. Presumably the engraving is from a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and in it are represented three very handsome young women, strongly resembling each other, and seated at a table. Their figures are three-quarter length, their powdered hair is raised on cushions, and the dress is apparently that of 1780. They were the three daughters of James, second Earl Waldegrave, who died in 1759, by Mary, his wife, illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, and grandnieces of Horace Walpole,-Elizabeth Laura, Charlotte Maria, and Anne Horatia Waldegrave. In whose possession is the original painting? JOHN PICKFORd, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. THE BIRD "LIVER."-Can any one give me an account of the liver, the eponymous bird of Liverpool? Woodford, Essex, A. SMYTHE Palmer. FAMILY OF DOVE.-John Dove was appointed Bishop of Peterborough in 1600, died c. 1631. Frances, daughter of Thomas Dove, Esq., of Upton, co. Northampton, married Sir Richard Verney, Lord Willoughby de Broke, who was born Jan. 28, "Success in love.-Cf. George Gascoigne, trans. of Ieronimi: I have noted as evil luck in love, after the cuckoo's call, to have happened unto divers unmarried folks, as ever I did unto the married." " Does this illustrate the sonnet? I think not. Milton refers to a superstition that it is fortunate for a lover to hear the nightingale in spring before he hears the cuckoo. It is referred to in Chaucer's The Cuckoo and Nightingale. See "N. & Q.,” 5th S. i. 387, 439; Folk-lore Record, vol. ii. (art. "Popular History of the Cuckoo," by James Hardy), pp. 47-91; Gubernatis's Zoological Mythology ("Contest between Cuckoo and Nightingale as to Superiority in Singing"), vol. ii. p. 235. Both birds seem favoured by lovers, for the cuckoo was called "Zeitvogel not only because by its notes it told how long one had to live, but also "wie manches Jahr ein Mädchen noch warten müsse bis der erwünschte Freier es zum Altare führe" (Simrock, Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie, 1878, p. 503; see also pp. 26, 461, 534, 575). Mr. Pattison seems to think that Milton had in mind Shakspere's "Cuckoo cuckoo ! O word of fear, The quotation from Gascoigne illustrates this passage of Shakspere, but it does not illustrate Milton. The poet seems to entreat the nightingale to sing before the cuckoo can tell out the number of years his love must still be delayed. If the German superstition be known in England the explanation of the reference in the sonnet would be beyond doubt. WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK. 1, Alfred Terrace, Glasgow. STRAY AS A NOUN SUBSTANTIVE. In the parish of Oare, near Faversham, is a creek named in the various maps Oare Creek, which joins Faversham Creek, both waters entering the East Swale, opposite to the Isle of Sheppy. The road over the water, where it is dry, or nearly so, at the ebb tide, is called Oare Stray, and the word stray does not occur in any similar sense in ordinary dictionaries. The oldest inhabitant informs me that it is a passage over a dry bed of water; and the expression "Oare Stray" is not only found in the parish documents at the beginning of this century, but is in common use in the parish at the present time to signify the road over Oare creek at the point where the stream narrows away at its opposite end from the Swale, into which it runs, and where it is very small, so as to be almost dry. Is it connected with street, strata via? It would be interesting to hear of other cases in which the word has the same H. F. WOOLRYCH. sense. Some of your readers will perhaps interpret this. T. C. FEA FAMILY.-Can any reader of "N. & Q." afford some information respecting the origin of the above surname, and when it was first known in the Northern Isles? In a list of the most ancient family surnames it takes a prominent position, and is generally supposed to be of Gipsy (Egyptian) origin or derivation. Sir Walter Scott, in his preface to The Pirates, mentions that one James Fea, younger, of Clestron, was the means of securing Gow, the buccaneer. The paragraph runs as follows: "The common account of this incident further bears that Mr. Fea, the spirited individual by whose exertions Gow's career of iniquity was cut short, so far from receiving any reward from Government, could not obtain even countenance enough to protect him against a variety of sham suits raised against him by Newgate solicitors, who acted in the name of Gow and others of the pirate crew, and the various expenses, vexatious [See "N. & Q.," 1st S. iv. 190, 331, 387.] EXORCISM OF CURTIUS CORDUS.-In the following exorcism of Curtius Cordus have the proper names any signification, or, at any rate, any more mutual connexion than, say, "Barbara celarent, darii," &c.? The verses are taken from an old book in my possession of, apparently, the seventeenth century, the orthographical errors being retained: "Ne te necturni pulices pecusdesque fatigent, Hunc exorcismum candide lector habe: Manstula, Correbo, Budiposma, Tarantula, calpe, Thymmula, Dinari, Golba, Cadura, Trepon. Hos novies lectum scansurus concine versus, Tresque meri Calices, cbibe quaq: vice." The essence of the charm seems to lie in the last line, and this part of the exorcism would certainly be effectual in preventing any one from being annoyed by pulices or anything else, I should think. G. P. GRANTHAM. The COL. GREY. At Orchardleigh House, near Frome, co. Somerset, there is a three-quarter length portrait of a gentleman to which this name is traditionally given; but nothing more is known. It belonged, together with the house and estate, to the late Sir Thomas Champneys, Bart. gentleman is seated at a table, is dressed in a handsome morning robe, and wears a loose cap on his head, similar to that seen in the familiar pictures of Hogarth, or Edw. Harley, Earl of Oxford. On the table is a large volume of Nardini's Antiquities of Rome, on which one of the hands rests, and in the background is the Colosseum. Does the name of Grey occur to the memory of any reader of "N. & Q." in connexion with Roman antiquities? J. E. J. PESTILENCE IN ENGLAND IN 1521.-My friend Mr. W. G. Stone has given me a quotation which would bear on the question of the date of Measure for Measure were we better informed. It speaks of "a swet" or "plage" apparently occurring in 1521. Now Baker, in his Chronicle, p. 297, says that there "was a great Mortality ["death," Stow] in London and other places of the Realm" in that year. My friend tells me that this was copied from Stow, adding "that Hall gives: This yere [1521] was a great pestilence and death,' &c., while Fabyan, Holinshed, and Speed make no mention of it." To make it more puzzling, Baker, in the same section, speaks of outbreaks of both "the sweat" and "the plague" in other years of Henry VIII. Hecker, in his Epidemics of the Middle Ages, does not refer to it. It adds still more to the difficulty that the "sweat" and the plague" were then known as diseases distinct both from one another and from all others, and that of the occurrences of the "sweat" as recorded by Dr. Caius, none happened in 1521, the nearest date being 1517. As, however, the relevancy of the quotation depends on a more definite knowledge of what this" pestilence," "Mortality," "death," "swet," or "plage" was, I would be greatly obliged to any correspondent for such further information and authority. BR. NICHOLSON. A QUESTION OF HERALDRY.-My attention has been lately drawn to a square of stained glass in the window of an outhouse at Rothwell Haigh, near Leeds, Yorkshire, which in all probability has been placed there within the last forty years, and taken from Rothwell Church, about half a mile distant, during some restoration of the sacred edifice. It contains an emblazoned coat of arms, which I will attempt to describe as follows:-Surmounting the shield is a crest, a leopard rampant, erased, holding in its right paw a sword elevated; the animal is gorged with scarf azure, and chained or. Underneath, a helmet, with closed vizor, of an esquire or a gentleman. The shield is impaled, and on the sinister part of it Or, a chevron between three hinds tripping, two smaller ones in the chief and one larger at the base, the field gules; on the dexter part Arg., a chevron ermines between paly in chief gules, a garb between two leopards' faces, and at the base a sword, point upwards, the field azure. Below are ribbons, but no motto. I shall be glad to learn to whom these armorial bearings belonged. J. B. East Ardsley, near Wakefield. NEWTON OF CHEADLE HEATH.-Did the late James Newton, of this place, leave any issue; and who are the representatives of his sisters, Frances Sarah, wife of Rev. Travers Jones, and of Mary, wife of Robert Buckley? A continuation of the pedigree of this family which appears in the earlier editions of Burke's Landed Gentry would be a boon. Replies. TRUTH. "ITINERARY" OF RICHARD OF CIRENCESTER. (6th S. ix. 10, 118.) The question of the authenticity of this work has been already touched upon in the earlier volumes of "N. & Q.," in which references will be found 1st S. i. 93, 123, 206; v. 491; vi. 37; and 4th S. ii. 106, where it is stated that Mr. Jno. F. B. Mayor was then engaged upon an examination of the original treatise, De Situ Britanniæ. I may further refer to a series of papers, entitled "A Literary Forgery," in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1866, March (p. 301), May (p. 617), October (p. 458); and 1867, October (p. 443), where the subject is ably and exhaustively discussed by the late B. B. Woodward, of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. The following passage occurs at the close of an article entitled zine for November, 1853, vol. lxxiv. p. 568 :— "The Romans in Scotland," in Blackwood's Maga "There is, indeed, some reason to believe that the Itinerary of Richard is a hoax; but if it be, it is a very complicated and elaborate one. The existence of the MS. was first noticed to Stukeley, the antiquary, who received an account of it as a discovery made in Copenhagen by Mr. Charles Julius Bertram, who enclosed a specimen of it. This so excited the interest of the antiMr. Bertram held the responsible place of English Proquary, that he insisted on having a copy of the whole. fessor in the Royal Marine Academy, and if it be the case that, having tried by the specimen and the description to he found that he must support the story, or be 'take a rise,' as it is termed, out of the solemn antiquary, in a position which it would be unpleasant for an instructor of youth to occupy, that of a perpetrator of practical jokes,-it must be admitted that he bore the task he had brought on himself bravely, and relieved himself from his predicament very successfully." At the request of Dr. Stukeley, the alleged MS. of Richard of Cirencester was published, in very suspicious companionship, by Prof. Bertram at Copenhagen in 1757, in an octavo volume entitled Britannicarum Gentium Historic Antiquæ Scriptores Tres: Ricardus Corinensis, Gildas Badonicus, Nennius Banchorensis, &c. In the same year Stukeley published, in separate form (1757, 4to.), an analysis of the Itinerary with extracts; but a more elaborate description of the I work will be found in Centuria ii. of his Itinerarium Curiosum; or, an Account of the Antiquities and Remarkable Curiosities in Nature and Art observed in Travels through Great Britain (1724, folio), which was published after his death, together with a reprint of that earlier volume, in 1776. expressed a doubt that there ever was such a Birmingham. forgery by the late Mr. B. B. Woodward, Librarian This Itinerary was conclusively proved to be a at Windsor Castle, in four articles contributed to the Gent. Mag. in 1866 and 1867. The references are, New Series, i. 301, 617; ii. 458; iv. 443. The original edition having become so scarce Richard, the chronicler, was a real person; but that no copy could be procured either in London the Tractate on Britain, attributed to him, was a or Copenhagen, a reprint, with an English trans- forgery of Charles Julius Bertram, Professor of lation, was undertaken in the early part of the English in an academy at Copenhagen. It was present century by Mr. Hatcher, a Wiltshire anti-published by Dr. Stukeley in 1757, and again in quary, under the title of The Description of Britain, the second volume of his Itinerarium Curiosum. translated from Richard of Cirencester; with the Possessors of Bohn's "Antiquarian Library," where Original Treatise De Situ Britannic, and a Com- it is printed in Six Old English Chronicles, mentary on the Itinerary, illustrated with maps would do well to make a note in the volume of its (London, 1809), demy 8vo. pp. i-xxiii, 1-166, want of genuineness, and of its exposure by Mr. 1-127. The editor, who, in his preface, contends Woodward. C. R. MANNING. stoutly for the authenticity of the document, was assisted in preparing this handsome edition for the press by the Rev. Thomas Leman, whose annotated copy is preserved in the library of the Bath Institution. This edition was dedicated to the Rev. William Coxe, Archdeacon of Wiltshire, to whom Mr. Hatcher had acted as amanuensis for thirty years. The latter, who, at the death of Mr. Coxe, became a classical and general tutor of Salisbury, was author of the account of the cathedral of that city published by Dodsworth in 1814, 4to., and also wrote An Account of Old and New Sarum, 1834, 12mo. Reference for further particulars of the Itinerary may be made to Whitaker's Manchester (vol. i. p. 158), a work which is supposed to have served Washington Irving as model for the immortal History of New York of "Diedrich Knickerbocker." The Rev. J. A. Giles republished Richard of Cirencester, with Richard of Devizes as a companion, 1841, 8vo.; and H. G. Bohn has included the former among his Six Old English Chronicles, in 1848, in one of the volumes of his " Antiquarian Library." A dissertation on Richard of Cirencester, by K. Wex, will be found in the Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1846. Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, makes use of the Itinerary, and states in a foot-note (ch. xxxi.) that, "though it does not seem probable that he wrote from the MSS. of a Roman general, he shows a genuine knowledge of antiquity very extraordinary for a monk of the fourteenth century." For the original MS., which Prof. Bertram, in his preface, says 66 came into his possession in an extraordinary manner, with many other curiosities," search was made in vain some forty years ago by the then Earl Spencer, at Copenhagen. No one there could vouch for its existence, and many Diss Rectory. [W. G. S. also refers to the above articles, the dates of which he supplies.] ROCOCO BAROCCO (6th S. ix. 166). — Miss BUSK is under a misimpression as to any connexion between these two words, which is purely fanciful, and will not bear a moment's examination. First as to rococo. This word has never yet been naturalized amongst us. It is not to be found in any English dictionary previous to the issue of Ogilvie's Imperial in 1882, where no quotation is given, but a simple reference is made to Littré. The form of the word would indicate an Italian origin, but it is not given in the dictionaries of Florio and Baretti, nor am I aware of any Italian author in whose writings it can be found. In French, Littré derives rococo from rocaille, which is not probable. The French would hardly be likely to give an Italianized form to a word of their own. Rocaille, or rochaille, is an old French word, and will be found in Cotgrave with the same sense of rockwork as at the present day. Rococo is of comparatively recent origin. Although floating about in conversation, it is difficult to find it in print until quite modern times. Its origin is evident enough. The debased grotesque style of architecture introduced in the latter half of the seventeenth century by Bernini and Borromini, especially the latter, to which we give the name of Louis XV., is distinguished amongst other oddities by rock and shell work, which for half a century was all the rage. Hence the term rococo, which even in France superseded to some extent the old term rocaille. Barocco, Fr. baroque, is of Spanish or Portuguese origin. Brachet (Dictionnaire Etymologique) gives a very clear account of its introduction. He says: "Ce mot, qui était à l'origine un terme de joaillerie (une perle baroque, perle qui n'était pas spherique, qui So far from being identical, barocco and rococo, then, have nothing in common. J. A. PICTON. Sandyknowe, Wavertree. there were original materials from which Macpherson's Ossian may have been produced. The book to which T. S. refers for evidence of the existence of such poems is the well-known translation into Gaelic of the Book of Common Order of the Kirk of Scotland. The only perfect copy of this book-the earliest existing Gaelic work in print-is in the possession of the Duke of Argyll, to whose ancestor in 1567 it was dedicated; and there are two imperfect copies known, one in the British Museum and the other in the library of Edinburgh University. A magnificent reprint of the original, with English translation, edited at the request of Dr. Reeves by the Rev. Dr. Maclauchlan, was published at Edinburgh in 1873, and from this I extract Carswell's own words, which, as T. S. will see, are considerably different from the rendering of them given in his quotation. In the Epistle Dedicatory, speaking of the disadvantage to Gaelic-speaking people of having no printed literature, Carswell says: done, however much there may be of it. And great is the blindness and darkness of sin and ignorance and of porters of the Gaelic, in that they prefer and practise understanding among composers and writers and supthe framing of vain, hurtful, lying, earthly stories about the Tuath de Dhanond, and about the sons of Milesius, and about the heroes and Fionn Mac Cumhail with his giants, and about many others whom I shall not number or tell of here in detail, in order to maintain and advance these, with a view to obtaining for themselves passing worldly gain, rather than to write and to compose and to support the faithful words of God and the perfect way of truth."-Pp. 18, 19. "But although some of the history of the Gael of Alban [Scotland] and Eireand [Ireland] is written in Fanfani does not give rococo in his dictionary, and in the notices of the learned, it is great labour to manuscripts and in the remains of poets and chief bards, but he gives barocco, and he describes it as a write with the hand, when men see what has been bizarre style of architecture, of no fixed form, pre-printed rapidly and in how short a time it can be vailing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On what authority does Miss BUSK assert so decisively that Barocco gave the name to this style? Was there ever a man named Barocco? Barozzi was called Baroccio, but then he died in 1573, and the word was not used till the end of the following century, if, indeed, then. Beyle, in his Promenades dans Rome, distinctly says, "Le Bernin fut le père de ce mauvais goût." Littré says it is formed from rocaille-what we call grotto rock-work, which was employed largely in it. He is probably wrong in this. The Italian barocco is Carswell, who calls himself "minister of the most likely the root of rococo; but has that any-gospel of God," was of the family of Carnassery, thing to do with Baroccio? I think not. Barocco means originally illicit usury, called also scrocco; and the Schoolmen's argument in logic of the fourth mode was also called the argument in barocco. When scholasticism began to fall into contempt, anything uncouth in style, idea, or personal appearance, anything grotesque, came to be so nicknamed, the eccentric Renaissance style of architecture amongst the rest. Without pretending to dogmatize, this seems to me far more probable than any derivation I have yet met with. The word has always been considered of uncertain origin. We now must wait for some Italian etymologist to help us. Barocco, in Diez's Romance Dictionary, is baro, a rogue, from barare, to cheat; and this touches English bargain, which means to chaffer, shuffle, and cheat. Haverstock Hill. C. A. WARD. THE AUTHENTICITY OF OSSIAN (6th S. ix. 127). -No one, I suppose, has any doubt now that born about 1520, and successively rector of Kil- Manse of Saline, Dunfermline. A correspondent inquires about Bishop Carsewell's Gaelic translation of John Knox's Liturgy, commonly called "Bishop Carsewell's PrayerBook," printed at Edinburgh in 1567, 247 pages. For a long time there was no reprint. About 1820 only one perfect copy was known to be in existence; this was in the library of the Duke of Argyll at Inveraray Castle. In 1820 it was proposed by the Rev. James Macgibbon, minister of Inveraray, to issue a new edition, with a preface, a life of Bishop Carsewell, the original Gaelic to be on one side, and another Gaelic version in modern |