A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. "When found, make a note of."-CAPTAIN CUTTLE. VOL. V. - No. 114.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 3. 1852. Page 1 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 entered upon our course with the support of many distinguished friends, whose varied acquirements stamped an immediate value on "NOTES AND QUERIES," and gave it a character which raised it to its present position among the periodicals of the country. The present number bears witness for us, that whilst we have retained our old friends, which we acknowledge 5 with pride and thankfulness, we have added to the number many new ones. We have striven, and shall ever continue to strive, to unite them together into one goodly band, feeling assure that by that union we bring into the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES" the learning, kindliness, aptitude, and diversity of talent and subject, which are necessary to ensure its usefulness, and therefore its success. To all our Friends and Contributors, both old and new, we offer in their several degrees the tribute of our grateful thanks, and our heartiest wishes that we may pass together MANY HAPPY NEW YEARS! 6 Bloomerism in the Sixteenth Century - Inscriptions at Much Wenlock QUERIES: The Age of Trees-The Great Elm at Hampstead, by Minor Queries:-"Inveni portum;""For they, 'twas 7 8 10 12 Nates. STOPS, WHEN FIRST INTRODUCED. In casually looking into a little work entitled The Tablet of Memory, I found an entry which informed me that "stops in literature were introduced in 1520: the colon, 1580; semicolon, 1599." Upon what authority the dates here quoted may have been supposed to rest, I have no notion. The comma, beyond question I believe, has been derived from the short oblique line which, both in manuscripts and in early printed books, is continually seen to divide portions of sentences. The colon is of very old date, derived from the Kwλov of the Greeks, the part of a period. In printing, we find it in the Mazarine Bible soon after 1450; and in the block books, believed to be of still earlier date. Herbert, in his edition of Ames's Typographical Antiquities, p. 512., notices the first semicolon he had met with in an edition of Myles Coverdale's New Testament, printed in 1538 by Richard Grafton. It was in the Dedication, and, he says, a solitary instance in the book. The only semicolon he subsequently met with, was in a book printed by Thomas Marshe in 1568, on Chess. Ibid. p. 358. Herbert says, both seem to have been used accidentally. Puttenham, in his Arte of English Poesie, 4to., 1589, in his chapter of "Cesure," says: "The ancient reformers of language invented these names of pauses, one of lesse leasure than another, and such several intermissions of sound, to serve (besides easement to the breath) for a treble distinction of sentences or parts of speach, as they happened to be more or lesse perfect in sense. The shortest pause, or intermission, they called comma, as who would say a piece of a speech cut off. The second they called colon, not a piece, but as it were a member, for his larger length, because it occupied twice as much time as the comma. The third they called periodus, for a complement or full pause, and as a resting place and perfection of so much former speech as had been uttered, and from whence they needed not to passe any further, unless it were to renew more matter to enlarge the tale." The "three pauses, comma, colon, and periode," with the interrogative point, appear to have been all which were known to Puttenham. Puttenham's Arte of Poesie has been already mentioned as printed in 1589. In the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, printed by W. Ponsonby in the very next year, 1590, the semicolon may be seen in the first page. A book printed at Edinburgh in 1594 has not the semicolon; the use of it had not, apparently, arrived in Scotland. extremity of it, is situate the deanery or collegiate church of St. Burian, which has always claimed to be exempt from episcopal visitation, or at least from ordinary jurisdiction. It is probable that, on one occasion of this disputed exemption, the parishioners of this remote district at the Land's End had given offence to the Bishop or his functionaries. In company with the Lords Mortimer, D'Awney, and Bloyhon (probably an ancestor of your correspondent BLOWEN), and a large staff of archdeacons, chancellors, canons, chaplains, and familiars, the Bishop visited the church of St. Burian, and obtained from the parishioners a solemn promise of future obedience to his spiritual authority. The promise was made by the greater parishioners in English and French, and by the rest in Cornish, which the rector of St. Just (a parish which has lately obtained some celebrity by the Gorham controversy) interpreted to his lordship. Having absolved them, he then preached a long sermon on the text, "Eratis sicut oves errantes conversi ad pastorem episcopum animarum vestrarum,” which the rector of St. Just then interpreted in Cornish. It is not stated in the record what language was used by the Bishop in his sermon; but if he preached, as one of his successors, Bishop Lacy, is known to have done, in the language of his text, the business of explanation must have been rather troublesome. As he is said to have "successively" preached this sermon there," successive ibidem publicè prædicavit supra sumpto themate,”—it is That an earlier use of the semicolon had been possible that he had to repeat his sermon in more languages than one. the Continent is probable. It occurs It is at all events certain, made upon in the Sermone di Beato Leone Papa, 4to., Flor. that three languages at least were employed, and that the Bishop did not understand Cornish, nor 1485, the last point in the book. the Cornish men the Bishop. The names of the "major parishioners," that is, of the gentlemen of the district, are appended to the document, and are all (except perhaps one) genuine Cornish families, including the Boscawens and Vyvyans of the present day. They gave in their adhesion to therefore have understood one or both of those the Bishop in English and French, and must languages. Of the Bishop's chaplains, only one has a Cornish name; and the interpreter and rector of the adjacent parish of St. Just, Henry Marseley, was also probably not a Cornubian! The interrogative point, or note of interrogation, probably derived from the Greek, occurs frequently in Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique, 4to. 1553. Some reader of your "NOTES AND QUERIES," better informed than myself, may possibly throw further light upon the English adoption of stops in literature. HENRY ELLIS. PREACHING FROM TEXTS IN CORNWALL. Your correspondents have already pointed out the very early prevalence of this usage, but the inquiry has brought to my recollection an instance which incidentally affords some curious information respecting the several languages formerly current in the western parts of this island. It was lately published, among numerous other extracts, from the registers of the see of Exeter, in the valuable Monasticon Diœcesis Exoniensis of Dr. Oliver, pp. 11, 12. In 1336, Grandison, then Bishop of Exeter, made a visitation of his diocese. At the western I may mention that the penitent parishioners very prudently reserved the king's rights. As the king claimed the deanery of St. Burian as a royal peculiar exempt from ordinary jurisdiction, and eventually made good his claim, it is plain that neither the promises of the parishioners nor the polyglot sermon of the Bishop, could have had any lasting effect. The patronage was soon after conferred on the Black Prince, and through him transmitted to the present Duke of Cornwall, by whose spontaneous act this obnoxious exemption from episcopal control was wholly and for ever E. SMIRKE. ON THE EXPRESSION RICHLY DEServed." I was a few days ago induced to consider whence the common expression "richly deserved" could be derived. It is used by Addison and his contemporaries, but I have not been able to find it in writers of an earlier period. Possibly the reading of some of your contributors may supply instances of its occurrence which may prove more precisely its origin and history. The phrase, in its literal sense, is anomalous and unmeaning. We may properly say that a reward or punishment has been "fully deserved;" or, by a common mode of exaggeration, we may say that a thing has been "abundantly deserved:" but "richly deserved" seems a false figure of speech, and presents to the mind an obvious incongruity of ideas. Dr. Johnson cites a passage from Addison, in which chastisement is said to have been "richly deserved," and says that it is used ironically to signify "truly" or abundantly." 66 Of the meaning of the expression -now by usage become trivial - there can, of course, be no doubt; but how came so inappropriate a thought as wealth to be applied to desert? The inaptitude of the expression suggests the presumption that it is a corruption of some more correct phrase; and I venture to throw out a conjecture, for confirmation or refutation by the more extensive reading of some of your philological contributors, that it is corrupted through the medium of oral pronunciation from "righteously deserved." In one of the prayers of the Litany, in our Book of Common Prayer, is the expression, "Turn from us all those evils which we most righteously have deserved." 66 Righteously" is itself a barbarous corruption of an excellent English word, "rightwisely," which is used by Bishop Fisher and other old writers. Our ancient kings were said to be "rightwise "kings of England, and to hold their prerogatives and titles" rightwisely;" and in the Liturgies of Edward VI. the word "rightwisely" is found, instead of "righteously," in the prayer of the Litany above-mentioned. Now rightwisely deserved" is an expression as strictly logical and correct, as richly deserved" is the contrary; and as "righteously" is clearly a corruption of "rightwisely," may not "richly," when applied to desert, be corrupted immediately from "righteously," and ultimately from "rightwisely?" D. JARDINE. 66 THE CAXTON COFFER. If I were to print the explanation which follows without also producing evidence that it had escaped the notice of those to whose works all students in early English bibliography have recourse, it would seem like advancing a claim to discovery on very slight grounds. I must therefore quote Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin. "The history of Lombardy, translated from the Latin [by William Caxton], is mentioned by Pitts." — J. AMES, 1749. "I take this History of Lombardy to be no other than the gestis of the Lombardes and of Machomet wyth other cronycles,' added to the life of St. Pelagyen in the Golden legend, and printed separately for the use of the commonality [sic], who could not purchase so large a folio."—W. HERBERT, 1785; T. F. Dibdin, 1810. Both Bale and Pits ascribe to Caxton the translation of a work entitled Historia Lumbardica. Ames, as we have seen, states the fact with regard to Pits, but had met with no such work; Herbert, by way of explanation, assumes the existence of a publication of which no one had before heard; and Dibdin, who had far superior means of information, repeats the observations of Herbert without the addition of one word expressive of assent or dissent. May we not infer their inability to solve the problem? The conjecture of Herbert is very plausible. One fact, however, is worth a score of conjectures; and the fact, in this case, is that in the earlier editions of the Latin legend the title is Legenda sanctorum sive historia Longobardica. Jacques de Voragine, the author of the work in question, was a Lombard by birth, and archbishop of Genoa. Now Lombardi and Longobardi were synonymous terms -as we see in Du Fresne; and so were their derivatives. With this explanation, it must be admitted that the Historia Lumbardica of Bale and Pits is no other than the Golden legend! BOLTON CORNEY. Since my last communication, I have ascertained that "Caxton" in Cambridgeshire was also designated "Causton." In the Abbrev. Rot. Origin., 41 E. 3., Rot. 42., we have "Cantabr Johēs Freville dat viginti marcas p lic feoffandi Johem de Carleton et Johem de Selvle de man'io de Causton," &c. And in Cal. Ing., p. m., 4 R. 2., No. 23., we have"Elena uxor Johes Frevill Chr. Caxton maner 3a the Weald of Kent. Fuller, as cited by MR. BOLTON CORNEY, says, "William Caxton was born in that town [sc. Caxton]." In the Weald of Kent is a manor called Causton (to which we may now add) alias Caxton, which manor was owned in the middle of the fourteenth century by a family of the same name (from whom it had passed a century later), and held of the honour of Clare, the lords of which honour, in the fifteenth century, were that ducal and royal house, by which William Caxton was warmly patronised. From these data we will hope that some of your correspondents may deduce materials for satisfactorily fixing the place of Caxton's birth. Is there upon record any note of armorial bearings, or of any badge used by Caxton? Should there be, and we find such to be at all connected with the bearings of the lords of Causton, it will be additional evidence in our favour. LAMBERT B. LARKING In the body of St. Alphege Church, Canterbury, is the following monumental inscription: "Pray for the sawlys of John Caxton and of Jone And Isabel that to this church great good hath done In making new in the chancell Of Dexkys and Setys aswell An Antiphon the which did bye With a table of the martyrdome of St. Alphye And departed out of this life of October the 12 day Passed to blisse where is no strife Of the same moneth as our Lord knowe th In the yeare of our Lord God a thousand fower hundred fowerscore and five." What relation (if any) was the above to the typographer? They must have been co-existent, and the "Note" may perhaps be a step in the right direction for arriving at the true "stock" of FRANCISCUS. the Caxton Coffer. ADMONITION TO THE PARLIAMENT. I never had the good fortune to see a copy of the book called An Admonition to the Parliament, but I find a full description of it in Herbert's Ames, iii. 1631, under the date of 1572, from which I gather that it had been printed four times anterior to that year. It was written by two puritanical divines, Field and Wilcox, and contained such an attack upon the bishops, that they did their utmost to suppress it; but Whitgift, nevertheless, gave it additional notoriety by publishing an answer to it, which came out originally in 1571, and was reprinted in 1572 and 1573 (Herbert's Ames, ii. 934.). I have not Strype at hand to see what he says about the Admonition, and the reply to it; but some time ago I met with a letter among the Lansdown MSS. (No. 27.) which relates to the Admonition, and shows that Thomas Woodcock, a well known stationer, had been confined in Newgate by the Bishop of London (Aylmer) for selling it. It is dated 9th Dec. 1578, and is subscribed by five of the most distinguished and respectable printers and publishers of that day, soliciting Lord Burghley (to whom it is addressed) to interfere on behalf of the poor prisoner. It runs precisely in the following form: Our humble duties unto your good L. premised. May it please the same to be advertised, that one Thomas Woodcock, an honest young man, and one of our Company, hathe bin imprisoned in Newgate by the L. Bishopp of London theis six dayes, for sellinge of certaine bookes called the Admonition to the Parliament. Dyvers of the poore mans frendes have bin earnest suitors unto the Bishopp of London for his libertie: his L. aunswere unto them is, that he neither can nor will do any thinge without your L. consent, signified by your letters or warrant. It may therfore please your honor, in consideration of the premisses and our humble request, either to direct your L. warrant for his enlargment, or els to signifie your pleasure unto the L. Bishopp of London to take order herein accordingly, the said poore man first puttinge in sufficient bond to appeare at all tymes when he shalbe called, and readdy to auns were to any matters whatsoever shalbe objected against him. Thus prayinge, accordinge to our duties, for your good L. long and prosperous health with encrease of honor, we commyt the same for this tyme to the protection of the Almightie. At London, 9° Decemb. 1578. "Your L. most humble at Command the Mr. and Wardens with others of the Company of Stationers, From the above we may perhaps conclude, that an edition of the Admonition to Parliament had been printed not long before the date of Thomas Woodcock's imprisonment for selling it; but I do not find that any historian or bibliographer mentions such an edition. Excepting in the letter of the five stationers, Tottyll, Bysshop, Haryson, Seres, and Daye, there seems to be no authority for connecting Woodcock with the publication, and his confinement did not take place until Dec. 6, 1578; whereas Neal, in his History of the Puritans, as cited by Herbert, informs us that Field and Wilcox, on presenting the Admonition to the House of Commons in 1572, were immediately committed to Newgate. Unless there were two puritanical ministers of the name of Field, he, who was imprisoned with Wilcox, was the John Field, who, I apprehend, was the father of Nathaniel Field, the actor in Shak |