have they been before mentioned in " N. & Q." The former house has a tradition that a "hiding hole" existed in one of the rooms on the ground floor (originally forming part of the great hall), the secret of which was known only to Sir John Spencer (who came to reside here early in the seventeenth century) and to one of his servants. Under the stairs near the top of the tower there is a sort of dark cupboard, which is also said to have been a secret chamber, but its hiding capacities are now rather vague.

Lewis, in his history of Islington, says the absurd tradition prevailed in the neighbourhood some time ago that the monks of St. Bartholomew had a subterranean communication from Canonbury to the priory at Smithfield; and though the arches which have at various times been brought to light have been proved to be only those which once belonged to a water conduit, the house to this day is said to have a subterranean passage, and the entrance to it is even pointed out in one of the houses at the back of the tower which once formed part of the old mansion.

The secret chamber at Cromwell House was discovered, I believe, some sixty years ago during some alterations, and had its entrance at the back of a large cupboard, which was situated in one of the upper rooms. This cupboard no longer exists, but the recess in the thickness of the wall that separates two of the rooms, and which formed the "hiding hole," is still used as a cupboard. The cavity, which recedes ten or twelve feet (and would be capable of containing five or six persons), narrows to a sort of wedge shape; but the incline of the wall dividing the rooms is hardly perceptible from the exterior.

I am told that part of an underground passage, running in the direction of Cromwell House, has quite recently been discovered near Highgate Church. Perhaps the subterranean communication to Lauderdale House never existed, and, as in many other instances, it ran to the church (?).

I may mention here, on good authority, as I believe the fact is not generally known, that Hendon Place, now called Tenterden Hall, Hendon (where, according to Stow's Annals, p. 934, Cardinal Wolsey, after losing the favour of his sovereign, lodged the first night on his journey to Yorkshire), has a subterranean passage extending a considerable distance. The entrance, which is situated in one of the cellars, is now bricked up; but when it was discovered, not many years ago, it was explored for about fifty yards, until the foul air extinguished the light.

Bank of England, E.C.

ALLAN FEA.

"JOCOSERIA" (6th S. ix. 468).-This work of Otho Melander was, I think (from Watts), first published under another title, Jocorum atque Seriorum Centuria, 1610. It is not there called

Jocoseria. So far this is only a clever binder's title on the cover of E. S. R.'s book. But the learned Francis Swert (born Antwerp 1567, died 1629) did publish Epitaphia Joco Seria at Cologne in 1623. Another edition which I have, dated 1635, does not mention any previous one, so that the first may go so far back as 1601 or 1602, when Swert began publishing. It looks as if this Jocoseria was of learned Dutch invention. It had not grown common, for it is written with a hyphen, Joco-Seria. C. A. WARD.

Here is my example of such a title :"A Jocoseria Discourse. In two (poetical) Dialogue between a Northumberland Gentleman and his Tenant, a Scotchman, both old Cavaliers, with an Anagram prefixed to them; being Some Miscellaneous Essays written upon several occasions. By George Stuart, &c. London and Newcastle, 1686." J. O.

In the edition of the Jocorum atque Seriorum, published at Frankfort, 1617, the running title throughout is "D. Othonis Melandri | Iocoseria." T. W. C.

NOTES ON MR. A. SMYTHE PALMER'S "FOLKETYMOLOGY" (6th S. ix. 303, 391, 437, 497).— 11. Petra, p. 549.-This name is not an instance of "folk-etymology." It is not a Greek mistranslation, and has nothing whatever to do with Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, or with hagar, an Arabic word for "rock or stone." This Greek name of the capital of the Nabatæans is the correct rendering of the Semitic name Sela, which means "a cliff." See Encyclop. Britannica (s. v. "Nabatæans ").

12. Hibernia, p. 535.-In the account of this name the explanation of Pictet is followed, who sees in the first syllable what he calls the Irish ibh, country or people. Mr. Whitley Stokes has shown long ago that there is no such word as Ir. ibh, meaning land or country. To be sure, it is to be found in O'Reilly's Dictionary as if a substantive in the nom. sing., but it is really a very modern dative plural of úa, a descendant (which is a cognate of the Lat. puer; so Rhys, Welsh Philology, second edit., p. 408). For an interesting note on the etymology of Hibernia, see M. Müller, Lectures, i. 285, and cp. Joyce's School Irish Grammar, p. 39, for ibhuibh, dat. pl. of úa or o. For remarks on the name Ivernii, see Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 262, ed. 1882.

13. Nodlog, p. 493.-This Irish word for Christmas is not an instance of "folk-etymology." It is certainly not a corruption of Fr. noël. The Old Gaelic notlaic, in Welsh nadolig, is a loan word from the Lat. natalicia, a birthday feast (see Windisch, Irish Texts, glossary). The vowel in nod- is quite regular in words borrowed from the Latin; cp. Ir. póg, a kiss Lat. pacem; Ir. poll= Late Lat. padulis, a pool. A. L. MAYHEW,

Oxford.

any

HENSHAW (6th S. ix. 349, 368, 376, 436, 511). -No Henshaw, either Charles or Edward, ever was Lord Mayor of London up to 1773. Neither did William Strickland of Boynton marry a Henshaw; there were only two that could have done so according to date, viz., Sir William the third, and Sir William the fourth baronet. The former married, in 1684, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William Palmer, Esq., and the latter Catherine, daughter of Sir Jeremy Sambroke, Knt., of Gubbins, co. Herts, and had an only son, Sir George, fifth baronet, who married, in 1751, Elizabeth, third daughter of Sir Rowland Winn, Bart, by whom he left issue. Edward Roper, of Eltham, married a daughter of James Butler, M.P. for Arundel. His daughter Elizabeth, wife of Edward Henshaw, became his heir on the death of her brother without issue. The name of the daughter of Sir Thomas More who married William Roper was Margaret, not Elizabeth. It is very probable that Edward Henshaw was descended from Edward Henshaw, of Lewes, co. Sussex, fourth and youngest son of William Henshaw, of Worth, co. Sussex, who had a grandson, by name Edward, living in 1681, and mentioned in his brother's (the Rev. Tobias Henshaw, Vicar of Cuckfield, co. Sussex) will, dated Sept. 4 and proved Sept. 8, 1681. D. G. C. E.

MONFRAS (6th S. ix. 489).-A closely allied form is Monfries, a modern patronymic called Scottish. The Mithraic caves found near Hadrian's Wall are ascribed to Roman legionary soldiers quartered there, so the inscriptions connected therewith cannot be Celtic. There is little doubt, however, that some form of sun worship existed in Britain prior to the Roman occupation; thus Bath was called Aqua Solis, or Aquæ Calidæ, from local hot springs, and thereby connected with a sun god Sual, cf. Welsh haual, by a common euphonic change; cf. Latin sol, Sanskrit suriya, Greek helios; also the river Sind, which becomes Indus, and leads up to Hindu. Is the Beunans Meriasek LYSART. to be met with in English? Bath,

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. John de Wycliffe, the First of the Reformers, and what he did for England. By Emily S. Holt. (Shaw & Co.) WE confess that we take up any book about Wycliffe with a certain misgiving. It may be prejudice on our part, but it seems to us that the lives of reformers and anti-reformers from first to last have commonly been written in a spirit so hostile to that of the true historical student, that those who wish to know what men of these classes were really like had usually better go to the fountain head and work out the knowledge they require for themselves, than fill their minds with the hay, straw, and stubble" which theological controversialists have provided for them in the name of biography. In making these remarks we must be understood as speak

ing quite generally, with no animus against any particular school or faith. We could, if called upon, give a long catalogue of almost worthless partisan' biographical literature, the authors of which have been members of almost every theological section into which Christians are at present divided. Miss Holt shows herself in many passages to be a strong Protestant, but we cannot find that in any instance she has permitted her own beliefs to colour her narrative. It is very tempting to a modern writer who admires Wycliffe to try to show that the reformer's opinions were those of his biographer Miss Holt is too honest to do this; she knows, moreover. that no man of the Middle Ages, however good or the views of any one of the parties of the ninetee th however great, could by any possible chance have held

century. To assume such a thing is to imagine a moral miracle as great as any of the physical ones recorded in the Magnum Speculum.

There have been several books on Wycliffe in which This is a original research is a prominent feature. It is intended for, and will, we trust, popular life. attain to wide circulation; but it will be a great mistake if it is thought that because it is written in an easy and flowing style it is therefore a make-up from printed sources only. Miss Holt is a diligent student of our records, and has, as is evident, a rare facility in their interpretation. She has carefully gone over the ground afresh, and from the lights which our Record Office parchments furnish has been able to add many little facts which were unknown to previous inquirers. Not only her hero, but others of his contemporaries are gainers by this. For instance, Miss Holt has proved almost to demonstration that the evil stories concerning Alice Periers are mere calumnies, invented by personal enemies, which have been rashly taken up and incorporated into modern histories of the picturesque order. One of the heaviest charges against the unfortunate lady was that she had received from Edward III. "the entire wardrobe and jewels of the dead queen." This Miss Holt has proved to be false. What the old king did give to her was only certain jewels, goods, and chattels which were in the custody of Euphemia de Haselarton. That this is the true state of things there can be no doubt whatever, for Miss Holt has found the original donation on the Patent Roll, and has been careful to give so exact a reference that any one can verify her

statement.

Many books begin well but fall off towards the end. We have found this an exception. It seems to us that the last two chapters are by far the best in the volume. They are an admirable exposition of the opinions of a remarkable man, whose thoughts were in transition.

Where almost everything is good it is ungrateful to find fault, but we would ask Miss Holt whether she thinks the account of realism and nominalism on pp. 12, 13 quite fair? Of course it does not pretend to be exhaustive.

The Gentleman's Magazine Library. Edited by George Laurence Gomme, F.S.A.- Dialects, Proverbs, and Word-Lore. (Stock.)

THE second volume of the "Gentleman's Library" is no less interesting and acceptable than the former. To a large section of readers of" N. & Q." it makes direct appeal. To possess in accessible shape the large mass of heterogeneous information upon what is called word-lore which has been communicated to the Gentleman's Magazine is a privilege the student will not be slow to recognize. No volume, past or prospective, of the series is likely, in the nature of its contents, to prove at once so conformable with and so supplementary to “ N. & Q.” as

this. The principal contributors to the volume are Dr. Samuel Pegge, under his pseudonym of "Paul Gemsege," John Mitchell Kemble, John Trotter Brockett, and Davies Gilbert, with, among others, two living writers, Mr. T. T. Wilkinson and the Rev. W. Barnes. In addition to the notes on local words and dialects, on proverbs, on special words and names, are included a series of essays on the signs of inns. The whole is accompanied by an adequate index and some good notes. When completed the series will form a desirable possession to all antiquaries, and an almost inevitable supplement to a complete edition of " N. & Q."

THE Andover Review (Boston, U.S., Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), a new organ of theological and philosophical thought in the United States, has devoted considerable erudition, in its numbers for April, May, and June, to the discussion of the various questions, ecclesiastical and archæological, as well as purely theological, raised by the publication of the so-called Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, edited by Bryennius, Metropolitan of Nicomedia Works of critical scholarship so rarely come to us from the pens of prelates of the Eastern Church, that the Metropolitan Bryennius would, in any case, deserve to receive the best thanks of Western students. In the actual circumstances of the case there can be no doubt that he has raised a most valuable discussion, embracing points which touch upon early Christian art and symbolism, as well as upon doctrine and discipline. Besides this still open discussion, there are interesting archæological notes by Prof. Taylor, and a discriminating paper on the English Pie-Raphaelite school by Mrs. Merriman, giving evidence of the breadth of scope of the Andover Review.

THE Johns Hopkins University Studies (Baltimore, published by the University; London, Trübner & Co.), as we have already had occasion to note, contain much that is of value to students of history and political science on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. B. J. Ramage, B.A., in his essay on "Local Government and Free Schools in South Carolina" (No. xii. of the University Studies), has done good service by setting before us the early history of the state for which John Locke devised a constitution, and to which the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel lent its aid in the foundation of parochial libraries. The story of South Carolina"claimed," as Mr. Ramage tersely puts it, "by the Spaniards, named by the French, settled by the English "is the story of a colony which, notwithstanding its apparently mixed origin, was yet "an English colony in the fullest sense of that term." Mr. Kamage has added an interesting volume to an interesting and valuable series.

IN the ninth volume of the Antiquary are many articles of highest interest. Such are Mr. H. B. Wheatley's "History and Development of the House," which is attractively illustrated; The Old Land Rights of Municipal Corporations," by Mr. G. L. Gomme; "The Tower Guards," by Mr. J. H. Round; "Richard Parr, Bishop of Sodor and Man," by Mr. John E. Bailey; "The Iron Age in Greece," by Mr. A. Lang; and "On the Study of Coins," by Mr. R. S. Poole. Mr. Gomme also writes on "The House of Lords."

THE Rev. Charles Herbert Mayo, of Long Burton Vicarage, Sherborne, is engaged in the task of collecting the inscriptions in memory of the departed existing in

places of worship and burial throughout Dorset, and seeks assistance. Readers willing to supply this had better apply to him at the above address.

AN OLD CITY CHURCH.-From the City Press we learn that the church of St. Vedast Foster, at the rear of the

General Post Office, is to be reseated, the organ restored, and four stained glass windows are to be placed in the edifice. The cost of the works will be upwards of 2000. The benefice has been united to St. Matthew, Friday Street, and St. Peter, Cheap, and also to the church of those united parishes (where Sir Hugh Middleton, founder of the New River, and his family were buried).

Notices to Correspondents.

We must call special attention to the following notices: ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication " Duplicate."

E. R. VYVYAN.-As "N. & Q." will not contain one third of the matter weekly sent in, you have no reason for surprise if an occasional communication is crowded out. One of your MSS. deals with centenarianism; a second with the spelling of the name of Shakspeare. Both questions have been thrashed out in "N. & Q."-in the latter case with the result that contributors are allowed to spell the name according to their fancy. These subjects cannot again be revived. A query of yours, the answer to which involved some research, appears in the present number. If you choose to separate from preliminary matter the query, Where the records of Jewish birth in the last century are kept, it shall appear. You have no slightest cause for complaint.

H. DELEVINGNE ("Lilith ").-The passage in Isaiah in which reference is made to Lilith is chap. xxxiv. verse 14. It is translated Lamia in the Vulgate, and in Coverdale's, Matthew's, Becke's Bibles, the Great Bible, Bishops' Bible, &c. In modern versions it is rendered "screech owl." For the references in the Talmud, which are numerous, see Hershon's Talmudic Miscellany, ch. i. p. 9, and Buxtorf, Lex. Talm., s.v. See " N. & Q.," 6th S. viii. 248, 296, 354; ix. 5, 177. Aristophanes and Communism "will appear in due course.

W. ("Cymon and Iphigenia ").-The story of Cymon and Iphigenia appears in the Decameron of Boccaccio"Giornata Quinta, Novella Prima." Its significance is expressed in the opening phrase of the heading"Cimone, amando, divien savio et Efegenia sua donna rapisce in mare," &c. (p. 262, ed. 1582, Giunti). "Cymon becomes wise by being in love, and by force of arms wins Iphigenia, his mistress upon the seas," &c. (Kelly's translation, Bohn, 1855, p. 25). The story is versified by Dryden in his Translations from Boccace.

A RESIDENT ABROAD ("Remedy for Cholera ").-We cannot possibly answer such a question; but will give you the advice not to think about the matter. The chief thing you have to fear is a groundless alarm such as you seem to be rapidly acquiring.

H. GURNEY.-We do not answer legal questions.