but perhaps this was a mistake of the would-be
seller.
Was there a smaller edition of these
volumes, or were some of the copies destroyed?
I notice that these three parts are advertised for
much more frequently than any others.
Q. V.

[The parts after which you inquire are out of print, as are the Third Report, part ii. of the Sixth Report, parts i. and ii. of Seventh, and part i. of Tenth.]

CONVENTION OF BRIGHAM. Some historians speak of the convention of 1290 in reference to the succession of the Scottish Crown as "the treaty of Brigham." As to what person or place was the name of Brigham applied, and why?

W. F. AUTHOR OF BOOK WANTED.-"My Brother by an old author. London, Sampson Low, 1855." Who is the author of this? Oddly enough, though published by Messrs. Sampson Low, I cannot find it in their most useful-nay, indispensable-'English Catalogue.' RALPH THOMAS.

mention it, but he explains mi-carême as the day which divides Lent in two, on which there is made quelque rejouissance. Is this day the Thursday of the third week in Lent, or the Friday? The night between the two divides Lent into two halves.

E. D.

BROWNE.-Where can one find anything about Sir John Edmund Browne, an eccentric, who turned night into day, drank water only for thirty years, and would not use a fire? He died at eightyeight. C. A. WARD. Walthamstow.

"HIGHER THAN GILROY'S KITE."-Can any of your readers tell me the meaning or the allusion in this phrase? I have only heard it used by Americans, who speak of a thing being "Knocked higher than Gilroy's kite." CHAS. WELSH.

DAVID ROSS.-Who was the mother of David Ross, the tragedian, who was born May 1, 1728; found? and where is the register of his baptism to be F. N. R.

Replies.
SAMPHIRE.
(7th S. iv. 407.)

PRIME FAMILY.-In the year 1638 came to America from England James Prime and Mark Frime, brothers. James settled at Milford, in Connecticut; Mark settled at Rowley, in Massachusetts. From these two brothers are descended families well known in American financial, literary, and church histories. It is believed that the brothers came from Yorkshire, in England; but In a query or noting on this, et quibusdam no aid towards tracing the family history is ob- aliis, it is said that some nations call this plant tained from the Autobiographical Recollections of a fennel. This is somewhat ambiguous, and a Prof. George Prime,' published Cambridge, 1870, phrase more likely to be taken in its incorrect nor from any other known works. If any gentle-finocchio marino in Italian, and similarly in sense. It is Foeniculum marinum, sea fennel, men who have had occasion to investigate family French, Spanish, German, and Dutch, "for 80," histories in Yorkshire, especially in Hatfield, near Doncaster, and thereabouts (or elsewhere in Eng- says Parkinson, in his "Th. Bot.," "in the land), can furnish any information which will enable umbels and whole face thereof it doth assimilate us to connect the American families with their a Fennel." We speak in like manner of a seaEuropean ancestry, a great service will be rendered horse, or of a porpoise or sea-hog, but neither we to American biographical research, and gratefully nor our ancestors had any intention of classing the appreciated. one under the genus Equus, nor the other with pigs. Neither is Shakespeare's samphire supposed to be Cr. maritimum, or rock samphire, for the sole reason stated. This rock-samphire, this Herbe de St. Pierre, readily became in English sampier, ex-sampire, sampere, or samphire, though the golden samphire, Inula crithmoides, and locally the marsh samphire, Salicornia herbacea, were also used in the same way, the latter probably getting its name from its use and reputed virtues, much as Parkinson speaks of Alchemilla arvensis being "pickled up as a samphire." If, too, we look into the 'Var. Sh.,' 1821, we find that Smith, in his 'History of Waterford,' 1774, speaks of the same 66 dreadful trade"; that Heywood gives among the cries of Rome, i. e., London, "I ha rock samphier"; that Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' has :— Rob Dover's neighbouring cleeves of samphire to excite His dull and sickly taste, and stir up appetite; and that Venner, 1622, says, "Samphire is in like

Replies may be addressed; without_prepayment of postage, to RALPH E. PRIME. Yonkers, Westchester Co., New York, U.S. CARNIVAL This word is very variously plained in dictionaries, English, French, and Italian. Some make it to mean the last day before Lent, i.e., Shrove Tuesday; others say the last three days; others, again, the last week before Lent; while some extend it to the whole period from Twelfth Day to Ash Wednesday, or even from Boxing Day to the latter date. I should be glad to know what is the common application of the word. How long does the Carnival last at Rome or at Naples? Further, I see in a newspaper a reference to the "Mid-Lent Carnival," or "Carnaval de la Mi-Carême," which, it is said, is the great festival of the Parisian blanchisseuses. What is this; and what is its history? Littré does not

Why should the "popular" belief that Shakspeare's samphire is the rock samphire, the Crith-supplies from Wm. Turner's 'Names of Herbes,' 1548, a mum maritimum of botanists, be questioned? It is described over and over again in old herbals, with a particularity that seems to leave no room for doubt; it is spoken of as having been in common use in pickles and "sallets "; directions are even given as to its cultivation. Gerarde, in 1633, only seventeen years after Shakspeare's death, thus writes of it :

MARRIAGE ALLEGATIONS, THEIR CUSTODY AND PRESERVATION (7th S. iv. 425).—I fear that what your correspondent MR. MASON states as to these records at Peterborough is only too true as regards those at many other places. We know that at York so little care was taken of them that they disappeared almost en bloc. Their great value may be gathered from Paver's copy or list in the British Museum, now being printed. At Ripon the allegations, together with the bishop's transcripts of parish registers and many other priceless records of the Archdeaconry of Richmond, which some fifty years ago were removed there, still remain in great confusion, and apparently there is no one in the district with either the leisure or inclination to put them into order or make them available for inquirers. It was left to one of our cousins from over the sea to show us the value of these marriage licences, and by his patient labour to make all genealogists, present and to come, his debtors; but we follow the example tardily. In saying this I do not forget the good work done at Worcester, and contemplated at Lincoln and Exeter.

Anent these Ripon records, it is well known that the Archdeaconry of Richmond embraced nearly the whole of the North Riding of Yorkshire. This note will doubtless be read by some interested in the district. With any effort to amend the present condition of things the writer would be glad to co-operate. The first step should be to obtain a report on the records now existing. H. D. E. CHILDREN AS MEDIATORS (7th S. iv. 307, 417). -INQUISITOR may like to know that the German poet Adolf Stöber wrote some taking verses concerning the incident about which he asks. They are entitled 'Die Hussiten vor Naumburg,' and begin :

Hilf Himmel, die Hussiten

Sind vor den Thoren draus.

I have them just now before me in an illustrated anthology, published as an 'Album für Deutschlands Töchter,' pp. 162-4. We are told that the skin of Zisha, stretched, according to his own dying wish, across the head of a drum, incites the Taborites to revenge on Naumburg the death to which her bishop had formerly condemned John Huss. Procopius has sworn to burn the city, and the fearful burghers consult together, and take means to avert this fate. They resolve to send their children to plead for them, and the little ones,

decked out as lambs for sacrifice, depart, amidst
mothers' tears and blessings, on the dangerous
Two and two they go, all clothed in
mission.
white, bearing "Citron' und Rosmarin" (why ?)
in their little hands, and with a white banner
floating in their midst. They ask mercy of Pro-
copius, and kneel and weep before him, until the
stern warrior's eye thaws, as Stöber says, and their
prayer is granted. The children are feasted with
cherries and wine, and they dance to merry
music till sundown. Then they are sent home
to shout
with the direction that they are
"Victory!" when they reach the gate, and to tell
their mothers that the Hussites will depart with-
"We
out taking even a little dog as booty.
have been conquered without slaughter," says Pro-
copius to his followers. "Out of the mouths of little
children God has created an army for Himself"
ST. SWITHIN.
(Psalm viii. 2).

ADMIRAL BLAKE (7th S. iv. 468).-If MR. VYVYAN will refer to Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers' he will find the royal warrant, dated Sept. 9, 1661, for the exhumation of twentyone bodies, including that of "Coll. Robert Blake" (pp. 521-3). They were reinterred under the green on the north side of the abbey, between the north transept and the west end. The names of Oliver Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton are not included in this disgraceful warrant, as their bodies had been previously exhumed, and, after being hung at Tyburn and decapitated, were reinterred G. F. R. B. under the gallows.

Col. Chester says, in 'Westminster Abbey Registers,' p. 150, that "his bones were subjected to the indignity of disinterment, and removal to the common pit in the churchyard," but he gives no authority. Tegg's 'Dict. of Chronology' says removed and buried at Tyburn; but I think he C. A. WARD. gives no authority. Walthamstow.

[MR. WM. GILMORE refers to the 'Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography' and the English Cyclopædia,' in both of which is a statement that the body was disinterred, which he thinks may be regarded as authentic.]

LAYSTALL (7th S. iv. 464).—I have met with "layrestall" in a Ripon fabric-roll of 1541, and with lairstall," ," "larestall," and other forms in church accounts in Durham and the neighbourhood from 1584 to 1700. Also with "larestone" 16091613, and I think later, for a grave-cover. "Layerstall," 1763, will be found in Longstaffe's 'Darlington,' p. 277, with explanations of both it and "layer-stone."

Bp. Hatfield's Hall, Durham.

J. T. F.

I beg to refer MR. EARWAKER to 3rd S. vi. 418. In 1864 I met with the same term, but written Lairstall, in the parish of Pittington, in the county of Durham, and was favoured, in reply to a query,

with a note appended by the Editor, which gives
very clearly the origin of the term. I am glad to
say the vicar of the parish is about to publish the
churchwardens' accounts, commencing 1588, where
the word repeatedly occurs. These will be found
to be of great interest.
JOHN BOOTH.
Durham.

There was, and perhaps is, a street called Laystall
Street, in London, somewhere near Gray's Inn Lane,
Liquorpond Street, or Hatton Garden. Consult
the histories of London for information regarding
it.
C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

SONNETS ON THE SONNET (7th S. iv. 429).-See the learned introductory essay on 'The Sonnet' in that dainty little volume 'Sonnets of this Century,' by William Sharp (Walter Scott, 1886). Mr. Theodore Watts's 'Sonnet on the Sonnet' is

therein quoted (p. lxii). Wordsworth's ('Miscellaneous Sonnets," part i. i.) is not quoted. CUTHBERT Bede.

Schlegel has written a sonnet on the sonnet, which is included in 'Deutsche Lyrik' ("Golden Treasury Series," Macmillan), and one (satirical) appeared two or three years ago in one of the American illustrated magazines, the Century, I think. M. WALLACE.

66

The

1. 1005; and, as this is the earliest MS. extant in
'very early" spelling is iuu, in the Epinal MS.,
English, and goes back to the seventh century, it
may confidently be said to be the oldest spelling of
the word extant in any Teutonic language.
reference in the above dictionary for the M.E.
form is to "C. T.,' 2925"; i. e., to l. 2923 in the
six-text edition of Chaucer. The six MSS. have
ew (four times), ewe (twice). There are plenty of
other spellings of no value. Palsgrave has yowe.
CELER.
Chaucer, in his Assembly of Fowles,' calls it
"the shooter ewe." Dekker, in his work on 'The
house as being "strewde with blasted Rosemary,
Wonderfull Yeare" (1603), describes a charnel-
wither'd hyacinths, fatall cipresse, and ewe." In
an old poem (1651), by Thomas Stanley, we find
the following lines :-

--

Yet strew upon my dismall grave
Such offerings as you have,
Forsaken Cypresse, and sad Ewe.
In another poem of the same date, called 'A
Mayden's Song for her Dead Lover,' a line runs
thus-

Bind with Cypresse and sad Ewe.
In 'Shirley's Wedding' (1633) is a scene in which
servants are represented "placing Ewe, Bayes,
Rosemary, on a table set with tapers," and one of
the characters says :-

I send the accompanying jeu d'esprit, written by my father, John Adamson, the biographer of Camoens, and addressed to his friend and neigh-In bour, the late Archdeacon Coxe, then Vicar of Newcastle-upon-Tyne:

You said last night that you had tried a sonnet,

Which 'cross the street you'd send to let me see.
Quite lost to guess what subject it may be,
I'm all anxiety that I should con it.
I hope no flea has got within your bonnet
To make you think that you can rival me.
You'll rouse my ire, you may depend upon it,
The very thought calls up my chivalry.
Don't mind, however, what above I've wrote,
Its beauties all my wrath may soon assuage,
And if 'tis good, adieu to all my rage!
And I'll transfer to you the fame I 've got.
Of strictest rule I hope it bears the signs,
Right measur'd verse and only fourteen lines.

E. H. A.

"A CROW'S AGE" (7th S. iv. 366).-The phrase is not new to the readers of Horace, who speaks of Lyce as about to be kept alive by fate as long as "a crow's age" (‘IV. Od.' xiii. 24–25) :—

Servatura diu parem
Cornicis vetulæ temporibus Lycen.
E. WALFORD, M.A.

Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.

На ye not art enough

Gayton's 'Art of Longevity' (1659), p. 53, is the following line

To make the ewe-tree grow here.

The Ewe, sad box, and cypress (solemn trees).
Sir Thomas Browne, in his 'Hydriotaphia,' p. 56,
talks of "the planting of yewe in churchyards.”
CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield, Reading.

MR. ARNOLD asks whether our yew was ever anciently spelt "ewe." There is :

"But for encheson that we have none olyve that berith greene leef algate, therfore we take ewe instede of palme and olyve and beren aboute in processyon, and so is this day callyd Palme Sonday."-Liber Festivalis,' Dom, in ram. palm., sign. c. f. v., Caxton, 1483.

If there is a wish to know further about the yew in
Ireland circa 1184, speaks of it:-
churchyards, Giraldus Cambrensis, who visited

copiosius amaro hic succo taxus abundat, maxime vero

"Præ terris autem omnibus quas intravimus, longe

in cœemiteriis antiquis locisque sacris sanctorum virorum manibus olim plantatas (al. plantatis), ad decorem et ornatum quem addere poterant, arborum istarum copiam videas."Topogr. Hibern.,' dist. iii. cap. x. 'Opp.,' London, 1857, vol. v. p. 153.

·

This is the earliest passage that I know of which mentions the yew tree in churchyards, and it states as the reason for its being planted there, its fitness as an ornamental tree. The former passage from the Festival Book' assigns its use in the ceremonial

of Palm Sunday. These help to set aside the con-
jectural reasons given, such as the "being used for
bows, and therefore planted in churchyards" in
Johnson.
ED. MARSHALL.

"As for brasell, Elme, Wych, and Asshe, experience
doth proue them to be but meane for bowes, and so to
conclude Ewe of all other thynges, is that, whereof per-
fite shootyng woulde haue a bowe made."-Ascham,
'Toxophilus,' 1545 (Arber's reprint), p. 113.
J. S. ATTWOOD.
Exeter.
[Many other correspondents are thanked for replies.]

'BEAUTIFUL SNOW' (7th S. iv. 449). The authorship of this poem was fully discussed in 'N. & Q.,' 5th S. iii. 358; iv. 12, 57, 60; and it was stated (p. 57) by MR. GASTON DE BERNEVAL, of Philadelphia, apparently on the most conclusive authority, that it was written by an American gentleman, Mr. J. V. Watson. At the second of the above references the verses were quoted at full length. As it is, in my opinion, the most distressing poem in the English language, may I express a hope that MR. GARDINER will find this information satisfactory, and that the subject will not go any further?-as there is really no more to be said.

JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

[That the author of 'Beautiful Snow' was Major Sigourney, and the heroine Mrs. Sigourney, is stated by very many correspondents. At the request of several of these we abstain from reprinting the lamentable story of Mrs. Sigourney's death. See also N. & Q.,' 5th S. iv. 12, where the poem is quoted in full.]

lile's weekly paper in 1833. In my judgment Car-
lile, or Carlile's Republican, had as much to do
with the Coldbath Fields meeting as Tenterden
steeple with the Goodwin Sands. I may inform
JAYDEE that, so far as the physiologist's seven
years' changes admit, I am the same person who
appeared at Tiverton, not in 1846, but at the end
of July, 1847. I will add I am sorry my noble
opponent Lord Palmerston is not still with us;
for, if he were, I would gladly-opportunity and
strength permitting-betake myself to Tiverton,
not to oppose, but to support Lord Palmerston,
feeling assured that on the question of the day we
might stand side by side on the same platform, de-
fending, against all comers-"malice domestic,
foreign levy "-the unity of the empire.
GEO. JULIAN HARNEY.

Cambridge, Mass., U.S.

THE CAMPANILE AT SALISBURY (7th S. iv. 247, 377, 455).—The order for pulling down the belfry was made on March 12, 1790. These are the entries in the Chapter Act Book :

"Ordered. That the Clock and Bell be removed out

of the Belfry, and that the Belfry be taken down and the materials thereof sold."

"Ordered also. That the materials of the Belfry be advertised to be sold and disposed of." That these orders were acted upon appears from the advertisement of the materials in the Salisbury Journal at the end of the same month and the beginning of April, 1790, and also from the subsequent entry in the Chapter Act Book, under

date May 21, 1792:

Church."

This was, no doubt, the Purbeck marble pillar by
which the roof was supported in the centre in the
same way as that of the chapter-house now is.
A. R. MALden.

Salisbury.

RICHARD CARLILE (7th S. iii. 228, 317, 373, "Ordered. That the Masters of the Fabric do purchase 464; iv. 291, 337).-In reply to JAYDEE, I fully the remainder of the Column of Stone that stood in the remember that in the case of the policeman killed Belfry, on the best terms they can for the use of the at the Cold bath Fields meeting (1833), the coroner's jury's verdict of "Justifiable homicide" was "quashed" by the Court of King's Bench. But nothing came of that reversal of the verdict of the coroner's jury, which I do not hold to have been "glaringly_in_contradiction to the evidence" the Annual Register notwithstanding. When shortly afterwards the man Fursey was tried on the charge of wounding another policeman, he was acquitted and discharged. But the question between us is as to R. Carlile, or his publications, being accountable for, or mixed up with, the Cold bath Fields meeting. The Republican had ceased to exist for some years. In its palmiest days it was deistical rather than political, and especially so in the concluding volumes. Carlile had disciples, but they were of the heterodox rather than the radical school. The Coldbath Fields meeting was the, perhaps inevitable, aftermath of the exciting Reform Bill agitation. The men who convened it were followers of Hunt, if of any man-certainly not of Carlile. On the contrary, when mentioned at all, they were held up to ridicule in the Gauntlet, Car

CALVERT, LORD BALTIMORE (7th S. iii. 7, 133, 436; iv. 98).-Was it customary for the heralds to allow a grantee to select arms for his palatinate? Perhaps my Lord Baltimore was ignorant of the rules of heraldry when he wrote his letter of Aug. 12, 1649, "Our paternal coat is quartered with another coat of arms belonging to our family." This was the arms of Crossland, which he evidently had no right to quarter, as Crossland's daughter was not an heiress. However humble the origin of the Calverts, the later generations inherited good blood-some of the best in England-through intermarriage with the Arundels of Wardour. The name of Calvert is found among the German miners imported into Cumberland and the north in the sixteenth century; but Calfherd, Calfhirt, Calveherd, is frequently found in the subsidy rolls of Yorkshire. It seems un