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Stewart, Gen. Hist.), and next of the Sempills; Boghall, near Biggar, the seat of the lords Fleming, afterwards Earls of Wigton, &c. &c. All of these were residences either of the magnates, or lesser barons of Scotland.

Richardson, in his very valuable etymological dictionary, explains the term hall to be a covered building where persons meet or assemble for the administration of justice; or one wherein persons wait (under cover) till admitted into the interior building. Tooke, whom Richardson cites approvingly, derives it from the p. part. of the Anglo-Saxon verb helan, tegere, to cover; a view supposed to be correct. Burns, the Ayrshire poet, in "The Twa Dogs" refers to these halls of the gentry thus:

"And tho' the gentry first are stechin,
Yet e'en the ha' folk fill their pechan
Wi' sauce, ragouts, and siclike trashtrie,
That's little short o' downright wastrie."

It is believed that on investigation it will be found that any place bearing the name hall, anciently, was in almost every instance the site of one of the larger manor places; and that the term was never applied to the kitchen of the lower orders except by mistake.

WILLIAM TANS'UR.

(4th S. i. 536, 569.)

ESPEDARE.

This enthusiastic musician was born in 1699 or 1700 at Dunchurch in Warwickshire, where the name of Tanser was at that period not uncommon and is not yet extinct. His baptism, however, is not entered in the parish register. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Butler, was a native of Ewell in Surrey, where they were "married wth Banns May ye 20," 1730. She died at Ware, January 9, 1767, aged fifty-eight years.

Tans'ur for a long period led" an itinerant life." “Musick," he writes in 1756, "has been my darling and daily exercise from my Youth, even to this Day, having made it my constant Practice above forty years, from the Place of my Birth, through divers Counties in this Kingdom, .... to instruct others in the Art of Psalmody, in the Execution of which my days have been as a continual Way fare."

He dates his published works in 1737 from Barnes in Surrey; in 1754 and 1776 from Cambridge; in 1756 and 1759 from Stamford; in 1761 from Boston; and is said to have been living at Leicester in 1770. There are traces of him also at Ware; at Witham in Lincolnshire; and at Market Harborough, where he buried his son David, January 8, 1743, aged nine years. The last forty years of his life he was chiefly an inhabitant of St. Neot's as a stationer, bookseller, bookbinder, and teacher of music. I have talked with a person who knew him well. In 1747 the churchwardens of a neighbouring parish "paid

William Tansur, singing-master of St. Neot's, for a parish register." In The Beauties of Poetry is a piece of about thirty stanzas called "The Bookseller's Shop," headed :

"WILLIAM LE TANS'UR reccommends

These BOOKS to all his social Friends." After naming books on many subjects and of a better class than one would have expected to find in a small country town, he proceeds: — "ALSO ARE SOLD,

Shop-Books and Paper; Ink of every Sort,
Prints and Sea-Charts, to guide from Port to Port,
Most curious Toys, Corn-Tables, and of Tide,
With Musick Books, and Instruments beside,
Turlington's Balsam; Scotch and Female pills,
Norton's rare Drops, Elixirs for all Ills:
Fine Telescopes, &c.

These books, and thousands more, of late invention,
And Manuscripts, more than I here can mention,
Are selling cheap (Books also neatly bound),
The like elsewhere is scarcely to be found:
Obedient to your orders, Sirs, I stand,
And am your humble servant at command.

W. L. T."

Tans'ur, which, by the way, he rhymes with Having proceeded from Tanser to Tansur and answer, he adopted, later in life, the name and style of William Le Tans'ur, Senior, Musico Theorico; which means, he explains —

"A Person who studies the Science of Musick in general, and private; writes Treatises and Comments thereon; and endeavours to explain all critical and obscure Passages therein, both Ancient and Modern, as well as to give Instructions by Practice, &c."-New Musical Dict., p. 166. He also called himself "Psalmodist" "Philo Music and Theology"; and "Professor, Corrector and Teacher of Musick above fifty years."

He had a son who had been a chorister of Trinity College, Cambridge; joined his father as a teacher of music; and is said to have been living in 1811. Christiana, a maiden daughter, wrote verses in the British Magazine for April, 1760, about a prolific pea in her garden, which produced a second crop in December, 1758; so that (Christmas Day)

on my Birth-Day,

God sent me green peas for my dinner."

Le Tans'ur died at St. Neot's, October 7, and a stone in the east end of the churchyard points out where he was buried, October 9, 1783, aged eightythree. He published several works, and states that he sold many thousand copies of each. Some of them I have not seen, and the following list is probably imperfect:

Sound anatomised, 1724. (Burney, Hist. Music, iv. 687.) Melody of the Heart, 1730.

A Compleat Melody, or the Harmony of Sion, in three volumes [books?]: the first containing an Introduction

to Vocal and Instrumental Music; the second comprising the Psalms, with new Melodies; and the third being composed of Part Songs. Obl. 8vo. London Bridge. 1724.

The New Royal Melody Compleat; or, the New Harmony of Sion. In three books, containing, 1. An Introduction to Church Musick in general. 2. A compleat body of Church Musick adapted to the most select portions of the Psalms; with many fuging Choruses and Gloria Patris. 3. A select number of Services, Chants, Hymns, Anthems, and Canons. 2nd ed. 8vo. (1754?). The New Royal Melody Compleat, &c.; with Portrait. Dated from the University of Cambridge, 1754. 3rd ed. 8vo. 1764.

Heaven and Earth; or, the Beauty of Holiness. 1. The Book of Proverbs set to Musick. 2. Solomon's Song in verse set to Musick. With a portrait of the Author sitting in his study. Dated from Barnes in Surrey, Dec. 1737. 8vo. Lond. 1738. (Lowndes, ed. 1834, col. 1705; Bohn's ed. p. 2438 b); 1740 (Mus. Gram, and Dict. Pref. p. iv.)

Sacred Mirth; or, the Pious Soul's Daily Delight; being a choice and Valuable Collection of Psalms, Hymns, Anthems, Canons, &c., for voices or instruments. With a portrait of the Author sitting in his study. 8vo, Lond.

1739.

Poetical Meditations on the Four last Things; with variety of Poems on other divine subjects. 8vo. Lond. 1740. (In the Bodleian.)

The New Musical Grammar and Dictionary; or, the Harmonical Spectator, &c., with Philosophical Demonstrations on the Nature of Sound. 12mo. Lond. 1746.

A New Musical Grammar and Dictionary; or, a General Introduction to the whole Art of Music: in four books. 1. The Rudiments of Tones, &c. 2. Directions for tuning and playing on Musical instruments, &c. And a feeling Scale of Musick for the blind. 3. The Theory of Sound, &c. 4. The Musician's Historical and Technical Dictionary. Preface ends with "the sincere wishes of your most Laborious, Harmonious, and Humble Servant. Willm Tans'ur, Senior. From the ancient University of Stamford in Lincolnshire, May 29, A.D. 1756." The Third edition, with large additions. 8vo, Lond. 1756.

Universal Harmony, consisting of a great variety of the best and most favourite English and Scots Songs, &c.

with the Musick and Designs engraved. 4to. 1746. The Excellency of Divine Musick.

The Psalm-Singer's Jewel; or, useful Companion to the Singing-Psalms. Being a new Exposition on all the One hundred and fifty, with poetical Precepts to every Psalm, &c. With Expositional Notes; also an alphabetical description of persons, &c. mentioned in the Old or New Testament, and of Christ poetically, &c. With a portrait of the author (atatis suæ 60, Christi 1760), within a canon, four in one, in the form of an oval. The preface is dated from "the Ancient University of Stamford, May y 29, 1759"; the Psalms and Hymns from Boston, 1761. At p. 152 is an Abstract of the Life of Holy David, in

prose. 8vo. Lond. 1760. (In the British Museum.)

The Elements of Musick, containing, 1. An Introduction to the Rudiments of Musick, &c. 2. Of Time, in all its various moods. 3. Structure of Instruments. 4. Theory of Sound philosophically considered. 5. Musical Dictionary. With portrait of the author as in the PsalmSinger's Jewel, the date altered to ætatis suæ 70, Christi

1770. 8vo. Lond. 1772.

Melodia Sacra, or the Psalmist's Musical Companion; a collection of Psalm tunes. With a frontispiece. Obl. 8vo. 1771-2.

The Life of Holy David. A Poem. 8vo. 1772.
The Christian Warrior. Price 6d.

"William Le Tans'ur teaches Musick's Art,
In whose Composures all may bear a Part:
The Book of Psalms he carefully explains;
And David's Life: and Poets lofty Strains ;-
His Christian's Warrior, on the TRINITY,
Arraigns the Deists Infidelity."

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(4th S. ii. 56, 113, 138, 164, 232.) The original query was: "Who was St. Herefrid?" I replied, that he was the priest who attended St. Cuthbert in his last moments, being the Abbot of Lindisfarne, and that he was commemorated formerly in the north of England, on June 2, as noted in the British Martyrology by Bishop Challoner. St. Bede also chronicles his death in his Epitome Historie Anglorum, thus: "Anno septingentesimo quadragesimo septimo Herefridus vir Dei obiit."

Upon this, MR. TEw threw out a suspicion that I had confounded Herefrid with Herebert, the venerable priest to whom St. Cuthbert foretold that he should die on the same day with himself, which was literally fulfilled. But I had made no such mistake; nor was it probable, or I might say possible, for me to confound these two holy men, as I was familiar with the long and very interesting narrative of St. Cuthbert's last days, related by St. Bede, as he received it from St. Herefrid himself. But I did unfortunately fall into a mistake of another kind, which may well have puzzled MR. TEW. I referred for this narrative to St. Bede's Church History, whereas it occurs in his Life of St. Cuthbert. For this I am bound to apologise, and most willingly do so. I had not St. Bede's History at hand when I wrote; though it now lies before me. But I had consulted several writers, and chiefly Cressy; and finding that they all gave as their authorities both works of St. Bede, and quoted from both, I too hastily supposed that the narrative of the man of God" Herefrid occurred in St. Bede's History, whereas it comes in his Life of St. Cuthbert. Öf this latter, I cannot refer to the original; but Cressy translates it at full length in his Church History of Britain, and I find the reference is to chapter xxxvi.

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Cressy, referring to the Life (ch. xxxvi.), mentions that St. Cuthbert retired to his solitude in the small island of Farne, when the feast of our Lord's nativity was ended, in the year 686. Two months after he fell sick, received the last sacraments from the holy abbot Herefrid, and died on March 20, 687. It was a year and a half before St. Cuthbert's retirement that he received the

last visit of the venerable priest Herebert. For St. Bede, as quoted by Cressy (b. xix. ch. vii.), says in his Life of St. Cuthbert (ch. xxviii.), "not long after the death of King Egfrid, the servant of God St. Cuthbert, being thereto requested, came to the city Lugubalia (Carlisle), there to ordain priests, and also to give his benediction to the queen Ermenburga by conferring on her the religious habit of holy conversation.' Now King Egfrid was slain in battle on May 20, 685, only two months after St. Cuthbert's consecration. (Hist. lib. iv. cap. xxvi.) St. Bede goes on to relate in chap. xxix. of the priest Herebert, that when he had heard that St. Cuthbert was come to the city of Lugubalia, he came to visit him according to his custom, and then having received from the saint the assurance that they should both die on the same day, he departed from him, and they met no more in this world.

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which, he says, he had obtained in the previous summer. His informant, who had evidently personal knowledge of the old woman, describes her as hale, hearty, and in her eighty-seventh year. She died, as we have seen, five years after so that the poet is wrong by a whole decade when he makes Dolly one hundred ag'd and two." The epitaph was an exercitation in Cornish by a Mr. Tomson of Truro. The author of the Guide to Penzance is wrong when he implies, if he does not exactly state, that the epitaph, and its existence on a tombstone in Paul churchyard, were invented by a wag to impose on Britton when in the west, collecting material for his Beauties of England and Wales.

That Dolly had an apter use of the old vernacular than her neighbours, and especially (as has ever been the case with fishwives) of its objurgatory expletives, is clear: for the crones who were present at Barrington's visit laughed heartily at their companion's jawing; understanding the language, though they "could not speak it readily.

It is evident, then, that the visit of Herebert to St. Cuthbert took place in the summer of 685— not in 686, as by mistake I stated before-and that he met the saint at the city of Lugubalia, the old name of Carlisle. MR. TEw makes Bede say, In 1776 Barrington presented to the Society of "according to Professor Hussey," that St. Cuth- Antiquaries a letter written in Cornish and Engbert retired after two years to Lugubalia, where lish by William Bodener of Mousehole, who eviHerebert visited him, which, he says, "must have dently spoke the language as well. Bodener died been in 687, the very same year of his death." I in 1794. In 1777, the date of Dolly's death, have shown that Bede says no such thing; but what attention was drawn by the indefatigable antihe does say is, that St. Cuthbert retired finally to quary to another native of Marazion, one John the island of Farne, where he died. (Life of St. Nancarrow, aged forty-five, who had learnt the Cuthbert, ch. xxxvi.) The two years of St. Cuth-language in his youth, and could converse in it. bert's episcopacy may very fairly be understood to In 1790, according to Pryce, it was spoken at mean about two years, or in the second year. Mousehole. Thus I hope all is made clear without any "glaring and hopeless anachronism" being chargeable either on St. Bede or his very humble copyist, F. C. H.

DOLLY PENTREATH.
(4th S. ii. 133, 187.)

So far from sharing in MR. CYRUS REDDING'S gratification at the erection of such a monument to Dolly Pentreath, I think it is to be regretted that the ever-during granite should perpetuate an untruth. Dolly does not merit the pre-eminence commonly accorded to her as the last who could speak the Cornish tongue; neither does she deserve the scandal, repeated in every guide-book, that even she could only scold in it.

The Hon. Daines Barrington discovered her in 1768, and to the interest his account excited may be traced the too special association of her name with the dying language. Dolly died in December 1777, nine years after his visit. (Vide register of Paul parish.) An unaccountable mistake, by the bye, is generally made in the statement of her age. The zealous antiquary, in a letter dated March 31, 1773, gives some further particulars

Without multiplying instances farther, I may conclude with an assertion, in the words of Whitaker, that

"The Cornish was still spoken when the voice of Dolly was choked in the grave. She was not indeed the solitary speaker of a language lost to all other tongues, the single representative of the purely Cornish nation, the mournful outliver of all her kindred and speech. Numbers talked it at the very time."

The rapidity and completeness of its obliteration is a remarkable fact: for while there is no local dialect richer than ours in good old Saxon and Norman expressions, only to be supplied in our present book-English by clumsy periphrasis, we have surprisingly few Cornu-British words; excepting those which, as is usual, indelibly fix themselves on immutable natural objects-such as the everlasting hills and changeless rivers. THOMAS Q. COUCH.

Bodmin, Cornwall.

Has not modern research found out that the

age of Dolly Pentreath has been greatly exaggerated, as her baptismal register is dated 1714?

J. WILKINS, B.C.L.

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LACUS AMPSANCTUS.

(4th S. ii. 145.)

Would allow me to add one short paragraph to my note on this lake? On our way to it, we rested at the small village Taurasi, the ancient Taurasia, which is only known by being mentioned in the inscription on the tomb of L. Scipio Barbatus, which records it among the cities of Samnium, taken by him during the Third Samnite War. Here, built into the walls of the village church, an ancient sepulchral inscription. with the name of " P. VERGILIVS " is found; and though we have no reason to suppose it in any way connected with the poet, still it is curious to find a family of the same name so near to the lake about eight or ten miles distant-which the poet has immortalised by his description. It seems not unreasonable to suppose that the poet may have rested here with this family in his wanderings towards the south of Italy, and thus have become acquainted with the lake. It is to be remarked, also, that the inhabitants of this district were a tribe from the north of Italy, though not in the immediate neighbourhood of the poet's supposed birth-place, still at no great distance, having been transferred to this spot from the eastern part of Liguria by order of the senate.

In the time of the poet, Taurasia was the nearest inhabited spot to the lake, and where he must have stayed, if he paid it a visit. It is not so now, as there is a small village, Frigento, about four miles distant. He would naturally take the very direction that we pursued across the feeders of the river Calor, a rough and nearly impassable route; and I do not doubt, from the appearance of the country, it would be much the same then as it is now. It would explain the use of "valles," as in proceeding we had to cross innumerable ravines on our way across the country, so that he might appropriately speak of the "valleys" of Ampsanctus. Approaching it from the great public road leading to Apulia, you see nothing of these ravines, but come down upon it at once.

I do not attach much importance to what I have added, but it is certainly a curious circumstance that a family of the same name as the poet should have been settled here. I saw many ancient sepulchral inscriptions in' my wanderings through Italy, but this was the only one with the poet's name that I came across. I do not recol

lect that the name of Ennius is ever found in Roman history, except in the celebrated poet. I found it, however, on a small tombstone of Aquinum, the birthplace of Juvenal, and it may be worth recording in your valuable pages:

"T. ENNI. T. F. AVCTI

IN. F. P. XII.
IN. A. P. XII."

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ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN OF KING CHARLES II.

(3rd S. v. 211.)—To this long list of the "Merry Monarch's" natural offspring must be added Barbara Fitz Roy, daughter of Barbara Villiers, the notorious Duchess of Cleveland. OxONIENSIS corrects the name of Villiers, but it was hers, being sole daughter and heiress of William Villiers, Lord Viscount Grandison, when, just before the Restoration, she married Roger Palmer, Esq., then a student in the Temple, and heir to a considerable fortune, who, in the thirteenth year of King Charles II., for the love of her, was created Earl of Castlemaine. She had a daughter, born in February 1661, while she cohabited with her husband; but shortly after she became the avowed mistress of the king, who in 1670 created her Baroness of Nonsuch, Countess of Southampton, and Duchess of Cleveland. With an autograph letter of hers, I have the following declaration in her daughter's handwriting:

"Mon nom du monde est Barbe Fitz Roy, est en religion jay fait profession dans le Couuent des Benedictines Benedite fille Du Roy De la Grande Bretagne Charles 2de; Angloises De Pontoise Lannée 1691 Le 2 Dauril cest maison est mittigé."

To this document is added the minute of a letter of the Duc de Bouillon, dated "à Paris ce 26° 7bre 1720":

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Ayant esté absent plus longtems que je ne me Lestois proposé, je n'ay pû plus tost Mesdames seconder uos voeux en vous donnant vne Prieure telle qu'il nous conuient pour entretenir Lunion et La paix dans votre maison. Je me flatte que le choix que je viens de faire sera approuué de toute notre communauté, La naissance de plus Illustre, La Pieté solide et veritable auec un merite singulier font le caractere particulier de Madame Fitz Roy Religieuse Angloise du Couuent de Pontoise, fille du feu Roy Charles Second d'Angleterre, cest elle que j'ay

choisie, pour faire le bonheur de votre maison, et je serai toujours dispose à faire tout ce qui dépendra de moy pour seconder ses vœux et proteger vne communauté que Jestime. Soyez en persuadées, Mesdames, je vous prie, et que personne ne vous peut estre plus devoué que je le suis."

On another sheet is written, in the handwriting of the end of the seventeenth century, "Barbara Fitz Roy, Fille du feu Roy Charles Second D'Angleterre et de Barbara Villiers, Duchesse de Clevelande Religieuse Benedectine mitigé, à Pontoise, depuis 1691." P. A. L.

SMITING THE THIGHS (4th S. ii. 238.) — There are two passages in the Old Testament on this subject,-Jerem. xxxi. 19, Ezek. xxi. 12. In both of them the action signifies shame and grief. Somewhere in Cicero, if I am not mistaken (I cannot give the reference), the absence of this action is noticed as a sign of the want of earnestness on the part of the speaker or pleader. The word unрoTurns is quoted in Liddelland Scott out of the Anthology. LYTTELTON.

"THE VICTIM" (4th S. ii. 172.) —Those who are fortunate enough to possess a small volume, German Ballads, Songs, &c., translated, published by James Burns, no date, but more than ten years ago, will find this subject treated in a poem by S. M. that surpasses for pathos and beauty almost anything of the kind ever written. I would transcribe a portion of it, but it would be almost sacrilege to break it into fragments, and as a whole it is too long for the pages of "N. &Q." The late Mrs. Hemans, who, next to S. M., could have done justice to the subject, had it on her list of subjects for future poems, but her sister mentions that she was deterred from writing a poem on it partly by failing health, partly by the overwhelming sadness of the subject.

Hawthorn.

FRANCIS ROBERT DAVIES.

CURIOUS ORTHOGRAPHIC FACT (4th S. ii. 180.) I am greatly obliged to CH. H. for correcting my error as to sainte, &c. In languages I have been entirely self-taught, so of course I have been liable to error, and am therefore not ashamed to confess it. I never could meet with any work which gave a full and clear account of the pronunciation of the French language, and I was quite unaware that the final e muet was sometimes pronounced in prose also. I presume the principle extends to nouns, and that we should say crain-te de, faut-te de, &c., and that the same is the case with words ending in re. Is there any such thing as a good French pronouncing dictionary? That published by Tauchnitz cannot be relied on, it is so shamefully incorrect.

THOS. KEIGHTLEY. BUMMER (4th S. i. 75, 163, 467; ii. 214.)-In the almost obsolete ceremony of beating the bounds, a person is selected to be bumped at

certain places on a certain part; and I have heard the above title assigned to him, for very obvious reasons. As he was always well paid with money or beer, the office of "bummer was often contested by several candidates. MR. PIGGOT (at i. 163) mentions that the bittern was called in Wales bump y-gors. Before this bird was exterminated from East Anglia by the drainage of the fens, I have often heard it called "the bummer;" and it is not long since that a fen-man, in speaking to me of the changes in that part of the country, said, "there are no more bummers and no more copperflies" (of course he meant the butterfly). "Bummers," for bitterns, I always took to be the equivalent to boomers. As regards "the bumming of bees" mentioned by D. MACPHAIL (ii. 214), there is the following couplet in Clare's poem "Summer Evening":

"From the hedge, in drowsy hum,

Heedless buzzing beetles bum."

The word "bumble-bee" is very common; and I have always fancied that from this "yellowliveried" gentleman, with his obesity and fussiness, Mr. Dickens took the name of his never-tobe-forgotten Bumble.

CUTHBERT BEDE.

"SONGS OF SHEPHERDS" (4th S. ii. 203.) — MARIA H. is informed that Porson never wrote such nonsense as the song inquired after. It was the production of George Alexander Stevens, the author of the "Lecture on Heads," and it may be found amongst a collection of songs printed at the end of an 18mo edition of his works. It is a farrago of nonsense and bad rhymes. During the Queen Caroline agitation Theodore Hook wrote and published a parody in the John Bull, in which every verse ended with "hunting the hare "hare being a shocking bad rhyme to such words as "door," "before," "deplore," &c. STEPHEN JACKSON.

[The verses inquired for by MARIA H. "On the Prospect of an Invasion," will be found in " N. & Q." 2nd S. viii. 493.-ED.]

SWIFT'S MARRIAGE (4th S. ii. 132, 212.)-In the passage in Literature and its Professors to which I referred, Mr. Purnellis censuring Thackeray for his notions and expressed opinions concerning Swift, so that he must already have been acquainted with M. Matthieu's "well-founded authority," and all he had to say. Another correspondent, MR. BATES, on the contrary, has kindly furnished me with what I suppose are the authorities for the current belief in the marriage of Swift with Stella. Having read them, I must confess the case is "not proven," and that my faith in the received opinion is beginning to waver. So important an event in the life of our great satirist as his marriage ought surely not to be left undetermined; and I trust some of the learned contributors to "N. & Q." will give their atten

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