GEORGE KIRBYE AND THE TRIUMPHS OF ORIANA.'-In my edition of George Kirbye's 'Madrigals' (1597) I drew attention to the fact that there were two editions of the 'Triumphs of Oriana' (1601). In some copies (e. g., that belonging to the Music School, Oxford) Kirbye's contribution is a six-part madrigal," With Angel's face and brightness"; in others this is replaced by "Bright Phoebus greets most clearly." I had not noticed that the music to these two sets of words is precisely the same. Consequently in my notice of Kirbye in the 'Dict. Nat. Biog.' I spoke of them as two separate compositions. This is a mistake. It may be conjectured that Kirbye wrote his music to the words "With Angel's face and brightness," to which it is better suited; but as these were also set by Daniel Norcome, the editor of the 'Triumphs' apparently thought it advisable to supply new words to Kirbye's composition. G. E. P. ARKWRIGHT. Adbury House, Newbury. Queries. We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. 'THE PLEASANT HISTORY OF THE KING AND LORD BIGOD OF BUNGAY.-This ballad has been several times printed. I cannot trace it further back than to Ford's 'Suffolk Garland,' which was published in 1818. Can any reader tell me who was the author? Several writers have asserted that the three lines which occur, with slight alteration, at the end of every verse are to be found in Holinshed's 'Chronicles.' I have searched several editions in vain. These lines are printed in Camden's Britannia,' edition of 1607, but not in that of 1600. I quote them from the edition of 1607: Were I in my Castle of Bungey I would ne care for the king of Cockney.-P. 340. Some writers say that this boast was made during Stephen's reign, and that the events recorded in the ballad took place in the days of Henry II. Others tell us that both belong to the same period-the reign of Henry II. The ballad, I suspect, first saw the light during the eighteenth century; the lines which I have quoted are certainly nearly 300 years old. I want to know the earliest mention (1) of these three lines, (2) of the whole ballad. If the former are to be found in Holinshed's 'Chronicles,' I shall be obliged if some reader will refer me to the edition and page. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that Bungay is in Suffolk. The ballad appears in Ford's 'Suffolk Garland,' in Suckling's History of Suffolk,' and in Glyde's' New Suffolk Garland.' CHARLES S. Partridge. 'FROM OXFORD TO ROME.'-This book, which excited a good deal of attention and interest, was published anonymously in 1847, at the time of the famous Oxford tracts. The author was a young lady, and a first cousin of mine. I am told by her brother, who is still living, in his eighty-fifth year, that she was so worked upon by the Roman Catholic party that she made a recantation, and confessed to having committed a great sin in writing this book, which told against the Roman Church, and that this was published in the newspapers of the day. Can you verify or contradict this? GEO. REDFOrd. WALTER LONG.-Can any of your correspondents inform me whether the Walter Long, Esq., of South Wraxhall, near Bath, who died in 1807, left any issue; also whether his four sisters were ever married? G. DEEKS. OLDEST TREE IN THE WORLD.-The Rev. W. Tuckwell, in 'Tongues in Trees and Sermons in Stones' (George Allen, 1891), says, p. 85: "The oldest living tree in the world is said to be the Soma cypress of Lombardy. It was a tree forty years before the birth of Christ." But Alphonse Karr, in his 'Voyage autour de mon Jardin' (Warne & Co., translation edited by Rev. J. G. Wood), says, p. 39, of the baobab (Adansonia digitata), "It is asserted that some exist in Senegal that are five thousand years old." I shall be glad of any information as to the extreme longevity of trees, and as to which is the longestlived genus. M. J. T. CHURCH DESIGNED by Lindsey.—What church, in the parish of Marylebone, was designed by the late Mr. W. H. Lindsey? It must have been between 1830 and 1840, when there were not many churches in the parish. FRANK R. CANA. 40, St. Lawrence Road, Notting Hill, W. THEATRICAL ENGRAVING BY KENT.-In the Print Room of the British Museum there is preserved a small engraving, without title, ascribed to William Kent, Hogarth's contemporary, depicting a dungeon keep with a flight of steps in the background. A curiously theatrical smack is given to the whole by the presence of a male prisoner, chained to a post and listening to the appeals of a lady standing by. Can any reader of N. & Q.' say what contemporary play (c. 1730) this scene was taken from? SCARAMUCCIO. HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. Will some reader kindly inform me in what year the tower of this cathedral was lifted, and supported on each of its four sides on heavy baulks of timber, tied with iron bolts, and ground pinned? The money was found by the House of Commons, and repaid by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. A gentleman who saw it, thinks it was either in 1843 or 1848. Any information on this subject will be much appreciated. H. HUMPHRIES. BACHELORS' DOOR OR PORCH.-In 'Notes on All Saints' Church, Winterton, Lincolnshire, contributed by me to the Associated Societies' Reports after the Lincolnshire Society's visit in June, 1888, I wrote: "I believe this (the north porch) used to be called 'The Bachelors' Porch'; certainly the men-servants and other poor men, previous to the reseating of the church, used to sit in a long pew or stall on the north side of the church, and the maid-servante in one on the south side." I now see that at Kidlington, Oxfordshire, the north door was, c. 1825, "usually called the Batchelors' Door" (Three Oxfordshire Parishes,' Oxf. Hist. Soc., 1893, p. 361). Other instances would be interesting, as showing a survival of division of the sexes in church existing long after married people "sat" together. J. T. F. Bp. Hatfield's Hall, Durham. SIR JAMES SHEPPARD, KNT., SERJEANT-AT-LAW. -At the east end of the south chancel aisle of St. Michael's, Honiton, Devonshire, is a marble monument to Jas. Sheppard, eques auratus and serjeant-at-law, of Lawell, Chudleigh, Devon, who died 1730, aged forty-nine. At this time he was M.P. for Honiton. The treasurers of Lincoln's and Gray's Inns and the Inner Temple tell me they can find no trace of him in their registers. I therefore assign him to the Middle Temple. He had a residence in Honiton, and first contested the borough in 1710. The Rector of Chudleigh writes me there is no trace of him in his parish registers, and Mr. Sheppard, of Irongates, Frome, whose pedigree has been published, says Sir James is not of his family. Sheppard was created serjeant in 1725; when he was knighted I know not, but a deed dated 1729, to which he was a party, calls him esquire." His will gives no clue to his parentage, but he directs that he should be buried in the family vault, Honiton, and that his wife's body should be brought (he does not say whence) and laid by his side. Formerly the monument was crowned by a shield, on which these arms were painted, Quarterly of four, 1 and 4, Sable, a fess arg., in chief three battleaxes palewise of the second, with a label; 2 and 3, Arg., a lion ramp. and semée of crosslets fitchy gules. Crest, a dog sejant arg., spotted with blood, hoofed or. For these arms see Gent. Mag., vol. Ixiii., under the head of "Honiton." Now, who was this Sir James Sheppard; and was his wife's name Fowler? R. A. F. Reading. GOSTLING FAMILY.-Can any of your readers give me some information about the family of the Rev. William Gostling, author of A Walk in and about the City of Canterbury,' who died in 1777? Was he in any way connected with the Le Grand family, which resided in Canterbury and must have been contemporary with him? I have an idea that the Gostlings and Le Grands were related to each other-but how? One member of the Gostling family was an officer in the Royal Artillery about that period. What relation was he to Rev. William Gostling? In the notice of the latter in 'Dict. 66 were all comNat. Biog' it says his family memorated on an oval marble tablet on the west side of the cloisters at Canterbury." Will any one kindly furnish me with a copy of the inscription on it? Can the Walk in and about Canterbury be got now? E. JACOB. 5, Courtenay Place, Teignmouth, S. Devon. QUEEN'S PLAYERS.-I should be glad if any one would tell me who were the "Queen's Players" before 1576. (I am generally referred to F. G. Fleay's Shakespeare Manual,' but this does not touch my question.) C. C. STOPES. "SHALL" OR "WILL. '-In that stirring poem, 'The Armada, a Fragment,' by Macaulay, occur the lines: Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple see, Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be. Ought not Macaulay to have used will? Will would denote a prediction on his part, and we all may predict; but shall indicates a promise with regard to England's future, which neither Macaulay nor any one of us is able to make. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. What library possesses on its catalogue the longest list of those valuable historical and bibliographical documents, booksellers' catalogues? PALAMEDES. THE CATALOGUE OF BOOKSELLERS' CataloguES. Paris. HOBBY-HORSE.—Will some one who is acquainted with the early history and the pedigrees of our ancient folk-customs give me information concern ing the ancestry of the hobby-horse, now or till lately a character in Yule-tide mummeries? What was his parentage-heathen or Christian-and what part did he play in the popular amusements of our fore-elders? Where, may I also inquire, is he still to be met with? Not many years ago he was to be seen among every troupe of Lincolnshire "plough-jacks." Does he ever accompany them on their circuit at the present time; and is he still flourishing in the Midlands and north of the Humber? Is it supposed that the hobby-horse has any connexion with the goblin steed of rural districts, who is none other than Puck in one of his numerous disguises? T. R. E. N. T. [See 1st 8. i. 245; 6th S. ii. 363, 397, 418.] ROUSSEAU AND THEODORE PARKER.-I have been told that the great American, in one of his lectures or sermons, denounced the great Swiss as the most unmitigated blackguard that ever made a name in literature. I do not know that I am verbally correct, but the above is the sense as it was reported to me. Parker was a man given to righteous anger and strong language, so the above is by no means impossible; but before accepting it I must have an exact reference. Can any of your readers help me thereto ? ANON. JOHN JAMES HALLS, OF COLCHESTER, PORTRAIT PAINTER.-Can any information be obtained of the descendants of this eminent artist, who was born at Colchester 1791, and died 1834? He is said to have been named after Jean Jacques Rousseau. His mother, who died in 1813, was Amelia, younger sister of John Garnett, Dean of Exeter, who died March 12, 1813, and was buried at Farleigh Wallop, Hants. The dean's portrait was painted by J. J. Halls, and engraved by C. Turner. Is it known what has become of the original picture? Thomas Halls, a son of J. J. Halls, is stated to have become a police magistrate in London. The elder sister of the dean was married to General Humphry Evans Lloyd, whose son, Hannibal Evans Lloyd, held some appointment in the Post-Office, until his death in 1847. F. BROOKSBANK GARNETT. JOHN HUGHES, OF STRETTON-ON-THE-FOSS, CO. WARWICK.-This eccentric antiquary, of whom there is a long account in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1797, vol. ii. p. 827, left various genealogical manuscripts. The pedigree of his family, written on vellum, he bequeathed (Will P.C.C., 1796) to Edward Oakeley Gray, Esq., of Buckingham, and he seems also to have left a MS. family register. Some notes from the latter relating to the Freemans (his mother's family) were communicated to the Genealogist, vol. iii., by Mr. F. Scarlett Potter in 1879. I should be glad to ascertain where these documents now are, and whether the family register referred to contains also notes of the Rutter family,| to which his grandmother belonged. I already know all that is stated respecting this branch of the Rutters in vol. xii. of the Reliquary. F. HUSKISSON. Hill Brow, Warlingham, "LOOKING FROM UNDER BRENT HILL."-Is this saying common now? It used to be very It popular in Devonshire fifty or sixty years ago. is said of a sullen, frowning person in an ill humour, Brent Hill indicating the eyebrows. Š. J. A. F. MISTAKE IN READING PRAYERS.-From Wiltshire I hear that a notion exists that if a clergyman makes a mistake in reading prayers there will be a death during the week. Is this a local belief, or not? PAUL BURLEY. FEAST OF ST. MICHAEL.-Did this feast in the old calendar fall at the same time of year as our present Michaelmas? I am desirous of ascertaining the day of the week and of the month on which it fell in 1396. Can any reader of N. & Q.' help me ? versorum " A. M. S. "HOSPITALE CONVERSORUM ET PUERORUM."These words are spoken by Dugdale on the foundation of St. Thomas's Hospital. The word "Conrather puzzled me, but I arrived at the conclusion that it must mean converts, and I find Mr. Walford so interprets it. But converts from what? Evidently it was, I suppose, a home for those who had adopted the Christian faith, and were cast out by their own community. But who were they? Jews, or who? I should be glad of any information or suggestion on this point, and as soon as possible. CHARLOTTE G. BOGER. St. Saviour's, Southwark, HERALDIC.-Can any of your readers tell me how and when the Waldegraves, of Essex, first quartered in their arms three beehives? C. C. STOPES. OLD COIN OR TOKEN. -I should be glad of information concerning a bit of metal, which looks outside like copper, but where worn like brass. It is an inch and one-fifth in diameter, and weighs more than a halfpenny. On the lower half it has inscribed round it "13 Conduit St. London," while round the top-in the same circle, but in larger letters, which are placed so as to be read without turning the coin-is an inscription, the first portion effaced, the rest reading "......min & Sons." Nothing can be distinguished in the centre. On the reverse is the side figure of a bird with an inscription over it. Both are much worn, but seem to be somebody's crest and motto. From the inscription I take it to be some kind of token; but of the probable date and use of the same I am anxious to be enlightened. J. L. B. Replies. PORTRAITS AS BOOK-PLATES. (8th S. iii. 81, 129.) The suggestion that a visit to the Royal Society Library and to the Pepysian Library would prove that it has already been discovered that Pirkheymer and Pepys used their own portraits as personal book-plates does not seem to me to be worth accepting. it is scarcely conceivable that he would use a bookplate bearing such a legend. Next, as regards the alleged portrait bookplate of Pepys. Information is wanting as to the number of books in which it is found in the Pepysian Library at Cambridge as compared with the number of books having his two recognized armorial (or Admiralty blazoned) and initialed book-plates. Until this be forthcoming, it is difficult to surmise whether the pasting inside the covers of possibly a small part of the library of a portrait which I have proved was used by Pepys as a frontispiece, would have constituted evidence of so distinct and absolute user of it as a book-plate by Pepys himself as to justify MR. WHEATLEY'S never before heard any one doubt it." At any rate, in addition to the doubt I have entertained, there is now the further doubt of MR. JOHN LEIGHTON, with whom I quite agree that: Take it for granted that the Pirkheymer portrait dated 1524 is in some of the volumes collected by Thomas, Earl of Arundel, given to the Royal Society by the sixth Duke of Norfolk in 1678, that goes very little way indeed in clearing aside the doubt that B. Pirkheymer himself ever put it there. He died in 1530. His real woodcut book-plate includes the arms of his wife as well as his own. He married in 1497, and became a widower in 1503. Between these two dates the book-plate was most probably engraved, and thirty years is about the time it may have been in use by him. The portrait by Dürer, engraved on copper, is dated 1524. In six years afterwards Pirkheymer was dead, and his books passed through the hands of three or four subsequent generations of his family. During the hundred or more years that elapsed before the great Earl of Arundel bought these books there was plenty of time for any of the Pirkheymer family, to say nothing of the earl or his librarians, to paste the Dürer portrait into some of the volumes, in memoriam, or as a book illustration. I have a I book title before me now with the earl's signature thereon, dated Venice, Sept. 5, 1613. It is, at any rate, a slight testimony that he liked to connect books with persons, places, and times. Nothing could be more legitimate than for Dürer to put such a motto as "Vivitur ingenio, cætera mortis erunt" on the portrait. It may be said that the motto is of a general and impersonal kind. In this sense it certainly occurs in the first page of the 'Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum' (Magdeburg, 1611), by G. Rollenhagius, most artistically illustrated with engravings by Crispin de Pass the elder. These passed into the possession of George Wither, the poet, and were used to illustrate the first edition of his 'Emblems,' 1635. The motto was translated by Wither in a general sense; but such an impersonal meaning would change into personal boasting, or to what the Americans call "bunkum," directly one attached this motto to one's own book-plate. I submit that it would then amount to saying: My learning and my wit will live, To gloomy death the rest I give. Now Pirkheymer was not only a man of cultivated taste, but of modest and earnest self-respect. And that is the reason why, as I before briefly stated, "Regarding the Pepys 'kit-cat,' I can see nothing to connect it with the Bibliothèque-no arms, view, legend, livre, or device-hence it appears reasonable to delete it to the frontispiece, or to the picture-frame." What I have said about the so-called Vennitzer book-plate is not as yet contradicted. But your correspondent NE QUID NIMIS cites another example of a seventeenth century assumed portrait book-plate, namely, that of John Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield, observing: but at least there is here the using the likeness of an "This may be more of an ex-dono than an ex-libris, owner as a personal mark in all his books, and this is the very thing that is doubted or in question." Permit me to explain that the doubt or question have really raised is not about using the likeness of an owner, but about using the likeness by an owner. Bishop Hacket was dead before Faithorne, in the year 1670, engraved the portrait of him used in the books bequeathed by that prelate. Those of us who are teachable may be inclined to accept the Hacket commemorative or ex - dono portrait-plate as a proof, if such be needed, of what may be taken almost as an axiom, that gift bookplates or labels include posthumous or impersonal book-plates, whilst the ordinary ex-libris exclude them." Connected with this suggestion it should be kept in mind that Dürer's habit in his book-plate designs was to a marked extent to make them topical, that is, relating to some personal incident. The British Museum possesses two sketches of his for Pirkheymer ex-libris. One of them is for the well-known armorial design above assumed to be referable to the occasion of his friend's marriage. In the same way there are undoubtedly personal allusions in the sketches for a book-plate of Melchior Pfinzing, in the Berlin collection of prints, and of Johann Tscherte, the architect, and friend and correspondent of Dürer and Pirkheymer, in the Imperial Library at Vienna. FREDK. HENDRIKS. Only the other day I came across a portrait of Dr. James Beattie, "published by J. Sewell, Cornhill, Jan. 1, 1801," which was pasted inside the front board of the first volume of Dr. Beattie's 'Works' (1814), in the place where one looks for a book-plate. J. F. MANSERGH. Liverpool. ANGELICA CATALANI (8th S. ii. 485; iii. 113). -In reference to this celebrated woman MR. ADAMS quotes some lines which do not fairly reflect the fame of that great singer. Whatever may have been the relative value of " a groat" to the writer of that ill-natured verse, it is notorious that Catalani received larger emoluments than any singer of her time. The REV. JOHN PICKFORD quotes from a trustworthy source a statement which, though perhaps exaggerated, is in the main correct. Catalani's throat seemed to be endued (as has been remarked by medical men) with a power of expansion and muscular motion very unusual; and when she threw out her voice to the utmost it had a volume and strength that were quite surprising; while its agility in divisions, running up and down the scale in semi-tones, and its compass in jumping over two octaves at once were equally astonishing. My grandfather, who often heard her sing, says, in his Musical Reminiscences': "She is fond of singing variations on some known simple air, and has latterly pushed this taste to the very height of absurdity, by singing, even without words, variations composed for the fiddle." Catalani seems to have been more successful in comic than in serious operas, as in the former she sang with greater simplicity and ease. She was very handsome, with a countenance peculiarly fine on the stage, and capable of great variety of expression. Her supreme love of power and sole admiration made her many enemies; and she was at one time left without adequate support on the stage. Half the company engaged to sing with her threw up their engagements in disgust. Her disposition seems to have been so arrogant, and the extravagance of her annual demands so great, that the manager could no longer keep the opera going. For a short time Catalani led, both in comic and serious opera, but the crash came at last, and the theatre was finally closed at the end of the season of 1813. Catalani's husband seems to have been a tactless creature, and encouraged her in these absurd pretensions. He is even reported to have said: "Ma femme, et quatre ou cinq poupées, voila tout ce qu'il faut." After leaving England, Catalani wandered about Europe, giving concerts, at which she was generally the only vocal performer. Meanwhile the opera in England gradually declined, and fell at last to such a state of degradation as to cease to be fashionable, and was nearly deserted. It may be truly said that with Catalani, and without Catalani, opera in England was impossible. She reappeared in the summer of 1828, and sang at a musical festival at York. Having subsequently fulfilled concert engagements in different parts of England, this great singer went to Plymouth, on a visit to the Earl of Northesk, who was the Port Admiral there. My grandfather had at that time many opportunities for hearing her sing. I venture to quote his own words: "During her stay of some weeks she was prevailed upon to give one public concert. There I again heard 1813. So much had been said of her falling off, and of the her sing, for the first time since she had left the opera in failure of her voice, that I was most agreeably surprised at finding how little change there was in her, and how well she had retained her powers during so long a period. Although she had reached middle age, it was still bein a style that no one else can equal, and concluded the yond any other younger voice. She sang several songs concert with God save the King and Rule Britannia,' which last I always thought she sang better than any. body. So she did on this occasion. It electrified and enraptured the audience. In myself it excited feelings with which music had long ceased to inspire me: it was impossible to restrain them. It may seem strange that in her latter years she pleased me more than in the most brilliant part of her career. But so it was; and I now found out that at one time I liked her less than some of her predecessors, I now liked her better than most of her successore. The last notes I ever heard from her were n my own house, accompanying herself on the pianoforte, in some beautiful little Italian canzonets." That When these notes were written-in 1834-Catalani was corresponding with my grandfather from Florence, where she then resided. The REV. JOHN PICKFORD says (ante, p. 113) that this remarkable woman died in 1849, at Paris. may be so-and I will not presume to differ-but I happened to visit the Campo Sante, at Pisa, in 1885, and gazed with deep interest at the monument of Angelica Catalani, a conspicuous object in that sacred enclosure. I certainly was under the impression that the great singer lay in its vicinity -beneath the waving grass and straggling flowers lulled in her eternal sleep by the ceaseless song of birds. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. 2, Reichs Strasse, Dresden. GLASS EYES (8th S. iii. 108).-MR. BUTLER asks how much further back than Shakespeare's time can the "witty invention" of glass eyes be traceable. The earliest notice of artificial eyes I am acquainted with occurs in a very rare work by the French surgeon Ambroise Paré, entitled 'La methode curative des playes et fractures de la teste humaine,' Paris, 1561. At p. 226, Paré gives a description and figures of artificial eyes, to be worn in cases where the eyeball has given way, and all the humours have escaped. They are to be segments of a hollow sphere, made of gold, coated with enamel painted in natural colours. With the exception of the gold, they are exactly like the eyes in use at the present time, which are made wholly of glass. J. DIXON. |