are numerous, and many of them are octagonal in some of their parts (which is the question raised), especially the later ones. It seems that the earliest are circular altogether, then square and circular, then square, circular, and octagonal, the structural forms variously combined. The font in the church of St. Thomas, Launceston, Cornwall, is Norman. It is square, standing on an octagonal shaft. The font in the church of St. Nicholas, Eydon, Northamptonshire, is Norman. It consists of a circular bowl on a large octagonal base. The Norman font in St. Mary's Church, Hunstanton, Norfolk, is square, with a central cylindrical pillar and four corner octagonal shafts. The same description will apply to the font in St. John's Church, Southover, Sussex. The large Norman font in St. Leonard's Church, Stanton Fitz Warren, Wiltshire, consists of a circular basin on an octagonal base. corner. In the church of St. Peter, Palgrave, Suffolk, is a square font, standing on an octagonal pillar, with four smaller cylindrical pillars, one at each This is Norman. In the parish church of Stibbington, Huntingdonshire, is an octagonal font, with eight cylindrical pillars; and in the church at Stonesby, Leicestershire, is an octagonal font with a broad eight-sided base. These last two examples appear to be very late Norman, or Transition. Fonts have been badly treated. They have often been moved from their original site, and so their architectural and historical associations have been destroyed. Some years ago I discovered a large font, apparently Norman, in a farmyard in this neighbourhood, where it had long been used as a drinking-trough for cattle. It is very large and simple in form, and is composed of Purbeck marble. There is no history to it; but it probably belonged to a church half a mile distant, which has much late Norman work, with which the font is most likely coeval. The font is now in another church not far off. In my own parish church (Old Basing) we have a font that belonged to Basingstoke, and was transported hither from the larger and more important church by a former incumbent of both livings, because it was "oldfashioned," and less beautiful than the novel successor ! S. JAMES A. SALTER. Basingstoke. The font of old Hollington Church, Sussex (probably fourteenth century), is octagonal, though learned antiquaries for many years were unable to count the sides, and called it a hexagon. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. The octagonal form of font was very generally introduced in England towards the close of what is known as the Early English period, after which the form in question became all but universal. The octagon is extremely rare, although not un known, in fonts of the pure Norman style. That at Perranzabuloe, in Cornwall, is a remarkable example; while Stibbington, in Huntingdonshire, and Stonesby, in Leicestershire, possess octagonal fonts of a somewhat later (Norman transition) period. Other examples doubtless exist, but they are far from common. It may be of interest to note that the octagonal form was thought, so far back as the time of St. Ambrose, to symbolize regeneration,-" for even as the old creation was complete in seven days, so the number next following may well signify the new." If COL. FISHWICK has access to the 'Few Words to Church-builders,' published by the Cambridge Camden Society (second edition), he will find in the appendix a classified list of octagonal fonts, as compared with those of other shapes, during the different periods of English church architecture. OSWALD, O.S.B. Fort Augustus, N.B. stated that somewhere about seventy years ago a QUADRUPLE BIRTHS (8th S. iii. 308).—It is Brigg, gave birth to five infants at one time. My woman at Ashby, in the parish of Bottesford, near father told me this, and fully believed it to be true. I have conversed with several old people in the village who were contemporary with the catastrophe, and not one of them expressed the slightest doubt about it. EDWARD PEACOCK. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey. ANECDOTE OF QUEEN VICTORIA (8th S. iii. 309). -The story is told on the Baroness Lebzen's own authority; but the "cousins" original. See Sir T. Martin's 'Life of the Prince are "aunts" in the Consort,' vol. i. p. 14. Hastings. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. the correct order is as follows: The Warden,' TROLLOPE'S NOVELS (8th S. iii. 329).—I believe Barchester Towers,' Dr. Thorne,' Framley Parsonage,' The Small House at Allington, 'Last Chronicle of Barset.' WM. H. PEET. GEORGE ELIOT (8th S. iii. 307).—MISS HICKEY'S query reminds me of something which it may be well to make a note of in your pages. When 'Adam Bede' was published it caused a great sensation. I was at the time staying at a country house, and one morning the wife of the squire said to me, "My husband is certain the book is written by a woman." I had no opportunity of cross-questioning at the time; but after dinner I asked him how it trary to what was then the popular opinion. He was that he had come to this conclusion, so consaid that it was quite impossible for authors to disguise their sex in writings of any length, and used some subtle arguments in proof of his statement. I was interested, but by no means convinced at the time. Shortly after it was which I quoted, intended to provide only salt demonstrated that he was right in this case. I fish. You might hope for a very good dinner at confess, however, that, even now, I am in doubt his hospitable table, as, indeed, you might from a whether sex must necessarily show itself. I must friend who should say, "Come and take pot-luck admit that the person of whom I speak was a with me." Dr. Campbell offered "Poor Jack" great authority. There was probably no one then-Lenten fare-as the Spaniard does, but perhaps living who had a wider knowledge of English a haunch of venison smoked on the board. literature, English history, and the life of our The Dictionary of the Academy recognizes both people, from the highest steps on the social ladder spellings, bacalao and bacallao, but the former is to those who lie at the base and are crushed by the more familiar to my eye and ear. the classes above them. It would be a gain to HENRY H. GIBBS. knowledge to have the matter settled, if such a thing be possible. ASTARTE. Perhaps the query implies more than appears at the first blush, and may have been written later than the publication of Jubal.' For Mr. Bayard Taylor's opinion is that : "It is amazing to see how admirable her verse is, and how near to high poetry-as if only a sheet of plate glass were between-and yet it is not poetry. Her lines are like the dancing figures on a frieze, symmetry itself, but they do not move."-'Diversions of the Echo Club, P. 142. Hastings. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. RHYMED DEEDS (8th S. iii. 147, 233).-A parallel to the grant of John of Gaunt, given at the former reference, is quoted in Worth's 'History of Devonshire,' p. 163: I, John of Gaunt, To Hatherleigh poor In the well-known Devonshire legend of 'Childe of Plymstock' there are two versions of the rhymed will which he wrote with his own blood, or his horse's, when he was lost on Dartmoor and had given up all hope of saving his life. They are given in Mrs. Bray's 'Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy,' vol. i. pp. 387-9, as follows: He that finds and brings me to my tomb, My land of Plymstock shall be his doom. and They first that find, and bring me to my grave, The fyrste that fyndes, and brings me to my grave, R. PEARSE CHOPE. [See 6th S. xii. 84, 194, 253, 314, 410, 475; 7th S. i. 94, 231, 316, 376.] "EATING POOR JACK" (8th S. ii. 529; iii. 76, 131, 215).-MR. WALLER has misread my note. I did not imply that the Spanish Amphytrion, if he invited you to dinner in the modest phrase St. Dunstan's. TITUS OATES (6th S. ix. 445; 7th S. xii. 209; 8th S. iii. 156, 254).—I copy from H. K. Cawston's Howard Papers' the following relating to Titus Oates : "Titus Oates was born at Oakham, in Rutland, son of Samuel Oates, a weaver by trade, and Anabaptist teacher, against whose proceedings the clergy of Rutland petitioned Parliament (Lords Jour.. v. 9 and 10), afterwards parson of Hastings, in Sussex (Oldmixon, Hist., p.612). "Titus Oates, Rutland de Oakham, filius Samuelis Oates clerici, anno natûs 18. Literis institutus in Com Sussex, admissus in Collegium. Gonv. and Caii, June 29, 1667. Idem admissus. in Coll. Jo. subsizator pro ma. gistro Collegii, tutore Mr. Watson. 2. Feby, 1668."Reg. Coll, Jo., Ad. MS. 5860, fo. 288, B.M. Lib. "At the age of two and twenty he obtained the small living of Bobbing juxta Milton, in Kent. Titus Oates, A.B., inducted 13 March, 1672."-Hasted's 'Hist. Kent,' vol. ii. p. 640. In the marriage licence Titus states his age to be about forty-five, which agrees with that in the college register : "In 1685, Titus was whipped from Aldgate to Newunable to stand or walk was dragged on a sledge from gate, and 48 hours after, in a stupefied condition, quite Newgate to Tyburn, and it is said received 1,700 stripes in the course of the journey. In Partridge's Almanack' for 1692 it is stated that Oates was whipt with a whip 13,536 stripes." of six thongs, and received 2,256 lashes, amounting to If born in 1619, he would be sixty-five or sixtysix years old in 1685; too old, one would think, to have any chance of living, after such punishment, another twenty years; for the date of his death is stated to be some time in 1705. C. H. I. G. MR. E. H. MARSHALL, M.A., can hardly have read my communication on this subject, or he would not have written that 1619 is thirty years later than 1649. The references to previous volumes of 'N. & Q.' would have shown him that the one thing certain about the birth of Titus Oates is that it took place at Oakham in or about 1649. Not to mention his school days at Merbeen absurd even for so adroit a dissembler as the chant Taylors' and Seddlescomb, it would have Salamanca Doctor to attempt to pass himself off as eighteen at his matriculation in 1667, or as "about forty-five" at his marriage in 1693, if, as MR. MARSHALL asserts, he had been born in 1619. A verbatim extract from the Hastings registers would be more welcome than the repetition of the loose statements of a handbook already given at the first reference named above. It is not impossible that the handbook may have misprinted 1619 for 1649. Will MR. MARSHALL examine the register itself? A. T. M. FOLK-LORE (8th S. ii. 305, 416, 511; iii. 134).See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' iii. 351 seqq. (ed. Bohn, 1849), where the familiar passage from Theocritus (iii. 31) is quoted. 66 P. J. F. GANTILLON. VENTRE-SAINT-GRIS" (8th S. i. 453; ii. 49, 131, 232, 289, 398, 529).-As DR. CHANCE unites with me in condemning DR. BREWER'S suggestion and so vigorously supports me against M. RAMBAUD, I regret that there should be the semblance of a difference between us. I do not dispute-it would be absurd to dispute the theory that saintoaths (to employ a convenient term) are substitutes for deity-oaths, or indeed that all oaths other than these last are used for the sake of avoiding blasphemy. But it is evident from DR. CHANCE's latest note that I took his theory in a sense which he did not intend. His statement, however, that his theory is quite distinct from the question of personal identity, makes explanation on my part needless. I am more concerned with my French critic's strictures. He impeaches my logic when I decline his reading, "per sanctum ventrem Christi," for the very reason which he urges in support of itnamely, that "the word 'saint' cannot be applied to the Law-giver Himself." What is M. RAMBAUD's reason for contending that in the expressions (1) "Bon gré saint Gris," (2) "Par sainct Gris," (3) "Ventre saint Gris," to which I may add a fourth quoted by Le Duchat La gente Poitevin'rie, Car & cors & bians en ertiant De tot, Saint Gris, mis à niant"Gris" means Christ in the third, and what you please, except Christ, in all the others? No other reason, forsooth, than that it is "correct to say par le ventre saint du Christ."" He does not tell us that such an oath has ever been in vogue. I am sure it was not current among Frenchmen of the seizième siècle, and if it had been it would have been phrased "par le saint ventre de Christ," with the adjective before ventre, and de instead of du. Of analogous oaths in full I have already mentioned "Par le saint Sang bieu" and "Par le sainct sang breguoy" (8th S. ii. 131), and I may refer to another Rabelaisian specimen which I dare not reproduce (Pantagruel, v. 16, ed. Moland). M. RAMBAUD knows little of the old language how should he know much of it with such a contempt for bouquins? The weight of evidence is against him, and it will be early enough for him to call me illogical when he can turn the balance to his side. When he succeeds in doing that he will have put to confusion a band of distinguished savants of his own country, such as Paul Lacroix, Louis Moland, and Frédéric Godefroy, all convicted of being as illogical as myself and DR. CHANCE. In his first note M. RAMBAUD asserted, with anything but "the modesty of a savant": "It is quite certain that Saint-gris' does not mean St. Francis," when the three erudite Frenchmen just named, among others, are agreed that it does mean St. Francis. In his latest note he says only that he is "very doubtful," having been converted to this degree of "modesty" by M. Quitard, the one authority whom he consulted. It seems to me that English readers are likely to find it "highly instructive and amusing" to see a foreigner dealing with a question on which he is so poorly informed. In thanking M. RAMBADD for pointing out what he regards as an error, I regret to say that I cannot accept his correction. I do not treat the question relating to gris as one of etymological descent-nor am I aware that any French scholar has ever done so-but as one of wilful substitution. F. ADAMS. M. RAMBAUD says the word saint cannot be attached to deity, yet is there St. Esprit and Ste. Trinité; Jesus Christ is called in French "le Saint des Saints," and in the beginning of his life in the 'Petits Bollandistes' (vol. xvi.), we read "La vie de......Jésus-Christ doit naturallement trouver sa place dans la vie de Saints qui l'Eglise honore dans le cours de l'année." In the two genealogies, from the first and third Gospels, the name of Jesus stands under that of (Saint) Joseph, and a line of other names to which the Catholic Church has attached the word "Saint"; and he is called over and over again the "Saint Enfant.” I think, therefore, that our phrase "St. Saviour's" is not so preposterous as M. RAMBAUD seems to intimate. When I stated that there was a "St. Jesus " and also a "St. Christ" in the Bollandist collection of saints, I distinctly said it was a rather curious coincidence; and no one could possibly suppose I referred to the son of Mary, especially as I gave the days devoted to these two saints. In regard to Gris, as a corruption of Cris (as in Cris or Criss Cross), I would emphatically insist that slang expressions, to which category vulgar oaths belong, are not to be placed on the bed of Procrustes like standard words. They are almost always fanciful perversions, often phonetic puns, and always intended to conceal their derivations, as "'zounds," "odsbud" or "odsbuddikin,” “zooks" or "gadzooks," "bleu" (in French) as "ventrebleu," "corne'bleu," "sambleu," "sandis," which M. RAMBAUD truly says is a corruption of " par le sang de Dieu," "cadedis," i.e., "par le cap [tête] de Dieu," &c. It is "contrary to every scientific method to support a French etymology with facts of linguistics observed in England," is M. RAMBAUD'S axiom; but if accepted, Grimm's code, I fear, would have to be abandoned. That 66 "3 saint in the compound word under consideration may belong to ventre and not to gris is unquestionable. M. RAMBAUD allows it, and we have "La Terre Sainte," "Les lieux saints," "Vie Sainte," &c., to confirm the statement. Without for one moment disputing that the ordinary meaning of Ventre is the belly, I yet contend that its perversion into corpus is quite in accordance with slang; and that Ventre-dieu or Ventre-bleu-corpus Dei, and not "God's belly," which to an English ear sounds horrible indeed. E. COBHAM BREWER. CAUSE OF DEATH (8th S. ii. 428, 533; iii. 76, 154, 275).—Perhaps one of the very oddest monuments of the kind referred to under this head is the tablet at Farringdon Church, Berks, in memory of a soldier who had his left leg taken off "by the above ball," an actual cannon ball being inserted at the top. Winterton, Doncaster. J. T. F. A pale consumption gave the fatal blow; The stroke was certain, but th' effect was slow; 16 Affliction sore long Time I bore Till God did please & Death did cease Slightly altered, the same verse is given on two In Ampthill Church, Bedfordshire, on the south wall of the chancel, within the communion rails, is a mural monument to some officer whose name I cannot remember, as it is thirty-five years since I saw it. In the upper part the cannon ball with which he was killed was let in the slab, and described as "instrumentum mortis et victoriæ." JOHN PICKFORd, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. It may be worthy of a note, to show how such mortuary verse is copied from stone to stone, that in an old and now unused graveyard of a little village about twenty-five miles from New York, Apropos of MRS. C. A. WHITE's note at the Nell touched a figure at the beginning of the platform, JONATHAN BOUCHIER. When I wrote the article to which PROF. SKEAT LADY OF THE BEDCHAMBER (8th S. iii. 247).refers (7th S. v. 289), I was under the impression that ladies filling this office not only are, but always were, married women. If this be not the case, I must ask pardon for my "therefore." But of any woman thus entitled, I have invariably may add that whenever I have traced the position found her married; and in the case of Philippa Chaucer, unless it can be conclusively shown-as I believe it never has been yet-that Chaucer was her maiden as well as her married name, then the Patent Roll in September, 1366, goes far to show that fact of her being termed Philippa Chaucer on the she was Geoffrey Chaucer's wife at that date. The exact reference to the Patent Roll is 40 Edw. III., pt. 2, membr. 30. Philippa Pycard was pensioned by that name three years after that date. HERMENTRUDE. In a 'Life of Chaucer' by S. W. Singer, prefixed to Chaucer's poems in the "British Poets" (edition of 1822), we read as follows: "His [Chaucer's] marriage took place about the year 1360, when he was thirty-two years old." Alexander Chalmers makes the same assertion, the year 1360, when he was thirty-two years old." I do not know on whose authority Singer and Chalmers make this assertion, unless it is on that of Speght, author of an earlier 'Life of Chaucer' which I have never seen. In the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer,' &c., by Thomas Tyrwhitt (edition Tyrwhitt says :of 1798), we meet with quite a contrary statement. Rymer, R. II., vol. ii. n. 3), that Chaucer, on the 24th "It appears from the Exitus, Pasch., 4 R. II. (MSS. May, 1381, received at the Exchequer a half-year's pay Add to ment of his own two annuities of 20 marks each, and careful inspection of the individual words would also a half-year's payment of an annuity of 10 marks, seem to be required, as many anomalies present granted by Edw. III. and confirmed by Ric. II. to his themselves; for instance, righ, king, is pronounced wife' Philippa, 'nuper uni domicellarum Philippæ nuper Reginæ Anglia.' The title given to her of ree, and tigh, house, nearly as French taille. Difdomicella' proves that she was unmarried at the time ference of etymology explains this, the former of her being in the queen's service. There is a patent word being Irish ri, gen. rig, Lat. rex; the latter, in Rymer, 43 Edw. III., by which the king, about four Ir. tech, Greek Téyos (see Windisch's 'Ir. Gram.'); months after Queen Philippa's death, grants annuities to nine of her Domicella, viz., to four of them 10 marks, but the result is confusing all the same. to two 5 pounds, and to three 5 marks. One of them this that "there are sounds in the Gaelic to which is called Philippa Pykard,' and might very well be sup- there are none perfectly similar in English, nor posed to be the lady whom Chaucer afterwards married, if perhaps in any modern European tongue," and it it were not for two objections, 1, that the annuity granted will be seen that this branch of Celtic might be to her is only 5 pounds, whereas Chaucer's wife appears by this record to have had one of 10 marks; and 2, that characterized somewhat in the manner of Bradthe historians, though they own themselves totally shaw's succinct account of Russian :ignorant of the Christian name of Chaucer's wife, are all agreed that her surname was Rouet, the same with that of her father and elder sister, Catherine Swynford." Tyrwhitt appears nevertheless to think that the two objections can be explained away. In the 'Encyclopædia Britannica (ninth edition), under the heading Chaucer, we read: "By this time [1360-1366] he would seem to have been married, if the Philippa Chaucer, one of the demoiselles of Queen Philippa, who in 1366 was granted a yearly pension of 10 marks, was, as is most probable, his wife (see the discussion of the question in Sir H. Nicolas's memoir)." It may be that the marriage took place in 1366, but as the pension was not granted till four months after the queen's death-between the time of the queen's death and the date of the granting of the pension. C. W. CASS. WALTER LONG (8th S. iii. 207, 295).-Walter Long, son of Thomas Long, of Melksham, and Mary Abbot, died without issue, 1807, cet. ninetyfive. He had four sisters-Mary, died 1776; Anne, died 1802; Ellen, died 1787; and Catherine, died 1814, all unmarried. Walter Long and his sisters Ellen, Anne, and Catherine were buried at Whaddon, and Mary Long at Wraxall. E. H. D. Teddington. CELTIC (8th S. iii. 247).—I have a 'Pronouncing Gaelic Dictionary,' by Neil M'Alpine, Edinburgh, 1833, a second-hand copy of which I believe MR. WARD should be able to pick up in the Scottish capital. The work contains " a concise but most comprehensive Gaelic grammar," from which it appears that the thirteen Irish diphthongs are equalled in number in Gaelic and are supplemented by five triphthongs; this is confirmed by the grammar prefixed to the Highland Society's Dictionary' and by Stewart's 'Gaelic Grammar.' According to this latter authority, the thirteen diphthongs have thirty-four sounds divided amongst them, whilst ten sounds are allotted to the five triphthongs. In M'Alpine's 'Dictionary 'the word ceart, instanced by MR. WARD, is pronounced kyart (y in yard), whilst cearc, hen, differing only in the final letter, is pronounced kerk. A "Language. The Alphabet numbers 36 letters, founded on the Slavic of Cyril's translation of the Bible, about A.D. 800, and the pronunciation and accentuation of words are nearly as irregular as in English." Glasgow. J. YOUNG. "WHETHER OR NO" (8th S. iii. 186, 238).—That "more or less unknown writer of the Elizabethan age" quoted by ST. SWITHIN used this "locution' in common with many others. It is to be found in our modern Bibles, and in all the early ones. Coverdale gives Deut. viii. 2:— "And thynke vpon all ye waie thorow the which the Lorde thy God hath led the this fortye yeares in the to wete what were in thyne herte, whether thou woldest wyldernesse, that he mighte chasten the, and proue the, kepe his comaundemētes or no." Matthew, Taverner, Cranmer, all "no," but means "Whether or no " is in common use here, and hinder "_"I pledge myself positively." R. R. "in any circumstances -"nothing shall Boston, Licolnshire. If Shakespeare sinned in using this expression, so too did his contemporary Bacon. There are at least two instances of its use in 'The Historie of the Reigne of King Henry the Seventh.' The passages which contain them are hardly suitable for quotation here, but they may be found on pp. 205-6 of the edition of 1629. C. M. P. MR. BIRKBECK TERRY should read an article entitled 'Idiom-haters' in the Saturday Review for Dec. 1, 1888 (vol. lxvi. p. 641), which contains inter alia a stout defence of the vicious locution he denounces. 105, Albany Road, Camberwell, S.E. F. ADAMS. GOETHE'S 'FAUST' (8th S. iii. 187).-According to Engel's 'Bibliotheca Faustiana,' the English version of Goethe's 'Faust' which was printed by A. Taylor, in 2 vols. 8vo., Lond., 1838, without the translator's name, had been already preceded by not fewer than seven versions, where the translators are known, viz.: Gower (1823), Anster (1828), Hayward (1833), Knox (1834), Blackie (1834), |