Part 3
Your correspondent proceeds by requiring that there should be shown "reasonable ground to induce the belief that the ball is really free from the attraction of each successive point of the earth's surface," and is not as "effectually a partaker in the rotation of any given point" as if it were fixed there; or that "the duration of residence" necessary to cause such effect should be stated. Now I certainly am aware of no force by which a body unconnected with the earth would have any tendency to rotate with it; gravity can only act in a direct line from the body affected to the centre of the attracting body, and the motion in the direction of the earth's rotation can only be gained by contact or connexion, however momentary, with it. The onus of proving the existence of such a force as A. E. B. alludes to, must surely rest with him, not that of disproving it with me. What the propounders of this theory claim to show is, I humbly conceive, this,--that the direction in which a pendulum oscillates is _constant_, and not affected by the rotation of the earth beneath it: that as when suspended above the pole (where the point of suspension would remain fixed) the plane of each oscillation would make a _different_ angle with any given meridian of longitude, returning to its original angle when the diurnal rotation of the earth was completed; and as when suspended above the equator, where the point of suspension would be moved in a right line, or, to define more accurately, where the plane made by the motion of a line joining the point of suspension and the point directly under it (over which the ball would remain if at rest) would be a flat or right plane, the angle made by each successive oscillation with any one meridian would be the _same_, so, at all the intermediate stations between the pole and the equator, where the point of suspension would move in a line, commencing near the pole with an infinitely small curve, and ending near the equator with one infinitely large (_i.e._ where the plane as described above would be thus curved), the angle of the plane of oscillation with a given meridian would, at each station, vary in a ratio diminishing from the variation at the pole until it became extinct at the equator, which variation they believe to be capable both of mathematical proof and of ocular demonstration.
I do not profess to be one of the propounders of this theory, and it is very probable that you may have received from some other source a more lucid, and perhaps a more correct, explanation of it; but in case you have not done so, I send you the foregoing rough "Note" of what are my opinions of it.
E. H. Y.
A SAXON BELL-HOUSE.
(Vol. iv., p. 102.)
Your correspondent MR. GATTY, in a late number, has quoted a passage of the historian Hume, which treats a certain Anglo-Saxon document as a statute of Athelstan. As your correspondent cites his author without a comment, he would appear to give his own sanction to the date which Hume has imposed upon that document. In point of fact, it bears no express date, and therefore presents a good subject for a Query, whether that or any other era is by construction applicable to it. It is an extremely interesting Anglo-Saxon remain; and as it bears for title, "be leodgethincthum and lage," it purports to give legal information upon the secular dignities and ranks of the Anglo-Saxon period. This promises well to the archæologist, but unfortunately, on a nearer inspection, the document loses much of its worth; for, independently of its lacking a date, its jurisprudence partakes more of theory than that dry law which we might imagine would proceed from the Anglo-Saxon bench. Notwithstanding this, however, its archæological interest is great. The language is pure and incorrupt West Saxon.
It has been published by all its editors (except Professor Leo) as _prose_, when it is clearly not only rythmical but alliterative--an obvious characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry. And it is this mistake which has involved the further consequence of giving to the document a legal and historical value which it would never have had if its real garb had been seen through. This has led the critics into a belief of its veracity, when a knowledge of its real character would have inspired doubts. I believe that its accidental position in the first printed edition at the end of the "Judicia" (whether it be so placed in the MS. I know not) has assisted in the delusion, and has supplied a date to the minds of those who prefer faith to disquisition. The internal evidence of the document also shows that it is not jurisprudence, but only a vision spun from the writer's own brains, of what he dreamed to be constitutional and legal characteristics of an anterior age, when there were greater liberty of action and expansion of mind. The opening words of themselves contain the character of the document:--"Hit wæs hwilum." It is not a narrative of the present, but a record of the past.
The legal poet then breaks freely into the darling ornament of Anglo-Saxon song, alliteration: "On Engla lagum thæt leod and lagum," and so on to the end. As its contents are so well known and accessible, I will not quote them, but will merely give a running comment upon parts. "Gif ceorl getheah," &c. It may be _doubted_ whether, even in occasional instances, the _ceorl_ at any time possessed under the Anglo-Saxon system the power of equalising himself by means of the acquisition of property, with the class of theguas or gentils-hommes. But in the broad way in which the poet states it, it may be absolutely denied, inasmuch as the acquisition of wealth is made of itself to transform the _ceorl_ into a _thegn_: a singular coincidence of idea with the vulgar modern theory, but incompatible with fact in an age when a dominant caste of _gentlemen_ obtained.
It is not until the reign of Edward III. that any man, not born a gentleman, can be distinctly traced in possession of the honours and dignities of the country; an air of improbability is thus given which is increased by a verbal scrutiny. In the words "gif thegen getheah thæt be wearth to eorle," &c., the use of the word _eorl_ is most suspicious. This is not the _eorl_ of antiquity--the Teutonic _nobilis_; it is the official _eorl_ of the Danish and _quasi_-Danish periods. This anachronism betrays the real date of the production, and carries us to the times succeeding the reign of Ethelred II., when the disordered and transitional state of the country may have excited in the mind of the disquieted writer a fond aspiration which he clothed in the fanciful garb of his own wishes, rather than that of the gloomy reality which he saw before him.
The use of the _cræft_, for a vessel, like the modern, is to be found in the _Andreas_ (v. 500.), a composition probably of the eleventh century.
The conclusion points to troubled and late times of the Anglo-Saxon rule, when the church missed the reverence which had been paid to it in periods of peace and prosperity.
I have said enough to show that this document cannot rank in accuracy or truthful value with the Rectitudines or the LL. of Hen. I.
One word more. What is the meaning of _burh-geat_? _Burh_ I can understand; authorities abound for its use as expressing the _manoir_ of the Anglo-Saxon _thegn_. The "geneates riht" (_Rectitudines_) is "bytlian and burh hegegian." The _ceorls_ of Dyddanham were bound to dyke the hedge of their lords' _burh_ ("Consuetudines in Dyddanhamme," _Kemb_, vol. iii. App. p. 450.): "And dicie gyrde burh heges."
H. C. C.
THE WHALE OF JONAH.
Eichhorn (_Einleitung in das Alte Testament_, iii. 249.) in a note refers to a passage of Müller's translations of Linnæus, narrating the following remarkable accident:--
"In the year 1758, a seaman, in consequence of stormy weather, unluckily fell overboard from a frigate into the Mediterranean. A seal (_Seehund_, not _Hai_, a shark) immediately took the man, swimming and crying for help, into it wide jaws. Other seamen sprang into a boat to help their swimming comrade; and their captain, noticing the accident, had the presence of mind to direct a gun to be fired from the deck at the fish, whereby he was fortunately so far struck (_so getroffen wurde_) that he _spit_ out directly the seaman previously seized in his jaws, who was taken into the boat alive, and apparently little hurt.
"The seal was taken by harpoons and ropes, and hauled into the frigate, and hung to dry in the cross-trees (_quære_). The captain gave the fish to the seaman who, by God's providence, had been so wonderfully preserved; and he made the circuit of Europe with it as an exhibition, and from France it came to Erlangen, Nuremburg, and other places, where it was openly shown. The fish was twenty feet long, with fins nine feet broad, and weighed 3,924 lbs., and is illustrated in tab. 9. fig. 5.; from all which it is very probably concluded, that this kind was the true Jonas-fish."
Bochart concurs in this opinion.
Herman de Hardt (_Programma de rebus Jonæ_, Helmst. 1719) considers that Jonah stopt at a tavern bearing the sign of the whale.
Lesz (_Vermischte Schriften_, Th. i. S. 16.) thinks that a ship with a figure-head (_Zeichen_) of a whale took Jonah on board, and in three days put him ashore; from which it was reported that the ship-whale had vomited (discharged) him.
Eichhorn has noticed the above in his Introduction to the Old Testament (iii. 250.).
An anonymous writer says that _dag_ means a fish-boat; and that the word which is translated _whale_, should have been _preserver_; a criticism inconsistent with itself, and void of authority.
The above four instances are the only hypotheses at variance with the received text and interpretation worthy of notice: if indeed the case of the shark can be deemed at all at variance, as the term [Greek: kêtos] was used to designate many different fishes.
Jebb (_Sacred Literature_, p. 178.) says that the whale's stomach is not a safe and practicable asylum; but--
"The throat is large, and provided with a bag or intestine so considerable in size that whales frequently take into it _two_ of their young, when weak, especially during a tempest. In this vessel there are two vents, which serve for inspiration and expiration; there, in all probability, Jonas was preserved."
John Hunter compares the whale's tongue to a feather bed; and says that the baleen (whalebone) and tongue together fill up the whole space of the jaws.
Josephus describes the fish of Jonah as a [Greek: kêtos], and fixes on the Euxine for the locality as an _on dit_ ([Greek: ho logos]). The same word in reference to the same event is used by Epiphanius, Cedrenus, Zanarus, and Nicephorus.
The Arabic version has the word [Arabic] (_choono_), translated in Walton's Polyglott _cetus_; but the word, according to Castell, means "a tavern," or "merchants' office." This may have led to Herman de Hardt's whim.
The Targum of Jonathan, and the Syriac of Jonah, have both the identical word which was most probably used by our Lord, _Noono_, fish, the root signifying _to be prolific_, for which fishes are eminently remarkable. _Dag_, the Hebrew word, has the same original signification.
The word used by our Lord, in adverting to His descent to Hades, was most probably that of the Syriac version, [Syriac](_noono_), which means _fish_ in Chaldee and Arabic, as well as in Syriac; and corresponds to the Hebrew word [Hebrew], (_dag_), _fish_, in Jonah i. 17., ii. 1., 10. The Greek of Matthew xii. 40., instead of [Greek: ichthus], has [Greek: kêtos], _a whale_. The Septuagint has the same word [Greek: kêtos] for (1) _dag_ in Jonah, as well as for (2) _leviathan_ in Job iii. 8., and for (3) _tanninim_ in Genesis i. 21. The error appears to be in the Septuagint of Jonah, where the particular fish, _the whale_, is mentioned instead of the general term _fish_. Possibly the disciples of Christ knew that the fish was a [Greek: kêtos], and the habits of such of them as were fishermen might have familiarised them with its description or form. It is certain that the [Greek: kêtos] of Aristotle, and _cetus_ of Pliny, was one of the genus _Cetacea_, without gills, but with blow-holes communicating with the lungs. The disciples may also have heard the mythological story of Hercules being three days in the belly of the [Greek: kêtos], the word used by Æneas Gazæus, although Lycophron describes the animal as a shark, [Greek: karcharos kuôn].
"[Greek: Triesperou leontos, hon pote gnathois Tritônos êmalapse karcharos kuôn.]"
The remarkable event recorded of Jonah occurred just about 300 years before Lycophron wrote; who, having doubtless heard the true story, thought it right to attribute it to Hercules, to whom all other marvellous feats of power, strength, and dexterity were appropriated by the mythologists.
T. J. BUCKTON.
Lichfield.
ST. TRUNNIAN.
(Vol. iii., pp. 187. 252.)
Your "NOTES AND QUERIES" form the best specimen of a Conversations-Lexicon that I have yet met with; and I regret that it was not in existence some years ago, having long felt the want of some such special and ready medium of communication.
In the old enclosures to the west of the town of Barton we had a spring of clear water called St. Trunnian's Spring; and in our open field we had an old thorn tree called St. Trunnian's Tree,--names that imply a familiar acquaintance with St. Trunnian here; but I have no indication to show who St. Trunnian was. I am happy, however, to find that your indefatigable correspondent DR. RIMBAULT, like myself, has had his attention called to the same unsatisfied Query.
Paulinus, the first Bishop of York, was the first who preached Christianity in Lindsey; yet St. Chad was the patron saint of Barton and its immediate neighbourhood, and at times I have fancied that St. Trunnian might have been one of his coadjutors; at other times I have thought he may have been some sainted person, posted here with the allied force under Anlaff, previous to the great battle of Brunannburg, which was fought in the adjoining parish in the time of Athelstan: but I never could meet with any conclusive notice, of St. Trunnian, or any
## particular account of him. Some years ago I was dining with a clerical
friend in London, and then made known my anxiety, when he at once referred to the quotation made by DR. RIMBAULT from _Appius and Virginia_, as in Vol. iii., p. 187.; and my friend has since referred me to Heywoods's play of _The Four P's_ (Collier's edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. i. p. 55.), where the Palmer is introduced narrating his pilgrimage:
"At Saynt Toncumber and Saynt Tronion, At Saynt Bothulph and Saynt Ann of Buckston;"
inferring a locality for St. Tronion as well as St. Botulph, in Lincolnshire: and subsequently my friend notes that--
"Mr. Stephens, in a letter to the printer of the _St. James's Chronicle_, points out the following mention of St. Tronion in Geoffrey Fenton's _Tragical Discourses_, 4to., 1567, fol. 114. b.:--'He (referring to some one in his narrative not named) returned in Haste to his Lodgynge, where he attended the approche of his Hower of appointment wyth no lesse Devocyon than the papystes in France perform their ydolatrous Pilgrimage to the ydol Saynt Tronyon upon the Mount Avyon besides Roan.'"
Should these minutes lead to further information, it will give me great pleasure, as I am anxious to elucidate, as far as I can, the antiquities of my native place.
Mr. Jaques lives at a place called St. Trinnians, near to Richmond in Yorkshire; but I have not the _History of Richmondshire_ to refer to, so as to see whether any notice of our saint is there taken under this evident variation of the same appellation.
WM. S. HESLEDEN.
Barton-upon-Humber, Aug. 29. 1851.
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Lord Mayor not a Privy Councillor_ (Vol. iv., pp. 9. 137.).--L. M. says that the precedent of Mr. Harley being sworn of the Privy Council does not prove the argument advanced by C., and "for this simple reason, that the individual who held the office is _not_ Right Honorable, but the officer _is_." What he means by the _office_ (of privy councillor) is not clear; but surely he does not mean to say that it is not the rank of privy councillor which gives the courtesy style of Right Honorable? If so, can a man be a member of the Council till he is _sworn_ at the board?
Is the Lord Mayor a member of the Board, not having been sworn? Is he ever summoned to any Council? When he attends a meeting on the occasion of the accession, is he _summoned_? and if so, by whom, and in what manner? The Lord Mayor is certainly _not_ a privy councillor by reason of his courtesy _style_ of Lord, any more than the Lord Mayor of York.
The question is, whether the style of Right Honorable was given to the Lord Mayor from the supposition that he was a privy councillor, or from the fact that formerly the Lord Mayor was considered as holding the rank of a _Baron_; for if he died during his mayoralty, he was buried with the rank, state, and degree of _Baron_.
When does it appear that the style of Right Honorable was first given to the Lord Mayor of London?
E.
_Did Bishop Gibson write a life of Cromwell?_ (Vol. iv., p. 117.).--In the Life of the Rev. Isaac Kimber, prefixed to his _Sermons_, London, 1756, 8vo., it is stated that--
"One of the first productions he gave to the world was the _Life of Oliver Cromwell_ in 8vo., printed for Messrs. Brotherton and Cox. This piece met with a very good reception from the public, and has passed through several editions, universally esteemed for its style and its impartiality; and as the author's name was not made public, though it was always known to his friends, it was at first very confidently ascribed to Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London."--P. 10.
The Life of Kimber appears to have been written by Edward Kimber, his son, and therefore the claim of Bishop Gibson to this work may very fairly be set aside.
The _Short Critical Review of the life of Oliver Cromwell, by a Gentleman of the Middle Temple_, has always been attributed to John Bankes, an account of whom will be found in Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._, vol. iii. p. 422., where it is confidently stated to be his. It was first published in 1739, 8vo. I have two copies of a third edition, Lond. 1747. 12mo. "Carefully revised and greatly enlarged in every chapter by the author." In one of the copies the title-page states it to be "by a gentleman of the Middle Temple;" and in the other "by Mr. Bankes." Bishop Gibson did not die till 1748, and there seems little probability that, if he were the author, another man's name would be put to it during his lifetime.
I conclude therefore that neither of these two works are by Bishop Gibson.
JAS. CROSSLEY.
_Lines on the Temple_ (Vol. iii., pp. 450. 505.).--In the _Gentleman's Mag._ (Suppl. for 1768, p. 621.), the reviewer of a work entitled "_Cobleriana, or the Cobler's Miscellany_, being a choice collection of the miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse, serious and comic, by Jobson the Cobler, of Drury Lane, 2 vols.," gives the following extract; but does not state whether it belongs to the "new" pieces, or to those which had been previously "published in the newspapers," the volume being avowedly composed of both sorts:--
"_An Epigram on the Lamb and Horse, the two insignia of the Societies of the Temple._
"The Lamb the _Lawyers'_ innocence declares, The Horse _their_ expedition in affairs; Hail, happy men! for chusing two such types As plainly shew _they_ give the world no wipes; For who dares say that suits are at a stand, When _two_ such virtues both go hand in hand? No more let _Chanc'ry Lane_ be endless counted, Since they're by Lamb and Horse so nobly mounted."
The _Italics_, which I have copied, were, I suppose, put in by the reviewer, who adds, "Q. Whether the Lamb and Horse are mounted upon Chancery Lane, or two virtues, or happy men?" Poor man! I am afraid his Query has never been answered; for that age was not adorned and illustrated by any work like one in which we rejoice,--a work of which, lest a more unguarded expression of our feelings should be indelicate, and subject us to the suspicion of flattery, we will be content to say boldly, that, though less in size and cost, it is cotemporaneous with the Great Exhibition.
A TEMPLAR.
These lines are printed (probably for the first time) in the sixth number of _The Foundling Hospital for Wit_, 8vo.: Printed for W. Webb, near St. Paul's, 1749 (p. 73.). The learned author of _Heraldic Anomalies_ (2nd edit. vol. i. p. 310.) says they were _chalked_ upon one of the public gates of the Temple; but from the following note, preceding the lines in question, in _The Foundling Hospital for Wit_, this statement is probably erroneous:
"The Inner Temple Gate, London, being lately repaired, and curiously decorated, the following inscription, in honour of both the Temples, is _intended_ to be put over it."
A MS. note, in a cotemporary hand, in my copy of _The Foundling Hospital for Wit_, states the author of the original lines to have been the "Rev. William Dunkin, D.D." The answer which follows it, is said to be by "Sir Charles Hanbury Williams."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
_Henry Headley, B.A._ (Vol. iii., p. 280.).--E. B. PRICE styles "Henry Headley, B.A., of Norwich, a _now forgotten critic_." He might have added, "but who deserved to be remembered, as one whose _Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, with Remarks, &c._, in 2 vols., 1787, contributed something towards the revival of a taste for that species of literature which Percy's _Reliques_ exalted into a fashion, if not a passion, never to be discountenanced again." The work of course is become scarce, and not the less valuable, though that recommendation constitutes its least value.
J. M. G.
Hallamshire.
_Cycle of Cathay_ (Vol. iv., p. 37.).--Without reflecting much on the matter, I have always supposed the "cycle" in Tennyson's line--
"Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay"--
to be the Platonic cycle, or great year, the space of time in which all the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect of the equinoxes; which space of time is calculated by Tycho Brahe at 25,816 years, and by Riccioli at 25,920: and I understood the passage (whether rightly or wrongly I shall be glad to be informed) to mean, that fifty years of life in Europe were better than any amount of existence, however extended, in the Celestial Empire.
W. FRASER.
_Proof of Sword Blades_ (Vol. iv., pp. 39. 109.).--Without wishing to detract from the merits of an invention, which probably is superior in its effects to old modes of testing sword blades, I object to the term _efficient_ being applied to _machine_-proved swords.
Because, after such proof, they frequently break by ordinary cutting; even those which have been made doubly strong and heavy--and hence unfit and useless for actual engagement--have so failed. And because machine-tried swords are liable to, and do, break in the handle.