Part 2
October 20, 1608, Mr. Phineas Pette commenced the "Prince Royal," which was launched in 1610. The keel of this "most goodly shippe for warre" was 114 feet long, and the cross-beam 44 feet in length, and she carried three score and four pieces of great ordnance, and was of the burden of 1400 tons. On the 8th of May, 1609, the king presided at the trial of Pette at Woolwich for insufficiency, during which Pette sat on his knees, "baited by the great lord (Northampton) and his bandogs;" and after the ship had been inspected by the king and his party, Mr. Pette was acquitted of the charges brought against him. The prince visited the ship on the 30th of January, 1609, 25th of April, 18th of June, and again the following day, with the king, and on the 24th of September it was launched. It is stated that the garnishing of the ship began between Easter and Michaelmas, and that the number of nobles, gentry, and citizens, resorting continually to Woolwich to see it, was incredible. On the 9th of September, divers London maids, with a little boy with them, visited the ship; the boy fell down into the hold, and died the same night from the effects of his fall, being the first accident during the building. About the middle of the month, the ship being ready to be placed on the ways, twelve choice master carpenters of his Majesty's navy were sent for from Chatham to assist in "her striking and launching;" on the 18th she was safely set upon her ways, and on the 26th was visited by the French ambassador. Preparations were made in the yard for the reception of the king, queen, royal children, ladies, and the council; and on the evening of the 23rd, a messenger was sent from Theobalds, desiring the ship to be searched, lest any disaffected persons might have bored holes privily in her bottom. On Monday 24th, the dock gates were opened; but the wind blowing hard from the south-west, it proved a very bad tide. The king came from Theobalds, though he had been very little at ease with a scouring, taken with surfeiting by eating grapes, the prince and most of the lords of the council attending him. The queen arrived after dinner, and the lord admiral gave commandment to heave taught the crabs and screws, though Pette says he had little hope to launch by reason the wind overblew the tide; "yet the ship started and had launched, but the dock gates pent her in so straight, that she stuck fast between them, by reason the ship was nothing lifted by the tide, as we expected she would; and the great lighter, by unadvised counsel, being cut off the stern, the ship settled so hard upon the ground, that there was no possibility of launching that tide; besides which there was such a multitude of people got into the ship, that one could scarce stir by another."
"The king was much grieved at the frustrate of his expectation," and returned to Greenwich at five o'clock with the queen and her train; the prince staid a good while after conferring with the lord admiral and Mr. Pette, and then rode off to Greenwich, with a promise to return shortly after midnight. The night was moonlight, but shortly after midnight became very stormy, which Mr. Pette says made him "doubt that there were {465} some indirect working among our enemies to dash our launching."
The prince however arrived at the yard, went on board a little before two a. m., when the word being given to get all taught, the ship went away without any straining of screws or tackles, till she came clear afloat in the middle of the channel. He then describes the christening of her by the prince, by the name of the "Prince Royal"; and while warping to her mooring, his royal highness went down to the platform of the cock-room, where the ship's beer stood for ordinary company, and there finding an old can without a lid, drew it full of beer himself, and drank it off to the lord admiral, and caused him with the rest of the attendants to do the like. The hawsers laid ashore for landfasts had been treacherously cut, but without doing any injury to the ship. The prince left for Greenwich at nine a. m.
J. H. P.
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"NOTES AND QUERIES ON THE ORMULUM, BY DR. MONICKE" (_Programm der Handels-Lehranstalt zu Leipzig_, 1853).
Under the above title, Dr. Monicke has published what are considered by a foreign critic some valuable observations on the admirable Oxford edition (by Dr. Meadows White) of _The Ormulum_, an Anglo-Saxon work, now first edited from the original MS. in the Bodleian Library. The attention of the readers of "N. & Q.," who are occupied in the study of the Anglo-Saxon, with its cognate dialects, and direct descendant, will be doubly attracted by a title with which they are so familiar, and which is associated with some of the happiest and most peaceful moments of their life. The title of the Essay (which I have not yet seen, and which appears to be written in English) seems to be entirely the choice of the author, and must be somewhat flattering to the Editor of the original "N. & Q."
J. M.
Oxford.
[We have received, with something like a sense of neglected duty, this notice of _The Ormulum, now first edited from the Original Manuscript in the Bodleian; with Notes and a Glossary by Robert Meadows White, D.D., late Fellow of St. Mary Magdalene College, and formerly Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford_, 2 vols. 8vo. The fact is, we have long intended to call attention to this book, alike creditable to the scholastic acquirements of Dr. White, and to the authorities of the Oxford press; but have from week to week postponed doing so, that we might enter at some length into the history of _The Ormulum_, and a notice of the labour of its editor. In the mean time Dr. White's labours have received from foreign scholars that recognition which his countrymen have been too tardy in offering.--ED. "N. & Q."]
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THE LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SISTERS.
Will the Editor of "N. & Q.," or any of his correspondents, kindly inform me of the true circumstances from which the following legend has sprung? The locality which was the scene of the tragedy is the little village of Ballybunion, situated within a few miles of Kerry Head. The scenery around is of the wildest and most striking description. Frowning, rugged cliffs, rising abruptly out of the water to the height of over one hundred feet, and perforated with numerous caves, into which the ocean rushes with fearful fury in winter,--for it is a stormy coast, and rarely does a month pass without beholding some dead, putrified body washed ashore; while inland, a barren, uncultivated plain, consisting mostly of bog, stretches away to nearly the foot of the Reeks, which, looming in the distance, seem to rear their giant masses even to the sky, and form, as it were, an impenetrable barrier between the coast and the interior. On the brink of one of those precipices we have mentioned, there stands the ruins of a castle, seemingly of great antiquity. Nothing now remains but the basement storey, and that seems as if it would be able to withstand the war of winds and waves for hundreds of years longer. According to the legend, this castle was inhabited by a gallant chieftain at the period of the incursions of the Danes, and who was the father of seven blooming daughters. He was himself a brave warrior, animated with the greatest hatred against the Ostmen, who, at that period, were laying every part of Erin waste. His sword never rested in its sheath, and day and night his light gallies cruised about the coast on the watch for any piratical marauder who might turn his prow thither. One day a sail was observed on the horizon; it came nearer and nearer, and the pirate standard was distinguished waving from its mast-head. Immediately surrounded by the Irish ships, it was captured after a desperate resistance. Those that remained of the crew were slaughtered and thrown into the sea, with the exception of the captain and his six brothers, who were reserved for a more painful death. Conveyed to the fortress, their wounds were dressed, and they were allowed the free range of the castle. Here, gradually a love sprung between them and the seven Irish maidens, who yielded to their ardent protestations, and agreed to fly with them to Denmark. Everything was arranged for the voyage, and one fearfully stormy night in winter was chosen for the attempt. Not a single star shone in the sky, the cold blast came sweeping from the ocean, the rain fell in torrents, and the water roared and raged with terrific violence amid the rocky caverns. Escaping down from the battlement by a rope-ladder, they discovered to their horror, that on reaching the ground they were surrounded by armed men. Not a word was uttered; but they {466} well knew into whose hands they had fallen. Conducted again within the fortress, they found themselves face to face with their injured father. One deadly glance of hatred he cast on the prisoners, and, muttering some few words to one of his attendants, he pointed towards his daughters. The man, on receiving the command, recoiled a few paces, transfixed with horror; and then he advanced nearer, and seemed as if remonstrating with him. But the parent's face assumed an absolutely demoniac expression; and more peremptorily repeating his order, he stalked out of the room. And now commenced a fearful scene. The lovers were torn from each other's arms, and the women were brought forth again. The storm had grown more violent, and the spray was dashing far over the cliff, whilst the vivid flashes of lightning afforded a horrible illumination to the dreary scene. Proceeding along the brink of the precipice, they at length came to a chasm which resembled somewhat the crater of a volcano, as it was completely closed, with the exception of the opening at the top, and one small aperture below, through which the sea rushed with terrible violence. The rolling of the waters sounded fearfully on the ear of those around, and now at length the sisters divined their fate. One by one they were hurled into the boiling flood: one wild shriek, the billows closed again, and all was over. What the fate of their lovers was, the legend says not. The old castle has crumbled into ruins--the chieftain sleeps in an unknown grave, his very name forgotten; but still the sad ending of the maidens is remembered, and even unto this day the cavern is denominated the "Cave of the Seven Sisters." Such is the above legend as it still exists amongst the peasantry, and any of your contributors would extremely oblige by informing me of the name of the Irish leader.
GEORGE OF MUNSTER.
Queen's College, Cork.
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Minor Notes.
_Coincidences._--
"Jejunus raro stomachus vulgaria temnit."--Hor. _Sat._ 2.
"A hungry dog eats dirty pudding."
"Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt."--Hor. _Sat._ 1.
"He misses one post, and runs his head against t'other."
"[Greek: Chelidôn ear ou poiei]."--Arist. _Eth._, i. 7.
"One swallow don't make a summer."
J. H. B.
_The English Liturgy._--
"It is deserving of notice, that although Dr. Beattie had been brought up a member of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and regularly attended her worship and ordinances when at Aberdeen, he yet gave the most decided preference to the Church of England, generally attending the service of that Church when anywhere from home, and constantly when at Peterhead. He spoke with enthusiasm of the beauty, simplicity, and energy of the English Liturgy, especially of the Litany, which he declared to be the finest piece of uninspired composition in any language." _Life of Dr. Beattie_, by Sir W. Forbes, Bart., vol. iii. p. 168. note.
J. M.
Oxford.
"_To jump for joy._"--This expression, now most often used figuratively, was probably in the olden time a plain and literal description of an actual fact. The _Anglo-Norman Poem on the Conquest of Ireland by Henry II._, descriptive of events which occurred at the close of the twelfth century, informs us (at p. 53.) that one of the English knights, named Maurice de Prendergast, being desirous of returning with his followers to Wales, was impeded in his march by "les traitres de Weyseford;" and that this so much provoked him, that he tendered his services to the King of Ossory, who--
"De la novele esteit heistez, E de joie saili à pés."
This expression, "saili à pés," is translated in the Glossary "rose upon feet;" but the more correct rendering of it appears to me to be that of jumping or dancing for joy.
JAMES F. FERGUSON.
Dublin.
"_What is Truth?_"--Bacon begins his "Essay of Truth" (which is dated 1625) with these words:
"What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly, there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting freewill in thinking, as well as in acting."
There is a similar passage in Bishop Andrews's sermon _Of the Resurrection_, preached in 1613:
"Pilate asked, _Quid est veritas?_ And then some other matter took him in the head, and so up he rose, and went his way, before he had his answer; he deserved never to find what truth was. And such is our seeking mostwhat, seldom or never seriously, but some question that comes cross our brain for the present, some _quid est veritas_? So sought as if that we sought were as good lost as found. Yet this we would fain have so for seeking, but it will not be."
Perhaps Bacon heard the bishop preach (the sermon was at Whitehall); and if so, the passage in Andrews will explain the word "jesting" to mean, not scoffing, but asking without serious purpose of acquiring information.
J. A. H.
_Abolition of Government Patronage._--The following passage, from Dr. Middleton's _Dedication of the Life of Cicero_ to Lord Keeper Hervey, is {467} interesting as showing the enlightened sentiments of an eminent scholar a hundred years ago when addressing a minister of the crown:
"Human nature has ever been the same in all ages and nations, and owes the difference of its improvements to a difference only of culture, and of the rewards proposed to its industry; where these are the most amply provided, there we shall always find the most numerous and shining examples of human perfection. In old Rome, the public honours were laid open to the virtue of every citizen; which, by raising them in their turns to the commands of that mighty empire, produced a race of nobles superior even to kings. This was a prospect that filled the soul of the ambitious and roused every facility of mind and body to exert its utmost force; whereas, in modern states, men's views being usually confined to narrow bounds, beyond which they cannot pass, and a partial culture of their talents being sufficient to procure everything that their ambition can aspire to, a great genius has seldom either room or invitation to stretch itself to its full size."
ALPHA.
Oxford.
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Minor Queries.
"_One New Year's Day._"--An old lady used to amuse my childhood by singing a song commencing--
"One New Year's day, as I've heard say, Dick mounted on his dappled grey," &c.
The rest I forget, but I should be glad to know if it is extant, and what is known of its origin, &c.
G. WILLIAM SKYRING.
Somerset House.
_Greek denounced by the Monks._--
"Almost the time (A.D. 1530) when the monks preached in their sermons to the people to beware of a new tongue of late discovered, called the Greek, and the mother of all heresies."--_Foreign Quarterly_ for October, 1842, No. 59. p. 137.
Can any of your readers give references to such passages in Monkish sermons?
CPL.
_Pliny's Dentistry._--As your journal has become the repository of so many novel and interesting _facts_, I trust that the following data will be found acceptable to the readers of "N. & Q." Having had occasion, of late, to look over the works of Pliny, I was struck with the extent to which this ancient naturalist and philosopher has carried his researches on the above subject; as, in some editions, the Index of the article DENTES occupies several closely-printed columns. He recommends tooth-powder (_dentifricia_) of hartshorn, pumice-stone, burnt nitre, _Lapis Arabus_, the ashes of shells, as well as several ludicrous substances, in accordance with the mystic prejudices of the age. Amongst the remedies for fixing (_firmare_) teeth, he mentions _Inula_, _Acetum Scillinum_, _Radix Lapathi sativi_, vinegar; and loose teeth are to be fixed by _Philidonia_, _Veratrum nigrum_, and a variety of other remedies, amongst which some are most rational, and tend to prove that more attention was paid to the physiological (_hygeistic_) department relating to that portion of the human body than we have been hitherto aware of, as even the most recent works on Dentistry do not mention these facts.
GEORGE HAYES.
Conduit Street.
_J. Farrington, R.A._--Having recently met with some views by J. Farrington, R.A., without a description of the locality, I shall be obliged by your insertion of a Query respecting information of what views were executed by this painter, with their localities, in or about the year 1789. As I am informed that those above referred to belong to this neighbourhood, and therefore would be invested with interest to me, I could ascertain their locality with precision.
JOHN NURSE CHADWICK.
King's Lynn.
_Henry Crewkerne, of Exeter_, "Captain of Dragoons, descended from Crewkerne, of Crewkerne, in Devonshire," died at Carlow in Feb. 1664-5. Was he descended from Crewkerne of Chilhay, Dorset? His pedigree would be very acceptable.
Y. S. M.
_Dr. Johnson._--Johnson says somewhere that he never was in a tight place but once, and that was when he had a mad bull by the tail. Had he held on, he said he would have been dragged to death over a stubble field; while if had not held on, the bull would have gored him to death. Now my Query is, what did Dr. Johnson do, hold on or let go?
G. M. B.
_Latin "Dante."_--Is there not a literal Latin _prose_ translation of Dante, somewhat rhythmical? Has not Stillingfleet cited it in the _Origines_? If so, where is its _corpus_? And in what form, MS. or printed? Of metrical Latin versions there are several beside those of the Jesuit Carlo d'Aquino and Piazza. The Query is as to the prose?
PHILIP ASKE.
_Ralph Bosvill, of Bradbourn, Kent_, Clerk of the Court of Wards, married first, Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Clement, and widow of John Castillon, by whom he had five children. He married secondly, Benedicta Skinner, by whom he had six children. This I have taken from the _Visitations of Kent_. In Harl. MS. 5532.152, he is said to have had another son Ralph, "slain in Ireland." This Ralph was his son, and I wish to discover by which wife, as the entry above-mentioned in the {468} MSS. is of a much later date than the body of it. He had, I think, two other sons at least, who are not in the books, namely, Godfrey and William. The name is sometimes called "Boswell." Was the younger Ralph's wife, Mary, daughter of Alveray Copley of Batley?
Y. S. M.
_Major-General Wolfe._--The following MS. is advertised for sale. Is anything known concerning it?
"A Copy of Orders written by Major-General Woolfe; an important unpublished Historical MS. This valuable collection commences with 'General Orders to be observed by a regiment on their arrival in Scotland, 1748.' At p. 55. begin 'Orders by Major-General Woolfe in America: Halifax, April 30, 1759.' They continue dated from Louisburg, Point Orleans, Montmorenci, Cape Rouge, &c., to the last, which is dated on board the Sutherland, off St. Nicholas, Sept. 12th, the day before the scaling the heights of Abraham; no doubt the last issued by Woolfe, as on that day (13th) he fell in battle. There is no clue in the MS. to its compiler; it consists of 103 pages 4to., beautifully written, with MS. Plan of Order of Battle, of the army commanded by General Woolfe in America, 1789. It is believed that no printed copy exists of these valuable papers, which are of the highest importance to the Historian, as a slight extract will show. Small 4to., calf.
'Sept. 12. The Sutherland, at anchor off St. Nicholas:--The enemies' forces are not divided; great scarcity of provisions in the camp, and universal discontent amongst the Canadians. The second officer in command is gone to Montreal or St. John's, which gives reason to think that Governor Amherst is advancing into that colony. A vigorous blow struck by the army at this juncture might determine the fate of Canada. Our troops below are ready to join us; all the light infantry and tools are embarked at the Point of Levi, and the troops will land where the enemy seems least to expect it.'"
J. BALCH.
Philadelphia.
_Custom at University College, Oxford._--What is the origin of the following custom observed at this college? On every Easter Sunday the representation of a tree, dressed with evergreens and flowers, is placed on a turf, close to the buttery, and every member there resident, as he leaves the Hall, after dinner, chops at the tree with a cleaver. The college-cook stands by holding a plate, in which the Master deposits half a guinea, each Fellow five shillings, and the other members two shillings and sixpence each; this custom is called "chopping at the tree." When was this custom instituted, and to what circumstance are we to attribute its origin? Who presented to the chapel of this College the splendid eagle, as a lectern, which forms one of its chief ornaments? Was it presented by Dr. Radcliffe, or does it date its origin from the happy reign of Queen Mary?
M. A.
"_Old Dominion._"--It is stated in a newspaper that the term "Old Dominion," generally applied here to the state of Virginia, originated from the following facts. During the Protectorate of Cromwell the colony of Virginia refused to acknowledge his authority, and sent to Flanders for Charles II. to reign over them. Charles accepted, and was about to embark, when he was recalled to the throne of England. Upon his accession, as a reward for her loyalty, he allowed the colony to quarter the arms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as an independent member of the "Old Dominion;" whence the term. What truth is there in this story?
PENN.
"_Wise men labour_," _&c._--
On the fly-leaf of Sir Roger Twysden's copy of Stow's _Annales_ are the following, lines, dated 1643:
"Wise men labour, good men grieve, Knaves devise, and fooles believe; Help, Lord! and now stand to us, Or fooles and knaves will quite undoe us, Or knaves and fooles will quite undoe us."
From whence are these lines taken?
L. B. L.
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Minor Queries with Answers.
_Dame Hester Temple._--"Lady Temple lived to see seven hundred of her own descendants: she had thirteen children." I have extracted this "sea-serpent" from an extract in Burke from _Fuller's Worthies_, but I am unable to refer to the original for confirmation of this astounding fact; if true it is wonderful.
Y. S. M.