Part 2

"The 'left' hand, as distinguished from the right, is the hand which we 'leave,' inasmuch as for twenty times we use the right hand, we do not once employ _it_; and it obtains its name from being 'left' unused so often."

Now I should certainly be sorry to appear

"Ut lethargicus hic, cum fit pugil, et medicum urget."

I am not the person to aim a word at Mr. Trench's eye. Although I am Boeotian enough to ask, I am not too far Boeotian to feel no shame in asking, whether it is quite impossible that "left" should be corruption of _lævus_, [Greek: laios]. We have, at all events, adopted _dexter_, the "right" hand, and the rest of its family.

BOEOTICUS.

Edgmond, Salop.

_The Parthenon._--M. de Chateaubriand says that the Greek, Theodore Zygomalas, who wrote in 1575, is the first among modern writers to have made known the existence of the Temple of Minerva or Parthenon, which was believed to have been totally destroyed. The _Messager des Sciences et des Arts de la Belgique_, vol. iv. p. 24., corrects Chateaubriand, and says that Ciriaco d'Ancona had, in the year 1436, described this celebrated monument, together with other ancient buildings of Athens. I am desirous of verifying this statement, and for this purpose beg the assistance of some of your learned correspondents, who may probably be able to inform me what is the title and date of the work of Ciriaco in which this description of the Parthenon occurs.

W. M. R. E.

* * * * *

Replies.

MEDIÆVAL OR MIDDLE AGES.

(Vol. v., p. 469.)

The question there put by L. T. is still constantly asked, and the answer given by a reference to Mr. Dowling's work may perhaps be unsatisfactory to many, as not sufficiently defining the period at which the Middle Ages may be said to terminate. By some of the best historical writers, the commencement and termination are variously stated. In a work recently published by George T. Manning, entitled _Outlines of the History of the Middle Ages_, with heads of analysis, &c., the Querist seems answered with more precision. Mr. Manning divides General History into _three_ great divisions--Ancient History, that of the Middle Ages, and Modern History; the first division extending from the Creation to about four hundred years after the birth of Christ; the second from A.D. 400 to the close of the fifteenth century of the Christian era; the third embracing those ages which have elapsed since the close of mediæval times.

The Middle Age portions he divides into _five_ great periods, denoted by the vast changes which took place in the course of that history, viz.:

A.D. 400 to A.D. 800, _First Period_. A.D. 800 to A.D. 964, _Second Period_. A.D. 964 to A.D. 1066, _Third Period_. A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1300, _Fourth Period_. A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1500, _Fifth Period_.

The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope being the last important event, which he places in 1497.

This is nearly the same view as taken by M. Lamé Fleury, who commences with the fall of the Western Empire in 476, and closes with the conquest of Granada by the Spaniards in 1492: thinking that memorable event, which terminated in a degree the struggle of the Western against the Eastern Empire, a better limit ("une limite plus rigoureusement exacte") than the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453, the date when this historical period is generally terminated by most writers.

Appended to this little volume is a list of remarkable dates and events, as also of battles and treaties during the Middle Ages.

G.

* * * * *

CONSECRATORS OF ENGLISH BISHOPS.

(Vol. vii., pp. 132. 220.)

1. Ashurst Turner Gilbert, Bishop of Chichester, was consecrated Feb. 27, 1842, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of Lincoln and Llandaff.

2. Edward Field, Bishop of Newfoundland, April 28, 1844, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Bangor, and Worcester.

3. Thomas Turton, Bishop of Ely;

4. John Medley, Bishop of Fredericton;

5. James Chapman, Bishop of Columbo; May 4, 1845, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Rochester, Lincoln, Hereford, Lichfield, and Bishop Coleridge.

6. Samuel Gobat, Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem, July 5, 1846, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Calcutta, and Lichfield.

7. George Smith, Bishop of Victoria;

8. David Anderson, Bishop of Rupert's Land; May 29, 1849, in Canterbury Cathedral, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Winchester, and Oxford.

9. Francis Fulford, Bishop of Montreal, July 25, 1830, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of Oxford, Salisbury, Chichester, Norwich, and Toronto. {307}

10. John Harding, Bishop of Bombay, Aug. 10, 1851, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishop of London and Bishop Carr.

11. Hibbert Binney, Bishop of Nova Scotia, March 25, 1851, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Chichester, and Oxford.

12. John Lonsdale, Bishop of Lichfield, was consecrated in the chapel of Lambeth Palace.

I believe A. S. A. will find all his Queries answered in the above list; but as he may wish to know the names as well as the titles of the consecrating Bishops, I subjoin a list of them.

In the consecration of the first six bishops in the list, the Archbishop of Canterbury was Dr. William Howley; in all the others he was Dr. John Bird Sumner. The Bishop of Lincoln, wherever mentioned, was Dr. John Kaye. The Bishop of Llandaff was Dr. E. Coplestone; the Bishop of London was Dr. C. J. Blomfield; the Bishop of Bangor, Dr. Christopher Bethell; the Bishop of Worcester, Dr. H. Pepys; the Bishop of Rochester, Dr. George Murray; the Bishop of Hereford, Dr. Thomas Musgrave; the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr. John Lonsdale; the Bishop of Calcutta, Dr. Daniel Wilson; the Bishop of Winchester, Dr. C. R. Sumner; the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Samuel Wilberforce; the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Edward Denison; the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. A. T. Gilbert; the Bishop of Norwich, Dr. Samuel Hinds; the Bishop of Toronto, Dr. John Strachan.

TYRO.

Dublin.

* * * * *

"GRINDLE."

(Vol. vii., p. 107.)

The question of C. G. supplies a new instance of an ancient and heroic word still surviving in a local name. The only other places in England that I have as yet heard of are, _Grindleton_ in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and a _Gryndall_ in the East Riding. The authority for this latter is Mr. Williams' Translation of Leo's _Anglo-Saxon Names_, p. 7., note 3.

In old England, the name was probably not uncommon: it occurs in a description of landmarks in Kemble's _Codex Dipl._, vol. ii. p. 172.: "on _grendles_ mere."

There is a peculiar interest attaching to this word; or, I might say, it is invested with a peculiar horror, as being the name of the malicious fiend, the man-enemy whom Beowulf subdues in our eldest national Epic:

"W[=æ]s se grimma gæst Grendel háten, M[=æ]re mearc-stapa, se þe móras heóld, Fen and fæsten--fífel-cynnes eard Won-sæli wer...." _Beowulf_, l. 203. _seqq._--Ed. Kemble.

So he is introduced in the poem, when, in the dead of night, he comes to the hall where the warriors are asleep, ravining for the human prey. The following is something like the meaning of the lines:--

"Grendel hight the grisly guest, Dread master he of waste and moor, The fen his fastness--_fiends among_, Bliss-bereft...."

This awful being was no doubt in the mind of those who originated the name _grendles mere_, before quoted from Kemble. The name is applied to a locality quite in keeping with the ancient mythological character of _Grendel_, who held the moor and the fen. Most strikingly does the same sentiment appear in the name of that strange and wildering valley of the Bernese Oberland, in Switzerland:--I mean the valley of Grindelwald, with its two awful glaciers.

But when we come to consider the etymology of the name, we are led to an object which seems inadequate, and incapable of acting as the vehicle for these deep and natural sentiments of the inhuman and the horrible.

_Grendel_ means, originally, no more than a _bar_ or _rod_, or a palisade or lattice-work made of such bars or rods. Also a bar or bolt for fastening a door, or for closing a harbour. Middle-aged people at Zurich recollect when the old "Grindel" was still standing at the mouth of their river. This was a tremendous bar, by which the water-approach to their town could be closed against an enemy; who might otherwise pass from the Lake of Zurich down the river Limmat, into the heart of the town of Zurich.

It was in Germany that this word lived longest as a common substantive. There is no known instance of it in Anglo-Saxon, other than in proper names, and of these I know no more than are already enumerated above; whereas, in the Middle High German, it is by no means uncommon. It occurs in a mystery on the resurrection preserved in this dialect, and edited by Ettmüller, 1851 (_Dat Spil fan der Upstandinge_). I cannot now find the line, but it is used there for "the gates of hell." Cf. also Ziemann's _Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch_, voc. GRINDEL.

Grimm, in his _Mythology_, establishes a connexion between _Grendel_ and _Loki_, the northern half-deity half-demon, the origin of evil. He was always believed to have cunningly guided the shaft of Flöder the Blind, who, in loving sport, shot his brother Balder the Gay, the beloved of gods and men. So entered sorrow into the hitherto unclouded Asaland.

Grimm draws attention to the circumstance that Loki is apparently connected with the widespread root which appears in English in the forms _lock_ and _latch_. Here is a very striking analogy, {308} and it is supported by an instance from the present German: _Höllriegel_ = vectis infernalis, brand of hell, is still recognised as = _teufel_; or for an old witch = devil's dam.

And even in Latin documents we find the same idea represented. Thus, in a charter of King Edgar (_Cod. Dipl._, No. 487.), which begins with a recital of the fall of man, and the need of escaping the consequent misery, we have the following:

"Quamobrem ego Eadgar, totius Britanniæ gubernator et rector, ut hujus miseriæ _repagulum_ quam protoplastus inretitus promeruit ... evadere queam, quandam ruris particulam ... largitus sum," &c. &c.

As to the application of this name to localities, it seems to represent the same sentiment as the prefix of Giant, Grim, or Devil: and this sentiment would be that of the grand or awful in Nature, and mysterious or unaccountable in artificial works. I think we may then safely conclude, that all dikes, ditches, camps, cromlechs, &c., which have such titles attached to them, date from an age previous to the Saxons being in England. For example, if we did not know from other sources the high antiquity of Wayland Smith's Cave in Berkshire, we might argue that it was at least pre-Saxon; from the fact that the Saxons called it by the name of their Vulcan, and therefore that it appeared to them so mysterious as to be _dignus vindice nodus_.

If your correspondent C. G., or any of your readers, can, either from their reading or from local knowledge, add any further illustrations or examples of this ancient heathen word, I, for one, shall receive them gratefully.

I. E.

Oxford.

* * * * *

MUMMIES OF ECCLESIASTICS.

(Vol. vi., pp. 53. 110. 205. 328.)

Although I have myself seen the natural mummies preserved at Kreuzberg on the Rhine, I can say nothing more with regard to them, than vouch for the accuracy of the accounts transmitted by your various correspondents under this head. Your Querist A. A. however may, if curious on this subject, be referred with advantage to Mr. T. J. Pettigrew's interesting _History of Egyptian Mummies_. In chap. xvii. of this work, many instances are adduced of the preservation of bodies from putrefaction by the desiccating properties of the natural air of the place in which they are contained. He says:

"In dry, and particularly calcareous vaults, bodies may be preserved for a great length of time. In Toulouse, bodies are to be seen quite perfect, although buried two centuries ago. In the vaults of St. Michael's Church, Dublin, the same effect is produced; and Mr. Madden says he there saw the body of Henry Shears, who was hanged in 1798, in a state of preservation equal to that of any Egyptian mummy."

Garcilasso de la Veya, and more recent historians, may be referred to for accounts of the mummy-pits of Peru, the dry air of which country is an effectual preventive of the process of putrefaction. One of the most curious spectacles, however, of this nature is to be found in the Catacombs of Palermo, where the traveller finds himself in the midst of some thousands of unburied bodies, which, suspended mostly by the neck, have become so distorted in form and feature in the process of desiccation, as to provoke an irrepressible smile in the midst of more solemn and befitting contemplations. (Sonnini's _Travels_, vol. i. p. 47.; Smyth's _Memoirs of Sicily and its Islands_, p. 88.)

Similar properties are also attributed to the air of the western islands of Scotland. "To return to our purpose," says P. Camerarius (_The Living Librarie_, translated by Molle, folio, London, 1625, p. 47.),--

"That which Abraham Ortelius reporteth after Gyrald de Cambren is wonderfull, that the bodies of men rot not after their decease, in the isles of Arran; and that therefore they bee not buried, but left in the open ayr, where putrefaction doth them no manner of hurt; whereby the families (not without amazement) doe know their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and a long race of their predecessors. Peter Martyr, a Milannois, saith the same of some West Indians of Comagra. These bee his words: 'The Spaniards being entered the lodgings of this Cacick, found a chamber fulle of dead bodies, hanging by ropes of cotton, and asking what superstition that was, they received this answer, That those were the fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers of the Cacick of Comagra. The Indians say that they keep such relikes preciously, and that the ceremonie is one of the points of their religion. According to his qualities while he lived, his bodie, being dead, is richly decked with jewels and precious stones.'"

Many other instances might be adduced, but you will now think that at least enough has been said on this subject.

WILLIAM BATES.

Birmingham.

* * * * *

VICARS-APOSTOLIC IN ENGLAND.

(Vol. vi., pp. 125. 297. 400.; Vol. vii., pp. 242. 243.)

Your correspondent A. S. A. seems very anxious to possess a complete list of the vicars-apostolic of England. With their names, and the date of their consecration and death, collected from various sources, I am able to supply him.

The last survivor of the Roman Catholic bishops consecrated in England prior to the reign of Elizabeth was Dr. Thomas Watson, appointed bishop of Lincoln in 1557 by Queen Mary, and deprived (on the accession of Elizabeth) in 1559. {309}

Upon his death, in 1584, the Catholic clergy in England were left without a head, and the Pope some time after appointed an _arch-priest_, to superintend them, and the following persons filled the office:

_Consecrated._ _Died._ 1598. Rev. George Blackwell. -- Rev. George Birkhead 1614. 1615. Rev. George Harrison 1621.

On the death of the latter the episcopate was revived by the pope in England, and one bishop was consecrated as head of the English Catholics.

_Consecrated._ _Died._ 1623. Dr. William Bishop 1624. 1625. Dr. Richard Smith 1655. 1685. Dr. John Leyburn, with whom, in 1688, Dr. Giffard was associated; but almost immediately after this England was divided into four districts, and the order of succession in each was as follows:

_London or Southern District._

_Consecrated._ _Died._ 1685. Bishop Leyburn 1703. 1688. Bishop Giffard (translated from the Midland District, 1703) 1733. 1733. Bishop Petre 1758. 1741. Bishop Challoner 1781. 1758. Bishop Honourable James Talbot 1790. 1790. Bishop Douglas 1812. 1803. Bishop Poynter 1827. 1823. Bishop Bramston 1836. 1828. Bishop Gradwell 1833. 1833. Bishop Griffiths 1847.

_Midland or Central District._

1688. Bishop Giffard (translated to London, 1703). 1703. Bishop Witham (translated to the Northern District, 1716). 1716. Bishop Stonor 1756. 1753. Bishop Hornihold 1779. 1766. Bishop Honourable T. Talbot 1795. 1786. Bishop Berington 1798. 1801. Bishop Stapleton 1802. 1803. Bishop Milner 1826. 1825. Bishop Walsh (translated to London, 1848). 1840. Bishop Wiseman (coadjutor).

_Western District._

1688. Bishop Ellis 1726. 1715. Bishop Prichard 1750. 1741. Bishop York 1770. 1758. Bishop Walmesley 1797. 1781. Bishop Sharrock 1809. 1807. Bishop Collingridge 1829. 1823. Bishop Baines 1843.

_Northern District._

1688. Bishop James Smith 1711. 1716. Bishop Witham 1725. 1726. Bishop Williams 1740. 1741. Bishop Dicconson 1752. 1750. Bishop Honourable, F. Petre 1775. 1768. Bishop Maire (coadjutor to Bishop Petre) 1769. 1770. Bishop Walton 1780. 1780. Bishop Gibson 1790. 1790. Bishop William Gibson (brother to the preceding bishop) 1821. 1810. Bishop Thomas Smith 1831. 1824. Bishop Penswick 1836. 1833. Bishop Briggs, removed to the new district of Yorkshire in 1840, and became Roman Catholic Bishop of Beverley in 1850.

In 1840, England and Wales were divided among eight vicars-apostolic, and from that time until the year 1850 the following was the arrangement:

_London._

_Consecrated._ _Died._ 1833. Bishop Griffiths 1847. 1825. Bishop Walsh 1849. 1840. Bishop Wiseman, at first coadjutor to Bishop Walsh here, as he had been in the central District. Elevated to the archiepiscopate, 1850.

_Central._

1825. Bishop Walsh, removed to London in 1848. 1846. Bishop Ullathorne; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, 1850.

_Western._

1823. Bishop Baines 1843. 1843. Bishop Beggs 1846. 1846. Bishop Ullathorne; removed to the Central District, 1848. 1848. Bishop Hendren, became Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton, 1850.

_Northern._

1833. Bishop Briggs; removed in 1840 to the new district of Yorkshire. 1840. Bishop Riddell 1847. 1848. Bishop Hogarth; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham, 1850.

_Eastern._

1840. Bishop Wareing; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton, 1850.

_Yorkshire._

1833. Bishop Briggs, from the Northern District; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Beverley, 1850.

_Lancashire._

1840. Bishop G. Brown; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, 1850. 1843. Bishop Sharples (coadjutor) 1850.

_Wales._

1840. Bishop T. J. Browne; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Newport, 1850.

In 1850 came another change, and one archbishop and twelve bishops were appointed to rule {310} over the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales:

_Archbishop of Westminster._

_Consecrated._ 1850. Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman.

_Bishop of Hexham._

1850. William Hogarth.

_Bishop of Beverley._

1850. John Briggs.

_Bishop of Liverpool._

1850. George Brown.

_Bishop of Birmingham._

1850. William Ullathorne.

_Bishop of Northampton._

1850. William Wareing.

_Bishop of Newport and Menevia._

1850. Thomas Joseph Browne.

_Bishop of Nottingham._

1850. Joseph William Hendren (from Clifton); resigned his bishoprick, 1853.

_Bishop of Clifton._

1850. Joseph William Hendren (removed in 1851 to Nottingham.) 1851. Thomas Burgess.

_Bishop of Salford._

1851. William Turner.

_Bishop of Plymouth._

1851. George Errington.

_Bishop of Shrewsbury._

1851. James Brown.

_Bishop of Southwark._

1851. Thomas Grant.

The foregoing I believe to be, in the main, a correct account of the Roman Catholic episcopate in England and Wales from the accession of Elizabeth down to the present year.

J. R. W.

Bristol.

* * * * *

BANBURY ZEAL, ETC.

(Vol. vii., p. 106.)

I have no doubt that the particular instance of _Zeal in the cause of the Church_ at Banbury, which Addison had in mind when he wrote No. 220. of the _Tatler_, published Sept. 5, 1710, was a grand demonstration made by its inhabitants in favour of Dr. Sacheverell, whose trial had terminated in his acquittal on March 23 of that year. And my opinion is strengthened by the introduction almost immediately afterwards of a passage on the party use of the terms High Church and Low Church.

On June 3, 1710, the High Church champion made a triumphal entry into Banbury, which is ridiculed in a pamphlet called _The Banb..y Apes, or the Monkeys chattering to the Magpye; in a Letter to a Friend in London_. On the back of the title is large woodcut, representing the procession which accompanied the doctor; among the personages of which the Mayor of Banbury (as a wolf), and the aldermen (as apes), are conspicuous figures. Dr. Sacheverell himself appears on horseback, followed by a crowd of persons bearing crosses and rosaries, or strewing branches. The accompanying letter-press describes this procession as being closed by twenty-four tinkers beating on their kettles, and a "vast mob, hollowing, hooping, and playing the devil." There is another tract on the same subject, which is extremely scarce, entitled--

"An Appeal from the City to the Country for the Preservation of Her Majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the Protestant Religion, &c. Occasionally written upon the late impudent Affronts offer'd to Her Majesty's Royal Crown and Dignity by the People of BANBURY and WARWICK: Lond. 8vo. 1710."

To your correspondent H.'s (p. 222.) quotation from Braithwait's "Drunken Barnaby" may be added this extract from an earlier poem by the same writer, called "A Strappado for the Divell:"

"But now for Bradford I must haste away: Bradford, if I should rightly set it forth, Stile it I might _Banberry_ of the North; And well this title with the town agrees, Famous for twanging _ale_, _zeal_, _cakes_, and _cheese_."

A few words on "Banbury _Cakes_," and I have done. The earliest mention of them I am aware of (next to that in Camden's _Britannia_, published by Philemon Holland in 1608, and already referred to), is by Ben Jonson, in his _Bartholomew Fair_, written 1614; where he introduces "Zeal-of-the-Land Busy" as "a Banbury Man," who "was a _baker_--but he does dream now, and see visions: he has given over his trade, out of a scruple he took, that, in spiced conscience, _those cakes he made_ were served to bridales, maypoles, morrisses, and such profane feasts and meetings." I do not know whether the sale of Banbury cakes flourished in the last century; but I find recorded in Beesley's _Hist. of Banbury_ (published 1841) that Mr. Samuel Beesley sold in 1840 no fewer than 139,500 twopenny cakes; and in 1841, the sale had increased by at least a fourth. In Aug. 1841, 5,400 were sold weekly; being shipped to America, India, and even Australia. I fancy their celebrity in early days can hardly parallel this, but I do not vouch for the statistics.

J. R. M., M.A.

{311}

* * * * *

DR. SOUTH VERSUS GOLDSMITH, TALLEYRAND, ETC.

(Vol. vi., p. 575.)

This remarkable saying, like most good things of that kind, has been repeated by so many distinguished writers, that it is impossible to trace it to any one in particular, in the precise form in which it is now popularly received. I shall quote, in succession, all those who appear to have expressed it in words of the same, or a nearly similar, import, and then leave your readers to judge for themselves.

I cannot help thinking that the first place should be assigned to Jeremy Taylor, as he must have had the sentiment clearly in view in the following sentence:

"There is in mankind an universal contract implied in all their intercourses; and _words being instituted to declare the mind, and for no other end_, he that hears me speak hath a right in justice to be done him, that, as far as I can, what I speak be true; for else he by words does not know your mind, and then as good and better not speak at all."

Next we have David Lloyd, who in his _State Worthies_ thus remarks of Sir Roger Ascham: