circles. Among the novelties appears the word amban, apparently a plenipotentiary or resident minister from China, as overlord to Tibet. It is very suggestive of the form ambac, preserved to us by Cæsar, and claimed alike for Gaulish and for Gothic, dating back to that far-off epoch when both races figured as Celts, migrating from Central Asia, within touch of this very Tibet-land. It has been supposititiously explained from Sanskrit, as a sort of equivalent to Brahman, the primitive cook, and later minister or priest. A. H. "THE BALANCE OF POWER."-The 'H.E.D.,' as its earliest illustration of this phrase, gives one of 1679, referring to the Ballance of Europe"; but in 2nd S. ix. 503 is a description of a folio of 1653, the title of which commences with the words, 'A German Diet, or the Ballance of Europe.' I note this in connexion with the fact that on 16 June the Alexander Prize Essay (1903) was read before the Royal Historical Society by Miss E. M. G. Routh, formerly of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, on 'The History of the Attempts to establish a Balance of Power in Europe, 1648 to 1702.' Queries. POLITICIAN. DAUGHTERS OF JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND.-I secondly, George, second Earl of Huntly. She is mentioned in twenty-seven of the pedigrees of descendants of royalty in his book. In eight she is described as having married James Douglas, Earl of Morton; in five as having married first James Douglas, Earl of Angus, secondly, James Douglas, Earl of Morton; in two, as marrying first James Douglas, Earl of Angus, then George Gordon, second Earl of Huntly; in nine as marrying George, Earl of Huntly; in three as marrying first James, Earl of Morton, then George, Earl of Huntly. The Earl of Angus is variously described as the first and third earl; the Earl of Morton as the first and second. Lord of Campvere, in Zealand, and makes I shall be very grateful to any one who can throw any light on these points. I also see that HERMENTRUDE describes her as the third daughter. I thought the order of their birth was Margaret, Isabel, Eleanor, Joan. If it can be proved that she died unmarried, a good many people who count their royal descent through her will have to relinquish their claims to royal ancestry. HELGA. wish to ascertain, if possible, the correct details concerning the daughters of James I. of Scotland and Joan Beaufort. There seem to have been six: Margaret, married the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI., died s.p.; Isabel, the Duke of Brittany; Eleanor, the Archduke Sigismund of Austria; Joan; Mary; Annabel. The difficulty is about the last three. Miss Yonge, whose historical dictum ELENE. I wish to know who Elene was. is almost invariably accurate, says, in her She is the subject of a modern picture in the romance 'Two Penniless Princesses,' "that Joan married George Douglas, Master-after-Parma Gallery. Two men have been playing wards Earl of Angus," and adds in a note that he was an historical personage. In 6th S. xi. 52 HERMENTRUDE says Joan was dumb, was contracted, but never married, to James, third Earl of Angus, and died 1445-6, aged about eighteen ; but she adds that some say the princess married about 1456 James, Earl of Morton, and died about 1487-8. In Burke's 'Royal Descents' she is said, in his 'Ancestry of the House of Stewart,' to have married first James, third Earl of Angus; for her with dice. The three figures are semi-nude; the men are equipped with Elene. The man who has lost her is seated swords; the lucky man has his arm round on the ground, looking regretfully after her. C. P. ANAHUAC.-What is the correct pronunciation of this ancient and poetical name for Mexico? On which syllable should it be stressed? I have consulted several gazetteers, but they differ. Some have Anahuác; others, including the newest and best authority, Smith's Cyclopædia of Names,' 1895, have Anáhuac. I have never heard this name pronounced by Spaniards, but I fancy that in most other Mexican names which I have heard ending in c the final syllable was accented, eg, in the name of the last Aztec emperor, Guatemóc, and in the numerous place-names ending in -tepec, such as Chapultepéc, Tehuantepéc, &c. JAMES PLATT, Jun. ANTWERP CATHEDRAL. (See 9th S. ix. 289, 352, 433.)-May I shortly repeat my query ? -for the replies, although interesting, in no way touch it. I have read (where I cannot tell) that, owing to the falling of the towers of this cathedral, the present one is built on a foundation of hides, and the second tower was not proceeded with, owing to the attraction or pull of the completed one. I have referred to Fergusson, Murray, Baedeker, and Motley, but without result, and yet I have read this somewhere. Can any one help me and give me the reference, and say if correct? LUCIS. SUPERVISUM CORPUS.-Is there any means of arriving at a verdict of the cause of death where the body of the deceased has vanished, as in the recent case where a man fell into a disused mine, or where a body is completely incinerated by a fire or by falling into molten metal, or where a man is lost at sea? In the last case the Probate Court may allow presumption of death. In the other cases it is said that magistrates must act if a body cannot be produced. But how? Inner Temple. STANLEY B. ATKINSON. THE EVIL EYE.-Can any of the readers of 'N. & Q.' tell me whether the superstition of the evil eye was ever prevalent in England According to a recent writer on the subject it is still widely believed in and guarded against in Italy, and especially in Malta. One wonders if it ever prevailed in the British Isles. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME. [It is still prevalent in some out-of-the-way English places, as any good guide to folk-lore will show. A case at Uxbridge in 1900 is recorded 9th S. v. 285, and a Scotch instance at 9th S. xi. 208. See the General Indexes under 'Folk-lore: Evil eye.'] composure"; and the third is a collection of pieces for use at the Communion service. In his Treasury of Sacred Song' (1890) the late Prof. Palgrave seems to have mixed two of these hymns for the sake of reaching a satisfactory unit. The poem he numbers cxcv. in his anthology opens with the first stanza of Watts's I. xviii., and continues with the second and third of II. iii., by which the poem is ostensibly completed. Did Watts make any such readjustment of these hymns? or is the composite product merely the result of editorial ingenuity? THOMAS BAYNE. BARONIAL FAMILY OF SOMERVILLE.-The Dublin Evening Mail of 1 June, referring to Sir Henry Moore Jackson, who is to be Governor of Trinidad, states : "It was during his early years at Sura-so at least the story goes-that a sunburnt man in a tattered white linen suit called upon him in some distress, and aroused his interest to such a degree that the Governor chartered a small sailing boat to take him to an island which he had indicated. Asked later who the man was, Sir Henry said he baron of a creation of 1430, whose line was supposed declared himself to be Hugh Somerville, twentieth to have become extinct with the death of Aubrey John, nineteenth Lord Somerville, in 1870." Can any of your readers give any information as to who this Hugh Somerville was, where he went, or what became of him? S. A. B. "THERE'S NOT A CRIME," &C.-Can you or any of your correspondents kindly tell me the name of the author and the poem in which the following lines occur?— There's not a crime But takes its proper change out-still in crime When once rung on the counter of the world. EVELINE PORTSMOUTH. CLASSIC AND TRANSLATOR.-The following verse is from the English translation of a classic author. Wanted, the name of the author and of the translator: There are only two secrets a man cannot keep: For these facts are so proved by his tongue or his He is mentioned in an old diary. Have his WATTS'S HYMNS.-In Isaac Watts's 'Hymns and Spiritual Songs' there are three books of lyrics. The first comprises hymns set to NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN PRONUNCIATION. given texts of Scripture; the second pre--What is the reason of the difference in sents such as illustrate some doctrine, being speech between the people of the North of (in the author's words) "of mere human England and the people of the South? How is it that North-Country people use the short a in such words as "ask," "last," "pass," whereas South-Country people use the long a? I suppose the long a is really the correct use. YORK. the 'De Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus' of John Pitts, posthumously published in 1619. This appears to be an error, for John Holywood, or Christopherus a Sancto Bosco, tells the story on Neale's authority in his 'De ADAM LYTTLETON, LL.D.-I have a Latin siæ,' published in 1604, after which it, most Investigatione veræ et visibilis Christi Eccledictionary of date, I think, previous to 1690, unhappily in my opinion, became a commonfrom which the title-page is missing. On place of controversy. Neither Holywood the fly-leaf some one has written, "A Dic-nor Pitts mentions the exile in Belgium or tionary of the Latin Tongue, by Adam" Herberley." Whence is the statement that Lyttleton, LL.D." Can any one give me Neale was in exile in Belgium derived? Who information about this man? Was he really was "Herberley"? the author, or only an editor of the book? I cannot find any notice of him in the books I have consulted. G. PETERSEN. [The 'D.N.B.' supplies a life. The date of the dictionary is 1673. Adam Littleton was a prebendary of Westminster in 1674.] "WAS YOU?" AND "YOU WAS."- About what time and why did the custom obtain of using was with "you"? When did it cease? In "The Trial of Elizabeth, Duchess Dowager of Kingston, for Bigamy......Published by Order of the House of Peers," 1776, "Was you?" and "You was are used by peers and counsel, I think, invariably. In the "Minutes of Evidence" of the trial of Queen Caroline, 1820, "Were you?" is the form used. On p. 69 I find : "Were you living in the Ambassador's House?' 'No.' Was it during the time that you was supported by the Ambassador?'" In the errata, p. 489, is the following: "Page 69, line 11, for 'you was' read you were. The said "Minutes of Evidence" are Lords' Paper 105 of 1820. ROBERT PIERPOINT. THOMAS NEALE: "HERBERLEY."- The decree of the Holy Office on Anglican Orders, dated 17 April, 1704, speaking of the "Nag's Head" story, says: "Ita accidisse testatus est oculatus testis Thomas Keal [sic], Professor linguæ Hebraica Oxonii, cuidam suo amico Herberlei, cum uterque religionis causa exul ex patria in Belgio degeret." The 'D.N.B.' (xl. 136), which knows nothing of an exile in Belgium, says that Neale's connexion with the "Nag's Head" story rests on JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. CASPAR WELSBACH. -I possess a copy of Luther's Bible, 1541, with his own manuscript notes and other interesting items. It also contains a book-plate "stamped in from a block, with a coat of arms, and the name one tell me who the owner was? Caspar Welsbach" underneath. Can any 66 Lancaster. T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A. Beylies. BARNES: 'THE DEVIL'S CHARTER.' (10th S. i. 467.) In reply to MR. C. R. DAWES, I may say that I have at present in hand a reprint of this play for Prof. W. Bang's series of "Materialen zur Kunde des älteren Englischen Dramas." The text was finished last year, and the book will, I hope, be published shortly. The play contains many difficulties, and the compilation of the notes has necessitated a good deal of work; hence the delay. The kernel of the plot is the legend of a contract entered into with the Devil by Pope Alexander VI., when a cardinal. This is made the occasion for a number of imperfectly connected scenes, displaying the "faithless, fearless, and ambitious lives" of Alexander and his son Cæsar Borgia. There is so little dramatic unity in the play that it is impossible to construct an "argument"; but possibly the following list of the chief incidents may be of use. By the agreement with the Devil, A. becomes Pope; Charles VIII. enters Italy; Lucretia Borgia murders her husband, Gismond di Viselli"; Charles enters Rome; Cæsar Borgia murders his brother, the Duke of Candy; A. raises devils, and learns by whom the murder was committed; A. poisons Lucretia; Cæsar takes the town of Furly (Forli); A. poisons Astor Manfredi and his brother; A. and Cæsar attempt to poison two cardinals, "Cornetto and Modina," at a banquet, but the Devil enters and changes the bottles, so that the poisoned wine is drunk by the would-be murderers; A. retires to his room ill, and the Devil appears to him; he explains that the charter, which A. believed to be for eighteen years, was only for eleven, the document being ambiguously worded, and, despite the Pope's protests, carries him off to hell. The history is from Guicciardini, but Barnes shows little regard for accuracy, and some of the incidents, such as the murder of Lucretia, are of his own invention. The legend of the charter seems to be taken from Widman's Faust-book of 1599, though this is not altogether satisfactory as a source. The magic is chiefly from the 'Heptameron, seu Elementa Magica' of Petrus de Abano. The play is described, with a few extracts, by Prof. Herford in his 'Literary Relations of England and Germany,' 1886, pp. 197-203. Extracts from it were also printed by Grosart in his edition of Barnes's poems. R. B. MCKERROW. In the 'Poetical Register; or, the Lives and Characters of the English Poets, with an account of their Writings,' 1723, it is said that this tragedy seems to have been written "in imitation of Shakespear's 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre'; which gives an Account of the Life and Death of Pope Alexander the VIth. For as Shakespear raises Gower, an old English Bard, for his Introductor in that Play; so this Author revives Guicciardine for the same purpose. And in the last Age, as well as the present Times, the Poets frequently introduc'd dumb Representations, which were very taking with the Spectators."-P. 12. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. An early reference to the value of anchovy as a food will be found in the following work, "Lemery and Hay. A Treatise of all sorts of Foods...also of Drinkables...how to chuse the best sort...of good and bad effects...the principles they abound with, the time, age and constitution they are adapted to,...accord. to... Physicians and Naturalists anc. & mod. 1745," 8vo, pp. 293-4. The name is here spelt anchovis, the plural anchoves, Latin apua. WM. JAGGARD. I cannot quite go back to 1840, but can distinctly remember "anchovy paste" in the early fifties. It was then sold in round flat white boxes about three inches in diameter (tinned foods were not then invented), and labelled " anchovy paste" on the top. I forget the name of the firm, but surely DR. MURRAY could find some record of it by some of the older firms, such as Lazenby or Crosse & Blackwell. "Shrimp paste" and "bloater paste" are certainly of much later date, and are evidently a copy of the old "anchovy paste." In Miss Acton's Modern Cookery' (1855) potted anchovy is spoken of on p. 306 as "paste"; and on p. 389 "currie-paste" is mentioned in reference to the cooking and serving of anchovies. J. FOSTER PALMER. We can trace having manufactured anchovy paste since 1835. Probably it was made by the firm before, but we have no record of an earlier date. JOHN BURGESS & SON, LTD. 107, Strand, W.C. "PURPLE PATCH" (10th S. i. 447, 477).-Lord Macaulay, when working at the third volume of his History,' notes in his diary, under 25 October, 1849: "Not quite my whole [daily, self-prescribed] task; but I have a grand purple patch to sew on [the relief of Londonderry], and I'must take time." -Trevelyan's Life,' chap. xii. His biographer, earlier in the book, but of course later in actual date, and perhaps influenced by his uncle's phrase, says:— "A pointed story, from some trumpery memoir of the last century, and retold in his own words, a purple patch from some third-rate sermon or political treatise, woven into the glittering fabric of his talk...... I have had the impression that the vogue which of late years has been gained by the phrase in journalistic writing dated from the publication of Macaulay's 'Life and Letters.' Needless to say Macaulay was appropriating Horace. H. J. FOSTER. purpureus This is, of course, Horace's " pannus,' But the adjective denotes not only the colour as noted by your correspondents. which we call "purple," but any bright colour, especially scarlet. It also means dazzling white, as applied to swans, and I think to lilies. Hence "bright patch would be a better rendering. C. S. JERRAM. It is perhaps of interest to add that the phrase "patchwork poets," followed by the quotation from Horace's 'Ars Poetica,' ll. 15, 16, occurs in the Guardian, No. 149, of 1 September, 1713. The essay is ascribed to John Gay, the poet; see 'The British Essayists,' vol. xvi. p. xxii, vol. xviii. p. vi. H. C. "OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS" (10th S. i. 246, 311, 392). The second line of the saying used by children in Yorkshire, when running out of doors to catch some of the first flakes of snow beginning to fall, as quoted by MR. ADDY at the last reference, viz., Hally, Hally Blaster," simply means alabaster, in allusion to the whiteness of the snow, and, in my opinion, has nothing to do with" the German Holle," nor with "Blaster, the spirit of the air." An old woman residing some twenty or thirty miles from London, in Kent, known to our family many years ago, was accustomed to speak of "alabaster as "hally blaster," and of anything covered with enamel as "animalled all over." W. I. R. V. FETTIPLACE (10th S. i. 329, 396, 473).-There are some beautiful monuments and crosses to the Fettiplace family in the parish church of Swinbrook, Oxfordshire. I saw them some years ago, and was much struck by them. Six members of the family are represented in effigy, each resting on a marble shelf in a recumbent posture, leaning on his elbow. They are: 1. Sir Alexander Fettiplace, who died 10 September, 1504. 2. William Fettiplace, died 1562. 3. Sir Edmund Fettiplace, died 1613, who caused this portion of the tomb (or perhaps the whole of it, leaving blank shelves for his successors) to be built. The occupants of the remaining shelves I have noted as Sir Edmund, Sir John, and an untitled member of the family. Of the last three figures one is in a costume of the time of the Commonwealth, and the others wear large Ramilies perukes. The Sir John is probably the first Baronet of Childrey and Swinbrook, created "in consideration of services and sufferings for King Charles I.," 30 March, 1661. In addition to this fine tomb there are in the church two interesting brasses relating to the same family. One has a knight and two ladies, with four female children facing each other below the principal figures. The coats of arms on this brass are all blank except one which bears the Fettiplace cognizance, Gules, two chevronels argent. The other and earlier brass is very interesting; it has a knight in chain hauberk and greaves of plate, his head resting on a fine helmet with crest. He is clad in a surcoat or tabard, the two chevronels of the arms on the breast and on the two wings over the shoulders. Below is the following distich: "of y' charitie pray for ye soule of Antonne Fettiplace Esquire which decessed the XXIII day of December in ye yeare of our Lord god MCCCCC. on whose Fettiplace arms on this brass, there is another soule Thee have mercy A[men]." Besides the coat bearing Quarterly, 1 and 4, two ribbons; 2 and 3, a fret, a chief charged with three roses. is a fine shield in an elaborate scroll border, Hung up on one of the walls of the church bearing Barry of six, on a chief three stars, impaling the arms of Fettiplace. The peculiarity of this coat is that it is elaborately stitched in gold, though no other tinctures are of some husband of a Fettiplace lady. There now visible. The arms may possibly be those is a good deal of heraldry on the monument itself, consisting of the arms of the various wives of the persons represented; but from considerations of space I forbear to mention them. The last holder of the baronetcy was Sir George Fettiplace, who was buried at Swinbrook 21 April, 1743, when the title became extinct. The family left from time to time large endowments to the parish, which are still, I am informed, in active operation, and form a temptation to people to reside in the parish. The last baronet is said to have had an estate worth 5,000l. a year, and to have left 100,000l. in money. Of his five sisters Diana married Robert Bushel, of Cleve Pryer, co. Worcester, and was mother of Charles Bushel, who in 1743 inherited the estate of Childrey and took the name of Fettiplace, and died 17 October, 1764, leaving two sons who both died s.p., when the estates passed to his grandson, Richard Gorges, who also took the name of Fettiplace, but died s.p. 21 May, 1806, in his forty-eighth year, the estates passing to his seven sisters. J. B. P. |