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Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Number 196 July 30 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men Artists Antiquaries Genealogists etc. by Various Bell George Editor
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That text is abominably corrupt beyond a doubt; it contains many impossible readings, which must be misprints or otherwise erroneous; it contains also many improbable readings, harsh, strained, mean, inadequate, and the like.
Now it is excessively unlikely that a truly corrected copy, could we find one, would remove all the impossible readings, and leave all the improbable ones.
In short, the kind of disappointment which many of these corrections unavoidably give to the reader, is with me an argument in favour of their genuineness, not against it.
I am myself as yet a sceptic in the matter, being very little disposed to hasty credulity on such occasions, especially where there is a possibility of deceit. But I must say that the doctrine of probabilities seems to me to furnish strong arguments in the corrector's favour; and that the attacks of professed Shakspearian critics on him, both in and out of "N. & Q.," have hitherto rather tended to raise him in my estimation.
H. M.
W. N.
Pall Mall.
EPITAPH AND MONUMENTS IN WINGFIELD CHURCH, SUFFOLK.
I am not aware if the following epitaph has yet appeared in print; but I can safely assert that it really has a sepulchral origin; unlike those whose doubtful character causes them to be placed by your correspondent MR. SHIRLEY HIBBERD among the "gigantic gooseberries" . I copied it myself from a gravestone in the churchyard of the village of Wingfield, Suffolk. After the name, &c. of the deceased is the following verse:
"Pope boldly says , 'An honest man's the noblest work of God;' If Pope's assertion be from error clear, The noblest work of God lies buried here."
It is very likely that all I have been writing is no news to any one. In that case I have but to ask your pardon for troubling you with such a worthless Note.
PICTOR.
ORIGINAL ROYAL LETTERS TO THE GRAND MASTERS OF MALTA.
In searching through the manuscripts now filed away in the Record Office of this island with Dr. Villa, who has charge of them, and for whose assistance in my search I am greatly indebted, I have been gratified by seeing several original letters, addressed by different monarchs of England to the Grand Masters of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Each of the royal letters in the following list bears the signature of the writer:
Intending in a short time to examine these royal letters more closely, and hoping to refer to them again in "N.& Q.," I refrain from writing more at length on the present occasion.
W. W.
La Valetta, Malta.
P.S.--Perhaps the following chronological table, referring to the Maltese Grand Masters who are mentioned in the above Note, may not be uninteresting to the readers of "N. & Q.":
Minor Notes.
"Equus qui corripit gradum, et gressus duplicat. Nomen habet a celeri correptorum passuum sonitu."
H. C. K.
F. W. J.
W. FRASER.
Tor-Mohun.
The version I have always heard of it is--
EIRIONNACH.
SPERIEND.
Queries.
LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL.
My attention was drawn to this omission by the discovery of the decapitated man found at Nuneham Regis , and from observing that the then proprietor of the place appears to have been half-sister to Lady Russell, viz. daughter of the fourth Lord Southampton, by his second wife Frances, heiress of the Leighs, Lords Dunsmore, and the last of whom was created Earl of Chichester. But a little inquiry satisfied me this could not have been Lord Russell's body; among other reasons, because it was very improbable he should be interred at Nuneham, and because the incognito body had a peaked beard, whereas the prints from the picture at Woburn represent Lord Russell, according to the fashion of the time, without a beard.
Notwithstanding the failure of heirs male in three noble families within the century, viz. the Leighs, the Wriothesleys, and the Montagus, the present proprietor is their direct descendant, and there are indications in the letter referred to, that the place of interment of his ancestors, as well as of this singular unknown, will no longer be abandoned to be a depository of farm rubbish.
W. L. M.
ANCIENT FURNITURE--PRIE-DIEU.
Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q." will be able to give me some information as to the use of an ancient piece of furniture which I have met with. At Codrington, a small village in Gloucestershire, in the old house once the residence of the family of that name, now a farm-house, they show you in the hall a piece of furniture which was brought there from the chapel when that part of the building was turned into a dairy. It is a cupboard, forming the upper part of a five-sided structure, which has a base projecting equally with the top, which itself hangs over a hollow between the cupboard and the base, and is finished off with pendants below the cupboard. The panel which forms the door of the cupboard is wider than the sides. All the panels are carved with sacred emblems; the vine, the instruments of the Passion, the five wounds, the crucifix, the Virgin and child, and a shield, with an oak tree with acorns, surmounted by the papal tiara and the keys. The dimensions are as follows:
Depth from front to back, 2 feet 4 1/2 inches.
Height, 4 feet 8 inches.
Height of cupboard from slab to pendants, 2 feet 6 inches.
Height of base, 9 1/2 inches.
Width of side panels, 1 foot 8 inches; of centre panel, 1 foot 10 1/2 inches.
Width of the door of the cupboard, 1 foot 5 inches.
For some time I was at a loss for another instance; however, I have just received from a friend, who took interest in the subject, a sketch of something almost identical from the disused chapel at Chillon in the Canton Vaud. Of this I have not the measurements, but it stands about breast-high. It is there called a "prie-dieu," and is said to have belonged to the Dukes of Savoy, but the size is very unusual for such a use. I send sketches of each of the subjects of my Query, and hope that, if this should be thought worthy of a place in "N. & Q.," some one will be able and willing to afford some information about them. I would add as a farther Query, the question of the meaning of the battle-axe and pansy, which appear on the "prie-dieu" at Chillon. Is it a known badge of the Savoy family?
R. H. C.
Minor Queries.
A. Z.
J. S. WARDEN.
"Limerick was, Dublin is, and Cork shall be, The finest city of the three"?
Also, in what respect Limerick was formerly superior to Dublin?
Dublin.
L. M. M. R.
R. C. WARDE.
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