Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850

N.E.R. (a subscriber).

Sitting during the Lessons.—There is no doubt, I believe, that in former times the people stood when the minister read the Lessons, to show their reverence. It is recorded in Nehemiah, viii. 5.:

"And Ezra opened the Book in the sight of all the people (for he was above all the people), and when he opened it all the people stood up."

Why this practice should have been altered, or why our Rubric should be silent on this head, does not appear quite clear, though I find in Wheatley (On the Book of Common Prayer, chap. vi. sec. vi.) that which seems to me to be a very sufficient reason, if not for the sitting during the Lessons, certainly for the standing during the reading of the Gospel, and sitting during the Epistle:—

"In St. Augustine's time the people always stood when the lessons were read, to show their reverence to God's holy word: but afterwards, when this was thought too great a burden, they were allowed to sit down at the lessons, and were only obliged to stand at the reading of the Gospel; which always contains something that Our Lord did speak, or suffered in His own person. By which gesture they showed they had a greater respect to the Son of God himself than they had to any other inspired person, though speaking the word of God, and by God's authority."

WALTER MONTAGUE

Aërostation, Works on (Vol. ii., p. 199.).—To the numerous list of works on Aërostation which will no doubt be communicated to you in answer to the inquiry of C.B.M., I beg to add the following small contribution:—

"Saggio Aereonautico di Giuseppe Donini Tifernate," 8vo. pp. 92. With four large folding Plates. Firenze 1819.

Signor Donini also published in 1823 (in Citta di Castello per il Donati) the following pamphlet:—

"Circolare Areonautico (sic) Guiseppe Dolini d Città di Castello a tutti i dotti, e ricchi nazionali, stranieri. 8vo." pp. 16. Oxford.

J.M.

Aërostation.—Your correspondent C.B.M. (Vol. ii., p. 199.) will find some curious matter of aërostation in poor Colonel Maceroni's Autobiography, 2 vols. 8vo.

W.C.

Pole Money (Vol. ii., p. 231.).—The "pole money" alluded to in the extracts given by T.N.I., was doubtless the poll tax, which was revived in the reign of Charles II. Every one knows that at an earlier period of our history it gave rise to Wat Tyler's insurrection. The tax was reimposed several times during the reign of William III. and it appears from a statement of the Lords in a conference which took place with the Commons on the subject in the first of William's reign, that the tax, previously to that time, was last imposed in the 29th of Charles II.

C. ROSS.

Wormwood Wine (Vol. ii., p. 242.).—If, as MR. SINGER supposes, "Eisell was absynthites, or wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use," Pepys' friends must have had a very singular taste, for he records, on the 24th November, 1660,—

"Creed and Shepley, and I, to the Rhonish wine house, and there I did give them two quarts of wormwood wine."

Perhaps the beverage was doctored for the English market, and rendered more palatable than it had been in the days of Stuckius.

BRAYBROOKE.

Darvon Gatherall (Vol. ii., p. 199.).—Dervel Gadarn (vulgarly miscalled Darvel Gatheren) was son or grandson of Hywel or Hoel, son to Emyr of Britany. He was the founder of Llan-dervel Church, in Merioneth, and lived early in the sixth century. The destruction of his image is mentioned in the Letters on the Suppression of Monasteries, Nos. 95. and 101. Some account of it also exists in Lord Herbert's Henry VIII., which I cannot refer to. I was not aware his name had ever undergone such gross and barbarous corruption as Darvon Gatherall.

A.N.

Darvon Gatherall (Vol. ii., p. 199.), or Darvel Gatheren, is spoken of in Sir H. Ellis's Original Letters, Series III., Letter 330. Hall's Chronicle, p. 826. ed. 1809.

J.E.B. MAYOR.

Darvon Gatherall.—I send you an extract from Southey's Common-place Book, which refers to Darvon Gatherall. Southey had copied it from Wordworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, where it is given as quotation from Michael Wodde, who wrote in 1554. He says:—

"Who could, twenty years agone, say the Lord's Prayer in English?… If we were sick of the pestilence, we ran to St. Rooke: if of the ague, to St. Pernel, or Master John Shorne. If men were in prison, they prayed to St. Leonard. If the Welshman would have a purse, he prayed to Darvel Gathorne. If a wife were weary of a husband, she offered oats at Poules; at London, to St. Uncumber."

Can any of your readers inform me who St. Uncumber was?

PWCCA.

[Poules is St. Paul's. The passage from Michael Wodde is quoted in Ellis' Brand, vol. i. p. 202. edit. 1841.]

Angels' Visits (Vol. i., p. 102.).—WICCAMECUS will find in Norris's Miscellanies, in a poem "To the Memory of my dear Neece, M.C." (Stanza X. p. 10. ed. 1692), the following lines:—

 
"No wonder such a noble mind
Her way to heaven so soon could find:
Angels, as 'tis but seldom they appear,
So neither do they make long stay;
They do but visit, and away."
 

Mr. Montgomery (Christian Poet) long ago compared this passage with those cited by WICCAMECUS.

J.E.B. MAYOR.

Antiquity of Smoking (Vol. ii., pp. 41. 216.).—On that interesting subject, "The Antiquity of Smoking," I beg to contribute the following "Note," which I made some years ego, but unfortunately without a reference to the author:—

"Some fern was evidently in use among the ancients: for Athenæus, in his first book, quotes from the Greek poet, Crobylus, these words:—

 
[Greek:
'Kai ton larung haedista purio temachiois
Kaminos, ouk anthropos.']
 
 
'And I will sweetly burn my throat with cuttings:
A chimney, not a man!'
 

"Now as, in a preceding line, the smoker boasts of his 'Idæan fingers,' it is plain that every man rolled up his sharoot for himself."

H.G.

Antiquity of Smoking (Vol. ii., p. 216.).—Herod. lib. i. sec. 36. is referred to for some illustration, I suppose, of smoking through tubes. Herodotus supplies nothing: perhaps Herodian may be meant, though not very likely. Herb smoking was probably in use in Europe long before tobacco. But direct authority seems sadly wanting.

SANDVICENSIS.

"Noli me tangere" (Vol. ii., pp. 153. 219. 250.).—In a New Testament published by the Portusian Bible Society is a small ill-executed print, called "Christ appearing to Mary," copied from a picture by C. Ciguani.

WEDSECNARF.

Partrige Family (Vol. ii., p. 230.).—Mr. Partrige's reference to Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials is quite unintelligible to those who have not access to the Oxford reprint of that work. The reprint (I wish that in all other reprints a similar course was adopted) gives the paging of the original folio edition. I submit, therefore, that Mr. Partrige should have stated that the note he has made is from Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. ii. p. 310.

The grant to which Mr. Partrige refers is, I dare say, on the Patent Roll, 7 Edw. VI., which may be inspected at the Public Record Office, Rolls Chapel, on payment of a fee of 1s., with liberty to take a copy or extract in pencil gratuitously or a plain copy may be obtained at the rate of 6d. a folio.

The act of 1 Mary, for the restitution in blood of the heirs of Sir Miles Partrige, if not given in the large edition of the Statutes, printed by the Record Commissioners, may no doubt be seen at the Parliament Office, near the House of Lords, on payment of the fee of 5s.

I believe I am correct in saying that no debates of that session are extant; but the proceedings on the various bills may probably be traced in the journals of the two Houses of Parliament, which are printed and deposited in most of our great public libraries.

C.H. Cooper.

Cambridge, Sept. 7, 1850

City Offices.—The best account of the different public offices of the city of London, with their duties, etc., that I know of, your correspondent A CITIZEN (Vol. ii., p. 216.) will find in the Reports of the Municipal Corporation Commissioners.

W.C.

Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (Vol. ii., p. 266.).—The claim set up on behalf of Father Paul to the honour of Harvey's discovery, which is noticed by your correspondent W.W.B., is satisfactorily disposed of in the life of Harvey in the Biographia Britannica, iv. 2548., note C. Harvey gave a copy of his treatise De Motu Cordis to the Venetian ambassador in England. On his return home the ambassador lent the book to Father Paul, who made some extracts from it. After Father Paul's death, he was thought to be the author of these extracts and hence the story which your correspondent quotes. It might occasionally be convenient if your correspondents could make a little inquiry before they send off their letters to you.

Beruchino.

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

All who love the shady side of Pall Mall, and agree with Dr. Johnson that the tide of human enjoyment flows higher at Charing Cross than in any other part of the globe, will gladly welcome Mr. Jesse's recently published volumes entitled London and its Celebrities. They are pleasant, gossiping and suggestive, and as the reader turns over page after page of the historical recollections and personal anecdotes which are associated with the various localities described by Mr. Jesse, he will doubtless be well content to trust the accuracy of a guide whom he finds so fluent and so intelligent, and approve rather than lament the absence of those references to original authorities which are looked for in graver histories. The work is written after the style of Saint Foix' Rues de Paris, which Walpole once intended to imitate; and is executed with a tact which will no doubt render it very acceptable to those for whom it has been written, namely those persons whose avocations of business or pleasure lead them to traverse the thoroughfares of the great metropolis; and to whom it points out in a manner which we have correctly designated gossiping, pleasant, and suggestive, "such sites and edifices as have been rendered classical by the romantic or literary associations of past times."

Messrs. Williams and Norgate have forwarded to us a Catalog of an extensive Collection of Books, the property of a distinguished physician, which are to be sold by auction in Berlin on the 21st of October. The library, which was forty years in forming, is remarkable for containing, besides numerous rare works in Spanish, Italian, French, and English Literature, a curious series of works connected with the American aborigines; and a most extensive collection of works on the subjects of Prison Discipline, Poor Laws, and those other great social questions which are now exciting such universal attention.

We have received the following Catalogues: J. Miller's (43. Chandos Street, Trafalgar Square) Catalogue No. 11, for 1850 of Books Old and New, including a large Number of scarce and curious Works on Ireland, its Antiquities, Topography, and History; W. Heath's (29-1/2. Lincoln's Inn Fields) Catalogue No. 5. for 1850 of Valuable Second-hand Books in all Departments of Literature.