Notes and Queries, Number 67, February 8, 1851

Replies to Minor Queries

Did St. Paul's Clock strike Thirteen?

 (Vol. iii., p. 40.).—Mr. Campkin will find some notice of the popular tradition to which he refers, in the

Antiquarian Repertory

, originally published in 1775, and republished in 1807; but I doubt whether it will satisfactorily answer his inquiries.

I. H. M.

By the bye

 (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—As no one of your correspondents has answered the Query of J. R. N., as to the etymology and meaning of

by the bye

 and

by and by

, I send you the following exposition; which I have collected from Richardson's

Dictionary

, and the authorities there referred to.

Spelman informs us, that in Norfolk there were in his time thirteen villages with names ending in

by:

 this

By

 being a Danish word, signifying "villa." That a

bye

-law, Dan.

by-lage

, is a law

peculiar

 to a villa. And thus we have the general application of

bye

 to any thing; peculiar, private, indirect, as distinguished from the direct or main: as,

bye-ways

,

bye-talk

, &c. &c. In the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh,

State Trials

, James I., 1603, are these words:—

"You are fools; you are on the

bye

, Raleigh and I are on the

main

. We mean to take away the king and his cubs."

Here the contradistinction is manifest. Lord Bacon and B. Jonson write,

on

 the

by

; as if, on the way, in passing, indirectly:—

"'There is,

upon

 the

by

, to be noted.'—'Those who have seluted poetry

on

 the

by

'—such being a collateral, and not the main object of pursuit."

This I think is clear and satisfactory.

By and by

 is quite a different matter. Mr. Tyrwhitt, upon the line in Chaucer,—

"These were his words

by and by

."—

R. R.

 4581.

interprets "separately, distinctly;" and there are various other instances in Chaucer admitting the same interpretation:—

"Two yonge knightes ligging,

by and by

."—

Kn. T.

, v. 1016.

"His doughter had a bed all

by

 hireselve,

Right in the same chambre

by and by

."—

The Reves T.

, v. 4441.

So also in the "Floure and the Leafe," stanzas 9 and 24. The latter I will quote, as it is much to the purpose:—

"The semes (of the surcote) echon,

As it were a maner garnishing,

Was set with emerauds,

one and one

,

By and by

."

But there are more ancient usages, e.g. in R. Brunne, bearing also the same interpretation. "The chartre was read ilk poynt

bi and bi

:" William had taken the homage of barons "

bi

 and

bi

." He assayed (

i.e.

 tried) "tham (the horses)

bi and bi

."

Richardson's conception is, that there is a

subaudition

 in all these expressions; and that the meaning is, by point and by point; by baron and by baron; by horse and by horse:

one and one

, as Chaucer writes; each

one

 separately, by

him

 or

it

-self. And thus, that

by and by

 may be explained,

by

 one and

by

 one; distinctly, both in space or time. Our modern usage is restricted to

time

, as, "I will do so

by and by

:" where

by and by

 is equivalent to

anon

,

i.e.

 in one (moment, instant, &c.). And so—

Good B'ye.

Bloomsbury.

Clement's Inn

 (Vol. iii., p. 84.).—This inn was neither "a court of law" nor "an inn of court," but "an inn of chancery;" according to the distinction drawn by Sir John Fortescue, in his

De Laudibus Legum Angliæ

, chap. xlix., written between 1460 and 1470.

The evidence of its antiquity is traced back to an earlier date than 1486; for, according to Dugdale (

Orig.

, p. 187.), in a

Record of Michaelmas

, 19

Edward IV

., 1479, it is spoken of as then, and

diu ante

, an Inn "hominum Curiæ Legis temporalis, necnon hominum Consiliariorum ejusdem Legis."

The early history of the Inns of Court and Chancery is involved in the greatest obscurity; and it is difficult to account for the original difference between the two denominations.

Any facts which your correspondents may be able to communicate on this subject, or in reference to what were the

ten

 Inns of Chancery existing in Fortescue's time, but not named by him, or relating to the history of either of the Inns, whether of Court or Chancery, will be most gratefully received by me, and be of important service at the present time, when I am preparing for the press my two next volumes of

The Judges of England

.

Edward Foss.

Street-End House, near Canterbury.

Words are men's daughters

 (Vol. iii., p. 38.).—I take this to be a proverbial sentence. In the

Gnomologia

 of Fuller we have "Words are for women; actions for men"—but there is a nearer approach to it in a letter written by Sir Thomas Bodley to his librarian about the year 1604. He says,

"Sir John Parker hath promised more than you have signified: but words are women, and deeds are men."

It was no doubt an adoption of the worthy knight, and I shall leave it to others to trace out the true author—hoping it may never be ascribed to an ancestor of

Bolton Corney.

Passage in St. Mark

 (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—Irenæus is considered the best (if not the only) commentator among the very early Fathers upon those words in Mark xiii. 32. "οὐδὲ ὁ υἱὸς;" and though I cannot refer Calmet further than to the author's works, he can trust the general accuracy of the following translation:—

"Our Lord himself," says he, "the Son of God, acknowledged that the Father only knew the day and hour of judgment, declaring expressly, that of that day and hour knoweth no one, neither the Son, but the Father only. Now, if the Son himself was not ashamed to leave the knowledge of that day to the Father, but plainly declared the truth; neither ought we to be ashamed to leave to God such questions as are too high for us. For if any one inquires why the Father, who communicates in all things to the Son, is yet by our Lord declared to know alone that day and hour, he cannot at present find any better, or more decent, or indeed any other safe answer at all, than this, that since our Lord is the only teacher of truth, we should learn of him, that the Father is above all; for the Son saith, 'He is greater than I.' The Father, therefore, is by Our Lord declared to be superior even in knowledge also; to this end, that we, while we continue in this world, may learn to acknowledge God only to have perfect knowledge, and leave such questions to him; and (put a stop to our presumption), lest curiously inquiring into the greatness of the Father, we run at last into so great a danger, as to ask whether even above God there be not another God."

Blowen.

"

And Coxcombs vanquish Berkeley by a Grin

" (Vol. i., p. 384.).—This line is taken from Dr. Brown's

Essay on Satire

, part ii. v. 224. The entire couplet is—

"Truth's sacred fort th' exploded laugh shall win,

And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley by a grin."

Dr. Brown's Essay is prefixed to Pope's "Essay on Man" in Warburton's edition of Pope's

Works

. (See vol. iii. p. 15., edit. 1770, 8vo.)

Dr. Trusler's Memoirs

 (Vol. iii., p. 61.).—The first part of Dr. Trusler's

Memoirs

 (Bath, 1806), mentioned by your correspondent, but which is not very scarce, is the only one published. I have the continuation in the Doctor's

Autograph

, which is exceedingly entertaining and curious, and full of anecdotes of his contemporaries. It is closely written in two 8vo. volumes, and comprises 554 pages, and appears to have been finally revised for publication. Why it never appeared I do not know. He was a very extraordinary and ingenious man, and wrote upon everything, from farriery to carving. With life in all its varieties he was perfectly acquainted, and had personally known almost every eminent man of his day. He had experienced every variety of fortune, but seems to have died in very reduced circumstances. The

Sententiæ Variorum

 referred to by your correspondent is, I presume, what was published under the title of—

"Detached Philosophic Thoughts of near 300 of the best Writers, Ancient and Modern, on Man, Life, Death, and Immortality, systematically arranged under the Authors' Names." 2 vols. 12mo. 1810.

Jas. Crossley.

Manchester, Jan. 25. 1851.

Miscellaneous

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

Dr. Latham seems to have adopted as his literary motto the dictum of the poet,

"The proper study of mankind is man."

We have recently had occasion to call the attention of our readers to his learned and interesting volume entitled

The English Language

,—a work which affords proof how deeply he has studied that remarkable characteristic of our race, which Goldsmith wittily described as being "given to man to conceal his thoughts." From the language to

The Natural History of the Varieties of Man

, the transition is an easy one. The same preliminary studies lead to a mastery of both divisions of this one great subject: and having so lately seen how successfully Dr. Latham had pursued his researches into the languages of the earth, we were quite prepared to find, as we have done, the same learning, acumen, and philosophical spirit of investigation leading to the same satisfactory results in this kindred, but new field of inquiry. In paying a well-deserved tribute to his predecessor, Dr. Prichard, whom he describes as "a physiologist among physiologists, and a scholar among scholars,"—and his work as one "which, by combining the historical, the philological, and the anatomical methods, should command the attention of the naturalist, as well as of the scholar,"—Dr. Latham has at once done justice to that distinguished man, and expressed very neatly the opinion which will be entertained by the great majority of his readers of his own acquirements, and of the merits of this his last contribution to our stock of knowledge.

The Family Almanack and Educational Register for

 1851, with what its editor justly describes as "its noble list of grammar schools," to a great extent the "offspring of the English Reformation in the sixteenth century," will be a very acceptable book to every parent who belongs to the middle classes of society; and who must feel that an endowed school, of which the masters are bound to produce testimonials of moral and intellectual fitness, presents the best security for the acquirement by his sons of a solid, well-grounded education.

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell on Monday next, and three following days, the valuable antiquarian, mi