Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851. Various
children to swallow disagreeable medicine by anointing the edge of the cup with honey.
Edinburgh.
Fees at Westminster Abbey.—The custom of taking fees at Westminster Abbey is of very ancient date, and was always unpopular. Shirley alludes to it in his pleasant comedy called The Bird in a Cage, when Bonomico, a mountebank, observes—
"I talk as glib,
Methinks, as he that farms the monuments."
The dean and chapter, however, in those days were more moderate in their demands, for the price of admission was but one penny to the whole.
"This grant was made to the chapter in 1597, on condition that, receiving the benefit of the exhibition of the monuments, they should keep the same monuments always clean," &c.—See Reply from the Dean and Chapter to an Order of the House of Commons, 1827.
Turning the Tables.—In Bingley's Useful Knowledge, under the head of Maple, I chanced to hit upon the following the other day:
"By the Romans maple wood, when knotted and veined, was highly prized for furniture. When boards large enough for constructing tables were found, the extravagance of purchasers was incredible: to such an extent was it carried, that when a Roman accused his wife of expending his money on pearls, jewels, or similar costly trifles, she used to retort, and turn the tables on her husband. Hence our expression of 'turning the tables.'"
Can any of your kind contributors supply a better derivation?
Queries
AUTHORS OF THE ROLLIAD—PURSUITS OF LITERATURE
I cannot doubt but that many of your readers feel with me under great obligations to your very able and obliging correspondents, Lord Braybrooke and Mr. Markland, for the information afforded us upon the subject of the writers of the Rolliad. And, though not many of them are, probably, sufficiently old to remember as I do—if not the actual publication of that work, yet, at least, the excitement produced by its appearance—I apprehend that the greater number are aware that it really did produce a great sensation; and that, as with the Letters of Junius before it, and the Pursuits of Literature subsequently, public curiosity for a long time busied itself in every direction to detect the able and daring authors. With this impression, I have been not a little surprised to find, since the notice of the work in your pages, that I have failed in tracing any account of it in the two books to which I naturally turned, the Gentleman's Magazine and Nichols' Literary Anecdotes. Very thankful therefore should I be if any of our correspondents would direct my inquiries to a better channel, and particularly if they would guide me to information respecting the authors,—for here I am completely at fault. I allude more especially to Richardson, Tickell, and General Fitzpatrick; who, I doubt not, were men of such notoriety and standing in their day, that "not to know them, argues myself unknown." And yet, humiliating as is this acknowledgment, it is far better to make it than to remain in ignorance; for the case can surely not be one "where ignorance is bliss," and where, consequently, "'tis folly to be wise."
I need hardly beg it to be understood, that, in grouping together the Rolliad, the Pursuits of Literature, and Junius' Letters, I by no means intended to place them upon an equality; and here I may inform your correspondent S. T. D. (what a pity that you do not require every one to give his name at length!) that the fact of Mr. Matthias being the author of the second of these works was scarcely made a secret by his family after he went to Italy. Indeed, for some time previously, it was well known to myself from what passed at this house, where he was a frequent visitor, and where I should at any time be happy to give S. T. D. ocular demonstration of it, by the production of the letters addressed to the "Anonymous Author of the Pursuits of Literature," accompanied in some cases with his own answers.
Yarmouth, April 1. 1851.
ACCOUNT OF A LARGE ANCIENT WOOD-ENGRAVING
Perhaps some of your readers may be able to give me information regarding a large and very elaborate woodcut, which has been many years in my possession, and obviously has been used as the fly-leaf of some folio volume, though, of course not originally intended for such a purpose. It is so complicated, that I fear I shall have some difficulty in explaining it, and my explanation may require more space than you may be willing to afford me. You can, however, insert my Query at any time when you have room to spare.
The size of the engraving, is 16 inches by 13, and it is divided into two large oblong circles, and a centre; a story being carried on, clearly allegorically, from the outer circle to the second, and from the second to the centre. I will speak of each, beginning with the outer, which is entered by a portico, consisting of two columns and a round arch; on the base of one of the columns is a monogran of the artist or of the engraver, formed of the letters R. D. Under the arch is seated a lady richly attired, who holds a large cup and cover in her left hand, and around her are fourteen naked children, to one of which she seems tendering the chalice; while a bearded old man, with a scroll, is directing attention to what is going on in the outer circle. Passing under this portico we see, immediately behind it, six ladies, three religious and three secular; while to the right of the three secular ladies is a naked, winged female figure, with her foot on a sphere, a large goblet in her right hand, and some objects that look like fetters in her left hand. To the right of this figure are many others of both sexes, but nearer the spectator, some tranquil and some in despair; while, within a sort of pavilion, we see a young lady and an old gentleman banquetting, and in another compartment in bed. Still farther to the right of the winged figure are persons who appear to be escaping from torments, while a young man in rags is making his way towards a person in a religious habit, who has a scourge in his hand; behind these are two persons under a miserable thatched shed, while a lady is pointing out to a young man what is to be observed in the second circle.
This division is entered by another gate consisting of two square ornamental columns supporting a low gable, beneath which a lady, with a cross on the cape of her dress, is receiving a young man. The persons in this circle are very variously employed: on the right of the spectator are rocks with one man climbing up them, and another fallen headlong: on the left are five persons, male and female, engaged in singing and playing, and near them two men performing military music on a drum and fife; to their right are groups of philosophers and men of science with spheres, astrolabes, books, compasses, &c., and one wearing a laurel crown with a scroll in his hand, probably a poet.
We then come to the centre, or inner circle, which is entered by a wooden gate of the simplest construction, and under it is a religious lady with a young erect female on her right hand, and a supplicating male, in tattered garments, on her left. Beyond these are six females, variously clad, some with flowing hair, some in close caps, and others with nebulæ round their heads. A little to the right of these is a throned lady, with a crown of peculiar construction on her head, and a sceptre in her hand, before whom kneels a female figure, upon whose brows the throned lady is about to place a coronet. Behind the throne is what appears to be a conventual building of rather singular appearance, with round, square, and octagon towers, and surrounded by a battlemented wall. Considerably to the right of the throned lady is a figure clearly intended for some booted king wearing a crown and a collar of esses: on one side of him is a severe looking dame, fully clad and with flowing hair; and on the other a younger lady, also with flowing hair, and with her bosom bare.
Such is the woodcut regarding which I request some intelligence from your readers, as I have shown it to several persons, who I thought could enlighten me, but who could afford me no satisfaction. I suspect, from the costumes and the edificies, that it is German; and I ought to have mentioned that each circle is separated from the others by a low stone wall running all around, and that trees, hills, and fountains are not sparingly introduced. In the whole, it includes nearly a hundred figures of men, women, and children.
Minor Queries
Viaggi di Enrico Wanton.—A fiction,