Notes and Queries, Number 67, February 8, 1851. Various
subject more selfish and in wch I may justly suspect my self of Partiality: of wch I would willingly be free: and think I truly am so in this I now send you. But I fear least this (such as it is) should come too late, and therefore hasten to conclude with repeated Assurances of my being your Oblig'd Friend and humble Servant
"P.S. If after what I have said I dare venture a Word to you as to my Grandfather's Apology for the one and only thing I repine at in his whole Life (I mean the unhappy Words you mention delenda est Carthago), It must be this: That the Publick would not insist on this as so ill, and injuriouse; if they considered the English Constitution and manner of those times in wch the Prince more lofty in Prorogative and at greater distance from his People than now of days, used but a few Words to his Parlement; and committed the rest to his Keepers or Chancellor, to speak his sence for him (as he expresses it in ye conclusion of his own speech) upon wch my Grandfather, the then Chancellor, and in his Chancellor's Place4, spoke of King's sence, as the King's mouth; in ye same manner as the Speaker of the House of Peers or Commons, speaks the House's sence, as the House's mouth (for so he is esteemd and calld) whatsoever may be his own private sence; or tho' he may have deliver'd his own Opinion far contrary.
"Such was my Grandfather's Call: who was far from delivering his Vote or Opinion in this manner, either as a Councillor or Peer, or in his Place in Parlement: where he carryed on a direct opposite Interest: he being allready in open Enmity with the Duke of York and his Party that carryed on that Warr, in so much that he was at that very time suspected of holding a Correspondence with Holland in favour of the Commonwealth-Party in England. However it be, it is no small Comfort to me that that wise Commonwealth of Holland, the Parent and Nursing-Mother of Liberty, thought him worthy of their Protection when he was a sufferer for the common Cause of Religion and Liberty: and he must ever remain a noble Instance of the Generosity of that State, and of that potent Head of it, ye City of Amsterdam; where yourself and other Great Men have met with a Reception yt will redound to their Honour.
"My Grandfather's turning short upon the Court (as5 Sir William Temple expresses it) had only this plain reason for it; that he discoverd the King to be a Papist, through that disguise of an Esprit fort, wch was a character his Vices and over fondness of Witt made him affect and act very naturally. Whatever Complyances my Grandfather, as a States-man, might make before this discovery, to gain the King, from his Brother and ye French Party, he broke off all, when by the Duke of Buckingham's means, he had gaind this secret. For my Grandfather's Aversion and irreconcileable Hatred to Popery, was (as Phanaticisme,) confessd by his greatest Enemyes to be his Master-Passion. Nor was it ever said that the King left him: but He the King, for nothing was omitted afterwards by that Prince to regain him; nor nothing to destroy him, when that was found impossible–
"But I must end: least I fail this Post."
The superscription is:
"A Monsieur
Monsieur Le Clerc
sur le Keiser Gracht
près de l'Eglise Arminienne
a Amsterdam"
MR. GOUGH'S TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE
In vol. vi., p. 266., of Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, "Memoirs of Mr. Gough," is the following anecdote of Mr. Gough's precocious talents—
"At the very early age of eleven he commenced a task that would have reflected credit on any period of life; which, by the indulgence of his mother, appeared in print under the title of 'The History of the Bible, translated from the French by R. G., junior, 1746. London: Printed by James Waugh in the year 1747.' Of this curious volume, consisting of 160 sheets in folio, not more than twenty-five copies were printed, as presents to a few particular friends and when completed at the press, it is marked by way of colophon, 'Done at twelve years and a half old.'"
Mr. Nichols in his notes says, that the French edition was printed at Amsterdam, in 2 vols. folio, with plates, 1700. That by the generosity of Mr. Gough's worthy relict, he had a copy of the work with Mr. Gough's corrections in maturer age; and in a note at p. 642. of this volume of the Literary Anecdotes Mr. Nichols further states, that
"By a singular chance, at a sale of the library of Dr. Guise in January, 1812, he met with two copies of Mr. Gough's juvenile translation of the History of the Bible; and at the end of one of the volumes were ten sheets of Mr. Pickering's Dictionary, perhaps the only copy of them in existence."
The Rev. Roger Pickering was Mr. Gough's tutor until he was admitted at Bene't College, Cambridge, July, 1752, being then in the 17th year of his age. This Dictionary was compiled on the plan of Calmet, but left unfinished.
Mr. J. B. Nichols, son of the late venerable octogenarian, having recently presented me with a copy of Mr. Gough's scarce volume, I am anxious to learn by whom the original French work was written, and where a copy may be purchased. It is one of much erudition; sound in doctrine and principle; pleasing and familiar in its language, and would, I should think, well repay the publisher of a new edition, after a careful correction of a few deficiencies in composition, incidental to the early period at which Mr. Gough translated it. There is nothing in the preface, or in any part of the volume, to indicate the name of the original author. Should Mr. J. B. Nichols still possess Mr. Gough's more matured and corrected copy, he might perhaps discover some reference to the author.
Worcester, Jan. 1851.
FOLK LORE
Lammer Beads (Vol. iii. p. 84.).—If L. M. M. R. had taken the trouble to consult Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary,—that rich storehouse of curious information, not merely in relation to the language, but to the manners and customs, and the superstitions of North Britain,—he would have found interesting notices connected with his inquiry. See the word Lammer, and the same in the Supplement. We might accept, without a moment's hesitation, the suggestion of a learned friend of Dr. Jamieson's, deriving Lammer from the French, l'ambre, were it not that Kilian gives us Teut. Lamertyn-steen, succinum. In Anglo-Saxon times it was called Eolhsand (Gloss. Ælfr.), and appears to have been esteemed in Britain from a very early period. Amongst antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon age, beads of amber are of very frequent occurrence. Douglas has collected some interesting notes regarding this substance, in his Nenia, p. 9. It were needless to cite the frequent mention of precularia, or Paternosters, of amber, occurring in inventories. The Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, purchased a most costly chaplet from a Parisian jeweller, in 1431, described as "une patenostres à signeaux d'or et d'ambre musquet." (Leber, Inventaires, p. 235.) The description "de alba awmbre," as in the enumeration of strings of beads appended to the shrine of Sr William, at York Minster, may have been in distinction from jet, to which, as well as to amber, certain virtuous or talismanic properties were attributed. There were, however, several kinds of amber,—succinum rubrum, fulvum, &c. The learned professor of Copenhagen, Olaus Worm, alludes to the popular notions and superstitious use of amber—
"Foris in collo gestatum, contra fascinationes et nocturna terriculamenta pueros tueri volunt; capitis etiam destillationibus, et tonsillarum ac faucium vitiis resistere, oculorum fluxus et ophthalmias curare."
By his account it would seem to have been received as a panacea, sovereign for asthma, dropsy, toothache, and a multitude of diseases.
"In summâ (he concludes) Balsami instar est, calorem nativum roborans et morborum insultibus resistens."—Museum Wormianum, p. 32.
Bartholomaeus Glanvilla, in his work, De Proprietatibus Rerum, has not overlooked the properties of amber, which he seems to regard as a kind of jet (book xvi., c. xlix.).
"Gette, hyght Gagates, and is a boystous stone, and never the les it is precious."
He describes it as most abundant and of best quality in Britain of two kinds, yellow and black; it drives
The Speech was an Act of Councill examind beforehand in the Cabinet.
"Mr. Lock saw the first Coppy of it, wch was very different; and after it was alter'd in the Cabinet, my Grandfather complain'd to Mr. Lock and a Relation of his whome Mr. Lock introducd into ye family.
"The same Person has left me a written account of that affaire; and so great was my Grandfather's Concern and Trouble, that He who of all Men alas esteemd ye most ready in speaking was forcd to desire Mr. Lock to stand at his Elbow with the written Coppy to prompt him in Case of failure in his Repetition." (
"It is my Grandfathers Misfortune to have Sr Willm Temple, a valewable Author, very unfavourable to him: there having been a great Quarrel between them on a slight occasion of my Grandfather's having stopt his Gift of Plate after his Embassy; a Custome wch my Grandfather as Chancellor of ye Exchequer thought very prejudicial." (