INNOCENTE COATE.

"Progers, I wold have you (besides the embroidered sute), bring me a plaine riding suite, with an innocente coate, the suites I have for horsebacke being so spotted and spoiled that they are not to be seene out of this island."Charles R. to Progers, in Grammont's Memoirs, Bohn's ed. p. 381, note 130.

The editor, Sir Walter Scott, takes innocente coate to mean mourning coate, Charles wearing the mourning for his father. Does it not seem rather to have been a clean, spotless coat, which he wanted his faithful Progers to send him? If there is no authority more clear for reading innocent mourning, extant, I incline to read from the old dictionaries innocent spotless. J. D. CAMPBELL. A HINT TO EXTRACTORS. Copying old spelling is very slow work: and not easily done, as the copier is apt to forget himself; or to remember himself, if you please. First make the extract in our spelling, at your ordinary speed. Then go over it with a pencil or red ink, or something distinctive, and turn new into old, from your original. By this you will more correctly follow your author, and the printer will more correctly follow you; and both will save time. A. DE MORGAN.

STOOKY-SABBATH.-Conversing with a farmer of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire the other day, he told me that "Stooky-Sabbath" was the name given to the Sunday on which the most corn was "stooked" on the fields during harvest.

J. D. CAMPBELL.

Glasgow.

MUTILATION OF SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS.-I wish to record one of the most disgraceful instances of this abominable practice, which some time ago came under my notice. Its audacity makes it the more remarkable. The chancel of Stapleford church, Cambridgeshire, was some few years since (as it is commonly called) restored, and amongst other repairs the floor was relaid. A board affixed to the wall bears the following inscription:"Beneath the flooring of this Chancel lie some Monumental Slabs, with inscriptions on them, of which the following are copies :

-

A. D. 1699. Arthur Joscelin, Senior, was buried June 13th. September 15th, 1709. Elizabeth Joscelyn, a Widow, was Buried.

Jane the Daughter of Arthur Joscelyne, Esq., and Ann
his Wife, was Buried, March ye 5th, 1732.
Sept. 2. Ann Joscelyne, Widdow of Arthur Joscelyne,
Esq., was Buried, 1732."

I believe the Dean and Chapter of Ely paid for the said restoration. XP.

GREEK PROverb.

-

Aristotle, in his Politics (book viii. chap. ii. sec. 12, 13, ed. Congreve), quotes the proverb, os. He uses it to illustrate his assertion, that tyrants are fond of bad men: "Tovnρópiλov ʼn тupavvis:" for, he goes on to say, “ χρήσιμοι οἱ πονηροὶ εἰς τὰ πονηρά· ἥλῳ γὰρ ὁ ἧλος, ὥσπερ ἡ παροιμία.” Mr. Congreve, in his note, translates this, "for one nail drives out another;" as though it were an abbreviation of the proverb quoted by Liddell, Giles, &c.: “ăλaq ἥλῳ ἐκκρούειν τὸν ἥλον.” It would seem to correspond to our English saying, "Pin to pin;” as e. g. Bloomfield's "Richard and Kate

99

4

"As like him, ay, as pin to pin." Mr. Walford, in his translation, renders it by "Like to like, as the proverb says," and alludes to Eustathius. I shall be glad of any examples of this saying in Greek authors. While on the subject of Aristotle, I would remark that he is "the philosopher" sought after (3rd S. ii. 408) as calling Death "that terrible of terribles." The passage occurs in Eth. Nicom., book iii. cap. 9, sec. 6; where, treating of the 'Avdpeîos, he says:“ Οὐθεὶς γὰρ ὑπομενετικώτερος τῶν δεινῶν. Φοβερώτατον δ ̓ δ Θάνατος.”

·

W. BOWEN ROWLANDS.

EDWARD HARLEY, 2ND EARL OF OXFORD.-On the death of this noble patron of literature, Vertue was employed by his countess to make a catalogue of all the pictures and portraits in all styles left

by the earl in his several mansions, and of his library contained in his three London houses, at Marylebone, Wimpole, and Clerkenwell. Amongst these books he particularly mentions a complete collection of proofs of his own works up to the year 1740. "These," he says, "had been preserved and gathered by me for my good Lord, for which he paid me very generously. It was in his library at Marylebone, and was sold by Osborne to the Earl of Aylesbury for fifty guineas." (Addit. MS. 23,093, Brit. Mus.) As no mention is made of the earl's residence in Clerkenwell either by Mr. Cromwell or by Mr. Pinks in their Histories of this parish, am I correct in my conjecture that it was Newcastle House, sometimes called Albemarle House, where the mad Duchess of Albemarle lived and died? J. YEOWELL.

Queries.

BUFF.-Using the common word buff (the colour) the other day, I was asked what I meant by it? I replied, a yellowish-brown, the colour of leather shooting-gaiters; but was told I was wrong, and that the colour buff is the palest yellow, without any admixture whatever of brown; and, in fact, more like a washed-out primrose than anything else; I supported my side of the question by a reference to Hudibras, canto i. 287:

"His doublet was of sturdy buff,"

evidently thick tanned leather. However, not agreeing, we turned to Johnson's and to Walker's Dictionaries, and found it described as a pale or light yellow (the colour of wash-leather), and also found a substance called buff, buffalo leather, this is what must have displayed its "sturdiness" in alleviating old Hudibras's cruel "bangs." The question, of course, went against me, for buff (the substance) is not buff. But with all due deference to the Dictionaries, I don't think that people mean a pale yellow when they use the word buff, excepting my friend, and I fancy that the reason he thinks so must be, that there is no other colour left him, without going on the one side into scarlet, and on the other into green, for hardly two persons agree as to what colour it is. I find all varieties of yellow-brown, brown-yellow, red-brown, &c. &c., used. Once I was told that it is a grey, much inclining to slate-grey, and was informed on one occasion that there was no doubt about it being flesh-colour, from the popular saying, " in your buff," i. e. naked. I should like to know for what peculiar tint it is used in Somersetshire, Northumberlandshire, or any other distant county; also, if there is any corresponding word for it in France or Germany? I am afraid it is difficult to get any definite answer to "What is buff?" considering that on an average one in every fifteen is colour

blind to some colour; and on this particular colour nearly fifty per cent. differ.

What regiment is called "The Buffs?" and why? I have heard that in the Peninsula their clothes were so worn out with service, that they had to wear buff, i. e. leather. Is this true? * JOHN DAVIDSON.

SIR WALTER CHUTE.- He was living in 1604, and seems to have been of a Kentish family. Where can I find any account of him? CPL.

CONTRACTS: A PER CENTAGE DEDUCTED.-Having lately met, in a contract, that the sum was to be paid "less 24 per cent.," I have been anxious to learn the reason for the deduction. It was about the year 1784. Since then occurred another such clause," the house was insured for 500l., and with the deduction of three per cent. they paid me 4851." This was in 1748. Was there any act of parliament authorising these deductions on contracts? Something of the kind appears in 5 W. & M. c. 21, s. 3; 9 & 10 W. III. c. 25, s. 37; and 48 G. III. c. 149, s. 9; but these do not seem to in the history of taxes solve the question? of any your readers learned

touch the above. Can

WYATT PAPWORTH.

DE WETT ARMS. - Where can I obtain the blazonry of the arms of the De Wett family, who lived in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. The seal which I have gives me ar. a Catherine wheel, but of what tincture I cannot tell, nor can I make out the crest and motto. HERALD.

JOHN FELLOWS.-Can you give me any biographical particulars regarding John Fellows, a poet of the last century, author of The Holy Bible in Verse (in 4 vols.), 1778, and other works? R. INGLIS.

FRIDAY STREET.-There are several roads so called in Surrey: one in Abinger, another in Ockley, and a third in Wotton. What is the origin of the name ?† CPL. JOSEPH FOWKE. Of this gentleman, who held a high position under the East India company, Letters (1817), p. 202. It is there stated that he there is an account in Rebecca Warner's Original died three or four and twenty years ago," that is from him dated Malmesbury, Nov. 20, 1797. to say, about 1793 or 1794; but at p. 226 is a letter

Mr. Croker, in the 12mo. edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson (x. 254), states Mr. Fowke to have died about 1794.

The real date of his death

will oblige.

[Some remarks on the word Buff will be found in "N. & Q." 1st S. xi. 467; 2nd S. ix. 4.-ED.]

[† Friday Streets are also common in most villages in the neighbourhood of Framlingham, in Suffolk. Stow Fishmongers dwelling there, and serving Friday's marsays, that Friday Street, in Cheapside, was "so called of ket."-Survey, p. 131, edit. 1842.-Ed.]

and olde,

Where I maie reade all at my ease both of the newe For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke is better to me than golde." ABHBA. Wanted, information respecting a riddle which was made by a lady not long ago, and the solution of which was, by her will, to procure for any one who should be fortunate enough to be able to give it, 10007. A. B. C.

RIDDLE.

MAJOR RUDYERD of the 36th regiment of foot, and twenty-eight years Tower Major of Gibraltar, died at Chatham, Oct. 3, 1793, æt. 85; and his widow died at Whitby, June 17, 1813, aged above a hundred. I shall be glad of his Christian name, and of any other information about him. I believe he was the father of Henry Rudyerd, Lieut.Col. of the Royal Engineers, who died in 1828 (being the father of Capt. H. T. Rudyerd, who died at Bangalore, June 21, 1824, and of Samuel Rudyerd, Colonel of the Royal Artillery, who died at Whitby, July 19, 1847, æt. 61, and is buried at Sneaton, in Yorkshire, with Mary his mother, who

died March 22, 1839, æt. 88).

66

S. Y. R. SETH, THE PATRIARCH.-While reading through the Chronicles "Joannis a Leida," Frankfort, 1620, I find in lib. xxxi. c. 26, the following curious account of the discovery of the body of the patriarch Seth. In the year 1374 some excavations were being made in the Valley of Jehoshaphat in connection with the monastery. After digging to the depth of about six feet, "stadium unius hominis," sounds as of the grunting of pigs, "grunnitum porcorum," were heard. The "Sarracens " present considered these sounds to be a protest on the part "diaboli" against the building a Christian monastery; the Christians, on the other hand, gave it as their opinion that the earth was chanting forth praises at the prospect of having the gospel established in that spot. At all events the digging went on, and invenerunt tumulum de lateribus compositum," on opening which they discovered "cadaver miræ magnitudinis integrum cum barba prolixa et capillis maximis in pellibus ovinis et integris sepultum. Deinde sub capite ejus, pellis ovina, quæ erat integra, in longitudine triginta pedum cum qua (ut creditur) Adam indutus fuit, et super caput ejus invenerunt tabulam, in qua literis concavatis ad modum sigilli Hebraice inscriptum fuit sic: Ego_Seth, tertiogenitus filius Auæ (Eve), credo in Jesum Christum filium Dei et in Mariam Virginem, matrem ejus, de lumbis meis venturos." The chronicler gives this story on the authority of an eye-witness, "Dominus Joannes de domo Villarii, Doctor Sacræ Theologiæ, videns fieri oculis suis, transscripsit de terra sancta anno prædicto Joanni de Solentia, S.T.D. consocio suo.' Perhaps some of your readers may be able to

give further information on this "wonderful discovery." Can it be corroborated, and is anything known of the present existence or whereabouts of these reliquiæ ? CHESSBOROUGH.

6

ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA PREACHING TO THE FISHES. - Lady Morgan mentions in one of her books that she saw a picture in the Borghese Palace at Rome, representing St. Anthony preaching to the fishes. She also states, "that the saint's sermon was to be purchased in many of the shops at Rome, and that he began his discourse thus - Dearly beloved fish,' &c. The legend adds, that at the conclusion of the sermon the fish bowed to the saint with profound humility, and a grave religious countenance." The Very Rev. Dr. Husenbeth, in his valuable Emblems of Saints, under the heading of "St. Anthony of Padua," gives one of the saint's emblems as "preaching to fishes" Callot. (P. 13, ed. 1850.) Where is the saint's sermon to be found in extenso? J. DALTON.

SIR RICHARD STEELE.-In the volume of the

Bibliographer's Manual just issued, Mr. Bohn calls attention to certain additions and improvements, and refers specifically to the article on "Steele." I take leave, therefore, to ask, what is the authority for inserting the following among Steele's Works?

"Predictions for the Year 1708, &c. By Isaac Bickerstaffe," certainly one of the best known works of Swift, published by Swift himself in the first volume of his Miscellanies, 1727, and by Faulkner, in 1735, in the edit. of Swift's Works.

Again, in the list of Steele's Works, I find, "The Antidote, &c., occasioned by the dispute between Woodward, &c. 1719. The Antidote, No. 2, &c. 1719."

Now we know that Arbuthnot and the Tory Scriblerians entered very zealously into the dispute against Woodward;-more zealously than we had supposed, if the commentator on Wagstaffe's Miscellanies be correct (3rd S. i. 381); but why should Steele intermeddle? If these pamphlets were in favour of Woodward, it might explain why Steele himself was so roughly handled by his old friends. I know nothing of these pamphlets, and therefore ask for information. S. R. S.

THE REV. PETER THOMPSON was minister of

the United Presbyterian Church in Cliff Lane, Whitby, from 1799 till 1804, when he removed to Leeds. He published The Time of Peace, a Sermon preached on the first of June, 1802. Whitby, vo, 1804. Any additional information respecting him will be acceptable to

S. Y. R.

CHARLES VERRAL.-This gentleman was author of a poem called The Pleasures of Possession, 1810, and Servius Tullus, a Tragedy, and Saladin, a Dramatic Romance, published about 1814. Mr.