[Some particulars of this intended assassination are printed from Carte's Memorandum Books in Macpherson's Original Papers, i. 280-283, edit. 1776, 4to. Consult also Sir John Reresby's Memoirs, p. 167, edit. 1734. After the desertion of Churchill and Grafton at Salisbury, "a new light," says Lord, Macaulay, "flashed on the mind of the unhappy King. He thought that he underderstood why he had been pressed [by Churchill], a few days before, to visit Warminster. There he would have found himself helpless, at the mercy of the conspirators, and in the vicinity of the hostile outposts. Those who might have attempted to defend him would have been easily overpowered. He would have been carried a prisoner to the head-quarters of the invading army. haps some still blacker treason might have been committed; for men who have once engaged in a wicked and perilous enterprise are no longer their own masters, and are often impelled, by a fatality which is part of their just punishment, to crimes such as they would at first have shuddered to contemplate." Hist. of England, ii. 512, ed. 1856. We learn from Nichols's Anecdotes of William Bowyer, 4to, 1782, p. 203, that Thomas Carte's manuscripts, consulted by Macpherson, are now in the Bodleian library.] Per lished in 1661. ROBERT DAVENPORT. -I desire to be informed where I can gain the most complete account of this old poet, including his pedigree, family, &c. He was the author of The City Night Cap, pubD. DALE. [No particulars are known of Robert Davenport, the author of The City Night Cap, which was licensed in the year 1624. It appears that he wrote in the time of James I., as two of his more serious poems were published in 1625. These were written at sea, and were dedicated to Richard Robinson and Michael Bowyer, who were both players. He was living in 1655 when King John and Matilda was printed. Mr. Malone says, he was the author of a play not published, called The Pirate, of which there can be little or no doubt, for in S. Sheppard's Epigrams, Theological, Philosophical, and Romantic, 1651, is one "To Mr. Davenport on his play called The Pirate." Davenport seems to have written a good deal of poetry which has never been printed. In Thorpe's Catalogue of Manuscripts, 1836, No. 1450, is a volume of his poems, dedicated to William, Earl of Newcastle, Viscount Mansfield, Lord Boulsover, and Ogle, an original autograph manuscript, 4to. Also, in the Cambridge University Library, Dd. x. 30, there is a poem by him, entitled "A Survey of the Sciences."] SIMNEL SUNDAY: CURFEWS.In the Daily Telegraph, Sept. 23, before the Bury magistrates, a witness is represented as speaking of meeting a person on Simnel Sunday. Whence is this derived? At Halnaker House, Boxgrove, Sussex, there are said to be two curfews as old as the Conquest (vide Allen's Surrey and Sussex, ii. 519, ed. 1830). Are they still extant? J. M. N. OWEN. [Simnel Sunday is better known as Midlent, or Mothering Sunday, and was so called because large cakes, called Simnels, were made on this day. (Baines's Lancashire, ii. 677.) Bailey, in his Dictionary (fol. 1764, by Scott), says Simnel is probably derived from the Latin simila, fine flour, and means a sort of cake or bun made of fine flour, spice, &c. Herrick, who died in 1674, has the following in his Hesperides:· "A Ceremonie in Glocester. "Ile to thee a Simnell bring, 'Gainst thou go'st a mothering, many of them had an aversion to publicity. In an Ad- OZONE.- What is ozone? tion is the last letter accented? NOTES AND QUERIES. In the pronuncia- [O'zone (w, to smell), is a new elementary substance, to which Prof. Schönbein, of Basle, ascribes the peculiar smell evolved in electrical operations, at the anode or positive surface. He supposes it to be a constituent of an electrolyte, small quantities of which exist in both air and water. Vide Hoblyn's Dictionary of Medical Terms, edit. 1858, p. 446; and Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary, Supplement. Both these authors accent the first syllable. We learn from the papers lately, that Mr. W. C. Barder has, after eight years' study, discovered something of the whereabouts of ozone. Wind which has recently come over the sea, he tells us, is almost invariably charged with ozone; while land breezes bring but little of it on their breath.] JAMES BURNET.-I have a copy of Burns's Works in two large octavo volumes, published at Edinburgh in 1811, containing many illustrations, mostly from drawings by Burnet, some of which are engraved by him. They are well done, and full of character. Can you inform me where the original drawings are, and where a life of Burnet may be seen ? [Biographical notices of James Burnet, landscape painS. B. ter, may be found in Allan Cunningham's Lives of British Painters, vi. 313; and Chamber's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen, v. 57. It appears that some of Burnet's paintings are in the possession of his relatives, and others among the costly picture galleries of our nobility.] "THE LOVES OF AN APOTHECARY."- A very curious and original book with this title was published in 1854. Of any English work I have read, it reminds me most of Jean Paul. Could any of your readers inform me who wrote it, and if the same author has written any other book? Replies. J. W. [Mr. Frederick Greenwood is the author of the Loves of an Apothecary. The Path of Roses is another story by the same writer, who has contributed to the Cornhill Magazine from the commencement of that miscellany, we believe.] INCORRECT QUOTATIONS. Every scholar must be deeply obliged to your [3rd S. IV. OCT. 10, '63. tionary of Architecture, issued by the Architectural Publication Society, it has been the custom from the commencement of that work to verify saving clause because occasionally an author gives every quotation, where practicable. I put this a reference so vague that much research has failed to discover the passage. Sometimes, indeed, the Committee is accused of not citing a well-worked reference, some revisor having found its incorrectness. But probably most of your studentquotations," and with the little value the general readers are but too well acquainted with "loose public set upon the labour of obtaining correct ones. A little jeu-d'esprit was handed about a short time since illustrative of the practice of the revision above-named, and of the good-humoured feeling that prevails among the active members engaged on that work. certain of the editors, contributors, &c. meet to It was written for one of the working evenings of the Architectural Publication Society, when phrases "Biogs," "Geogs,' viations in use among the editors, and signify the compare notes, and despatch business. The 99 66 Poliogs," are abbre"biographies" of the various architects, the "geoliography" or account of the cities remarkable for fine architecture. graphy" of the countries described, and the " "Nomenclature," &c. allude to the leading heads The phrases "Materials," under which the various articles fall. The lines run thus, and are entitled po "THE A. P. S. ALPHABET." A is an Architect, driving his pen : 6 B our Biogs,' some of rather small men: F is the Fun, which we oft poke at him: 6 " Q is a Letter the shortest we've got: verity of the expression, the author burst out with Earnest remonstrances being made as to the sethis parenthetical and indignant justification of his verse "Yes; I call him a Turk, And blows up like bricks if we venture to shirk: 6 For Proofs' and for Press,' 4 * The Keepers of the drawings and engravings. Writes you to say, 'Your citation's too cursory.' 6 By Jove! Sir, he's on you, as down as a hammer; T are the Tables, our columns that swell: V are the Volumes, they're certain to sell: W the Writers, who think their works fine: X the 'Xpenses, a farthing a line: Y is Yourself we're delighted to tease: But here come the oysters, and here comes the beer The above appeared in print in The Builder, vol. xviii. p. 474. It is hardly necessary to say that the "Turk" of a secretary is Mr. Wyatt Papworth. The writer of the lines is understood to be Mr. Arthur Ashpitel, F.S.A., a constant contributor to your pages. A MEMBER. ST. PATRICK AND THE SHAMROCK. Thanks to your obliging correspondent F. C. H. for his remarks on the tradition respecting the use made by St. Patrick of the shamrock, to illustrate the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. It is somewhat remarkable, that in none of the histories of St. Patrick, nor in the histories of Ireland, with which I am acquainted, mention seems to be made of St. Patrick having made use of the shamrock, &c. And yet, though no historical evidence can be cited, it does not seem "unreasonable" to inquire about the origin of the tradition: for many other traditions, not written, can be traced to a probable origin. I should wish, therefore, for some additional information on the subject. F. C. H. is respectfully informed, that Colgan-who was Professor of Theology in the Franciscan convent of St. Anthony of Padua, at Louvain-published a folio volume in 1645, entitled Acta Sanctorum Veteris et Majoris Scotice (Louvain). A second volume was published at Louvain, in 1647, under the title of Triadis Thaumaturgæ, &c. It contains the Lives of St. Patrick, St. Columb, and St. Bridget. This appears to be the work referred *The Secretary. to by the writer of the article in the last number of the Quarterly Review. (See the Abbé MacGeoghegan's History of Ireland, vol. i. p. 112, ed. Dublin, 1831). J. DALTON. Norwich. The plant always worn in Ireland, on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, is the Trifolium repens. The Oxalis acetosa, or wood sorrel, though not a rare plant, does not grow in great profusion. It is also too delicate a plant, as it is one of the most beautiful of the wild flowers. It would fade and droop in an hour after it was plucked. It is, I believe, very rare in parts of England. In the beautiful beech woods of Brückenau, in Franconia, it grows in the greatest profusion. Connected with the fire-worship which prevailed in Ireland, there is one curious and interesting circumstance in the tradition: the white clover, the blanche fleur of the old Troubadours, was the most sacred herb after the misseltoe in the mythology of the Druids. Suppose St. Patrick, when asked to explain the mystery of the Trinity, took a leaf of this plant-one of the holiest in the old mythology-and used it to explain his meaning, it requires no great stretch of imagination to feel what the effect would be on his hearers. Would not this be a fine subject for some of our great artists? FRANCIS ROBERT DAVIES. Ynischawr. Without wishing to interfere with the arguments on this point, I may be permitted to say that there exists a mistake somewhere as to the identity of the grass called the shamrock. The real Irish trefoil (shamrock) is not clover, nor wild sorrel, but a grass peculiarly indigenous to some parts of Ireland only. This may seem a strange assertion, yet it is perfectly correct; and as a proof, there is not a peasant in Ireland who cannot point out the difference between clover and the genuine trefoil: the latter being much smaller, and less silky in leaf and stem, than any other species of trefoil grass, exotic or native (and there are several specimens of both), found S. REDMOND. in the country. Liverpool. I have always considered that the wood-sorrel was the genuine shamrock-the" Herb Trinity," said to have been "made use of by St. Patrick." But on what authority can the Quarterly apply the name of shamrock to the pimpernel and the speedwell? C. A. B. Whether in his own Latinity, or in that of Father Thomas Messingham, who incorporated Jocelyn's Life and Acts of Saint Patrick into his NOTES AND QUERIES. 99 Florilegium Insula Sanctorum (1624),* the Cistercian Monk supplies but little beyond a congeries of miracles, which, certain Mosaic and evangelic imitations excepted, are generally as trivial as apocryphal. His narrative is simply this: At sixteen the saint was carried off by pirates into Ireland, and there sold as a slave; after six years' swine-herding, he (miraculously, of course) escaped; was again taken, and sold for a kettle, which declined its daily function of boiling water, and incontinently turned the blazing turf-sods into ice; whereupon the disappointed purchaser was but too glad to let him return home unransomed. He then studied Theology eighteen years under Bishop Germanus, afterwards under Bishop Martin of Tours, and at last in a monastery. "The staff of Jesus iv. 82, 132) having been (miraculously, again) (2nd S. v. 375, 427; 3rd S. consigned to his hand, he used it in driving out of Ireland the threefold plague of serpents, of demons, and of magicians; compelling them to the top of a high mountain, whence they threw themselves head foremost into the sea; meaning, so far as the natural nuisance was concerned, the Ophiolatreia (ibid.); as my learned friend and far-off kinsman, the Rev. John Bathurst Deane, has shown in his Tractate on Serpent- Worship, 1833. Thirty-five years' episcopate, and thirty-three of monachism in Armagh, rounded the hundred and twenty-three years of St. Patrick's life; his death and obsequies being foreshown and attended by troops of angels, and by a yet higher and holier Witness. It is singular that Jocelin says nothing of the shamrock, the triune symbol, whereby other hagiographers record the tutelar saint of "the Island of Saints" to have confuted and converted the Unitarian Bard, Ossian. In 1809 the full credence, not credulity, and biblical style of Jocelin, had won me to read through his Legend, and to render it into English, preserving as diligently as I could, its peculiar characteristics. Historically, it is valueless; poetically, or scripturally, its readers could not have pronounced a more adverse sentence than now, when fifty-four consequent years have sobered his judgment, does its translator. EDMUND LENTHAL SWIFTE. may * This is, probably, the book referred to by F. C. H. (3rd S. iv. 233) as published, together with the Biographies of SS. Bridget and Columba, in 1636; and, it be, a second edition of Messingham, whose volume has three cartes de visite of St. Patrick and of these holy personages. The engraving is marked "T. Messingham fecit. 1624." By-the-bye, St. Patrick is there represented with a swarm of serpents crawling away from under his robes, and with a double-crossed crosier (2nd S. v. 378.) E. L. S. [3rd S. IV. OCT. 10, '63. FAMILY OF DE SCURTH, OR DE SCUR. there are several valleys or glens named Scarth, by Christian I. of Denmark to James III. of Scot- 66 full exercise of their tyrannic power over the After the Scotch had been two centuries in the lives and fortunes of the Norse Udallers, there Roll of 1652-53, a James Scarth in Scarth, and a was still to be found, on the Scotch Valuation Nicol Skarth in Settis-Skarth. James had many in Caldell; and Robert Skarth's widow, in Caldell, sons; and in 1680 we have one of them, William is that year entered in the Cast Book, or Cess Roll, for the Scotch land-tax on account of Settisskarth. From this family the Scarths of Leith clam shell of their quartering, as well as the are descended. It is curious that the scopulus, or oyster, is to be found in abundance on the sea in Settis-scarth, three at least went to sea: two shores near these valleys. eventually settling down at Sunderland, and one Of the sons of James, at Whitby, as ship owners. are descended from the one at Whitby; and as, like all Scandinavians, the Scarths were sea-going, The Scarths of Leeds more of them may have found their way to the English coast, from Orkney. The name may be shores of Northumberland, and other parts of the descriptive, as all the valleys bearing it have a resemblance; but it has been borne very far panion of Swein." back, as a standing stone in Holstein marks the place where fell "Skartha, the friend and com ence. lised, and the Rothman has no longer an existThe lands in Orkney are now almost all feudaholders; or men holding in their own right their udal lands, by way of distinction to feudatories, "Rothmen," or "Udallers," meant self who hold derivatively, or by dependence on others. The heritage of the Rothman, his “terra alodia," was so entirely his own, "ut eo nomine nulla neque gratia, neque merces, neque opera beantur." de "Up to the year 1545, this church (of the Holy Ghost) was exclusively in the possession of the Roman Catholics. In later times it was in turns occupied by the reformed and Roman Catholics, according as the Electors were Catholic or Protestant. In 1705 it was divided into two parts: the choir (where formerly the University Library was kept) was assigned to the Catholics, the rest to the Reformed. When Charles Philip, successor to John William, came to the Palatinate, and took up his residence at Heidelberg, he asked the reformed congregation to resign their claim to their portion of the church, offering in return for this concession to build for them another place of worship. This, however, the Protestants refused. Whereupon the Prince caused the partition wall to be pulled down (Sept. 4, 1719), and took forcible possession of the church. The townspeople appealed to the Diet, and the decision went against the Elector. For some time he refused to give way, but at last was obliged to do so (April 19, 1720); whereupon he left the town in disgust, and went to live at Mannheim. "The church of the Holy Ghost was founded by Rupert III., in 1398. Louis the Bearded continued the work. The tower was not completed until after the death of Frederic I.". Guide Book to Heidelberg and its Neighbourhood, by K. C. Von Leonhard, p. 60. H. DOWNING. "13th. Fires all day. Frequent and heavy thunder, with heavy rain. "14th. Very cold. Fire all day. "15th. I am informed that there was a sharp frost early this morning, and ice was found. The remainder of the month was very cold, and fires were lighted nearly every day." N. S. HEINEKEN. LAWS OF LAURISTON (3rd S. iii. 486; iv. 31, 76, 132, 214.)-E. M. C. is certainly incorrect in stating that the wife of Capt. Lee, R.N., was Margaret McClennan. I have the certified copy BLACKGUARD. of the marriage register, under the signature of the Rector of St. Andrew's, Plymouth, in which the name "Margaret Hay McClellan" twice occurs. I did not make the statements respecting the pedigree which are questioned without good grounds for them. If I have been misled, I shall be willing to acknowledge my error when I see sufficient reason for doing so. ALFRED T. LEE. In "N. & Q.," 2nd S. ix. 373, from "an old French dictionary." The name of an explanation of the word blackguard is extracted the dictionary is not given. The extract is followed by an editorial query, "Whose, and of what date?" The name of the dictionary is The Royal Dictionary, by Abel Boyer. Unfortunately the copy I possess wants the title, and I am therefore unable to supply the date. The quotation is not fully given; I subjoin it, with spelling, capitals, punctuation, italics, &c.: "The Black-Gard, On appelle ainsi de jeunes Gueux qui servent dans un Corps de Garde, les Goujats." The definite article "the" seems to refer to a particular body of men who were known by the name of The Black-guard. Under the word "Goujat" I find "GOUJAT, S. M. (Valet de Cavalier ou de Fantassin) a Soldier's Boy, a Black-guard." HENRY JONES, Jr. JOHN DONNE, LL.D. (3rd S. iv. 149.)--I have a copy of the Dean of St. Paul's BIAOANATOZ (4to, 1649, though undated on title-page), which is a presentation copy from his son to "S Constantine Huygens, Knight;" to whom he has written a singularly interesting letter on one of the fly-leaves. This letter is dated "Couent Garden, London, Julie 29, 1649." I presume this Huygens is the brother of the great astronomer. A. B. G. 1st Manse, Kinross. LAURENCE HALSTED (3rd S. iv. 187.)—Laurence, son of John Halsted, of Rowley, Gent., was baptised at Burnley, July 1, 1638; married and had issue, an only surviving son, Charles Halsted. In his will, dated May 1, 1690, he describes himself as "Laurence Halsted, of Rowley Hall, in the parish of Burnley, co. Lanc., Gent. ;" and settles his lands at Woking, in Surrey, and in Lancashire, upon his said son and his issue. Failing issue, to Alice (Barcroft), wife of the testator, for her life; and at her death, to descend to Mr. Henry Halsted, Clerk, Rector of Grace Church, London, and his heirs in fee. He bequeaths legacies to his uncle Laurence Halsted, of Jamaica (who was probably the individual named by Whitlocke and Whitaker); and to his brother Matthias Halsted, also to Charles Halsted, of the parish of Clerkenwell, watchmaker; to Robert, son of Robert Halsted, at the Crown in Fleet |