LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1876. CONTENTS. - N° 105. NOTES:-New Year's Day, A D. 1776, 1-The House of Stanley and the Legend of the Eagle and Child, 2-The Wise Woman of Wing, 4-'Okóc: "Græcus"-Autolychus, 5-Charles Wilmot Serres, a "Suppressed Prince"-A Nottinghamshire New Year's Eve Custom-Cromwell's Watermen's Badges, 6 -The Gates of St. Paul's-European Ignorance of AmericaSound in Fogs-The Title "Reverend," 7. QUERIES:-The Metrical Psalms, 7-An Old Picture-Architectural Institute of Scotland-"Ruth the Moabitess "Bristol Cathedral Library Attorney, one who is put," &c.-S. Leigh of Ollerton-Burns-Bishop Pococke's Visit to Iona, 8-"The Present State of London"-Reresby-Mrs. Olivia Trant-" Broad Church "-London Bridge-Ficklin and Berney Families-Sir E. Harvey-Heraldic-An Old Carol-"A Touchstone for Gold and Silver Wares," &c.-Aspinwall-Thomas Clarke, 9-"Sodom: a Play by the E. of R.," &c., 10. REPLIES:-Philological, 10-Robert Pursglove, 11-The Notes. NEW YEAR'S DAY, A.D. 1776. On New Year's Day, a hundred years ago, England was depressed or elated (according to political bias) at the aspect of affairs in America. London was divided in opinion on the question of "the Provincials" and the mother-country; and was also in active but ineffectual agitation to save the twin-brothers Perreau from being hanged for forgery. While George III. was donning his claret-coloured suit, his three eldest sons were buckling on their tiny dress swords, and the Queen and two of her daughters were in the hands of their tire-women-all in preparation for hearing the "Ode for the New Year" in the Council Chamber at St. James's. This custom of singing an ode by the Laureate was time-honoured, and ceremoniously observed on every 1st of January and on each recurring royal natal day; "odes," said Gibbon, with his characteristic double sense, "which still adorn or disgrace the birthdays of our British kings." These odes, the most of them very "tolerable, and not to be endured," were set to a music which often corresponded in quality with the words. On New Year's Day, 1776, Whitehead was the Laureate. He succeeded Cibber in 1757, and was followed in the office by Thomas Warton in 1785. The composer of the music was Dr. Boyce, a true artist, who stood, and stands, his ground well in the estimation of competent judges. Whitehead was the son of a Cambridge baker; after being at Winchester, he entered at Cambridge, through the benevolence of another baker of that town, one Thomas Pyke, who had founded a scholarship or two at Clare Hall. Whitehead was admitted as a Sizar, his claim being recognized as the orphan son of a man who was of the same trade as the founder of the scholarships. What Whitehead wrote before and after the first day in 1776, when he and Boyce stood together in the Council Chamber, may be read elsewhere. Nearly all is now wrapt in an oblivion which would have delighted the Laureate's enemies; but not all deserves to be so forgotten. Whitehead, indeed, was savagely snubbed by Johnson, but he enjoyed the approbation of Gray; Campbell thought the Ilyssus of Whitehead's Creusa exhibited finer feeling than the Ion of Euripides; and Coleridge held his Charge to the Poets (which stirred Churchill's bullying Muse) as the most interesting of his works. Whitehead has been called, in some things, a feeble imitator of Pope; it would be more correct to say that he was, at times, a splendid imitator of Young. At the side of the Cambridge baker's son, in full court dress, stood Dr. Boyce, the son of a London cabinet-maker. Boyce was now organist and composer in the Chapel Royal. Only those who are interested in the history of music know, or perhaps would care to know, how great and various are the claims which Dr. Boyce has upon the gratitude of at least those whose souls are "moved with concord of sweet sounds." It will save a world of space if we briefly say of these two humbly born men, poet and musician, that they were thorough gentlemen,-the word embraces every fine quality and stands for all. Now, there was much curiosity afloat as to the utterances of the Poet Laureate at this critical juncture. In the Birthday Ode (June, 1775) he had been hard put to it for subject for decent rejoicing. Walpole (in August) met him at Nuneham (Whitehead was, for years, a domesticated friend in the Jersey family), and Horace wrote to Lady Ossory, "There was Mr. Whitehead, the Laureate, too, who I doubt will be a little puzzled if he have no better victory than the last against Cæsar's next birthday. There was a little too much of the Vertere funeribus triumphos, for a complimentary ode, in the last action." But, since the birthday, worse incidents had occurred_than the surrender of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The insurrection had become general, as the King's speech intimated; public opinion in England in a great degree sympathized with the insurgents; but the drop of comfort in the goblet of sorrow was that Quebec had been gallantly saved from the attempt to surprise it by Montgomery and Arnold. The Laureate made the best of a very bad business. He and Boyce separated as the King and Court entered the Council Chamber. They arrived so early that very few of the nobility who had been invited were present. The late comers were shut out, and the following was the ode, sung to Boyce's music, at St. James's, a hundred years ago :— "On the white rocks which guard her coast, Whose orb was half in ocean lost, While o'er the wat❜ry waste A pensive look she cast, And scarce could check the rising sigh, And scarce could stop the tear which trembled in her eye. 'Sheathe, sheathe the sword which thirsts for blood,' Alas! no tyrant she! She courts you to be free; Submissive, hear her first command, Nor force unwilling vengeance from a parent's hand.' Hear her, ye wise, to duty true, So shall the opening year assume The light-wing'd hours shall lightly move, As When the King and his family appeared in public, after the performance of this rather lachrymose ode, they were received with loyal cheers. New Year's Day was then in the first half of the London season, which began in November and ended on the King's birthday in June. George III. and his Queen passed much of that time in London, there was much gaiety always afloat at Court or in the mansions of the nobility and gentry, where "winter in London" was a long and joyous one. The tradesmen of the capital profited greatly. What money there was circulated rapidly, and by that rapid circulation one pound did the office of many pounds. But all this did not affect the freedom of expression as to politics generally, and the policy of the Government towards America in particular. Nothing can better show the existence of such freedom than the publication of a counter ode in the Morning Chronicle, two or three days after Whitehead's ode, on Britannia with grief in her heart and a tear in her eye, had been sung at St. James's. It was as follows: "On the green banks which guard her strand, Whose radiant orb illumed her land, Far o'er the boist'rous main Old Freedom's sons disdain to yield, Who live but to be free; Who ne'er denied your mild command, In the following July the Declaration of Independence came like thundering echoes of this counter ode. In 1783 "Britannia" recognized the Independence as a fact, and she made graceful reparation, as recommended in the above lines of 1776, in the last of the simply eloquent words addressed by the King in reply to the words uttered by Mr. John Adams, when, in 1784, he was presented to George III. as the first plenipotentiary to our Court from the United States of America. Let them be kept in memory on both sides of the Atlantic :-"And, sir, as I was the last person that consented to the independence of the United States, so I shall be the last person to disturb or in any manner to infringe upon their sovereign independent rights; and I hope and trust that from blood, religion, manners, habits of intercourse, and almost every other consideration, the two nations will continue for ages in friendship and confidence with each other." Amen ! ED. THE HOUSE OF STANLEY AND THE LEGEND OF THE EAGLE AND CHILD. Students of history have come at last to recognize the supreme importance of consulting contemporary documents, where such exist. Without this, history is reduced to the condition of an idle romance, or a vehicle for party prejudice. I propose to illustrate this principle by reference to a little episode of English history bearing upon a family illustrious in the annals of our peerage, and never more so than at the present time. The Chetham Society have recently issued a volume of Lancashire Inquisitions in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, from the Towneley and Dodsworth Collections. The information afforded as to the state of society at that period is curious and valuable. The documents are of the highest authority, being returns to writs from the Crown on evidence, on oath, before juries or commissions, in respect to the property of feoffees of the Crown or Duchy of Lancaster. Several of them refer to the family of Lathom, and the Stanleys their successors, at their first emergence into notice in the reign of Richard II. The rise of the Stanley family has a legendary Prince, in A.D. 1357. This was very remarkable, history attached to it. This is fully set forth in as, according to the chronology, he was then three the History of the House of Stanley, by John Sea-years old! Europe, where his superior skill in arms was generally applauded; that on his arrival in England he conquered a haughty French champion in the jousts at Winchester, under the eyes of the Court, among whom was the heiress of Lathom, young, beautiful, and rich, by which feat he won the fair lady and gained her inheritance. come, 1741. The original legend runs as follows: He further relates that on Sir John's return Sir Thomas de Lathom, early in the fourteenth from France he visited most of the Courts of century, walking with his lady, who was childless, in his park, drew near to a desert and wild situation, where it was commonly reported an eagle built her nest, and, upon their near approach thereof, heard the cries of a young child, which was found by their servants in the nest, being a male infant dressed in rich swaddling clothes. And they, having no male issue, looked upon this child as a present sent from heaven. They took it under their protection, had it carefully nursed, and baptized by their own name. The child became their heir, and at his death left an only daughter named Isabel, whom Sir John Stanley married, and, in memory of this event, took the eagle and child for his crest, as since used by his noble successors the Earls of Derby. The legend, as modified by Seacome, commences with Sir Thomas de Lathom, who lived in the reign of Edward III.; that he and his lady being highly advanced in years, without any issue but one daughter, and he being desirous of male issue, but despairing thereof by his own lady, had a love intrigue with a young gentlewoman of his acquaintance, who bore him a son, whereof he was greatly rejoiced; but the difficulty arose how to introduce this young scion without inducing domestic strife. After several schemes and proposals, they hit upon the expedient of placing the child, richly dressed, in the vicinity of an eagle's nest, where it was found by the servants, and received by the lady with kindness and affection. The child was baptized by the name of Oskatell de Lathom, his mother's name being Mary Oskatell. The youth did not ultimately succeed to the family estates, which descended to Isabella, Lady de Stanley; but he was portioned off with certain manors at Irlam and Urmston, near Manchester, and other lands in Cheshire. Sir Thomas, in memory of the event, is stated to have assumed for his crest an eagle upon wing regardant, and that the Stanleys, despising Oskatell and his pretensions, took upon them the eagle and child in token of contempt of his claims. The legend, whichever form be adopted, presents absurdity on its face. The eagle bearing a shield, emblazoned or, on a chief indented az. three bezants, is found on a seal of the father of the Sir Thomas to whom the legend attributes it. The legend itself is as old as the time of King Alfred, to whom a similar incident is ascribed. Seacome records that Sir John de Stanley, second son of Sir Wm. de Stanley of Timperley, was born in the 27th or 28th year of King Edward III. (1354), and that he distinguished himself at the battle of Poictiers, under the Black As Lady de Stanley's eldest child was not born until thirty years after this event, the strong probability is that she was not then in existence; and the doughty victor himself could not have been more than six years old ! Now let us see what light is thrown on the subject by the documents to which I have called attention. They prove demonstratively that the story, in whichever form it is presented, is a fiction from beginning to end. The true narrative is as follows : Sir Thomas de Lathom, the father of Lady de Stanley, so far from being childless, or having only a daughter, had five children, two sons and three daughters, all of whom attained maturity. His second son, Edward, died before his father, leaving a widow. Sir Thomas died in March, 1382. His elder son, Thomas, succeeded, and inherited the estates, which he only enjoyed a year and a half, dying Nov. 3, 1383, leaving a posthumous daughter Ellena, born three months after her father's decease. At her death, issue in the male line having failed, Isabella, the eldest daughter, who had married Sir John de Stanley, succeeded, in ordinary course, to the property, which has descended to the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, to the present day. Lady de Stanley survived her husband a few months, dying on Oct. 26, 1414. On March 12 previously, she had settled the estates on Henry de Halsale, Archdeacon of Chester, and Richard de Stanley, Parson of Walton Church, in trust for her son, the second John de Stanley, then aged twenty-eight years. The specific manner in which the Inquisitions deal with the property of Sir Thomas de Lathom precludes the idea of any supposed Oskatell inheriting or even existing. An Inquisition, 8 Richard II. (March 6, 1385), draws a lamentable picture of domestic life. Poor Sir Thomas, so far from being the "galantuomo" the legend represents, was himself the victim of his second wife's frailties. The document states that Johanna, the lady in question, had formed an adulterous connexion with Roger de Fazakerlegh, and, her husband being in a feeble state of health, she had introduced the said Roger into the hall at Knowsley, "in magnum dispectum dicti Thome mariti sui," "et jacuit cum Rogero de Fazakerlegh adultero suo apud Knoweslegh in alta camera in lecto predicti Thome mariti sui et in aliis locis secrete et aperte ad voluntatem ipsius Johanne," &c. It is further related that at her husband's decease she had carried his corpse to the Priory of Burscough, and there interred it without priest or religious rites, and immediately thereafter, being then pregnant, she had intermarried with the said Roger, her paramour. It does not appear that Lady de Stanley and her husband at all interfered on poor Sir Thomas's behalf. It is more than probable that they were not married until after his decease. It appears to me that the circumstances here related indicate pretty clearly the origin of the crest of the eagle and child. The eagle already existed as the cognizance of the Lathom family, and passed with the estates to the Stanleys. The illegitimate offspring of Johanna, above alluded to, if a son, would primâ facie have a claim to the inheritance, which the report in the Inquisition would set aside. What, therefore, more natural than the adoption of the device of the eagle of the Stanleys triumphing, or, metaphorically, picking out the eyes of the babe in the cradle? The traditionary account of these circumstances, garbled and modified as such stories usually are, crystallized into the myth of the illegitimate babe Oskatell. This is strongly confirmed by the language of the legend itself, which goes on to say that "Sir Oskatell, being degraded and supplanted in the hopes and prospect of an immense fortune, was slighted and despised by his unthought-of rivals, who, either to distinguish or aggrandize themselves, or in contempt and derision of their spurious brother, took upon them the eagle and child for their crest, in token of their conquest over him." It is to be feared that many a pretty legend, when tested by the dry light of documentary evidence, will, in a similar manner, turn out "the baseless fabric of a vision," but "veritatis simplex oratio est." J. A. PICTON. Sandyknowe, Wavertree. THE WISE WOMAN OF WING. About eight or nine years ago there died, at Oakham, a woman named Amelia Woodcock, better known as the "Wise Woman of Wing," from having previously lived in that Rutland village, which is close to the Midland Railway, between Stamford and Oakham. She was scarcely middle aged when she died, and she had settled at Wing after an early marriage with a labouring man. I am told that she had no experience as an hospital nurse, and had not received any kind of education or training in medicine; but she rapidly established a reputation for her power to treat and heal every variety of disease, including cancer. At the outset of her career she made a great point of gathering herbs from the fields and woods, and making them into medicines that were supposed to act as charms; but, as soon as her reputation was firmly established, she had no leisure to quit her house in search of herbs, and contented herself with drugs ordered from a chemist. It was in consequence of her neglecting to take exercise, and to the habits that her confined life produced, that her death was attributable. Although she continued to live in her humble cottage at Wing, she was visited daily by persons who-as I am told-" came in their own carriages"; and I am further informed, on good authority, that medical men also came to consult her. Her patients were taken in regular turn, without distinction of rank; and they were so numerous that, as she was unable to see them all on the day that they came to her, many persons were obliged to take lodgings in the village or neighbourhood until the Wise Woman could see them. She dealt rapidly with her patients, and, after hearing a few words from them, told them that she perfectly understood their complaints, and could cure them. She had sufficient wisdom to avoid using powerful drugs, and what her medicines lacked in quality was made up for in quantity. They were given to her patients not only in large bottles, but also in stone jars. A chemist who supplied her with a large portion of her drugs paid his first visit to her when he was just starting for himself in business, on the chance of getting an order from her. As soon as he obtained admittance to her room, she took him to be a patient, and, before he spoke to her, said, "I can see, young man, what is the matter with you."-"Can you?" he answered, thinking it best to humour her.-"Yes," she said; "you've got an ulcerated liver."-" Bless me !" he cried, in feigned alarm, for he was in excellent health at the time; "I didn't know it was as bad as that."-"Yes," she said, "and it's an ulcerated liver of some standing. It's lucky that you came to me, for I can cure you. You might have gone to a dozen doctors, and they wouldn't have been able to do you any good." He deemed it best to play the part of a patient, and, without speaking of the special object that had brought him into the presence of the Wise Woman, he paid her for a large bottle of medicine, and went away with it. It is needless to add that the physic was thrown to the dogs. In the ensuing week he paid her another visit, professed to have been greatly relieved, and went away with another large bottle of stuff, which he used as "the mixture as before." The next week he went again to her, announcing his perfect recovery, and the complete cure of his ulcerated liver. He then modestly introduced the topic that he was a chemist, just starting in business, and that he could supply her with drugs at a very reasonable rate. The interview ended by her giving him an order for drugs; and this was followed 66 up by others, and, for some years after, the Wise Woman of Wing was one of his best customers. He tells me that he usually sent her a cart-load of drugs, and, occasionally, a van-load at a time. He has shown me several of the letters that she sent to him, and from these I select the two following orders, which I have copied correctly, though not without difficulty, the Wise Woman's writing being as peculiar as her spelling :— No. 1. "Oakham. "Sir will you send Mrs. woodcock 1 galland of savalatta 1 of red lavandar 3 of niter 7 pound of jelap and 7 iripica half stone of spanis just and 1 half pound of biter haple half stone of juneper beries and anne seeds 6 bottles of quanine a small passil of red salve 1 dosen of skins and 108. worth of coff pills 2 bladders of seam 4 stone of tireacle as early as convenien Amealia Woodcook." No. 2. Junary 2 Dear fren eye have sent you a small order if you think well to excep it 6 gallands of niter and a large bottle of dark mixture 1 galland of savaletta 1 galland of lavander 1 quart of oil of juneper and 6 pound of black plaster the same of red and 3 pound of gelap 3 of hilepica 6 bottles of quine." Dimly figured in the above orders are the various articles, quinine, sal-volatile, aniseed, and Spanish juice. The mysterious drug that appears in the one order as "iripica," and in the other as "hilepica," was a special favourite of the Wise Woman, who never had the slightest knowledge of the nature of the medicine! It was a recipe brought from Jamaica by an assistant of the chemist, and its composition was kept a profound secret. The | Wise Woman had the greatest faith in it, and it was included in every order that she sent. Let us hope that it did her patients a power of good. I have the chemist's word for it that there was not anything in it, or in the other things that he supplied to her, that could harm patients, and that they might (possibly) benefit them, especially as they consulted her with the firm conviction that she could cure them. Perhaps some correspondents in the neighbourhood of Uppingham and Oakham may be able to give some further particulars of the Wise Woman of Wing. CUTHBERT BEDE. 'OTIKÓS: "GRECUS."-Dr. Mommsen (Hist. Rome, i. p. 13) has : followed up by the learned doctor, who suggests (p. 22) that Opici (with Osci, &c.) means "labourers" (root as in opus, &c.), leaving Græcus underived. Let us try then to find something more satisfactory. Prof. Curtius (Gk. Etym., § 130) says it is impossible to separate Tpackós from root yep (primitive GAR), "aged, old," found in yépwv, ypaîa. The only meaning, then, which can attach to this word, as applied to a nation or tribe, is that of "the older settlers," or something similar. We shall, therefore, look in its correlative Opicus for the sense younger or later settlers; and this we find in it if we connect it with ofé, órópa, ofi-, (?) Oppius. This derivation accords well with a Græco-Italian migration from east to west, for the more eastern Greece would be colonized first, and, when that was occupied, later bands of settlers ('Oikoí) would have to go further west to Italy. It accords, too, with the fact that that part of the Italian race itself which settled last, the Samnites (Momms., ib. p. 34), is styled par excellence Oscan or Opican. Nor can we find a difficulty in the change of meaning from " aged" to "ancient" in Græcus. It is not an uncommon one, and, perhaps, we may trace in it a disparagement of claims to antiquity by a I do not know whether this rival kindred race. conjecture has been anticipated; it has not certainly, as I think, been discussed as it deserves. AUTOLYCHUS. J. P. P. "Die bij't menschelijk geslacht Door sluwheid was vermaard." Cowper's is the fairest version which I know, poor but honest : "Who far excelled In furtive arts and oaths all human kind." "The essential unity of all the Italian as of all the Greek races must have dawned early and clearly on the consciousness of the two great nations themselves, for we find in the Roman language a very ancient word of enigmatical origin, Graius or Graicus, which is applied to every Greek, and in like manner amongst the Greeks Clark cites the Scholiast, Julian and Plato to show the analogous appellation 'Oriкós, which is applied to that Homer's words are to be taken in their natural all the Latin and Samnite stocks known to the Greeks sense, and were intended to be complimentary. in earlier times, but never to the Iapygians or Etruscans." Ernesti adds: "Opk porro intellige jurandi artiThis singular correspondence in use and form, ficio, quod est, cum verum juramus, et tamen extending even to identity of suffix (-kos, -cus), so alterum fallimus sine noca." Damm (Lex. Hom., suggestive of a correlation in idea, has not been [ v. Oркos) gives examples, but says upon this pas |