"Times prohibiting Marriage.—Marriage comes in on the 13 day of January, and at Septuagesima Sunday it is out again until Lowsunday; at which time it comes in again, and goes not out until Rogation-sunday: thence it is forbidden untill Trinity-sunday: from whence it is unforbidden till Advent-sunday: but then it goes out, and comes not in again till the 13 day of January next following." I find no such notice in any other almanac of the Queries. We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. 6 tion about Hart's parentage and early career before 、 THE GREAT SEAL OF QUEEN Katherine Parr. -In Archæologia for the year 1779 appears an engraving of this seal. Can any of your readers inform me whether any impression of it is still extant; and, if so, where it is to be seen? SIGILLUM. MONTE VIDEO.-What is the proper pronunciation of this name and its derivation? Such a Macaronic preposterous mixture of Portuguese and Latin as "Mount I see " is, of course, out of the question. It surely means Vineclad Hill." R. C. A. P. [The pronunciation is assumed to be Mon-te Vid-e-o, with the e's sounded as in French. "Video" does not mean "I see" in Portuguese." Ver" is the word ordinarily used] JOHN BUNYAN.-Some recent correspondents of the Echo have communicated particulars concerning Bunyan which seem worthy of record, and perhaps require sifting, in 'N. & Q. Unhappily, references are wanting. The question was raised whether Bunyan was a Baptist, as has always been hitherto supposed. Mr. J. H. Stephenson (who, oddly, pleads that Bunyan was a Baptist) says that "in the licence to preach, granted by the wretched Charles II. on May 15, 1672, he is allowed to teach as a Congregational person, being of that persuasion.'" Another correspondent gives the BISHOPS OF NORWICH.-I shall be very much dates of baptism of two of Bunyan's children-a obliged if any of your readers will give me the daughter, at Elstow Church, 1654, and a son, at authority for a statement made by Thiselton, in St. Cuthbert's, Bedford, 1672. No names are 'Regia Insignia,' p. 267, that " a former Bishop given. A third writer, who signs "Thomas Han- of Norwich held the appointment of Paymaster cock," quotes from a pamphlet by Edward Bur-[of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners] till his rough, the Quaker, wherein Bunyan and John H. BRACKENBURY. Barton are referred to as "Independent ministers, so called" (Burrough's 'Truth the Strongest of All,' 1657). If these quotations are to be trusted, they settle the question of Bunyan's Baptist persuasion in the negative, and plainly show him as an Independent. But where is the original licence of Charles II.? Will any one at Bedford and Elstow examine the registers for the baptisms of these and other of Bunyan's children? Was he married in church; and, if so, can we have the registers of both his marriages? I find none of these details in Mr. Offor's memoir, further than a quotation from the records of Leicester concerning the royal licence, wherein it is stated that Bunyan was "of the Congregational persuasion." HERMENTRUDE. death." LONGITUDE AND MARRIAGE.-N. & Q.' having dealt recently with legal questions, I may take the opportunity of calling the attention of some of the legal luminaries to another question, which sundry of the gens togata to whom I have proposed it have admitted to be knotty. A. B. goes from London to Naples, leaving his wife resident in the former city. But he, unfortunately, falls in love with a young lady at Naples; and being a wicked man, with no fear of God and little fear of the law before his eyes, he determines to deceive her by a bigamous and invalid marriage. He is, accordingly, married, to all appearance legally, on board an English man-of-war in the bay, in the presence of the captain, at eleven o'clock in the morning of February 10-the time being unquestionably ascertained. But the wife left in London died on that same February 10 at half-past ten in the morning, the time being certiWell! the case is clear fied beyond all question. and simple. A. B. had been a widower for half an hour when he married, and could, of course, legally do so. But, stay! When it was 10.30 in London it was 11.23 in Naples. Had a telegram been de spatched instantly after the wife's death it would have reached Naples a few minutes later than 11.23, and would have found A. B. a married man of over twenty minutes standing! His first wife died, in fact, twenty-three minutes subsequently to the Naples marriage, though that was authentically declared to have taken place at 11 A.M., and the wife's death was with equal certainty shown to have occurred at half-past ten. Was the marriage legal and valid, or bigamous and null ? Budleigh Salterton. T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE. "A COOL HUNDRED."-When did this expression first come into use? I have met with it in 'The Provoked Husband,' by Sir John Vanbrugh and Colley Cibber, II. i. p. 311, ed. 1730: "C. Bas. No faith! I came in when it was all over. think I just made a couple of Betts with him, took up a cool hundred, and so went to the King's Arms." The same phrase in used by Smollett in his translation of 'Don Quixote,' bk. iii. c. viii. : "My shoulders were accommodated with a cool hundred, I was advised to divert myself three years in the Gurapas; and so the business ended." F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. POLIDORE VERGIL.-In the registers of the parish of Marksbury, near Bath, the names of Polydore and Vergil severally occur as Christian names in at least two families, e. g. :— Jan., 1602. Polydor, son of Virgell Vanham, baptized. The same buried April, 1604. July, 1600. Baptized Henrie, the son of Virgill Watkins, alias Vanham. Dec., 1607. Polidorus Vanham, alias Watkins, sepultus. Feb. 18, 1662. Polydor Evans, late Rector of Marksbury, was buried. This would seem to point to some connexion with Polidore Vergil, the versatile ecclesiastic and voluminous writer, who in Henry VIII.'s and Queen Mary's time had considerable preferment in England, and is known to have been Archdeacon of Wells in 1507. He remained in England till 1550, and died in Italy five years later. Can it be shown that he had any more immediate connexion with Marksbury? Possibly he was rector of the parish; but I have no means of finding out. W. S. B. THE SORBONNE.-Where can I find a description of the old chapel of this college? It was dedicated to St. Ursula, and in the seventeenth century was pulled down, by Cardinal Richelieu's order, to make room for the present church, where his tomb now stands. JOHN A. RANDOLPH. have seen quoted a saying, ascribed to Pope "A LAITY WITH A STRONG BACKBONE.”—I Martin V. (as Martin III. is generally styled), to the effect that he "sighed [or longed] for a laity tell if such an expression, or anything to that with a strong backbone." Can any of your readers effect, was used by him or any other Pope? If 80, by whom, when, and on what occasion? F. SOAPSTONE FIGURES FROM SHANGHAI.-Would some of your travelled readers kindly inform me anent the nature of soapstone; and, secondly, whether these figures are idols, or priests, or what? EBORACUM. MEDAL PORTRAITS.-A friend has presented me with a collection of plaster casts, about four hundred, all named. Some fifty had not been identified as to position in life, birth, and death. Of these, the following have since not been found purpose. in the many biographical works referred to for the Will some students kindly assist me ?— Christianus Hugienus. J. G. Eynard de Genève. Jean Varin. Enrichetta Lalande. Léopold Jean, Prince de Salerne. March. Jos. Stioctius. Ridolfius. Eq. Josephian Ord I. WATER-MARKS.-Is there such a book as a register of water-marks, or any other work by which I can find when a certain water-mark was first used? I have searched the British Museum, of the eighteenth century. but can get no information later than the middle GEORGE GRANT. WILLIAM FEILDING, EARL OF DENBIGH, in 1630 set out for India, and returned in 1633 (Cal. State Papers, Dom.,' 1629-31, p. 329; 1633–4, BETHAM.-Can any of your readers inform me in what parish in Staffordshire a place called Bethom or Betham was situate? From about 1490 until 1600 I find it mentioned without an interval as the place of residence of different Staffordshire families. After the last-mentioned date I find no trace of it. F. W. M. INSCRIPTIONS ON ALTARS.-Can you tell me of any instances of inscriptions on altars? I have heard of one near Denbigh, inscribed in Greek characters "Non Incognito Deo." It is said to have been on an old altar table in a church formerly the old parish church of Denbigh, and is now about a mile from Denbigh. After the above words come "I. R., 1617." Can any of your correspondents throw any light on the subject? A. G. VERTUE.-There was a Vertue a bookseller at the Royal Exchange, whose widow married the famous Samuel Goatsby, and he carried on the business, dying at a great age in 1808. The widow's name was Hannah Vertue. Timperley spells it Virtue, but he is wrong. Was her husband a descendant of Geo. Vertue, the engraver ? C. A. WARD. Walthamstow. BAPTIST MAY.-In the 'Memoirs of Count Grammont,' a new edition of which has just been published, allusion is made in a note respecting Mr. Chiffinch to a Mr. Baptist May, who is there spoken of as one of Charles II.'s supper companions. Can any of your readers give me any information respecting this gentleman ? J. SAUMAREZ. 43, Grosvenor Place. Surely a more sarcastic commentary on the prevailing mode of furnishing derivations of placenames than that afforded on the page last quoted could hardly be met with. Three guesses at the derivation of the one name Wetherby are backed by such names as those of SIR J. A. PICTON and CANON TAYLOR, of which it is perfectly safe to say that, while two of them must be wrong, it is most likely all three of them are. Admitting the possibility of the compound viðar-bær-though I greatly doubt if it ever could have been "standard" or "classical" Old Danish or Icelandic-still it is not clear how it ever could have meant "wooden house." The authority quoted by CANON TAYLOR gives to the Icel. bær or býr, Dan. and Swed. by, the meaning of " a farm, a landed estate," and adds that in Iceland it denotes "a farm, or farmyard and buildings." In other words, but for the dirty acres " there would be no bar or by. Nor do I see how this consideration is to be excluded in the attempt to explain the formation and meaning of an English place-name ending in by. But besides, in such a settlement, over and above the owner's or settler's own domicile, the dwelling or dwellings of his servants-thrall or free-the byres and stables and cotes for his stock, the lathes for his corn, and the like, have all to be thought of as Angles to the exclusion of the Saxons; and it has keen alleged, moreover, that it is not always easy to distinguish between Anglian and Scandinavian names and words. But there is one thing abundantly clear,-that no derivationist of English placenames is in a very good position if he be desirous to conduct his inquiries in the only legitimate and reasonable way, and that is on the same lines as the compilation of the New English Dictionary.' He has not the materials. There are copious lists of the place-names occurring in different north con in England, save, perhaps, the Domesday list, which some of these societies, however, must now be constituting the structural part of the composite by; and these are several buildings, not simply a "house." On this ground, therefore, CANON TAYLOR'S explanation of "wooden house" seems to be inadmissible. But even sinking the farm part of the idea altogether, and substituting "buildings" for "house" would not meet all the difficulties attending the importation of the word viðar, or the meaning "wooden." For what were such buildings, and alike in the Scandinavian lands and in England, actually and universally framed and made of? There is but one answer to the ques-tinental districts or provinces. There are none such tion,-wood, and wood only. And if so, what becomes of the distinctiveness, the essence of the meaning, of the name itself? It would be something like calling a house in Old Whitby the "Redtiled House" by way of distinction. Neither do I think either of SIR J. A. PICTON's suggestions at all happier on the score of meaning. It seems but a very poor compliment to the common sense of the colonists who settled this district, and named their several settlements, to assume that they could do no better in the way of name-giving than the nonsensical platitude of "the farm-settlement of a wether," or that "of the weather." For my own part, and after thirty-five years of consideration and study of the place-names of this North Yorkshire district, I am satisfied that in the strangely preponderating majority of the place-names ending in by-not to advert to others now-where the prefix is not manifestly a qualifying word—as in Mickleby, Overby, Netherby, Kirkby, or Kirby, Newby, &c.-it is unquestionably a personal name. The simplest inspection of a carefully compiled list of such names in their earliest known forms is (7th S. vi. 445).—Although the winged globe and sufficient to establish this point. Add to this that caduceus is not to be found in the great collection the same personal name is perpetually found in the of Imprese Illustri' by Ruscelli (Venice, 1584), general class of like names, both with the in- this evidently arises from its not having been flexional genitival form and the genitival s, and a appropriated by any particular princely or noblesuggestion is at once afforded as to the possible or house. It was, however, a convenient emblem for probable explanation of the prefix in Wetherby-a suggestion which loses no force from the circum-ing innuendo that the exalted position of the pera painter or engraver to put on a portrait, as a flatterstance that the names which follow Wedrebi in the sonage portrayed was as much the result of merit as Domesday list are Wedreslei and Wedresleie, and of the accident of high birth. With the substitution from the further circumstance that such Scan- of a winged cap of honour for the winged globe, it dinavian names as Ketell Vedur, Vedra-Grímr, will be found in Alciat. and the like, are to be met with. It may also be French translation of his 'Emblems See page 146 of the (Lyon, added that SIR J. A. PICTION's collation of the 1549), illustrating the emblem "A vertu, fortune Essex name Wethersfield (or Weathersfield, as it compaigne":used constantly to be spelt in the days of my boyhood, when I lived there), is not happy. I have a list of a dozen different forms of that name by me, and while these vary in the equally extravagant and extraordinary manner I do not find it in Paradin's 'Symbola Heroica' known to students of such matters, the Domesday (Antwerp, 1563), but it turns up again, beautifully -and, I suppose, ultimate-form known is Westre-engraved by Crispin de Pas, in the Nucleus felda. SIR J. A. PICTON also speaks of the pre- Emblematum Selectissimorum quæ Itali vulgo dominance of "Saxon "" names of places in the Impresas (sic) vocant,' by Gabriel Rollenhagen, of Wetherby district. Is that so? I had thought Magdeburg (Cologne, 1611). The cut by De Pas, the district was one that had been occupied by the afterwards used by Wither in England, illustrates EGYPTIAN HIEROGRAMS ON ENGLISH PICTURES D'ales, Serpens, et Amalthées cornes the motto "Virtuti fortuna comes," and bears this epigram: Virtuti fortuna comes, Sudore paratur Fructus honos oneris, fructus honoris onus. When the symbol is found on a royal person's portrait, the globe takes the place of the cap, and means that personal merit has made him or her worthy of the right to rule. Simply this, and no deep mystery of "Egyptian hierograms" such as it would seem is surmised by your correspondent J. E. J. is the real solution of the query. FREDK. HENDRIKS. DR. GUILLOTIN (5th S. i. 426, 497; 7th S. vi. 230, 292). In the "Scelta d'alcuni Miracoli e Grazie della Santissima Nunziata di Firenze descritti dal P. F. Gio. Angiolo Lottini, in Firenze, 1619," small 4to., there is a plate, at p. 208, to illustrate cap. lxvii., in which an instrument exactly like the modern guillotine is represented. The chapter is headed, "Dovendosi tagliar il collo a Francesco, è miracolosamente impedito il taglio della Mannaia"; and on p. 210 the miracle is described : "Posciache tagliata dal Giustiziere la corda, a cui legata la grave mannaia attiensi, e questa con grâ ruina e prestezza sopra dell' esposto collo cadendo: non pur la pelle non gl' intaccò o recise: ma all' opposto di quanto fare quel taglio solea, si rattenne, in niente la carne offese, nè in parte alcuna fe nocumento." Though more than a century later than the drawings referred to by MR. GIBBS, this passage is valuable as showing the general use of the instrument in Italy. W. E. BUCKLEY. "BRING " I pr'ythee, shepherd, if that love, or gold, Helensburgh, N.B. FRIAR'S LANTHORN (7th S. vi. 168, 257, 338, 473).-The ignis fatuus or Will-o'-the-wisp is supposed in popular superstition to be generally a soul which has broken out of purgatory, and not particularly the soul of a priest. I refer to Brand's edition. I think that the explanation to which Popular Antiquities,' vol. iii. p. 398 of Bohn's MR. GRIFFINHOOFE alludes can hardly be correct, although ingenious enough. E. YARDLEY. CHARLEMAGNE (7th S. vi. 426).-There cannot be any doubt that the name of the great Frank should be written "Charles" by Englishmen. That is the best English equivalent for his name; and so he was almost always written and spoken of until recent days, when it became BELGIAN CUSTOM (7th S. vi. 249, 336, 456).— a fashion to imitate French ways. If your Is not this so-called Belgian custom of hanging out correspondent will take the trouble to look up a bundle of straw suspended by a long string from the references given in the index to the pub- a window, as a sign of repairs going on above, also lications of the Parker Society, he will find many an English practice? If my memory serves me examples of the way his name was written in the rightly, I have noticed more than once, when sixteenth century. It would be easy to give seven-travelling on the river steamers on the Thames, a teenth century examples almost without limit. The romances concerning the great founder of similar bundle of straw suspended by a cord over one of the archways of Waterloo Bridge (which at |