cating the present state of one or two of the oider houses that are yet standing in the parish of Chiswick. Grove House, figured in Faulkner, is still in existence, and is inhabited and kept up, but the upper story has been removed. The tympanum exhibits the lion rampant borne on the coat of the Scorey Barkers (once an important Chiswick family), by one of whom the house must have been built. Their name is also preserved in "Barker's Rails," on the bank of the river, not far from the house. The manor house of Sutton Court has, I am told, undergone the same treatment as Grove House, and had the upper story removed. I may here observe, by the way, that Beaumaris Castle, of which Black's Guide-Book for North Wales observes, "it covers a great extent of ground, but wants height to give it dignity," has lost its upper story. It will be obvious to any one acquainted with this neighbourhood that I have omitted all mention of several houses yet remaining which have a history attached to them. There are also important families of whom we know that they resided here, but where their houses were we are not at present aware. The most interesting monument in Chiswick Church is that of Sir Thomas Chaloner; but I do not know where he lived, and Lysons is silent on this point. The Gascoynes are another family of note, of whom no mention is made either by Lysons or Faulkner. They were the ancestors of Bamber Gascoyne, Esq., of Barking, from whom the present Marquis of Salisbury descends. The Gascoyne tombs, showing the coat bearing the conger eel, are in Chiswick churchyard, near the church tower, though, I regret to say, they are in a dilapidated state. Turnham Green. S. ARNOTT. ITALIAN AND WEST HIGHLAND FOLK-TALES: A PARALLELISM. Cuthbert Bede, in his legends of Cantire, entitled by him The White Wife, with other Stories, Supernatural, Romantic, and Legendary, has a story to the following effect (p. 141): In one of the glens of Cantire lived a loving couple with one child, a boy. Poverty compelled the husband to go away, in order to earn his livelihood elsewhere. He went to England and took service under a farmer there. Years rolled on in this service, the Highlander leaving his money in the farmer's hands. At last he determined to go home. On telling his master so, the latter asked him if he would take his wages or three advices instead. The man, from confidence in his master's good sense, agreed to accept the less substantial alternative. The advices were, (1) To keep on the highway; (2) To lodge in no house in which were an old man and a young wife; (3) To do nothing until after consideration. The master on parting gave the man a loaf, which he was not to break until he could eat it with his wife and son. On his way home the Highlander overtook a pedlar. After they had walked together some time, the pedlar chose to finish his day's journey by leaving the highway but when they met again at night the Highlander found and taking a byway. The Highlander would not do so, that the pedlar had been robbed of his pack. At the house at which they were going to put up they found an old man and a young wife. The Highlander refused to lodge there, but the pedlar did. In the night the old man was murdered, and the pedlar was accused of the murder. At last the Highlander got to his own home. It was night. He was admitted, and saw a fine young man lying on the bed. At first he thought of killing him in his rage, but he remembered his master's advice, and asked, "Who is that man?" "It is our son," said the wife; "he came from his service last evening, and bas slept in that bed." The son rose, more peats were put on the fire, and they all sat down to a meal. The man cut the loaf, and out of it dropped silver to the amount of the wages bartered by him for the master's three advices, Signor Nerucci, in his Sessanta Novelle Popolari, published just recently at Florence, and which I would recommend every folk-lorist to get, has a story called "I Tre Consigli," or the three counsels (p. 438). This story runs as follows: A poor countryman, finding his wife enceinte, and kimself wholly without means to bear the threatened expenses, starts for the Maremma, in order to procure the money and to return in time for the event. thinks of returning when twenty-five years are over. a matter of fact he forgets all about his wife, and only he has spent all his wages in enjoying himself in the wine shop (nella bella vita en cantina), he asks for a gratuity. The master offers to give him thirty scudi, or three counsels at ten scudi each. The man accepts the latter alternative. The three counsels are as follows: (1) Don't open your mouth where it does not concern you; (2) Don't leave the old road for the new; (3) Keep the pride of the evening for the next morning. The master gives the man a cofaccia on parting, and orders him not to eat it until the day after he gets home, and while he is at dinner. The man on his way home lodges at an inn where a rich traveller is murdered, but he prudently gives no alarm, and is let off safe next morning by the assassins. He puts up at another roadside inn on the next night. Three labourers returning from the Maremma have come there also, and two of them let out that they have saved up a good sum of money, and for that reason they intend to travel by the new road, which is shorter. All, however, agree to meet next evening at an inn on the cross road to which the two other roads converge. The man going by the old road arrives in due time, and finding no one to meet him, has his supper and goes to bed. Next morning he learns that his companions who went by the new road have been robbed and murdered. He arrives at last in his own village (paese), and there on the terrace of his own house he beholds his wife embracing and kissing a young priest. The man, in spite of his rage, thinks of his master's third counsel, and goes off to take up his quarters for the night at an inn hard by. Next morning he finds out that the young priest is his own son, and when at dinner he breaks the cofaccia in two pieces, out roll thirty scudi, thus given to him by bis kind master in addition to the three counsels. blances to each other which prove these two tales It would be superfluous to point out the resemto be identical, notwithstanding they have been severally picked up, the former in misty Cantire and the latter in the pleasant district of Montale, near Elizabeth Holland, m. at Cranbrook, May 25, 1573, bar. at Chelsea, Dec., 1592 (1st wife). 1141 THE FLETCHER FAMILY. Of the ancestry of this most distinguished family, which has produced no less than four poets, very little indeed is known. The following pedigree comprises nearly all that is certain :— Richard Fletcher, probably born at Great Liversedge, co. York; lived at Watford. at Bishop Stortford, and at Frittenden; minister of Cranbrook, Kent, July, 155, and of Smarden, 1566; died Feb. 12, 1585; mon. inscr. at Cranbrook, Richard Fletcher, Bp. of Bris--Mary, dau. of Giles Fletcher,=.... Shere- Nehemias Elizabeth, Edmund Fletcher, sey, Edward Fletcher, St. Luke's bap. Aug. 1, 1591, Sarah, bap. Sept. 14, 1636, at Hilgay. garet, daughter of Edmund Mollyneux, and suggested that these might very likely be the parents of the minister of Cranbrook, especially as Dr. Giles Fletcher's poem Lycia was dedicated to Lady Molyneux. This seems to me to be very probable, and would at once account for the dedication of the poem. Possibly some correspondent of "N. & Q." may be able to clear this up. But very little light has as yet been thrown on the parentage of the minister of Cranbrook. Dr. Grosart shows that Richard Fletcher, the bishop's father, probably came from Great Liversedge, co. Dr. Grosart gives the following extracts from the York, in which neighbourhood there were many burial registers of St. Luke's, Chelsea, which propersons of the name. About 1500 Dom. Robertus bably relate to this family: 1620, August 1, Susan Fletcher, an ecclesiastical dignitary, is mentioned Fletcher, widow; 1680, April 14, Mr. Philip in the accounts of Archbishop Savage's executors. Fletcher; 1711/12, Feb. 5, Mrs. Rebecca Fletcher, The Valor Eccles., 1534, has these names :- widow. Grazebrook, in the Heraldry of WorThomas Fletcher, Rector of Kyrkbranwyth; Ro-cestershire, and Cooper, in the Athence Cantabert Flessher, Vicar of Wennersley; Thomas Flessher, Incumbent of a chantry in Sandall Church; Edward Fletcher, Rector of Wydenerpole; and Richard Fletcher, who appoints payment of certain masses. Whether the minister of Cranbrook sprang from any of these it is impossible now to say. * A year or two ago, Mr. W. H. Allnutt, of the [* Flessher might=Butcher in the north of England, brigienses, give the following as the arms of Bishop Fletcher: Sable, a cross patonce azure [argent?] pierced plain of the field, between four escallops of the second (see "N. & Q.," 5th S. iii. 189, 296, 517). This family is traditionally said to have emigrated, about the reign of King Edward IV., from the Netherlands, where they had been noble for many generations. Since I prepared the foregoing pedigree I have met with the following additional information : Richard Fletcher, minister of Cranbrook, was admitted Vicar of Stortford, Herts, June 19, 1551, and was either deprived or preferred before Feb. 23, 1555. In July, 1555, he was a spectator of the martyrdom of Chr. Wade, in Kent. posely chosen writers of the last few years. Hardly Richard Fletcher, the bishop (?), was rector of Barnack, Northants, in 1586. He was incorporated M.A. at Oxford, July 15, 1572; Prebendary of Islington in St. Paul's Cathedral, Sept. 30, 1572; and Dean of Peterborough, Nov. 15, 1583. ERRORS OF AUTHORS (ante, pp. 390, 414, 433, (Cooper's Ath. Cant.; Wood's Fasti Oxon., i. 490).-I agree with MR. ASHBEE (p. 490) that 190-1.) Giles Fletcher, LL.D., the ambassador, was ap-in "N. & Q." with great advantage. But the this is a kind of annotation which may be pursued pointed Treasurer of St. Paul's Cathedral, June 20, process will become a reductio ad absurdum if 1597. His will was proved P. C. C., 1610-11. Their A pedigree of Fletcher, given in Harl. MS., 1555, fo. 60b, shows that Robert Fletcher, of Stoke Bardolph, Notts., married Margaret, daughter of Sir Edmond Molineux, Knight of the Bath, and Judge of the Common Pleas. son Francis Fletcher, of Stoke Bardolph, married Frances, daughter of Francis Molineux, of Houghton, and by her had issue, Molineux, Robert, John, and Mary. W. G. D. F. MODERN SPANISH LITERATURE.-It is curious to note how little is known in this country of contemporary Spanish letters. As that accomplished critic Juan Valera observes: "Entre España é Inglaterra hay cortísimo comercio de ideas. En aquella isla miran nuestro moderno desenvolvimiento intelectual con un profundo é injustísimo desden, que en España les pagariamos con usura si por medio de las traducciones y de los encomios que hacen de los libros ingleses los críticos y literatos franceses no se hubieron popularizado entre nosotros los autores ingleses de primer orden."-Estudios Criticos (Madrid, 1864, 8vo.), t. i. p. 238. conscientious correctors are to have their corrections impugned by those who have nothing but negative assertions or positive ignorance to support them. In this view I should like to say a little as to the commentary of VIGORN on my correction of a passage in Dr. Brewer (p. 391). of Mr. Morris's, in Atalanta's Race, that "Dr. VIGORN asserts (p. 433), in reference to a couplet Brewer is more correct than MR. THOMAS allows." Now I never allowed that Dr. Brewer was correct at all; and I still think, after VIGORN has written, that he is wholly wrong. First, as to the word σaóppwv. I asked Dr. Brewer to give me a classical authority for this word as a substantive. VIGORN thinks it sufficient to produce an instance of the word as an adjective, in a post-classical and very inferior author. Nor has it there the meaning which Dr. Brewer requires; and I cannot too much admire VIGORN'S naïveté in adding, "In Liddell and Scott this sense is not suggested." Secondly, Dr. Brewer's proposed correction simply makes nonsense of the whole passage. Really, the story of Atalanta might never have been heard of before. The whole point is that Atalanta is to remain a virgin, and is never to don the And when VIGORN asks wedding garments. him not to Potter's Antiquities (itself almost an "Were they necessarily кpoкóels?" I would refer Privatalterthümer, th. ii. ch. ii. p. 100, where he 'antiquity"), but to Hermann's Lehrbuch der gr. will find an express statement, fortified with references, that the wedding-dress was generally saffron-coloured ("besonders haufig ein Safrangewand"). But we need not suppose Mr. Morris to have studied all the details of classical archæology. What could be more natural than for an English poet to regard saffron as the ancient wedding colour after Milton's L'Allegro: Those very English writers who have most devoted themselves to the study of Spanish literature have been the first to depreciate the modern authors of Castille. Yet Spain at the present momentand the noting of the fact here may do good by sending some, at any rate, to see for themselves" maintains all her old reputation, at least in the fields of fiction, oratory, and even of the drama. Fernan Caballero is far indeed from being the one solitary name worthy of fame in modern Spanish belles-lettres, as so many would seem to fancy her. For the benefit of those readers who have mastered Castillian I select the following recent authors as worthy their attention. The list might be added to almost indefinitely, and doubtless some correspondents will add to it and develope the whole subject further. Novelists.-Alarcon, Perez Galdos, Juan Valera, Rodriguez Correa. Dramatists.-Garcia Gutierrez, Retes y Eche varria. "There let Hymen oft appear In saffron robe, with taper clear?" I hope VIGORN will allow me to suggest that he should not correct those who write carefully and deliberately, unless he has something more solid to offer than mere queries and vague suggestions. ERNEST C. THOMAS. 13, South Square, Gray's Inn. ABNER'S RETORT TO ISH-BOSHETH.-I have been importuned of late, by various correspondents, for a more intelligible rendering of 2 Samuel iii. 8 than we have at present in modern versions, the Hebrew not excepted. Will you permit me to give, through "N. & Q.," the substance of a note on that verse which forms part of my critical observations on the same, as it is treated in my MS. annotations of the Hebrew Old Testament ? I have not much time to spare for long letters to hosts of correspondents on such abstruse subjects. As, however, I feel sure that some of my correspondents are to be found amongst your numerous readers, they will by this means find in this note a reply to their query. The opening of Abner's frenzied retort to Ishbosheth is admitted on all hands to be hard to be understood. Every attempt on the part of critics and exegets to make sense of that spasmodic utterance has only rendered "confusion worse confounded." I venture to submit what I consider a more correct version than we have of it at present, either in the Hebrew or in translations. I give my amended Hebrew version first. I eschew the Massoratic points and punctuations, which have done so much mischief to the sacred text.b All I shall interpolate will be the sign of interjection between the laconic sentences of the indignant retort: man when " "I am but the captain of a dog! Captain to Judah to-day! I exercise mercy towards the house of Saul thy and have not sent thee like chaff into the hand of David! father! towards his brothers ! and towards his shepherd! and yet thou wilt visit upon me the sin of that woman!" &c. This is evidently the language of a naturally violent very wroth." However we may sympathize with David in his grief at the fate which his king nor to his God (1 Samuel xxvi. 14, 15, befell Abner, the son of Ner was neither loyal to 16). He treated Ish-bosheth-whom for private ends he set up as the earthly "shepherd of Israel" -more like a dog than a prince. Moreover, he espoused for some years the cause of his puppet, contrary to his convictions that the Almighty had decreed otherwise (2 Samuel iii. 9, 18). MCSES MARGOLIOUTH. Little Linford Vicarage, Newport Pagnell. BERKHAMSTED OR BERKHAMPSTEAD.-The Rev. J. W. Cobb, in Two Lectures on the History and Antiquities of Berkhamsted (1855), gives a table in which fifty different ways of spelling the name of this town are shown, but he pronounces in favour of Berkhamsted, as being "most akin to the present genius of the language, and at the same time most strictly literal as to its etymology." This is a statement which appears on examination to be as desirable as it is accurate, appears to violate no eorrect, and the elision of the letterp., while הראש כלב אנכי! ראשי ליהודה היום! 88f euphony I have looked into several אעשה חסד עם בית שאול אביך! אל authorities in support of the orthography, which אחיו! ואל מרעהו! ולא המציתיך ביד Authorities and the inhabitants of Berkhamsted | דוד! ותפקד עלי עון האשה היום! The following is the rendering which I venture to suggest of the original version, which I suppose to have been The full title of the work is "The Hebrew Old Testament, with Critical, Philological, Historical, Polemical, and Expository English Comments." b I have briefly alluded to my views on the subject elsewhere. See The Oracles of God and their Vindication, p. 11, published by S. Bagster & Sons, 1870, and The Hebrew Christian Witness for 1877, pp. 204-15 (Elliot Stock). I have treated the subject at length in my Prolegomena to the work named in the preceding note. The works of the so-called Massorites may be said to consist of catalogues of blunders which lawyers and scribes of old have perpetrated in their copying and transcribing the Old Testament scriptures. Much valuable time has been wasted, and is still being wasted, in the unprofitable study of those catalogues. Read instead of N. The latter is one of the numerous transcribers' blunders for the former. d the use of the former form in this very chapter, in the We have מֵרֵעֵהוּ instead of מִרְעֶהוּ Read 4 .3 .ver מִשְׁנָהוּ word מצץ or מוץ From • now been adopted postal and railway itself. In Domesday we find Berchehamstede, or Berchamstede. In Gough's Camden "Berkhamsted or Berghamstede, q.d. the fortified hamsted." The three historians of the county of Hertford, Chauncy, Salmon, and Clutterbuck, each adopts the same orthography, i.e. Berkhamsted; so does In addition we find this form in the Encyclopædia Brayley in his Beauties of England and Wales. the Encyclopædia Britannica, eighth edit., we find Metropolitana and the Penny Cyclopædia. In Berkhamstead and Berkhampstead, while in the new edition the latter form appears, so far, to be the only one adopted. Thus there is a large array of valuable evidence in favour of spelling the name without the p. When we take its etymology into consideration, this orthography appears still more rational and correct. It may be derived, according to Norden, another and the earliest historian of Herts, from berg, a hill, ham, seated among the hills; or, as Camden suggests, a town, and stedt, a seat, signifying the town from burg, a fortified place, and ham-stede, a homestead, meaning the fortified homestead. Flavell Edmunds, in his Traces of History in the Evidently ironical. Bitter, long pent up, irony breaks out in this passionate and crazy retort. Names of Places, has, "Ham, E. [English] a home or a village. Ex.: seventeen places as a prefix and frequently as a suffix. Ham-stead and Ham-ton are corruptedly written Hamp-stead and Hampton. Hence also the word homestead." may The elision of the letter p (query also the letter a) in such suffixes as -hampstead should thus, upon excellent authority, be enforced. If philological accuracy were considered, would there be much hesitation in the matter? Mr. Cobb further says: "With regard to the insertion of the letter p, I just remark that though frequently interpolated, as in Hampshire, Hampton, Hampstead, Hampden, &c., still it never occurs in this position in any purely AngloSaxon document. Its earliest occurrence in the name of our town which I remember to have seen is in an epistle.... from Pope Joan to King John in the tenth year of his reign." After this is there any just cause why the letter p should be retained, to the evident discomfort of orthographic and philological accuracy? I trust that some one will favour us with an opinion on the matter. R. P. HAMPTON ROBERTS. [An epistle from Pope Joan would be a literary curiosity. Does Mr. Cobb give any extracts from it?] INTERMENTS IN CONSECRATED GROUND.-The Burials Bill, now before Parliament, has naturally drawn attention to the origin and history of consecration as applied to cemeteries, which is rather an obscure inquiry. The following passage from the Eirik's Saga Rausa indicates the very earliest usages of the Scandinavian Christians in this respect. The locality is in Greenland, soon after its partial settlement by the Norsemen, and within a few years after the introduction of Christianity, at the beginning of the eleventh century :- "Sá hafði háttr verit á Grænlandi síðan kristni kom út thangat, at menn voru grafnir thar á bæjum er menn önduðuz í óvígðri mold; skyldi thar setja staur upp of brjósti; en síðan er kenni-menn kvómu til, tlá skyldi kippa upp staurinum ok hella thar í vígou vatni, ok veita thar yfir-söngva thótt that væri myklu síðarr. Líkin vóru flutt til kirkju í Eiriksfjörð ok veittir yfir-söngvar af kennimönnum (Eirik's Saga Rauða, ch. 5). "There had been a custom in Greenland since Christianity came out there, that people were buried on the farm when they died in unconsecrated ground. A stake had to be set up over the breast (of the corpse). When afterwards the priests arrived, the stake bad to be pulled up, and holy water poured in. The service of song was then held, although much time might have elapsed. The bodies were carried to the church at Eiriksford, and there a service of song was performed by the priests." It thus appears that consecration of burial grounds amongst the northern nations is coeval with the introduction of Christianity. J. A. PICTON. Sandyknowe, Wavertree. THE HEIGHT (IN FEET) OF THE SPIRES OF THE ENGLISH CATHEDRALS.Height. Angle at Apex. Salisbury Norwich Chichester Lichfield western spires Oxford Truro EDGE INSCRIPTIONS ON COINS.-It may be interesting to note some of the inscriptions at present used in various countries on the edges of coins :France.-"Dieu protège la France." 5f. Belgium.-"Dieu protège la Belgique." 5 f. Austria.-"Kraeften mit Vereininten." Thaler. Hesse." Gott mit uns." 5 mark. Italy." Fert Fert Fert." 5 lire. England.-"Decus et tutamen." 5 shilling. Perhaps some correspondent may be able to add to this list. FREDERICK E. SAWYER. THE OAK ANI) THE ASH.-Several years since there were a number of contributions on the connexion supposed to exist between the weather and the coming out of the ash. For the past four years, all of which have had wet summers, I have noticed that the ash has been about three weeks later than the oak in coming out. This year the two are out pretty nearly together. The oak is out nearly always before and about May 29, "King Charles's day." I have also noticed that the ash came out more rapidly while the dry weather continued than it has done since the rain commenced. Query, When the roots cannot find sufficient sustenance for the tree, do not the leaves come out sooner, in order to gather all the moisture they can from the atmosphere? The almond tree, I would observe, is this year much later in blossoming. The above remarks will perhaps lead others to record the weather this summer. If it is a dry one there would appear to be some reason for the lines :"When the oak's before the ash, We are sure to have a splash." [See "N. & Q.," 1st S. v. 534, 581; vi. 5, 50, 71, 144, 211; 2nd S. x. 184, 256, 374, 416; xi. 458; 4th S. iv. 53, See 'Swainson's Weather-Lore.] xi. 421, 509; xii. 184; 5th S. i. 408, 458; ix. 426. 106; AN OLD DISTICH.-I do not remember ever to have seen the following distich before to-day, when I met with it in The Wills and Inventories from the Registry at Durham, pt. ii. p. 167 (Surtees Society): "The Roddams of Roddam were a very ancient Northumbrian family. Their perpetuity was promised in the old saw : 'Whilst sheep bear wool, and cows bear hair, ANON. |