"The Harbour beach was, till within the last few years, the one Post-office of Sark, and oftentimes each islander his own postman, coming down, if he expected letters, to look for them on the shore. Great opposition was made to any alteration as a breach of the feudal system."

Can any reader of " N. & Q." afford me further elucidation of this subject? C. EDWARDS.

LINES ON THE SWALLOW.

"The swallow! the swallow! she does with her bring Soft seasons, and all the delights of the Spring. The swallow the swallow! we're sure we are right, For her back is all black, and her belly all white; From your stores, ye good housewives, produce, if you please,

Lumps of figs, jugs of wine, and some wheat, and some cheese;

With some hens' eggs, the swallow will well be con

tent.

Must we go, then, or shall we have anything sent?

"We will not allow you to do as you choose; To give or give not, to comply or refuse; But will certainly take from its hinges the door, Or bear off the good dame as she sits on the floor,She is little and light, we can manage her, sure. Open, open the door to the swallow, for we Are playful young children, not men, as you see." These lines, which are translated from the Greek of Athenæus, I have lately discovered in MS. They are appropriate to the present season, and may prove acceptable to some of your readers, who perhaps may be able to inform me from what publication they are taken, and who is their author. THOMAS E. WINNINGTON.

TARLTON.-Can any of the readers of " N. & Q." tell a contributor where he can find a copy of A pleasant Ditty between Tarleton and Robyn Goodfellow?* C. W. WELLS OF PITY, MERCY, AND EVERLASTING LIFE. In the will of Sir Edmund Shea, or Shaw, goldsmith and alderman of London, in 1487 (the brother also, I may remark, of the "Dr. Shaw" of Shakspeare), he directs " 16 rings of fyne gold to be graven with the Well of Pitie, the Well of Mercie, and the Well of Everlasting Life," and to be given to his friends. What were these symbols? M. D.

Queries with Answers.

BAPTISMAL NAMES. - I shall be glad to be informed by any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." as to what discretion the officiating clergyman has in reference to the names given in baptism. Can he positively refuse to give children such objectionable names as, e. g. Pontius Pilate, Judas Iscariot, Beelzebub, Cain, Esau, &c.? I would also men

[ According to Mr. Halliwell, in his Introduction to Tarlton's Jests (Shakspeare Society), this piece has not escaped the ravages of time.-ED.]

E. H. A. [The only allusion to baptismal names in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law is the following: "By a constitution of Archbishop Peccham, The ministers shall take care not to permit wanton names, which being pronounced do sound to lasciviousness, to be given to children baptized, especially of the female sex; and if otherwise it be done, the same shall be changed by the Bishop at confirmation.' Which being so changed at confirmation (Lord Coke says), shall be deemed the lawful one. (1 Inst. 3.)" Mr. Phillimore, in his edition of Burn (1842), has no note on this passage.]

WILLM: BELKE. - Can any of your readers inform me who and what the person was who wrote his name as above? The name is written on the fly-leaf of an old MS. book of sermons. One of the sermons was 66 preached before his Majesty at Whitehall, Oct. 31, 1637;" others at "St. Marye's, Cambridge; " another, on "Mat. xxvi. 38," was "preached at St. Paul's Crosse on Good ffriday, April 3, 1629." From the corrections, additions, and notes, the MS. is evidently the author's handwriting. W. F. TREGARTHAN.

[We are inclined to attribute these sermons to the Rev. William Belke, S.T.P., born in 1602, the son of John Belke, Esq. of Sheldwick in Kent. He was Rector of Wootton in 1641, afterwards of Chilham, and then of Wickham Breaux, all in Kent. At the Restoration he was appointed a Canon in the Third Prebend in Canterbury Cathedral. He died on August 12, 1676, aged seventy-four, and was buried in the lower south cross of this cathedral, where his gravestone still remains with this inscription: "Hic jacet Gulielmus Belke, S.T.P. canonicus hujus ecclesiæ; uxorem habuit Elizabetham Thomæ Hardress de Hardress, in comitatu Cantiano, equitis filiam; obiit 12 die Augusti, Anno Domini, 1676, ætatis suæ 74."- Hasted's Kent, iv. 609.]

WHIST. What is the meaning of the terms "Tenace," "Love," and "Lurch," employed by Hoyle in his "Instructions for the Game of Whist"? M. D.

[1. "Tenace" is "holding first and third best cards of any suit, and having to play after the person who holds the intermediate one." (Routledge's Whist Player's Hand-Book, 1854.) To give an example. You hold the ace and queen of hearts. Your right hand antagonist leads a heart, from which you infer that he holds the king of the same suit and wishes to draw the ace, in order to make his king. You however play the queen, and win the trick; still retaining your ace, ready to win again when he plays his king. Under somewhat similar circumstances in the game of ombre the French have the phrase "demeurer tenace," "to remain tenacious," i. e. to hold your own, to retain the best card when an attempt is made to draw it.

2. "Love." Hoyle's phrase is, "when your adversary is six or seven love." This is when your adversary has scored six or seven (of course at long whist), and you have scored nothing; "nothing" and "love" being with card-players equivalent terms; as when we speak of "playing for love."

3. "Lurch." This term, in connection with whist, seems to be passing into disuse. But when your adversaries have scored nine, and you win the odd trick, one still hears it occasionally said that you have "saved your

GALEATUS.-I saw the other day at a friend's house a copy of the Vulgate, which he had bought at Rio. It was a modern edition, printed at Vesontio, or Besançon; prefixed was" S. Hieronymi Prologus Galeatus." What is the meaning of this word as here used? E. H. A.

[The object of Jerome is to distinguish between authentic and spurious books. His Prologue may serve as a helmeted introduction to all the books of Scripture, which we have translated from Hebrew into Latin: so

that we may be able to know, that whatever is beyond these, is to be put among the apocryphal books. (Horne's Introduction, i. 494, edit. 1856). "Galeatus prologus dicitur per metaphoram, in quo ea dicuntur, quæ faciunt ad tuendam auctoritatem libri, cui præponitur. Ita prologum suum inscripsit D. Hieronymus, quem S. Scripturæ præfixit."-Facciolati, Lexicon, s. v.]

SIR TOBIE MATTHEW.-Is anything known of a curious MS. formerly in the collection of Dr. Neligan, and described in the appendix to Mr. W. H. Smith's Bacon and Shakspeare? CPL.

[About the year 1835, Dr. Neligan printed thirty-five copies of an account of this manuscript, entitled "Brief Description of a curious Manuscript, A true historicall Relation of the Conversion of Sir Tobie Matthew to the Holy Catholic Fayth." Small 8vo. The original MS. was sold at Sotheby's on August 17, 1855 (lot 178), and purchased by Mr. Lilly the bookseller. This is probably the manuscript formerly in the possession of the Rev. Alban Butler, and which consists of 234 pages, signed and sealed by Sir Tobie as an authentic account. It is dated September 8, 1640. An abridgment of this manuscript by Alban Butler was published in an octavo pamphlet of thirty-seven pages in 1795, edited by Charles Butler the barrister, and it is much to be regretted the whole document was not printed entire. The Life of Sir Tobie Matthew would form an excellent subject of historical biography.]

JARGONELLE. Did this variety of pear take its name from any locality in France, or from the name of its cultivator? C. D.

[We discover no authority for the derivation of this word from the name of any person or locality; and etymologists seem to have nothing to say upon the subject. We think it not impossible that our neighbours across the water may have derived their jargonnelle, on account of the partly yellow colour of the fruit, from jargon, a kind of yellow stone. Jargonnelle, Petite poire, mipartie jaune:" "Jargon, espèce de diamant jaune." Bescherelle, Dict. Nat.]

66

edited by Mr. Hailstone, and printed in the Proceedings of the Archeological Institute at York. Seward, in his Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, edit. 1798, i. 215-230, has given fifteen pages of extracts from it, "printed," he says, "for the first time."]

MANNINGHAM'S DIARY. - The Camden Society had some intention to publish this Diary, but I believe it was never carried out. May I ask how is it known to be Manningham's, and where can I obtain any information about him? I have seen it stated that he was the author of the saying about Dr. Donne's marriage, " John Donne, Anne Donne, Undone." CPL.

[For the discovery of this curious Diary and the identification of the writer, John Manningham of the Middle Temple, see Hunter's New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakspeare, ii. 365-376. Izaak Walton states that it was Donne himself, who immediately after his dismissal from the service of Sir Thomas Egerton, "sent a sad letter to his wife to acquaint her with it; and after the subscription of his name, writ John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done;' and God knows it proved too true."]

Replies.

SHERIDAN AND LORD BELGRAVE'S GREEK. (3rd S. iii. 209, 294.)

Among the many improbable and foolish "sayings and doings so frequently and so unfairly attributed to Mr. Sheridan, there cannot be a more foolish or improbable story than that quoted by your correspondent, FITZHOPKINS. Is it to be conceived that Mr. Sheridan, when addressing the House of Commons, would have ventured to impose on such an assembly by pretending to quote Greek, while he was only uttering gibberish? and that Mr. Fox, "who piqued himself" on his knowledge of Greek, as well as Lord Belgrave, who has been described as 66 a learned and accomplished young nobleman," should, after such buffoonery, compliment Mr. Sheridan on "his readiness of recollection," and the aptness of the quotation? The simple truth is tolerably fairly stated by your correspondent, J. C., and confirmed by the note he quotes from the satirical poem of the Pursuits of Literature (1797). There is no doubt that Lord Belgrave misquoted a passage from some Greek author, and that Mr. Sheridan corrected him. There is nothing surprising in this. Mr. Sheridan was probably as good, if not a better, Greek scholar than Lord Belgrave, with a memory quite as retentive. It is stated in Moore's Life, vol. i. p. 16, that at the early age of nineteen he had, in conjunction with his friend Halhed, of the same age, translated the seventh Idyl, and many other of the lesser poems, of Theocritus, and published a translation of Aristænetus in English

correspondents refer, I am enabled, from circumstances, to subjoin an unpublished stanza, from the original manuscript copy in my possession, of the "lampoons" referred to by Mr. Moore, at p. 81 of the 2nd vol. of Sheridan's Life, entitled,— "An incomparable new Ballad, which goes excellently well to the tune of

'Mrs. Arne, Mrs. Arne,

It gives me concarn,' &c.

proposed and intended to be sung at the opening of the Union Parliament-House:

"Lord Belgrave, Lord Belgrave,
Nay, why look so hellgrave?
And why do you never now speak?
Have the d-d Sunday papers
Giv'n your Lordship the vapours,

Or are you revising your Greek?

Lord Belgrave,
Say, are you revising your Greek?+"
To which are added the following notes:

"Vide his Lordship's methodistical harangue in support of Mr. Wilberforce's motion to suppress the Sunday papers.

"See Debrett's Reports for a celebrated Greek misquotation of his Lordship's."

CHRISTMAS CAROLS.

(3rd S. iii. 6, et seq.)

B. S.

Among the most curious remains of our sacred lyrical poetry are the Christmas Carols, which formed almost the only religious songs of the people in England previous to the versifying of the Psalms. Many of these are very quaint and curious, and it is a subject of regret that they have never been properly collected. Some few years since a MS. turned up in one of the Oxford Colleges containing some most valuable inedited specimens. This highly interesting volume was pointed out to my notice, immediately after its discovery by the present learned and courteous Oxford librarian, and I hope soon to take some steps to lay it before the public in a printed shape.

When I printed the version of "I saw three ships," in my small volume of Christmas Carols with the Tunes, I was not aware of the existence of the following rude lines, some of which are the original of the "quaint conceits" in the more modern Carol. The extract is from a rare volume entitled:

"Cantas, Songs, and Fancies, to three, four, or five Parts, both apt for voices and viols. With a brief Introduction to Musick, as is taught by Thomas Davidson, in the Musick-School of Aberdene. Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. Aberdene, printed by John Forbes, and are to be sold at his shop, Anno Domini, M.DC.LXVI.

"All sones of Adam, rise up with me,

Go praise the blessed Trinitie;

Cry Kyrie, with Hosanna,

Sing Alleluja now;

Save us all, Emanuel.
Then spake the Archangel Gabriel,
Said, Ave Mary milde,

The Lord of Lords is with thee,
Now shall you go with childe;
Ecce ancilla domini.

Then said the Virgin, as thou hast said, so that it be,
Welcome to heaven's king.

There comes a ship far sailing then,
Saint Michel was the stieres-man;
Saint John sate in the horn;
Our Lord harped, our Lady sang,
And all the bells of heaven they rang,
On Christ's Sonday at morn.
Then sang the Angels all and some,
Lauda deum tuum, Sion.

The sons of Adam answered, then sang,
Glore be to the God and man,

The Father and the Sprite,

Also with honor and perpetual joy."

I quite agree with Mr. Holland, who remarks in his Psalmists of Britain (i. 220, note), that in these early specimens, "the taste of the Poet is often more questionable than his piety, or his orthodoxy, especially when, in conformity with the religious feeling of the age, the profoundest mysteries of God manifest in the flesh,' were made the subjects of the most palpable illustration."

In connection with the present subject, I have now before me that rare volume, Ane Copendious Buik of Godlie Psalmes and Spirituall Sangis. The copy is imperfect, but it is an early edition. Of this work, which has been often printed, the earliest edition, referred to in the Life of James Melville, under the year 1570, is not known to exist. Mr. Jolley's copy, now in the Miller Collection, is that of 1578. A copy of another edition of the work, printed at Edinburgh by Robert Smyth, 1600, was sold at the Roxburghe sale, and afterwards at George Chalmers's; both editions are considered to be unique. A later edition, printed at Edinburgh by Andrew Hart, 1621, was reprinted in the collection entitled Scotish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, edited by Sir John Graham Dalyell, Edinb. 1801. 2 vols. 12mo. The "Compendious Buik" contains several interesting Carols on the birth of Christ. I extract a portion of one of these (the same as chosen by Mr. Holland) with the remark, that though rude and rough, it contains some touches of tenderness and simplicity which appeal directly to the heart.

"Ane Sang of the birth of Christ, with the tune of Baw lulalaw.

"This day to you is borne ane childe,
Of Marie meike, and Virgine milde;
That blissit barne, bining and kynde,
Sall you rejoyce baith heart and mynd.

"It is the Lord Christ, God and man, He will do for you quhat he can; Himself your Saviour hee will bee, Fra sinne and hell to make 3ow free.

A Note on the order of the composition of the books of Locke's Essay by MR. DOWDEN, shows a minute knowledge of the Essay. I think however, that MR. DOWDEN is mistaken in supposing that he has settled "beyond question" the order in which the books of the Essay were composed, and I consider that the extracts which he gives prove demonstratively that the fourth book of the Essay was the last in order of composition, and not the first, as MR. DOWDEN believes he has established. That my opinion is correct will, I think, be plain from the following considerations:

The dedication of the Essay concerning the Human Understanding to the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, bears the date of May 24, 1689; and in that dedication Locke states that the Essay "is grown up," and "has ventured into the world." We have, therefore, Locke's own statement that the work was complete on May 24, 1689.

The extract given by MR. DOWDEN from the fourth book, in which the date July 10, 1688, occurs, is taken from ch. xi. Now, if (as MR. DowDEN states he has established "beyond question") the fourth book was the first in order of composition, since Locke tells us the Essay was complete on May 24, 1689, it will follow that the whole of the Essay on the Human Understanding (with the exception of the first ten chapters of Book IV.) was composed in the interval between July 10, 1688, and May 24, 1689; that is, in the space of ten months and fourteen days!

Respecting the passage quoted by MR. DowDEN from Book 11. ch. xiv. § 30, it seems natural enough that Locke should have inserted after the words, "the present year," the date of the year in which the Essay was first published. It would appear strange to read in a book published for the first time on May 24, 1863, the words "this present year, 1862." Be that as it may, it is necessary to adopt this or some like conjecture,

or believe a manifest absurdity; viz. that the Essay was composed in ten months and fourteen days: an essay which Locke tells us (see Epist. to the Reader) was "written by incoherent parcels; and after long intervals of neglect, resumed again, as my humour or occasions permitted."

From the wording of the passage from Book IV.. ch. xi. § 11, quoted by MR. DOWDEN, it is evident that the date mentioned in it, July 10, 1688, is that of the day before the composition of the passage. If this date be correct (and Locke could have no reason for a misstatement), there would remain ten months, only a reasonable time for writing the remaining ten chapters of Book IV., and for correcting and revising the whole. I therefore conclude that the fourth book was the last in order of composition, as it is in arrangement, of the books of Locke's Essay.

That this conclusion is in direct contradiction to Dugald Stewart's conjecture, that the fourth book of the Essay was the first composed, I am fully aware; but the data on which I have argued are derived from Locke's work, and my reasoning, I venture to say, is correct. In support of my conclusion, I refer my readers to Locke's Essay, Book II. ch. ix. § 21, where he says, "But when having passed over the original and composition of our ideas I began to examine the extent and certainty of our knowledge, I found it had so near a connection with words that unless their force and manner of signification were first well observed there could be very little said clearly and pertinently concerning knowledge, from which it clearly follows that the three books of the Essay were written before the fourth.

I may give as an instance of the carelessness with which Dugald Stewart appears to have read Locke that he states, that "the name of Descartes does not once occur in Locke's work." Whereas in Locke's celebrated chapter on Maxims, Descartes is mentioned no less than three times.

DAVID LYNCH,

Student of Trinity College, Dublin.

THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

(3rd S. iii. 270, 289.)

I thought that the extinction of the English Langue of the Order of the Knights of Malta was now an admitted fact, and the Insignia, when now conferred upon English subjects, must be considered in the same light as that of any other foreign order.

You seem, however, to have correspondents interested upon the subject, and having some time since endeavoured to learn the history of the separation of the English from the other Langues, I send you the result at which I arrive, and which led to the conclusion that the English Langue

does not exist under any legal foundation; nor is it recognised by the governing authorities of the surviving foreign Langues.

The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, once the most celebrated equestrian order, combining a military with a religious character, and possessed originally of large revenues, has been known throughout Europe under the several designations of Knights Hospitallers of St. John, Knights of Rhodes, and Knights of Malta.

From its earliest foundation, an English branch or Langue of this Order was united to the original body, and the Grand Prior of England, under the title of "The Prior of St. John of Jerusalem," had place and seat in Parliament. The Order is said to have been introduced into Scotland under King David I. (1124), and into Ireland by the Earl of Pembroke about 1174.

The house or hospital of the English branch was at Clerkenwell, and the Order was countenanced by the pontiff and every potentate in Europe.

In the commencement of the fourteenth century (1322), the Order, by a decree of its Chapter held at Montpelier (or Avignon, as some writers say), was divided into seven Langues or Nations; and in that council England was placed sixth in rank, and soon afterwards an eighth division was made called Castile and Portugal, so that the Langues or Nations stood thus: —

Three French-1. Provence; 2. Auvergne; 3. France. 4. Italian; 5. Spanish or Aragon; 6. English; 7. German; 8. Castile and Portugal. After a lapse of four centuries the overthrow of this independent Order has been in great degree accomplished.

The last locality of the Knights as a body was Malta, and its sovereign independence was considered extinguished when Napoleon Buonaparte in 1798 took possession of that island, and confiscated the estates and revenues of the remaining Knights, who were disunited, and had degenerated from their former greatness.

The Order within the limits of France had ceased to exist by an enactment of the Constituent Assembly in 1792, Rohan, elected in 1775, being at that time Grand Master. By the capitulation of June 12, 1798 with the French (Ferdinand de Hompesch then Grand Master), Malta was lost to the Order; but it is alleged that the supreme executive authority remained vested in the Grand Mastership and Sacred Council of the Order, and that the overthrow of the Order by its expulsion from Malta did not affect any one existing Language more than another.

Rohan, in 1797, foreseeing and fearing the intentions of the Directory of the French Republic to seize upon Malta, had sought the protection of the court of Russia for the falling brotherhood, but he died on the 13th July before Baili Count

a

de Litta (whom he had dispatched to St. Petersburgh) returned. Ferdinand de Hompesch was elected in his place Grand Master; he was member of the German Langue; had been ambassador of the Order at the court of Vienna, and afterwards Grand Bailiff of Brandenburgh, Chief of the Anglo-Bavarian Langue, added to the Order in 1782.

The Emperor Paul had just succeeded to the crown, and, yielding to Rohan's solicitations, restored to the Order their possessions in Poland, which had fallen to Russia upon the partition of that kingdom, and converted the Polish Priory, largely augmented in revenue, into a Russian Priory. On November 29, the emperor was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order, and assumed the title of "Protector of the Order of Malta."

The great body of the knighthood, who, upon their expulsion from Malta became destitute, proceeded to Russia, the emperor having retained the title of "Protector of the Order; " and although the Grand Master, Hompesch, was the undoubted head, they assembled in conclave, and elected the emperor Grand Master on October 27, 1797.*

The Emperor Paul died in 1801, when Alexander, his successor, convened a council of the Order at St. Petersburgh (which called itself the Sovereign Council of the Order ") on June 22 in that year, wherein a substitute was proposed for the original mode of election of the Grand Mastership, as required by the condition in which the Order was then placed. The nomination from amongst the names contained in the several lists to be returned being left to the Pope as supreme chief of the Romish Church, and as superior of all religious orders. Under this degree John de Tomasi was named by the Pope Grand Master, and he resided at Catania until his death in 1805; since which period the executive functions of the Order have been carried on by Lieutenants of the Master in succession down to his Excellency Count Colloredo, Lieutenant, who succeeded in 1847, but now deceased.

Whether the nomination of the Emperor Paul was informal or imperfect, from the fact of Hompesch being alive, and not having resigned or surrendered his office of Grand Master, or from a want of the proper elements necessary to a valid election under the statutes, I cannot say; but it is clear that the Emperor Paul was pro

The proclamation states the members taking part were only the Bailiffs, Grand Crosses, Commanders, and Knights of the Russian Priory, with all other members of the Order of St. John then present in St. Petersburgh, being no doubt the fugitive members from Malta. At the time of the cession of Malta, there were in the convent the following knights:-Of the three French Langues, 4; Anglo-Bavarian, 5; total, 332. Of which number, 280 200; Italian, 90; Spanish, 25; Portuguese, 8; German,

were capable of bearing arms.