Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Number 218 December 31 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men Artists Antiquaries Genealogists etc. by Various Bell George Editor

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E. B.

A few volumes are in the British Museum. Vol. vi. is for July 1754 to January 1755.

NEWBURIENSIS.

Might it not be added to those already given for the other festivals of the Church, &c.? It would be an advantage in those churches where the Prayer Book Psalms are used, and might avoid the necessity of having separate Psalm and Hymn Books; a custom much to be objected to, differing as they do in different churches, as well as preventing strangers from taking part in them.

WILLO.

CRANSTON.

CARNATIC.

"Cicero declares that only three tones or variations of sound, or interval, were used in speaking in his time; whereas now our preachers, orators, and elocutionists take in a range of eight at least."

Will some indulgent reader of "N. & Q." tell me where such a passage occurs?

SEMI-TONE.

Minor Queries with Answers.

J. S. WARDEN.

As to the "unintelligible authorised version," I must premise that no version has yet had so large an amount of learning bestowed on it as the English one; indeed it has fairly beaten out of the field all the versions of all other sections of Christians. The difficulty of the English version arises from its close adherence to the oriental letter; but if we put the scope of this Psalm into the vernacular, such difficulty is eliminated.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

May I remark, by the way, that the Psalm falls rather into three strophes than into two. The first speaks of the raising up of the house, and of the city , protected by the Almighty. The last is in parallelism to the first, though, as often happens, expanded; and speaks of the raising up of the family, and of the family arrived at maturity, the defenders of the city, through the same protecting Providence. The central portion is the main and cardinal sentiment, viz. the vanity of mere human labour, and the peace of those who are beloved of God.

JOHN JEBB.

There is a proverb which foretells peril to such as interpose in the quarrels of others. But as neither Mr. Trench, nor E. M. B., nor MR. MARGOLIOUTH, have as yet betrayed any disposition to quarrel about the question in dispute, a looker-on need not be afraid of interposing.

HENRY WALTER.

N. B. inquires, whether the translation of Psalm cxxvii. 2. adopted by Mr. Trench has the sanction of any version but that of Luther. I beg leave to inform him that the passage was translated in the same manner by Coverdale: "For look, to whom it pleaseth Him He giveth it in sleep." De Wette also, in modern times, has "Giebt er seinen Geliebten im Schlafe."

Vatablus, in his Annotations, approves of such a rendering: "Dabit in somno dilectis suis." It has also been suggested in the notes of several modern critics.

Not one of the ancient versions sanctions this translation.

The sense of the passage will be much the same whichever of these translations be adopted. But the common rendering appears to me to harmonise best with the preceding portion of it.

S. D.

MAJOR ANDR?.

The following extracts and cuttings from newspapers, relative to the unfortunate Major Andr?, may interest your correspondent SERVIENS. I believe I have some others, which I will send when I can lay my hand upon them. I inclose a pencil copy of the scarce print of a sketch from a pen-and-ink drawing, made by Andr? himself on Oct. 1, 1780, of his crossing the river when he was taken:

"As soon as the curiosity of the spectators was gratified, a large circle was formed; when Mr. Eggleso, the undertaker, with his assistants, uncovered the sarcophagus, into which the remains were carefully removed. This superb depository, in imitation of those used in Europe for the remains of the illustrious dead, was made by Mr. Eggleso, of Broadway, of mahogany; the pannels covered with rich crimson velvet, surrounded by a gold bordering; the rings of deep burnished gold; the pannel also crimson velvet, edged with gold; the inside lined with black velvet; the whole supported by four gilt balls.

"The remains of the lamented Major Andr? have been lately removed from the spot where they were originally interred in the year 1780, at Tappan, New York, and brought to England in the Phaeton frigate by order of his Royal Highness the Duke of York. Yesterday the sarcophagus was deposited in front of the cenotaph in Westminster Abbey, which was erected by his late Majesty to the memory of this gallant officer. The reinterment took place in the most private manner, the Dean of Westminster superintending in person, Major-Gen. Sir Herbert Taylor attending on the part of his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief and Mr. Locker, Secretary to Greenwich Hospital, on behalf of the three surviving sisters of the deceased."--From newspaper of which the name and date have not been preserved.

G. C.

With many thanks for the obliging replies to my Query for information concerning this gentleman, I would desire to repeat it in a more specific form. Can none of your readers inform me whether there do not remain papers, &c. of or concerning Major Andr?, which might without impropriety be at this late day given to the world; and if so, by what means access could be had thereto? Are there none such in the British Museum, or in the State Paper Offices? My name and address are placed with the Editor of this journal, at the service of any correspondent who may prefer to communicate with me privately.

SERVIENS.

Major Andr? occupied Dr. Franklin's house when the British army was in Philadelphia in 1777 and 1778. When it evacuated the city, Andr? carried off with him a portrait of the Doctor, which has never been heard of since. The British officers amused themselves with amateur theatricals at the South Street Theatre in Southwark, then the only one in Philadelphia, theatres being prohibited in the city. The tradition here is, that Andr? painted the scenes. They were destroyed with the theatre by fire about thirty-two years ago.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

PASSAGE IN WHISTON.

The book for which J.T. inquires is:

Afterwards he says:

H. B. C.

Garrick Club.

HELMETS.

The following observations upon the helmet, by Stephen Martin Leake, Esq., Garter, may be acceptable to your querist S. N.

"In Great Britain we have but four kinds of helmets, according to the four different degrees in the state--the king, the nobility, knights, and gentry. The sovereign helmet full fronted, having seven barrs or guards, visure without any bever; the nobilities the same, but half turned to the right, and usually showing four barrs; the knight's helmet full fronted, with the bever turned up; and the gentleman's in profile, the bever or visor close; using steel helmets for all as the only proper metal for a helmet common to all. Foreigners condemn us for attributing that helmet to a knight, which they give to a king; and more proper, says Mackensie, for a king without guard-visure than for a knight , because knights are in danger, and have less need to command. But it must be observed, the knight's helmet has a visor, and no barrs; the sovereign's barrs, because no visor. And this kind of helmet, with barrs instead of a visor, seems to have been contrived for princes and great commanders, who would have been incommoded by the visor, and too much exposed without anything, therefore had barrs: whereas knights being, according to Mackensie, in more danger and having less need to command, had their helmet for action; and are represented with the bever up, ready to receive the king or general's command. As to the resemblance of the one to the other, both being in full front, the connexion was not anciently so remote as seems at this day. Knighthood is the first and most ancient military honour, and therefore at this day sovereign princes and knights are the only two honours universally acknowledged. Knighthood is the source of all honours, and of all military glory, and an honour esteemed by and conferred upon kings; without which they were heretofore thought incomplete, and could not confer that honour on others, no more than ordination could be conferred by one unordained: so that there was a very near connexion between sovereignty and knighthood. And besides, the propriety of the open helmet with a visor for a knight, and the helmet guard-visure for a king, the latter is more ornamental, especially if, according to the modern practice, the barrs are gold. As the king's helmet is without a visor, and barred, so is that of the nobility in imitation of it, but turned to the right as a proper distinction as, in like manner, that of the gentry differs from the knights. As there are in fact but two orders of men, nobility of which the king is the first degree, and gentry of which knights are the first, so they are by this means sufficiently distinguished according to their respective orders and degrees: the first order distinguished by the barred helmet, the gentry by the visored helmet with proper differences of the second degrees of each class from the first; and all other distinctions more than this are unnecessary and useless.

HAMPDEN'S DEATH.

"On the 21st of July, 1828, the corpse of John Hampden was disinterred by the late Lord Nugent for the purpose of settling the disputed point of history as to the manner in which the patriot received his death-wound. The examination seems to have been conducted after a somewhat bungling fashion for a scientific object, and the facts disclosed were these: 'On lifting up the right arm we found that it was dispossessed of its hand. We might therefore naturally conjecture that it had been amputated, as the bone presented a perfectly flat appearance, as if sawn off by some sharp instrument. On searching under the cloths, to our no small astonishment we found the hand, or rather a number of small bones, inclosed in a separate cloth. For about six inches up the arm the flesh had wasted away, being evidently smaller than the lower part of the left arm, to which the hand was very firmly united, and which presented no symptoms of decay further than the two bones of the forefinger loose. Even the nails remained entire, of which we saw no appearance in the cloth containing the remains of the right hand.... The clavicle of the right shoulder was firmly united to the scapula, nor did there appear any contusion or indentation that evinced symptoms of any wound ever having been inflicted. The left shoulder, on the contrary, was smaller and sunken in, as if the clavicle had been displaced. To remove all doubts, it was adjudged necessary to remove the arms, which were amputated with a penknife . The socket of the left arm was perfectly white and healthy, and the clavicle firmly united to the scapula, nor was there the least appearance of contusion or wound. The socket of the right shoulder, on the contrary, was of a brownish cast, and the clavicle being found quite loose and disunited from the scapula, proved that dislocation had taken place. The bones, however, were quite perfect.' These appearances indicated that injuries had been received both in the hand and shoulder, the former justifying the belief in Sir Robert Pye's statement to the Harleys, that the pistol which had been presented to him by Sir Robert, his son-in-law, had burst and shattered his hand in a terrible manner at the action of Chalgrave Field; the latter indicating that he had either been wounded in the shoulder by a spent ball, or had received an injury there by falling from his horse after his hand was shattered. Of these wounds he died three or four days after, according to Sir Philip Warwick. According to Clarendon, 'three weeks after being shot into the shoulder with a brace of bullets, which broke the bone.' The bone, however, was not found broken, and the 'brace of bullets' is equally imaginary."

W. S.

Northiam.

PETER ALLAN.

Peter Allan deserves more than a brief notice. His history is so full of romance, the relics of his name and fame are so many, and he is withal so little known, that I presume I may on this occasion trespass on more than the ordinary space allotted to a "minor," but which should be a "major" Query.

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