2'"« S. VII. April 2. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



283 



The words of Mb. Cornish imply that Trorap 

 came on the coasts of England, as boasting of 

 what he intended to do ; while history tells us 

 plainly, that the English fleet had left the field of 

 battle when the broom was hoisted, which makes a 

 great difference. 



The renown of the great Admiral Tromp is too 

 much recognised, even by England itself (see bio- 

 graphical Memoir of Marten Harperssoon [van"] 

 Tromp, the celebrated Dutch admiral, in the 37th 

 vol. of the Naval Chron., London, 1817).* That 

 Mr. Cornish will readily see ; he has, not inten- 

 tionally I am sure, stained the fair fame of a great 

 man by, as his words imply, exhibiting Tromp as 

 afanfaron. Among the many faults of the Dutch 

 nation, fanfaronade and boasting are, I think, not 

 prominent. Don Quichotte. 



Poetical Allusion (2"'^ S. vii. 105.) — 



" Venere et Celtaa sociati nomen Iberis, 

 His pugna cecidisse decus, corpusque cremari 

 Tale nefas ; coelo credunt Superisque referri, 

 Impastus carpat si membra jacentia vultur." 



C. Silii Italic!, Punioruni, L. iii. 340. 

 " In coelum redire putaut animam. Quare ? forte quia 

 aves ccelo diisque propriores esse fingebantur, ex quS rudi 

 iiotione auguria quoque orta, et quod in apotheosi Caasa- 

 rum aquila animam defuncti in coelum portare credebatur. 

 Caspii, teste Strab. xi. si mortuos ab avibus dilaniari 

 viderint, pradicabant beatos, sin a feris aut canibus non 

 item." — Euperti, not. ad loc, T. i. p. 214. 



H. B. C. 

 U. U. Club. 



Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (2'"^ S. vii. 

 106.) — In answer to J. G. N.'s inquiries I beg to 

 refer him to the biographical notice of Sir Ed- 

 ward Dyer prefixed to the first volume of Sir 

 Harris Nicolas's edition of Davison's Poetical 

 Rhapsody, 2 vols. 8vo., Lond. 1826, particularly 

 the letter of the 9th October, 1572, from Sir 

 Edward Dyer to Sir Christopher Hatton. Of 

 this letter Sir Harris Nicolas states that no do- 

 cument had ever fallen under his observation 

 which afforded so much data for forming a con- 

 clusive opinion upon the question of the queen's 

 moral character. And farther on he states : — 



" It is not lightly, nor upon slight grounds, that the 

 character of any woman should be suspected, much less 

 when that woman was one of the most powerful mo- 

 narchs that ever swaj'ed the English sceptre. Not- 

 withstanding all the insinuations of historians, and the 

 unauthenticated stories so commonly promulgated against 

 Elizabeth, the writer's opinion was decidedl}^ against the 

 justice of the accusations; but the letter under consider- 

 ation has produced a conviction of an immediately op- 

 posite nature ; and with whatever reluctance the opinion 

 of her immorality has been formed, it is now, however, 



* I have no opportunity here to look at the work quoted, 

 but hope that one of your readers will be so kind as to 

 inform me what is found there about this matter. 



but too firmly established. This important conclusion, if 

 just, affords a key to many parts of Elizabeth's conduct, 

 which have hitherto been irreconcileable with the mag- 

 nanimity which she sometimes displayed." — Pages Ixxii. 

 and Ixxvi. 



In p. Ixxiv. is an extract from a note in Dr. 

 Lingard's History of England, 4to. vol. v. p. 660. ; 

 8vo. vol. viii. p. 535., containing a full account of 

 Cardinal Allen's scurrilous pamphlet entitled An 

 Admonition to the People of England. 



The above-mentioned edition of the Rhapsody 

 is now rather scarce, as there were only 250 

 copies published by Pickering. W. H. W. T. 



[Sir Edw. Dyer's extraordinary communication to Sir 

 Christ. Hatton is extracted from the Harl. MSS. 787. 

 f. 88., being a collection of transcripts of many letters 

 and papers said to have been found in the study of Mr. 

 Dell, secretarj' to Archbishop • Laud ; its authenticity, 

 therefore, may be fairly questioned. See the matter ably 

 discussed in the Quarterly Review, xcv. pp. 239 — 249. 

 —Ed.] 



Cant (2"d S. vi. 458. ; vii. 72. 157.) — There is 

 one argument in favour of the derivation of this 

 word from canto which has not yet been stated. 

 The French word chanter is used sometimes in the 

 sense of cant. In answer to a whining, pitiful 

 tale which he did not believe, a Frenchman would 

 say " Quest ce que c'est que vous chantez la ? " 

 I speak under correction of your French corre- 

 spondents. Stymtes. 



" The whole Duty of a Christian,^'' by the Author 

 of the ^^ Devout Communicant" (2"'' S. vii. 149.)— 

 A work under the title of The ivhole Didy of a 

 Christian (Lond. 1705, and 5th ed. Lond. 1718) 

 is attributed to Robert Nelson by Watt and tbe 

 Bodleian Catalogue ; and, according to the same 

 authorities, a work called The Devout Communi- . 

 cant, (1686, 8vo.) was written by Abednego Seller, 

 but I can find no statement which identifies the 

 author of the first book with that of the second. 



'AAtew. 



Dublin. 



Cant Phrases (2°* S. vii. 217.) : A Councillor 

 of the Pipowder Court. — The Pipowder Court 

 was a court held at fairs, wherein justice was 

 done to any injured person before the dust of the 

 fair was off his feet : the name derived from the 

 French pie poudre. Others think that the name 

 is derived from pied-pouldreux, a pedlar, and was 

 given to a court held at a fair to settle disputes 

 arising between pedlars, who largely frequented, 

 such places. (Todd's Johnson's Diet.) The ped- 

 lar was not held in any great esteem in the reigns 

 of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., being 

 classed, in directions to the justices of the peace, 

 among rogues and vagabonds. A counsellor in 

 the Pipowder Court might mean, then, a person 

 engaged in the court above mentioned as ad- 

 vocate for the suitors who frequented it, and 

 whose character was not likely to be very refined, 



