May 8. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



443 



" No great shakes." — Can any of your readers 

 state the origin of the expression " no great 

 shakes," which has obtained an almost universal 

 use, and is employed under a great variety of cir- 

 cumstances ? No doubt a knowledge of its deriva- 

 tion would interest many subscribers to " N. & Q." 

 as well as I. J. H. H. 



[_Shakes, as used in the following passage by Byron, 

 is a vulgarism, which probably niay be traced to the 

 custom of shaking hands, the shake being estimated 

 according to the value set upon the person giving it, 

 and hence applied to the person. Byron writing to 

 Murray, Sept. 28, 1820, says, " I had my hands full, 

 and ray head too just then (when he wrote Marino 

 Faliero), so it can be no great shakes." — See Richard- 

 son's Diet. s. «.] 



Translation of Richard de Bury. — Is the trans- 

 lation of Kichard de Bury's Philobiblon, "with 

 a memoir of the illustrious bishop," promised by 

 W. S. G., Vol. ii. p. 203., yet published ? L. S. 



[Our correspondent should remember, that "church 

 work is slow work," as Addison facetiously makes Sir 

 Roger de Coverley complain. From a pr ospectus 

 recently issued, we learn that the Philobiblon is still pre- 

 paring for publication ; and that gentlemen who may 

 wish to have copies are requested by the author to 

 transmit their names to Mr. R. Robinson, Pilgrim 

 Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.] 



Life of Ken. — Who is the author of the Life of 

 Bishop Ken, by a Layman, published a year or 

 two since ? E. G. 



Dorchester. 



[J. L. Anderdon, Esq., author of The River Dove, 

 &c., and editor of Bishop Ken's Approach to the Holy 

 Altar. ] 



^ Wedding Rings. — Can any of your informants 

 give me the origin of the wedding ring, by whom it 

 was introduced, and what it was meant to signify, 

 and does now signify ? Bosquecillo. 



[Wheatly, in his Rational Illustration of the Book of 

 'Common Prayer, ch. x. sect. 5., has ably discussed the 

 •origin of the marriage ring, accompanied with numerous 

 references to early and later writers on this visible 

 pledge of fidelity. ] 



Monasteries, Sfc. dissolved. — Will any of your 

 correspondents kindly inform me where I can find 

 an authentic account of the hospitals, monasteries, 

 and religious houses pillaged and destroyed, con- 

 sequent on the commission of inquiry issued by 

 Henry VIII. ? T. DysoN. 



Gauisborough. 



[The most authentic account of English monasteries, 

 &c. will be found in Dugdale's Monasticon, edited by 

 Cayley and Ellis; Tanner's Notitia, edit. 1744; and 

 Stevens's Additions to Dugdale. In Dodd's Church 

 History, by Tierney, vol. i. p. 458., will be found " A 

 List of the Abbots, Priors, and other Superiors of the 

 -Principal Religious Houses in England, from the 



Foundation to their Suppression." And for a list of all 

 the mitred abbots and priors of England, who are 

 known to have been mitred, or to have sat in parlia- 

 ment subsequent to the beginning of the reign of Ed- 

 ward III., see Glossary of Heraldry, pp. xxix. xxx,] 



Bishops at the Hampton Court Controversy. — 

 Can you inform me who were the nine bishops 

 who attended the Hampton Court conference in 

 1603-4? C.H.D. 



[Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift ; London, 

 Richard Bancroft ; D urham, Tobias Matthew ; Win- 

 chester, Thomas Bilson ; Worcester, Gervase Babing- 

 ton ; St. David's, Anthony Rudd ; Chichester, An- 

 thony Watson; Carlisle, Henry Robinson; Peterbo- 

 rough, Thomas Dove.] 



SCOTTISH BEGALIA. 



(Vol. iv., p. 208.) 



The story referred to by Jeremy Taylor reminds 

 me of a somewhat similar instance of dishonest as- 

 tuteness I lately heard of in Scotland, from an old 

 Highlander ; the which, though courtesy forbade 

 me to dispute, I at the time received " cum grano," 

 and have since been unable to verify. It was as 

 follows : 



The custodians (whether rightful or not, I know 

 not, as no date was assigned to the action of the 

 narrative) of the Scottish regalia being bound by 

 an oath to deliver it to the Governor of Carlisle, 

 as the nearest representative of the English sove- 

 reign, by a certain day, determined upon a plan 

 for performing (!), and at the same time evading, 

 their promise. Having selected the most able 

 steed in Scotland, a suitable deputation escorted 

 the regalia and the horse to the appointed place of 

 tradition. The embassy carrying with them the 

 more valuable and portable of their treasures — 

 the jewels, not the horse, of which hereafter, — 

 were duly admitted to an audience with the 

 governor, who received them in the presence, of 

 the principal inhabitants of Carlisle : and having 

 produced and surrendered the regalia (and doubt- 

 less taken an acquittance!), surreptitiously, and 

 with gipsey adroitness, regained possession of it, 

 and conveying it from the audience chamber, im- 

 mediately delivered it to an expectant messenger ; 

 who, mounted on the before-mentioned horse, 

 awaited its return outside the hall ; and who, 

 ventre a terre, pursued his eager flight across the 

 border, nor once drew rein until his precious bur- 

 den was again deposited in the custody of Scottish 

 tenure. Whether the deputation was dismissed, 

 and escaped before the discovery of its chicanery, 

 or whether the conspirators received the well- 

 merited punishment of their audacious dissimula- 

 tion, my informant knew not. And although the 

 story tells more in favour of the astuteness thaa 



