Mat 15. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



469 



Review of Hewett's Memoirs of Rustat. — In 

 what literary paper can I find a review of Mr. 

 Hewett's Memoirs of Tobias Rustat ? C. W. 



[A review of this work will be found in the Gentle- 

 man's Magazine of June, 1850, pp. 638 — 640.] 



Robert Recorde.— Can any of your readers in- 

 form me whether Robert Recorde, who in 1549, or 

 possibly some years later, was Comptroller of the 

 Mint at Bristol, was the same person as the author 

 of The Whetstone of Wit, and other mathematical 

 works? Also, whether there is any fuller account 

 of his life to be met with than that given by Hutton ? 



J. E. 



[It does not appear that Robert Recorde, the cele- 

 brated mathematician, was ever connected with the 

 Bristol mint. The best account we have met with of 

 the author of The Whetstone of Wit, is in Mr. Halliwell's 

 pamphlet on The Connexion of Wales with the Earhj 

 Science of England, 8vo., 1840. Consult also a very 

 able and learned article in the Companion to the British 

 Almanack for 1837, pp. 30—37., by Professor De 

 Morgan.] 



Strange Opinions of great Divines. — I shall be 

 obliged to any of your correspondents who can 

 give me references to the following quotations 

 from the works of two great divines : 



(I.) "I would that we were well rid of this [the 

 Athanasian] Creed." 



(2.) " The Apocalypse either finds a man mad, or 

 leaves him so." 



C. Mansfield Inglebt. 



[1. Tlie first quotation will be found in a letter of 

 Archbishop Tillotson's to Bishop Burnet, dated Oct. 23, 

 1694. The archbishop says, " The account given of 

 Athanasius' Creed (i. e. in Burnet's Exposition of the 

 Thirty-nine Articles) seems to me no-wise satisfactory. 

 I wish we were well rid of it." Dr. Birch adds, " The 

 archbishop did not long survive the writing of this 

 letter." — See Birch's Life of Tillotson, edit. 1 752, p. 343. ; 

 ed. 1753, p. 315. Consult also Remarks upon Dr. 

 Birch's Life of Tillotson, Svo., 1753, p. 53., anonymous, 

 but attributed to George Smith, a Nonjuror. 



2. The second quotation is probably the following, 

 which occurs in Dr. South's Sermon on the Nature 

 and Measures of Conscience (Serm. XXIII.): "Be- 

 cause the light of natural conscience is in many things 

 defective and dim, and the internal voice of God's 

 Spirit not always distinguishable, above all, let a man 

 attend to the mind of God, uttered in His revealed 

 Word : I say. His revealed Word ; by which I do not 

 mean that mysterious, extraordinary (and of late so 

 much studied) book called ' The Revelation,' and 

 which, perhaps, the more it is studied, the less it is 

 understood, as generally either finding a man cracked, 

 or making him so; but I mean those other writings of 

 the prophets and apostles, which exhibit to us a plain, 

 sure, perfect, and intelligible rule; a rule that will 

 neither fail nor distract such as make use of it."] 



Inquisitiones Post Mortem. — "What are these, 

 extending to seven volumes, regularly paged, and 



coming down to 1656, referred to in Oldfield's 

 History of Wainfleet f Are they printed works ? 

 It is quite a different publication to the Calen- 

 darinm, &c. in four volumes. 

 When did the Post Mortem Inquisitions cease ? 



W. H. L. 



[The Inquisitiones quoted by Oldfield are sometimes 

 called Cole's Escheats, and will be found in the Har- 

 leian Collection in the British Museum, the first five 

 volumes in Nos. 756. to 760., and the sixth and 

 seventh, Nos. 410, 411.] 



Derivation of Carmarthen. — What is the de- 

 rivation of this word Carmarthen ? Llewellyn. 



[Caermarthen appears to have been the Maridunum 

 of.Ptolemy, and the Muridunum of Antoninus, one of 

 the principal stations in the country of the Dimetffi, 

 situated on the Via Julia, or great Roman road. Its 

 modern name of Caermarthen, or Caer Fyrdden, as it 

 is called by the Welsh (by a change of the convertible 

 consonants/and to, common in their language), implies 

 " a military station fortified with walls," and perfectly 

 agrees with the description given by Giraldus Cam- 

 brensis, who calls it " Urbs antiqua coctilibus muris."] 



'■'■ MedicBval and Middle -4g-e5." — These terms 

 are now in constant use, and very differently and 

 vaguely defined. Will any of your correspondents, 

 antiquaries or historians, say what period is com- 

 prehended in these terms, and give the date when 

 it should commence, and when terminate ? L. T. 



[The late lamented Rev. J. G. Dowling, in his 

 Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical His- 

 tory, fixes upon the Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 451, as 

 the commencement of the Mediaeval, or Middle Ages, 

 which he thinks ended with the revival of classical 

 literature in the fifteenth century, " that age of transi- 

 tion and revolution, combining in itself several of the 

 most striking characteristics of the two states of society 

 between which it forms the interval." This able work 

 ought to find a place in the library of every ecclesi- 

 astical student.] 



Garlands hung up in Churches. — It is said that 

 the pretty wild flower, the small Woodruff {Aspe- 

 rula Cynanchica), was formerly employed in adorn- 

 ing the walls of churches. Is this true ? If so, 

 what was the origin of the custom ? Was this 

 particular flower thus used for the reason that it 

 long preserves its scent ? Is it mentioned by any 

 early poet in connexion with the decoration of 

 churches ? R. Vincent. 



[Garlands of Rosemary and Woodroof were formerly 

 used to decorate the churches on St. Barnabas' day, as 

 appears by many old entries and church-books; e. g. in 

 the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, in the 

 city of London, 17 and 19 Edward IV., the following 

 entry occurs : " For Rose garlondis and Woodrove gar- 

 londis on St. Barnebe's daye, xjd." The reason Wood- 

 roof was used, Gerard tells us in his Historic of Plants, 

 p. 965. : " It doth very well attemper the aire, coole and 

 make fresh the place, to the delight and comfort of such 

 as are therein."] 



