614 



NOTES AND QUERIES: 



[No, 139. 



the parish for release from his difficulty ; and this 

 gentleman, being a man of the world, said that he 

 was the last person who ought to have been con- 

 sulted, but since it was so, the churchyard and the 

 shades of evening afforded a remedy. 



Perhaps it is worth adding, that when Sir W. 

 Page Wood, the late Solicitor-General, would have 

 brought a bill into parliament to relieve dissenters 

 from the payment of church rates, on condition 

 that they consented to forego all claim upon the 

 services of the church, including of course the 

 burial service, the bargain was declined by them. 



Alfred GAxrr. 



"quod non tecerunt barbabi, etc. 

 (Vol. v., p. 559.) 



Your correspondent Mr. Brekn is mistaken in 

 supposing this "epigram" to refer to the Bar- 

 berini spoliation of the Coliseum ; it was an equally 

 important and more sacrilegious theft that aroused 

 Pasquin's satire and indignation. 



Urban VIII. (Matteo Barberini), 162.3-44, had 

 just stripped the dome of the Pantheon of the 

 bronze that adorned it, to construct therewith the 

 baldaccliino over the high altar in St. Peter's. 

 The amount of metal obtained, says Venuti, was 

 upwards of 450,250 pounds weight ; and upon the 

 principle of robbing Peter to pay Paul, the ma- 

 terial thus stolen from the Madonna was dedicated 

 to the service of San Pietro. Bernini was the 

 artist employed, from whose taste, perhaps, little 

 better was to be expected ; and the baldacchino, 

 though highly ornamented, richly gilt, and of im- 

 posing dimensions, certainly makes the beholder 

 regret that the metal was moved from its original 

 position. It was costly enough too, upwards of 

 20,000?. having been expended upon its pro- 

 duction. 



Urban evidently had a practical turn for war- 

 fare by no means unusual to the possessors of the 

 " holy see," for we find that the surplusage of the 

 metal was cast into cannon for the defence of St. 

 Angelo. 



This pope certainly was one of the most un- 

 sparing despoilers of the Coliseum, inasmuch as 

 the huge pile of the Palazzo Barbarini was erected 

 by him with stone supplied solely from that con- 

 venient and inexpensive quarry. If, however, we 

 reflect that he did but follow the example of many 

 of his predecessors (Paul II. built the Palazzo di 

 Venezia, and Paul III. the Farnese, from the same 

 exhaustless supply), and that the Coliseum was not 

 only much ruined by the " barbarians " during the 

 various sieges of Rome, but was used as a fortress 

 by the Frangipani in the Middle Ages, the pas- 

 quinade quoted by Mr. Bbeen would hardly have 

 been applicable to Urban's misdeeds in that 

 quarter. Nor was the Coliseum at that time con- 

 secrated ground, as it was not till the year 1750 



that Benedict XIV., with a view to protect it 

 from future depredation, dedicated it to the me^ 

 mory of the Christian martyrs who had perished 

 in its arena. But the Pantheon, consecrated as 

 early as a.d. 608, under the name of S.Maria 

 Rotonda, had been respected and spared by all, 

 whether Arian or barb-"arian;" and it was re- 

 served for a " Santo Padre " of the seventeenth 

 century to despoil a Christian Church, and himself 

 set an example of sacrilege to the Christian woi'ld. 

 Urban was the sole member of the Barberini 

 family (of Florentine extraction) that ever attained 

 the papal tiara. The amount of wealth stated to 

 have been amassed by him during his pontificate 

 appears almost fabulous. 



The author of the pasquinade in question is, I 

 believe, unknown. A. P. 



Bayswater. 



(Vol. v., p. 535.) 



I am inclined to think that your correspondents, 

 however deeply they may be versed in " Folk- 

 Lore," are generally not much acquainted with 

 " Horse- Lore." Such, at least, is the opinion that 

 is warranted by the extraordinary nature of the 

 questions (not many in number, it is true) which 

 have been put in relation to that subject, and of 

 the replies that have been given to them. In the 

 case now before us, J. R. has only superficially 

 considered the matter. He takes one out of many 

 definitions " in our dictionaries," and on that takes 

 his stand. He is manifestly in error. The tempt- 

 ing facility of referring all words similar in ap- 

 pearance to the same etymon lies at the root of 

 his mistake ; for restive, as he will find on more 

 patient investigation, is by our lexicographers 

 (Richardson, for example) classed under a differ- 

 ent root from rest, used to express quiescence, or 

 repose. Restive, or more properly restiff, is equi- 

 valent to the French 7'etif, or Italian restio ; and, 

 as applied to horses, means those which resist the 

 will of their rider. Hence, whether in_ standing 

 stock still, in running away, in rearing,_in plung- 

 ing, or in kicking, they employ their natural 

 means of defence against the control of the cava- 

 lier, and may equally be called restiff. In sup- 

 port of this view, take the following quotation, to 

 which others might be added. It is from Grisone, 

 Ordini di Cavalcare, 4to., 1550 : 



« Sj il cavallo e restio, il piu dellc volte precede per 

 colpa del Cavaliero, per una di queste ragioni. Overo il 

 Cavallo e vile, e di poca forza, e essendo troppo moles- 

 tato si abandona e avvilisce di sorte die accorando non 

 vuole caminare avante ; over e superbo, e gagliardo, 

 e dandogli fatica, egli mancandogli un poco di lena, si 

 prevalera con salti, e con aggrupparsi, e con altre malig- 

 nita,.6 fara pur questo dal principio che si caralca, di 

 maniera cheseallora conoscera ohi il Cavaliero lo teme. 



