66 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[July 28. 1855. 



in these cases that the idea of the mind is a totality, 

 and that it is with that simple idea that we make 

 the word accord. But this is not orthodoxy. 



While on these trifles I may mention the ex- 

 pression " a three-year old," and a man " six foot 

 iigh," which latter my schoolmaster used to be of 

 opinion that no boy could use at home without 

 risk of caitsing great pain and sorrow to his 

 relatives and well-wishers. Perhaps some of your 

 readers can furnish me with analogous licenses in 

 foreign languages, which more liberal grammarians 

 than ours have stamped as idioms. I think the 

 Germans use the singular form Jahr (year) with a 

 plural numeral adjective. W. M. T. 



Epigram on Prayer. — The Monitor, published 

 March, 1712-13, performed by Mr. Tate, Poet 

 Laureat, Mr. Smith, and others, contains the fol- 

 lowing 



"epigram on pkayek. 



Prayer highest soars when she most prostrate lies. 



And when she supplicates, she storms the skies. 



Thus to gain Heav'n may seem an easy task, 



For what can be more easy than to ask ? 



Yet oft we do by sad experience find, 



That, clogged with earth, some prayers are left behind, 



And some like chaflf blown oflF by every wind. 



To kneel is easy, to pronounce not hard. 



Then why are some petitioners debarr'd? 



Hear what an ancient oracle declared ; 



Some sing their prayers, and some their prayers say. 



He's an Elias, who his prayers can pray. 



Reader, remember, when you next repair 



To church or closet, this memoir of prayer." 



What oracle is here alluded to ? Cl. Hoppee. 



Old College of Physicians. — Can any of your 

 correspondents refer me to any engraving of — 



1. Linacre's house in Knight Rider Street, 

 given by him to the College of Physicians, and 

 used as their place of meeting till the early part 

 of the seventeenth century ? 



2. The College of Physicians at the end of 

 Paternoster Row (Amen Corner), to which the 

 great Harvey added a library and museum? Both 

 of these were destroyed in the Great Fire. The 

 latter was on ground belonging to the Dean and 

 Chapter of St. Paul's. W. M. 



Minav ^uexieS tut'tft ^n^tvg. 



Robert Pont. — In the Scotch version of me- 

 trical psalms, " R. P." or " R. Pon." are prefixed 

 to several of the psalms. Mr. Laing, librarian to 

 the Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh, supposes 

 that Robert Pont, a zealous Scotch Reformer, was 

 the author of these. But I can see nothing in his 

 antecedents, habits, or style of writing and think- 

 ing, favourable to this supposition. From several 

 of the psalms attributed to him being rendered 

 into very peculiar metres, and set to tunes from 



IJo. 300.] 



the French version, I am induced to think the 

 writer must have also been a Genevan refugee, 

 and consequently acquainted with the Genevan 

 psalmody. J. A. Perthensis. 



[Holland, in TTie Psalmists of Great Britain, vol. L 

 p. 190., has the following notice of Robert Pont: "In 

 1575, Bassandyne the printer published in Edinburgh 

 'The CL. Psalmes of David, in English metre,' with 

 Prayers and other Formularies of the Church of Scot- 

 land. This version was probably the work of Robert 

 Pont, who was one of the most renowned versifiers of the 

 Psalms in the sixteenth century. He was minister of St. 

 Cuthbert's Kirk, highl}' esteemed by the clergy, and was 

 appointed a Lord of Session, dying in 1608 at the ripe 

 age of eighty-one. His wife was a daughter of the cele- 

 brated John Knox. In 1601, the following motion of the 

 General Assembly was passed : ' Anent ye Translation of 

 ye Psalmes in meeter. It is ordainet that the same [i.e. 

 the old version] be revisit by Mr. Robt. Pont, minister of 

 St. Cuthbert's Kirk, and his travels be revisit at the next 

 Assm'lie.' It does not appear, however, that Pont pro- 

 ceeded in the business." Our correspondent will find a 

 notice of the various contributors to Sternhold and Hop- 

 kins's version in " N. & Q.," Vol. x., p. 366.] 



Blue Beard. — Can any of your correspondents 

 kindly inform me who Blue Beard was ? Any 

 information on the subject will oblige Easbt. 



[The original Blue Beard was Giles de Laval, Lord of 

 Raiz, who was made Marshal of France in 1429, and in 

 the reigns of Charles VI. and VII. distinguished himself 

 by his courage against the English when they invaded 

 France. The services that he rendered his country might 

 have immortalised his name, had he not for ever blotted 

 his glory by murders, impieties, and debaucheries. Meze- 

 ray says that he encouraged and maintained sorcerers to 

 discover hidden treasures, and corrupted young persons 

 of both sexes, that he might attach them to him, and 

 afterwards killed them for the sake of their blood for his 

 charms and incantations. At length, for some state crime 

 against the Duke of Brittany, he was sentenced to be 

 burnt alive in a field at Nantes in 1440. Holinshed no- 

 tices another Blue Beard in the reign of Henry VI., anno 

 1450. Speaking of the committal of the Duke of Sufiblk 

 to the Tower, he says, " This doing so much displeased 

 the people, that if politike provision had not been made, 

 great mischief had immediately ensued. For the com- 

 mons in sundry places of the realm assembled together in 

 great companies, and chose to them a captain, whom they 

 called Blue Beard ; but ere they had attempted any en- 

 terprise, their leaders were apprehended, and so the matter 

 pacified without any hurt committed."] 



Cocker and Walkinghame. — Can any correspon- 

 dents of " N. & Q." furnish any particulars about 

 these two celebrated computists ? I am not aware 

 of two such eminent men of whom less is known. 

 Indeed, I have never fallen in with any particulars 

 at all regarding Walkinghame ; and any notice of 

 Cocker is as meagre as may be. Meton. 



[Some biographical notices of Cocker will be found in 

 the Penny Ci/clopwdia ; Professor de Morgan's Arith- 

 metical Books, p. 56. ; « K & Q.," Vol. xi., p. 57. Walk- 

 inghame seems unknown. Professor de Morgan, in 1847, 

 inquired after him. " I should be thankful to any one," 

 he says, "who would tell me who Walkingame was, 

 and when the first edition of TVte Tutor's Assistant was 

 published." See " K & Q.," Vol. v., p. 441., and Vol. xi., 

 p. 67.] 



