168 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Sept. I. 1855. 



to enter the order of knighthood : " Prsesertim vero hocce 

 titulo donati militum filii, nondum militari seu equestri 

 cingiilo accincti," says the same glossarist. 4. At length it 

 became a general appellation for any honourable attend.mt 

 upon a person of rajik, a confidant or familiar : " Te in 

 J>omiceUam et familiarem nostrum duximus admitten- 

 dum ;" i.e., " We have thought proper to take you as our 

 personal attendant and familiar." (Du Cange's Supple- 

 tsteitt.) Eques Aurat-m is a knight bachelor, called aura- 

 tus. or gilt, because anciently none but knights might gild 

 or beautify their armour with gold. In law this term is 

 seldom used ; but instead of it miles, and sometimes cAe- 

 vaHer.'} 



New Sect in White. — To whom ditl Henry IV. 

 refer in his opening speech to the Parliament, 

 when he made the following announcement ? 



" And whereas the King hath certainly understood 

 that a new sect hath risen up, clothed in white vesture, 

 and assuming to themselves great sanctity, and whereas 

 the people of this realm may lightly consent and be per- 

 verted bj' its novelty, their alms be diverted, and the king- 

 dom itself be subverted, should the new professors enter 

 the realm : therefore, by the advice of the Lords spiritual 

 and temporal, the King hath ordained by proclamation 

 that every county and seaport shall be shut against them ; 

 and any one harbouring or maintaining them shall forfeit 

 all that he is able to forfeit." — Bolls. 



J.W. 



[Mosheim has given some account of this sect in his 

 Ectles. Hist., book iii. pt. ii. ch. b. : " In Italy a new sect, 

 that of the White-clad Brethren, or the Whites (fratres 

 albati, seu Candida), produced no little excitement 

 among the people. Near the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century a certain unknown priest descended from the 

 Alps, clad in a white garment, with an immense number 

 of people of both sexes in his train, all clothed like their 

 leader, in white linen, whence their name of the White 

 Brethren. This multitude marched through various pro- 

 vinces, following a cross borne by the leader of the sect, 

 and, by a great show of piety, so captivated the people 

 that numberless persons of every kind joined its ranks. 

 Boniface X., fearing some plot, ordered the leader of this 

 host to be apprehended and committed to the flames. 

 After his death the multitude gradually dispersed."] 



Chronicle of the Kings of England. — Can you 

 inform me who was the author of a very small 

 work entitled The Chronicle ? It is a brief his- 

 tory of the sovereigns of England, in imitation of 

 the " Book of Chronicles." The preface com- 

 mences thus : 



" Nathan Ben Saddi, a servant of God, of the House of 

 Israel, to all and every of his readers, whether Jew or 

 Gentile, greeting." 



I saw the work, and made a copy of it, many years 

 ago, but the title-page was wanting. 



Clertcus (D). 

 [This work is by Robert Dodsley, the celebrated pub- 

 lisher. The title reads : TTie Chronicle of the Kings of 

 England, written in the manner of the ancient Jewish 

 historians, by Nathan Ben Saddi, a priest of the Jews, 

 8vo., 1740.] 



Elizabeth Lady Darcy. — From which of the 

 two wives of Henry Clifford, first Earl of Cum- 

 berland, descended Elizabeth, who was married 



No. 305.] 



to Sir Thomas Darcy, father of the first Lord 

 Darcy and Conyers ? E. L. D. 



[Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Darcy, was descended 

 from Margaret Percy, the second wife of the first Earl of 

 Cumberland. Elizabeth was the second daughter of John 

 Lord Conyers of Hornby, who married Matilda, the second 

 daugh-ter of Henr}', first Earl of Cumberland. See the 

 pedigree in Whi taker's Hist, of Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 42.] 



Mons. Adams. — Where can I find any notice 

 of Mons. Adams, S.R.E. S., Ancien Professeur 

 d'Human, a S. Omer ? He wrote an extraordi- 

 nary book called Euphonologia Linguae Anglicanee, 

 in Latin and French, London, 1794. My copy of 

 this book has inscribed upon its title-page, — 



" Honorabili viro, facundo et diserto Angl. Lingua 

 Oratori Edm^ Burke." 



B. H. C. ■ 



[James Adams, an English Jesuit, born 1737, com- 

 menced his noviciate at Watton, Sept. 7, 1756 ; after- 

 wards taught the belles-lettres at St. Omer. Having 

 exercised his functions as a missionary for many j^ears, 

 he retired to Dublin, August 1802, and died there in 

 December of the same year. See Rose's Biographical 

 Dictionary for a list of his works.] 



^t^liti* 



TURTLE, WHITEBAIT, AN© MrNISTERIAt WHITE- 

 BAIT BINWEBS. 



(Vol. xii., p. 144) 



I think I can answer two at least of Apicius's 

 Queries, proximitively, if not completely. 



1. As to the date of the introduction of turtle. 

 It appears by a paper in The World, No. 123., 

 May 8, 1755^ that this luxury, long known in the 

 West Indies, had for some time past become fre- 

 quent, though not yet common, in England. In 

 Lyttelton's Dialogue of the Dead, between Apieius 

 and Darteneuf, the latter is made to lament that 

 turtle was not known in his lifetime. Now, 

 Darteneuf died in 1738, and we may therefore 

 conclude that turtle was introduced to our tables 

 between 1740 and 1750. I have little doubt that 

 if I had books at hand I could find a still nearer 

 date. 



2. As to the nature of the little fish called 

 whitebait, I must refer Apicius to the books on 

 ichthyology, none of which I have within reach. 

 I only know that I used to think they were only 

 small smelts ; but the people at Blackwall and 

 Greenwich, and I think some books, say that 

 they are of a class by themselves. The meaning 

 of the term is obvious, that these small white fish 

 were used as a bait for larger ones. The rest of 

 this query will be answered under the next head. 



3. The date and object of the ministerial white- 

 bait dinners I can explain with some degree of 

 certainty. In an early part of the last century a 



