2"d S. N« 86., AvQ. 22. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



147 



Cross ; or, Memorials of Selina, Countess of Hunt- 

 ingdon (London, 1857) ; but it contains some very 

 strange inaccuracies. For example : he gives a 

 droll reason why Sir Robert Shirley was created 

 Viscount Tamworth and Earl Ferrars in 1711. 

 " By reason of his grandfather's marriage with the 

 youngest daughter of Robert Devereux, the un- 

 fortunate Earl of Essex, and favourite of Queen 

 Elizabeth!" He likewise tells us that to Lady 

 Pluntingdon " now [i. e. after her marriage in 

 1728] might be applied the character which was 

 afterwards written, under the name of Aspasia, in 

 the 42nd number of the TatlerV Mr. New evi- 

 dently supposes the Taller to be something very 

 modern : he seems indeed much afraid of anything 

 old ; and, when he wants to stigmatise any practice 

 or custom, he styles it " the relic of a by-gone 

 age." Abhba. 



Unicorris Horn. — Permit me to call your at- 

 tention to a mistake in natural history by the 

 Athenceum Fine Arts Critic, in No. 1554, Aug. 8, 

 1857, p. 1010. He says: — 



" It is now known that the unicorn's horn of old mu- 

 seums is the horn of the northern Narwhal fish ; they 

 were sold at 6000 ducats, and were thought infallible 

 proofs of poison, and specifics against its venom, just as 

 Venetian glass and some sorts of jewels were. The 

 Dukes of Burgundy kept pieces of horn in their wine- 

 jugs, and used othe'rs to touch all the meat they tasted," 

 &c. &c. 



Now, in the first place, the Narwhal has not a 

 horn but a tooth ; and in the second, the sub- 

 stance the " Critic " is talking about, is the horn 

 of the rhinoceros, magnificent jewelled cups of 

 which may be seen at Dresden and elsewhere. 



The old story of their being formed of the horns 

 of animals killed by elephants in the Indian 

 jungles is most likely true : for men before tin- 

 headed bullets would have found it somewhat 

 difficult to kill a rhinoceros. 



The narwhal was no such great rarity in the 

 North, and could have been the subject of but few 

 fables. 



India was the land of wonders from whence all 

 wonders came. And every well-authenticated 

 poison-cup that I have seen has been made of that 

 beautiful substance rhinoceros horn. G. H. K. 



Halfpenny 'Green, Bobbington. — A queer com- 

 bination of names ! but "Halfpenny -Green" is an 

 important hamlet in the parish of Bobbington (on 

 the borders of Stafibrdshire and Shropshire), and 

 contains many houses of the better class ; and, 

 moreover, finds its place and title upon the ord- 

 nance-map. Whence did it derive its name ? 

 Local and county histories throw no light upon 

 the subject ; and the latest historian (Mr. Eyton) 

 is mute on this point. Nor could the parishioners 

 help me to the origin of its name ; until, at length, 

 a fortunate application to the oldest inhabitant 



resolved the diflSculty. " Halfpenny- Green," then, 

 was, " once upon a time," really a green, and not 

 (as now) an enclosure ; and, in the centre of this 

 green, there was a well ; and this well, being some 

 sort of private property, the drawers of water 

 therefrom had to pay a halfpenny per bucket for 

 the water they subtracted from the well. Hence 

 it was called "Halfpenny-Well," and the green 

 upon which it stood was named " Halfpenny 

 Green." 



I only deem this local circumstance worthy of 

 occupying space in " N. & Q." as an example of 

 the vagaries of nomenclature ; and because it 

 throws some light on the difficulties that beset 

 those who endeavour to resolve by theory the 

 puzzling problems of proper names. 



CuTHBEBT Beds, B.A. 



" Rule of Thumb.'" — I am informed by a 

 friend that the origin of this phrase, as applied to 

 anything made or compounded without a precise 

 formula, is to be found in Yorkshire ; where ale 

 in which the temperature, and therefore the 

 proper period for checking the fermentation, is 

 ascertained by dipping the thumb in the wort, is 

 distinguished by the epithet " Thumb Brewed." 



H. Drapek. 

 Dublin. 



(SticrtciS. 



WAS BISHOP DAVENANT MAKING USB OP BACON 3 

 PECULIAR PHRASEOLOGY AS EARLY AS 1627 ? 



Mr. Hallam has observed that the little taste 

 which studious men had, under the first Stuarts, 

 for any intellectual pursuits but theology, would 

 tend to make them averse to the study of Bacon's 

 inductive philosophy. (Lit. of Europe, vol. iii. ch. 

 3.) I have no wish to dispute the general truth of 

 this observation, but happening to have just met 

 with two expressions in Davenant, Expos. Ep. 

 Pauli ad Coloss., cap. i. v. 9., which seem de- 

 cidedly Baconian, I should be glad to be informed 

 by any of your readers who possess the Novum 

 Organum, whether they are not to be found in its 

 first book. I have searched the corresponding 

 portion of Bacon, De Augm. Scient. (the fifth 

 book), of which I happen to possess the earliest 

 Paris edition, that of 1624, but have not found 

 them there. The passage in Davenant is as fol- 

 lows : 



"Est duplex plenitudo cognitionis et cujuscunque 

 gratise : plenitudo patrite et plenitudo vice. Plenitudo pa- 

 trim est ilia maxima gratiae mensura, quam uniuscuj us- 

 que mens capere potest ; hac non habetur priusquam 

 introducamur ad statum gloriae. Sed plenitudo vim est 

 maxima ilia gratiae mensura, quam Deus unicuique electo- 

 rum in hoc mundo impertire decrevit. Atque hffic habetur 

 ab omnibus electis antequam migrent ex hac vita." 



Bacon's peculiar predilection for the employ- 

 ment of figurative terms, when wishing to give 



