2>><>S. N" 111., Feb. 13, '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



127 



Cf. Terence, Aiidria, Act III., So. 2. 7., Heaut. 

 V. iv. 7. ; Martial, b. vii. Epig. 95. (I am not 

 quite sure tliat it is the 95th Epigram.) 



The subject of Superstition (whether under 

 that name, or that of its Greek equivalent, Aci<n- 

 Scufiopla), its nature and causes, &c., have been 

 carefully defined, ably and thoroughly sifted. It 

 would be easy to quote, or refer to, a thousand 

 writers, from Theophrastus and Plutarch to 

 Hooker, thence to Voss, Bp. Hall, Butler, Cole- 

 ridge, &c. ; but I gain nothing to my present pur- 

 pose by so doing, and in no way tend to increase 

 knowledge. On the other hand, I have never 

 met in these, or in any writers, the true origin 

 of the word as given by Cicero, followed up, or 

 even alluded to.* It seems to me one of those 

 Waifs and Strays of Knowledge which it is pecu- 

 liarly the mission of " N. & Q-" to recover and 

 reclaim. Eirionnacii. 



ELTNOR BUMMIN AND THE GRANGERITE3. 



Of all the engraved portraits in Granger's lists 

 none was so hopeless of attainment as the one 

 thus chronicled, — temp. Hen. VIII., class xii. : — 



" Elynor Eummin (or Eleynour of Humming), an old, 

 ill-favoured woman, holding a black pot in her hand; a 

 Avooden print; frontispiece to one of Skelton's pieces, 

 called by her name ; under the print are these lines (very 

 rare), — 



" ' When Skelton wore the laurel crown, 



My ale put all the ale-wives down.'" (4to.) 



Now it seems that George Sfeevens, the com- 

 mentator on Shakspeare, heard that a copy of 

 Skelton's verses with the portrait was preserved 

 in the library of Lincoln Cathedral ; and having 

 prevailed on Sir Richard Kaye, the Dean, who 

 would not let it out of his possession, to bring it 

 to London, a copy was there made at the Dean's 

 house in Harley Street, from which Richardson, 

 the print-seller, had an engraving made. The 

 circumstance was commemorated by Steevens in 

 the following lines, which enumerate the several 

 most ardent amateurs of that once favourite 

 mania — the illustration of Granger : — 



" ELEONORA REDIVIVA. 



" To seek this nymph among the glorious dead, 

 Tir'd with his search on earth, is Gulston fled ; — 

 Still for these charms enamoured Musguave sighs : 

 To clasp these beauties ardent Bindley dies : 

 For these (while yet unstaged to public view), 

 Impatient Brand o'er half the kingdom flew ; 

 These, while their bright ideas round hira play, 

 From classic Weston force the Roman lay ; — 

 Oft too, my Storer, Heaven has heard thee swear, 

 Not Gallia's murdered Queen Avas half so fair: 

 ' A new Europa ! ' cries the exulting Bull, 

 ' My Granger now, I thank the Gods, is full.' 



• The passages both from Cicero and Lactantius are, of 

 course, to be found (among a host of references) in large 

 Dictionaries, such as Du Cange and Facciolati. 



Even Cracherode's self, whom passions rarely move, 

 At this soft shrine has deign'd to whisper love. 

 Haste then, ye swains, who Rumming's form adore, 

 Possess your Eleanour and sigh no more." 



See Dihd'ms Bibliomania^ and Nichols's Literary 

 Anecdotes, ii. 660. 



Prince Eugene has been named as the first 

 coUectOF of portraits in Europe, and the Earl of 

 Oxford in England ; but Anthony a Wood, in his 

 account of Elias Ashinole, speaks of seeing in his 

 library a large thick paper book, near a yard long, 

 containing on every side of the leaf two, thi;ee, 

 or more pictures or faces of eminent persons of 

 England and elsewhere, printed from copper cuts, 

 pasted on them, which Mr. Ashmole had, with 

 great curiosity, collected, &c. (Nichols, ubi supra, 

 p. 160.) One collector told a person at Cam- 

 bridge (with more candour than characterises the 

 brotherhood), " my collection must needs be large, 

 for it rests on six points : 1st, I buy ; 2nd, I bor- 

 row ; 3rd, I beg ; 4th, I exchange ; 5th, I steal ; 

 6tb, I sdl"— Ibid. 



N. B. — Sir R. Kaye was Dean of his college 

 from November 19, 1783, to his death, December 

 25tb, 1809. Y. B. N. J. 



BOOTS, A COUNTERPART TO THE "GREASED CAR- 

 TRIDGE AFFAIR." 



A book which I have just been glancing over 

 with considerable interest, because so full of cu- 

 rious particulars in relation to the vicissitudes to 

 which some individuals in the humble ranks of 

 life may be exposed, affords the following rather 

 important item of information at the present mo- 

 ment ; while the appearance of the passage in 

 such pages as those of " N. & Q." cannot but se- 

 cure it a better chance of being useful to the 

 future historian of this new Indian rebellion than 

 were it sent to any of the mere news-sheets of the 

 day. 



The work from which the extract is taken 

 comes from a Dublin printer (though being 

 doubtless a reprint from the Scotch or English 

 press), and bears the date of 1791 ; the title, 

 which is very long, being as follows : — 



" Travels in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 

 during a Series of Thirty Years and upwards. By John 

 Macdonald, a Cadet of the Family of Keppoch, in In- 

 verness-shire ; who, after the ruin of his Family in 1745, 

 was thrown when a Child upon the Wide World; the 

 Ways of which, with many curious, useful, and interest- 

 ing particulars he had occasion to observe ; and has taken 

 care, by means of a regular Journal, to record, while he 

 served, in various departments, a great number of Noble- 

 men and Gentlemen, English, Scotch, Irish, Dutch," &c. 



As part, therefore, of the Asiatic experiences of 

 the said John Macdonald, dating probably in the 

 year 1769 or 1770, the writer says : — 



« In December, Commodore Sir John Lindsay arrived 

 at Bombay, with the King's ships of war iipder his com' 



