284 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 265. 



Bloomjields of Worfolh. — I sliould be mucli 

 obliged to any of your correspondents if they 

 could furnish me with particulars of any kind re- 

 lative to the Bloomfields of Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 and more especi{illy that branch which includes 

 Robert Bloomfield the poet. As sources of in- 

 formation I of course exclude the public records, 

 and the MSS. of the British Museum, from both 

 of which I have already a vast collection of docu- 

 ments ; but what I am now, in search of is that 

 species of information which, not finding its way 

 to any public department, exists only in the hands 

 of private individuals, and the communication of 

 which would confer a favour on 



WUiLIAM HeNBT HaBT. 



1. Albert Terrace, New Cross, 



Origin of the Term " Brown Bess " as applied to 

 a Musket. — Will any one more versed in the 

 technicalities of military life, or of military tradi- 

 tion, give me the benefit of his knowledge of the 

 origin of the above trite term, now happily almost 

 wholly belonging to "things that were? " Quiero. 



Traditions of the Deluge. — I have read some- 

 where that it was ascribed to the opening of a 

 bottle of water by the son of a chief of one of the 

 tribes. A reference to an account of this would 

 greatly oblige. A similar tradition is given by 

 Washington Irving in his Life of Columbus, when 

 treating of the religion of the inhabitants of Hayti. 

 On referring to the indices of "N. & Q.," I find 

 that the Deluge is a subject not once mentioned 

 in its pages, which, considering the infinite variety 

 of topics discussed in your valuable publication, 

 appears remarkable. Any similar traditions would 

 be acceptable to your correspondent, and no doubt 

 interesting to many of your readers. W. M. N. 



[This subject has been ably treated by Jacob Brj^ant, 

 in his New System of Ancient Mythology, whose researches 

 have been copied into the article Deluge in the Evcyclo- 

 peedia Britannica, seventh edition. The Indian versions 

 of the universal tradition of the Deluge will be found in 

 the Quarterly Review, vol. xlv. pp. 26 — 29. Mr. Prescott, 

 in his Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii. p. 378., remarks that 

 " No tradition has been more widely spread among nations 

 than that of a deluge. It was the received notion, under 

 some form or other, of the most civilised people in the 

 Old World, and of the barbarians of the New. The 

 Aztecs combined with this some particular circumstances 

 of a more arbitrary character, resembling the accounts of 

 the East. They believed that two persons survived the 

 Deluge, a man named Coxcox and his wife. Their heads 

 are represented in ancient paintings, together with a 

 boat floating on the waters, at the foot of a mountain. A 

 dove is also depicted, with the hieroglyphical emblem of 

 languages in his mouth, which he is distributing to the 

 children of Coxcox, who were born dumb. The neigh- 

 bouring people of Michuacan, inhabiting the same liigh 

 plains of the Andes, had a still farther tradition, that the 



boat in wliich Tezpi, their Noah, escaped, was filled with 

 various kinds of animals and birds. After some time a 

 vulture was sent out from it, but remained feeding on the 

 dead bodies of the giants, which had been left on the 

 earth as the waters subsided. The little humming-bird, 

 Imitzitzilin, was then sent forth, and returned with a twig 

 in its mouth. The coincidence of both these accounts 

 with the Hebrew and Chaldean narratives is obvious."] 



The first Booh printed by Subscription. — Min- 

 sheu's Guide to the Tongues is said to be the work 

 which the author, by such assistance, was enabled 

 to bring forth to the world. Is this statement 

 correct ? Perhaps a corroboration of its truth 

 may be elicited from some of your able contri- 

 butors. J, R. J. 



[Walton's Polyphtt was published by subscription, and 

 was probably the first book ever printed in that manner 

 in England. Minsheu's Dictionary, 1617, in eleven lan- 

 guages, may perhaps more properly be called the earliest, 

 though not strictlj' within the modern idea of a subscrip- 

 tion, but j'et in eflTect the same thing: he printed the 

 names of all the persons who took a copy of his work, and 

 continually added to it, as purchasers came in. (See Gent. 

 Mug., vol. Ivii. p. 17.) Mr. Nichols thinks that Dryden's 

 Virgil was the next to Walton's ; and the Paradise Lost, 

 by ionson, in folio, the next. Blome, a notorious plagi- 

 ary, afterwards carried the practice of publishing books 

 by subscription to a greater height than any of his cotera- 

 poraries. Nichols's lAt. Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 8.] 



Wife of Joseph Richardson. — Can you inform 

 me what was the maiden name of Mrs. Richardson, 

 the wife of Joseph Richardson, M.P,, well known 

 as the friend of Sheridan, and who was author of 

 a comedy, called The Fugitive ? Mrs. Richardson, 

 who was herself an authoress, died, I think, in 

 1824. R, J. 



Glasgow, 



[In the Life of Joseph Eichardson, Esq., prefixed to 

 his Literary Relics, 4to., 1807, it is stated that " Mr. 

 Richardson married a lady of the family of the learned 

 Dr. Isaac Watts ; by her he had five daughters, four of 

 whom, with their mother, survive him." Mrs. Richard- 

 son is the authoress of Ethelred, a legendary tragic drama 

 in five acts.] 



" No rig-marie was in my purse." — This line, 

 apparently applied to a coin, may be found in 

 AVatson's Scots Poems, date 1713. Does it apply 

 to any piece coined during the reign of the un- 

 fortunate Mary ? If so, what was its value, and 

 why called 7'?^- mane? J, R, J. 



[Rig-Marie is a name given to abase coin, supposed to 

 have originated from one of the billon coins struck during 

 the reign of Queen Mary, which had the words Reg. Maria 

 as part of the legend. — Jamiesoii's Dictionary.'] 



Mothering Sunday. — Why is the fourth Sunday 

 in Lent called "Mothering Sunday?" — an oft- 

 repeated question, which it is hoped may be satis- 

 factorily answered through the medium of " N. 

 & Q." Anon. 



[Some interesting notices of the origin of " Mothering 

 Sunday" will be found in Brand's Popular Antiquities, 



