134 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 277. 



Doorway Inscriptions (Vol. x., p. 253.). — The 

 following inscriptions are so placed over the arch- 

 way of the Forth Mawr (great gate) at Llanover, . 

 the residence of Sir Benjamin Hall, near Aber- 

 gavenny, that the first meets the eye on entering 

 the grounds, and the other on leaving them. The 

 beauty of the original Welsh is necessarily much 

 lessened in the translation here annexed, for the 

 use of those who unfortunately are unacquainted 

 with that fine and ancient language : 



" Pwy wy t, ddyfodwr ? 



Os cyfaill, gresau calou i ti ! 



Os dieithr, llettwgarwch. a'th erys ; 



Os celyn, add fwynder a'th garchara." 



( Translation.') 

 " Who art thou, traveller ? 

 If a friend, the -welcome of the heart to thee ! 

 If a stranger, hospitality shall meet thee ; 

 If an enemy, courtesy shall imprison thee." 



" Ymadawydd hynaws, gad feudith, 

 Ar dy ol : a beudithier dithau. 

 le chyd a hawddfyd it ar dy daith, 

 A dedwydd ddychweliad." 



( Translation.') 

 " Departing guest, leave a blessing 

 On thy footsteps ; and mayst thou be blessed. 

 Health and prosperity be with thee on thy journey. 

 And happiness on thy return." 



N. 



Old Pulpit Inscriptions (Vol. ix., pp. 31. 135.). 

 — To the inscriptions which I have already given 

 may be added the following from St. Helen's 

 Church, Sefton, Lancashire. On the pulpit : 



" He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso 

 confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercie ; happy 

 is the man. Anno Domini 1633." 



On the sounding-board : 



" My son, fear thou the Lord and the King, 

 And meddle not with them that are given to change." 



CUTHBERT BeCE, B. A. 



Heavenly Guides (Vol. xl., p. 65.). — I think it 

 not improbable that the work about which Mr. R. 

 C. Wards inquires, is an early edition of the 

 following : 



" The Plaine Man's Pathway to Heaven ; wherein 

 euery Man may cleerely see whether he shall be saued or 

 damned. Set forth Dialogue-wise, for the better Vnder- 

 Standing of the Simple. By Arthur Dent, Preacher of 

 the AVord of God at South Shoobery, in Essex. The One- 

 and-twentieth Edition : London, 1631." 



'AA.J€i5s. 



Dublin. 



" The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven ; wherein every 

 Man may clearly see whether he shall be saved or damned. 

 Set forth Dialogue-wise, for the better Understanding of 

 the Simple. By Arthur Dent, Preacher of the Word of 

 God at South Shoobery, in Essex," 



was reprinted in 1831 by Baynes of Paternoster 

 Kow, from the 7th edition of 1607. The work is 

 considered to have been written about 1590 ; and 



must have been very popular, as a copy published 

 in 1704 is stated to be the 40th edition ; and that 

 by computation, one hundred thousand copies 

 have been sold. The matter is curious, and the 

 language quaint. The chapter against " Pride 

 of Dress" seems to have furnished Hamlet with 

 some weapons of abuse against the fair sex in the 

 nunnery scene with Ophelia. L. A. B. W. 



P. S.— R. C. W. calls it the ''Poor Man's Path- 

 way," &c. 



Curious Incident (Vol. xi., p. 63.). — The play 

 in which this passage occurs is, I believe. Speed 

 the Plough; but I have not a copy to refer to. 



L. A. B. W. 



Capital Punishments in Henry VIII.'s Reign 

 (Vol. xi., p. 21.). — I have no disposition to plead 

 for the truth of the fact alleged by Hume and 

 Macaulay, on the authority of Harrison, or to 

 lessen the weight of Mr. Walter's arguments in 

 support of his doubts ; but as I have looked into 

 Harrison, I may as well quote what he says on 

 the subject, for the sake of rectifying two errors 

 into which Mr. Walter has fallen: — 1. That 

 Harrison's authority was the Bishop of Tarbes ; 

 2. That "his object was to set forth the advan- 

 tages enjoyed by Elizabeth's subjects, as compared 

 with their state under her father's reign." The 

 following are his words : 



"It appeareth by Cardane (who writeth it upon the 

 report of the Bishop of Lexovia) in the geniture of King 

 Edward the sixt, how Henrie the eight, executing his 

 laws verie seuerelie against such idle persons, I meane 

 great theeues, pettie theeues and roges, did hang up 

 three score and twelve thousand of them in his time. He 

 seemed for a while greatlie to have terrified the rest : but 

 since his death the number of them is so increased, yea al- 

 though we have had no warres, which are a great occasion 

 of their breed . . . that except some better order be 

 taken, or the lawes alreadie made be better executed, such as 

 dwell in uplandish townes and little villages shall Hue but in, 

 small safetie and rest." — Harrison's i>esc/-J^^io?j of England, 

 chap. ii. 



I have verified the reference to Cardan, who, 

 towards the conclusion of his geniture of Ed- 

 ward VI., speaking of his father Henry VIII., 

 says, — 



" Antistes Lexoviensis mihi narrabat Besuntii, scilicet 

 ut biennio antequam periret inventa sint lxxii millia 

 hominum judicio et carnifice sub hoc rege periisse." 



The "antistes Lexoviensis," or Bishop of Lisieux, 

 spoken of, was probably Jacques d'Annebaut, 

 who, according to the Gallia Christiana, occupied 

 that see from 1545 to 1558. 'AMeis. 



Dublin. 



Cook's Translation of a Greek MS. (Vol. x., 

 p. 127.). — If Mr. Philip E. Butler had read 

 Vincent Cook's account of the way in which the 

 Greek MS. came into his grandfather's hands, I 

 think he would have had no doubts as to its au- 



