396 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 54. 



Sir Gammer Vans (Vol. ii., pp. 89. 280.). — 

 The story related by S. G. is the same that I in- 

 quired after, and I admire the accuracy of his 

 memory, for his version is, for the greater part, 

 literally the same that 1 heard in Ireland sixty 

 years ago. A few passages, as that about hipper 

 sivitches, I do not recollect ; and one or two that I 

 remember are wanting — the one, that the narrator 

 was received in " a little oak parlour" of, I forget 



hand, " ut vere dicamus" is an expression to be 

 found only in the Latin. 



But it may be doubted whether the originality 

 of the phrase " Antiquitas sajculi juventus mundi" 

 is, after all, worth speculating upon. In the sense 

 in which Lord Bacon used it, it is rather a naked 

 truism than a^wise aphorism. It does not even 

 necessarily convey the intended meaning ; nor, if 

 unaccom])anied by an explanation, would it be safe 

 from a widely different interpretation. A previous 

 correspondent of "Notes and Queries" had 

 termed it " this fine aphoristic expression ; " and 

 yet, when Lord Bacon himself expands the thought 

 into''an aphorism, he does so without recurring to 

 the phrase in question, which is a tolerably fair 

 proof that he did not look upon it as a peculiarly 

 happy one. {Novum Organum, lib. L, Aphorismus 



liXXXIV.) 



T. J. infers that if the phrase were a quotation it 

 woidd have been preceded by "ut dictum est" 

 rather than by " ut dicamus" — but even if it had 

 been inti-oduced by the first of these forms, it does 

 not appear that it would thereby have been proved 

 to be a quotation ; becavise there are instances 

 wlierein Lord Bacon directly refers to the source 

 from which he professes to quote, and yet prefers 

 to give the purport in his own words rather than 

 in those of his author. Thus, in citing one of the 

 most exquisite and familiar passages of Lucretius, 

 he introduces it by the prefix, '■'Pacta elegantissiiiie 

 dixit." And yet what follows, although printed in 

 italics with every appearance of strict quotation, is 

 not the language of Lucretius, but a conuuon- 

 place prose version of its substance. {Sermones 

 Fideles, De Veritate.) 



With reference to Lord Bacon's works, there are 

 two Queries which I wish to ask. 



T. J.'s friend mentions a rare translation into 

 English by Gilbert Wats, Oxford, as existing in 

 Primate Marsh's library. Query, Of what is it a 

 translation ? 



In Lord Bacon's life, by William Rawley, it is 

 stated that jiis lordship was born in a house " infra 

 plaleam dictum Le 6Y;-«?ic/ juxta Londinum." 



Query, Was the Strand ever known as Le Strand, 

 similarly to Adwick-Ze-5^?-ee< in Yorkshire ? 



A.E.B. 



what, different character ; the other, that Sir 

 Gammer's " mother," or " aunt, was a justice of 

 peace, and his sister a captain of horse." I find 

 that Goldsmith's allusion is to this last passage, 

 with some variation. Tony Lumpkin tells Mar- 

 low that Hardcastle will endeavour to persuade 

 him that " his mother was an alderman and his 

 aunt a justice of peace." {She Stoops to Conquer, 

 A. i. sub fine.) I have not been able to find the 

 allusion in Swift ; nor can I see how it could have 

 been a political satire. It seems rather to be a 

 mere tissue of incongruities and contradictions — 

 of Irish bulls, in short, woven into a narrative to 

 make folks laugh ; and it is much of the same 

 character as many other pieces of ingenious non- 

 sense with which Swift and Sheridan used to amuse 

 each other. C. 



Sir Gammer Vans. — This worthy is mentioned in 

 that curious little (.'hap-book, A Strange and Won- 

 derful Relation of the Old Woman that was droiuned 

 at Ratcliff Highway, in two parts. I now quote 

 the passage from a copy of the genuine Aldermary 

 churchyard edition : — 



" At last I arrived at Sir John Vang's house. 'Tis 

 a little house entirely alone, encompassed about with 

 forty or fifty houses, having a brick wall made of flint 

 stone round about it. So knocking at the door. Gam- 

 mer Vangs, said I, is Sir John Vangs within? Walk 

 in, said she, and you shall see him in the little, great, 

 round, three square parlour. This Gammer Vangs 

 had a little old woman her son. Her mother was a 

 churchwarden of a large troop of horse, and her grand- 

 mother was a Justice of the Peace ; but when I came 

 into the said great, little, square, round, three corner'd 

 parlour, I could not see Sir John Vangs, for he was a 

 giant. But I espied abundance of nice wicker bottles. 

 And just as I was going out he called to me and asked 

 me what I would have? So looking back I espied him 

 just creeping out of a wicker bottle. It seems by his 

 profession he was a wicker bottle maker. And after 

 he had made them, he crept out at the stopper boles." 



There are two notes worth recording with re- 

 spect to this curious medh^y, which is obviously 

 a nuxlern version of a much older composition. 

 Query, is any older edition known ? 



\. That the wood-cut on the title page, which 

 has been re-engraved for Mr. llalliwell's Notices 

 of Fugitive Tracts and Chap-book.'!, printed for 

 the Percy Society, is one of the few representations 

 we have of the old Ducking Stool. 



2. That it is said that the Rev. Thomas Kerrich, 

 the well-known librarian of the University of 

 Cambridge, could repeat by heart the whole of the 

 eight and forty pages of this strange gallimawfrey. 



W. J. Thoms. 



Hipperswitches (Vol. ii., p. 280.). — I saw a story 

 whicii was copied into the Examiner of Oct. 5. 

 from " Notes and Queries," entitled " Sir Gam- 

 mer Vans." The correspondent who has furnished 



