Mar, 2. 1850.] 
ments do not admit of the insertion of a regular 
pedigree ; but the descents may be stated as in 
Burke and similar books. . $ e+ /-33¢ GuLEs. 
Cesar's Wife.—‘‘ Naso” wishes to know where 
the proverbial saying, ‘“ Czesar’s wife must not 
even be suspected,” first occurs. 
Minar’s Books of Antiquities. —Can any one 
conversant with the works of Cardinal Nicolas de 
Cusa inform me what anthor he quotes as “ Minar 
in his Books of Antiquities,” in what language, 
and where existing? De Doctaé Ignorantia, 1. i. 
cap. 7. A.N. 
Proverb against Physicians. —“ M. D.” wishes 
to be informed of the earliest writer who mentions 
the proverb “ Ubi tres Medici, duo Athei.” 
Compendyous Olde Treatyse. — In Ames’s Typo- 
graphical Antiquities, vol.i. p.405. (ed. Herbert), 
is described a work, printed by Rycharde Banckes, 
some time between 1525 and 1545, entitled, “A 
compendyous olde treatyse shewynge howe that 
we ought to have the Scripture in Englyshe, with 
the Auctours.” 12mo. 18 leayes. This copy be- 
longed to Herbert himself, and was probably ob- 
tained at the sale of Thomas Granger, in 1732. 
Any information as to its whereabout at present, 
or the existence of any other copy of the above 
tract, would confer a favour on the inquirer. F. M. 
The Topography of Foreign Printing Presses. — 
I have often been at a loss to discover the locality 
of names which designate the places where books 
have been printed at Foreign presses; and “‘ when 
found” to “ make a note of it.” Iwas therefore 
pleased to find in No. 16. p. 251, by the reply of 
* R. G.” to Mr. Jebb, that ‘‘ Cosmopolis was cer- 
tainly Amsterdam,” and that *Coloniz” signifies 
“ Amsteledami.” And I will take the liberty of 
suggesting that it would be an acceptable service 
rendered to young students, if your learned cor- 
respondents would occasionally communicate in 
the pages of your work, the modern names, &c. of 
such places as are not easily gathered from the 
books themselves. P. H. F. 
Cromwell's E'states.—In Carlyle’s edition of 
Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, there is a note 
(p. 75. vol. iv. of the 3rd ed. 1850) containing 
a list of the estates which the Protector owned 
at the time of his death, as follows; there being, 
besides Newhall, specified as “in Essex,” five, 
viz. — 
« Dalby, 
Broughton, 
Burleigh, 
Okham, and 
Egleton,” 
of which the editor has ascertained the localities ; 
and six, viz. — 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
wt dives a: 
“ Gower, valued at 479 O Operan 
Chepstall - al: ey eee 
Magore - - 448 0 0 
Sydenham -3121 9 6 
Woolaston - 664 16 6 
Chaulton - - 500 O O,” 
of which, he says, ‘‘ he knows nothing.” 
It would surely be a proper, and, one might 
hope, an attainable object of inquiry, to search 
out these unplaced estates of the great Protector, 
and give them a local habitation in modern know- 
ledge. This is precisely one of the kind of queries 
which your publication seems best fitted to aid ; 
and I therefore submit it, in the hope of some 
discoveries, to your correspondents. Vv. 
Belgravia, Feb, 18. 1850. 
What are Depinges?—In the orders made in 
1574 for regulating the fishery at Yarmouth, the 
Dutch settlers there are “ To provide themselves 
with twine and depinges in foreign places.” What 
are depinges ? J.5.B. 
REPLIES. 
ORIGIN OF THE JEWS-HARP. 
The “ Jews-harp,” or “ Jews-trump,” is said by 
several authors to derive its name from the nation 
of the Jews, and is vulgarly believed to be one of 
their instruments of music. Dr. Littleton renders 
Jews-trump by Sistrum Judaicum. But no such 
musical instrument is spoken of by any of the old 
authors that treat of the Jewish music. In fact, 
the Jews-harp is a mere boy’s plaything, and in- 
capable in itself of being joined either with a voice 
or any other instrument; and its present ortho- 
graphy is nothing more than a corruption of the 
French Jeu-trompe, literally, a toy trumpet. It is 
called jeu-trompe by Bacon, Jew-trump by Beau- 
mont and Fletcher, and Jews-harp by Hackluyt. 
In a rare black-letter volume, entitled Newes from 
Scotland, 1591, there is a curious story of one 
Geilles Duncan, a noted performer on the “ Jews- 
harp,” whose performance seems not only to have 
met with the approval of a numerous audience of 
witches, but to have been repeated in the presence 
of royalty, and by command of no less a personage 
than the “Scottish Solomon,” king James VL 
Agnes Sampson being brought before the king's 
majesty and his council, confessed that 
“ Upon the night of All-Hallow-even last, shee was 
accompanied as well with the persons aforesaid, as also 
with a great many other witches, to the number of two- 
hundredth ; and that all they together went to sea, each 
one in ariddle or sive, and went into the same very 
substantially, with flaggons of wine, making merrie, 
and drinking by the way, in the same riddle or sives, to 
the Kirk of North Ba rick in Lowthian; and that after 
