APRIL 27. 1850.] 
This, it will be seen, is prosaic enough; but the 
correspondent of the E. Mag. supposes the lines 
to have ended differently ; and that the poet, in 
some peculiar fit of modesty, tore off the name. 
His version is this :— 
“ Enough for me, if to some feeling breast, 
My lines a secret sympathy convey ; 
And as their pleasing influence is imprest, 
A sigh of soft reflection heave for Gray.” 
One word upon another poet, Byron v. Tacitus, 
in p. 390. of your 24th Number. There can be no 
doubt that the noble writer had this passage of 
Tacitus in his mind, when he committed the couplet 
in question to paper; but, in all probability, he 
considered it so well known as not to need acknow- 
ledgment. Others have alluded to it in the same 
way. The late Rev. W. Crowe, B.C.L. of New 
College, Oxford, and public orator of that Univer- 
sity, in some lines recited by his son at the instal- 
lation of Lord Grenville, has the following :— 
« And when he bids the din of war to cease, 
He calls the silent desolation — peace.” 
I wonder where Lord Byron stole stanzas 1, 2, 
3, 4, of the second canto of The Bride of Abydos ; 
to say nothing of some more splendid passages in 
the first and second cantos of Childe Harold ? 
W. (1.) 
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. 
Chapels. — Perhaps the following remarks will 
be of service to ‘“ Mr. Garry” in the solution of 
his Queries touching the word Chapel (No. 21.). 
Spelman (Glossary, sub voce) endeavours to 
convince us that capella is the same as capsella, 
the diminutive of capsa; thus making chapel, in the 
first instance, “‘a small repository” (sc. of relics). 
Richardson is also in favour of this etymon, not- 
withstanding its harshness and insipidity. I think 
the common derivation (from capella, diminutive 
of capa) very much preferable to any other, both 
on the score of philology and of history. Du- 
cange has quoted several passages, all tending to 
evince that capella (explained by the Teutonic 
voccus) was specially applied to the famous vest- 
ment of St. Martin, comprising his cloak and hood 
(not merely his hat, as some writers mention). 
The name was then metonymically transferred to 
the repository in which that relic was preserved, 
and afterwards, by a natural expansion, became 
the ordinary designation of the smaller sanctu- 
aries. This derivation is distinctly affirmed by 
Walafred Strabo about 842, and by a monk of 
St. Gall, placed by Basnage about 884. The ear- 
liest instance where the word capella is used for 
the vestment of St. Martin appears to be in a 
“ Placitum” of Theodoric, King of France, who 
ascended the throne a.p. 672 —‘“ in oratorio nostro 
super capella Domini Martini . .. . hae dibiret 
conjurare.” In a second “ Placitum,” also quoted 
by Diieaniire, of Childebert, King of France (circa 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
417 
695), the word capella seems to mean a sacred 
building —‘“‘in oratorio suo seu capella Sancti 
Marthini.” And in a charter of Charles the Sim- 
ple, circ. 900, the term unquestionably occurs in 
this latter signification, disconnected from St. 
Martin. Other illustrations may be seen in Du- 
cange, who has bestowed especial industry on the 
words capa and capella. 
With respect to the legal definition of the mo- 
dern chapel, I may mention that, in stat. 7 & 8 
Geo. IV. c. 29. s.10., it signifies, according to 
Mr. Stephens (Eel. Statutes, p. 1857.), “a chapel 
where the rites and ceremonies of the Church of 
England are performed, and does not include the 
chapels of Dissenters.” In stat. 7 & 8 Geo. IV. 
c. 30., we read, notwithstanding, of “any chapel 
for the religious worship of persons dissenting 
from the United Church of England and Ireland. 
C. H. 
St. Catharine’s Hall, Cambridge. 
Chapels (No. 20. p. 333., and No. 23. p. 371.).— 
The opinion of the “ Barrister ” that this term had 
come into use as a designation of dissenting places 
of worship from no “idea of either assistance or 
opposition to the Church of England,” but only as 
a supposed means of security to the property, is 
probably correct. Yet itis likely different reasons 
may have had weight in different places. 
However, he is mistaken in “believing that we 
must date the adoption of that term from about” 
forty years ago. Jam seventy-six years old, and 
I can bear testimony, that from my infancy it was 
the term universally employed in Yorkshire, Der- 
byshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and, I think probable, 
in the more northern counties. In common speech 
it was used as the word of discrimination from the 
Methodist places of worship, which bore the name 
of Meeting-houses, or, more generally, Meetings. 
But within the period (forty years) assigned by 
your learned correspondent, I think that I have 
observed the habit to have extensively obtained of 
applying the term Chapels to the latter class of 
places. 
I have abundant evidence of the general use of 
the term for dissenting buildings, back to the 
seventeenth century. From my early life, I re- 
member the current opinion to have been that 
Chapel was the word in use north of the Trent, 
and Meeting-house in Nottingham and southwards. 
An eminent antiquary, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, 
F.S.A., could cast a full light upon this subject. 
J.P.S. 
Homerton, April 15. 
Beaver (No. 21. p. 338.).— The earliest form of 
this word is fiber, which is used to signify the 
animal, the Castor, by Varro and Pliny. The 
fabulous story of the self-emasculation by which 
the beaver eludes pursuit, is thus introduced by 
Silius, in illustrating the flight of Hasdrubal :— 
