68 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 65. 



Priscian's head by modern interpretation of liis 

 ■words. If wo read "■drink vp esile " as one should 

 say, "■icmiVidrmkvp Thames?" — Ti task as rea- 

 sonably impossible as settinsr it on fire (neverthe- 

 less a proverbial expression of a thirsty soul, 

 " He'll drink the Thames dry"),— the task is quite 

 in keeping with the whole tenor of Hamlet's ex- 

 travagant rant. ll- K- ^- ^• 

 Brixton. 



ALTAE LIGHTS, ETC. 



(Vol. ii., p. 493. ; Vol. iii., p. 30.) 

 The following passage from the works of a 

 deeply pious and learned Caroline Divine, which I 

 have never before seen quoted, merits, I think, a 

 place in "Notes and Queries :" — 



"As our Lord himself, so his Gospel also, is called 

 ].i<Tlit, and \vas therefore anciently never read without 

 a burning taper, ' etiarr. Sole rutilante' ('tis Saint 

 Ilicrome's testimony), though it were lighted in the 

 sun. . . The careful Church, perceiving th.at God was so 

 much taken with thlsoutwardsymbol of the Light, could 

 do no less than go on with the ceremony. Therefore, 

 the day of Our Lord's nativity was to bo called Hi<pa.via, 

 or, appearing of the Light ; and so many tapers were 

 to be set U]) the night before, as might give name to the 

 visil, ' VigiVut Lnminum: And the ancients did well 

 to~send lights one to another, whatsoever some think of 

 the Christmas candle. The receiving of this Light in 

 Baptism, though called not usually so, but (foirnr/ioy, 

 Illumination, which further to betoken the rites, were 

 to celebrate this sacrament a7rT<i;UbV&i;' irai'TaJV twv Ki)pwy, 

 etc., with all the tapers lighted, etc., as the order in 

 the ' Euohologus. The Neophytus, also, or new con. 

 vert, received a Taper lighted and delivered by tlie 

 Mystagoirus, which for the space of seven days after, he 

 was toliold in his hand at Divine service, sitting in the 



Baptislerv. 



" Who'perceiveth not that by this right way the 

 Tapers came into the Church, mysteriously placed with 

 the Gospel upon the altar as an emblem of the Truer 

 Light?... . ^ , 



" The Funeral Tapers (however thought of by 

 some) are of the same harmless import. Their mean- 

 ing is, to show that the departed souls are not quite 

 pul; out, but having walked here as the Children ot' the 

 Light, are now going to walk before God in the Light 

 of "the Living. The sun never rose to the ancients, 

 no, not so much as a candle was lighted, but of this 

 sig'nidcation. ' Vinmmus' was their word, whenso- 

 ever the Lights came in ; ^S)S yap t7)v Nkrji/, etc., for 

 Light (saith Phavoriuus) betokeneth victory. It was 

 to show what trust they put in the Light, in whom we 

 are more than conquerors. Our meaning is the same 

 when, at the brinr;ing in of a candle, we use to put 

 ourselves in mind of the Light of Heaven : which those 

 who list to call superstition do but ' darken counsel by 

 words without knowledge.' Job xxxviii. 2."— Grcgorie's 

 JForAs, 4th ed. p. 110. Lond. 1684. 



I believe it is a fact, that in some churches 



(T hope not many) lamps or candles arc placed 

 on the altar unlighted during divine service. Now 

 I would not quarrel with persons who have ob- 

 jections to altar liglits, &c., but I have no patience 

 with that worse than superstition which would 

 place unlighted candles on the altar, — if they 

 symbolize any thing, it is damnation, e-\cominuni~ 

 cation, misery, and dark woe. 



Coming out of a church one time in which 

 unlighted candles were ostentatiously displayed, 

 I was forcibly reminded of an hieroglyph ieal of 

 Quarles — an extinguished taper, — and under it 

 the words, " Sine lumine inane." 



" How canst thou be useful to the sight ? 

 What is the taper not endued with light? " 



I can hardly refrain from quoting here a beau- 

 tiful passage from Wordsworth : 



" Our ancestors within the still domain 

 Of vast cathedral, or conventual gloom, 

 Their vigils kept : when tapers day and night 

 On the dim aUar burn'd continually, 

 In token that the iiouse was evermore 

 Watching to God. Religious men were they. 

 Nor would their reason, tutor'd to aspire 

 Above this transitory world, allow 

 That there should pass a moment of the year 

 When in their land the Almighty's service ceased." 



Any communication of interest on the above 

 subject will much oblige Jarltzbebg. 



Handbell before a Corpse (Vol. ii., p. 478.). — 

 It is usual, at the funeral of any member of the 

 University of Oxford, for the University marshal 

 and bellman to attend in the character of nudes. 

 As the procession moves along, the latter rings his 

 bell at about half-minute time. I have witnessed 

 it also when the deceased has been one of the 

 family of a member of the University, and when 

 he has been a matriculated person. I have never 

 considered it as anything but a cast of the bell- 

 mans office, to add more solemnity to the occasion. 



L Rectory. Somerset. 



Sir George Downing (Vol. ii., pp. 464. 497.). _ — 

 It may assist your querist "Alpha," to be in- 

 formed that among the monuments to the family 

 of Pengellv, in the church of Whitchurch near 

 Tavistock, in the county of Devon, is one to the 

 memory of Ann, wife of Francis Pcngelly, and 

 daughter of Sir George Downing of East Hatley 

 in the county of Cambridge, who died the 23rd of 

 November, 1702; with the arms of Pengelly im- 

 paling Barry of six argent and gules, over all a 

 wyvern or — for Downing. 



