100 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 67. 



ME. cough's translation OF THE HISTORY OF 

 THE BIBLE. 



In vol. vi.,p.266.,of Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, 

 " Memoirs of Mr. Gough," is the following anec- 

 dote of Ml". Gough's pi-ecocious talents : — 



" At the very early age of eleven he commencetl a 

 task that would have reflected credit on any period of 

 life ; which, l)y the indulgence of liis mother, appeared 

 in print under the title of ' The Hhtory of the Bible, 

 transUited from the Frencli by R. G., junior, 1746. 

 London: Primed by James Waugh in the year 1747.' 

 Of this curious volume, consisting of 160 sheets in 

 folio, not more than twenty-five copies were printed, as 

 presents to a few particular friends ; and when com- 

 pleted at the press, it is marked by way of colophon, 

 ' Done at twelve years and a half old.' " 



Mr. Nicliols in his notes says, that the French 

 edition was printed at Amsterdam, in 2 vols, folio, 

 with plates, 1700. That by the generosity of Mr. 

 Gough's worthy relict, he had a copy of the work 

 with^Mr. Gough's corrections in maturer age; and 

 in a note at p.642. of this volume of the Literary 

 Anecdotes Mr. Nichols further states, that 



" By a singular chance, at a sale of the library of Dr. 

 Guise in January, 1812, be met with two copies of 

 Mr. Gough's juvL'uile translation of the History of the 

 Bible; and at the end of one of the volumes were ten 

 sheets of Mr. Pickering's Diclionari/, perhaps the only 

 copy of them in existence." 



The Rev. Roger Pickering was Mr. Gough's 

 tutor until he was admitted at Bene't College, 

 Cambridge, July, 1752, being then in the 17th 

 year of his age. This Dictionary was compiled on 

 the plan of Calmet, but left unfinished. 



Mr. J. B, Nichols, son of the late venerable 

 octogenarian, having recently presented me with 

 a copy of Mr. Gough's scarce volume, I am 

 anxious to learn by whom the original French 

 work was written, and where a copy may be pur- 

 chased. It is one of much erudition ; sound in 

 doctrine and princijde ; pleasing and familiar in 

 its language, and would, I should think, well repay 

 the ))ul)lisher of a new edition, after a careful 

 correction of a few deficiencies in composition, 

 incidental to tlie early period at which Mr. Gough 

 translated it. There is nothing in the preface, or 

 in any i)art of the volume, to indicate the name of 

 the original autlior. Should Mr. J. H. Nichols 

 still possess Mr. Gough's more matured and cor- 

 rected copy, he might perhaps discover some 

 reference to the author. J. M. G. 



Worcester, Jan. 1851. 



FOLK LORE. 



Lammer Beads fVol. iii. p. 84.). — If L.M.M.R. 

 had taken the trouble to consult Jamieson's Ety- 

 mological Dictionary, — that rich storehouse of cu- 



rious information, not merely in relation to the 

 language, but to the manners and customs, and 

 the superstitions of North Britain, — he would 

 have found interesting notices connected with his 

 inquiry. See the word Lammer, and the same in 

 the Supplement. We might accept, without a 

 moment's hesitation, the suggestion of a learned 

 friend of Dr. Jamieson's, deriving Lannner from 

 the French, l'aml)?-e, were it not that Kilian gives 

 us Teut. Lameityn-steen, succitmm. In Anglo- 

 Sa.Kon times it was called Eollisand (Gloss. ^Ifr), 

 and appears to have been esteemed in Britain from 

 a very early period. Amongst anti(juities of the 

 Anglo-Saxon age, beads of amber are of very fre- 

 quent occurrence. Douglas has collected some 

 interesting notes resardins; this substance, in his 

 Neiiia, p. 9. It were needless to cite the frequent 

 mention of pi'ecularia, or Paternosters, of amber, 

 occurring in inventories. The Duke of Bedford, 

 Regent of France, purchased a most costly chaplet 

 irom a Parisian jeweller, in 1431, described as 

 " une patenostres a signeaux d'or et d'ambre 

 musquet." (Leber, Invcntaires, p. 2-35.) The 

 descrijjtion " de alba awmbre," as in the enume- 

 ration of strings of beads appended to the shrine 

 of Si" William, at York Minster, may have been 

 in distinction from jet, to which, as well as to 

 amber, certain virtuous or talismanic properties 

 were attributed. There were, however, several 

 kinds of amber, — succinimi ruhruin, fidvum, &c. 

 The learned professor of Copenhagen, Olaus 

 AVorm, alludes to the popular notions and super- 

 stitious use of amber — 



" Foris in collo gestatum, contra fascinationes et 

 nocturna terriculamenta pueros tueri volant ; capitis 

 etiam destillationibus, et tonsilhirum ac faucium vitiis 

 resistere, oculorum fluxus et ophthalmias curare." 

 By his account it would seem to have been re- 

 ceived as a panacea, sovereign for asthma, dropsy, 

 toothache, and a multitude of diseases. 



" In suinma (he concludes) Balsami instar est, 

 calorem nativum roborans et morborum iiisultibus 

 resistens." — Museum Wormianum, p. 32. 



Bartholoniffius Glanvilla, in his work, De Pro- 

 prietatibus Reruni, has not overlooked the pro- 

 perties of amber, which he seems to regard as a 

 kind of jet (book xvi., c. xlix.). 



" Gette, hyght Gagates, and is a boystous stone, and 

 never the les it is precious." 



He describes it as most abundant and of best 

 quality in Britain ; of two kinds, yellow and black; 

 it drives away adders, — 



" Is contrary to fendes, — belpeth for fintasies and 

 ayenste vexacions of fendis by night. — And so, if so 

 boystus a stone dothe so great wonders, none shuld be 

 dispisid for foule colour without, while the vertu that 

 is within is unknowe." (Translation by Trevisa.) 



Albert Wat. 



