NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIU.^I OF INTEll-COMMUNICATION 



FOB 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTKiUARIES, GENEx\.LOGISTS, ETC. 



"■When faund, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



No. 79.] 



Saturday, May 3. 1851. 



f Price, Threepence. 

 } Stamped Edition, 4:'^. 



349 



356, 

 351 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes:— Page 

 Illiistralinns of Cliaucer, No. V. - - - - 3J.5 

 Foreign Er.gli>h — Guide to .Amsterdam - - - 3-lG 

 Seven Cliildren at a Birth three Times following - 347 

 Kamasshed, Meaning of the Term - - - 347 

 Authors of the I'oetry of the Anti-Jacobin, liy K. Haw- 

 kins 348 



Minor Notes:— Egg and Arrow Ornament — Defoe's 

 Project for puril'ying the English Language — Great 

 Fire of London — ^ Noble or Workhouse Names- 



QuEniES : — 



Passages in the New Testament illustrated from De- 

 mosthenes ...... 



The House of Maille , - . - - 



Minor Queries : — Meaning of "eign".^The Bonny 

 Cravat— Wh-at was the Day of the .Accession of Richard 

 the Third?— Lucas F:uni!y — Watch of Richard 

 Whiting — Laurence Howel, the OriRiiial Pili;rim — 

 Churchwardens' .Accounts, &c. of St. Mary-de-Castro, 

 Leicester — .Aristotle and Pythagoras —When Deans 

 first styled Very Reverend — Form of Prayer at the 

 Healing — West Chester — The Milesians — Round 

 Riibbin — E.-iperto crede Roberto — Captain Hovie— . 

 Bactna ..-•-.- 



HEPt^Es : — 



The Family of the Tradescants, by Dr. E. F. Rimbault 



Meaning of Venville, by E. Smirke - - . 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Newburgh Hamilton — 



Pedigree of Owen Glendower — Mind your P s and Q's 



The Sempecta at Croyland — .Solid-hoofed Pigs — 



Porci solide-pedes — Sir Henry .Slingsby's Diary — 

 Criston, Somerset — Tradesmen's Signs — Emenda- 

 tion of a Passage in Virgil . . - - 



MtSCELtANEOlIS : — 



Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &e. - . . 



Itooks and Odd Vcdumes wanted ... 



Notices to Correspondents . . „ . 



Advertisements -,..,. 



351 



35» 

 355 



356 



358 

 358 

 3.'.8. 

 353 



II.LUSTKATIOKS OF CHAUCER, NO. V. 

 T/ie Aike nf Artijicial Day. 



Before proceeding to point out llie indelible 

 marks by which Cliaucer has, a.s it were, stereo- 

 typed the true date of the journey to Canierbury, 

 I sliall clear aw;iy another stuniblinoj-block, still 

 more insiiriuountable to Tyrwhitt than hi.s first 

 diniciilty of tiie " lialle cours" in Aries, viz. the 

 scemiujj inconsistency iu statements (l._). and (2.) 



in the following lines of the prologue to the Man 

 of Lawe's tale : — 



Oure hoste saw wel that the bright sonne. 

 The arke of his artiiicial da}', had ironne 

 The fourlhe part and lialfe aQ. houre and more^ 



(1-) 



{■ 



And saw wel that the shadoiv of every tree 

 Was as in length of the same quantitie, 

 That was the body erecio that caused it, 

 And therefore by the shadow he toke his wit 

 (2.) ■{ That Phebus, which that shone so clere and 

 briglit, 

 Degrees was five and fourty clombe on bight, 

 And for that day, as in that latitude 

 It was ten of the clok, he gan coneluda" 



The difficulty will be best explained in Tyr-« 

 whitt's own words : — 



" Unfortunately, however, this description, thougl* 

 seemingly intended to be so accurate, will neither en- 

 able us to conclude with the MSS. that it was 'ten of 

 the duck,' nor to fix upon any other hour ; as the two. 

 circumstances just mentioned are not found to coincide 

 in any pait of the 2Stli, or of any other day of April, in 

 this climate." — Introductory Discourse, § xiv. 



In a foot-note, Tyrwhitt further enters into a 

 calculation ta show that, on the 28th of April, 

 the fourth part of the day and half an hour and 

 niore (even with the liberal allowance of a q,uarter 

 of an iiour to the indetinite phrase '■and more') 

 would have been completed by nine o'clock A. m. 

 at the latest, and therefore at least an Lour too 

 soon ibr coincidence with ("2.). 



Now, one would think that Tyrwhitt, when he 

 found his author relating facts, " seemingly in- 

 tended to be so accurate," would have endeavoured 

 to discover whether there might not be some 

 liiddoi meaning in them, the explaining of which 

 might make tiiat consistent, which, at tirst, was 

 apparently the reverse. 



Had he investigated with such a spirit, he must 

 have discovered that the expression "arke of the 

 artiticial day" conld not, in this instance, receive 

 its obvious and usual meaning of the horary 

 duration from sunrise to sunset — • 



And fiu- this simjile reason : That such a mean- 

 ing would pre.siijjjjosc a knowledge of the hour — 

 of the very thing in leipiest — and which was about 



Vol. 111.- No. 79. 



