July 12. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



27 



be much benefited. Ovid, I fear, employed triplex 

 " improperly," as AVarburton says that Shakspeare 

 employed triple, when he spoke of the Fates spin- 

 ning triplici pollice. I cannot find that any writer 

 lias imitated him. To call the Fates tripUces dere 

 (iV/ef.viii. 481.), or tripUces sorores (Met. vui. 453.), 

 was justifiable ; but to term any one of tliem 

 triplex dea, or to speak of her as spinning triplici 

 yuso or triplici pollice, was apparently to go beyond 

 what the Latin language warranted. A. E. B. 

 rightly observes that triple must be explained as 

 signifying " belonging to three conjoined ; " but 

 the use of it in such a sense is not to be supported 

 either by custom or reason, whether in reference 

 to the Latin language or to our own. 



Mr. Singer, in his observations on "captious," 

 has a very unlucky remark, which A. E. B. un- 

 luckily repeats — " We, no doubt, all know," says 

 Mr. Singer, "by intuition as it were, what Shak- 

 speare meant." If we all know Shakspeare's mean- 

 ing by intuition, how is it that the " true worship- 

 pers of Shakspeare" dispute about his meaning? 



J. S. W. 



Stockwell, June 27. 1851. 



Family of Etty, (he Artist (Vol. iii^ p. 496.). — 

 " Mr. Etty, Sen., the architect," mentioned in the 

 passage quoted by your correspondent from 

 Thoresby's Diary, was John Etty, who died Jan. 

 28th, 1709, at the age of seventy-five. Drake calls 

 him " an ingenious architect," and quotes these 

 lines from his epitaph in the church of All Saints, 

 North Street, in York {Eboracum, p. 277.) : — • 

 " His art was great, his industry no less, 

 What one projected, t'other brought to pass." 



Although Thoresby and Drake dignify him with 

 the title of architect, he was in fact a carpenter, or 

 what would now be styled " a builder." Mr. Etty 

 had several sons : Marmaduke, the painter men- 

 tioned by Thoresby, was one of them. He was 

 called in those days a painter-stainer. Two others, 

 James and AVilliam, were brought up to tlie busi- 

 ness of a carpenter — as their father and grand- 

 father were before them. William had two sons : 

 the eldest of whom, Jolm, was also a carpenter. 

 The other was the Reverend Lewis Etty, clerk ; 

 who, about a century ago, was incumbent of one 

 of the York churches. I suspect that no work is 

 now extant whicii is known to be the production 

 of either the arcliitect or the painter; and, but for 

 the incidental allusion to them in the Diary of 

 the Leeds antiquary, the memory of their very 

 names had long since perished. Tlie fact stated in 

 the Diary, of Grinlin Gibbons having wrought at 

 York with Mr. Etty, the architect, is not men- 

 tioned in any of tlie biographical notices of that 

 skilful artist, although its accuracy may be safely 

 accepted upon Thoresby's authority. 



The late William Etty, R.A,, never claimed 

 descent from the old York family. Most probably 

 he did not know that such persons ever existed. 

 His father, John Etty, and his grandfather, Mat- 

 thew Etty, were established as millers at York 

 during the latter part of tlie last century. To the 

 occupation of a miller, John Etty added that of a 

 ginger-bread baker ; and in the house in Fease- 

 gate, York, where his distinguished son was born, 

 he carrieil on an extensive business in supplying 

 the smaller shops and itinerant dealers with ginger- 

 bread of all descriptions, when it was a more 

 popular luxury or " folk-cate" than it is now. A 

 characteristic anecdote is told of W^illiam Etty, 

 which may not inappropriately be introduced here. 

 In his latter days, when in the zenith of his fame, 

 the large sum he was about to receive for one of 

 his pictures was the subject of conversation at a 

 friend's table. "Ah!" said the artist, with the 

 quiet simplicity of manner for which he was re- 

 markable, " it will serve to gild the gingerbread !" 



It is possible that a keen genealogist might 

 succeed in connecting the illustrious artist of our 

 day with the Ettys of Thoresby's time, and thus 

 establish a case of hei'editary genius. " Mr. Etty, 

 the painter," had a son called John, who attained 

 man's estate about the ye.ar 1710. He does not 

 appear to have settled at York, and it is by no 

 means out of the range of probability, that he was 

 the progenitor of Matthew Etty, the miller; who 

 was, I believe, a native of Hull, and who, by the 

 way, named one of his sons, John. Eboracomb. 



Parish Register of Petworth (Vol. iii., pp. 449. 

 485. 510.). — By the parish register abstract ac- 

 companying the population returns of 1831, it 

 appears that in that year the earliest existing 

 register of Petworth commenc3d in 1559. AV^e 

 are indebted to the late Mr. Rickman for this ab- 

 stract of the dates of all the parish registers in the 

 kingdom ; and it would be well if, at the next 

 census, a similar return was called for, that it 

 may be seen what registers are then missing. 



As to lost registers, I may state that I possess 

 the bishop's transcripts of sixty registers, signed 

 by the minister and churchwardens of parishes in 

 the county of Kent; they comprise the baptisms, 

 marriages, and burials for the years 1640 and 1641. 

 The registers of sixteen of these parishes do not 

 I begin until after 1641, consequently these tran- 

 scripts are the only records now existing of the 

 baptisms, marriages, and burials in those sixteen 

 parishes tor 1640 and 1641. J. S.B. 



Death (Vol. iii., p. 450.). — The ancients found 

 in the successive transformations of the butterfly 

 a striking and beautiful parallel to the more im- 

 portant career of human existence. Thus to their 

 fancy the caterpillar, or larva, represented man's 

 earthly course; the pupa, or chrysalis state, his 

 death and utter inanition ; while the perfect state 



