274 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 102. 



says, " When a priest is ordained, the bishop 

 blessing him and laying the hand upon his head, 

 let all the priests also, that are present, hold tlieir 

 hands upon his liead, by the hands of the bisho))." 

 Without the slightest reference to which is really 

 the orthodox method, I would merely ask, whether 

 the Church of England could legalli/ forego the 

 intervention of the priests, just as the Church of 

 Scotland dispenses with the aid of bishops in the 

 act of conferring " full orders ? " 



Alfkeb Gatty. 



218. Earwig. — Can any correspondent furnish 

 a derivation of ear-wig superior to the ones in 

 voTue ? AHfiN. 



219. The Soul's Errand. — I will thank any one 

 to tell me on what grounds the stanzas called the 

 Soul's Errand are reported to have been written 

 by Sir Walter Raleigh the night before his ex- 

 ecution. The first stanza is (meinoriter) — 



" Go, soul, the body's guest, 

 Upon a thankless errant! 

 Fear not to toucli the best, 



The truth sliall be thy warrant. 

 Go, since I needs must die, 

 And give the world the lie." 

 It will be satisfactory to hear at the same time 

 in what work they are to be found. A nobleman 

 of high rank is said to have them engraved on a 

 silver table of the period. .^gbotus. 



iHtiinr eauciic^ ^its'tocrcTi. 



Call a Spade, a Spade. — What is the origin 

 of the common saying to call a spade, a .ymde f 

 Is it an old proverb or a quotation ? In a letter 

 of Melancthon's to Archbishop Cranmer respecting 

 the formularies of the Anglican Church, dated 

 May 1st, 1548, the following sentence occurs, 

 which seems to be another form of it : — 



" In Ecelesia rectius, scapham, scapham dicere ; nee 

 objicere posteris ambigua dicta." 



Is scapham, scapham dicere, I would also ask, a 

 classical quotation, or a modern Latin version of 

 the other expi-ession ? W. Feaser. 



[Mr. HalHwfll, in his Dictionarij, says, " The plirase 

 To call a spade a spade is applied to giving a person 

 his real character or qualities. Still in use." " I am 

 plaine, I must needs call a spade a spade, a pope a 

 pope." — Mar- Prelate's Epitome, p. 2. J 



Prince Rupert's Drops. — At the risk of being 

 thought somewhat ignorant, I beg for enlighten- 

 ment with regard to the following passage ex- 

 tracted from a late number of Household Wo?-ds: — 



" Now the first production of an author, if only 

 three lines long, is usually esteemed as a sort of Prince 

 Rupert's Drop, which is destroyed entirely if a person 

 make on it but a single scratch." 



If you, or some of your correspondents, would 



not think this too trivial a matter to notice, and 

 would inform me what the allusion to "Prince 

 Rupert's Drop" refers to, I should be very much i 

 obliged. Ybam. 



[For the history of Prince Rupert's Drops our cor- 

 respondent is referred to our 100th Number, p. 234. | 

 These philosophical toys, which exhibit in the most per. 

 feet manner the effects of expansion and contraction iu l 

 melted glass, are made by letting drops of melted glass j 

 fall into cold water. Eacli drop assumes an oval form 

 with a tail or neck resembling a retort; and possesses ] 

 this singular property, that if a small portion of the ( 

 tail is broken off the whole bursts into powder with an 1 

 explosion, and a considerable shock is communicated to 

 the hand that grasps it.] 



" Worse than a Crime" — Who first remarked, 

 with reference to the murder of the Due D'Enghieu 

 by Napoleon, " It was worse than a crime, it was 

 a blunder ? " T. Allason. 



Furnival's Inn, Oct. 3. 1851. 



[This saying has always been attributed to Talley- 

 rand ; and it is so clearly the remark of a clever 

 politician, but lax moralist, that we have little doubt 

 it has been very justly appropriated to that distinguished 

 sayer of good things,] 



Arhor Lowe, Stanton Moor, Ayre Family. — 

 Can any of your readers oblige me with informa- 

 tion respecting the Druidical remains at Arbor Lowe 

 and Stanton Moor, in the Peak of Derbyshire ? 

 I am unable to find any but meagre notices ; and 

 in one or two so-called histories of Derbyshire, 

 they are only casually mentioned. Also any par- 

 ticulars concerning the old family of the Ayres, 

 who formerly lived at Birchever, and whose house 

 still stands iu a very ruinous condition at the foot 

 of the Routor Rocks ? 



I have heard that some very singular histories 

 are connected with the family. H. 



[Arbor Lowe and Stanton Moor will be found very 

 fully described by that indefatigable Derbyshire anti- 

 quary Mr. Bateman, in his Vestiyes of the Antiquities 

 of Derbyshire, published in 1848.] 



Bishop of Worcester " On the Sufferings of 

 Christ." — Who was the Bishop of Worcester about 

 the year 1697 ? I have a book by him On the 

 Sufferings of Christ, and it only t;tates by Edward 

 Bishop of AVorcester. I presume it is Dr. Stil- 

 lingfleet. 217/ia. 



[This work is by Bishop Stillingfleet ; the first 

 edition was published in 1696, and Part II. in 1700, 

 the year following the Bishop's death.] 



Lord Clifford. — Is the present Lord Clifibrd 

 lineally descended from the Lord Clifford who 

 was Lord High Treasurer temp. Charles II., or 

 whether he derives through any collateral branch? 



Clekicus. 



[The present Lord Clifford, the eighth baron, is li- 

 neally descended from Thomas first Baron Clifford of 

 Chudleigh, who was so created 22nd April, 1672.] 



