2»'» S. VI. 135., July 31. '.58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



89 



"The whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy's 

 Courtship and Marriage." 

 "John Cheap the Chapman." 

 " The Laird of Cool's Ghost." 

 " The Wife of Beith." 



These were amply diffused through the country 

 by the foot-packmsLXi, with his small wares on his 

 back, and sold at a trifle, the perusal forming 

 in much later times the evening's amusement of 

 many young folks in towns, as well as of the farm- 

 servants in the rural districts ; the latter having 

 usually a large bundle of them in a bole by the 

 kitchen fire, from whence they were drawn, for 

 one to read while the women plied their spinning- 

 wheels. In general, their dialect and composition 

 unmistakeably prove them to have been the pro- 

 ductions of native, humble writers, and prominent 

 among these was Dougal Graham, the Glasgow 

 Bell-man. Although comprising in their pages 

 matters and passages very exceptionable to de- 

 cency, they must be acknowledged as possessing 

 numerous striking characteristics of certain con- 

 ditions of society, now valuable in tracing the 

 footsteps of a better civilisation. The printing of 

 these Tracts is yet continued here and there, though 

 considerably upon the wane, happily supplanted 

 by sounder and more useful information in the 

 cheap newspapers and abounding periodical litera- 

 ture of the day. G. X. 



[Our correspondent will find some remarks on the au- 

 thenticity of The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs in 

 Pegge's Life of Bishop Grosseteste, pp. 67-69 : Pegge says, 

 " Bishop Grosseteste translated The Testamejits of the 

 Twelve Patriarchs out of Greek into Latin, being told of 

 the book by John de Basing, upon whose information the 

 Bishop sent to Athens for it. Matthew Paris intimates, 

 that this work had been suppressed or secreted by the 

 Jews, on account of the open and manifest prophecies 

 contained in it relating to our Saviour. He fiincied that 

 the Testaments had formerly been parcel of the original 

 Hebrew Scriptures, and were concealed whilst they con- 

 tinued in an untranslated state ; for it must have been 

 out of the power of the Jews, after a Greek version was 

 once made, to have kept them private to themselves. 

 But this was never the case ; for, according to the opinion 

 of Faijricius, thej' were not so much as written in that 

 language, though Dr. Grabe thinks they were. 



"Alatthew Paris pretends the Testaments were un- 

 known to the Christians in the time of St. Jerome : ' Xor 

 in the time of St. Jerome, or of any other holy interpreter, 

 could it in any way whatever come to the knowledge of 

 the Christians, on account of the scheming malice of the 

 Jews.' (^Hist. Major, p. 597.) But this is a mistake ; for 

 this gross piece of forgery is older than Origen, and was 

 probably composed in the second century, or the close of 

 the first. (Grabii, Spicilegium, i. 131.) Cave thinks at the 

 end of the second; Dodwell places it in the first; and 

 others believe it was composed by some Jew before our 

 Saviour's death. (Kapin, p. 356.) But this is not at all 

 probable. 



" .Some have thought the Greek text of this book was a 

 translation made by John Chrysestora from an Hebrew 

 original ; but the grounds of this opinion are not suffi- 

 cient to supfjort it. (Tanner, BiUiotheca, p. 348.) 



" Bishop Grossete.ste was firmly persuaded of the au- 

 thenticity of this book; he not only translated it into 



Latin from the Greek originals ; but, in a letter of his to 

 King Henrj- III. he alleges the words of the Testaments, 

 and argues from them, as the undoubted word of God."] 



Pensions granted ly Louis XIV. to TAterary 

 Men. — In the year 1663, Louis Quatorze granted 

 pensions to several literary men. A copy of the 

 list, or any information respecting it, will be very 

 acceptable to J. M. H. 



The Mowbray Family. — I am much indebted 

 to ^Meletes for his information. I have two more 

 Queries : 



1. Who was Geofl'rey de Wirce, whose vast 

 estates fell into the hands of Nigel de Albini, the 

 founder of the English family of Mowbray (Dug- 

 dale, Bar. vol. i. p. 122.) ? In a recently-drawn-up 

 pedigree I lately inspected, he is described as 

 being the same person as Geoffrey Bishop of Cou- 

 tance, and the authority given is Domesday-Book. 



2. Wm. de Mowbray, who died in 1222, had 

 two sons Nigel and Roger. Nigel, according to 

 Dugdale {Bar. vol. i. p. 12-5.), lived several years 

 after his father's death. Mr. Courthope, in his 

 Historic Peerage, does not recognise him as a 

 Baron by Tenure, and Glover, Somerset Herald, 

 in his Collections, states that he died durinor bis 

 father's lifetime: which is correct? Perhaps a 

 reference to Dugdale's authorities, wbich he 

 gives, but which I have no means of consulting, 

 might e.xplain this disagreement. T. Nokth. 



Leicester. 



Classical Cockneyism. — On looking over Ca- 

 tullus this morning, I came upon the following 

 satire on the abuse of " poor letter H," which is 

 worthy of Punch at the present day : 



" CAommoda dicebat, si quando commoda vellet 

 Dicere, et insidias Arrius Ainsidias. 

 Et turn miriflcfe sperabat se esse locutum, 

 Quum, quantum poterat, diserat /iinsidias. 

 Credo sic mater, sic liber avunculus eju.s, 

 Sic maternus avus dixerit atque avia. 

 Hoc misso in Syriara, requierant omnibus aures, 

 Audibant eadem hsec leniter et leviter. 

 Nee sibi postilla metuebant talia verba, 

 Quum subito adfertur nuntius horribilis : 

 lonios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset 

 Jam non lonios, esse sed //ionios." 



Carmen Ixxxiv. ad Arrium. 

 This " exasperation of the H " seems to be a 

 sort of original sin in enunciation, as we find it 

 ridiculed and joked at nearly two thousand years 

 ago. Are any other instances to be found in the 

 classics ? William Fraser, B.C.L. 



Alton Vicarage, StaflFordshire. 



Some Effects of Inebriety. — About the close of 

 the last century there were published in the 

 Morning Chronicle some most facetious and hu- 



