old time) a Temple, builded by the Templers, whose an example of the three chief officers, and at a court-north side of Oldboorne. Beyond the Barres had ye (in martial held in the fortress they were condemned to death. He, however, relented, and declared that the death of one of them would satisfy him. A boy was selected to draw lots by taking three pieces of straw of different lengths, and the one at whose name the shortest was drawn was the one condemned to suffer. This sad fate fell to Col. Poyer-"drunken Poyer," as Carlyle calls himand he was shot to death in Covent Garden. The present Bishop of Llandaff is a descendant of that unfortunate man, and the name of Poyer is still retained in the family. The obvious lesson is that we ought to be thankful that we live in more tolerant times. We see how both sides in that stormy period made mistakes, and that men, when their passions are aroused, are led into vile courses, which they would shun in calmer periods. 66 Stow, when he treats of the rivers and waters The rebellion against the authority of the Par-serving the city, mentions that "in the west liament was then at an end so far as Wales was suburbs was also another great water, called Oldconcerned. When Cromwell was made Protector borne, which had his fall into the river of the he sent two commissioners, named Hugh Peters Wells." This river of Wells was the Fleet Ditch, and Vavasor Powell, to turn out all the clergy and furnished principally from the wells of Hampto appoint men more acceptable to the dominant stead. Stow says it was so called as far back as powers of the time. The clergy were left to starve, William the Conqueror, in his charter to the but in some instances the commissioners gave them college of St. Martin's-le-Grand. He adds that in a pittance of 5l. per annum, William Erbury, 1307 ships or navies of merchandise could come up the vicar of St. Mary's, Cardiff, who refused to to Fleet bridge, and even to Oldborne bridge. read 'The Book of Sports' from the pulpit, was a This lies a little out of our district, but I recall it pure Republican, and was as much against the to memory because it has to do with the origin of usurpation of Oliver Cromwell as he had been the word Holborn. The learned Isaac Taylor said against the tyranny of the king, for which offence in 1873, I believe for the first time, that everybody he was cast into prison. Judge Jenkins, of Hensol was wrong in talking of the origin as being from Castle, situated about eight miles from Cardiff, Old and bourne, or burn, a stream. A town might was tried in London for holding Royalist opinions, | be old or new, as Oldham or Newton, but a stream but he held up the Bible in the dock as his charter could not be. Do we never say "Old Father of liberty, and after eleven months' incarceration Thames?" He finds H "another difficulty in the in the Fleet Prison he died. way of this etymology." To make it more in accordance with etymological laws," we are in future to derive it from Saxon hole, a hollow or ravine, like Holbeck, in Lincolnshire. Mr. Wheatley tells us that our old notion must be given up, for that had it stood for Old the A.-S. would have been Ald. Now all this looks plausible, if it is not sound. To begin with, Oldborne is a very old form. Stow, I think, never uses Holborn. In Dr. Sharpe's interesting Calendar of Wills' we certainly find the word as "Holbourn Crouch," or Cross, in the year 1349. This, taken with Stow, shows there is no great difficulty in getting the H in or out of the word. Londoners would not be true to their vowel uses if it were. But if hole be Saxon for hollow, we might have called the Fleet river Hole Burn, but why should we call the spring at the crown of the hill so? There is nothing to show what that first syllable means, and as hole, with the sense assigned it, is inappropriate, we may rest assured "On the high street have ye many faire houses that cannot be the correct etymon. Early races builded, and lodgings for gentlemen, inns for travellers, never fail to affix names to a place that are fitly and such like, up almost (for it lacketh but little) to S. descriptive. We may take Hole, Ol, or Old as we Giles in the fields: amongst the which buildings, for the please, and for what we please, but until we are most part being very new, one passeth the rest in large-surer of our affair Oldbourne is quite as good as nesse of roomes, lately builded by a widow, sometime wife to Rich. Alington, Esquire, which Rich, Alington deceased in the year 1561. And thus much for that H. J. F. LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. (See 8th S. iv. 101, 135, 169, 181, 234, 281, 332, 341, 376, 423, 492, 521; v. 76, 103, 183, 257.) Starting now from Holborn Bars with the intention of garlanding some few of the innumerable facts that appertain to the line of High Holborn, I cannot, probably, do better than commence with an extract from that honest chronicler, old Stow. I quote from Munday's enlargement of 1633 (p. 486). It conveys an excellent idea of the spot at the close of Elizabeth's reign, and furnishes us with really solid ground to start from :— Holebourne. Mr. Wheatley conjures up another difficulty, Lane, and Gray's Inn Lane. Oddly enough, Shoe Lane and Fetter Lane were done also in 1541, so that Holborn Hill, which most required it, was the last to receive attention. and says that Stow seems to be the first authority for the brook at all, and he, he says, observes that it had long ceased to run. We should particularly mark that he calls it a "great water," and this is not the way in which our honest chronicler treats I must record a quaint act of suicide that we get dubious facts. He was not a man to create a stream from Holingshed. One Pavier, Town Clerk of where no stream was. In fact, according to late London, hung himself out of pure indignation at estimate we are not sure that it ever ran, except in the measures being pursued. Holingshed declares his imagination. It is true that Stow says it was that he heard him "with a great oath" affirm that stopped at the head; but he adds that the ground" rather than live to see the Scriptures set forth in all adjoining is full of springs, so that the water is English be would cut his own throat." This con"hard to be stopped in every house." This is duct is almost as whimsical as that of the gentlepretty good evidence of the possibility of a stream. man who put an end to himself because life But if not, how shall we account for the bourne? appeared to him to resolve itself into a ceaseless We have made a scientific muddle of the first buttoning and unbuttoning of vestments-an endsyllable, and are busy now playing Niebuhr with less doing on and doing off of clothes. "Doff life, the second. Because engineers by the Viaduct and you are free," was his maxim, which is as wise have made away with the hill are we to make as are many of the maxims of greater philosophers. away with the water? We have lately introduced Let us now start with the Middle Row, built, a Furnival Street, to add to the general confusion. according to Tegg, about 1607. This "insulated A curious account of an apprehended riot in row of houses," as Wheatley_calls it, was most 1749 is given by Thomas Allen in his History of interesting. It abutted upon Holborn Bars at the London.' Some sailors had been ill-treated by spot where Gray's Inn Lane-nowabsurdly changed women of the town in a house near St. Mary-le- to Gray's Inn Road-enters Holborn. It narrowed Strand, then called the New Church, though it the main thoroughfare at this point considerably. had been completed since 1717. On July 1 the Its removal as an obstruction commenced on the sailors gathered in force with cutlasses and blud- last day of August, 1867. In the following geons, stripped the house of all furniture and December it was thrown open to the roadway, at apparel, and bundled all the women into the a cost of 61,000l. Cunningham quotes Stow's street. On the following night they devastated' Remarks,' 1722, as saying they are mostly two more houses, and the third night attempted perriwig-makers who live here." Wheatley gives another house in the Old Bailey. At last the mili- what Strype says thus :— tary were called out, and some of the rioters apprehended. One Bosavern Penlez was condemned to be executed on October 18. As they apprehended a rescue, a party of foot guards attended at Holborn Bars to escort the prisoner and fourteen others to Tyburn. Mr. Sheriff Janssen, mounted on horseback, acquired to himself great credit by his conduct on the occasion. He rode with the prisoners from Newgate with a considerable guard of the civil force. He dismissed the officer and troop of soldiers most courteously on reaching the Bars, and without their assistance led the criminals to Tyburn. There many sailors, armed with bludgeon and cutlass, had already taken up a position, and grew exceedingly clamorous, as it was rumoured the body of Penlez was to be devoted to the surgeons. Mr. Janssen pacified them by assurances that this should not take place. The fifteen culprits were executed wholesale, without the least disturbance or obstruction. We find by Act of Parliament, 1553-4-the year in which, after being "hanged and headed," Elizabeth Barton, the "Holy Maid of Kent," had her head set on London Bridge-an Act was passed this year to pave from Holborn Bridge to Holborn Bars. This would seem to have been done to connect it with the pavement that in 1541 had already been laid in High Holborn, Chancery "Middle Row, so called as being a parcel of buildings raised up in the middle of the street, next the bars, and reached to the "King's Head " Tavern,* but more to the southward of the street, making but a narrow passage betwixt the houses on the south side, and this Middle Row, which said passage hath a freestone pavement, and is a place of very good trade for retailers, as combmakers, cutlers, brokers," &c. There are four tokens extant of the tradesmen in Middle Row, as given by Akerman. Michael Chambers, at the "Lion," Middle Row, in Holborn, 1666. David Hutton, at the City of York," an octagonal halfpenny, representing a city with three towers. William Petty, at the "York City." This last has a view of a city. Neither of these York tokens has a date, but no doubt each represents an individual who carried on business at the same shop in the row, though at different dates. *This King's Head Tavern may have been a house on 609, in Burns. The device is there given as " Bust of the north side of Holborn, of which there is a token, No. King Henry VIII.," and is called "Tavern in Holborn." Holborn was often in the tokens substituted for High Holborn, so that this might well be the house in question. Strype says more to the southward of the street," which seems to indicate that the tavern was on the north side of Holborn. If this be so, Strype had better have said "reaches to [the point over against] the King's Head Tavern." In 'Old and New London,' ii. 528, there is a good view of this block of buildings, taking in part of Staple Inn, looking westward, just before it was demolished. It comes right up to the obelisk marking the position of the Bars on the east side of High Holborn. In Shepherd's 'Views of London' you get the view of Middle Row about 1830. This is taken from the western, or High Holborn, side, and the two together give a very fair notion indeed of the old place as it stood, an island with the double traffic surging round it. The house looking down Holborn Hill has the name of Finch upon it, and the shop looking down High Holborn, with its double-bayed window front, presents a facia bearing the name of R. James. Elmes, in his letterpress accompanying, gives no information whatever touching this most singular row. There is much suggested by these views that one would have liked to ask questions about, but the tongues have long been silent that could have answered interrogation pleasantly, and now a traffic of quite other things roars ceaselessly over what were homes and hearths once in the elder time. To ask questions now, or to challenge the shadow on a sundial that marks what is not marked-i.e., the flight of time-is to disquiet ourselves in vain, and forces us, with a somewhat ruffled complacency, back upon ourselves, to ask, "Are the seemingly solid pursuits of men things much more substantial, after all, than is the nonsense that antiquaries dream upon?" Or we may quote Pierre Gassendi's last words here, and say, "See how frail is the life of man." To-morrow is still with eternity, and yesterday has joined the majority that votes not in its parliament of silence. Chingford Hatch, E. (To be continued.) C. A. WARD. MAURITIUS AUGUSTUS BENYOWSZKY. (Continued from 8th S. vi. 483.) As regards the campaign in Poland, Benyovszky has here the field almost entirely to himself, so long as he strictly confines himself to relating his valiant deeds in the guerilla warfare carried on against the opposing faction and the Russians. Nobody probably will ever be able either to confirm or contradict many of his statements, as the detailed history of those struggles has as yet not been, and probably never will be, written. Undisciplined crowds of nobles formed themselves into so-called federations, and flew to arms, sometimes in one place, sometimes in another. For the space of several years the record of these so-called military operations would simply be "a dull bideous catalogue of slaughter." It would present a picture most disgraceful to human nature, sullied with the most dreadful exorbitances, and stained with the most horrible cruelties." We 66 are further told by the writer whose words I just quoted, that "slaughters and engagements were now so common as to excite neither admiration nor horror. Nobody would take the trouble even to identify them, and they were consequently transmitted only in the gross. Dr. Jankó states that we possess not only a full description of the various engagements fought by the troops of the Confederation of Bar, preserved in a book written by a French officer who took an active part in those operations, but even numerous references to the doings of Benyowszky himself. But in this, I believe, he is mistaken. He does not give the slightest hint as to who the French officer in question was, or what the title of his book may be, or where or when it was published, although such valuable discovery ought not to be withheld from an expectant public. I fear, therefore, that he has misunderstood Ebeling, the editor of one of the German translations of the Memoirs,'t who merely states that Benyowazky's narrative of the gruesome war forms a good counterpart (Gegenstück) to the 'Diary of a French Officer (M. Belcour) in the Service of the Polish Confederation,' published at Amsterdam (Leipzig) in 1779, a book for which I have searched high and low in vain. Dr. Ebeling adds that he has taken great pains to discover some independent evidence bearing upon Benyowszky's share in the Polish events, but his troubles were not rewarded with any success. He was known in Poland, and either esteemed or abhorred by people, according to the faction to which Dr. Ebeling's informants belonged; but his deeds are lost in the great disorder and chaos prevailing in that unhappy country in those troublous times. The German editor further avers that he has not met once with Benyowezky's name, though he has diligently searched for it, in the 'Histoire des Révolutions de Pologne depuis la Mort du Roi August III. jusqu'en 1775,' Varsovie (Paris), 1776,‡ and the best German newspapers of the period. The name of this hero of many gallant deeds does not occur even once in the columns of the Hamburg Correspondent or the Neus Zeitung, published in the same place for the years 1768 and 1769-so Ebeling informs us-notwithstanding that both these journals received circumstantial accounts from the seat of war, though these were not inclined to favour the cause of the Confederation. In fairness to Benyowszky, how *Annual Register' for 1768-9. † Hamburg, 1791, in 2 vols. The newer editions of Rulhière do mention Benyowszky's deeds, but, alas ! bave no other authority for their statements than Benyowezky's own 'Memoirs.' Rulhière's editor of 1862 gives the title of another book, viz.. Souvenir de la Confédération de Bar' (Posen, 1843, by Kaczkowski). I only know the original Polish edition, published at the same place and the same year. It dismisses Benyowezky's 86 'dramatico-historical romance with a few contemptuous words. ever, the German editor is bound to acknowledge that he has not discovered anything contradictory to our hero's narrative, but, on the contrary, has found many things which bear him out. 66 I have been more fortunate than Dr. Ebeling, and run Benyowszky to earth. Though he handles the Polish events with some skill, and upon the whole manages fairly well to fit his own heroic exploits into the general narrative, he commits some very serious chronological and other blunders, which at once betray him as a literary impostor. He relates that he arrived at Cracow on the very day the Count Panin made the assault." From other sources we know that Cracow was invested about the beginning of July, 1768. Benyowszky further relates that on the 6th of the same month he went to Novitarg, returned to besieged Cracow with a regiment of six hundred men, and after having performed many valiant deeds before the town, and also at Landskron and sundry other localities, he was taken prisoner by the Russians, but very soon ransomed by his friends, and returned to Cracow, and finally, on Aug. 22, left that town, which he alleges was taken by the Russians during (and in all probability owing to) his absence. But according to the authorized version of Polish history, General Apraxin took the town during the night of Aug. 17-18. Various other feats of arms are hereafter related in his book, and sundry "affairs" are settled, and at length he states that he proceeded with his troops to the assistance of the fortress of Bar, the headquarters of the federation to which he belonged, but on his way received information of the fall of the fortress. Benyowezky states that he heard this on November 29, though everybody else in Poland must have been in possession of that intelligence many months before, as Bar was stormed and taken by the Russians on June 9, O.S.,* i. e., probably before Benyowszky set foot on Polish soil. This huge blunder as regards the date of the fall of Bar, committed by one who professes to have been the leading spirit of the Bar Confederation, is fully convincing as regards the value of Benyowszky's Polish history. In addition hereto he commits the indiscretion of coveting for himself the laurels and fame gained in the defence of Zwanietz and in the skilfully conducted retreat across the Dniester into Turkish territory, which honours, with his sole exception, all chroniclers have assigned to Casimir Pulawsky. L. L. K. (To be continued.) * Various authorities give the date of the fall of Bar as at the end of May, June, and even July, 1768. But there is not the slightest doubt that it fell on June 20 according to our reckoning. My authority for this is Major-General Kretshetnikov's Diary,' published in vol. iii. of the Moscow Historical and Archæological Society's journal, the Tshteniya (in Russian). Benyowezky mentions the general in January, 1769, but, alas! the diary breaks off at Sept. 16, 1768. THANKSGIVINg for the BIRTH OF CHARLES II. The Rev. George B. Fenwick, vicar of St. Thomas-by- Launceston, in a recent thorough investigation of the various books and registers preserved there, discovered a printed copy of the following thanksgiving prayer for the birth of Charles, Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II. (the sheet being torn away where asterisks are marked) :— A Thanksgiving fore ** of the Queene, and happy ** yong Prince. ** * us. given us the joy of our hearts, the contentment of our O most mercifull God and Gracious Father, thou hast soules for this life, in blessing our deare and dread Sovereigne, and his vertuous Royall Queene with a Sonne, and us with a *,*thy just time and his, We give thy glo- most humble and hearty thankes thee for this great mercie, that thy goodnesse may for this Lord make us so thankefull, so obediente to del to increase it to us. Increase it good Lord to more children: the prop one of another against single hope. Increase it to more Sons: the great strengthening of his Majesty and his Throne. Increase it in the life and well fare of this Prince already given. Increase it in the joy of the Royall Parents, and all true hearted subjects. Increase it with his Christian and most happy education, both in faith and goodnes: That his kingdome and people may be happy: First in the long life and prosperity of our most gracious Souvereigne, and his gather h Lord double his graces (if it bo possible) Royall Consort: And when fulnesse of dayes must and make th -rent in this his Heire, and his Heires after him for all--tions to come, even for Jesus Christ his sake our onely Saviour. Amen. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, printer to the King's most Excellent Majestie, 1630. It may be added that the parish also possesses a complete set of Church wardens' Accounts from 1480 to 1655, and registers dating from 1563, for the full preservation of which Mr. Fenwick is now securing aid to provide efficient binding and an iron safe. DUNHEVED. INSCRIPTION.-On the vault of the old patrician family of Böhlin, in the Anna Kirche, at Augsburg, is said to be an inscription composed of three P's in four rows, of which the following is said to be the reading : [This recalls the 'Pugna Porcorum,' a long Latin poem, in which every word begins with the letter p.] A PAGE OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY.-The following curious information may or may not be appreciated by readers of 'N. & Q.'; but I confess that when my landlady, on a wet afternoon (and there are some wet afternoons even in lovely Guernsey), brought me a broken backed volumes minus its title-page and sadly thumbed, telling me it was a forbidden book in which were charm, "SCONE."-Within the last few years this word scone has become familiar in England, or, at least, in and about London. Its pronunciation, like that of golf, is (in England) unsettled, and it seems probable that before very long the short o (as in of great power, I sat down to read it with much avidity and to make notes of its contents, amongst them the following, which may probably enable some one learned in such literature to help me to the title of the work in which I found them :"It is said if any one shall carry the heart of a crowdon) will have established itself. But those of us or a bat about him, he shall not sleep till he cast it from him. The same doth the head of a bat dried, and bound to the right arm of him that is asleep. The tongue of a water-frog laid under the head of a man, and the heart of a Scrich owl laid on the left breast of a woman, make them talk in their sleep, and utter all their secrets. A duck dried into powder and put into water generates frogs-but if cut into pieces after being baked in a pie and put into a moist place in the ground, toads are brought forth." "It is said if any one shall measure a dead man with a rope first from the elbow to the longest finger, then from the shoulder to the same finger, and afterwards from thence to the feet, thrice making these measurements. If any one afterwards be measured with the same rope in the same manner, he shall not prosper, but be unfortunate and fall into misery and sadness. "Celestial, or bright fires, drive away spirits of darkness, and fires made with wood do the same in as much as it hath an analogy with, and is the vehiculum of that superior light." Spirits of darkness are stronger in darkness, as good spirits or angels are augmented by light. "Hence it was that all religious ceremonies, prayers' singing and all manner of Divine worship should not be performed without lighted torches, or candles. Hence also the saying of Pythagoras, 'Do not speak of God without a light. And for the drawing away of wicked spirits lights and fires were to be kindled by the corpses of the dead' [sic]. A cloth that had been wrapped about a corpse received from it the quality of sacredness, and melancholy. But by way of relief from these tenebrous matters, it is said, Some physicians by a certain extract of vipers, and hellebore (and the flesh of some such kinds of animals) do restore youth." The blood of a bear is recommended as a tonic "to restore the strength of the body." C. A. WHITE. TENNYSON AND JOB: A RESEMBLANCE.-In the late Lord Tennyson's 'Two Voices' we find the verse: His sons grow up that bear his name, In the Book of Job, chap. xiv. v. 21, it is written : "His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." The two passages are so closely similar, in essence as in form, that not the faintest suspicion of plagiarism can exist. H. SCHÜTZ WILSON. Arts Club. who were told that the kings of Scotland were crowned at Scōne are slow to shorten the vowel. I am not inquiring whether scone or scōne should be preferred-indeed, if the cake owes its name to the royal city, scoon would, I suppose, be the nearest approach to the Northern pronunciation. But I wish merely to note the fact that the word is an addition to our vocabulary, and will, I think, have to be admitted into the 'New Dictionary.' HENRY ATTWELL. PRITTLEWELL, ESSEX: A CURIOUS EPITAPH.— In Prittlewell Churchyard, close under the east wall of the church, is an altar tomb, consisting of brick sides supporting a fine white marble slab. This slab has for a long time past been encrusted with lichens, which rendered the inscription almost undecipherable. On visiting the churchyard the other day I was glad to find the marble had been cleaned, and I copied therefrom the following quaint lines: wel Here lieth the bodys of Mrs Anna & Dorithy Freeborne wives of Mr Samvel Freeborne whoe departed this life one ye 31t of Ivly Anno 1641 the othar Avgvst ye 20 Anno 1658 one Aged 33 years ye othar 44. Vnder one stone two precious jems dolly Eqvall in worth weight lustre sanctity If yet perhaps one of them might excell which was't who knows ask him ye knew them by long enjoyment if hee thus be press'd hee 'l pause then answere truly both were best were 't in my choice that either of the twayne might bee return'd to mee t' enjoy againe which should I chuse well since I know not whether Ile mourne for th' losse of both but wish for neither yet here's my comfort herein lyes my hope The time's a comeinge cabinets shall ope which are lockt fast then then shall I see my jewells to my joy my jewells mee. The last word of the first line of the epitaph is unmistakably "dolly." The word "weight" in the second line is a crux, for it is hardly to be imagined that Mr. Freeborne used it to signify the actual bulk of his two consorts. Above the inscription are carved (left) a skull and crossbones and (right) a shield. The shield once contained a coat of arms, but the device has now become nearly obliterated. JOHN T. PAGE. |