our Drebbel was named tutor of the young Prince of Austria, by the emperor Ferdinandus II.; an office which he fulfilled so well, that he was afterwards chosen councillor to his Majesty, and honoured with a rich pension for past services. But, alas! in the year 1620, Prague, the place he dwelt in, was taken by Frederick, then king of Bohemia, several members of the imperial council were imprisoned, and some of them even put to death. Bereft of every thing he possessed, a prisoner as well as the others, poor Drebbel would perhaps have undergone the same lot if the High Mighty States of the United Provinces had not sent a message to the King of England, asking him to interfere in their countryman's favour. They succeeded in their benevolent request; for his English Majesty obtained at last from his son-in-law, the Dutch philosopher's liberation, who (I don't exaggerate) was made a present of to the British king; maybe as a sort of lion, which the king of Morocco had never yet thought of bestowing upon the monarch as a regal offering.

Drebbel, however, did not forget how much he owed to the intercession of King James, and, to show his gratitude, presented him with an object of very peculiar make. I will try to give you an exact version of its not very clear description in the Dutch book.

"A glass or crystal globe, wherein he blew or made a perpetual motion by the power of the four elements. For every thing which (by the force of the elements) passes, in a year, on the surface of the earth (sic!) could be seen to pass in this cylindrical wonder in the shorter lapse of twenty-four hours. Thus were marked by it, all years, months, days, hours; the course of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, &c. It made you understand what cold is, what the cause of the primum mobile, what the first principle of the sun, how it moves; the firmament, all stars, the moon, the sea, the surface of the earth, what occasions the ebb, flood, thunder, lightning, rain, wind, and how all things wax and multiply, &c.,-as every one can be informed of by Drebbel's own works; we refer the curious to his book, entitled Eeuwige Beweginghe (Perpetual Motion)."

Can this instrument have been a kind of Orrery? "He built a ship, in which one could row and navigate under water, from Westminster to Greenwich, the distance of two Dutch miles; even five or six miles, as far as one pleased. In this boat, a person could see under the surface of the water, and without candlelight, as much as he needed to read in the Bible or any other book. Not long ago, this remarkable ship was yet to be seen lying on the Thames or London river.

"Aided by some instruments of his own manufacture, Drebbel could make it rain, lighten, and thunder at every time of the year, so that you would have sworn it came in a natural way from heaven.

By means of other instruments, he could, in the midst of summer, so much refrigerate the atmosphere of certain places, that you would have thought yourself in the very midst of winter. This experiment he did

By his peculiar ingenuity, he could, at all times of the year, even in the midst of winter, hatch chickens and ducklings without using hens or ducks.

"He made instruments, by means of which were seen pictures and portraits; for instance, he could show you kings, princes, nobles, although residing at that moment in foreign countries. And there was no paint nor painter's work to be seen, so that you saw a picture in appearance, but not in reality." Perhaps a magic lantern?

"He could make a glass, that placed in the dark near him or another, drew the light of a candle, standing at the other end of a long room, with such force, that the glass near him reflected so much light as to enable him to see to read perfectly."

Was this done by parallel parabolical mirrors?

"He could make a plane glass without grinding it on either side, in which people saw themselves reflected seven times.

"He invented all these and many other curiosities, too long to relate, without the aid of the black art; but by natural philosophy alone, if we may believe the tongues whose eyes saw it. By these experiments, he so gained the King's favour, his Majesty granted him a pension of 2000 guilders. He died in London, anno 1634, the sixtieth year of his age."

Thus writes the Alkmaar chronicler. If you, or any of your learned correspondents, can eluci date the history of the instruments made by my countryman, he will much oblige all scientific antiquarians, and me, though not a Dr. Heavy bottom, especially. I need not make apologies for my bad English, and hope none of your many readers will criticise it in a Dutch periodical. JANUS DOUSA.

casses of dogs and hounds were sometimes attached to the bodies of criminals. (See Grimm, Deutsche Rechte Alterthum, pp. 685, 686.) I refer to this to show that there must have been some special reason for the term "asinorum sepultura." That reason I would wish to have explained; Ducange does not give it, he merely tells what was the practice; and the attention of Grimm, it is plain, from his explanation of the "unehrliches begräbnis" (pp. 726, 727, 728.), was not directed W. B. MACCABE.

towards it.

Minor Queries.

At

Ransom of an English Nobleman.- page 28. vol. ii. of the Secret History of the Court of James I., Edinburgh, 1811 (a reprint), occurs the following:

"Nay, to how lowe an ebbe of honor was this our poore despicable kingdome brought, that (even in Queen Elizabeth's time, the glory of the world) a great

nobleman being taken prisoner, was freely released with

this farewell given him, that they desired but two

mastieffes for his ransome!"

Who was this great nobleman, and where may I find the fullest particulars of the whole transaction? H. C.

commence.

When does Easter end? - An enactment of the legislature directs a certain act to be done "within two months after Easter" in 1850, under a penalty for non-performance. I have no difficulty in finding that two calendar months are meant, but am puzzled how to compute when they should I should be much obliged by being informed when Easter ends? that question set at rest, the other part is easily understood and obeyed. H. EDWARDS. Carucate of Land. Will any one inform me what were the dimensions of a carucate of land, in Edward III.'s time? also, what was the comparative value of money at the same date? Are Tables, giving the value of money at various periods in our history, to be found in any readily accessible source? E. V. Members for Calais. Henry VIII. granted a representative in the English parliament to the town of Calais. Can any of your correspondents inform me whether this right was exercised till the loss of that town, and, if so, who were the members? O. P. Q. Members for Durham. What was the reason that neither the county nor the city of Durham returned members to parliament previous to 1673-4 ? O. P. Q.

Leicester, and the reputed Poisoners of his Time. At page 315. vol. ii. of D'Israeli's Amenities of Literature, London, 1840, is as follows:

"We find strange persons in the Earl's household, (Leicester). Salvador, the Italian chemist, a confidential counsellor, supposed to have departed from this world with many secrets, succeeded by Dr. Julio, who risked the promotion. We are told of the lady who "of the Carhad lost her hair and her nails," dinal Chatillon, who, after being closeted with the bury; of the sending a casuist with a case of conscience Queen, returning to France, never got beyond Canterto Walsingham, to satisfy that statesman of the moral expediency of ridding the state of the Queen of Scots by an Italian philtre.”

Where may I turn for the above, more particularly for an account of the lady who had lost her hair and her nails? H. C. April 9. 1850.

Lord John Townshend's Poetical Works.-Can any of your readers inform me whether the poetical works of Lord John Townshend, M.P., were ever collected and published, and, if so, when, and by whom? His lordship, who, it will be remembered, successively represented Cambridge University, Westminster, and Knaresborough, was considered to be the principal contributor to the Rolliad, and the author of many odes, sonnets, and other political effusions which circulated during the eventful period 1780-1810. OXONIENSIS. May 4.

Martello Towers. Is it the fact that the towers erected along the low coasts of Kent and Sussex during the prevalent dread of the French invasion received their designation from a town in Spain, where they were first built? By whom was the plan introduced into England? Is any account of their erection to be found in any Blue Book of the period? E. V.

Mynyddyslwyn.-The name of the parish Mynyddyslwyn, in Monmouthshire. This name, so full of Druidic suggestion, was lost from general use at, and anterior to, the incorporation of Wales with England by the statute of Rhudolan. In a list of the names of Welsh parishes at that time, the parish is called The Parish of Tudor ab Howell. Has any reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" met with Mynyddyslwyn in any document bearing an earlier date?

Abergwyddon.

D. RHYS STEPHEN.

Three Dukes-Who were the three Dukes who killed the beadle on Sunday morning, 26th February, 1671, as commemorated by verses in Poems on State Affairs, vol. i. p. 147.? E

Bishops and their Precedence.-Bishops, in all Tables of Precedency, have place before the temporal barons. No reason is assigned; but it is generally supposed to be from the respect due to

the Church and their high calling which might have placed them higher.

Can any of your readers tell where any authority or reason is given by writers upon precedence why the precedence is given to them over the temporal barons ?

E. Guineas.-What is the earliest instance of the use of the word guinea as a name for a coin? The common story is, that the piece of twenty-one shillings was so called in the reign of Charles II. from being made of gold from Guinea. What coin is meant in the following receipt? "Sachent tous que Mons. Gualhard de Dureffourt ad recue quatorze guianois dour et dys soudz de la mon[oye] currant a Burdeux." The date is 12. Nov. 1387. The document is quoted in Madox's Baronia Anglica, p. 159. note d. A. J. H.

.

Parish Registers Tax.-In the Parish Register of Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, are the following entries against several dates in the Baptisms and Burials:

1784. Septr. 5th (Burials), “Pa Tax to y* Day." Novr. 28th (Baptisms), "pd Tax.” 1785. Octr. 14th (Baptisms), pd Tax to this Day." 1786. Septr. 12th (Christenings), "pa tax to this Day."

1786. Septr. 1st (Burials), “på tax to this Day." 1787. July 31st (Baptisms), “Pd Tax to this Day."

Septr. 27th (Burials), Pa Tax to this Day." I should be glad to be informed what tax is

here referred to. These are all the entries of the kind. ARUN.

Charade.-Can any of your readers help me to a solution of the following poetical charade, which I believe appeared in the Times newspaper a few years back with this heading to it:

"The following piece of mysticism has been sent to us as original, with a request for a solution. The authorship is among the secrets of literature: it is said to have been by Fox, Sheridan, Gregory, Psalmenazar, Lord Byron, and the Wandering Jew. We leave the question to our erudite readers."

"I sit on a rock

While I'm raising the wind,
But the storm once abated,
I'm gentle and kind;
I see kings at my feet,
Who wait but my nod,
To kneel in the dust
Which my footsteps have trod.
Though seen by the world,
I'm known but to few:
The Gentiles detest me,
I'm pork to the Jew.
I never have past

But one night in the dark,
And that was with Noah,
Alone, in the ark.

My weight is three pounds,
My length is a mile,
And when I'm discover'd,
You'll say, with a smile,
My first and my last

Are the wish of our isle."

I should be obliged if any body could give me a key to this. QUÆSTOR.

Replies.

HOWKEY OR HORKEY.

dently, as your East Anglian correspondent and Howkey or Horkey (Vol. i. p. 263.) is eviJ. M. B. have pointed out, a corrupt pronunciation of the original Hockey; Hock being a heap of sheaves of corn, and hence the hock-cart,

or cart loaded with sheaves.

Herrick, who often affords pleasing illustrations of old rural customs and superstitions, has a short poem, addressed to Lord Westmoreland, entitled "The Hock-cart, or Harvest Home," in which he says:

We should have been prepared to find the word in East Anglia; but from Herrick's use of it, and others, it must have formerly been prevalent in the West of England also. It has nothing to do with Hock-tide, which is the Hoch-zeit of the Germans, and is merely significant of a feast or highday; of which a very satisfactory account will be found in Mr. Hampson's "Glossary" annexed to his Medii Evi Kalendarium. An interesting account of the Hock-zeit of the Germans of Lower Saxony occurs where we should little expect it, in the Sprichwörter of Master Egenolf, printed at Francfort in 1548, 4to.; and may perhaps serve to illustrate some of our obsolete rural customs :

"We Germans keep carnival (all the time between Epiphany and Ash-Wednesday) St. Bernard's and St. Martin's days, Whitsuntide and Easter, as times, above all other periods of the year, when we should eat, drink, and be merry. St. Burchard's day, on account of the fermentation of the new must. St. Martin's, probably on account of the fermentation of the new wine: then we roast fat geese, and all the world enjoy themselves. At Easter we bake pancakes (fladen); at Whitsuntide we make bowers of green boughs, and keep the feast of the tabernacle in Saxony and Thuringia; and we drink, Whitsun-beer for eight days. In Saxony, we also keep the feast of St. Panthalion with drinking and eating sausages and roast legs of mutton stuffed with

garlic. To the kirmse, or church feast, which happens only once a year, four or five neighbouring villages go together, and it is a praiseworthy custom, as it maintains a neighbourly and kindly feeling among the people."

The pleasing account of the English harvest feast in Gage's Hengrave, calls it Hockay. Pegge, in his Supplement to Grose's Provincial Words, Hockey. Dr. Nares notices it in his Glossary, and refers to an account of its observance in Suffolk given in the New Monthly Magazine for November, 1820. See also Major Moor's Suffolk Words, and Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, who says that Bloomfield, the rustic poet of Suffolk, calls it the Horky; Dr. Nares having said that Bloomfield does not venture on this provincial term for a Harvest-home. S. W. SInger.

May 14. 1850.

CHARLES MARTEL.

(Vol. i. pp. 86. 275.)

If Charles Martel must no longer be the Mauler, he will only be excluded from a very motley band. Here are a few of his repudiated namesakes:

1. The Maccabai, from Hebr. Makkab, a hammer.

2. Edward I., "Malleus Scotorum."

3. "St. Augustine, that Maul of heretics, was in chief repute with" Josias Shute, among the Latin Fathers. (Lloyd's Memoires, p. 294.) "God make you as Augustine, Malleum Hæreticorum." (Edward's Gangræna, Part II. p. 17. 1646.)

4. "Robertus Grossetest, Episcopus Lincolniensis, Romanorum Malleus, ob. 1253." (Fulman, Notitia Oxon. p. 103. 2nd ed.)

5. "Petrus de Alliaco, circ. A. D. 1400, Malleus a veritate aberrantium indefessus appellari solebat." (Wharton in Keble's Hooker, i. 102.)

6. T. Cromwell, "Malleus Monachorum: "Mauler of Monasteries" [Fuller, if I recollect rightly, quoted by Carlyle]. Also, "Mawling religious houses." (Lloyd's State Worthies, i. 72. 8vo. ed.)

"Malleus Hæreseōs."

7. Bishop Prideaux, (Wood, Ath. Oxon. iii. 267.)

8. Hooker, "Schismaticorum Malleus," Bp. H. King's Letter to Iz. Walton.

9. Peter Gunning, "Schismaticorum Malleus." (Barwick's Life, p. 22. Latin ed.)

10. Archbishop Usher, "Errorum malleus." (Univ. of Oxford. Parr's Life of Usher, p. 101.) 11. Henry Hammond, Errorum malleus, &c. (Lloyd's Memoires, p. 401.)

12. Dean Comber, "falsi Malleus." (Ib. p. 450.) The reader will at once recollect "The hammer of the whole earth," in Jeremiah, L. 23. Grotius, in his note on the "Malleus universæ terræ " of that passage, says, —

Compare George Herbert of Lord Bacon, Sophismatum Mastix.... Securisque errorum,” &c. &c. (Poems, p. 253, ed. 1844.) Nor must we forget Attila, "the scourge of God." R. A.

Charles Martel (Vol. i. p. 86.) - The following note may perhaps be acceptable in conjunction with that of G. J. K. (p. 86.), on Charles Martel. It is taken from Michelet's History of France, an easily accessible work.

66

Charlemagne is usually considered as the translation of Carolus Magnus. Challemaines si vaut autant comme grant challes.' (Chro. de St. Denis, 1. i. c. 4.) Charlemagne is merely a corruption of Carloman, KarlIn the above-cited chronicle mann, the strong man. itself, the words Challes and Challemaines are used for Charles and Carloman (maine, a corruption of mann, as leine of lana). In the Chronicle of Theophanes a still more conclusive text is found: he calls Carloman Kapovλλoμayvos; Scr. fr. v. 187. The two brothers must have borne the same name. In the 10th century, Charles the Bald was dignified, though most undeservedly, with the same title of Great, through the ignorance of the Latin monks. - Epitaph. ap Scrip. fr. vii. 322. Nomen qui nomine duxit

De Magni Magnus, de Caroli Carolus.

A similar kind of blunder was made by the Greek writers in the name Elagabal, which they transformed into Heliogabal, from "Hλios, the sun."

With regard to Charles Martel, Michelet does not allude to M. Collin de Plaucy's explanation, and adopts the old version

"Son surnom païen de Marteau me ferait volontiers douter s'il était chrétien. On sait que le marteau est l'attribut de Thor, le signe de l'association païenne, celui de la propriété, de la conquête barbare."— Vide Michelet's Origines du Droit Français.

Charles was notoriously at variance with the Church. I should consider Michelet a much better authority than M. Collin de Plaucy, who, to judge from his preface to another work, Le Dictionnaire Infernal, slavishly submits his critical acuteness to the dicta of his Church.

J. B. D.

I am not going to take part in the game of hockey, started by LORD BRAYBROOKE, and carried on with so much spirit by several of your correspondents in No. 28.; but I have a word to say to one of the hockey-players, C. B., who, per fas et nefas, has mixed up "feast and fast" with the game.

C. B. asks, "Is not the derivation of feast' and fast' originally the same? that which is appointed connected with 'fas, and that from fari ?" I should say no; and let me cite the familiar lines from the beginning of Ovid's Fasti :—