Various

“ You are aware that the occupation of the Temple by students of the law in the reign of Edward III. has no other authority than tradition. Dugdale, Herbert, Pearce, and others who have written on the Inns of Court, adduce this passage from Chaucer in support of the assertion; and they all quote the first line thus:
"A manciple there was of the Temple."
In Tyrwhitt's edition of Chaucer, however, and in all other copies I have seen, the reading is
"A gentil manciple was ther of a temple." ”

“ This is the best antiquarian handbook we have ever met with—so clear is its arrangement, and so well and so plainly is each subject illustrated by well-executed engravings, that confusion for the future is impossible upon a variety of points on which the most grievous mistakes have hitherto been made by anxious and zealous antiquarians. * * * It is the joint production of two men who have already distinguished themselves as authors and antiquarians. ”

“ It is not supposed that the king here mentioned was any thing more than a powerful nobleman, whose possessions, or castle and lands, were situated in the north of England; in which division of the island the ancient Bernicia was placed. As there is no evidence as to the locality or limits of this ancient district, it is hoped that an answer to the above query will afford a satisfactory solution to an uncertainty that has long existed among Welsh antiquaries. ”

“ If, too, at this time, when there is so much unemployed labour among us, this exhibition should have the {343} effect of creating a demand for articles which can be produced by the hand and mind of a skilful workman only, and not by machinery, however costly and elaborate, an enormous benefit, beyond that originally contemplated, must result from the exhibition—namely, that of supplying fresh fields for the labour and ingenuity of our workmen. ”

“ It consists of a mass of white quartz, thickly implanted with emeralds, more than an inch in diameter."
The note to the above exemplifies what I have just said. It is called emerald, he says, because it is green, from the Greek. I might make a query of this; but it is clearly a mistake of some half-learned or ill-understood informant. The name has nothing to do with green. Emerald, in Italian smeraldo, is, I dare say, from the Greek smaragdus. It is derived, according to the Oxford Lexicon, from μαιρω, to shine, whence μαρμαρυγη. ”

“ But these and numerous other traces of the Celtic language which have been found in Florida and Darien are not indicative of such impressions; most of them, from their universality, bespeak themselves to be primitive; and who can assure us that some may not have reached them before the twelfth century, through "Walsh or strangers," "a race mightier than they and wiser," by whom they may have been instructed in the arts which have excited so much astonishment? ”

“ If I have not already exceeded the limits allowable for such communications, I would also ask your readers to explain the allusion in the following passage from Crowley's tract:
"And know right well, that the more they steare thys sacramente the broder shal theyr lyes be spreade, the more shall theyr falsehoode appeare, and the more gloriously shall the truthe triumph: as it is to se thys daye by longe contencion in thys same and other like articles, which the papists have so long abused, and howe more his lyes utter the truthe every day more and more. ”

“ This case decided that the assumption of a name by a person, by the King's license, would not entitle him to take under a limitation in a will "unto the first and nearest of my kindred, being male, and of my name and blood." The same rule would no doubt hold as to a change of name by Act of Parliament. (See Pyot v. Pyot, 1 Ves. Sen. 335.)
These extracts from the highest authorities will sufficiently show of how little use is an Act of Parliament, or the royal license, for effecting a change of name ”

“ At the same time, it is clear, from the language of the treatise, that its author, though anonymous, believed himself well known to his opponent:
"I would have hereto put mi name, good reader, but I know wel that thou regardest not who writteth, but what is writen; thou estemest the worde of the verite, and not of the authour. And as for M. More, whom the verite most offendeth, and doth but mocke it out when he can not sole it, he knoweth my name wel inough" (sub fin) . ”

“ Change of Name (No. 16. p. 246.) .—The doctrine, that a person may change his surname without any formality whatever, has long been "settled," and is by no means of so recent a date as your correspondent supposes, which will presently appear.
In Coke upon Littleton, after some observations as to the change of Christian name at confirmation, it is stated—
"And this doth agree with our ancient books, where it is holden that a man may have divers names at divers times, but not divers Christian names." (Vol. ii. p. 218. ed. 1818, by J.H. Thomas.) ”

“ He places the Supper of the Lorde at the head of the numerous productions of Robert Crowley, as if its authorship was perfectly ascertained. But Crowley must have been a precocious polemic if he wrote a theological treatise, like that answered by More, at least a year previously to his entering the university. The date of his admission at Oxford was 1534; he was elected Fellow of Magdalene in 1542; he printed the first edition of Piers Plowman in 1550; and was still Parson of St. Giles's, near Cripplegate, in 1588, i.e. fifty-five years after the publication of the Tract we are considering. ”

“ The earliest woodcut portrait of him with which I am acquainted, is to be found in the very elegant volume containing the pieces relating to the murder of his cousin John, by Ulrich of Wirtemberg (the title too long for these pages) , which, from the inscription at the end, appears to have been printed in the Castle of Stakelberg, in 1519. It is a half length, in a hat, under a kind of portico, with two shields at the upper corners: the inscription beneath is in white letters on a black ground. It occurs near the end of the volume; in which is another spirited woodcut, representing the murder. ”

“ It must also be remembered, that a testator often directs that a devisee shall procure the royal license or an Act of Parliament for the change of name, in order to entitle him to the testator's property. ”

“ There is no class of books which it more behoves future compilers of glossaries to consult, than those which treat of geography, navigation, military and naval economy, and the science of warfare both on shore and afloat. ”

“ A view of the Exhibition of the Works of Ancient and Mediæval Art has convinced us that fame had done no more than justice to its merits and interest. We dare not attempt to enumerate one tithe of the gems in Glass, Enamel, Metalwork, Carving in Wood and Ivory, Porcelain, &c., now gathered together in the Adelphi to justify the enthusiasm of the antiquary, and to show, in the words of Marlowe ”

“ Cromwell's Estates (No. 18. p. 277.) .—The seignory of Gower is the peninsula which runs out between the bays of Swansea and Carmarthen; and which terminates at Swansea on the S.E. side, and at Longhor on the N.W., and comprises the district which, in common with a part of Scotland, anciently bore the name of Rheged. It is a locality rich in all that can attract the antiquary and the naturalist. ”

“ Hence, no species of writing is more allied to or more likely to pass into household words, and to become proverbs among a people of quick retentive powers, such as the Greeks were, to whom we are perhaps indebted for this. ”

“ Query whether it is not a thought naturally presenting itself to the mind, reflected by memory, confirmed by experience, and which some Mimic author has made proverbial by his terse, gnomic form of expression.
S.H.
PARALLEL PASSAGES.
I take the liberty of sending you several parallel passages, which may probably appear to you worthy of insertion in your valuable paper.
1.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."
Shakspeare: Julius Cæsar.
"There is an hour in each man's life appointed
To make his happiness, if then he seize it." ”

“ Pulteney should go into the House of Lords, his great credit lying in the other House: and I remember my father's action when he returned from Court, and told me what he had done; 'I have turned the key of the closet upon him,' making that motion with his hand."
Braybrooke.
Audley End, March 18. 1850.
PORTRAITS OF ULRICH OF HUTTEN.
It is pleasant to see that an answer to a query can sometimes do more than satisfy a doubt, by accidentally touching an accordant note which awakens a responsive feeling. I am much pleased that my scanty information was acceptable to "R.G." ”

“ As far as the technical terms have been used by poets and dramatists, much valuable illustration may be found in the annotated editions of their works, but much more is required for general purposes, and I could point out some fifty volumes which would enable an industrious student, possessing a competent acquaintance with those subjects in their modern state, to produce a most useful supplement to our existing glossaries. ”

“ I have never seen a good modern representation of this remarkable man, who devoted the whole energies of his soul to the sacred cause of the truth and freedom, and the liberation of his country and mankind from the trammels of a corrupt and dissolute Church ”

“ Gourders of Rain.—Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to suggest the etymology of the word "gourders" (= torrents) ? It occurs in the following passage of Harding against Jewel (p. 189., Antv. 1565) :
"Let the gourders of raine come downe from you and all other heretikes, let the floudes of worldly rages thrust, let the windes of Sathan's temptations blowe their worst, this house shall not be overthrowen."
C.H.
St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge.
The Temple or a Temple.—I am happy to see that your correspondent, Mr. Thoms, is about to illustrate some of the obscurities of Chaucer. ”

“ Now it has struck me that a volume of sermons in my possession may, from the nature of the subjects, be Stephens's, but whether included in the volume alluded to I know not. The volume contains six sermons, each with separate title and separate pagination. A common preface is prefixed, and there has been a common title-page, which unfortunately is missing in my copy.
"Serm. I. The Divinity of Christ argued, from his right to worship, on Rev. v. 13, 14., preached in 1720, at Great Torrington, at the Visitation of the Archdeacon of Barnstaple." ”

“ Human life is burlesqued, personal defect heightened and ridiculed; character is never represented in degree, but in extremes. The dialogue of satirical comedy assumes naturally the form of the apophthegm—it is epigrammatic and compressed that it may be pungent and striking. ”

“ The register-book of Chart commences with the year 1558, and is continued regularly from that time. During the remainder of the sixteenth, and for about the first thirty-five years of the seventeenth century, the baptisms registered increase steadily in number: from that period there is a very marked decrease. ”

“ The duties of the seamen are thus described:
"The sailers are the ancient men for hoising the sailes, getting the tacks aboord, haling the bowlings, and steering the ship.
"The younkers are the young men called fore-mast men, to take in the top-sailes, or top and yard, for furling the sailes, or slinging the yards, bousing or trising, and take their turnes at helme." ”

“ It is equally probable, from the peculiar species of composition in which the thought, if not the exact words are found, that the proverb was derived from another and an earlier source. The object of mimic exhibitions is to impress the mind by imitation. ”

“ St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge.
[It would seem from a Query from the Rev. Henry Walter, in No. 7. p. 109., on the subject of the name "Christen Cat," where the forgoing passage is quoted from Day's edition of Tyndale's Works, that this tract was by Tyndale, and not by Crowley.]
WHAT IS A CHAPEL?
What is the most approved derivation of the word Chapel?—Capella, from the goat-skin covering of what was at first a movable tabernacle? capa, a cape worn by capellanus, the chaplain? capsa, a chest for sacred relics? kaba Eli (Heb.) , the house of God? or what other and better etymon? ”

“ For more blasphemous and more bedelem rype then thys booke is were that booke harde to be, whyche is yet madde enough, as men say that haue seen it" (p. 1036. G.) .
More was evidently at a loss to discover the {333} author of this work; for, after conjecturing that it might have come from William Tyndal, or George Jaye (alias Joy) , or "som yong unlearned fole," he determines "for lacke of hys other name to cal the writer mayster Masker," a sobriquet which is preserved throughout his confutation. ”

“ Gave it the name of Troylous and Cres-eyde."
The book called Troyle is Boccaccio's Troilo, or Filostrato.
M.C.
Oxford, March 11. 1850.
{340}
Emerald (No. 14. p. 217.) .—Before we puzzle ourselves with the meaning of a thing, it is well to consider whether the authority may not be very loose and inaccurate. This emerald cross, even if it was made of emeralds, might have been in several pieces. ”

“ Thanks to the kindness of our correspondent "C.W.B.," we have referred to Dugdale's Warwickshire (ed. Thomas, 1730) . vol. i. p. 309., and extract from it the following proof that Walpole had authority for his story. Who knows, after this, but we may in the same way trace from whence he procured the celebrated letter of the Countess of Pembroke, respecting which there is a query from Mr. Peter Cunningham, in No. 2. p. 28. ”

“ In conclusion, permit me to cite Southey versus Catlin:—"That country," says the author of Madoc "has now been fully explored; and wherever Madoc may have settled, it is now certain that no Welsh Indians are to be found upon any branches of the Missouri" (Preface, note written in 1815) .
Since I wrote the above, I have met with a work, by Mr. George Jones, entitled The History of Ancient America anterior to the Time of Columbus, vol. i.: "The Tyrian Æra." In the second, not yet published, he promises to give "The Introduction of Christianity into the Western Hemisphere by the Apostle St. ”