Various

“ A debt of gratitude is due to the memory of Sir Benjamin Hammett, for his exertions, at that period, in the cause of humanity. Thank God, we now live in times when the law is less cruel, and more chary of human life. ”

“ A fancy is a dogma taken up without proof, and in the teeth of obvious probability,—tenaciously adhered to, and all investigation eschewed. This at least is the ordinary signification of the term, in relation to the search after truth. ”

“ One song more may be noticed here:—the rigmarole, snatches of which probably most of us have heard, which contains an immense number of mere truisms having no connexion with each others, and no bond of union but the metrical form in which their juxtaposition is effected, and the rhyme, which is kept up very well throughout, though sometimes by the introduction of a nonsense line. Who does not remember—
"A yard of pudding's not an ell,"
or
"Not forgetting dytherum di,
A tailor's goose can never fly,"
and other like parts? ”

“ The giants of Guildhall, thank heaven, yet defend their charge: it only remains to wish that the citizens may take example by the fate of Holmeby, and not expose them to an attack to which they will assuredly be found unequal. ”

“ How far my own conjecture, or the mode of putting it, fulfills these conditions, it is not necessary for me to discuss: but I hope the usefulness and interest of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" will not be marred by any discourtesy of one correspondent towards another.
At the same time, the HERMIT OF HOLYPORT has done the most essential service to this inquiry by his extract from Mr. Collier, as the question is thereby inclosed within exceedingly narrow limits. But if the ballad do not refer to Henry VIII., to whom can it be referred with greater probability? ”

“ The name of Hugh Holland has been handed down to posterity in connexion with that of our immortal bard; but few know anything of him beyond his commendatory verses prefixed to the first folio of Shakspeare.
He was born at Denbigh in 1558, and educated at Westminster School while Camden taught there. In 1582 he matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford; and about 1590 he succeeded to a Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. Thence he travelled into Italy, and at Rome was guilty of several indiscretions by the freedom of his conversations. ”

“ I am aware it played a great part in those ceremonies of the ancient Druids which took place towards the end of the year, but I cannot find any allusion to it, in connexion with the Christian festival, before the time of Herrick. You are of course aware, that there are still in existence some five or six very curious old carols, of as early, or even an earlier date than the fifteenth century, in praise of the holly or the ivy, which said carols used to be sung during the Christmas festivities held by our forefathers but I can discover no allusion even to the mistletoe for two centuries later. ”

“ P.S. My attention has been directed to the subject of Gray's Poems, and particularly to his Elegy, by a recent pilgrimage I made to Stoke Poges, which is only five or six miles from this neighbourhood. The church and the poet's monument to his mother are worth a much longer walk; but the mausoleum to Gray, in the immediate vicinity, is a preposterous edifice. The residence of Lady Cobham has been lamentably modernised. ”

“ After the lapse of a sufficient time to extinguish life, faggots were piled around her, and over her head, so that her person was completely covered: fire was then set to the pile, and the woman was consumed to ashes.
In the following year, 1790, I heard sentence passed in the Criminal Court, in the Old Bailey, upon other persons convicted of coining: one of them was a female. The sentence upon her was, that she should be "drawn to the place of execution, and there burnt with fire till she was dead." ”

“ George Long has edited the De Senectute, and De Amicitia, together with some of the Epistles of Cicero, and has contributed a very clever preface upon the best way of teaching foreign, and especially classical, languages. Mr. Long's ability and reputation render any writing of his important, and his name is a pledge for the accuracy and value of the edition."—Guardian. ”

“ Although at an earlier period of life I too adopted Theobald's supposed emendation, it never satisfied me. I have my doubts whether the word busyless existed in the poet's time; and if it did, whether he could possibly have used it here. Now it is clear that labours is a misprint for labour; else, to what does "when I do it" refer? Busy lest is only a typographical error for busyest: the double superlative was commonly used, being considered as more emphatic, by the poet and his contemporaries.
Thus in Hamlet's letter, Act ii. Sc. 2.:
"I love thee best, O most best." ”

“ Collier's Extracts carries it undeniably back to the middle of the reign of Elizabeth. Of course, it is interesting to find intermediate versions or variations of the ballad, and even the adaptation of its framework to other ballads of recent times, such as "Heigho! says Kemble,"—one of the Drury Lane "O.P. Row" ballads (Rejected Addresses, last ed., or Cunningham's London) . Why the conjecture respecting Henry VIII. is so contemptuously thrown aside as a "fancy," I do not see. ”

“ Here we have a clear sense, devoid of all ambiguity, and confirmed by what precedes; that his labours are made pleasures, being beguiled by these sweet thoughts of his mistress, which are busiest when he labours, because it excites in his mind the memory of her "weeping to see him work." The correction has also the recommendation of being effected in so simple a manner as by merely taking away two superfluous letters. ”

“ Dodsley's is a popular and well-known work, and yet I cannot find that anybody has given the dates connected with it accurately. If Gray's Elegy appeared in it for the first time (which I do not suppose) , it came out in 1755 which is the date of vol. iv. of Dodsley's Collection, and not in 1757, which is the date of the Strawberry Hill edition of Gray's Odes. The Rev. J. Mitford (Aldine edit. xxxiii.) informs us that "Dodsley published three volumes of this Collection in 1752; the fourth volume was published in 1755 and the fifth and sixth volumes, which completed the Collection, in 1758." ”

“ The exception made by the Church for princes, restored the woman so far, that the marriage was legally and morally recognised by the Lombard law and the Church, with exceptions as regards issue, and that the left hand was given for the right.
With regard to this latter, it would be desirable to trace whether giving of the hand had any symbolic meaning. I think the astrologists consider the right as the nobler part of the body ”

“ In the erudite and instructive work of Wilda on the Guild System of the Middle Ages (Gildenwesen im Mittelälter) will be found to be stated that guilds were associations of various kinds,—convivial, religions, and mercantile, and so on; and that places of assembly were adopted by them. A guild-house where eating and drinking took place, was to be met with in most villages in early times: and these, I fancy, were the guild-halls. On this head consult Hone's Every-day Book, vol. ii. p. 670., and elsewhere, in connexion with Whitsuntide holidays. ”

“ This is the execution at which I was present; the number of those who suffered, and the burning of the female, attracted a very great crowd. Eight of the malefactors suffered on the scaffold, then known as "the new drop." ”

“ The preceding paragraph was scarcely finished when we received proof of the utility of the Association in Mr. Freeman's volume, entitled Remarks on the Architecture of Llandaff Cathedral, with an Essay towards a History of the Fabric—a volume which, as we learn from the preface, had its origin in the observations on some of the more singular peculiarities of the fabric made by the author at the Cardiff meeting of the Association in 1849. ”

“ Pentecostals, or Whitsun Farthings, are mentioned by Pegge as being paid in 1788 by the parishioners of the diocese of Lichfield, in aid of the repairs of the cathedral, to the dean and chapter; but he makes no allusion to the word smoke, adding only that in this case the payment went by the name of Chad-pennies, or Chad-farthings, the cathedral there being dedicated to St. Chad.
C.I.R.
Robert Herrick (Vol. i., p. 291.) .—MR. MILNER BARRY states that he found an entry of the burial of the poet Herrick in the parish books of Dean Prior. ”

“ According to that inscription, he was "ardently devoted to the pursuits of literature," personally acquainted in early life with the most distinguished authors of his day, long the intimate friend of David Garrick, "and a profound commentator on the dramatic works of Shakspeare." Can any of the learned readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" satisfy this Query?
Laurence Minot.—Is any other MS. of Minot known, besides the one from which Ritson drew his text? Is there any other edition of this poet besides Ritson's, and the reprints thereof? ”

“ This is objected to, from "the style and wording of the song being evidently of a much later period than the age of Henry VIII.;" and Buckingham's "mad" scheme of taking Charles into Spain to woo the infanta is substituted. This is enforced by the "burden of the song;" whilst another correspondent considers this "chorus" to be an old one, analogous to "Down derry down:"—that is, M. denies the force of MR. MAHONY's explanation altogether! ”

“ Herbert's Poems will afford another illustration to Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 7.:—
"And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing."
Coleridge, in the Literary Remains, vol. i. p. 233., says—
"In a stitch in the side, every one must have heaved
a sigh that hurts by easing."
Dr. Johnson saw its true meaning:
"It is," he says, "a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers."
In allusion to this popular notion, by no means yet extinct, Herbert says, p. ”

“ Thomson of Esholt.—In the reign of Henry VIII. arms were granted to Henry Thomson, of Esholt, co. York, one of that monarch's gentlemen-at-arms at Boulogne. The grant was made by Laurence Dalton, Norroy. The shield was—Per fesse embattled, ar. and sa., three falcons, belted, countercharged—a bend sinister. Crest: An armed arm, embowed, holding a lance, erect. Families of the name of Thompson, bearing the same shield, have been seated at Kilham, Scarborough, Escrick, and other places in Yorkshire. ”

“ The first Woman formed from a Rib (Vol. ii., p. 213.) .—As you have given insertion to an extract of a sermon on the subject of the creation of Eve, I trust you will allow me to refer your correspondent BALLIOLENSIS to Matthew Henry's commentary on the second chapter of Genesis, from which I extract the following beautiful explanation of the reason why the rib was selected as the material whereof the woman should be created:—
"Fourthly, that the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam ”

“ EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
HARVEY'S CLAIM TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.
I have both a Note and a Query about Harvey and the circulation of the blood (Vol. ii., p. 187.) . The Note refers to Philostratus (Life of Apollorius, p. 461., ed. 1809) , Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, June, 1684, xi.; and Dutens pp. 157-341. 4to. ed. 1796. I extract the passage from Les Nouvelles:—
"On voit avec plaisir un passage d'André Cæsalpinus qui contient fort clairement la doctrine de la circrilation. ”

“ In the reign of Queen Mary gatherings were made for the "Sepulchre lights;" timber for making the lights cost 5s.; the light itself, 4s.; and painting the Sepulchre, and a cloth for "our lady's altar," cost 1s. 10d. Facts like these might be multiplied.
JAYTEE.
Portraits of Charles I. in Churches (Vol. i., pp. 137. 184.) .—In reference to this I have to state, that in the south aisle of the church of St. Martin, in Leicester, a painting of this kind is yet to be seen, or was lately. It was executed by a Mr. Rowley, for 10l., in the year 1686. It represents the monarch in a kneeling attitude. ”

“ Of these mention is made in a History of Leicester recently published. The most curious fact I know of is, that on the dissolution of the monasteries here, several relics of St. Thomas, among others, his felt hat, was exhibited. The hat was considered a great remedy for the headache!
JAYTEE.
Smoke Money (Vol. ii., p. 120.) .—"Anciently, even in England, were Whitsun farthings, or smoke farthings, which were a composition for offerings made in Whitsun week, by every man who occupied a house with a chimney, to the cathedral of the diocese in which he lived."—Audley's Companion to the Almanac, p. ”

“ Since this period, I have myself taken down many additional verses from the recitation of the adjacent villagers, and will be happy to afford any further information to your inquirer, SELEUCUS.
G. BOUCHIER RICHARDSON.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sept. 7. 1850.
Havock (Vol. ii., p. 215.) .—The presumed object of literary men being the investigation of truth, your correspondent JARLTZBERG will, I trust, pardon me for suggesting that his illustration of the word havock is incomplete, and especially with reference to the line of Shakspeare which he has quoted:
"Cry havock! ”

“ At his return to England, he retired to Oxford, and, according to Wood, spent some years there for the sake of the public library. He died in July, 1633, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, "in the south crosse aisle, neere the dore of St. Benet's Chapell," but no inscription now remains to record the event.
Whalley, in Gifford's Jonson (1. cccxiv.) , says, speaking of Hugh Holland—
"He wrote several things, amongst which is the life of Camden ”