Various

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“ Cyprian into a purely mythic personage; and shown that all the letters in his works passed between imagined or imaginary correspondents,—we think we are justified in pronouncing his History of the Church of Rome a work calculated to excite the deepest interest in all who peruse it (and by the omission of all long quotations in the learned languages, it is adapted for the perusal of all) , to exercise great influence on the public mind, and to awaken a host of endeavours to combat and overthrow arguments which appear to us, however, to be irresistible. ”

“ The quotations of your correspondent G. P. P., from Polwhele's Cornwall, relate to the same individual, and a more general construction must, I think, be put upon the expression "our countryman," than that it inferred a native of the county. The family of Prideaux was one of great antiquity, and originated in Cornwall (their first seat being at Prideaux Castle there) , and had estates there in the time of the above Edmund. His father, Sir Edmund Prideaux, of Netherton (the first baronet) , studied the law in the Inner Temple, where he became very eminent for his skill and learning. ”

“ In 1635, Charles I. issued a proclamation for the establishment of "a running post or two, to {267}run night and day between Edinburgh and Scotland and the City of London, to go thither and come back again in six days:" branch posts were also to be established with all the principal towns on the road: the rates of postage were fixed at 2d. under 80 miles; 4d. for 140 miles; 6d. beyond; and 8d. to Scotland. This is conclusive evidence that a regular post-office establishment existed nearly ten years before Prideaux had anything to do with the post-office. ”

“ The skin cast by a snake is very useful in extracting thorns, &c. from the body, but, unlike I other remedies, it is repellent, not attractive; hence it must always be applied on the opposite side to that on which the thorn entered. In some cases where the skin has been applied on the same side, it has forced the thorn completely through the hand.
Lent Lilies.—Oak Webs, &c.—In this part of Cornwall, the native yellow narcissus, known in most counties, and in the books, as daffodils (the "Daffy Down Dilly" of your correspondent, Vol. iii. p. 220.) ”

“ But I shall now give reasons for contending that neither of these ladies was your correspondent's Countess of Westmoreland, by referring him (2ndly) to Longmate's Collins's Peerage, vol. i. p. 96., where he will find that Jane, daughter of Henry Howard, the talented and accomplished Earl of Surry, married Charles Neville, sixth Earl of Westmoreland. He has evidently passed her over, through seeing her called Anne in the Neville pedigrees: "Anne" and "Jane" being often mutually misread in old writing, from the cross upon the initial letter of the last name. ”

“ Having in my last communication (Vol. iii., p. 235.) shown cause for the alteration in the foregoing quotation of Ciclinius into Cyllenius, I shall now endeavour to interpret the line in Italics, which in its present shape is utterly without meaning.
Whatever word Valanus may be supposed to represent, whether a proper or a common name, still the construction of the whole line is evidently corrupt.
Taking Valanus, in the first place, as a proper name, the most probable original would be Valens; for the connexion of which with Mercury we must refer to Cicero (De Nat. Deor. iii. 22.) ”

“ Sect. 32. says, "At St. John's College, Cambridge, a scholar, in my time, read some part of a chapter in a Latin Bible; and after he had read a short time, the President, or {266}the Fellow that sat in his place cried, Tu autem. Some have been at a loss for the meaning of this; but it is the beginning of the suffrage, which was supposed to follow the reading of the Scripture, which the reading scholar was to continue by saying Miserere mei, Domine. But at last it came to mean no more than to be a cue to the reader to desist or give over." ”

“ This signifies the absence from home of Cyllenius, who was abroad upon "his chirachee" in attendance upon the Sun; and here again is an instance of the nice astronomical accuracy of Chaucer. It was impossible that the planet Mercury could be in the sign Gemini, because his greatest elongation, or apparent distance from the sun, does not exceed 29 degrees; so that the Sun having but just entered Taurus, Mercury could not be in Gemini. Neither could Venus see Valens (the other impersonation of Mercury) , because of his concealment in the cave ”

“ On looking, however, at this manuscript, it became apparent that both Bale and Tanner are in error in ascribing this poem to Seguard. The handwriting is of the early part of the thirteenth century, and consequently full a century and a half before the Norwich poet was born! At the conclusion is this note, by the same hand:
"Hos versus, sicut nobis quidam veridicus retulit, Segardus junior de Sancto Audomaro composuit." ”

“ We avail ourselves of this opportunity of inserting the following extract from Mr. Rowland Hill's Post-Office Reform; its Importance and Practicability, p. 86. of the third edition, published in 1837, as it shows clearly the use which Mr. Rowland Hill made of the story in his great work of Postage Reform; and that Miss Martineau had clearly no authority for fathering the story in question upon that gentleman:—
"Coleridge tells a story which shows how much the Post-office is open to fraud, in consequence of the option as to pre-payment which now exists. ”

“ Polwhele was clearly wrong in designating Edmund Prideaux, the Attorney-General, a Cornishman, as he belonged to the family long seated in Devonshire, and was fourteenth in descent from Hickedon Prideaux, of Orcharton, in that county, second son of Nicholas, lord of Prideaux, in Cornwall, who died in 1169.
The four Queries of G. P. P. may be more or less fully answered by reference to Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1810, p. 651.; and an excellent history of the Post-office in the Penny Magazine for 1834, p. 33. ”

“ The original barons of the Palatinate were clearly distinguishable by possession of privileges confirmed to them by a well-known charter of Earl Ranulph III.; and all the Norman founders of their baronies will be found, under Cestrescire, in Domesday, as tenants in capite, from the Earl Palatine, of lordships within the lyme of his county. ”

“ Meaning of "strained" as used by Shakspeare (Vol. iii., p. 185.) .—The context of the passage quoted by L. S. explains the sense in which Shakspeare used the word "strain'd:"
"Portia. Then must the Jew be merciful.
Shylock. On what compulsion must I? tell me that.
Portia. The quality of mercy is not strain'd," &c.
that is, there is nothing forced, nothing of compulsion in the quality of mercy. ”

“ MS. above quoted, as well as by that (though otherwise very incorrect) in Charlton's Whitby, book iii. pp. 290, 291. 313., and by the Gascoigne pedigree in Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 77. Thus we possess legal and cotemporary evidence who Jane, Countess of Henry, fifth Earl of Westmoreland, really was, without any authentic obstacle or unremoveable contradiction to its reception, viz. that she was a Cholmley.
But I conceive your correspondent's identification is totally erroneous. It is true he only puts an hypothesis on the subject; but this hypothesis has no solid foundation. ”

“ A labour of this kind cannot be accomplished by individuals; but the present spirit of liberal co-operation, which seems to influence literary as well as scientific men throughout Europe, renders its accomplishment by the combined exertions of the scholars of different countries by no meals impracticable. It would be exceedingly convenient to possess an alphabetical list of all the extant Greek and Latin writers, with a catalogue raisonnée of the MSS. of each ”

“ Your correspondent M. J. T. says it appears from—
"The MS. Catalogue of the Norman nobility before the Conquest, that Robert and Roger de Loges possessed lordships in the districts of Coutances in Normandy."
Will he be so good as to say what MS. Catalogue he refers to? He seems to speak of the MS. Catalogue of Norman nobility as if it were some well-known public and authentic record.
Q. G.
EDMUND PRIDEAUX AND THE FIRST POST-OFFICE. (Vol. iii., p. 186.) ”

“ Can any correspondent aid me in assigning it rightly? There was an Abbey of St. Mary de Pratis at Leicester (Vide Gent. Mag., vol. xciii. p. 9.) ; and there is a church dedicated to "St. Mary in the Marsh at Norwich." In a recent advertisement I find a notice of Scipio Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, so that the appellation is not very uncommon.
E. S. Taylor.
Syriac Scriptures and Lexicon.—What edition of the Peschito-Syriac version of the Old and New Testaments, respectively, is considered the best? Also, what Syriac Lexicon stands highest for value and accuracy? ”

“ W. D. Haggard.
[The Stowe copy of Junius, it appears, was bought by Mr. Rodd for 9l., no doubt upon commission.]
What is a "Tye?"—In Essex, many parishes have a place called "the tye," which I believe is always an out-lying place where three roads meet. In an old map I have seen one place now called "Tye" written "Dei." Is it where a cross once stood, and Tye a corruption of Dei? Forby, in his East Anglian Vocabulary, mentions it, but cannot make it out.
A. Holt White.
"Marriage is such a Rabble Rout."—In D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, Moxon's edition, in 1 vol. p. ”

“ The narrative is much more ample and circumstantial than in the former Ms., but it is not all in the handwriting of sir Thomas Herbert. The letter dated 3 November 1681, and the relations of Huntington, Cooke, and Firebrace, are added in the handwriting of Dugdale; also, the names of persons who corresponded with Charles I. while he was a prisoner in the Isle of Wight. The passages transcribed by the Rev. Alfred Gatty appear in this Ms.—also in the edition of 1702. The edition of 1813 is a verbatim reprint of the first and second articles of that of 1702. It was edited by Mr. George Nicol. ”

“ He called him unto Him, and said, Peter why, weepest thou? Peter answered and said, Lord, I am grievously tormented with pain, the pain of my tooth. Our Lord answered and said, If thou wilt believe in Me, and My words abide with thee, thou shalt never feel any more pain in thy tooth. Peter said, Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief. In the Name, &c.
"God grant M. N. ease from the pain in his teeth."
(e.) For Fits.—Go into a church at midnight and walk three times round the communion table. This was done in this parish a few years since. ”

“ Tanner copies the first of these statements, yet, singular enough, omits all notice of the poem on Henry V., the very one, apparently, cited in the Letters on the British Museum. But there are further difficulties. It was natural to suppose, that the MS. seen by Bale in the Royal Library would be there still; and Tanner unhesitatingly refers to the volume marked 15 A. xxii. art. 5., as the one which contained the poem De miseria hominis, noted by Bale. ”

“ He is stated to have raised a large estate in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. He married * * *; secondly, Catherine, daughter of Piers Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecombe, Esq., by whom he had two sons, Sir Peter his successor, and Edmund, the subject of your correspondent's Queries, who is thus described in Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 509.:—
"This gentleman was bred to the law, and of so great a reputation, as well for zeal to religion as skill in the law, it is not strange he was chosen a Member of that which was called the Long Parliament, wherein he became a very leading man ”

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Printed by Thomas Clark Shaw, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by George Bell, of No. 186. ”

“ Jo. Segnard [read Seguard] Poemata." I would therefore close these remarks by requesting attention to the following Queries:—
1. As Blomefield is silent on the subject, is anything more known respecting the biography of John Seguard?
2. Can a list be obtained of the contents of the Merton manuscript?
3. What became of the Langley MS., and where is it at present?
4. In what manuscript of the British Museum is the poem on Henry V. contained?
F. Madden.
P.S. Since I wrote the above, I have found in the Sale Catalogue of the Towneley library, 1814, pt. i. lot 396.:
"Seguardi Opuscula. ”

“ By wch letter he did desire the sayd Sr Thomas Herbert to informe him of such materiall passages, as he had observed touching the late king Charles the first (of blessed memory) during the time that he the sayd Sr Thomas did attend him in person; Bt for the two last yeares of his afflicted life."
The other Mss. alluded to are preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The most important is No. 1141., which is minutely described in the admirable catalogue compiled by Mr. Black. ”