Various

“ South Lambeth was in former times one of the most agreeable and salubrious spots in the vicinity of London, and at the time when Tradescant first planted his garden he must have had another worthy and distinguished man for a neighbour, Sir Noel Caron, who was resident ambassador here from the States of Holland for twenty-eight years. ”

“ Sewell, Meaning of.—It is usual in some deer-parks in different parts of England, but more especially, as far as my own knowledge goes, in Kent, for the keepers, when they wish to drive and collect the deer to one spot, to lay down for this purpose what they call sewells (I may be wrong as to the orthography) , which are simply long lines with feathers attached at intervals, somewhat after the fashion of the tails of kites. These "sewells," when stretched at length on the ground, the herd of deer will very rarely pass ”

“ It is most probable that he brought seed, as he did of another berry, of which he sent part, he tells us, to his correspondent Vespasian Robin at Paris.
Of a man to whom the merit is due of having founded the earliest Museum of Natural History and Rarities of Art in England, and who possessed one of the first, and at the same the best, Botanic Garden, every little particular must be interesting, and it would be pleasing to find that he was an Englishman, and not a foreigner. ”

“ But supposing Tradescant to have been his real name, it is quite evident that he travelled under the name of John Coplie; and it is perhaps vain to speculate upon the reasons for the assumption of a pseudonyme either way.
Dr. Richard James, who accompanied Sir Dudley Digges as chaplain, appears, from Turner's account of his MSS., which are deposited in the Bodleian, to have left behind him a MS. account of his travels in Russia, in five sheets; but his MS. seems to have been lost or mislaid in that vast emporium, or we might have some confirmation from it respecting Tradescant. ”

“ Of course I do not wish to be referred to information contained in well-known collections, such as Thurloe, Rushworth, Whitelock, and the Parliamentary Histories, nor to the Deptford MSS. in the Tower, the Admiralty papers in the State Paper Office, or the Ashmole MSS. at Oxford. I am also acquainted, of course, with several papers in the national collection of MSS. at the British Museum throwing light on the subject; but while these MSS. remain in their present state, it would be very rash in any man to say what is not to be found in them. ”

“ Meaning of Crambo.—Sir Thomas Browne (Religio Medici, part ii. § 15. ed. 1678) says:
"I conclude, therefore, and say, there is no happiness under (or, as Copernicus will have it, above) the sun, nor any Crambo in that repeated verity and burthen of all the wisdom of Solomon, All is vanity and vexation of spirit."
Query, What is the meaning of crambo here, and is it to be met with elsewhere with a similar meaning? ”

“ But the most remarkable characteristic of the vegetable caterpillar is, that every one has a very curious plant, belonging to the fungi tribe, growing from the anus; this fungus varies from three to six inches in length, and bears at its extremity a blossom-like appendage, somewhat resembling a miniature bulrush, and evidently derives its nourishment from the body of the insect. This caterpillar when recently found, is of the substance of cork; and it is discovered by the natives seeing the tips of the fungi, which grow upwards. ”

“ Permit me to add to this Query another remark. I am engaged in writing a Life of Admiral Blake, and shall be extremely grateful to any of your correspondents who can and will direct me, either through the medium of your columns or by private communication, to any new sources of information respecting his character and career. A meagre pamphlet being the utmost that has yet been given to the memory of this great man, the entire story of his life has to be built up from the beginning. Fragments of papers, scraps of information, however slight, may therefore be of material value. ”

“ Sir Dudley Digges, to whom Tradescant seems to have attached himself in order to obtain knowledge of the plants and other natural curiosities of Russia, was sent by King James I. to the Czar Michael Fedorowitsch, who had in the previous year despatched an embassy to the king, principally to negotiate for a loan. This ambassador, Wolünsky, returned at the same time, in another vessel accompanying that of Sir Dudley. ”

“ Brighton.—It is stated in Lyell's Principles of Geology, that in the reign of Elizabeth the town of Brighton was situated on that tract where the Chain Pier now extends into the sea; that in 1665 twenty-two tenements still remained under the cliffs; that no traces of the town are perceptible; that the sea has resumed its ancient position, the site of the old town having been merely a beach abandoned by the ocean for ages. ”

“ We are also satisfied that there can be no mistake in the altitudes, because nothing can alter the facts, that an equality between the length of the shadow and the height of the substance can only subsist at an altitude of 45 degrees ”

“ And on these,' said he, 'having bound the leathern bags, and fastened them one to another, and affixing stones, and letting them down like anchors, and binding them on either side, I will lay on wood, and put earth over them. And that you will not then sink, you shall presently very clearly perceive; for each leathern bag will support two men from sinking, and the wood and earth will keep them from slipping. ”

“ Dr. Rimbault justly observes that "the history of the Tradescants is involved in considerable obscurity." He does not, however, seem to have been aware that some light has been thrown on that of the elder John Tradescant by the researches of Dr. Hamel, in his interesting Memoir published in the Transactions of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg in 1847, with the following title:—"Tradescant der Æltere 1618 in Russland. ”

“ A tingling ear denotes there is somebody speaking of you behind your back. If you hear the noise in the right one, he praises you; if on the left side, he is calling you a scoundrel, or something like that. ”

“ Hamel in his memoir has given considerable extracts from the MS. narrative of the voyage, which show that Tradescant was an accurate observer not only of objects connected with his studies of phytology and natural history, but of other matters. Parkinson has justly styled him "a painful industrious searcher and lover of all natural varieties;" and elsewhere says: "My very {393}good friend, John Tradescantes, has wonderfully laboured to obtain all the rarest fruits hee can heare of in any place of Christendome, Turky, yea, or the whole world." ”

“ Edward F. Rimbault.
The Dutch Church in Norwich (Vol. iii., p. 209.) .—The editors of the "Navorscher" will find the early history of this church in Strype's Annals of the Reformation; Blomefield's History of Norwich; and in Burn's History of the Foreign Refugees. Dr. Hendrik Gehle, the pastor of the Dutch church in Austin Friars, who is also the occasional minister of the Dutch church at Norwich, would be the most likely person to furnish information as to its present state.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Fest Sittings (Vol. iii., p. 328.) .—Festing is, I presume, without doubt, a Saxon word. ”

“ Bell, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.
Notices to Correspondents.
G. E. F. Will this correspondent oblige us with another copy of his Query respecting the Knapp Family? The Query to which he alludes came from a gentleman who has shown by his published works that he is both able and willing to search out information for himself. It is the more surprising, therefore, that he should have overlooked the very obvious source from which the information was eventually supplied. ”

“ Rub-a-dub.—This word is put forward as an instance of how new words are still formed with a view to similarity of sound with the sound of what they are intended to express, by Dr. Francis Lieber, in a "Paper on the Vocal Sounds of Laura Bridgeman compared with the Elements of Phonetic Language," and its authorship is assigned {388}to Daniel Webster, who said in a speech of July 17, 1850:
"They have been beaten incessantly every month, and every day, and every hour, by the din, and roll, and rub-a-dub of the Abolition presses."
Dr. L. adds:
"No dictionary in my possession has rub-a-dub ”

“ It is not absolutely necessary to have any previous knowledge of the hours at which these altitudes were respectively obtained, because these may be discovered by the trial method of seeking two such hours as shall most nearly agree in requiring a declination common to both at the known altitudes. ”

“ Hamel recovered the Christian names, and a list of Sir Dudley Digges' attendants in this voyage, which corresponds with that in the MS., thus:—Arthur Nowell, Thomas Woodward, Adam Cooke, Joseph Fante, Thomas Leake, Richard James, George Brigges, Jessy De Quester, Adam Jones, Thomas Wakefield, John Adams, Thomas Crisp, Leonard Hugh, and John Coplie. This last must therefore have designated John Tradescant himself, who was certainly there. ”

“ Adelaide, South Australia.
[The words "nor any Crambo" mean that the sentiment expressed by Solomon is a truth which cannot be too often repeated. Crabbe says, "Crambo is a play, in rhyming, in which he that repeats a word that was said before forfeits something." In all the MSS. and editions of the Religio Medici, 1642, the words "nor any Crambo," are wanting. See note on the passage in the edition edited by Simon Wilkin, F.L.S.]
Replies. JOHN TRADESCANT PROBABLY AN ENGLISHMAN, AND HIS VOYAGE TO RUSSIA IN 1618. ”

“ Curious Facts in Natural History (Vol. iii., p. 166.) .—There is a parallel to the curious fact contributed by your Brazilian correspondent in the "vegetable caterpillar" of New Zealand. This natural rarity is described in Angas's Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, vol. i. p. 291.:—
"Amongst the damp moss at the root of the rata trees, in the shady forests not far from Auckland, and also in various parts of the northern island, are found those extraordinary productions called vegetable caterpillars, the hotete of the natives. ”

“ He may be eyther, for he [is] always drūke once in a day."
Now, had Tradescant himself been a Fleming or a Dutchman, he would at least have been able to speak decisively on this occasion; to say nothing of the vice of intemperance which he attributes to the natives of those countries. Again, it is quite clear that this journal of travels was written by Tradescant; yet that name does not appear either in the MS. or in the Russian archives: but we have John Coplie in both, with the indication in the MS. that he was a Worcestershire man. ”

“ I hope to be excused when I say that it is the most accurate hitherto published. It gave me great pleasure to find that so distinguished an antiquary as Dr. Rimbault mainly corroborates the article alluded to; but I regret that I feel bound to notice a serious error into which that gentleman has fallen. Dr. R. states that "Old John Tradescant died in the year 1652;" and in another place he states that— {394}
"It was not the youngest John Tradescant that died in 1652, but the oldest, the grandfather, the first of that name that settled in England." ”

“ NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. "When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle. CONTENTS. Notes. ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI.
Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words ”

“ His grandfather, the Rev. Malachi Blake, a Nonconformist minister, resided at Blogden, four miles from Taunton. This gentleman, by his pious labours, laid the foundation of the dissenting congregation at Wellington, in the county of Somerset. After the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth, to whose cause he had been friendly, he was obliged to flee from home, and went to London disguised in a lay-dress, with a tye-wig and a sword."
This minister had three sons, John, Malachi, and William ”

“ Experto crede, no solicitude can preserve their "flimsy, brittle, and cottony" leaves, as he justly entitles them, from rapid destruction. Might not the delegates of the University presses be persuaded to give us an edition with the morning and evening services printed on vellum, instead of the miserable fabric they now afford us?
C. W. B.
St. Pancras (Vol. iii., p. 285.) .—In Breviar. Rom. sub die XII Maii, is the following brief notice of this youthful saint, whose martyrdom was also commemorated (Sir H. Nicolas' Chron. of Hist.) ”

“ Ducarel. It still remains as two dwellings; the one, known as "Turret House," is occupied by John Miles Thorn, Esq., and the other, called "Stamford House," is the dwelling of J. A. Fulton, Esq.
In his indefatigable researches to elucidate the early intercourse between England and Russia, Dr. Hamel's attention was accidentally called to the Tradescants and their Museum; and the following passage in Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris, p. 345. (Art. "Neesewort," then called Elleborus albus) , led to the discovery of a relation of Old John's voyage to Russia ”

“ Foreign Churches. W. A. thinks we should be doing a kindness to our foreign visitors by reminding them of the existence of the Dutch Church in Austin Friars, and of the Swedish Church, Prince's Square, Ratcliffe Highway, around which are yet flourishing some of the trees imported and planted by Dr. ”