Notes and Queries, Number 32, June 8, 1850

PRESENCE OF STRANGERS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

In the late debate on Mr. Grantley Berkeley's motion for a fixed duty on corn, Sir Benjamin Hall is reported to have imagined the presence of a stranger to witness the debate, and to have said that he was imagining what every one knew the rules of the House rendered an impossibility. It is strange that so intelligent a member of the House of Commons should be ignorant of the fact that the old sessional orders, which absolutely prohibited the presence of strangers in the House of Commons, were abandoned in 1845, and that a standing order now exists in their place which recognises and regulates their presence. The insertion of this "note" may prevent many "queries" in after times, when the sayings and doings of 1850 have become matters of antiquarian discussion.

The following standing orders were made by the House of Commons on the 5th of February, 1845, on the motion of Mr. Christie, (see Hansard, and Commons' Journals of that day), and superseded the old sessional orders, which purported to exclude strangers entirely from the House of Commons:—

"That the serjeant at arms attending this House do from time to time take into his custody any stranger whom he may see, or who may be reported to him to be, in any part of the House or gallery appropriated to the members of this House; and also any stranger who, having been admitted into any other part of the House or gallery, shall misconduct himself, or shall not withdraw when strangers are directed to withdraw while the House, or any committee of the whole House, is sitting; and that no person so taken into custody be discharged out of custody without the special order of the House.

"That no member of this House do presume to bring any stranger into any part of the House or gallery appropriated to the members of this House while the House, or a committee of the whole House, is sitting."

Now, therefore, strangers are only liable to be taken into custody if in a part of the House appropriated to members, or misconducting themselves, or refusing to withdraw when ordered by the Speaker to do so; and Sir Benjamin Hall imagined no impossibility.

THE AGAPEMONE

Like most other things, the "Agapemone" wickedness, which has recently disgusted all decent people, does not appear to be a new thing by any means. The religion-mongers of the nineteenth century have a precedent nearly 300 years old for this house of evil repute.

In the reign of Elizabeth, the following proclamation was issued against "The Sectaries of the Family of Love:"—

"Whereas, by report of sundry of the Bishops of this Realm, and others having care of souls, the Queen's Majesty is informed, that in sundry places of her said Realm, in their several Dioceses there are certain persons which do secretly, in corners, make privy assemblies of divers simple unlearned people, and after they have craftily and hypocritically allured them to esteem them to be more holy and perfect men than other are, they do then teach them damnable heresies, directly contrary to divers of the principal Articles of our Belief and Christian Faith and in some parts so absurd and fanatical, as by feigning to themselves a monstrous new kind of speech, never found in the Scriptures, nor in ancient Father or writer of Christ's Church, by which they do move ignorant and simple people at the first rather to marvel at them, than to understand them but yet to colour their sect withal, they name themselves to be of the Family of Love, and then as many as shall be allowed by them to be of that family to be elect and saved, and all others, of what Church soever they be, to be rejected and damned. And for that upon conventing of some of them before the Bishops and Ordinaries, it is found that the ground of their sect, is maintained by certain lewd, heretical, and seditious books first made in the Dutch tongue, and lately translated into English, and printed beyond the seas, and secretly brought over into the Realm, the author whereof they name H.N., without yielding to him, upon their examination, any other name, in whose name they have certain books set forth, called Evangelium Regni, or, A Joyful Message of the Kingdom; Documental Sentences, The Prophecie of the Spirit of Love; a Publishing of the Peace upon the Earth, and such like.

"And considering also it is found, that these Sectaries hold opinion, that they may before any magistrate, ecclesiastical or temporal, or any other person not being professed to be of their sect (which they term the Family of Love), by oath or otherwise deny any thing for their advantage, so as though many of them are well known to be teachers and spreaders abroad of these dangerous and damnable sects, yet by their own confession they cannot be condemned, whereby they are more dangerous in any Christian Realm: Therefore, her Majesty being very sorry to see so great an evil by the malice of the Devil, first begun and practised in other countries, to be now brought into this her Realm, and that by her Bishops and Ordinaries she understandeth it very requisite, not only to have these dangerous Heretics and Sectaries to be severely punished, but that also all other means be used by her Majesty's Royal authority, which is given her of God to defend Christ's Church, to root them out from further infecting her Realm, she hath thought meet and convenient, and so by this her Proclamation she willeth and commandeth, that all her Officers and Ministers temporal shall, in all their several vocations, assist the Archbishops and Bishops of her Realm, and all other persons ecclesiastical, having care of souls, to search out all persons duly suspected to be either teachers or professors of the foresaid damnable sects, and by all good means to proceed severely against them being found culpable, by order of the Laws either ecclesiastical or temporal: and that, also, search be made in all places suspected, for the books and writings maintaining the said Heresies and Sects, and them to destroy and burn.

"And wheresoever such Books shall be found after the publication hereof, in custody of any person, other than such as the Ordinaries shall permit, to the intent to peruse the same for confutation thereof, the same persons to be attached and committed to close prison, there to remain, or otherwise by Law to be condemned, until the same shall be purged and cleared of the same heresies, or shall recant the same, and be thought meet by the Ordinary of the place to be delivered. And that whoever in this Realm shall either print, or bring, or cause to be brought into this Realm, any of the said Books, the same persons to be attached and committed to prison, and to receive such bodily punishment and other mulct as fautors of damnable heresies. And to the execution hereof, her Majesty chargeth all her Officers and Ministers, both ecclesiastical and temporal, to have special regard, as they will answer not only afore God, whose glory and truth is by these damnable Sects greatly sought to be defaced, but also will avoid her Majesty's indignation, which in such cases as these are, they ought not to escape, if they shall be found negligent and careless in the execution of their authorities.

"Given at our Mannour of Richmond, the third of October, in the two-and-twentieth year of our Reign.

"God Save The Queen."

Lichfield, May 28. 1850.

LONDON PARISH REGISTERS

The interleaving, of a little work in my possession, published by Kearsley in 1787, intitled Account of the several Wards, Precincts, and Parishes in the City of London, contains MS. notes of the commencement of the registers of fifty of the London parishes, and of four of Southwark, the annexed list1 of which may be of use to some of the readers of "Notes and Queries." The book formerly belonged to Sir George Nayler, whose signature it bears on a fly-leaf.

2 Note in the Book—There are registers before this in the hands of Mr. Pridden.

FOLK LORE

Divination by Bible and Key seems not merely confined to this country, but to prevail in Asia. The following passage from Pérégrinations en Orient, par Eusèbe de Salle, vol. i. p. 167., Paris, 1840, may throw some additional light on this superstition. The author is speaking of his sojourn at Antioch, in the house of the English consul.

"En rentrant dans le salon, je trouvai Mistriss B. assise sur son divan, près d'un natif Syrien Chrétien. Ils tenaient à eux deux une Bible, suspendue à une grosse clé par un mouchoir fin. Mistriss B. ne se rappelait pas avoir reçu un bijou qu'un Aleppin affirmait lui avoir remis. Le Syrien disait une prière, puis prononçait alternativement les noms de la dame et de l'Aleppin. La Bible pivota au nom de la dame déclarée par-là en erreur. Elle se leva à l'instant, et ayant fait des recherches plus exactes, finit par trouver le bijou."

I hardly think that this would be an English superstition transplanted to the East; it is more probable that it was originally derived frown Syria.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, May 19. 1850.

Charm for Warts.—Count most carefully the number of warts; take a corresponding number of nodules or knots from the stalks of any of the cerealia (wheat, oats, barley); wrap these in a cloth, and deposit the packet in the earth; all the steps of the operation being done secretly. As the nodules decay the warts will disappear. Some artists think it necessary that each wart should be touched by a separate nodule.

This practice was very rife in the north of Scotland some fifty years since, and no doubt is so still. It was regarded as very effective, and certainly had plenty of evidence of the post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc order in its favour.

Is this practice prevalent in England?

It will be remarked that this belongs to the category of Vicarious Charms, which have in all times and in all ages, in great things and in small things, been one of the favourite resources of poor mortals in their difficulties. Such charms (for all analogous practices may be so called) are, in point of fact, sacrifices made on the principle so widely adopted,—qui facit per alium facit per se. The common witch-charm of melting an image of wax stuck full of pins before a slow fire, is a familiar instance. Everybody knows that the party imaged by the wax continues to suffer all the tortures of pin-pricking until he or she finally melts away (colliquescit), or dies in utter emaciation.

Boy or Girl.—The following mode was adopted a few years ago in a branch of my family residing in Denbighshire, with the view of discovering the sex of an infant previous to its birth. As I do not remember to have met with it in other localities, it may, perhaps, be an interesting addition to your "Folk Lore." An old woman of the village, strongly attached to the family, asked permission to use a harmless charm to learn if the expected infant would be male or female. Accordingly she joined the servants at their supper, where she assisted in clearing a shoulder of mutton of every particle of meat. She then held the blade-bone to the fire until it was scorched, so as to permit her to force her thumbs through the thin part. Through the holes thus made she passed a string, and having knotted the ends together, she drove in a nail over the back door and left the house, giving strict injunctions to the servants to hang the bone up in that place the last thing at night. Then they were carefully to observe who should first enter that door on the following morning, exclusive of the members of the household, and the sex of the child would be that of the first comer. This rather vexed some of the servants, who wished for a boy, as two or three women came regularly each morning to the house, and a man was scarcely ever seen there; but to their delight the first comer on this occasion proved to be a man, and in a few weeks the old woman's reputation was established throughout the neighbourhood by the birth of a boy.

POET LAUREATES

Can any of the contributors to your most useful "NOTES AND QUERIES" favour me with the title of any work which gives an account of the origin, office, emoluments, and privileges of Poet Laureate. Selden, in his Titles of Honour (Works, vol. iii. p. 451.), shows the Counts Palatine had the right of conferring the dignity claimed by the German Emperors. The first payment I am aware of is to Master Henry de Abrinces, the Versifier (I suppose Poet Laureate), who received 6d. a day,—4l. 7s., as will be seen in the Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, edited by Frederick Devon.

Warton (History of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 129.) gives no further information, and is the author generally quoted; but the particular matter sought for is wanting.

The first patent, according to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, article "Laureate," is stated, as regards the existing office, to date from 5th Charles I., 1630; and assigns as the annual gratuity 100l., and a tierce of Spanish Canary wine out of the royal cellars.

Prior to this, the emoluments appear uncertain, as will be seen by Gifford's statement relative to the amount paid to B. Jonson, vol. i. cxi.:—

"Hitherto the Laureateship appears to have been a mere trifle, adopted at pleasure by those who were employed to write for the court, but conveying no privileges, and establishing no claim to a salary."

I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the phrase "employed to write for the court." Certain it is, the question I now raise was pressed then, as it was to satisfy Ben Jonson's want of information Selden wrote on the subject in his Titles of Honour.

These emoluments, rights, and privileges have been matters of Laureate dispute, even to the days of Southey. In volume iv. of his correspondence, many hints of this will be found; e.g., at page 310., with reference to Gifford's statement, and "my proper rights."

The Abbé Resnel says,—"L'illustre Dryden l'a porté comme Poète du Roy," which rather reduces its academic dignity; and adds, "Le Sieur Cyber, comédien de profession, est actuellement en possession du titre de Poète Lauréate, et qu'il jouit en même tems de deux cens livres sterling de pension, à la charge de présenter tous les ans, deux pièces de vers à la famille royale."

I am afraid, however, the Abbé drew upon his imagination for the amount of the salary; and that he would find the people were never so hostile to the court as to sanction so heavy an infliction upon the royal family, as they would have met with from the quit-rent ode, the peppercorn of praise paid by Elkanah Settle, Cibber, or H.J. Pye.

The Abbé, however, is not so amusing in his mistake (if mistaken) relative to this point, as I find another foreign author has been upon two Poet Laureates, Dryden and Settle. Vincenzo Lancetti, in his Pseudonimia Milano, 1836, tells us:—

"Anche la durezza di alcuni cognomi ha più volte consigliato un raddolcimento, che li rendesse più facili a pronunziarsi. Percio Macloughlin divenne Macklin; Machloch, Mallet; ed Elkana Settle fu poi – John Dryden!"

—a metamorphose greater, I suspect, than any to be found in Ovid, and a transmigration of soul far beyond those imagined by the philosophers of the East.

Athenæum.