Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 26,
April 27, 1850

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Title: Notes & Queries, No. 26. Saturday, April 27, 1850 A Medium Of
Inter-Communication For Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries,
Genealogists, Etc.
Author: Various
Release Date: October 21, 2004 [EBook #13822]
Language: English
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NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN,
ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 26.] SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped
Edition 4d.
* * * * * {409}
CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Nicholas Breton, by the Rev. T. Corser. 409 Notes upon
Cunningham's London, by E.F. Rimbault, LL.D. 410 Notes on the
Dodo, by H.E. Strickland. 410 Derivation of "Sterling" and "Penny."
411 Hanno's Periplus, by S.W. Singer. 412 Folk
Lore:--Cook-eels--Divination by Bible and Key--Weather Proverb. 412
Bibliographical Notes, by E.F. Rimbault, LL.D. 413 Pope, Petronius,
and his Translators, by A. Rich, Jun. 414
QUERIES:-- When were Umbrellas introduced into England? by E.F.
Rimbault, LL.D. 414 Minor Queries:--Duke of Marlborough--"M. or
N."--Song of the Bees--William Godwin--Regimental Badges--Mother
of Thomas à Becket--Swords worn in public--Emblem and National
Motto of Ireland--Latin Distich--Verbum Græcum--Pope
Felix--"Where England's Monarch." 415
REPLIES:-- Gray's Alcaic Ode. 416 Replies to Minor
Queries:--Chapels--Beaver--Poins and Bardolph--God tempers the
Wind--Sterne's Koran--Lollius--Bishop Ryder--Brown Study--Seven
Champions--Tempora mutantur, &c.--Vox Populi Vox
Dei--Cuckoo--Ancient Tiles--Daysman--Safeguard--Finkel--Gourders
of Rain--Urbanus Regius--Horns--The or A Temple--Ecclestiastical
Year--Paying through the Nose--Quem
Deus--Shrew--Zenobia--Cromwell's Estates--Vox et præterea
Nihil--Law of Horses--Christ's Hospital--Tickhill, God help me! 417
MISCELLANIES:-- MSS. of Casaubon--Latin Epigram--"Nec pluribus
impar"--Close Translation--St. Antholin's Parish Books. 422
MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 423
Books and Odd Volumes wanted. 423 Notices to Correspondents. 423
* * * * *
NOTES
NICHOLAS BRETON.
Like Mr. COLLIER (No. 23. p. 364.), I have for many years felt "a
peculiar interest about Nicholas Breton," and an anxious desire to learn

something more of him, not only from being a sincere lover of many of
his beautiful lyrical and pastoral poems, as exhibited in _England's
Helicon_, _Davison's Poetical Rhapsodie_, and other numerous works
of his own, and from possessing several pieces of his which are not
generally known, but also from my intimate connection with the parish
in which he is supposed to have lived and died. From this latter
circumstance, especially, I had been most anxious to connect his name
with Norton, and have frequently cast a reverential and thoughtful eye
on the simple monument which has been supposed to record his name;
hoping, yet not without doubts, that some evidence would still be found
which would prove it to be really that of the poet. It was therefore with
the utmost pleasure that I read Mr. Collier's concluding paragraph, that
he is "in possession of undoubted proof that he was the Nicholas Breton
whose epitaph is on the chancel-wall of the church of Norton in
Northamptonshire."
It seems strange that, notwithstanding the number and variety of his
writings, the length of time he was before the public, and the estimation
in which he was held by his contemporaries, so little should be known
concerning Breton, and the circumstances of his life be still involved in
such great obscurity. In looking over his various publications, it is
remarkable how little is to be gleaned in the preliminary prefixes which
relate to his own personal history, and how very rarely he touches on
any thing referring to himself. There is a plaintive and melancholy
strain running through many of his works, and I am inclined to the
opinion entertained by Sir Egerton Bridges and others, that cares, and
misfortunes, and continued disappointments had brought on
melancholy and despair, and that the plaintive and touching nature of
his writings were occasioned by real sorrows and sufferings. This
seems at variance with his being the purchaser of the manor and
lordship of Norton, and in the possession and enjoyment of this world's
goods. Thus in his _Auspicante Jehova Maries Exercise_, 8vo. 1597,
one of the rarest of his works, in the dedication to Mary, Countess of
Pembroke, speaking of his temporal condition, he remarks, "I have
soncke my fortune in the worlde, hauing only the light of vertue to
leade my hope unto Heauen:" and signs himself "Your La. sometime
unworthy Poet, and now,