Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850 | Page 6

"once belonged to the _Innes of Court_," and says he was "no
usuall poetizer, but, to barre idlenesse, imployed that little talent the

Muses conferr'd upon him in this little tract." Sir Egerton Brydges
supposed the copy of _The Young Gallant's Whirligigg_ preserved in
the library of Sion College to be _unique_; but this is not the case, as
the writer knows of two others,--one at Staunton Hall, and another at
Tixall Priory in Staffordshire. It has been reprinted by Mr. {118}
Halliwell at the end of a volume containing _The Marriage of Wit and
Wisdom_, published by the Shakspeare Society. In his prefatory
remarks that gentleman says,
"Besides his printed works, Lenton wrote the _Poetical History of
Queene Hester_, with the translation of the 83rd Psalm, reflecting upon
the present times. MS. dated 1649."
This date must be incorrect, if our entry in the Staunton obituary relates
to the same person; and there is every reason to suppose that it does.
The autograph MS. of Lenton occurred in Heber's sale (Part xi. No.
724.), and is thus described:
_Hadassiah_, or the _History of Queen Hester_, sung in a sacred and
serious poeme, and divided into ten chapters, by F. Lenton, the Queen's
Majesties Poet, 1638.
This is undoubtedly the correct date, as it is in the handwriting of the
author. Query. What is the meaning of Lenton's title, "the Queen's
Majesties Poet"?
Edward F. Rimbault.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Lilburn or Prynne?_--I am anxious to suggest in "Notes and Queries"
whether a character in the Second Canto of Part iii. of Hudibras (line
421), beginning,
"To match this saint, there was another, As busy and perverse a brother,
An haberdasher of small wares, In politics and state affairs,"

Has not been wrongly given by Dr. Grey to Lilburn, and whether
Prynne is not rather the person described. Dr. Grey admits in his note
that the application of the passage to Lilburn involves an anachronism,
Lilburn having died in 1657, and this passage being a description of
one among
"The quacks of government who sate"
to consult for the Restoration, when they saw ruin impending.
CH.
_Peep of Day._--Jacob Grimm, in his _Deutsche Mythologie_, p. 428.,
ed. 1., remarks that the ideas of light and sound are sometimes
confounded; and in support of his observation he quotes passages of
Danish and German poets in which the sun and moon are said to pipe
(pfeifen). In further illustration of this usage, he also cites the words
"the sun began to peep," from a Scotch ballad in Scott's _Border
Minstrelsy_, vol. ii. p. 430. In p. 431. he explains the words "par son
l'aube," which occur in old French poets, by "per sonitum auroræ;" and
compares the English expression, "the peep of day."
The Latin pipio or _pipo_, whence the Italian _pipare_, and the French
_pépier_, is the ultimate origin of the verb _to peep_; which, in old
English, bore the sense of chirping, and is so used in the authorised
version of Isaiah, viii. 19., x. 14. Halliwell, in his _Archaic Dictionary_,
explains "peep" as "a flock of chickens," but cites no example. _To
peep_, however, in the sense of taking a rapid look at anything through
a small aperture, is an old use of the word, as is proved by the
expression Peeping Tom of Coventry. As so used, it corresponds with
the German gucken. Mr. Richardson remarks that this meaning was
probably suggested by the young chick looking out of the half-broken
shell. It is quite certain that the "peep of day" has nothing to do with
sound; but expresses the first appearance of the sun, as he just looks
over the eastern hills.
L.

_Martinet._--Will the following passage throw any light on the origin
of the word _Martinet_?
Une discipline, devenue encore plus exacte, avait mis dans l'armée un
nouvel ordre. Il n'y avait point encore d'inspecteurs de cavalerie et
d'infanterie, comme nous en avons vu depuis, mais deux hommes
uniques chacun dans leur genre en fesaient les fonctions. _Martinet
mettait alors l'infanterie sur le pied de discipline où elle est
aujourd'hui._ Le Chevalier de Fourilles fesait la même change dans la
cavalerie. Il y avait un an que Martinet avait mis la baionnette en usage
dans quelque régimens, &c.--Voltaire, _Siècle de Louis XIV._ c. 10.
C. Forbes.
July 2.
_Guy's Porridge Pot._--In the porter's lodge at Warwick Castle are
preserved some enormous pieces of armour, which, _according to
tradition_, were worn by the famous champion "Guy, Earl of
Warwick;" and in addition (with other marvellous curiosities) is also
exhibited Guy's porridge pot, of bell metal, said to weigh 300 lbs., and
to contain 120 gallons. There is also a flesh-fork to ring it.
Mr. Nichols, in his _History of Leicestershire_, Part ii. vol. iii.,
remarks,
"A turnpike