Notes and Queries, Number 44, August 31, 1850 | Page 8

slipper.
Jarltzberg.
_Mistletoe on Oaks._--In Vol. ii., p. 163., I observed a citation on the extreme rarity of _mistletoe on oaks_, from Dr. Giles and Dr. Daubeny; and with reference to it, and to some remarks of Professor Henslow in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_, I communicated to the latter journal, last week, the fact of my having, at this present time, a bunch of that plant growing in great luxuriance on an oak aged upwards of seventy years.
I beg leave to repeat it for the use of your work, and to add, what I previously appended as likely to be interesting to the arch?ologist of Wales or the Marches, that the oak bearing it stands about half a mile N.W. of my residence here, on the earthen mound of Badamscourt, once a moated {215} mansion of the Herberts, or Ab-Adams, of Beachley adjacent, and of Llanllowell.
George Ormerod.
Sedbury Park, Chepstow.
_Omnibuses._--It may be interesting to your readers at a future time to know when these vehicles, the use of which is daily extending, were introduced into this country; perhaps, therefore, you will allow me to state how the fact is. Mr. C. Knight, in his _Volume of Varieties_, p. 178., observes:
"The Omnibus was tried about 1800, with four horses and six wheels; but we refused to accept it in any shape till we imported the fashion from Paris in 1830."
And Mr. Shillibeer, of the City Road, the inventor of the patent funeral carriage, in his evidence before the Board of Health on the general scheme for extra-mural sepulture, incidentally mentions that he
"Had had much experience in cheapening vehicular transit, having originated and established the Omnibus in England."--_Report_, p. 124., 8vo. ed.
Arun.
_Havock._--Havock is a term in our ancient English military laws: the use of it was forbidden among the soldiery by the army regulations of those days; so in the Ordinances des Batailles in the ninth year of Richard II, art. x.:
"Item, que nul soit si hardi de crier havoick sur peine d'avoir la teste coupe."
This was properly a punishable offence in soldiers; havock being the cry of mutual encouragement to general massacre, unlimited slaughter, that no quarter should be given, &c. A tract on "The office of the constable and Mareshall in the tyme of Warre," contained in the black book of the Admiralty, has this passage:
"Also, that no man be so hardy to crye havock upon peyne that he that is begynner shall be deede therefore: and the remanent that doo the same, or follow, shall lose their horse and harneis ... and his body in prison at the king's will."
And this appears to answer well to the original term, which is taken from the ravages committed by a troop of wild beasts, wolves, lions, &c., falling on a flock of sheep. But some think it was originally a hunting term, importing the letting loose a pack of hounds. Shakspeare combines both senses:
"Cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war."
In a copy of Johnson's Dictionary before me, I find
"HAVOCK (haroc, Sax.), waste; wide and general devastation." Spenser.
"HAVOCK, _interj_, a word of encouragement to slaughter." Shakspeare.
"TO HAVOCK, _v. a._, to waste; to destroy; to lay waste." Spenser.
Jarltzberg.
_Schlegel on Church Property in England._--Fr. Schlegel, in his _Philosophy of History_, says, p. 403., "in England and Sweden church property remained inviolate:" what the case may be in Sweden I do not know, but it appears strange that a man of such general knowledge as F. Schlegel should make such an assertion as regards England.
S.N.
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QUERIES.
P. MATHIEU'S LIFE OF SEJANUS.
In a letter from Southey to his friend Bedford, dated Nov. 11, 1821 (_Life and Correspondence_, vol. v. p. 99.), he desires him to inform Gifford that
"In a volume of tracts at Lowther, of Charles I.'s time, I found a life of Sejanus by P.M., by which initials some hand, apparently as old as the book, had written Philip Massinger. I did not read the tract, being too keenly in pursuit of other game; but I believe it had a covert aim at Buckingham. I have not his Massinger, and, therefore, do not know whether he is aware that this was ever ascribed to that author; if he is not, he will be interested in the circumstance, and may think it worthy of further inquiry."
As others may be led by this hint to enter on such an inquiry, I would suggest that it may save much trouble if they first satisfy themselves that the Life of Sejanus by P. Mathieu may not have been the tract which fell in Southey's way. It is to be found in a volume entitled
"_Unhappy Prosperity_, expressed in the History of ?lius Selanus and Philippa the _Catanian_, with observations upon the fall of Sejanus. Lastly, Certain Considerations upon the life and Services of Monsieur Villeroy, translated out of the original