others, and I remember to have seen one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with a continuation to the end of Queen Mary, London, 1559, in which the language is much modernised. If I mistake not, our poet has been very conversant in this Chronicle-It is an old Gothic pile out of the ruins of which he seems to have picked many of his foundation-stones. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, MR. URBAN, J. B. ABOUT twelve months ago I communicated to the public, by your means, my thoughts on that passage in Hamlet, "Unhousel'd, unanointed, unaneled;" in which "unanointed" seemed to me a gloss or explanation of "unaneled," and therefore could hardly be allowed to stand, and accordingly I proposed substituting "unappointed," not fitted at all points by prayers, confession, and absolution. I ventured to suppose that "unaneled" was right, as it came near the original word ; but did not then know, that it was the reading of all the old editions, See Supplement to Mr. Steevens's edition. Nor should I have troubled you again on the same subject, had I not said there, that I remember to have read much the same words employed in recording the exit of some of our sovereigns -Ishould have said, noblemen. The passage that I had in my mind occurs in a magnificent folio, containing an account of the several families that have possessed Drayton, &c, in Northamptonshire, now the estate of Lord George Germaine, by Halsted. As the book is extremely scarce* I shall transcribe a curious pas sage from it. P. 218. Deposition of Thomas Merbury, Esq. about the Earl of Mordaunt's death, "Which will the said Mordaunte (a serjent at law) then It is sometimes said, that only five copies of it were taken off; which cannot be true; as there are two copies at Drayton, one in the Duke of Devonshire's possession, one in the Harleian Library, one not long ago in a circulating-library in London, and one among Bishop Moore's books in the Royal Library, Cambridge, marked R. 1. 4. and most probably more that I have not heard of, red to the seid Erle, when he was anoyled, and in extreme peynes of deth, soe that the seid Erle neither herde, nor understode, what the said Mordaunt red." I suppose the will was read whilst he was in anoyling, and in extreme, &c. so that he could not attend. This happened 24th March, 1498, P. 221. Deposition of Thomas Cade, Clarke, Parson of Buckworth. "The seid Erle prayed and required this deponent that he would housel him-and he answer'd, my Lord, I have made ev'ry thing in full redyness to go to mass, if ye be so pleased, and, when mass is done, to housel you. Ney, seid the same Erle, I pray let me not tarry so long." He then confesses him, absolves him, says mass in the chamber, and gives him the sacrament. Afterwards went and attended on highmass performed by the Earl's chaplain in the chapel Was called in an hurry to my Lord by a servant, found my Lord all alone, lighted a fise (pese 284. perh. peice) of wax that was hallowed, and said these words following, "In manus tuas, Domine, &c. and in the same moment the said Erle departed to God out of this present lyfe; and thus this Deponent left the deed body of the said Erle, whose soul God absolve." P. 222. Deposition of James Walbef. "The seid Erle was howsell'd by the hands of the said Sir Thomas Cade." It is remarkable that the priest says nothing of extreme unction, or will read at that time, and other witnesses present; and though he says he found and left my Lord all alone, yet a servant swears that he staid with him to his death. This servant might be the person that called the priest; and might come in with him, and stay unnoticed. In Leland's Collect. &c. 4. 309. last edition, the said corpse (of H. VII.) assolled, saying this collect, Absolvimus, &c. We have therefore here at least two words that may stand instead of "unanointed," viz. unabsolved, unassoiled; the first, I think, rather too prosaic, and the other in sound too like what unaneled" means: I should, therefore, still prefer "unappointed," if a good authority for the use of it could be produced; I mean, in the sense of properly fitted out for a journey to the other world. In Lambard's To * In the folio edition in the Editor's possession, the line is printed thus: "Unhouzzled, disappointed, unaneld." pographical Dictionary, we have p. 227, Ryd princely appointed. And as to "unaneled" for unanoiled, it is remarkable that absolve is written assoll, assoil, and asseiled. Leland's Itin. 1745, iv. 164, &c. and Lambard's Top. Dict p. 384. LIX. The Latin Adage, Incidis in Scyllam, &c. whence taken. MR. URBAN, THE following transcript from Dr. Jortin's life of Erasmus, vol. ii. page 151, will fully account for a Latin adage very frequently quoted; but, I believe, not commonly attributed to its right author. It will, I doubt not, be acceptable to many of your curious readers; and the insertion of it in your next Magazine, will also oblige, Nov. 22. Your constant reader, ERASMOPHILOS. "Galeottus Martius of Narni, who died A. D. 1476, hath first discovered that this verse, Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim, was of Philippus Gualterus in his Alexandreis. 'Hoc carmen,' says he, in his book De Doctrina Promiscua, cap. 28. 'est Gualteri Galli de gestis Alexandri, et non vagum proverbium, ut quidem non omnino indocti meminerunt.'-Paquier, in his Recherches, L. iii. c. 29. hath since made the same remark. This Philippe Gaultier (called de Chatillon, though born at Lisle in Flanders) lived about the middle of the thirteenth century. We have from him, amongst other works, his poem entitled Alexandreis, in ten books, and not in nine, as says J. G. Vossius De Poetis Latinis, p. 74. The verse cited above is in L. v. 301, where the Poet addressing himself to Darius, who flying from Alexander fell into the hands of Bessus, says; Quo tendis inertem, Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis 1774, Nov. Menagiana, T. iii. 130.” LX. Of names retained when their origin is disused. MR. URBAN, WE have a species of words in our language, that is, cer tain names of things, which, being originally derived and borrowed from customs and practices, now disused, carry with them an air of impropriety, and, for the same reason, their etymology is, in many cases, very greatly obscured, To explain my meaning by an example-the word minster, in Saxon, minstre, from the Latin monasterium, we apply very generally to our cathedral or collegiate churches, as when we say York-minster, or Southwell-minster; and yet these churches are at present very far from having any thing of the nature of monasteries in them. But the words of Mr. Thoresby, the famous Leeds antiquary, are so pertinent to the subject, that I shall here transcribe them, as sufficient for the purpose of making a proper preamble to the following list, or catalogue. "Reason tells us," says this gentleman, "that, before the use of metals was found out, the Aborigines in each country would make use of stones, flints, shells, bones, &c. formed, in the best manner they could, to the various uses they designed them; and it is usual for such instruments or utensils gratefully to retain, even in different languages, the memory of the matter they were first made of, as cochleare, a spoon, (tho' of metal) because cockle-shells were first used for that purpose. So candle-stick, or staff (for it is candel-stæk in the Saxon monuments); so likewise hooks (Amos iv. 2.) in the original, is thorns, with which they used to pierce fish, before they had the skill of applying iron to that use. And, to give but one instance more, the sharp knives (Josh. v.,2.) used in circumcision, are, by our Saxon ancestors, (who received their very names from the weapon called sex, or seax, culter, gladius) stiled stenene sex, (Mr. Thwaites's Sax. Hept.) which in the original is knives of flint, which is more agreeable both to those parts of the world, where there was but little iron, and to that operation, wherein the Jewish Doctors say that sharp flints or stones were used" All I shall add to these learned and judicious observations, * Mr. Thoresby, in Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. p. 7. See also his Museum, p. 566, where the same is repeated. is, that the horn was anciently used for a drinking vessel, as indeed it still is in many country places, and retained the name of a horn, though made of richer materials; whence Athenæus, from Pindar, says, i§ àprupewv xepatwv Twoiles, drinking out of silver horns*; and that, to the list which is intended to follow, many names of places in England might be annexed, which are formed from the religious houses that Once there subsisted, but are now no more; as Monks-Horton, Monks Risborough, &c. Warminster, Westminster, &c. Abbots-Langley, Abbots-Bromley, &c. Many towns are also denominated from saints, with whom we have at this day no concern, as St. Albans's, St. Edmundsbury, St. Neot's, St. Ive's, &c. and again, that some saints, in great esteem anciently, no doubt, are, at this time, so rarely heard of, and so little known, that it is very difficult sometimes to investigate them.-I now go on to the list. The BARK. By this word, in the north of England, is meant the candle-box, which hangs in the common room, for the purpose of receiving the ends, or pieces of candles. The reason of the name is, that, at first, it was only a piece of bark nailed up against the wall, as sometimes one sees it now at this day; but, in other houses, it still retains the name, though it bę made of better materials, of brass or tin, BORSHOLDER. In the ancient police of this kingdom, established, as supposed, by King Alfred, the counties were divided into hundreds and tithings, so that every man lived in some tithing. And "that," says Mr. Lambarde, the famous Kentish antiquary, "which in the West Country, was at that time, and yet is, called a tithing, is, in Kent, termed a borow, of the Saxon word borh, which signifieth a pledge, or a suretye; and the chief of these pledges, which the western men [and we may add the northern men] call a tithingman, they of Kent name a borsholder, of the Saxon words borhes ealder, that is to say, the most ancient, or elder, of the pledges." The borsholder answers in some * Athenæus, Lib. ii. + Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent, p. 27 |