There are some very curious matters, to the student of ceramic ware, connected with the Lambeth pottery, but space forbids me to allude to them here. WILLIAM PINKERTON, F.S.A. ROBERT BOWMAN, THE ALLEGED (4th S. vi. 9, 140, 203, 222.) MR. GILPIN deserves the best thanks of all who are interested in the question of longevity for the trouble he has taken in investigating the case of Robert Bowman; and as one who knows by painful experience the vast amount of time and labour which such inquiries entail, I beg to thank him most heartily. my I appreciate the good service he has done in collecting the information which he has laid before the readers of "N. & Q.," and I am the more anxious to avow this, seeing that, at the risk of being classed among those who are unduly burdened with sceptical minds on this subject," I am so far from drawing from the evidence brought forward by MR. GILPIN the conclusion at which he has arrived-viz., that Robert Bowman was "at least one hundred and eighteen years old at the time of his death"-that doubts upon that point are very considerably strengthened. So far from confirming or establishing the identity of the Robert Bowman baptised at Hayton in the year 1705, with the Robert Bowman who died at Irthington in 1823, the evidence adduced by MR. GILPIN seems to me to have a directly opposite tendency. MR. GILPIN searched the Hayton register carefully for fifty or sixty years, and the only baptism bearing directly upon the subject is that of Robert Bowman, baptised in 1705; but if this is the baptism of the centenarian Robert, the same register would, in all probability, have contained the register of the brother Thomas, said to have been born either in 1707 or 1711. Surely the absence of the baptism of Thomas leads to the inference that the Robert baptised was not the brother of Thomas, and consequently not the Robert who died at Irthington. MR. GILPIN, who produces not a tittle of evidence as to the age of Thomas, "who died in 1810, aged ninety-nine years, or, as some say, one hundred and one," says: "If Robert Bowman's age be a delusion and a snare, then is also the age of his brother Thomas. Both men must stand or fall together." I agree with MR. GILPIN in his premises, but differ in his conclusion. I hold that there is not a particle of evidence as to the real age of either of them. It is much to be regretted that MR. GILPIN'S endeavours to procure the marriage certificate were not attended with success; as, although such certificate would probably not have shown his age, it might have described the place of his birth, or * at all events his then residence. But, in the absence of this document, we gather from the tombstone in Irthington churchyard some facts connected with his marriage which deserve consideration with reference to his presumed age. In the first place, presuming as we may, from the birth of the eldest son in 1760, that Bowman married in 1759, he was fifty-four years of age, while his wife, born in 1726, was twenty-one years younger, being only thirty-three. I do not know whether the yeomen of Cumberland marry young or not, but fifty-four is, as a general rule, so exceptional an age for a man to marry at, that the statement is calculated to increase rather than to remove my scepticism. 66 But is not a clue to the absence of all evidence to be found in a fact which MR. GILPIN passes over slightly, and on which his information is probably imperfect. "Bowman," says MR. GILPIN, having passed his whole life in the neighbourhood of his birthplace-except a few early years spent in Northumberland." Now may not all his early years have been spent in Northumberland (where, if we knew the precise locality, both his baptismal and marriage certificates might be discovered), and he have removed to Irthington on his marriage? What was the maiden name of Bowman's wife? where, were their children born and baptised? for the accounts of Bowman's children are very contradictory. Dr. Barnes, writing in 1821, says "he married at the age of fifty" (which would be in 1755) "and had six sons, all of whom are now living; the eldest is fifty-nine and the youngest forty-seven, which makes the birth of the eldest son to have taken place in 1761, whereas on the tombstone erected in Irthington churchyard the eldest son is described as having "died July 29, 1844, aged eighty-four years"; according to which he must have been born in 1760. I am writing just now under great disadvantages, and indeed should not have written at all, but that I feel it is due to MR. GILPIN to acknowledge the pains he has taken to ascertain the truth, but as in my opinion MR. GILPIN's evidence does not sustain his belief that he has established the fact that Bowman was 118, I feel bound to point out where I think it defective. MR. GILPIN'S generosity has, I think, tempted him to take the weaker side; but whatever may have influenced him, he now deliberately avows his belief that Robert Bowman reached the very exceptional age of 118. I do not say he did not, but I do say there is at present not a particle of * I am aware Dr. Barnes, writing in 1821, says Bowman married in 1755, when he was fifty years of age; but if so, it is curious that so many years should have elapsed before the birth of his first child, who, according to one account, was born in 1760, and to another in 1761. The births of the other children followed at short intervals. evidence that he did so. Those who support the argument that Bowman was 118 must prove their case. "Eo incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat," says the civil law; and it may be added that the civil law also required that in proportion as the supposed fact was, as in this case, exceptional and beyond the ordinary nature of things, so ought the evidence in support of it to be clear, distinct, and beyond all doubt. WILLIAM J. THOMS. 40, St. George's Square, S.W. PASSAGE ATTRIBUTED TO ST. IGNATIUS. (4th S. vi. 381, 478.) MR. TEW does not seem to be aware that, in addition to the seven epistles of St. Ignatius which are usually accounted genuine, there are a number which bear his name, but which now are universally considered spurious. Amongst these is an epistle to the Philippians, and in that epistle (chap xiii.) occurs the passage referred to by Hooker. These spurious epistles are annexed as an appendix to The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers, published by Messrs. Clark, of Edinburgh, in their "Ante-Nicene Christian Library," and in the introductory notice to them the translators say : "It was a considerable time before editors in modern times began to discriminate between the true and the false in the writings attributed to Ignatius. The letters first published under his name were those three which exist only in Latin. These came forth in 1495 at Paris, being appended to a life of Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Some three years later, eleven epistles, comprising those mentioned by Eusebius, and four others, were published in Latin, and passed through four or five editions. In 1836 the whole of the professedly Ignatian epistles were published at Cologne in a Latin version; and this collection also passed through several editions. It was not till 1557 that the Ignatian epistles appeared for the first time in Greek at Dilligen. After this date, many editions came forth in which the probably genuine were still mixed up with the certainly spurious, the three Latin letters only being rejected as destitute of authority. Vedelius of Geneva first made the distinction which is now universally accepted, in an edition of these epistles which he published in 1623; and he was followed by Archbishop Usher and others, who entered more fully into that critical examination of these writings which has been continued down even to our own day." A. MR. SMITH's logic is refreshing. Let me suggest that he write, in some conspicuous place in his study, in very large letters, Cave "petitionem principii." It may act as a check against the perpetration of the worst, though not the most uncommon, of all fallacies. In his obliging paper he first assumes it as an evident fact that I know nothing of "the epistle to the Philippians which professes to be the work of Ignatius," and then deduces the, to his own mind, necessary conclusion Το that my opinion "would carry more weight "that "Ignatius wrote no epistle to the Philippians." What kind of reasoning this is I wot not. reverse the case, it might just as well be said that a man's" opinion would carry more weight" who should declare that the decretal epistles attributed to St. Clement are forgeries, if he knew something of his genuine epistle to the Corinthians. Further, Mr. SMITH asserts that "Hooker's quotation is quite correct." I assert that it is not. "I copy," says MR. SMITH, "the sentence in full." From what book? may I be allowed to ask. For in this copy the words Toù Пdoxa appear, but in Hooker (Oxford, 1841) they do not, either in the text or the foot-note. So much for MR. SMITH'S accuracy. TO MR. E. MARSHALL I tender my best thanks. His few remarks (anticipated, as he will see) are characterised by the moderation and good temper which it is so pleasant to meet with, but against which some do so grievously offend. As to the character of these epistles, but a very small amount of the critical faculty will be needed to the formation of a right judgment. Forgery is on the face of them, and few who have read them with any attention will have much objection to endorse the following statement: "Verisimile non est, eas Eusebium, si ejus ævo exstitissent, latere potuisse, aut ab eodem, si ipsi cognitæ essent, præteriri; sed etiam, quia vel ob modum loquendi, ab Eusebianis multum discrepantes apparent, vel ob materiam doctrinæ, institutis et moribus posterioris Ecclesiæ magis consonæ, et Ignatianis Eusebio memoratis sola imitatione, eaque nimis affectata, similes." Recentiorum Judicia de S. Ign. Epist., xxxiv. Guliel. Jacobson. EDMUND TEW, M.A. Patching Rectory, Arundel. It is not unsuited to the notes which have appeared on the epistle to the Philippians, called "of S. Ignatius," to state in what manner the collections of his epistles are to be regarded. There are: 1. The shorter recension of the seven epistles, which are commonly known as the genuine epistles, which is the one in Jacobson's and Hefele's Patres Apost. and other recent collections. 2. The longer, or interpolated, version of the seven epistles, often cited by early writers. 3. The Syriac version, with English translation of three of these, with collected extracts from others, published by Cureton, Lond. 1845. 4. The eight spurious epistles, three of which are only found in Latin. Of these eight Hefele observes: "Unanimi doctorum consensu spuriæ habentur." (Patr. Apost., Tubing. 1847, p. xliii.) The whole collection, except the Syriac, viz., the shorter recension, the longer or interpolated, (4th S. vi. 542, 577.) I have no wish to be contentious; but the subject of this painting is too interesting to be left undecided; and I see as yet no reason to change my opinion. G. A. C. calls attention to a feature in the painting, upon which, he says, I made no observation, but it did not escape my notice. He observes that "Over the head of the dying or deceased person is held by an attendant an heraldic shield, the arms upon which are unfortunately too indistinct to be accurately decyphered." The arms, as well as can be made out, appear to be those of Sawtree or Saltrey Abbey in Huntingdonshire, to which the advowsons of several churches in Norfolk were granted, and the abbot of which held manors and lands in the county. But whatever arms were on the shield is, in my opinion, of no importance towards the elucidation of the painting. I am more and more convinced that it represents the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Two angels are carrying up her soul to heaven: no such presumption of immediate beatitude could have been entertained of any ordinary individual, however ennobled by worldly honours. In the next place, as I mentioned, I have seen various old representations of the death of the B. V. M. more or less agreeing with the one at Starston; and, at least, two such are in my own possession. One of these remarkably coincides; having the three privileged Apostles, SS. Peter, James, and John, close to the bed, and St. John, as here, wearing a cope, and extending his hands over the bed. In the other, the same three are standing in the same position; St. John, always distinguishable by his juvenile appearance, and here also wearing a cope and clasping his hands. These are both woodcuts of the fifteenth century. I said that I attached no importance to the heraldic shield. If we make the very allowable supposition that some patron or distinguished person was interred beneath the recess, and that this painting was executed as a pious memorial over his tomb, the whole will, I think, be satisfactorily explained. The B. V. Mary has just departed. St. John holds a family, or conventual coat of arms towards his adopted holy Mother, to implore her intercession for the owners of the arms, or the soul of the person interred beneath; and St. Peter holds a scroll, on which the inscription seems to have been "Precor te Maria.” The last word is still plain; but on any other supposition, how could it be appropriate? The female figure, whom G. A. C. supposes to be coronetted, has really no coronet, but merely an ornamental head band. She is, in my opinion, only one of the holy women attendants on the B. Virgin, perhaps meant for Seraphia, who was distinguished as the wife of one of the members of the Sanhe drim, and of whom tradition reports that she was of about the same age as Mary, and had been long and closely connected with the Holy Family. There is one object standing before the head of the bed, which I cannot explain, because so little of it remains. It looks like a pedestal, and may have supported a lamp, or chafing-dish, as there are what appear to be flames at the top. I take this occasion to correct a mistake I made when the drawing was first sent me. I too hastily pronounced the coped figure to be St. Peter; but there can be no doubt that it represents St. John. F.C.H. P. S. The misprinting of a single word is sometimes of much consequence, and therefore I must request the readers of "N. & Q." to correct article (p. 542), of the word hand. It ought to in their copies the misprint at the end of my be head. The hand would be of no value towards making out the figure intended, but the head would be most important. Unfortunately neither remains. ROSCOE'S "NOVELISTS' LIBRARY AND GEORGE CRUIKSHANK (4th S. vi. 343, 426.)-MR. WYLIE is substantially correct in what he says as to George Cruikshank's connection with this work, but he is in error in supposing the series to consist of nineteen volumes, which is complete in seventeen, or those illustrated by the artist above-named. It was Mr. Roscoe's first intention that the designs for the entire series should be executed by Strutt; but, regarding these as failure, he renounced his connection with that artist on the issue of the second volume, commencing de novo with the designs of George Cruikshank. The two volumes illustrated by Strutt were not henceforward intended to be reckoned as any portion of the series. This is plain from the announcement cited by your correspondent "that he, G. Cruikshank, 'is engaged to illustrate the whole series," which could otherwise possess no significance; and it explains the apparent anomaly of two first and two second volumes. Bating these excrescences, Roscoe's "Novelists' Library," in the view of its editor Thomas Roscoe, consisted of seventeen volumes, the whole of which, without exception, were illustrated by my friend George Cruikshank. J. C. ROGER. CHANGES OF NAMES IN IRELAND (3rd S. passim; 4th S. vi. 310,423.)-Stuart's Armagh (8vo, Newry, 1819, p. 201) states from Vesey's Statutes, p. 29, that in "1465 Parliament enacted that every Irishman who dwelled amongst Englishmen in the counties of Dublin, Myeth (Meath), Uriel, and Kildare, should be apparelled after the English fashion, and should shave the beard above the mouth, and take an English surname derived either from a town, a colour, an art, science, or office. Hence are derived many family names, such as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Cork, Black, Brown, White, Smith, Carpenter, Cook, Butler, &c. Names thus adopted were to be transmitted to posterity under penalty of forfeiture of goods, &c. The Macangabhans became Smith, the Geals White," &c. W. P. "GOD MADE MAN," ETC. (4th S. vi. 345, 426, 487.)-The replies which your learned correspondents F. C. H. and DR. DIXON have kindly given to my query respecting these quaint lines are very noteworthy-the former as showing that they are not peculiar to any one county, and the latter for the reverential feeling with which they appear to have been treasured up by the Durham collier. It seems probable that they originated amongst the miners, for the version of the lines supplied by DR. DIXON-and evidently the most correct of the three given-unmistakeably implies as much; and the fact of their being popular with the pitmen of the North, and my hearing them in the Staffordshire colliery district, tends also to support this supposition. May I inquire again, have any of your readers ever seen them in print before? F. S. THE ADVENT HYMN (4th S. vi. 112.)-The correspondent of the Sunday Times, May, 1870, has made a sad blundering statement concerning the tune of this hymn. "Helmsley" is an adaptation of the melody of a song beginning "Guardian angels now protect me, Send to me the youth I love,"sung by Ann Catley in The Golden Pippin, a burletta acted at Covent Garden Theatre, Feb. 6, 1773. Miss Catley was a celebrated actress and singer. Her Life and Memoirs (a very curious little book, by Miss Ambross), is now before me. The tune became popular, and was converted into a hornpipe by some playhouse musician, and into a hymn-tune by some zealous low-churchman! Vulgarity, and consequent unfitness for devotional purposes, is the strong characteristic of this still (I am sorry to say) popular tune. EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. "HIERUSALEM! MY HAPPIE HOME!" (4th S. vi. 372, 485.)—As a supplement to the history of this "song" or hymn, it may be stated that a copy in broadside will be found in the Rawlinson Collection of Ballads (4to, 566, 167) in the Bodleian Library. It is entitled: The true description of the everlasting ioys of Heaven. To the tune of O man in desperation. In two parts, nineteen stanzas of eight lines (so by no means in an abbreviated form), black letter, two woodcuts. "Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright (between 1650 and 1670). It begins thus: "Jerusalem, my happy home, When shall I come to thee? When shall my sorrows have an end? WM. CHAPPELL. SIR THOMAS BROWNE: ARCHER'S COURT (4th S. vi. 46, 288.)-Hasted, Ireland, and the other Kentish historians, all speak vaguely of the owner of Archer's Court, who passed it to Rouse. They say, Sir Thomas Browne, or Mr. Thomas Browne of London, Thomas Broome, &c. It is to be regretted that Mrs. Hilton has not settled the matter by responding to MR. ELSTED's very useful suggestion. I have seen in Doctors' Commons the will of Richards Rouse, Sen., 1766; which, I think, is conclusive. He says: "I give, &c. in trust, &c. Whitfield or Archer's Court, bought by me of the Rev. Thomas Broome, his wife Elizabeth, and William Broome, Esq., to my daughter Affra Stringer, wife of Phineas Stringer," &c. The name therefore is Broome, and not Browne at all. JUNIUS. THE IRISH PLANXTY (4th S. vi. 300, 512).I have always heard and understood it to have been a harp air of a grand and elevating character. It mingled the most passionate grief for wrong inflicted on clan or kindred with the fiercest denunciation of the wrongdoer. It celebrated a victory and the virtues of the victor chief. It was the nuptial song of a royal hero's bridal, or the revengeful and defiant strain upon his fall in battle. When Ireland became at length consolidated under English rule, and the fighting of the native septs and clans was done away with, the planxty assumed a convivial character; and any gentleman of old standing in the country, whether of Irish or English descent, Catholic or Protestant, who kept a good cellar, larder, and pack of hounds, and who had met an opponent, once at least in his life, in fair fight, with sword or pistol, was sure to have a planxty dedicated to his name and honour by the peripatetic bard or harper who took the jolly squire in his rounds, and received the cead mille failthe (hundred thousand welcomes) of Irish hospitality as long as he chose to stay. Of such modern celebrations, the most notable, and the readiest to refer to, as having been adapted by Sir John Stevenson to some of the most beautiful of Moore's verses, are Planxty Kelly, Planxty Connor, and Planxty Sudley-the last-mentioned having been an indubitable Saxon. Like the Norman Geraldines of a former age, who intermarried amongst the natives and cultivated the good opinion of their adopted country, he pitched his tent on some pleasant spot of the "Golden Vein," and making himself and everyone who had to do with him happy and comfortable, be"more Irish than the Irish themselves." Carolan's best air was a planxty, which he composed in honour of a Welshman (Bumper Squire Jones) during a visit he made to the Principality, in return for the generous consideration with which the most celebrated of Irish harpers was treated not only by that particular host, but wherever he went amongst the descendants of the Cimbri. The unde derivatur of "planxty" I have often heard discussed, some deriving it from the Greek λayKrós, vagrant, wandering, &c., and others from the Latin planctus, the noise of the tempestuous waves dashing upon a rock-bound coast, to which more than one ancient poet has likened the roar of human voices in battle or tumult. The secondary and more popular meaning of planctus, as we all know, is a plaint or complaint; but I have never heard of any keen or coronach or purely funeral song of the Irish having been called a planxty. I believe that the derivation of the word from the Latin or the Greek does not hold good, as the Celtic is of an older stock than either. came THE KNIGHT OF INISHOWEN. LHWYD'S IRISH MSS. (4th S. vi. 387, 516.)— The Sebright MSS. are well known in Trinity College, Dublin. The old press-marks are H. 25-39 and H. 64-71 inclusive. These MSS. were bequeathed by Sir John Sebright, near St. Alban's, to the provost, fellows. and scholars of Trinity College, Dublin. The Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke, one of the executors of Sir John, caused them to be delivered to the University, having first submitted them, according to the desire of the testator, to the perusal and examination of General, then Colonel, Vallancey. They were bought by Sir John, and had been the property of Edward Lhwyd. B.E. N. [We shall be glad to receive from B. E. N. some notice of these MSS. for insertion in the columns of" N. & Q." ED.] POST PROPHECIES (4th S. vi. 370, 396, 488.)— I saw in Chambers's Journal a curious string of prophecies, each beginning "I would not be." The only one I remember was, "I would not be a king in '48." I cannot remember if I saw it before or after that year, and I have no means of referring to the book now. Can any of your correspondents kindly tell me if, like the one mentioned by E. L. S., it was made after the event? Also, if there was any other prediction worth notice in it; and how far the dates extended into the century? L. C. R. books the utility of which is quite destroyed for INDEXES (4th S. vi. 434, 513.)-There are some want of good indexes. I believe that in several cases it would pay to print them. Suppose a man to advertise that he would publish an index (say to Rushworth's Historical Collections), if he could get a hundred subscribers at a guinea each, I imagine the money would be forthcoming. K. P. D. E. LAKE DWELLINGS ON LOUGH MUCH (4th S. vi. 369.)-Since writing my query as to the lake dwelling in Lough Much, I have found the account given by Lubbock, in his work on Prehistoric Man of the Irish "cranoges"; but I am still anxious to hear something of the date of the island I described. While fishing there, I heard from a man who farmed some fourteen acres several interesting instances of folk lore, founded on the belief that the lake was haunted. Thus he told me that when a boy, fishing with other boys and young men, with baited lines left in the water for fish to hook themselves, they were startled when standing near and talking by hearing a crash, as if a whole crate of crockery had been thrown down, about three yards from them |