be larger than that which is required to ensure the Divine presence, Matthew xviii. 20.? VRYAN RHEGED. FAIRFAX, JOSEPH.-Can any one of your readers give me any information as to what appointment Mr. Joseph Fairfax held in the Forest of Windsor, circa 1740; or any particulars concerning himself or family? L. DE C. LONDON FIRES: BLOWING UP HOUSES WITH GUNPOWDER. "Hark! the drum thunders; far, ye crowds, retire; Gay's Trivia, book iii. p. 78.; Poems, 1720. The expedient of blowing up houses with gunpowder, in order to arrest the progress of the flames, is said to have been resorted to with success during the Great Fire of London, 1666; and from the above extract from Gay it may perhaps be inferred that the practice still continued in his days. Is there any well-authenticated instance of this? To descend to more modern times. Is there any case on record during the last century in which the same plan has been adopted? At present (thanks to the multiplication and increased power of fire-engines, and to improved methods of building) there is no necessity for having recourse to such desperate expedients for the purpose of controlling the rage of the " devouring element." W. D. 5. Furnival's Inn. WALTER THORNBURY. ROBERTS FAMILY.-Wanted information respecting the descendants of Lewis Roberts, merchant in London about 1638, who wrote The Marchant's Mapp of Commerce. The Harl. MSS. mention three children-Gabriel, born 1626, William, and Ann Sarah. Can any reader of "N. & Q." furnish the names or any particulars of later descendants? Also as to the ancestors of Mr. Samuel Roberts, an attorney in Gray's Inn Lane, 1730-34. He was admitted at Serjeant's Inn by Mr. Justice Probyn, 30th Nov. 1730. Would not the papers of Mr. Probyn give the names of his parents, and also his birthplace; if so, where are they to be met with? S. R. met with his death accidentally on old London Bridge, 1734, but where buried cannot be ascertained by any of his descendants. I shall feel greatly obliged by any communication that will assist. E. J. ROBERTS. SHAKSPEARE.There was published Chefs d'Euvre de Shakspeare (Othello, Hamlet, &c.) in French and English, with Notes Critical and Historical, by D. O'Sullivan, 2 vols. 1837. Was this published in London, and is the translator a naZETA. tive of this country? [The following account of this controversy occurs in a biographical sketch of Dr. Edward Waring in The Monthly Magazine for Feb. 1800, p. 46:-"Waring took his first, or bachelor's degree, in 1757, and the Lucasian Professorship became vacant before he was of sufficient standing for the next, or Master's degree, which is a necessary qualification for that office. This defect was supplied by a royal mandate, through which he became Master of Arts in 1763; and, shortly after his admission to this degree, the Lucasian professor. The royal mandate is too frequently a screen for indolence; and it is now become almost a custom, that heads of colleges, whe ought to set the example in discipline to others, are the chief violators of it, by making their office a pretext for taking their Doctor's degree in Divinity, without performing those exercises which were designed as proofs of their qualifications. Such indolence cannot be imputed to Waring; yet several circumstances previous to his election into the professorial chair discovered that there was, at least, one person in the University who disap NARTHECIA: WHAT?- Amongst the microscopic slides of a London optician, I find "Foot of proved of the anticipation of degrees by external influNarthecia." Would you kindly inquire for me whether this is a correct description, and to what order of insects it belongs; an effort in which I have hitherto failed. C. W. B. | ence.-Waring, before his election, gave a small specimen of his abilities, as proof of his qualifications for the office which he was then soliciting; and a controversy on his merits ensued: Dr. Powell, the master of St. John's College, attacking, in two pamphlets, the Professor; and his friend, afterwards Judge Wilson, defending. The attack was scarcely warranted by the errors in the specimen; and the abundant proofs of talents in the exercise of the professorial office are the best answers to the sarcasms which the learned divine amused himself in casting on rising merit. An office held by a Barrow, a Newton, a Whiston, a Cotes, and a Sanderson, must excite an ingenuous mind to the greatest exertions; and the new professor, whatever may have been his success, did not fall behind any of his predecessors, in either zeal for the science, or application of the powers of his mind to extend its boundaries. In 1762 he published his Miscellanea Analytica, one of the most abstruse books written on the abstrusest parts of Algebra. This work extended his fame over all Europe."] [As yoke seems plainly to be connected with the Latin jugum, we have always been disposed to derive yokul from the L. jugalis or jogalis, which signifies "pertaining to a yoke" (as of oxen or other animals.) We would therefore submit that the term yokul, as applied to a rustic, primarily signified one who yoked or drove oxen, horses, &c.; and hence, generally, a peasant or countryman.] WATERWORKS AT OLD LONDon Bridge.-When were these removed, and what part of the city was supplied by that machinery which, I believe, was moved by the rush of the river? CENTURION. [In 1582 was first erected at London Bridge the famous engine for raising water for the supply of the city, the invention of Peter Moris, a Dutchman, but a free denizen. "He conveyed Thames water in pipes of lead over the steeple of St. Magnus church, at the north end of London Bridge, and so into diverse men's houses in Thames Street, New Fish Street, and Grasse Street, up unto the north-west corner of Leadenhall the highest ground of the City of London-where the waste of the first main pipe ran first this year, 1582, on Christmas even; which main pipe, being since at the charge of the city, brought up into a standard there made for that purpose, and divided there into four several spouts, ran four ways, plentifully serving to the use of the inhabitants near adjoining, that will fetch the same into their houses, and also cleansed the channels of the streets north towards Bishopsgate, east towards Aldgate, south towards the Bridge, and west towards the Stocks Market."—(Abraham Fleming, Holinshed's continuator.) The lease of the proprietors, which ran for 500 years from the first grant to Moris, at last comprehended all the stream of the river to the fifth arch inclusive. On Oct. 13, 1779, a fire broke out in a warehouse belonging to Messrs. Judd and Sanderson, hop-merchants at the foot of the bridge, which communicated to the waterworks, and reduced them nearly even with the river. (Gent.'s Mag. Nov. 1779, p. 562.) These waterworks, which had by various improvements become one of the most curious and powerful systems of hydraulic mechanism ever constructed, continued in operation till October, 1822, when the New River Company purchased the supply for 10,000l. - Vide Richard Thomson's Chronicles of London Bridge.] ST. BOTOLPH.-Finding there are four churches dedicated to St. Botolph in the immediate neighbourhood of (I believe) Newgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, and Aldgate, I shall be much obliged to any one who would state if there be any historical connection between such dedication and the above-named localities, to account for the striking coincidence. A. Z. [In our first Series (v. 396. 475. 566., vii. 84. 193.) are several notices of this favourite saint of early times; but they do not explain why the four churches dedicated to him in London stand at the gates of the city, viz. Aldersgate, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Billingsgate. St. Botolph's festival is June 17; he has been considered the especial patron of mariners, which may account for these churches in the vicinity of the port of London having been dedicated to him.] Replies. SNAGG FAMILY. (1st S. x. 243. ; 2nd S. x. 513.) Querists in "N. & Q." should never despair of replies, for here is an instance in which, after an interval of six years, a Query has been answered, MR. ROFFE having obligingly forwarded the particulars then requested, which I know will be most acceptable to one of your correspondents now abroad. In Smyth's Law Officers of Ireland, it is stated that Thomas Snagg, Esq., was appointed AttorneyGeneral for Ireland by patent under letter of Privy Seal, dated Oatlands, 13th of September, 1577. "The Queen by her said letters directed that he should have 100%. English a year addition to his fee; and for his better encouragement and supportation of his charges, to have in the pay of the army without cheque the wages of two horsemen and three footmen"-truly a curious way of providing for high legal functionaries, but an exceptional case, for he is the only AttorneyGeneral we find receiving such perquisites. A successor was appointed "vice Snagg, deceased," by patent dated 9th of September, 1580. In Hansard I find that Thomas Snagg, Esq., M.P. for Bedford, and Serjeant-at-law, was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons, and presented to Queen Elizabeth in that capacity by the lower house on the 12th of November, 1588. He was also a bencher and "double reader" of Gray's Inn, and his arms are still to be seen emblazoned in the large semicircular window of the Hall of that Society. Mr. Manning, in his Lives of the Speakers of the House of Commons, appears to be of opinion that he resigned before 1590, in which year he was appointed" Queen's own Serjeant." But he still appears as Speaker on the 29th of March, 1592, and his successor, the great Sir Edmund Coke, was not elected till the 22nd of February, 1593 (35th Eliz.), on the assembling of a new Parliament. Quære, when did he die? Mr. Manning was unable to ascertain his ancestry. Can any particulars now be obtained? His son, also Thomas, sat in the Parliament of 1586 for the borough of Bedford, and received the honour of knighthood from King James I. shortly after his accession to the throne, and in the fifth year of that reign [1507-8] served as sheriff for Bedfordshire, as did also his descendants in 1665, 1678, and 1705. The Snaggs held, with other lands, the Manors of Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire, and Latchworth in Hertfordshire. In the parish church of the former are several very handsome monuments and sepulchral brasses to various members of the family. Thomas Snagg's Old Manor House, at Marston, is still known, and some legends about the ghost of Lady Snagg still linger amongst the oldest inhabitants. I am desirous of ascertaining what relationship existed between Thomas Snagg, the Attorney General, and Thomas Snagg the Speaker. Could they be the same person, and "deceased" a clerical error for " resigned"? If not, did the Attorney-General leave issue? What was the connection between the branch settled at Chislehurst, Kent, and that at Marston Moretaine ? Mr. Manning, in the work before quoted, says: "We have not ascertained whether the blood of Snagg is still extant, but we find that the last heir male [of the Speaker ?] died in the early part of the 18th century." The family is certainly not extinct, for Thomas Snagg, a descendant of the Chislehurst branch, went over to Ireland about 1770, and three generations (the eldest sons all likewise baptized Thomas), have since been settled in Dublin. Any genealogical information, references to printed works, copies of inscriptions, &c., relating to this family, will be acceptable. The name is so peculiar and uncommon that it affords special facilities for tracing the genealogy, because all who bear it may safely be assumed to be related, which is often too readily done without sufficient warrant in the case of names of more common JOHN RIBTON GARSTIN. Occurrence. Dublin. SATIRICAL ALLUSION TO JOHNSON. (2nd S. xi. 30. 52.) The Crispinus of Horace is the literary ancestor of a numerous race. The member of it indicated by the satirist I take to be the Crispin of Padre Isla. The date of the satire is 1772, in which year Nugent's translation of Fray Gerundio was published under the direction of Baretti. Prudentio, after pointing out faults in Gerund's much-applauded sermon, says:— "Instead of the acclamations which these simpletons gave thee upon finishing thy exhortation, thou shouldst have had that which was given to Father Friar Crispin, suiting thee as well as it did him, who without doubt must have been the Friar Gerund of his time: "S. History of Friar Gerund, London, 1772. The pillory dare to name; the whole intent Churchill, The Author, 1. 301. Shebbeare was sentenced to stand one hour in the pillory at Charing Cross. Beardmore, then under-sheriff, took him there in one of the city his head and hands not being put through, with a coaches, and allowed him to stand on "the wood," servant in livery holding an umbrella over him. At the end of the hour Beardmore took him back. For this, on the motion of the Attorney-General, the Court of King's Bench issued an attachment nant at the sentence not being fully executed, and against Beardmore. The whole Court were indigMr. Justice Wilmot cited a case from the yearbooks in which large damages were recovered against and the reason assigned was, "Quia the defendant, a defendant for beating his adversary's attorney, quantum in se fuit, non permisit regem regnare ; much propriety, be said of this under-sheriff in and, added his lordship, "it may, with at least as the present instance, that, quantum in se fuit, non permisit regem regnare." Beardmore was sentenced * The passage is badly translated. The original is, — vitores con que te aclamáron los simples, te hubiesen apli"No merecias, que al acabar la Platica, en lugar de los Padre Fray Crispin, que sin duda debió de ser el Fray cado este otro vitor, que te venia tan de molde como al Gerundio de su tiempo: "Vitor el Padre Crispin, De los cultos culto Sol, Y Latin en Español."-Tom. iii. p. 139. I presume that "Huzza" is put after the couplet in English, as the equivalent of Vitor. Lost. Can it be supposed that Milton was ignorant of the publication of Junius? And is it not evident that the first three books of the Paradise Lost were an afterthought, entirely induced by the plot of the Paraphrase?" Vide Palæographia Sacra Pictoria: or, Select Illustrations of Ancient Illuminated Biblical and Theological Manuscripts. By J. O. Westwood, F.L.S., &c. Professor Andras, in his Disquisitio de Carminibus Anglo-Saxonicis Cadmoni Adjudicatis (Parisiis, 1859), points out by numerous quotations the passages in which Milton may have been indebted to Cadmon for his imagery and language. J. MACRAY. Oxford. MILTON: WAS HE AN ANGLO-SAXON SCHOLAR? (1st S. iv. 100. 181.) The similarity between the Anglo-Saxon poem of Cædmon, paraphrased from Genesis, and some parts of Milton's Paradise Lost, is so striking as to have led many distinguished scholars to believe that Milton must have perused Cædmon in the original, and have borrowed his plot from the Anglo-Saxon poet. This appears extremely probable, and is so well stated by Mr. Westwood in his beautiful and most instructive work, Palæographia Sacra Pictoria (Lond. 1844), that I hope a corner may be found in "N. & Q." for Mr. Westwood's note, which no doubt must have escaped the notice of your correspondent J. E. of Oxford, when he addressed to you, in Aug. 1851, the Query quoted above :— "The plot of this paraphrastic history in fact so much resembles that of the Paradise Lost, that it has obtained for its author the name of the Saxon Milton.' (Wright, Biogr. Brit. Liter. p. 198.)-When, however, the following circumstances are taken into consideration, I think we are, on the other hand, fully warranted in supposing that this striking resemblance was not altogether accidental, but resulted from Milton having borrowed his plot from the Anglo-Saxon poet. The MS. of Junius was published in 1655.* About this period Milton was engaged upon his History of England previous to the Norman Conquest, such a publication would therefore find its way to him. Paradise Lost was published in 1667, but its composition occupied a number of years. (See the Life of Milton by his nephew Edward Philips, Pickering's edit. of Milton's Poet. Works, 1826, vol. i. p. lxii.) And we learn from Philips that it was at first intended for a tragedy; and in the fourth book of the poem there are six verses, which, several years before the poem was begun, were shown to me and some others as designed for the very beginning of the said tragedy.' These verses commence with what stands as the 32nd line of the 4th Book. Now it will be at once remembered that the first three books are occupied with the history of the expulsion of the devil and his angels from heaven, their discussions, &c., and it is precisely this portion of the Anglo-Saxon Paraphrase which is so strikingly similar to the Paradise "Cedmonis Monachi Paraph. Poet. Genesios, &c. Anglo-Saxonice conscripta et nunc primum edita a Francisco Junio F. F. Amst. 1655." THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. The opinions attributed to the Japanese Bonze are common to the Buddhists of all ages. As Fucarandono (?) propounded them they would have been, and were, propounded centuries before. In the writings of Iliouen-thsang,―a Chinese pilgrim who visited India between A.D. 629 and 645,-we find similar ideas expressed.* The followers of Buddha do not believe in the existence of a creating God; for, the Singhalese assert, "if there existed such a creator, the world would not perish and be annihilated." Thus they do not believe in a creation; everything, say they, has existed from all time-the world, the gods, the human race, and all animated beings. They also believe the earth to have been destroyed ten times in former ages, and to have been produced anew each time by the operations of NATURE; both gods and men. The Buddhists assert the soul to have existed from all time —(their doctrines contain no mention of a created soul); but they hold that it will transmigrate for a vast number of years, and then reach a state of passive unconsciousness (called Nirvāna);—the highest state of bliss of which a Buddhist can conceive. Similar ideas are also found throughout the literature of the Hindus; indeed, as Buddhism was, originally, but modified Brahmanism, this is what might have been expected. Thus the first book of the Vishnu-purāna (a Sanskrit work about a thousand years old) contains a description of the manner in which the universe proceeds from Prakriti—that is, eternal crude matter; —and although the explanation is a hodge-podge of mysticism, the theory on which all is supposed to be based is sufficiently clear. Upon stepping back another thousand years, to the centuries just preceding Christianity, we meet with some such notions in a poem called the Bhagavat *Mémoires sur les Contrées occidentales, par Hiouenthsang. Lately translated from the Chinese by M. Stanislas Julien. Gita, of which I subjoin Mr. Griffith's elegant may seem somewhat far fetched; but the Spanish translation: "Nor thou, nor yonder Princes, e'er were not, Something very like the idea of all things emanating from natural selection is, indeed, older than the Rig-veda (B.c. 1200); for in the 10th Book of that singular collection occurs a hymn containing the following passage. The poet is speaking of times previous to the development of the world: "Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled - CHARLATAN. (2nd S. xi. 48.) equivalent for ciarlare is charlar (pron. the ch as in China), or garlar, which latter is evidently the same word as the Italian garrulare, a verb made from garrulo, or the Spanish garrular. That the hard Latin g is sometimes softened in Italian is with the corresponding Lat. galvus (gilvus, gilshown by comparing giallo (pron. jallow, yellow) bus, galbanus), which Riddle says=xAwpóc, light green, or greenish-yellow. So gaudium, gioja (pron. joya), joy. It is no easy matter to find instances in which a hard Latin g has become c in Italian, still I find at any rate one, viz. Lat. Gades, Ital. Cadice (Cadiz). The converse is more generally the case, as castigare, Ital. gastigare; catus (a tom-cat), Ital. gatto, &c. The Lat. ca and ga generally remain hard in Ital., though they are very commonly softened in French. Cf. campus, campo, champ; carus, caro, cher; castus, casto, chaste; gamba (Lat. a hoof), Ital. gamba (a leg), Fr. jambe;_castigare, gustigare, châtier; catus, Ital. gatto, Fr. chat. I should not have entered into this perhaps wearisome detail, but that no one would, I think, be apt to believe in the derivation of charlatan F. P. from garrulus upon the mere assertion of any one, however good an etymologist. According to my views the steps of the process may be represented as follows: garrulus, garrulo, garrulare, garlare (Span. garlar, charlar), carlare, ciarlare (as in the Ital. ciambra, another form of camera, from the Lat. camera), ciarlata, ciarlatano, charlatan. All these words still exist with the exception of garlare and carlare, the steps I have supplied. As alike in sound, one might compare Carolus, Ital. Carlo, Fr. Charles. There can be no doubt as to the derivation of this word. It suggests itself at once to every one who, like myself, has but a moderate knowledge of Italian; and it may be found in any good English Dictionary from Johnson downwards. Charlatan comes from the Ital. ciarlatano, and this from ciarlare, "to chatter," or rather "to talk much and in a light, frivolous, and boasting manner." From this verb also comes the subst. ciarlata, "chattering." Charlatan thus exactly corresponds to our quack, for this comes from the verb "to quack," which Johnson defines "to chatter boastingly, to brag loudly, to talk ostentatiously," supporting his definition by the following quotation from Hudibras: "Believe mechanick virtuosi Can raise them mountains in Potosi ; Under charlatan he quotes the following from "Saltimbanchoes, quacksalvers, and charlatans deceive them in lower degree." But probably this is not early enough for X. O. As for the derivation of ciarlare (pron. charlare, the ch as in China), it will be found, I think, in the Lat. garrulus (garrire, to prate, chatter). This The Cosmic Egg. F. C. This word occurs in Cowley, Butler (Hudibras), and Sir T. Browne, but I have no note of it earlier in English. It is a common word in French, where it has been long used for quack doctor, mountebank, &c., like the Latin circulator, which it resembles in form. The word appears, however, as a Spanish one, where charlar means to babble, to talk too much, and charlatan, a prating fellow; hence, a mountebank, &c. In Italian it is ciarlare, to chatter, prate, and ciarlatano, a quack or mountebank. We should expect to find it in Latin, but I am aware of no word like it except some derivatives of clarus, as claricitare, which in Lucretius, 5. 946., signifies to cry aloud to: "Claricitat late sitientia sæcla ferarum." B. H. C. A French dictionary furnishes me with a reply to the philological portion of X. O.'s Query. "De l'Italien, ciarlatano, formé dans la même signification, de ciarlare, parler beaucoup;" the |