Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
_Herbert Family_ (Vol. vi., p. 473.).--The celebrated picture of Lord
Herbert of Cherbury by Isaac Oliver, at Penshurst, represents him with a
small swarthy countenance, dark eyes, very dark black hair, and mustachios.
All the Herberts whom I have seen are dark-complexioned and black-haired.
This is the family badge, quite as much as the unmistakeable nose in the
descendants of John of Gaunt.
E. D.
_Children crying at Baptism_ (Vol. vi., p. 601.).--I am inclined to suspect
that the idea of its being lucky for a child to cry at baptism arose {97}
from the custom of _exorcism_, which was retained in the Anglican Church in
the First Prayer-Book of King Edward VI., and is still commonly observed in
the baptismal services of the Church of Rome. When the devil was going out
of the possessed person, he was supposed to do so with reluctance: "The
spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one
dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead." (St. Mark, ix. 26.) The tears
and struggles of the infant would therefore be a convincing proof that the
Evil One had departed. In Ireland (as every clergyman knows) nurses will
decide the matter by pinching the baby, rather than allow him to remain
silent and unlachrymose.
RT.
Warmington.
_Americanisms_ (Vol. vi., p. 554.).--The word _bottom_, applied as your
correspondent UNEDA remarks, is decidedly an English provincialism, of
constant use now in the clothing districts of Gloucestershire, which are
called "The Bottoms," whether mills are situated there or not.
E. D.
_Dutch Allegorical Picture_ (Vol. vi., p. 457.).--In the account I gave you
of this picture I omitted one of the inscriptions, which I but just
discovered; and as the picture appears to have excited some interest in
Holland (my account of it having been translated into Dutch[9], in the
_Navorscher_), I send you this further supplemental notice.
I described a table standing under the window, on the left-hand side of the
room, containing on the end nearest to the spectator, not two pewter
flagons, as I at first thought, but one glass and one pewter flagon. On the
end of this table, which is presented to the spectator, is an inscription,
which, as I have said, had hitherto escaped my notice, having been
partially concealed by the frame--a modern one, not originally intended for
this picture, and partly obscured by dirt which had accumulated in the
corner. I can now make out very distinctly the following words, with the
date, which fixes beyond a question the age of the picture:
"Hier moet men gissen
Glasen te wasser
Daer in te pissen
En soú niet passen.
1659."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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