Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/213

 V.MARCH 3, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES,

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Cornwallis, of East Horsley, Surrey, Groom Porter to the Queen, and first cousin to Sir Thomas. He died, without leaving issue surviving him, on 13 May, 1597. His father was Henry (or Edward) Cornwallis, third son of William Cornwallis by Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Stamford. (Cf. Collec- tanea Topogr. et Genealog., iii. 294, and S.P. Dom. Eliz., cclxiii. 75.) The Thomas Corn- wallis, Groom Porter to the Queen, mentioned in Lady Lawrence's will, was probably a nephew. Lady Catherine, being a persona grata at Court, was in 1598 conceded liberty of conscience (' Cal. Cecil MSS.,' viii. 541). JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" SUPERMAN " (10 th S. v. 88). The exception taken by A. T. M. to this word seems hardly justified, even if it were entirely original. It is a hybrid, no doubt, but this is not a fatal objection. It is not alone in this respect. The word seems, to carry out the idea as no other word would. It has no relation to " superhuman," which means something entirely different. In construc- tion, too, it is better, for in the Latin authors super is, I believe, more frequently used with a noun, in the sense of "above" or "upon," than with an adjective. ^Eneas, e.r/., says he is " fama super sethera notus." It is, of course, in a manner, a play upon the word, " man " being here used in its re- stricted sense as referring to the male sex only, instead of in its more usual meaning as referring to the whole human race. Super- man is not superhuman, but very much human. The author points out that man is controlled, not by fate or destiny, or luck or chance, or any other metaphysical abstrac- tions, nor yet by his own will, as he fondly thinks, but by that of woman. The satire, whether true or not, is very old, but the application of the word is admirable. It indicates one who is human, but not man. One would almost imagine, from his falling foul of the word, that A. T. M. had never seen the play. It is absolutely appropriate. J. FOSTER PALMER.

8, Royal Avenue, S.W.

SUICIDES BURIED IN THE OPEN FlELDS(10 th S.

iv.346, 397, 475, 514 ; v. 76). Before passing judgment on the old burial laws relating to suicides, it is necessary to know something of the attitude assumed by the authorities and by the people in general towards them. One cannot read mediaeval records without seeing that suicides were regarded as mur- derersself-murderers, it is true, but still murderers, takers of human life. Ecclesias- tically they were excommunicate ipso facto ;

and they were in a worse position thai* murderers of others, for they were without opportunity of repentance and absolution. Their exclusion from consecrated ground was due probably to common law, but I know of no statute about it. No one is likely to- defend the brutality of past ages. It was largely due to ignorance and the social con- ditions of the country. It is unjustifiable to- attribute it to the influence of the monks.

FRANK PENNY.

HORACE WALPOLE'S LETTERS (10 th S. iii. 386; iv. 158; v. 133). The letters quoted from ' The Private Correspondence of Horace- Walpole, Earl of Orford,' 1820, are not by the younger Horace, but by his uncle, Old Horace, afterwards Baron Walpole of Wol- ferton, whom the great letter-writer most cordially detested. These letters are dated from "Wol ferton," from which the elder Horace took his title in 1756. The tracts named in the first are mentioned as his in the * D N.B.' ; while in the second the writer speaks of *'my brother" and Lord Boling- broke, and immediately after of " Lord Orford," i.e., Sir Robert, the first Earl. The- editor must have been "overseen," as Swift would have said, in attributing these letters to the nephew instead of the uncle.

MR. HELTON will find some account of the Rev. Henry Etough in Nichols's * Literary Anecdotes,' viii. 261-4. He was M.A. of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and married Sir Robert Walpole to Miss Skerret. He was for twenty-three years rector of Sherfield ; and his monument states that

" With a robust constitution, through a singular habit of body, he lived many years without the use of animal food, or of any fermented liquid ; and died suddenly, Aug. 10, 1757, in the 70th year of his age."

SPINOLA'S WHALE (10 th S. v. 109). In Charles Herle's * Worldly Policy, and Moral Prudence,' 1654, there occurs the following passage (p. 27) :

"Yet herein lies a great part of this kinde of Policy ["Distrust, or Suspition "] (with Jeremi's wild asse) to snuffle up the windc, and engender by it, and smell, and travaile of an imaginary plot, or designe in every jest, and complement ; he heares> the Stale Gull of the Pope's being to marry the great Turks daughter, or of Spinola's Whale, that should have been hir'd to have drown'd London by- snuffing up the Thames, and spouting it upon the- City, and doubts there may be somewhat in 't, andt can shrewdly guesse who had a finger in the plot up to the very elbow."

A. S.

G. J. HOLYOAKE : HIS NAME (10 th S. v. 126), The following lines, written by Mr. Gerald