Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/615

 ii s. vi. D E r. 28, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

507

" According to one account the ciborium in question, for which the British Museum offered 1,200/. together with a facsimile, was presented to Tong Church by I^ady Eleanor Harries about 1625. In the opinion of Sir Wollaston Franks, Mr. Wilford Cripps, and Mr. St. John Hope, it is not an ecclesiastical vessel. The latter pronounces it to be a German drinking vessel of the time of Henry VIII.

"In^his 'History of Tong' George Griffiths ays : ' Lady Harries gave Tong, about the year 1630, a beautiful and costly ciborium, a sacra- mental vessel of the time of Henry VIII., said to be the work of the celebrated artist Holbein, and regarded by the highest authorities on such niatters as unique. It stands 11 in. high, and is of silver-gilt richly chased, having a central barrel of crystal 2 in. deep., 2g in. diameter out- side, and 2 in. inside. It probably belonged to the ancient college of Tong, and held the sacred elements, but is now used to hold the sacred wine on high festival days of the Church.' It is described ' among the guifts of that pious and charitable Lady Eleanor Harries (relict of Sir Thomas) as " a large Communion cup of gould and christall and cover." '

S. A. GRUNDY NEWMAN, F.S.A. Scot. Littleton Place, Walsall.

[A good illustration of the ciborium, with a letter on the subject from Mr. A. F. G. Leveson- <iower, appears in The Guardian for the 13bh inst.]

ON A PROVERB IN SHAKESPEARE.

Bened. Thou and I are too wise to wooe peaceablie.

Bea. It appeares not in this confession, there 's not one wise man among twentie that will praise himselfe.

Bene. An old, an old instance Beatrice, that liit'd in the time of good neighbours. . ..

' Much Ado,' V. ii. 67.

M. C. Wahl in ' Jahrbuch,' xxii. 51, on ' Das paromiologische Sprachgut bei Shake- speare,' points out the reference here to the proverb, " He dwells far from neighbors that's fain to praise himself," and notes an earlier reference to the same proverb in ' The True Chronicle History of King Leir.'

Two other contemporary examples of the literary use of this proverb may be noted, especially since Wahl's observation does not find a place in recent editions of ' Much Ado.' In Middleton's ' Blurt, Master-Constable ' (I. i.), p. 229, ed. by A. Dyce, we find, " But. because his own ear dwells so near to my voice, I will play the ill neighbor, and cease to speak well of him." The other example occurs in Marston's ' What You Will ' (V. i. 3), ii. 404, A. H. Bullen edition :

Lam. I commend, commend myself to ye, Lady.

Mel. In troth, sir, you dwell far from neigh- bors, that are enforced to commend yourself.

M. P. T.

Ann Arbor, Mich.

HALLEY SURNAME. [The following reached us too late for insertion in the communica- tion at p. 445 :]

" I think that the astronomer's name was pronounced Hawley, and we have seen that at Youlgreave the forms Halley and Hawley were used almost indifferently. But Humphrey Halley, vintner [the astronomer's grandfather], and his descendants appear to have uniformly spelled their name Halley, and, as far as I can recall, we have not met with any formal document relating to any of them in which their name is spelled in any other way. If it were otherwise, it would be needful to inspect various seventeenth- century documents relating to Hawleys. have looked at several, but none have been found to relate to Humphrey Halley and his descendants. I therefore confine my search to Halley, and neglect Hawley or Haley." Extract from letter from Mr. R. J." Beevor, dated 6 June, 1912.

EUGENE F. McPiKE.

135, Park Row, Chicago.

PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE ON THE OPENING OF A TUMULUS. In 1859 a farmer in the Isle of Man offered a heifer up as a pro- pitiatory sacrifice, so that no harm might befall him from the opening of a tumulus upon his land. The incident, in the Vic- torian age, is worthy of record. See pp. 62-3 ' Illustrated Notes on Manx Antiquities,' by P. M. C. Kermode, F.S.A.Scot.,and W. A. Herdman, D.Sc., F.R.S., privately printed (E. Tinling & Co., Victoria Street, Liverpool, printers, 1904). Copies can be procured from the Curator of the Port Erin Biological Station, Port Erin, Isle of Man.

WILLIAM MACARTHUR.

Dublin.

" THE BLACK BOY " OF GILLINGHAM. The following extract breathes an air of romance. In the Black Book (or Lord's Book) of Gillingham in the county of Kent, in 1447, it is recorded :

" Jugum pilgrym incipit ad Stratam juxta messuag: Will: Gollay versus West et extendit ad magnani portam messuag: de East Court versus East et sic ab ilia porta," &c.

In a MS. record of the manor of East- court, Gillingham, William Paynter records :

" The Greate Gatehouse at the North Est corner of the yarde was taken downe by my appoynt- ment at the request of my tenant Thomas Milton and his undertenant Richard More in anno 1636 : being very ruinous and to have been repaired by them, and indeede being a very hye strong built house with great gates. But was a great harbour to rogues, and by them called the black boy all England over, and after Richard Mores smithes forge gonne, was els very unuseful.

" Which gate is mentioned in the old Lords book of Gillingham in Jugo Pilgrim. '

F. L.