Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/55

 12 8. IV. FEB., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

49

" AMELIA Mo USER." Can any one put me on the track of this lady ? She belonged to the same family as " Mrs. Caudle," and wrote on domestic economy, &c. I think in Punch. I should say that she belonged to the forties or fifties ; but I cannot recover her. G. W. E. R.

SIR EDWARD AND SIR FRANCIS WALSING- HAM. Will some reader of ' N. & Q.' give me the names of the parents of the brothers( ?) Sir Edward Walsingham, Lieutenant of the Tower, and Sir Francis Walsingham, Secre- tary to Queen Elizabeth ? Please reply direct. WM. JACKSON PIOOTT.

Manor House, Dundrum, co. Down.

THE BLUE BOAR AT ISLINGTON. An in- teresting allusion to this inn occurs in ' The Counter Rat ' (" The Counter Scuffle, where- unto is added ' The Counter Rat," " by R. S., 1680). A party of fiddlers having been thrust into the Compter by the watch, one of them relates their adventures :

Quoth he, " Being met by a mad crew, In these poor cases up they drew Our fiddles, and like tinkers swore We should play them to the Blue-bore, Kept by mad Ralf at Islington, Whose hum and mum, being poun'd upon Our guts, so burnt 'em, we desir'd To part ; being out o' th' house e'en fired." The fiddlers then return to London, passing the Play-House in St. John's Street to Smithfield Bars. We may infer that the Blue Boar was one of the many inns in the High Street, but John Nichols in reprinting the satire in his ' Collection of Poems,' 1780, vol. iii. p. 275, adds a note : " This mad landlord's house is now unknown."

I shall be glad of any aid to its identifica- tion. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

DAME MARY ROE, nee GRESHAM. I find that Mary Gresham, who married Sir Thomas Rowe or Roe, was closely con- nected with no fewer than three Lord Mayors of London.

1. Her father, Sir John Gresham, was Lord Mayor of London. He was brother of Sir Richard Gresham, also Lord Mayor, besides being uncle to the famous Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange, and Lord Mayor of London.

2. Her husband, Sir Thomas Rowe or Roe, was Lord Mayor of London, in 1568.

3. Her son Sir Henry Rowe or Roe was Lord Mayor of London.

Here we have a case of a lady whose father, whose husband, and whose son were all Lord Mayors of London. Are there any parallels ? C. H. M.

' ENIGMAS OF LUEERIUS.' I should be very grateful to any of your readers who could give me information as to the ' Enigmas of Luberius.' The book is men- tioned in Dr. Arnauld's ' Memoire sur le Reglement des Etudes dans les Lettres humaines ' (' OPuvres,' vol. xli. p. 93), and is recommended as a textbook for boys in the sixth or lowest class of the schools of the Faculty of Arts at Paris.

I know that enigmas were used in the teaching of elementary Latin in the seven- teenth century the Jesuit Jouvency, for example, has a chapter on the subject in his ' Ratio discendi et docendi ' ; but as to the particular collection ascribed to Luberius I can find nothing, and I should greatly value any information on this point.

H. C. BARNARD.

CHESS : CASTLE AND ROOK. Why is the piece in chess commonly termed a " castle " known as a " rook " ? What was a rook. ?

CARACTACUS.

BROWNING'S ' RING AND THE BOOK ' Can any readers of ' N. & Q.' identify the following quotations in ' The Ring and the Book ' ?

1. iv. 1577-8, fons et origo malorum.

2. viii. 503-7 :

I mind a passage much confirmative

I' the Idyllist (though I read him Latinized)

" Why," asks a shepherd, " is this bank unfit? "

&c.

Dr. Berdoe is mistaken, I think, when he says that ' the Idyllist " is Theocritus.

3. viii. 1200 :

" Plus non vitiat," too much does no harm, Except in mathematics, sages say.

4. viii. 1054-5 :

Ere thou hast learned law, will be much to do, As said the gaby while he shod the goose.

5. ix. 240-41 :

Discedunt nunc amores, loves, farewell ! Maneat amor, let love, the sole, remain ! May I add two further queries ?

1. To whom does the Pope refer in x. 293 ? How do they call him ? the sagacious Swede Who finds by figures how the chances prove, Why one comes rather than another thing.

Dr. Berdoe says that " the sagacious Swede " is Swedenborg, but the Pope is speaking in 1698, when Swedenborg (who did not, I think, pursue such inquiries) was a ten-year-old.

2. What historical incident or incident? gave rise to the proverbial phrase (" what folk call," says Browning, xii. 295)

Pisan assistance, aid that comes too late ?

A. K. C.