Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/442

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

22., MAY 31. '56.

" I'se gang'd wi' Jamie fra' Dundee,

To cheer the lonesome way : His cheeks are ruddy o'er wi' haltb, He's frolick as the May.

Haud away ! &c.

" The lavrock mounts to hail the morn,

The lintwite swells her throat ; But neither are sa sweet, sa clear, As Jamie's tunefu* note.

Haud away! &c."]

Early Reformers. Who were Pomeranus and Cruciger ? Mentioned in connection with Luther and Melancthon. A. M. E. I.

[JOHN BUGENHAGIUS, or BUGENHAGEN, surnamed from his native place POMERANUS, was born at Wollin, in Pomerania, July 24. 1485, studied at the University of Grypswald, and was appointed teacher of a school at Treptow. After his introduction to Luther, he was chosen pastor of the Reformed Church at Wittemberg. In 1537 he was solicited by Christian, King of Denmark, at whose coronation he officiated, to assist him in promoting the Reformation and erecting schools in his dominions. He assisted likewise in 1542 in the advancement of the Re- formation in the Dukedom of Brunswick and other places. At length, after a life devoted to these objects, he died April 20. 1558. He wrote a Commentary on the Psalms ; Annotations on St. Paul's Epistles ; A Harmony of the Gospels, &c. He also assisted Luther in translating the Bible into German, and used to keep the day on which it was finished as a festival, calling it " The Feast of the Translation." For a sketch of his conversion and history, see Milner's Church History, vol. iv. p. 181., edit. 1847; also Jocher, Gelehrten- Lexicon, and Rose's Biogra- phical Dictionary. CASPAR CRUCIGER, born at Leipsic in 1504, was much esteemed by Luther, and assisted at the dispute held at Worms with Eckius. To his profound knowledge in the languages and divinity, he added an acquaintance with mathematics and botany. He died Rector of the College of Wittemberg, in 1584. See a list of his works in Watt's Sibliotheca, and some account of his life and works in Jocher, Gelehrten- Lexicon.']

Gorse. Can any lover of folk lore tell me what is the meaning of a sprig of gorse, when in- troduced into a bridal bouquet ? Something more is intended (as I am informed) than the " endur- ing affection" of " the language of flowers ;" but, what is that something ?

A propos to gorse : the following extract seems worthy to be made a note of. It is taken from an article by Frederika Bremer, contributed to Sharpens Magazine during the time of its editor- ship by Mrs. S. C. Hall. The Swedish novelist is describing her visit to Windsor :

" There grew upon the height where we stood, and I had seen the same in many fields of England, bushes not unlike our Swedish juniper, but which bore remarkably beautiful yellow flowers, of the pea-blossom form. Mrs. told me, that Linnneus, when he first came to Eng- land, and saw a field covered with these bushes, then in full bloom, threw himself on his knees, and kissed the earth for producing flowers so beautiful." Vol. ii., New Series, 1853, p. 41.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

[Is not the 'something,' which our correspondent in- quires for, an allusion to the old saying, " That when the furse is out of bloom, kissing is out of fashion."]

The Poet Gower. In Rambles round Notting- ham, p. 3., it is stated that " old Gower " wrote only once in English, viz. that part of his great poem, Confessio Amanlis, which Warton slightly modernized. Is this so ? And why is Gower set down as an English poet ? Have we any com- plete version of his works in English ? If not, would it not be desirable for a London publisher now re-issuing the old authors, to provide an edition even of the Latin poems of this ancient author ? S. M. D.

[The moral Gower's claim to be set down as an English poet, might have been seen by a reference to Warton's English Poetry, Ellis's Specimens, Sfc. His Confessio Amantis, in eight books, first printed by Caxton in 1483, fully establishes his right to be so designated. We are glad to be able to announce that a handsome library edition of Gower's writings is in the press.]

" The incomparable Orinda" In a MS. genea- logical volume in my possession the following entry occurs :

" Lewis Wogan, Esq., married Katherine, daughter and heiress of James Philipps, Esq., of the Priory, Cardigan. Her mother was the incomparable Orinda."

Mrs. Katherine Philipps was .a distinguished poet of the period of the Restoration, was honoured by the praise of Cowley and Dryden, and had a Dis- course on Friendship dedicated to her by Jeremy Taylor. Under her poetical name of " Orinda," she was highly popular with her contemporaries, and fell a victim to confluent small-pox in 1664, at the early age of thirty-three years. Query, what was her maiden name ?

JOHN PAVIN PHILLIPS. Haverfordwest.

[The maiden name of " the matchless Orinda " was Catharine Fowler. Her father was a London merchant, where she was born in 1631.]

Gentlemen-at-Arms to Henry VIII. Perhaps some one of your correspondents will oblige me by stating whether any printed list is inserted in any antiquarian work of the gentlemen-at-arms to Henry VIII. I imagine, from their being a chosen body of men, they were persons of some note in their day. JAYTEE.

[The names of the persons forming the Muster-Roll of the fifty gentlemen pensioners to Henry VIII., A.D. 152(5, will be found in the Statutes of Eltham, Cottonian MS. Vespasian, C. XIV. 218, and also in Curling's Account of the Ancient Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, pp. 26, 27.]

" Wonderful Characters." There is a pub- lication called Wonderful Characters, by II. Wil- son ; another called Eccentric Biography (query by Caulfield). What is the title of a similar work in one volume, with plates ? D.

Leamington.

[Our correspondent is probably thinking of John Thomas Smith's Vagabondiana ; or, Anecdotes of Men- dicant Wanderers through the Streets of London. 4to. Lond. 1817.]