Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/505

 9<s. ix. JUNE 21, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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elsewhere. I have had a Stallabrass in my own house

Even Bunyan may have taken many of his expressive surnames from real life. Small- peace, Faithful, Christian, and many of the others are quite common. Some, such as Handsombody, Lightbody, Slowbilly, Hogbin, are known to myself; but the most unfor- tunate one of my acquaintance is perhaps the most expressive, and the family is a very large one. I can point to a shop whose owner has painted his name, Windebag, in large letters over his door.

Here in Somerset the names Halfyard and Fouracre are quite common ; indeed, novelists in search of quaint surnames might glean almost a harvest in our country towns and villages. F. T. ELWORTHY.

Foxdown, Wellington, Somerset.

According to Bowditch ('Suffolk Sur- names') there were eleven families of the name of Snodgrass living in Philadelphia in 1861. The name was borne, too, by a medical attendant of Edgar Allan Poe. Several instances of its occurrence in England have recently been noted in the Athenaeum.

C. C. B.

Jenny Snodgrass is mentioned in a letter from Scotland in Miss Ferrier's ' Inheritance,' published in 1824. HERMAN COHEN.

I agree with ASTARTE that many of Dickens's fantastic names were those of real persons. I remember being surprised to find several in such an unlikely place as the Glasgow ' Post Office Directory.' Quite recently I saw Chadband on a shop sign in Lichfield, I think. ~ W. E. WILSON.

Hawick.

ST. PAUL AND SENECA (9 th S. ix. 290, 351). The following is from chap. x. of the * Life of Lucius Annseus Seneca,' by Justus Lipsius, translated by Lodge :

"But hearke you Sir, make you no reckoning of his Epistles to Saint Paul ? Those that are now extant are not so much worth; nay, it is most certaine, that they have all of them the same Authour, and that they were written, but by some scarce learned Clerke in our disgrace. He travaileth and attempteth to speake Latine, whosoever it was, that was the Authour. Did they not there- fore write one unto another? Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, and Pope Linus (more ancient then them both) averre it, and it is a passive opinion. And John of Salisburie likewise confidently contirmeth it. * They seeme to bee foolish, who reverence not him, who, as it appeareth, deserved the familiaritie of the Apostle.' I therefore dare not wholly reject and contemne this ; it may be there were some, but others then these ; if these, I required the judgement of the best Fathers."

The following are the references given in

the margin, but corrected, after comparison with the * Life ' contained in Seneca, edited by Lipsius, 1615, and in that edited by Ruhkopf, 1828: to St. Jerome, "De scrip- torib. Ecclesiasticis " ; to St. Augustine, "Epist. 53, ad Maced. et vi De Civit., cap. 10"; to Pope Linus, "De Passione divi Pauli"; to John of Salisburie, "Lib. viii Polycrat., cap. 13." Lodge gives Polycarp for Polycrat. His translation as to the letters being by one author ought, according to the Latin text, to run : "Nay, it is most certaine, that they, both those of Paul and those of Seneca, have all of them the same Authour." Further, " It is a passive opinion " should be

require, (passiva} means "common " or " general."

Jeremy Collier, in his 'Great Historical Dictionary,' second edition, 1701, s.v.


 * Seneca,' says :

" There are some that take Seneca to have been a Christian, and that he had converse with St. Paul by Letters ; it seems not altogether improbable, but that he might have had the Curiosity to in- form himself about the Christian Doctrine, which appeared so strange and extraordinary ; but as for the Letters published under their names, they are unworthy of either of them. To know whether Seneca was a Christian or no, we need only observe what Tacitus relates speaking of his Death : ' As he entred the Bath,' saith he, ' he took of the Water and sprinkled his Friends that stood about him with it, saying, That he offered these Libations to Jupiter his Redeemer.' Tacit., Lib. 12, 14 and 15, in'Annal.' Sueton. in 'Neron.' Aul. Gellius. Just. Lipsius in ' Vita Seuec.' Delrio in Comment."

The reference for the Jupiter Liberator incident fin Tacitus is in the edition of Gronovius(1721), : Annal.,' xv. 65.

Gates, in his * Dictionary of General Bio- graphy,' fourth edition, 1885, s.v. 'Seneca,' says :

" It was for centuries believed in the Christian Church that Seneca was personally acquainted with St. Paul. (See, on this interesting point, Crutt- well's ' History of Roman Literature,' second edi- tion, 1878, p. 385.)"

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

St. Austin's, Warrington.

MOURNING SUNDAY (9 th S. ix. 366, 390). This custom is still occasionally observed at All Saints' Church, Colchester. The family occupy the front seat in the nave, remain seated* during the service, but take no part in it. Some thirty years ago in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, it was of fre- quent occurrence. At that time the band round the hat, with long ends hanging behind, was worn at funerals ; on returning from the funeral the ends were fastenea