THE BEAR WANTS A TAIL! FULLER among his Warwickshire Proverbs,* elucidates one, that had its origin, from the supposed ambition of one of Queen Elizabeth's worthies, the presumption of whom, was then considered as reprehensive, as the now unjustifiable aggression of the Russian autocrat. "The Bear wants a tail, and cannot be a Lion. "Nature hath cut off the tail of the Bear, close at the rump, which is very strong and long in a Lion; for a great part of a Lion's strength consists in his tail, wherewith (when angry) he useth to flap and beat himself, to raise his rage therewith to the height, so to render himself more fierce and furious. If any ask, why this Proverb is placed in Warwickshire? let them take the ensuing story for their satisfaction— "Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, derived his pedigree from the ancient Earls of Warwick, on which title he gave their crest, the Bear and Ragged Staffe; and when he was governor of the Low Countries, with the high title of His Excellency,' disusing his own Coat of the Green Lion with Two Tails, he signed all Instruments with the crest of the Bear and Ragged Staffe. He was then suspected, by many of his jealous adversaries, to hatch an ambitious design to make himself absolute commander, as the Lion is king of the beasts, over the Low Countries. Whereupon some, foes to his faction, and friends to the Dutch freedom, wrote under his crest, set up in public places "Ursa caret caudâ, non queat esse Leo." i.e."The Bear he never can prevail To Lion it, for lack of tail." THRALE'S ENTIRE, A BAGATELLE-ASCRIBED TO If e'er my fingers touched the lyre, Or govern well the brewing tub, To rich felicity thus rais'd, My bosom glows with am'rous fire; 'Tis I myself, am Thrale's Entire. • Worthies of England, edit. 1811, 4to. vol. ii. p. 405. INCENTIVES TO THE READERS OF CURRENT NOTES. NOTHING great is performed. or approaches perfection without much labour, and an infinity of pains, and not unfrequently without the cordial co-operation of minds similarly disposed, or proficients in the same object or pursuit. According to the old Latin proverb: "Nihil est aliud magnum quam multa minuta”— or, as more poetically defined, by the author of Night Thoughts— "Sands form the mountain, moments make the year." IN reading authors, when you find, Be not contented with the sight, As makes another's sense one's own. BYROM. OLD books by great authors are not in every body's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those, who have neither time, nor fragrant scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, or an means to get more. Let every bookworm, when in any illustration that does his heart good, hasten to give it. COLERIDGE. THE Mind will no more do its best without encouragement, than trees will produce ripe fruit without the warmth of the sun. Men, who have the greatest gifts of mind, do not trust themselves without some encouragement-they will not venture out of beaten paths, and they therefore bring forth other people's ideas, instead of their own. Now, nothing is valuable except what is actually produced-materials as well as coinage in the mint of a man's own mind. BRYDGES. To know, and to admire only, the literature and the tastes of our own age, is a species of elegant barbarism. D'ISRAELI. TO CORRESPONDENTS. A. G.-The wife of Charles Edward Stuart, the last Pretender, was of the Stolberg family, and after his death, was, it is said, privately married to the Italian poet, Alfieri. The Third volume of Current Notes' is now ready, price three shillings, in cloth boards. A few copies of the prior volumes remain, but an early application for them is desirable. No. XXXIX.] "Takes note of what is done By note to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE. ELINOUR RUMMING. LATE in the fifteenth century, there lived at Leatherhead, anciently Leddrede, in Surrey, an alewife of some distinction, and whom Skelton the poet in The Tunnyng of Elynour Rumminge, has conferred lasting celebrity. The tunning or brewing of Elinor Rumming, would seem to have been one of Skelton's most popular productions, and is an admirable specimen of his talent for the low burlesque,-a description of a real alewife, and of the various gossips who throng to her for liquor, as if under the influence of some potent spell. As Mr. Dyce justly observes,-" if few compositions of the kind have more coarseness or extravagance, there are few that have greater animation, or are of a richer humour." [MARCH, 1854. centuries, is still tenantable, and has been recently enlarged.* Dallaway in his Letheræum, states, that "when the Court of Henry VIII. was held at Nonsuch, about six miles distant, the laureate Skelton, with other courtiers, oft-times resorted to Leatherhead for the diversion of fishing in the river Mole, and were made welcome at No mention of her death occurs, as that happened no the cabaret of Elinour Rummyng." Whether the late doubt, before the introduction of parish registers; but Vicar of Leatherhead, based this assertion on tradition or Dallaway conjectured that persons of the ale-wife's family otherwise, it is as a matter of fact undeserving the slightest consideration. When Skelton wrote the were long after resident in the parish, as he found the Tunning" is not clearly defined, but he died in Sanc-name of Rumming in the burial register under the tuary, at Westminster, June 21, 1529, more than ten years 1663 and 1669. years prior to that monarch's having possession of Cuddington, or had commenced the building of the palace, since denominated Nonsuch. Skelton's Poems, printed in 1571, is a rude woodcut of When Skelton wore the laurel crown, Skelton is supposed to have been born about 1460, and probably "The tunnyng of Elinour Rumminge" was written sometime about 1500, if not before. He describes Elinor as "ugly faire, and well worne in age," wearing a huke or cloak of Lincoln green, that had been Where that edition is extant, it is highly desirable to hers, he believed, more than forty years. She wore know; it seems to be unknown to the editor of Skelton's also a "furred flocket, and grey russet rocket," the former works; nor does any earlier woodcut of Elynour Ruma loose garment, with large sleeves; the latter, a gar-ming appear to be extant than that attached to Rand's ment with or without sleeves, that sometimes was made to reach to the ground; or was otherwise much shorter, and open at the sides. Her kyrtel or petticoat was of Bristow red; With clothes vpon her hed, Skelton notices she "dwelt on a hyll," her cabaret was on a rising ground contiguous to the old bridge that crossed the Mole. Her domicile was a small timber built house, with low rooms and over-hanging chambers, and although much altered in the course of several VOL. IV. edition, 1624, 4to., where she is represented as holding in either hand as described, two black earthen pots, which were common in the ale-houses of that period and long after. That some earlier edition of the sixteenth century, presented a similar portrait of Elinour Rumming is not to be doubted, it is the original of MOTHER RED CAP, and wherever the sign so designated has been painted, the figure as in Rand's edition, has been the prototype. The gear in 'saracyn gyse' about her head, being painted as a conical red cap or hat. The illustration shows the house, as it appeared in the spring of 1845; since which time the doorway has been removed, and other alterations made. It is now known by the sign of the Running Horse. D In Bacchus Bountie, by Philip Foulface of Aleford, Student in good Felloship, 1593, 4to., Skelton is misnamed as "Anthony Skelton," and there is a cursory mention of "Tom Tipsay, an English Tapster, wel nere choaked with a marvelous drie heat, which of late he had got by lifting ouerlong at old Mother Red Caps." A drama entitled Mother Red Cap, written by Anthony Munday and Michael Drayton, was performed by the Earl of Nottingham, the Lord High Admiral's The portrait of Elinour Rumming was long a great desiderata with the illustrators of Granger; till George Steevens in 1794, learning a copy of Rand's edition was in the library of Lincoln Cathedral, induced Dean Kaye to bring the volume to London, and allow Richardson the printseller, to publish a facsimile. The European Magazine, then edited by Isaac Reed, in May of that year, contained Verses with the following motto, meant to have been subjoined to a copy from a scarce portrait of Elinour Rum ming, lately published by Mr. Richardson, of Castle Street, Leicester Square. Ne sit ancillæ tibi amor pudori Xanthia Phoceu! prius insolentem Serva Briseis niveo colore. Movit Achillem. Movit Ajacem Telamone natum Virgine rapta. ELEONORA REDIVIVA. To seek this nymph among the glorious dead, Tir'd with his search on earth, is GULSTON fled? Still for these charms enamour'd MUSGRAVE sighs, To clasp these beauties ardent BINDLEY dies. For these, while yet unstag'd to public view, Impatient BRAND o'er half the kingdom flew ; These, while their bright ideas round him play, From classic WESTON force the Roman lay: Oft too, my STORER, heaven heard thee swear, Not Gallia's murder'd Queen was half so fair: 'A New Europa,' cries the exulting BULL, 'My Granger now, I thank the gods, is full Even CRACH ERODE's self, whom passions rarely move, At this soft shrine has deign'd to whisper love. Haste then, ye swains, who Rumming's form adore, Possess your Elinour, and sigh no more. Steevens subscribed W. R. to these lines, but he was the author; Richardson had no predilection for versification. The Lincoln volume contained other extremely rare tracts, that Dr. Dibdin subsequently contrived, by exchanging for his own books, to obtain, and break up; he then printed a Catalogue entitled the Lincolne Nosegaye, the impressions limited to, with him a favourite number, thirty-six copies; and sold the whole to distinguished collectors. Heber purchased Rand's quarto edition of Elinour Rumming; it is now in the library of Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury Square, Islington. servants, at Henslow's Theatre, the Rose on the Bankside, in December, 1597; and in the inventory of the dresses and properties mentioned as belonging to that Theatre, March 10th, 1598-9, is noticed Item, j syne [one sign] for Mother Red Cap. Early in the seventeenth century, was the sign of the Mother Red Cap at Holloway, beyond Islington; a token was issued from the house in the reign of Charles the Second; there was also the Mother Red Cap at Kentish Town, that gave rise to a rival sign, nearly opposite, named Mother Black Cap; both still houses of considerable notoriety. Taylor the Water-poet in his Ribble Rabble of Gossips, observes : "To conclude the businesse, Martha protests shee will neuer trust Tomasin againe while she lives, because she promised to meet her at Pimlico, and bring her neighbour Bethya, but came not, neverthelesse Faith went to Mother Red Caps, and by the way, met with Joyce, who very kindly batled her penny with her at a fat pig." Hoxton, the Mother Red Cap would appear to have been As the Pimlico here alluded to was at Hogsden, now that at Holloway. Later, the author of Whimsies: or a New Cast of Characters, 1631, duod., describing a sign-painter, says, He bestowes his pencile on an aged piece of canvas in a sooty ale-house, where Mother Red Cap must be set out in her colours. Here he and his barmy hostess draw both together, but not in like nature, she in Ale, he in Oyle: but her commoditie of which he means to have his full share, when his work is done, goes better downe. If she aspires to the conceite of a signe, and desire to have her birch-pole pulled downe, he will supply her with one. FREDERICK THE GREAT'S OLD BREECHES. THIS monarch greatly elevated the character and fame of Prussia, mainly by his alliance with England, that enabled him successfully to withstand the world arrayed in arms against him. He died at Berlin about 3 o'clock in the morning, August 17, 1786, in his seventyfifth year. Economical and sparing in all that related to himself, his wardrobe on his demise presented nothing of any particular value. Among his linen were found but eleven shirts! and his clothes given by his successor to the late king's pages, were sold by them to some Jews for 402 rix-dollars. They in their turn realized an enormous profit, not by the excellence of the regal habiliments, or the quantity, but from the generally expressed ardour of many persons to possess something that had been the property or pertained to Frederick the Great. More than four thousand rix-dollars were admitted to have been realised in this resale, and among the purlate into the field, and there remaining but an old much chasers, an old lady, maiden or not is not stated; coming worn pair of breeches, joyously carried them off at the price of two hundred rix-dollars! When Frederick William shall be gathered to his fathers, will any one care to possess aught that he may leave behind? GRAVE OF HAMLET AT ELSINORE. MANY objects of interest present themselves to the stranger at Elsinore. Among them, more particularly, are the fortress, and the garden of Marienslust, where is to be seen what is traditionally said to be the grave of Hamlet. Yet, the interior of the fortress contains nothing remarkable; and the grave is a misnomer; for Hamlet lived, reigned, died, and was buried in Jutland. As the earlier chronicles relate, being apprised of the conspiracy against his life by his stepfather and mother, he feigned imbecility of mind, and in a retaliatory revenge, destroyed them in their house, by blocking up the doors, and setting fire to it. Hamlet then reigned in quiet, maintained his dignity respectably, and died a natural death. Those who have wept over the sorrows of Ophelia, as portrayed by England's dramatic bard, may be relieved by the assurance, that the whole is a fiction by Shakespeare, and that nowhere, near Elsinore, is there any brook, with willows, in which Ophelia could have perished. The grave of Hamlet, as shewn in Denmark, is about a stone's throw distance at the back of the mansion of Marienslust. The sea is seen between a continous clump of trees planted in a circle, and the grave is noted by some scattered square stones of small size, which appear to have once served for a cenotaph, and stand on a knoll or rising mound covered and surrounded by beech trees. Nothing of their history is known, they seem to be little respected or thought about by the towns-people of Elsinore; but pious and romantic pilgrims from another fatherland, have borne off considerable portions as relics, and a few years will probably witness their total disper sion. M. CHRISTMAS-DAY.-In Current Notes, vol. iv. p. 12, the remark that "December 25th was fixed on, as more likely than any other to be the correct day, in the absence of any specific information as to the exact period," being quite new to me, I will attempt to fix the date. Spanheim, in his fifth Dissertation "de Capricorno in Nummis," exhibits the reverse of a small brass coin of Agosta, so named in honour of Augustus, on which Capricorn is depicted holding in front a globe, and in the field behind, a star.* This star, I presume to have been the same, that preceded the Magi to the birth-place of our Saviour. Landseer, Sabean Researches, p. 288, presents a remarkable signet, that, at p. 290, he describes as "the Capricorn of the Babylonian Zodiac, the mechanical figure beneath being an early and rude attempt to shew, by means of measured degrees, that portion of the zodiac, that was occupied by the stars of Capricorn." Referring to a portion of the vignette, almost every line in these early representations, which relate to the coming of the Dissertationes de Præstantia et Usu Numism. Antiquorum. Lond. 1717. fol. vol. 1. p. 240. Messiah, being significant, I shall explain only what applies to the present purpose. The ladder-like figure of six bars beneath Capricorn, contains four spaces, each containing or representing beyond doubt, five days; thus the five spaces indicate twenty-five days. Above Capricorn, precisely over the termination of the fifth space, is the symbol of the obedient son with power: the crescent before his head, to denote the predicted time; and in front of the whole is a priest receiving or acknowledging his belief in the certain accomplishment and truth of the first revelation given to mankind. Referring to the Oriental Zodiac, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 303; as their year began in Aries, or March, Capricorn is consequently the sign of December. It is named Macar, and one of its significations is "the God of Love." The eighteenth figure in Macar's lunar mansion, called Jyeshtha, p. 293, has in the fish-like tail of Capricorn, three stars, which deserve particular attention. These three stars form an equilateral triangle, in a dark circle, intended to portray the womb of time; and the inner concentric circle of Jyeshtha is light, typifying birth; the entrance into this world, or the nativity of our Saviour. That the very day of his nativity should have been foretold, may be considered as improbable, but is it more surprising than that the very year 4000 should have been predicted (leaving four years for purity of life in Paradise, that may be shewn to be probable)? or is it more surprising, than that the wise men from the East should arrive at Bethlehem at the very period of time foretold the event would happen? It appears, therefore, the star that conducted the Magi finally settled over the sacred manger of the Messiah on the 25th of December; that in the symbolic tail of Capricorn (December), was contained three stars typifying a Tri-une God, and answering to J. ô. ɛ. in the belief in the revelation, made to our first parents, the tail of our Capricorn; and that by the priesthood, was kept secret, and held as "a mystery, even the hid den wisdom" of God. T. R. BROWN. Vicarage, Southwick, March 6. CURIOUS SIGN BOARDS IN SOMERSETSHIRE. I THINK Mr. Warne's explanation of the Case is altered,' Current Notes, p. 13, is the correct one; but I am not satisfied, that my suggestion respecting the Pall Inn, having been the 'resting-place for the corpse on its way to its last home,' is not the true origin of the name? I have received a letter offering a very ingenious solution of the difficulty that considering it still a vexata questio, and having obtained permission, I take the liberty of transcribing - Bridport, Feb. 25. Dear Sir, I have just seen in Willis's Current Notes of this month, your note about the sign of the inn at Yeovil, I am satisfied you are on the wrong scent. The true origin, I doubt not, must have been the adjacent church having been anciently dedicated to St. Mary, this inn was then probably a sort of religious out-house appurtenant, perhaps a refectory, where the jolly priors and monks experimentally studied their anti-dry-rot specifics, and when fuddled, are likely to have irreverently toasted their patroness, as Poll, which word is now corrupted to Pall. In this same way, I really believe, that Pall Mall in the Metropolis, was so named in honour of the two first class Beauties of King Charles's days, of the same name, but commonly distinguished as Poll and Moll. Indeed, I have often wondered that the elegant dandies of the Athenæum, and the United Service, have not yet refined their street nomenclature by altering Pall Mall to The Two Marys.' Pray forgive this an tiquarian speculation. F. G. FLIGHT. Although Mr. Flight further states that he considers my notion as rather appalling, I confess that the old adage of— A man convinced against his will, Is of the same opinion still; NUMISMATA HELLENICA. UNDER this title has been published A Catalogue of Greek Coins, collected by WILLIAM MARTIN LEAKE, F.R.S., one of the Vice-Presidents of the Royal Society of Literature.' This volume adds more to the assistance of the student in the history of Greece, than any other work that has preceded it, and proffers much to the numismatist that may in vain be sought for elsewhere. Its range embraces, as far as found practicable, descriptions and notices of Greek coins, the productions of all the countries, over which the monetary art and excellence of Greece extended; and of every age, from the earliest known specimens, to the reign of Gallienus, a space of eight hundred years. To render more clearly its value and importance, the following retrospective notices are submitted. But from their monuments, scarcely any thing is known of Egypt and Assyria. The kingdom of the Pharaohs was not available to the historical researches of the Greeks, until after its subjugation by the Babylonians and the Persians; nothing even of its history remained, save its monuments, in the time of the Ptolemies, with two or three confused lists of regal names, The monuments of Assyria have their interpretation and but a single date, that rested on a recognized basis. solely in the Old Testament; in like manner, so great has been the destruction of Greek literature by the ravages of barbarism, bigotry and ignorance, that of the immense number of Greek writings anciently collected in the libraries of Egypt, Greece and Italy, but little remains, and scarcely any contemporaneous of the events related. It is, therefore, not at all surprising that when the hydrographical outline of the ancient countries was but very partially known; when the interior was almost a blank on the map; when scarcely any of the supposed sites of celebrated cities had been explored, the most diligent study of the printed authorities elicited little more than a history of Athens, giving rise to a commonly received opinion, that the glory of Greece was of short duration; but geographical knowledge and somewhat applies to me, and I shall be glad of any monumental evidence, have greatly enlarged, corrected further ideas on the subject. DORCHESTER, March 13. JOHN GARLAND. * The Editor distinctly disavows all or any such heterodoxical antiquarian notions, and the best apology is that like the burden of Count Bellino's song -'tis but Fancy's sketch! Who Mr. Flight's two first class Beauties were, are shrouded in conjecture, but supposing one of the Two Marys,' to have been Mary Davis; it is surprising, that in his anxiety to award such saint-like honours to two of the commonly distinguished' frail sisterhood, he did not, with the same propriety and truth assert Moldavia, one of the principalities now in dispute, was also so named in national respect to the meretricious Moll Davis? The etymological derivation is doubtless equally correct, but, as Willis's Current Notes, have the honour of being extensively known and read by many of the members of the Atheneum and the United Service Clubs, a passing repudiation is sufficient. and improved the history of Greece; not so much in its annals, as in the far more important and instructive details of a great nation: its manners and institutions; its proficiency in art and science; and particularly in proving the vast extent of the influence of those qualities, which rendered the Greeks superior to every other ancient race. We may admit without disparagement to the Greeks, that excepting the two Persian wars, there is little in their annals more edifying than in mediaeval or modern history, but the real glory of Greece is to be estimated by the extent and duration of its language. A collection of Greek coins is sufficient evidence that the customs or institutions, which were certainly the cause and consequence of Greek civilization, lasted more than a thousand years, and extended over countries and peoples from Spain to India; proving, at the same time, that the Greeks constantly maintained that innate |
