THE CORPORATION OF THE SCOTTISH PROVIDENT FOR MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE BY MODERATE PREMIUMS. ESTABLISHED 1837. INCORPORATED BY SPECIAL ACT OF PARLIAMENT. TRUSTEES. SIR WILLIAM JOHNSTON of Kirkhill. CHARLES COWAN, ESQ., M.P. WM. CAMPBELL, ESQ., of Tillichewan. HEAD OFFICE, 14. St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh. - LONDON BRANCH, 66. Gracechurch Street. THE SCOTTISH PROVIDENT INSTITUTION is the only Office in which the advantages of Mutual Assurance can be obtained at moderate Premiums. The Assured are at the same time specially exempt from personal liability. In many Offices (including even some of the older Mutual Offices), Assurers are offered the choice of a moderate scale of Premiums, without any claim to share in the Profits or of a right to participate in these, at an excessive rate of Premium. Assurers with the SCOTTISH PROVIDENT INSTITUTION are the sole recipients of the Profits, and at rates of Premium equally moderate with those of the Non-Participating Scale of other Offices. The principle on which the Profits are divided is at once safe, equitable, and favourable to good lives the Surplus being reserved for those Members who alone can have made Surplus Payments; in other words, for those whose premiums, with accumulated interest, amount to the sums in their policies. At the first division of Surplus, as at 31st December, 1852, Bonus Additions were made to Policies which had come within the participating class, varying from 20 to 54 per cent. on their amount. In all points of practice as in provision for the indefeasibility of Policies, facility of licence for travelling or residence abroad, and of obtaining advances on the value of the Policies - the Regulations of the Society, as well as the administration, are as liberal as is consistent with right principle. he has it in his power to borrow a sum, nearly equal to his payment, on the security of the Folicy, and increasing yearly with its value, without any expense, and at a moderate rate of interest. Assurances may be effected in this way, varying in amount from 50%. to 5,000l. Provision for Advanced Age. To Clergymen, or other Professional Men, and to all whose income is dependent on the continuance of health, the Directors recommend attention to the Scale of DEFERRED ANNUITIES- which are calculated on very advantageous terms. The following are examples of the Annual Premium for Annuity of 501., commencing at the following Age at which Annuity is to commence. Age at Entry. 50 55 60 65 £ s. d. 950 12 17 1 18 17 1 28 13 9 £ 8. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 5 16 8 3 10 0 1 19 11 7 18 4 4 14 2 11 1 3 16 2 1 6 8 9 For those who have still before them the duty of securing for their families a competent provision in case of their premature death, the ordinary mode of Life Assurance, by Annual Premiums payable during life, or for a limited number of years, is undoubtedly most suitable; but to those who have already made such provision, the systems now brought under notice are recommended. *** Policies are now issued free of Stamp Duty; and attention is invited to the circumstance, that Premiums payable for Life Assurance are now allowed as a deduction from income in the Returns for Income-Tax. Full Reports and every information had (free) on application. GEORGE GRANT, Resident Secretary. London Branch, 66. Gracechurch Street, corner of Fenchurch Street. POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. ALL BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH COLOURED PLATES. Ferny Combes. A Ramble after Ferns in the Glens and Valleys of Devonshire. Popular British Lichens; their Structure, Reproduction, Uses, Distribution, and Classification. By W. LAUDER LINDSAY, M.D. 22 Coloured Plates. 392 Figures. 10s. 6d. Popular Garden Botany; A Familiar Description of Plants, suitable for Cultivation in Popular Geography of Plants; Or, a Botanical Excursion round the World. By E. C. Edited by Popular History of Birds, Their Classification and Habits. By ADAM WHITE, F.L.S. 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular History of Palms And their Allies. By DR. BERTHOLD SEEMANN, F.L.S. Popular Physical Geology. By J. BEETE JUKES, ESQ., M.A., F.R.S. With 20 tinted Geological Landscapes. 10s. 6d. Popular British Seaweeds. By the REV. DR. LANDSBOROUGH, A.L.S. Second Edition. With 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular British Zoophytes. By the REV. DR. LANDSBOROUGH, A.L.S. With 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular Mineralogy ; comprising a Familiar Account of Minerals and their Uses. By HENRY SOWERBY. With 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular Mammalia, comprising a Familiar Account of their Classification and Habits. By ADAM WHITE, F.L.S. With 16 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular British Ferns. By THOMAS MOORE, F.L.S. Second Edition. Copiously revised. With 22 coloured Plates by Fitch. 10s. 6d. Popular Scripture Zoology; containing a Familiar History of the Animals mentioned in the Bible. By MARIA E. CATLOW. With 16 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular British Conchology: the Molluscs and Shells inhabiting the British Isles. By G. B. SOWERBY, F.L.S. 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular Field Botany ; containing a Familiar Description of the British Wild Plants. By AGNES CATLOW. Third Edition. 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular British Mosses, their Structure, Fructification, &c. By R. M. STARK. 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular British Entomology, a Familiar History of Insects. By MARIA E. CATLOW. Second Edition. With 16 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular British Ornithology. A Familiar Description of British Birds. By P. H. GOSSE. Second Edition. With 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular Economic Botany ; or, Description of the Domestic Uses of Plants. ARCHER. With 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Popular History of Mollusca; By T. C. or, Shells and their Animals. By MARY ROBERTS. 18 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. Drops of Water. Their marvellous and beautiful Inhabitants displayed by the Microscope. By AGNES CATLOW. 4 coloured Plates. 7s. 6d. Voices from the Woodlands; descriptive of Forest Trees, Ferns, Mosses, and Lichens. By MARY ROBERTS. With 20 coloured Plates. 10s. 6d. LOVELL REEVE, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square. at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by GEORGE BELL, of No. 185. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.-Saturday, January 22, 1853. A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. NOTES: Robertson's "Index of Charters" FOLK LORE: Cures for the Hooping Cough: Rubus QUERIES: Page 101 - 102 103/ 104 104 · 105 MINOR QUERIES:- Richardson or Murphy - Legend attached to Creeper in the Samoan Isles-Shearman Family-American Fisheries-Grindle-A Gentleman executed for whipping a Slave to Death - Brydone"Clear the Decks for Bognie's Carriage "-London Queries-Scarf worn by Clergymen-Life of Queen Anne-Erasmus Smith-Croxton or Crostin of Lan cashire Grub Street Journal- Chaplain to the Princess Elizabeth-" The Snow-flake MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS: Leamhuil or Lahoel Orte's Maps, edition of 1570- Prayer for the Recovery of George III. "Am, have, and will be:" Henry VIII., Act III. sc. 2. Sir Henry Wotton's Letter to Milton Skull-caps versus Skull-cups, by Thomas Lawrence Inedited Poem by Pope Cibber's Lives of the Poets," by W. L. Nichols English Comedians in the Netherlands La Bruyère, by J. Sansom Southey's Criticism upon St. Mathias' Day in Leapyear 105 107 108 109 111 111 112 113 113 ROBERTSON'S " INDEX OF CHARTERS." This work, so often quoted, is familiar to every antiquary; but as the name of the intelligent and laborious editor does not appear in any of our biographical dictionaries, a short sketch may not be unacceptable to our readers. William Robertson was born at Fordyce, in the county of Banff, in the year 1740. Having gone through the usual course of elementary instruction in reading and writing, he entered the Latin class at the grammar school of his native parish; a seminary then, as now, of great celebrity in the North of Scotland. Among his schoolfellows he contracted a particular intimacy with Mr. George Chalmers, afterwards Secretary of the Board of Trade; so well known by many elaborate and valuable commercial, historical, and biographical publications. The connexion between the schoolboys, originating in a similarity of taste and pursuits, was strengthened at a subsequent period of their lives by the contributions of the intelligent 110 Deputy Keeper of the Records of Scotland to the local and historical information of the author of Caledonia, so honourably recorded in that national work. He completed his academical studies at King's College, Aberdeen, where he was particularly distinguished by his proficiency in the Greek language, under Professor Leslie. He was then apprenticed to Mr. Turner, of Turnerhall, advocate in Aberdeen; but had been little more than a year in that situation, when Mr. Burnett, of Monboddo, applied to Professor Leslie, to recommend to him as his second clerk a young man who had a competent knowledge of the Greek language, and properly qualified to aid him in his literary pursuits. The Professor immediately mentioned young Robertson; and Mr. Turner, in the most handsome manner, cancelled his articles of 120 apprenticeship. During his connexion with Mr. Burnett, he accompanied him in several visits to France, on taking evidence as one of the counsel in the great Douglas cause. On his first visit there, he went with him to see the savage girl, who, at that time, was creating a great sensation in Paris; and, at his request, made a translation 114 115 116 117 120 121 121 of M. Condamines' account of her, to which Mr. Burnett wrote a preface. In the year 1766, he was appointed Chamberlain to James, Earl of Findlater and Seafield, on the recommendation of Lord Monboddo. In 1768 he published, at Edinburgh, The History of Greece, from the Earliest Times till it became a Roman Province, being a concise and particular account of the civil government, religion, literature, and military affairs of the states of Greece, for the use of seminaries of education, and the general reader, in 1 vol. 12mo. At this period, having caught a portion of the jealous nationality of the multitude, he published a political jeu d'esprit entitled A North Briton Extraordinary, by a young Scotsman in the Corsician service, 4to., 1769: designed to repel the illiberal invectives of Mr. Wilkes, against the people of Scotland. Some of the popular objections to the Union reiterated by the young Scotsman having been found in the characteristic discussion between Lieutenant Lesmahagon and Matthew Bramble on the same subject, in The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, the authorship was on that account erroneously attributed to Dr. Smollet, who had then discontinued an unsuccessful opposition to Mr. Wilkes, in The Briton. In 1773 Mr. Robertson married Miss Donald, only child of Captain Alexander Donald, of the 92nd, or Gordon Highlanders. In the year 1777, he received his commission from Lord Frederick Campbell, the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, as colleague of his brother, Mr. Alexander Robertson, who had been appointed one of the Deputy Keepers of the Records of Scotland some years before. He was now in a situation completely suited to his wishes, and entered on the duties of his office with the utmost enthusiasm. It very early occurred to him, that many ancient records of Scotland, which had been removed by Edward I., might still be recovered; and he suggested to Lord Frederick Campbell, who was as enthusiastic as himself in everything tending to throw light on the early history of Scotland, that searches ought to be made in the State Paper Office in London, for the purpose of ascertaining whether some of the earlier records might yet be found. Lord Frederick Campbell entered warmly into his views, and the success with which the search was made may be ascertained by consulting the Preface to the Index of Charters. The Reports to the Parliamentary Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of the records, with the suggestions made by him, and which have been so ably followed up since his death by the late Thomas Thomson, Esq., Deputy Clerk Register, were considered of such importance as to merit a vote of thanks of the Select Committee, which was transmitted to him along with a very friendly letter from Mr. Abbot, then Speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Lord Colchester. He commenced the laborious work of printing The Records of the Parliament of Scotland, in which he made considerable progress, having, previous to his death, completed one very large folio volume. Between the years 1780 and 1790, 'in conse quence of a strict investigation into the validity of the claims of several persons to peerages in Scotland, Mr. Robertson was much employed in inquiring into the state of the peerage, both by those who made and those who rejected such claims. This circumstance naturally led him to a minute acquaintance with the subject: and induced him to publish, in 1794, a quarto volume, entitled Proceedings relative to the Peerage of Scotland from 16th January, 1707, to 20th April, 1788: a work which has been found of the greatest service in conducting the elections of the representative peers of Scotland. In 1798, at the request of Lord Frederick Campbell, he published an — "Index, drawn up in the Year 1629, of many Records of Charters granted by the different Sovereigns of Scotland, between 1309 and 1413 (which had been discovered by Mr. Astle in the British Museum), most of which Records have been long missing; with an Introduction, giving a State, founded upon Authentic Documents, still preserved, of the Ancient Records of Scotland, which were in that Kingdom in 1292." The object of this publication was to endeavour to recover many ancient records, which there was much reason to believe were still in existence. The labour which he underwent in preparing this volume for the press, and in transcribing a very ancient quarto manuscript, written on vellum, which was found in the State Paper Office, was very great. Every word of this ancient vellum MS. he copied with his own hand, and it is printed along with the volume of the Records of the Parliament of Scotland. The preface, introduction, notes, and appendix to the Index of Charters, show, not only the great labour which this work required from him, but the extensive information also, on the subject of the ancient history of Scotland, which he possessed. At a general meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, held Jan. 28, 1799, he was elected a member, and placed in the literary class of the Society. He died March 4, 1803, at his house, St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, in the sixtythird year of his age. ELGINENSIS. COWPER, OR COOPER. In the midsummer holidays of 1799, being on a visit to an old and opulent family of the name of Deverell, in Dereham, Norfolk, I was taken to the house of an ancient lady (a member of the aforesaid family), to pay my respects to her, and to drink tea. Two visitors were particularly expected. They soon arrived. The first, if I remember rightly (for my whole attention was singularly riveted to the second), was a pleasant-looking, lively young man - very talkative and entertaining; his companion was above the middle height, broadly made, but not stout, and advanced in years. His countenance had a peculiar charm, that I could not resist. It alternately exhibited a deep sadness, a thoughtful repose, a fearful and an intellectual fire, that surprised and held me captive. His manner was embarrassed and reserved. He spoke but little. Yet once he was roused to animation; then his voice was full and clear. I have a faint recollection that I saw his face lighted up with a momentary smile. His hostess kindly welcomed him as "Mr. Cooper." | After tea, we walked for a while in the garden. I kept close to his side, and once he addressed me as "My little master." I returned to school; but that variable, expressive, and interesting countenance I did not forget. In after years, standing, as was my wont, before the shop windows of the London booksellers (I have not quite left off this old habit!), reading the title-pages of tomes that I intensely longed, but had not then the money, to purchase, I recognised at a shop in St. Paul's Churchyard that well-remembered face, prefixed to a volume of poems, "written by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq." The cap (for when I saw "Mr. Cooper" he wore a wig, or his hair, for his age, was unusually luxuriant) was the only thing that puzzled me. To make assurance doubly sure,” Î hastened to the house of a near relation hard by, and I soon learnt that " Mr. Cooper" was William Cowper. The welcome present of a few shillings put me in immediate possession of the coveted volumes. I will only just add, that I read, and re-read them; that the man whom, in my early boyhood, I had so mysteriously reverenced, in my youth I deeply and devotedly admired and loved! Many, many years have since passed away: but that reverence, that ad miration, and that love have experienced neither diminution nor change. 66 It was something, said Washington Irving, to have seen even the dust of Shakspeare. It is some. thing too, good Mr. Editor, to have beheld the face and to have heard the voice of Cowper. GEORGE DANIEL. YANKEE, ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING. The meaning of the term Yankee, which our transatlantic brethren now willingly adopt as their collective name, has acquired more notoriety than it deserved from the unlucky and far-fetched derivations which it has received in so many different publications. The term is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and of home-growth. We all know, from the | veritable Diedricht Knickerbocker's History of New York, that its earliest settlers were exclusively Dutchmen, who naturally named it, though from anything but similarity in local situation, New Amsterdam. We may, of course, suppose that in the multitude of these Dutch settlers the names they carried over would be pretty nearly in the same proportion as at home. Both then and now the Dutch Jan (the a sounded very broad and long), abbreviated from the German Johann, our John, was the prevailing Christian appellative; and it even furnished, in Jansen, &c. (like our Johnson), frequent patronymics, particularly with the favourite diminutive cke, Jancke: and so common does it still remain as such, that it would be difficult to open the Directory of any decent-sized Dutch or Northern German town without finding numerous instances, as Jancke, Jaancke, Jahncke, &c., according as custom has settled the orthography in each family. It is scarcely necessary to say that the soft J is frequently rendered by Y in our English reading and speaking foreign words (as the Scandinavian and German Jule becomes our Yule), to show how easily and naturally the above names were transformed into Yahnkee. So much for the name as an appellative; now for its appropriation as a generic. The prominent names of individuals are frequently seized upon by the vulgar as a designation of the people or party in which it most prevails. We have Paddies for Irishmen, Taffies for Welshmen, and Sawnies (abbreviated Alexander) for our Scotch brethren: so, therefore, when English interests gained the upper hand, and the name of New Amsterdam succumbed to that of New York, the fresh comers, the English settlers, seized upon the most prominent name by which to designate its former masters, which extended to the whole of North America, as far as Canada and the addition of doodle, twin brother to noodle, was intended to mark more strongly the contempt and mockery by the dominant party; just as a Sawney is, in most of the northern counties, a term next door to a fool. It is, however, to the credit of our transatlantic brethren, and the best sign of their practical good sense, that they have turned the tables on the innuendo, and by adopting, carried the term into repute by sheer resolution and determinate perseverance. The term slave is only the misappropriation, by malevolent neighbours, of the Slavonic term slaus or laus, so frequent in the proper names of that people; Ladislaus, Stanislaus, Wratislaus, &c., meaning, in their vernacular tongue, glory or praise, like the Latin laus, with which it is no doubt cognate and so servi and servants is but a derivative from the Serbs, Sorbs, or Servians, whose glorious feats in arms against their Turkish oppressors have proved that there is nothing servile in their character. WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr. 17. Gower Place, Euston Square. |