Chapter 3

Pope was criticising compositions intended to pass as poetry of the best kind. Will [Greek: ph]. point out in any existing poem of such profession and character, a single heroic line, consisting of _ten_ words, _all_ which _ten_ words shall be "low" in the sense of "vulgar"? Can even the Muses of burlesque and slang furnish such an instance?

Has not [Greek: ph]. suffered himself to be carried too far by his exultation in being "down" (the last-named Muse has kindly supplied me with the expression) upon a piece of verbal carelessness on the part of

K.I.P.B.T.?

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REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Concolinel_ (Vol. ii., pp. 217. 317.).--As _Calen O Custore me_, after sorely puzzling the critics, was at length discovered to be an Irish air, or the burthen of an Irish song, is it not possible that the equally outlandish-looking "_Concolinel_" may be only a corruption of "_Coolin_", that "far-famed melody," as Mr. Bunting terms it in his _last_ collection of _The Ancient Music of Ireland_ (Dublin, 1840), where it may be found in a style "more Irish than that of the sets hitherto published?" And truly it is a "sweet air," well fitted to "make passionate _the_ sense of hearing," and melt the soul of even Don Adriano de Armado. The transmogrification of "_Coolin_" into "_Concolinel_", is hardly more strange than that of "_Cailin og astore mo_" [_chree_] (=my dear young girl, my [heart's] darling) into _Callino castore me_.

J.M.B.

DR. RIMBAULT'S communication is very interesting, but not quite satisfactory, not affording me any means of identifying the air. It would under most circumstances, have given me much pleasure to have lent DR. R. the MS., for I know no one so likely to make good use of it; but the fact is, that without pretending to compete with DR. RIMBAULT in the knowledge of old music, I have also meditated a similar work on the ballads and music of Shakspeare, and my chief source is the volume which is said to contain the air of Concolinel. It will be some time before I can execute the work alluded to, and I would prefer to see the Doctor's work published first. Whichever first appears will most likely anticipate much that is in the other, for, although Dr. R. says he has spent "many years" on the subject, the accidental possession of several MS. volumes has given me such singular advantages, I am unwilling to surrender my project. I have the music to nearly twenty jigs, and two have some of the words, which are curious.

R.

_Wife of the Poet Bilderdijk--Schweickhardt the Artist_ (Vol. ii., pp. 309. 349.).--JANUS DOUSA will find a very sufficient account of Southey's visit to the Dutch poet Bilderdijk, in vol. v. of the _Life and Correspondence of Southey_, now publishing by his son. To the special inquiry of JANUS DOUSA I can say nothing, but I would fain ask who was Katherine Wilhelmina Schweickhardt? I have in my possession a series of eight etchings of studies of cattle, by H.W. Schweickhardt, published in 1786, and dedicated to Benjamin West. My father was very intimate with Schweickhardt, and I think acted in some sort as his executor. I do not know when be died but it must be thirty years since I heard my father speak of his friend, who was then deceased, but whether recently or not I cannot say. I am rather disposed to think the event was comparatively a remote one: he left a widow. Was Mrs. Bilderdijk his daughter? The etchings are exceedingly clever and artistical; my copy has the artist's name in his own handwriting. If I am not mistaken, Schweickhardt lived, when my father knew him, at Lambeth, then a picturesque suburb very unlike the "base, common, and popular" region which it has since become. B.T. Pouncy, another clever artist of that day, and a friend of my father's, resided there also. Pouncy published some etchings which, although not professedly views of Lambeth, were in reality studies in that locality. When I was a boy I remember my father pointing out to me the Windmill, which was the subject of one of them.

The Mrs. Bilderdijk who translated Roderick, was, according to Southey, the second wife of her husband. How did JANUS DOUSA learn that her maiden name was Schweickhardt?

G.J. DE WILDE. {379}

_Noli me tangere_ (Vol. ii., p. 153.).--In addition to the list of artists given by J.Z.P. (p. 253.), BR. will find that the subject has also been treated by--

_Duccio_, in the Duomo at Siena. _Taddeo Gaddi_, Rinnucini Chapel. _Titian_, Mr. Roger's Collection. _Rembrandt_, Queen's Gallery. _Barroccio_. An altar piece which came to England with the Duke of Lucca's paintings, but I cannot say where it is now; it is well known by the engraving from it of Raphael Morgen.

B.N.C.

_Chimney Money_ (Vol. ii., pp. 120. 174. 269. 344.).--There is a church at Northampton upon which is an inscription recording that the expense of repairing it was defrayed by a grant of chimney money for, I believe, seven years, temp. Charles II.

There is also a tombstone in Folkestone churchyard curiously commemorative of this tax. The inscription runs thus--

"In memory of Rebecca Rogers, who died August 29. 1688, Aged 44 years.

"A house she hath, it's made of such good fashion, The tenant ne'er shall pay for reparation, Nor will her landlord ever raise her rent, Or turn her out of doors for non-payment; From chimney money, too, this cell is free, To such a house, who would not tenant be."

E.B. PRICE.

_Passage from Burke_ (Vol. ii., p. 359.).--Q.(2) will find the passage he refers to in Prior's _Life of Burke_, vol. i. p. 39. It is extracted from a letter addressed by Burke to his old schoolfellow Matthew Smith, describing his first impressions on viewing Westminster Abbey, and other objects in the metropolis. Mr. Prior deserves our best thanks for giving us a letter so deeply interesting, and so characteristic of the gifted writer, then barely of age.

I.H.M. Bath.

_Nicholas Assheton's Journal_ (Vol. ii., pp. 331-2.).--If T.T. WILKINSON will turn to pp. 45, 6, 7, of this very amusing journal, published by the Chetham Society (vol. xiv., 1848), he will find some account of the Revels introduced before James the First at Hoghton Tower, in the copious notes of the editor, the Rev. F.R. Raines, M.A., F.S.A., elucidating the origin and history of these "coarse and indecorous" dances--the _Huckler_, _Tom Bedlo_, and the _Cowp Justice of Peace_.

J.G. Manchester.

_Scotch Prisoners_, 1651 (Vol. ii., pp. 297. 350.).--Heath's _Chronicle_ (p. 301. edit. 1676) briefly notices these unhappy men, "driven like a herd of swine, through Westminster to Tuthill Fields, and there _sold_ to several merchants, and sent in to the Barbadoes."

The most graphic account, however, is given in _Another Victory in Lancashire_, &c., 4to. 1651, from which the parts possessing _local_ interest were extracted by me in the _Civil War Tracts of Lancashire_, printed by the Chetham Society, with references to the _other matters_ noticed, namely, Cromwell's entry into London, and the arrival of the four thousand "_Scots, Highlands, or Redshanks_."

These lay on Hampstead Heath, and were thence guarded through Highgate, and behind Islington to Kingsland and Mile End Green, receiving charity as they went, and having "a cart load or two of biskett behind them." Thence they proceeded by Aldgate, through Cheapside, Fleetstreet, and the Strand, and on through Westminster.

"Many of them brought their wives and berns in with them, yet were many of our scotified citizens so pitifull unto them, that as they passed through the city, they made them, though prisoners at mercy, masters of more money and good white bread than some of them ever see in their lives. They marched this night [Saturday, Sept. 13.] into Tuttle Fields. Some Irishmen are among them, but most of them are habited after that fashion."

The contemporary journals in the British Museum would probably state some epidemic which may have caused the mortality that followed.

GEO. ORMEROD Sedbury Park, Clepstow.

_Long Friday_ (Vol. ii., p. 323.).--T.E.L.L. is not correct in his supposition that "Long Friday" is the same as "Great Friday". In Danish, Good Friday is Langfredag; in Swedish, Längfredag. I have always understood the epithet had reference to the length of the services.

COLL. ROYAL SOC.

_The Bradshaw Family_ (Vol. ii., p. 356.).--The president of the pretended high court of justice, a Cheshire man, had no connexion with Haigh Hall, in Lancashire. E.C.G. may satisfy himself by referring to Mr. Ormerod's _History of Cheshire_ (vol. iii. p. 408.) for some valuable information respecting the regicide and his family, and to Wotton's _Baronetage_ (vol. iii. P. 2. p. 655.) for the descent of the loyal race of Bradshaigh.

J.H.M. Bath.

_Julin, the drowned City_ (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 282.).--I am sorry I did not state more clearly the inquiry respecting the fate of _Julin_, which DR. BELL has been so good as to notice. This is partly the printer's fault. I spoke of the _drowned_, not the _doomed_ city.

The _drowning_ was what I desired some account of. "A flourishing emporium of commerce", extant {380} in 1072, and now surviving only in tradition, and in "records" of ships wrecked on its "submerged ruins," does not sink into the ocean without exciting wonder and pity. I knew of the tradition, and presumed there was some probability of the existence of a legend (_legendum_, something to be _read_) describing a catastrophe that must have been widely heard of when it happened.

This I conjectured might be found in Adam of Bremen; to whose mention of Julin DR. BELL referred. But it seems that in his time the city was still existing, and flourishing ("urbs locuples").

The "excidium civitatis," if the _Veneta_ of Helmold were Julin, must have taken place, therefore, between 1072 and 1184, when the latter account was written. If Veneta was Julin, and "aquarum æstu absorpta," there must, I suppose, be some account of this great calamity: and as I have seen in modern German works allusions to the drowning of the great city, and to the ruins still visible at times under water, I hoped to find out the _where_ of its site, and the _when_ of its destruction--as great cities do not often sink into the waves, like exhalations, without some report of their fate.

V. Belgravia.

_Dodsley's Poems_ (Vol. ii., pp. 264. 343).--THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT is informed that the first edition of Dodsley's _Collection of Poems, by several Hands_, was published in 1748, 3 vols. 12mo. A fourth volume was added in 1749, containing pieces by Collins, Garrick, Lyttelton, Pope, Tickell, Thomson, &c. Those by Garrick and Lyttelton are anonymous. The four volumes were reprinted uniformly in 1755. The fifth and sixth were added in 1758.

AMICUS CURIÆ.

_Shunamitis Poema_ (Vol. ii., p. 326.).--The titlepage to the volume of poems inquired after by E.D. is as follows:

"Latin and English Poems, by a Gentleman of Trinity College, Oxford.

'Nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum.' HOR.

London: printed for L. Bathurst over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street, MDCCXLI."

I know not the author; but I suspect either that the title of an Oxford man was assumed by a Cantab, who might fairly wish not to be suspected as the author of several of the poems; or that the author, having been rusticated at Cambridge, vide at p. 84. the ode "Ad Thomam G." (whom I take to be Thomas Gilbert of Peterhouse), transferred himself and his somewhat licentious muse to Oxford.

COLL. ROYAL SOC.

_Jeremy Taylor's Works_ (Vol. ii., p. 271.).--It seems desirable that an advance should occasionally be made in _editing_, beyond the mere verification of authorities, in seeing, that is, whether the passages cited are _applicable_ to the point in hand, and properly apprehended. Bp. Taylor, in his _Liberty of Prophecying_, sect. vi., for instance, seems incorrect in stating that Leo I., bishop of Rome, _rejected_ the Council of Chalcedon; whereas his reproofs are directed against Anatolias, bishop of Constantinople, an unwelcome aspirant to ecclesiastical supremacy. (See _Concilia Studio Labbei_, tom. iv., col. 844, &c.)

A passage frown Jerome's _Epistle to Evangelus_ is often quoted in works on church government, as equalising, or nearly so, the office of bishop and presbyter; but the drift of the argument seems to be, to show that the _site_ of a bishop's see, be it great or small, important or otherwise, does not affect the episcopal _office_. Some readers will perhaps offer an opinion on these two questions.

NOVUS.

_Ductor Dubitantium_.--The Judge alluded to by Jeremy Taylor in the passage quoted by A.T. (Vol. ii., p. 325.), was Chief-Justice Richardson; but the place where the outrage was committed was not Ludlow, as stated by the eloquent divine, but Salisbury, as appears from the following marginal note in Dyer's _Reports_, p. 1886--a curious specimen of the legal phraseology of the period:--

"Richardson, C.J. de C.B. at Assizes at Salisbury in Summer 1631 fuit assault per Prisoner la condemne pur Felony; que puis son condemnation ject un Brickbat a le dit Justice, que narrowly mist. Et pur ceo immediately fuit Indictment drawn pur Noy envers le Prisoner, et son dexter manus ampute et fixe al Gibbet, sur que luy mesme immediatement hange in presence de Court."

EDWARD FOSS.

_Aërostation_ (Vol. ii., p. 317.).--The account published by Lunardi of his aërial voyage, alluded to by M., is, in the copy I have seen, entitled

"An Account of the First Aërial Voyage in Britain, in a series of letters to his guardian, the Chevalier Gherardo Compagni, written under the impressions of the various events that affected the undertaking, by Vicent Lunardi, Esq., Secretary to the Neapolitan Ambassador. 'A non esse nec fuisse non datur argumentum ad non posse.' Second edition, London: printed for the Author, and sold at the Panther; also by the Publisher J. Bell, at the British Library, Strand, and at Mr. Molini's, Woodstock Street, MDCCLXXXIV."

The book contains printed copies of the depositions of witnesses who beheld Lunardi's descent; and Mr. Baker, who, as a magistrate, took those depositions on oath, to establish what he thought so wonderful a fact, erected on the spot where the balloon descended, in a field near Colliers End, in the parish of Standon, Herts, on the left of the high road from London to Cambridge, a stone with the following inscription on a copper plate. It is still {381} legible, though somewhat defaced. It is engraved in lines of unequal length, but to save your space I have not adhered to those divisions.

"Let posterity know, and knowing, be astonished, that on the fifteenth day of September, 1784, Vincent Lunardi of Lucca, in Tuscany, the first aërial traveller in Britain, mounting from the Artillery Ground in London, traversing the regions of the air for two hours and fifteen minutes, in this spot revisited the earth. On this rude monument for ages be recorded, that wondrous enterprise, successfully achieved by the powers of chemistry and the fortitude of man, that improvement in science, which the great Author of all knowledge, patronising by His providence the inventions of mankind, hath graciously permitted to their benefit and His own eternal glory."

COLL. ROYAL SOC.

_Gwyn's London and Westminster_ (Vol. ii., p. 297.).--A reference to Mr. Croker's _Boswell_ (last edit. 1847, p. 181.) may best satisfy § N. "Gwyn," says Mr. Croker, "proposed the _principle_, and in many instances the _details_, of the most important improvements which have been made in the metropolis in our day." Was this copied into the _Literary Gazette_?

Mr. Sydney Smirke speaks favourably of Gwyn's favourite project, "the formation of a permanent Board or Commission for superintending and controlling the architectural embellishments of London." (_Suggestions_, &c., 8vo. 1834, p. 23.)

J.H.M. Bath.

_Gwyn's London and Westminster_ (Vol. ii., p. 297.).--Under this head § N. inquires, "Will you permit me, through your useful publication, to solicit information of the number and date of the _Literary Gazette_ which recalled public attention to this very remarkable fact:" namely, that stated by Mr. Thomas Hunt, in his _Exemplars of Tudor Architecture_ (Longmans, 1830), to the effect that the _Literary Gazette_ had referred to the work entitled _London and Westminster Improved, by John Gwynn_. London, 1766, 4to., as having "pointed out almost all the designs for the improvement of London which have been _devised_ by the civil and military architects of the present day."

In answer to the above, your correspondent will find two articles in the _Literary Gazette_ on this interesting subject; the first in No. 473., Feb. 11. 1826, in which it is mentioned that _Mr. Gwynn_, founding himself in some degree upon the plan of _Sir C. Wren_, proposed

"To carry a street from Piccadilly through Coventry Street, Sydney's Alley, Leicester Fields, Cranbourn Alley, and so to Long Acre, Queen Street, and Lincolns Inn Fields, and thus afford an easy access to Holborn; he also recommends _the widening the Strand_ in its narrow parts," &c.

I need hardly notice that by the removal of Exeter Change, the alterations near Charing Cross, and the more recent openings from Coventry Street, along the line suggested by Mr. Gwynn, his designs have been so far carried out.

The second paper in the _Literary Gazette_ was rather a long one, No. 532., March 31. 1827. In it Mr. Gwynn's publication is analysed, and all the leading particulars bearing on the "_old novelties_ of our modern improvements" are brought to light.

The whole is worth your reprinting, and at your service, if you will send a copyist to the _Literary Gazette_ office to inspect the volume for 1827.

W.J., ED.

"_Regis ad Exemplum totus componitur Orbis_" (Vol. ii., p. 267.).--This hexameter verse, which occurs in collections of Latin apophthegms, is not to be found in this form, in any classical author. It has been converted into a single proverbial verse, from the following passage of Claudian:

"Componitur orbis Regis ad exemplum: nec sic inflictere sensus Humanos edicta valent, ut vita regentis." _De IV. Consul. Honor_., 299.

L.

_St. Uncumber_ (Vol. ii., pp. 286. 342.).--Sir Thomas More details in his _Dialoge_, with his usual quaintness, the attributes and merits of many saints, male and female, highly esteemed in his day, and, amongst others, makes special mention of _St. Uncumber_, whose proper name, it appears, was _Wylgeforte_. Of these saints he says--

"Some serve for the eye onely, and some for a sore breast. _St. Germayne_ onely for children, and yet will he not ones loke at them, but if the mother bring with them a white lofe and a pot of good ale: and yet is he wiser than _St. Wylgeforte_, for she, good soule, is, as they say, served and contented with otys. Whereof I cannot perceive the reason, but if it be bycause she sholde provyde an horse for an evil housebonde to ride to the Devyll upon; for that is the thing that she is so sought for, as they say. In so much that women hath therefore chaunged her name, and in stede of _St. Wylgeforte call her St. Uncumber, bycause they reken that for a pecke of otys she will not fayle to uncumber theym of theyr housbondys_."--(Quoted in Southey's _Colloquies_, vol. i. p. 414.)

_St. Wylgeforte_ is the female saint whom the Jesuit Sautel has celebrated (in his _Annus Sacer Poeticus_) for her _beard_--a mark of Divine favour bestowed upon her in answer to her prayers. She was a beautiful girl, who wished to lead a single life, and that she might be suffered to do so free from importunity, she prayed earnestly to be rendered disagreeable to look upon, either by wrinkles, a hump on the back, or in any other efficacious way. Accordingly the beard was given her; and it is satisfactory to know that it had the desired {382} effect to the fullest extent of her wishes. (Vid. Southey's _Omniana_, vol. ii. p. 54., where Sautel's lines are quoted.)

J.M.B.

_West (James), President of Royal Society_ (Vol. ii., p. 289.).--T.S.D. states there "has certainly never been a president or even a secretary of the Royal Society, of the name of James West." Your readers will remember that West is mentioned by Mr. Cunningham in his _London_, as having filled the former distinguished office: his statement, which T.S.D. thus contradicts, is perfectly correct.

Mr. West's election took place 30th of November, 1768, and he filled the chair until his death in July, 1772.

J.H.M.

[Mr. Cooper, of Cambridge, J.G.N., and other correspondents, have called our attention to this oversight.]

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MISCELLANEOUS.

NOTES OF BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

The idea of selecting from the _Spectator_ those papers in which the refined taste of Addison, working on the more imaginative genius of Steele, has embodied that masterpiece of quiet thorough English humour which is exhibited in the portrait of Sir Roger de Coverley, is a most happy one,--so excellent indeed, and when done, it is so obviously well that it is done, that we can only wonder how it is, that, instead of having now to thank Messrs. Longman for the quaintly and beautifully got up volume entitled _Sir Roger de Coverley. By the Spectator. The Notes and Illustrations by Mr. Henry Wills: the Engravings by Thompson, from Designs by Fred. Tayler_,--as a literary novelty--such a selection has not been a stock book for the last century. Excellent, however, as is the idea of the present volume, it has been as judiciously carried out as happily conceived. Mr. Tayler's designs exhibit a refined humour perfectly congenial with his subject, and free from that tendency to caricature which is the prevailing fault of too many of the comic illustrators of the present day; while the pleasant gossiping notes of Mr. Wills furnish an abundance of chatty illustration of the scenes in which Sir Roger is placed, and the localities he visited, and so enable us to realise to ourselves, in every respect, Addison's admirable picture of the worthy knight, "in his habit as he lived." May we add that, on looking through these amusing notes, we were much gratified to find Mr. Wills, in his illustration of the passage, "his great-grandfather was inventor of that famous country-dance called after him," speaking of "the real sponsor to the joyous conclusion of every ball" as having "only been recently revealed, after the most vigilant research," since that revelation, with other information contained in the same note, was procured by that gentleman through the medium of "NOTES AND QUERIES."

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson are now selling the last portion of the Miscellaneous Stock of the late Mr. Thomas Rodd. This sale, which will occupy eleven days, will close on Friday next: and on Saturday they will sell the last portion of Mr. Rodd's, books, which will consist entirely of works relating to Ireland, including several of great curiosity and rarity.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson will sell on Monday next a Collection of Books from the library of the late well-known and able antiquary, Dr. Bromet, together with his Bookcases, Drawing Materials, &c.

We have received the following Catalogues:--W. Brown's (No. 130. and 131. Old Street) List of English and Foreign Theological Books; W. Nield's (46. Burlington Arcade) Catalogue, No. 4., of very Cheap Books; W. Pedder's (18. Holywell Street) Catalogue Part IX., for 1850, of Books Ancient and Modern; J. Rowwell's (28. Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn) Catalogue, No 39., of a Select Collection of Second-hand Books; W. L. Lincoln's (Cheltenham House, Westminster Road) Sixty-second Catalogue of English, Foreign, Classical, and Miscellaneous Books.

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