Minor Notes.
Epigrams by Coulanges and Prior.
—Has the following coincidence been noticed between an epigram of M. de Coulanges and some verses by Mat. Prior?
"L'Origine de la Noblesse.
"D'Adam nous sommes tous enfants,
La preuve en est connue,
Et que tous nos premiers parents
Ont mené la charrue.
"Mais, las de cultiver enfin
La terre labourée,
L'une a dételé le matin,
L'autre l'après-dinée."
—(Published 1698.)
"The Old Gentry.
"That all from Adam first begun,
None but ungodly Woolston doubts,
And that his son, and his son's sons
Were all but ploughmen, clowns and louts.
"Each, when his rustic pains began,
To merit pleaded equal right,
'Twas only who left off at noon,
Or who went on to work till night."
C. P. PH***.
Brewhouse Antiquities.
—In Forth and others versus Stanton, Trinity Term, 20 Charles II., Timothy Alsopp and others sue for 100l. for cost of beer, sold by them to defendant's late husband. Can this Timothy Alsopp be a lineal predecessor of the present eminent firm of Samuel Alsopp and Sons? We are told that Child's is the oldest banking-house—which may be the oldest brewing establishment?
J. H. S.
Joseph of Exeter de Bello Antiocheno.
—Joseph of Exeter, or Iscanus, was the author of two poems: 1st, De Bello Trojano; 2dly, De Bello Antiocheno. The first has been printed and published. The second was only known by fragments to Leland. See his work De Scrip. Brit. p. 239. Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry (1774), affirms, that Mr. Wise, the Radcliffe librarian, had informed him that a MS. copy of the latter was in the library of the Duke of Chandos at Canons. Query, where is it? It was not at Stowe. It is not in Lord Ashburnham's collection, nor in the British Museum; nor in the Bodleian Library, nor in the archives of Sir Thomas Phillipps. For the honour of the nation, we earnestly hope that it may be discovered and committed to the press.
EXONIENSIS.
Illustrations of Welsh History:
1. Offer by David, Prince of Wales, to become a Vassal of the Pope.—
2. Death in the Tower of Griffith ap Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales.
—In Madox's Collections in the British Museum (Add. MSS. No. 4565., vol. lxxxviii. p. 387.) are the annexed references to two interesting incidents in the history of Wales, noticed in a MS. Chronicle of John De Malverne, in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The references are sent for insertion in "NOTES AND QUERIES," in the hope that some member of the University may be induced to favour the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" with the passages referred to by Madox.
"Per idem tempus David Princeps Norwalliæ ad alas papalis protectionis confugere proponens, terram suam optulit ei ab ipso tenere, reddendo inde sibi quingentas marcas, cui perhibetur D. Papa favorem præbuisse in magnum regni Angliæ præjudicium: novit enim mundus Principem Walliæ ab antiquo vassallum Regis Angliæ extitisse. Ex eod. Chron. [MS. Joh. de Malverne, M. 14.] A. Dom. 1244."
"Griff. fil. Lewel. Princeps Norwalliæ, being in the Tower of London, fell down as he tryed to make his escape out of a window, and dyed. Ib. ad. Ann. 1244."
JOHN AP WILLIAM AP JOHN.