Minor Queries.
English Sapphics.
—Can any of your readers furnish a list of the best specimens of the English sapphic metre in the English language?—Every one is familiar with Canning's Needy Knife Grinder, in the poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, but I do not believe Dr. Watts's beautiful sapphic lines are as well known as they deserve. I have not a copy of them by me, but I give the first stanza from memory:
"When the fierce North Wind, with his airy forces,
Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury,
And the red lightning, with a storm of hail, comes
Rushing amain down."
FM.
Equestrian Statues.
—I have heard it remarked that, with the solitary exception of the Duke of Wellington, there is no instance of an equestrian statue being erected to a subject, in Her Majesty's dominions. Is this so?
FM.
Plays in Churches.
—In Cooke's Leicestershire the following is given as an extract from the church register of Syston:
"1602, paid to Lord Morden's players because they should not play in the church, 12d."
Who was this Lord Morden; and did the chartered players claim the right of their predecessors, the "moralitie men," to use the church for their representations? Was the 12d. given as a bribe to the players to induce them to forego their claim, or expended in the hire of a place more in accordance with the parish authorities' ideas of propriety?
EMUN.
"The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong."
—Where is this oft-quoted line to be found, and who is the author of it? It is marked as a quotation in Pope's Dunciad, book iv.
S. WMSON.
Serius, where situated?
—In requesting the information upon a point in geography with which this note concludes, I shall not, I trust, incur censure for introducing it by quoting a few of the lines in which the poet Vida conveys to parents his advice upon the choice of a master for their sons:
"Interea moniti vos hic audite, parentes,
Quærendus rector de millibus, eque legendus,
Sicubi Musarum studiis insignis et arte,
Qui curas dulces, carique parentis amorem
Induat, atque velit blandum perferre laborem.
* * * * *
Ille autem, pueri cui credita cura colendi,
Artibus egregiis, in primis optet amari,
Atque odium cari super omnia vitet alumni."
I cannot pass unnoticed his counsel to masters:
"Ponite crudeles iras, et flagra, magistri,
Fœda ministeria, atque minis absistite acerbis.
Ne mihi ne, quæso, puerum quis verbera cogat
Dura pati; neque enim lacrymas, aut dulcis alumni
Ferre queunt Musæ gemitus, ægræque recedunt,
Illiusque cadunt animi," &c.
Vida exemplifies the consequences of the furious character and raging conduct of a master, in the harsh treatment of his defenceless flock (turba invalida), in the instance of a lovely boy, who, forgetful of fear,
"Post habuit ludo jussos ediscere versus."
The terror excited by the savage pedagogue throws the poor little fellow into a fatal illness:
"Quo subito terrore puer miserabilis acri
Corripitur morbo; parvo is post tempore vitam
Crescentem blandâ cœli sub luce reliquit.
Illum populifer Padus, illum Serius imis
Seriadesque diu Nymphæ flevere sub undis."
Vidæ Poet., lib, i. 216. &c.
My inquiry is after Serius Seriadesque Nymphæ. Where is the Serius? What is the Italian name for this (I presume) tributary of the Po?
F. W. F.
Hollander's Austerity, &c.
—Will you, or some one of your readers, kindly explain the allusions in the following passage?—
"Mr. Secretary Winwood is dead, whereby you see Death expects no Complement, otherwise he would certainly have kept it at the Staff's End, with a kind of Hollander's austerity." [Sir Th. Wentworth to Sir H. Wotton, Nov. 8. 1617, Strafford's Letters and Despatches, vol. i. p. 5.]
C. P. PH***.
Brother Jonathan.
—Why is, and when first was, this fraternal cognomen bestowed upon the United States of America? Is it strictly applicable to the whole of the Union, or only to those states which were settled and peopled by the Puritan fathers?
HENRY CAMPKIN.
Authorship of the "Groves of Blarney."
—Can any one inform me when, and by whom, the ludicrous ballad, entitled the Groves of Blarney, was composed, and where it may be found. Everybody knows the lines which describe "Cupid and Venus and old Nicodemus, all standing out in the open air."
E. V.
Carnaby.
—What is the derivation and meaning of this word, as the name of a square or street?
ARUN.
Death of Death's Painter.
—Most persons have heard of the story of an Italian painter who embodied the idea of Death on the canvass so truthfully, that the contemplation of it caused his own death. I always thought it was fabulous, till I met with it in the translation of Vasari's Lives of the Painters, vol. ii. p. 305., now being published in Bohn's Standard Library. The name of Fivizzano is there given to the painter, and the following epigram is said to have been inscribed beneath the picture:—
"Me veram pictor divinus mente recepit.
Admota est operi deinde perita manus.
Dumque opere in facto defigit lumina pictor,
Intentus nimium, palluit et moritur.
Viva igitur sum mors, non mortua mortis imago
Si fungor, quo mors fungitur officio."
Which may be thus translated:—
Me with such truth the painter's mind discerned,
While with such skilful hand the work he plied,
That when to view his finished work he turned,
With horror stricken, he grew pale, and died.
Sure I am living Death, not Death's dead shade,
That do Death's work, and am like Death obeyed.
Can you refer me to any authority for the story?
J. C. H.
Finsbury.
Book Plates.
—I have been some years collecting book plates with a view latterly of writing A History of Book Plates, if I can find time to do so. Several years ago, in a paper which was printed in the Oxford Heraldic Society's Report, I suggested 1700 as their earliest known date. I am glad to have an opportunity of mentioning that paper for the sake of saying, that I made some mistakes in it. Mr. Burgon on seeing it said, in a following report, that he had seen a book plate dated 1698. I have since obtained one or two dated in that year. I am anxious to know from any of your readers whether they have seen any English book plate dated before 1698. I am inclined to think that foreign book plates are to be found of an earlier date. I have some, unfortunately not dated, which I think are earlier. There is no doubt, however, that in this country at least they did not become general till after that date. If I live to publish the little work which I meditate, I will give all the information which I can produce on the subject.
DANIEL PARSONS.
Querelle d'Allemand.
—The phrase, "faire une querelle d'Allemand," means, as your readers are aware, to pick a quarrel with a person for the mere pleasure of quarrelling: and the earliest instance of its application, that occurs to me, will be found in one of Du Vair's essays, where speaking of the virtues of some of his predecessors in the office of "chancelier", he says:
"Après avoir longuement et fidèlement servi la patrie, on leur dresse des querelles d'Allemand, et de fausses accusations pour les bannir des affaires."
Is the origin of this expression connected with any particular occurrence in history; or has it arisen from any proneness to quarrel, which might be said to be inherent in the national character of the Germans?
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, May, 1851.
Bassenet of Eaton.
—Edward Bassenet, the first married Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, and who in the words of Swift, "surrendered the deanery to that beast Hen. VIII.," was of a family seated at Eaton, in Denbighshire. He had four sons, Richard, William, John, and George; on whom he settled the Irish property which he acquired at the surrender, and probably what he held at Eaton. (See Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 151.)
Can any of your correspondents inform me if this family be still in existence, and in possession? or if not, how soon it failed? From the notices given by Mason, it seems probable that the eldest son died without issue; but even this is not certain, and beyond this I have no clue.
D. X.
Dumore Castle, or the Petrified Fort.
—Can any of your valued contributors trace the origin of this ancient fortress, which is situated on a peak of the Grampian Hills, seven miles north-east from Crieff, immediately above the romantic glen of Almond, so much spoken of in Wordsworth's poems as the burial-place of Ossian. The fort has the appearance of a large circus ring, around which are scattered the remains of this once remarkable stronghold, and which to every appearance have been burned to an extensive degree. Tradition assigns it to be the spot in which the Caledonians so nobly defended the further progress northward of the Romans; and also that it was the custom in those days, for the purpose of making their places of defence more secure, to build a double wall, in which all manner of combustibles were put, which they kindled, and let burn for the space of a few days. Being peculiarly attached to this romantic spot, and anxious to have any particulars regarding its history, perhaps you would be so kind as give it a corner in your valuable "NOTES AND QUERIES;" whereby it may be the means of gaining an answer to my Query.
JAMES C.
Charles Dodd, the Ecclesiastical Historian.
—The catalogue of the Bodleian Library asserts that this author's real name is Hugh Tootle. I should like to know the authority for this statement?
TYRO.
Dublin.
Ussher's Works, by Dr. Elrington.
—If you, or any of your correspondents, can inform me when the remaining volume of the new edition of Archbishop Ussher's works by Dr. Elrington, is likely to be published, I shall esteem it a favour, as I am unable to learn from the booksellers.
C. PAINE, Jun.
Family of Etty the Artist.
—In the Diary of Ralph Thoresby, F. R. S., 1702, vol. i. p. 366., occurs the following passage:—
"Evening sat up too late with a parcel of artists I had got on my hands; Mr. Gyles, the famousest painter of glass perhaps in the world, and his nephew, Mr. Smith, the bell-founder (from whom I received the ringing or gingling spur, and that most remarkable, with a neck six inches and a half long); Mr. Carpenter the statuary, and Mr. Etty the painter, with whose father, Mr. Etty, senr, the architect, the most celebrated Grinlin Gibbons wrought at York, but whether apprenticed with him or not I remember not well. Sate up full late with them."
Thoresby at this time was at York. Were these Ettys ancestors of the late William Etty? In the "Autobiography" published in the Art Journal, it is stated that his father was a miller at York, but the account goes no farther back. It would be interesting to ascertain how far this was a case of hereditary genius. Is anything known of the "Etty the Painter," and "Etty, Sen., the architect," to whom Thoresby alludes? and are any of their works extant?
G. J. DE WILDE.
St. Hibbald.
—Who was St. Hibbald, and where is some account of him to be found? He is reported to have been buried at Hibbaldstowe, near Kirton, in Lindsey.
K. P. D. E.