[52] "If this unfortunate king had been so well advised as to have made peace the beginning of this summer, he might in a great measure have influenced the peace between France and the Allies, and made other kingdoms happy. I am extremely touched with the misfortunes of this young king. His continued successes, and the contempt he had of his enemies, have been his ruin." Marlborough to Godolphin, August 26, 1709. Disp. v. 510.
[53] The Earl of Gowrie; a Tragedy. By the Rev. James White. London: 1845.
The King of the Commons; a Drama. By the Same. 1846.
A Book of Highland Minstrelsy. By Mrs D. Ogilvy. Illustrated by R. R. M'Ian. London: 1846.
Morning, and other Poems. By a Member of the Scotch Bar. London: 1846.
[54] It is worth noting, because one does not see why it is so, that the only imperial birbone of the lot universally known and execrated at Rome is Nero. One is much better able to understand (with Capri in front of one's windows) why a like exclusive and unenviable popularity at Naples attaches to Tiberius.
[55] The hare was first introduced into Sicily by Anaxilaus of Rhegium, and was adopted by the Messenians on their coins, as was also the chariot, in commemoration of his victory in the mule races at Olympia.
[56] On the urbic coins of Aquinum, Suessa, and Tiano, which are generally of bronze, the cock figures on one side, the subject on the other varying; on those of Himera (a silver currency,) chanticleer is always confronted on the reverse by Dame Partlett.
[57] Hiero the Second, tyrant of Syracuse, who flourished 216 B.C., and was contemporary with Archimedes. The face is one expressive of refinement, and the coin of a very fine style of art, as indeed are all those that ever issued from the old and original mint of Sicily; but alas! there are now many small and illicit mints to which the travelling public that buys coins, is, without always knowing it, vastly more indebted. "Roba Siciliana"—Sicilian trash, exclaims the indignant Neapolitan, when you show him a modern forgery by which you have been duped. "Sciochezza di Napoli" retorts the dealer at Messina or Palermo, vindicating at once his own honour, which seems aspersed, and that of his Trinacrian associates. To reconcile these two statements, which are both true, the reader has only to be informed that there are mints every where, and coiners as cunning at Pozzuoli as at Palermo.
[58] By the word anima, or soul of a coin, numismatists designate the interior of the metal, as opposed to its superficies or field.