"Discourse of Reason" (Vol. vii., p. 497.).—This phrase, "generally supposed to be peculiarly Shakspearian," which A. E. B. has indicated in his quotation from Philemon Holland, occurs also in Dr. T. Bright's Treatise of Melancholy, the date of which is 1586. In the third page of the dedicatory epistle there is this sentence:
"Such as are of quicke conceit, and delighted in discourse of reason in naturall things."
Here, then, is another authority against Gifford's proposed "emendation" of the expression as it occurs in Hamlet.
M. D.
Minor Notes.
The MSS. of Gervase Hollis.—These were taken during the reign of Charles I., and continue down to the middle of Charles II. In Harl. MSS. 6829, will be found a most curious and valuable volume, containing the painted glass, arms, monuments, brasses, and epitaphs in the various churches and chapels, &c. throughout the county of Lincoln. The arms are all drawn in the margin in colours. Being taken before the civil war, they contain all those which were destroyed or defaced by the Parliament army. They were all copied by Gough, which he notices in his Brit. Top., vol. i. p. 519., but not printed.
His genealogical collections are contained in a series of volumes marked with the letters of the alphabet, and comprehended in the Lansdowne Catalogue under No. 207. The Catalogue is very minute, and the contents of the several volumes very miscellaneous; and some of the genealogical notes are simply short memoranda, which, in order to be made available, must be wrought out from other sources. They all relate more or less to the county of Lincoln. One of these, called "Trusbut," was presented to the British Museum by Sir Joseph Banks in 1817, and will be found in Add. MSS. 6118.
E. G. Ballard.
Anagrams.—The publication of two anagrams in your Number for May 7, calls to my mind a few that were made some years ago by myself and some friends, as an experiment upon the anagrammatic resources of words and phrases. A subject was chosen, and each one of the party made an anagram, good, bad, or indifferent, out of the component letters. The following may serve as a specimen of the best of the budget that we made.