Blanco White (Vol. vii., pp. 404. 486.).—Your correspondent H. C. K. is right in his impression that the sonnet commencing
"Mysterious Night! when our first parents knew," &c.
was written by Blanco White. See his Life (3 vols., Chapman, 1845), vol. iii. p. 48.
J. K. R. W.
Pistols (Vol. viii., p. 7.).—In Strype's Life of Sir Thomas Smith, Works, Oxon. 1821, mention is made of a statute or proclamation by the Queen in the year 1575, which refers to that of 33 Hen. VIII. c. 6., alluded to by your correspondent J. F. M., and in which the words pistol and pistolet are introduced:
"The Queen calling to mind how unseemly a thing it was, in so quiet and peaceable a realm, to have men so armed; ... did charge and command all her subjects, of what estate or degree soever they were, that in no wise, in their journeying, going, or riding, they carried about them privily or openly any dag, or pistol, or any other harquebuse, gun, or such weapon for fire, under the length expressed by the statute made by the Queen's most noble father.... [Excepting however] noblemen and such known gentlemen, which were without spot or doubt of evil behaviour, if they carried dags or pistolets about them in their journeys, openly, at their saddle bows," &c.
Here the dag or pistolet seems to answer to our "revolvers," and the pistol to our larger horse-pistol.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
Passage of Thucydides on the Greek Factions (Vol. viii., p. 44.).—If L., or any of your readers, will take the trouble to compare the passage quoted, and the one referred to by him, in the following translation of Smith, with Sir A. Alison's supposititious quotation[[7]] (Vol. vii., p. 594.), they will find that my inquiry is still unanswered. The passage quoted by L. in Greek is, according to Smith: