Porter Family (Vol. viii., p. 364.).—Full particulars of the existing branch of this ancient family can be afforded by the Rev. Malcom Macdonald of South End, Essex, chaplain to Lady Tamar Sharpe, the aunt and guardian of the representatives of Sir R. K. Porter.
M. H. J.
Thavies Inn.
The Mitred Abbot in Wroughton Church, Wilts (Vol. viii., p. 411.).—The figure was painted in fresco, not on a pillar, but on the spandril-space between two arches. The vestments, as far as I can make out, are an alb, a tunicle and a cope, and mitre. The hands do not appear to hold anything, and I see nothing to show it to represent a mitred abbot rather than a bishop. The colours of the cope and tunicle were red and green, the exterior of the cope and the tunicle being of one colour, the interior of the cope of the other. The figure was the only perfect one when I visited the church, and the rain was washing it out even as I sketched; but there had been one between every two arches, and there were traces of colour throughout the aisle, and the designs appeared to me unusually elegant. I believe my slight sketch to be all that now remains; and shall be glad to send a copy of it to your correspondent if he wishes for it, and will signify how I may convey it to him.
Passage in Virgil (Vol. viii., p. 270.).—Is this the passage referred to by Doctor Johnson?
"Nunc scio, quid sit Amor: duris in cotibus illum
Aut Tmarus, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes,
Nec generis nostri puerum, nec sanguinis, edunt."
Virgil: Bucolica, Ecl. viii. l. 43.
"The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks." Dr. Johnson found his reward not in vain solicitations to patrons, but in the fruits of his literary labours.