In the preface to this edition, Dr. Grey expresses his obligations "to the ingenious Mr. Wood, painter, of Bloomsbury-square."
In the fourth volume of Nichols's Illustrations of Literature are some interesting letters from Thos. Potter, Esq., to Dr. Grey, which throw much light on the subject of this edition of Hudibras.
I cannot conclude these observations without expressing my dissent from the praise bestowed upon the engravings in this work. Mr. Lowndes says "the cuts are beautifully engraved." With the exception of the head of Butler by Vertue, the rest are very spiritless and indifferent productions.
J. T. A.
FOLK LORE.
Overyssel Superstition.—Stolen bees will not thrive; they pine away and die.
Janus Dousa.
Death-bed Superstitions.—When a child is dying, people, in some parts of Holland, are accustomed to shade it by the curtains from the parent's gaze; the soul being supposed to linger in the body as long as a compassionate eye is fixed upon it. Thus, in Germany, he who sheds tears when leaning over an expiring friend, or, bending over the patient's couch, does but wipe them off, enhances, they say, the difficulty of death's last struggle. I believe the same poetical superstition is recorded in Mary Barton, a Tale of Manchester Life.
Janus Dousa.