"The latter half of the first stanza would have been worthy of Sappho. I am in raptures with it."
Mrs. Mac Lehose (Clarinda) was living in 1840, in the eightieth year of her age.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Did St. Paul's Clock strike Thirteen? (Vol. iii., p. 40.).—Yes: but it was not then at St. Paul's; for I think St. Paul's was then being rebuilt. The correspondent to the Antiquarian Repertory says:
"The first time I heard it (the circumstance) was at Windsor, before St. Paul's had a clock, when the soldier's plea was said to be that Tom of Westminster struck thirteen instead of twelve at the time when he ought to have been relieved. It is not long since a newspaper mentioned the death of one who said he was the man."
About the beginning of the eighteenth century this bell was removed to St. Paul's, &c.—Can any of the readers of the "Notes and Queries" supply the newspaper notice above referred to. The above was written in 1775. The clock tower in which the bell was originally (and must have been when the sentinel heard it) was removed in 1715.
John Francis.
[The story is given in Walcott's Memorials of Westminster as being thus recorded in The Public Advertiser of Friday, 22nd June, 1770:—"Mr. John Hatfield, who died last Monday at his house in Glasshouse Yard, Aldersgate, aged 102 years, was a soldier in the reign of William and Mary, and the person who was tried and condemned by a Court Martial for falling asleep on his duty upon the terrace at Windsor. He absolutely denied the charge against him, and solemnly declared that he heard St. Paul's clock strike thirteen, the truth of which was much doubted by the court because of the great distance. But whilst he was under sentence of death, an affidavit was made by several persons that the clock actually did strike thirteen instead of twelve; whereupon he received his majesty's pardon. The above his friends caused to be engraved upon his plate, to satisfy the world of the truth of a story which has been much doubted, though he had often confirmed it to many gentlemen, and a few days before his death told it to several of his neighbours. He enjoyed his sight and memory to the day of his death.">[
Defence of the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (Vol. iii., p. 113.).—Among the benefits conferred by "Notes and Queries" upon the literary world, is the information occasionally afforded, in what libraries, public and private, very rare books are deposited. Mr. Collier expresses his thanks to Mr. Laing for sending to him a very rare volume by Kyffin. Had I seen his "Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company," I should have had much pleasure in furnishing him with extracts, from another copy in the Chetham Library, of the tract he has described. The Rev. T. Corser possesses the same author's Blessedness of Britain. His other works are enumerated by Watt, and should be transferred to a Bibliotheca Cambrensis.