Jas. Crossley.
Dryden's Absolom and Achitophel (Vol. ii., p. 406.).—The edition noticed by your correspondent, "printed and sold by H. Hills, in Blackfriars, near the Water Side, for the benefit of the Poor," 1708, 8vo., is a mere catch-penny. Hills, the printer, was a great sinner in this way. I have Roscommon's translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1709; his Essay on translated Verse, 1709; Mulgrave's Essay on Poetry, 1709; Denham's Cooper's Hill, 1709; and many other poems, all printed by Hills, on bad paper, and very incorrectly, from 1708 to 1710, for sale at a low price.
Jas. Crossley.
The Rev. W. Adams (Vol. iii., p. 140.).—The age of Mr. Adams at his death was thirty-three. His tomb is in the churchyard of Bonchurch—a simple coped coffin; but the cross placed upon it is, in allusion to his own beautiful allegory, slightly raised, so that its shadow falls—
"Along the letters of his name,
And o'er the number of his years."
I have a pretty engraving of this tomb, purchased at Bonchurch in 1849, and your correspondent may perhaps be glad to adopt the idea for an illustration of the book he mentions.
E. J. M.
Duchess of Buckingham (Vol. iii., p. 224.).—I am much surprised at this question; I thought
there were few ladies of the last century better known than Catherine, daughter of James II. (to whom he gave the name of Darnley) by Miss Ledley, created Countess of Dorchester. Lady Catherine Darnley was married first to Lord Anglesey, and secondly to Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, by whom she was mother of the second duke of that name, who died in his minority, and the title became extinct. All this, and many more curious particulars of that extraordinary lady, may be found in the Peerages, in Pope, in Walpole's Reminiscences, and in Park's edition of the Noble Authors.