—At a Christmas party, recently, the question occurred "Whence the origin of the supposed attribute of cold plum pudding of settling one's love?" No one present being able to give a satisfactory solution, it was agreed that I should take your opinion on the subject. I therefore ask, How old is the saying? and to what part of England or Great Britain may it be traced?
AN "F. S. A." WHO LOVES PUDDING.
Minor Queries Answered.
Poem by Camden.
—Where is the Latin poem by Camden, De Connubio Thamæ et Isis, to be found?
Camden (in Britannia, sine Regnorum Anglæ Chorographica Descriptio, folio, London, 1607) quotes very largely from this poem, of which he is the reputed author, viz., page 215, 19 lines; page 272-3, 64 lines; page 302, 12 lines.
Dr. Kippis, Biographia Britannica, article "Camden," in vol. iii., assigns the poem to Camden; and Dr. Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica, speaks of it under Isis, and refers to a translation of it by Basil Kennet, the brother of White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough.
These authorities induce me to think either the Latin poem, or the translation, must be in existence, though, I regret to say, I cannot find either.
QUÆRO.
[A query relating to this poem has already appeared, see "N. & Q." Vol. ii., p 392. Having investigated it, we are inclined to think, that only those portions of it which appear in the Britannia have been published. Mr. Salmon, in his Hertfordshire, p. 3., speaking of the word Tamesis being a compound of the two rivers Tame and Isis, says, "Of this Mr. Camden was so assured, that he hath left us an elegant poem upon the marriage of these two streams in his Britannia." As to Dr. Basil Kennet's translation, it is clear from Bishop Gibson's Preface, p. xiv., that he only translated what has been given in this work. The Bishop says, "The verses which occur in Mr. Camden's text were translated by Mr. Kennet, of Corpus Christi College in Oxford.">[