—In reply to ABERDONIENSIS, I beg to inform him that the "Maitland Club" (Glasgow) circulated as the contribution of the Earl of Glasgow in the year 1832 a very handsome volume, entitled Registrum Monasterii de Passelet, M.C.LXIII-M.D.XXIX. to which there was prefixed an highly interesting prefatory notice and illustrative notes, in which it is there stated—
"That it may be proper to correct a popular mistake regarding another record connected with the Monastery of Paisley. The Black Book of Paisley, quoted by Buchanan and our earlier historians, and which (having disappeared) was raised by later antiquaries into undue importance as a distinct and original chronicle, was nothing more than a copy of Fordun (Scotichronicon), with Bowers' Continuation. It appears to have been acquired by Thomas Lord Fairfax, but when Gale and Hearne wrote, had already been deposited in the Royal Library, where it is still preserved. (13. E. X.) Hearne particularly notices the inscription on this volume: 'Iste liber est Sancti Jacobi et Sancti Mirini de Pasleto.'—Præfatio ad Fordun, p. lxvi."
T. G. S.
Edinburgh.
Pasquinades (Vol. v., p. 200.).
—I have had these Italian lines in my MS. book for many years as an "Epigram on Bonaparte's Legion of Honor." If of earlier date, and another origin, they have been made good use of by the would-be wits of the day, as a quiz upon Napoleon's honorary badge.
HERMES.
Elegy on Coleman (Vol. v., p. 137.).
—The Elegy on Coleman I have seen paraphrased or travestied, and thus attributed to Dryden, who, not being able to pay his wine-merchant's bill, was told, on dining with this creditor, in the exhilaration of his cups, that if he (Dryden) would improvise four lines expressive of pleasure to God, to the Devil, to the World, and to the Merchant, the debt would be forgiven. Instantly, therefore, the poet extemporised the following verses, sufficiently redolent of their inspiring source:
"God is pleased when we abstain from sin;