From the records of the Inner and Middle Temple there seems to be no doubt that the organ was bought entirely at the expense of the two societies of the Temple, both contributing 500l. Moreover, from Baylis's Temple Church' I find that Harris, the unsuccessful competitor, was recompensed for his trouble out of the funds of the two societies. As for Lord Chancellor Jeffreys's musical qualities, his whole claim to be called a lover of music seems to me, on reading Woolrych's and Granger's account of him, to rest solely on this arbitration. It must be remembered, however, that the two societies on more than one occasion referred other matters of dispute between themselves to the judgment of the Lord Chancellors, who seem to have been looked on by the Inns of Court as standing arbitrators. Besides, this matter of the organ had been referred to Lord North, who died before he delivered his verdict, leaving the question for his successor, Jeffreys, to settle. I think, therefore, that the services of Jeffreys as mediator were only invoked on account of his office. C. H. R. PEACH. THE CHURCHES of Yorkshire' (11 S. iii. 366, 418, 473).-The following letter is in my possession, and the inference to be drawn from it is that Mr. Hugall was the principal person concerned in the production of the work: : Cheltenham, 14 March, 1856. SIR,-I offer a suggestion to you upon which you can act as you may think best. I purpose reading a paper before the Literary Institution in Hull on Tuesday evening next on Ecclesiastical Architecture, and intend mentioning my Churches of Yorkshire,' and stating where they may now be purchased; but it occurs to me that if you were to send to Mr. Leng, the bookseller in Hull, some copies of Patrington, Skirlaugh, &c., &c., on sale or return, you might find some customers. I go to Hull to-morrow, and my address will be at Kilburne King, Esq., M.D., 26, George Street. You should give Leng prices of entire vol. in various bindings. Yours truly, J. W. HUGALL. 66 Mr. Fenteman, Leeds. I wish there were on the fly-leaves of each copy: This work was originated by J. W. Hugall, architect, Cheltenham." G. D. LUMB. Leeds. BURNS AND THE WEE WEE GERMAN LAIRDIE' (11 S. iii. 286, 354, 430).-The alternatives presented in this discussion are these either (1) that Allan Cunningham was the sole author of The Wee Wee German Lairdie,' or (2) that he had an older version before him when he constructed second alternative have been powerfully the song. The arguments in favour of the put forward at the last reference. Perhaps I may be allowed to advance some considerations by way of showing the first view to be on the whole more probable. 1. Writing of Allan Cunningham in an early number of Fraser's Magazine, and speaking of the Nithsdale and Galloway Songs,' Maginn says: "They are simply chefs d'œuvre, and are almost, but not entirely, equalled by the Jacobite relics, a similar mood of humbug and inspiration, gave to which he [Cunningham], at an earlier period, but in the not-altogether-unsuspecting, nor the altogetherin-such-arts-unpractised Hogg.' The points to be noted here are these: (1) that there was a collection of songs earlier than that of Cromek; (2) that this collection was described as Jacobite relics"; (3) that the collection was given (? lent) by Cunningham to Hogg, apparently with intent to deceive; and (4) that Hogg had a guilty knowledge of the fraud which Cunningham contemplated. Where Maginn obtained his information is not stated, but at all events his aspersions on the literary reputation of both Hogg and Cunningham are singularly harsh and cruel. At the same time his insinuations are not altogether unsupported by evidence from another, more friendly quarter. 2. About fifty or sixty years ago there was a story current in the Scottish border counties, which found its way into print, but, not having the account before me, I am compelled to trust to memory in reciting it. The story was to the effect that Hogg and Cunningham, who were intimate friends, had met on one occasion to exchange views and compare notes on poetry and literature generally. In the course of conversation Hogg, who was somewhat addicted to playing practical jokes, made an attempt to mystify Cunningham as to the genesis of one of his own poems. Cunningham, a much younger man, and standing somewhat in awe of his friend's superior attainments, perceived that he was being fooled, and in order to change the subject he opened his scrapbook or portfolio, took out a poem printed on a separate slip of paper, and, handing it to Hogg, asked him what he thought of it. The poem, rudely printed, seemed old, and had every appearance of being a genuine relic of antiquity. In reality, however, it was the work of Cunningham himself, originally printed in a local newspaper, whence it had been reprinted without his knowledge, and utilized by ballad-singers up and down the country. Hogg, having read it over, was profoundly impressed, and there and then pronounced it to be a genuine version of an old song. Cunningham, who at first had no intention of concealing the authorship, was amazed at Hogg's credulity, and feeling that the tables, so far as fooling was concerned, had now been turned upon his friend, he kept silence as to its real origin, only mentioning where and when he had picked it up. The facility with which he deceived Hogg on this occasion is believed to have encouraged him to perpetrate a similar deception on Cromek. At all events, the first step on the downward path-if we may so call itwas the result of a harmless bit of fun, and not due to deliberate premeditation, as Maginn insinuates. that it formed part of an older collection" it These considerations, together with Cunningham's own words about Cromek's book (all contributed by him, except two little scraps), and the claim made by the son for the father's authorship, constitute, I venture to submit, pretty strong cumulative proof in favour of The Wee Wee German Lairdie' being solely due to the pen of Allan Cunningham. It is to be remembered that in the early years of last century people were extremely fond of old songs and historical ballads. The ballad-singer, laden with copies of songs and equipped with a few tunes to which he sang them, was warmly received in every May I be permitted to add a few words rural town and country district where he in closing? Much less than justice, I fear, appeared. So great, indeed, was the de- is done to the memory of Allan Cunningham mand for poetry of this sort that the supply with regard to the Nithsdale and Galloway fell far short of what was wanted. A songs. It may be impossible to make any traffic in spurious ballads and sham-antique adequate defence of the deception practised songs sprang up in many printing centres, on Cromek, or to justify Cunningham's especially in Newcastle. A Border clergy-somewhat free use of other men's material. man is mentioned as having been particularly skilful in this species of imposture. His sham-antiques were printed by the hundred in Newcastle, sold to ballad-singers, and by them disseminated over the country. Even with such questionable practices, however, the demand was always ahead of the supply, and hence it happened that magazines and newspapers were plundered without compunction of poems likely to appeal to the popular taste. In some such manner as this, Cunningham's song, which imposed upon Hogg, is conjectured to have found its way into public favour. 3. We arrive now at the evidence of Hogg himself, admirably summarized by MR. BAYNE. Maginn in his strictures on Cunningham makes no mention of The Wee Wee German Lairdie '; neither is it named expressly in the story referred to above. Hogg, however, saw it, and knew At the same time, let us glance at the parties mainly interested in Cromek's publication. There was Cromek himself, a man altogether destitute of critical faculty, and utterly incompetent to edit a book of songs, which was undertaken as a purely commercial speculation. There was the undiscerning public, eager to swallow every species of song or ballad, genuine or sham, offered for acceptance by literary quacks like Cromek. And there was the young author, who, to his own astonishment, found himself capable of producing the kind of article the public clamoured for, and whose labours were rewarded in the end with a single bound copy of the book he did so much to produce. Why should his shoulders be made to bear the entire blame of the deception, such as it was? If he is to be condemned, what are we to say of Hogg, who indulged in similar escapades, if we are to believe Maginn ? Above all, if we pronounce Allan I know, descended from the distinguished Cunningham an offender beyond the pale of family who owned large estates in that pardon, how are we to acquit Burns, whose neighbourhood, and whose seat was Middlealterations and amplifications of old Scottish ton Hall. I am not aware of the existence, songs are admitted to have laid the world at the present time, of any male descendants of literature under great and peculiar of the Asshetons of Middleton. obligations? Scotus. M. M.'s third query has recalled some lines I saw scribbled in a book circa 1854 :The cook, her book, Long may she live herein to look ; For learning is better than houses or land, EDWARD G. VARNISH. SHEEP THEIR COLOUR (11 S. iii. 466).The belief that the colour of sheep and cattle, and the hair and complexion of human beings, are affected by the water that they drink is very old. Burton refers to it in the Anatomy of Melancholy,' i. 2. 2. 1: 6 Pliny, Nat. Hist.,' ii. § 230 and xxxi. §§ 13, 14, besides the Axius and Haliacmon, mentions several springs and rivers supposed to possess similar properties. Addison in his 'Remarks on Several Parts of Italy' wrote: "In my way hence to Terni I saw the river Clitumnus, celebrated by so many of the poets for a particular quality in its waters of making cattle white that drink of it. The inhabitants of that country have still the same opinion of it, as I found upon inquiry, and have a great many oxen of a whitish colour to confirm them in it." - Bohn's edition of Addison's works, vol. i., p. 409. EDWARD BENSLY. Aberystwyth. SIR WILLIAM ASHTON, KT., M.P. (11 S. iii. 387, 477).-A pedigree of the Asshetons is to be found in Foster's Lancashire Families,' and if SUTOCS will refer to it, he will find full particulars of the relationship between the Asshetons of Great Lever and the Asshetons of Middleton. Mr. Samuel Ashton, who appears to have lived in the parish of Middleton, and who is alluded to by SUTOCS, was not, so far as A short pedigree of the family to which Mr. Samuel Ashton belonged is, however, given in Foster's Lancashire Families,' but no connexion with the Asshetons of Middleton Hall is attempted to be shown. These Ashtons acquired great wealth as cotton manufacturers and Manchester merchants, I believe. The late Mr. Ralph Assheton of Downham Hall (M.P. for Clitheroe 1868-80) told me about ten years ago that his father, Mr. William Assheton of Downham Hall, became the head of the Assheton family on the death of the well-known Mr. Thos. AsshetonSmith, of Tedworth, Hampshire, and of Vaynol, Carnarvonshire, sometime M.P. for Andover. W. H. ST. PATRICK: ST. GEORGE (11 S. iii. 467). -There is absolutely no trace, in any of the ancient or medieval lives of St. Patrick, of the legend of the saint using the shamrock to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinitynot even in the most legendary of them all, the twelfth-century life by Jocelyn of Furness. It is a modern myth which has caught the popular imagination, and can be traced back, according to Prof. Stokes, no further than A.D. 1600. Apart from St. Patrick, the Irish reverence for the trefoil may be much more ancient, dating possibly to Druidic times. A prolonged controversy about St. Patrick and the shamrock took place in N. & Q.' nearly fifty years ago (Third and Fourth Series, beginning in 1862). As to St. George, no one can possibly assign a date to his first connexion with the dragon. The legend, of course, comes from Eastern antiquity, as the venerable myths of Apollo and the Python, Bellerophon FORBES OF SKELLATER (11 S. iii. 467); The Dictionary of National Biography wrong. The father of General John Forbes (1733-1808) of the Portuguese Army and Governor of Rio de Janeiro was, as the Minneapolis querist states, George Forbes of Skellater. A biography of the general has been written by Dr. Neil under the title of Ian Roy of Skellater: a Scottish Soldier of Fortune,' published by Wyllie & Son, Aberdeen, 1902. Brittonum' the Cotton MS. Caligula A. VIII. (scr. c. 1152) presents the ghost-word agrecoria. In this grec- stands for the -bget- of " abgetoria," i.e., abecedaria. Moreover, all MSS. of this 'Vita' have Segerus for *Seberus, i.e., Severus (episcopus?). In the Historia Brittonum' itself all MSS. collated by Mommsen give Argabaste G. S. F. (cap. xxix.) for Arbogaste; while the Harley MS. of the Historia Brittonum,' which was MILTON AND THE COMPANY OF COOPERS written not very long after Domesday (11 S. i. 244).-MR. W. R. B. PRIDEAUX'S Book, actually has grittones once (cap. xxviii.) reference to a list of London citizens pub-1 for Brittones. ALFRED ANSCOMBE. lished by me through Messrs. Hutchings & Romer last year has heretofore escaped my attention. In the course of my commentary upon the names of various citizens, I drew attention to that of one John Milton, and suggested a possible identity of the citizen and of the poet. That I was in was demonstrated in the Congregational Historical Society's Transactions, vol. iv. No. 5. In that issue the Rev. T. C. Crippen shows reason to attribute the signature of John Milton in Harleian MS. 4778 to John Milton of St. Dunstan's-inthe-East, Captain, and afterwards Major, of the Trained Bands. error Having thus acquitted myself of the task of indicating my error, I may be permitted to add that my unfortunate remark that “John Milton, if a cooper, had the opportunity of earning a respectable livelihood, but preferred to become a schoolmaster and a poet," should have been distinguished in some fashion as partly a "joke." I deeply regret that I should have dealt in any frivolous manner with a subject so utterly destitute of humour as the personality of John Milton. THE COMPILER OF 'LONDON CITIZENS OF 1651.' B AND G CONFUSED IN DOMESDAY AND FEUDAL AIDS (11 S. iii. 443).-Such errors can only be scribal, and the bunch of six culled by MR. HAMBLEY ROWE from the MS. of the Feudal Aid of 1306 is extremely interesting. The error got into print very early, and in the Morte d'Arthur' we find "Grandegoris" and "Grastias" colliding with "Brandegoris" and "Brastias." It even survived down to modern times: for remember being told some years ago of an Sherborne House, Northleach. SHERBORNE. PETER THE GREAT'S PORTRAIT (11 S. iii. 447).-It is stated in the Life of Peter the Great' in "Murray's Family Library that William III. persuaded the Czar to sit for his portrait to Sir Godfrey Kneller, and that this portrait, of which an engraving appears as a frontispiece to the "Family Library" volume, was hung at Windsor Castle. A later authority, however, assigns it to Hampton Court. If this portrait be the only one ever taken of Peter the Great, it must have been frequently engraved. There is an engraving by J. F. Bause, another by P. de Gunst, and another by J. C. Edwards, the latter two being engraved from Kneller's portrait. W. SCOTT. paigns of the 28th Regiment, since their Return from Egypt in 1802. By Lieut.-Col. Charles Cadell, Unattached, late Major of that Corps":— "A signal was immediately made for all haircutters to repair to head-quarters. As soon as they had finished on board the head-quarter ship, the adjutant, Lieut. Russell, proceeded with them and a pattern man to the other troopships. The tails were kept till all were docked, when, by a signal, the whole were hove overboard, with three cheers." R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate. [W. S. also thanked for reply.] SWAMMERDAM'S HISTORY OF INSECTS (11 S. iii. 448). The story referred to will be found in D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature,' under the section headed Literary Impostures.' Sir John Hill is said to have agreed to translate Swammerdam's History of Insects' for 501., but, knowing no Dutch, he contracted with another writer to do the work for 251. This person, not knowing Dutch any more than Sir John, made a bargain with a third party, who, being qualified, executed the translation for twelve guineas. The book referred to, with a life of Swammerdam by Boerhaave appeared in English, "from the Dutch and Latin by Thomas Floyd: Revised and improved with Notes by Dr. Hill," London, 1758. Notes on Books, &c. Records of the English Bible: the Documents relating to the Translation and Publication of the Bible in English, 1525-1611. Edited, with an Introduction, by A. W. Pollard. (Oxford University Press.) AMONG the books produced on the occasion of the Tercentenary of the Authorized Version that before us takes a prominent place, and, as a brief and lucid exposition of the fortunes of the English Bible, is likely to hold its own when the special cause for its genesis is forgotten. Mr. Pollard is one of the most trustworthy and accomplished bibliographers of the day, and the collection of original documents here brought together, many of which are not readily accessible, forms with the Introduction an excellent guide to the subject. which in its details is not without complexities and puzzles. The Introduction in its seventy-six pages puts before us clearly and concisely the facts concerning the versions which preceded and influenced the composition of the A. V., and the history of that great book, concerning the editions of which a scholar like Scrivener was in error as late as 1884, owing, says Mr. Pollard, to entire ignorance of the customs of the book-trade in the seventeenth century." was The Wyclifite Bibles are first treated. When their language fast becoming obsolete. New Testament, not from the Latin Vulgate, Tyndale improved matters by translating the but from the original Greek, but could find no hearing for his work in England. Mr. Pollard sees no reason to cast doubt on his statement that he did not copy anything from the Wyclifite version. though some resemblances have been quoted." the style and tone of the English Bible, and Anyway," Tyndale's own work fixed, once for all. supplied not merely the basis of all subsequent Protestant renderings of the books (with unimportant exceptions) on which he laboured, but their very substance and body, so that these subsequent versions must be looked upon as revisions of his, not as independent translations." Persecution did not allow Tyndale to finish his work, which was completed by Coverdale, man of far less scholarship, but an equally happy style." To these two men the rhythm and melody of the Authorized Version are to be attributed, reasserting themselves after every change made by the revisers (p. 61). This, says Mr. Pollard, is more likely than that the wonderful felicity of phrasing should be due to the dexterity of the board of twelve or the two final revisers, and a his verdict will, we think, be generally endorsed. played by high dignitaries of the Church, and the The uncertain and not always creditable part great influence of versions outside England on the chief of English books, constitute a curious story which loses nothing in Mr. Pollard's hands. We are pleased to see printed the most trustworthy list of the translators of the A. V., with notes on their identity, for this is a list for which we have often been asked, and which is not available in many accounts of the Bible, though it is surely one which should be widely known. One of the two scholars who put the final touches to the book was not a member of any of the boards of |