Egregios cumulare libro but nothing is said library, to quote Mr. C larger collection of m than is, I think, to be fo the line in question is from a modern Latin p

Egregios cumulare libros

Ast unum utilius volv

(the conclusion was per to the Marquis's taste) Monosticha quædam 1 catch an English reader veterum Sapientum' coevery edition of John Owe But Owen was not the Monosticha.' They wer See, for example, his D. fifteenth-century poet,

The article to which reference is made Cato Græcus' (Hanoviæ. above was mentioned in The Folkestone, above couplet is No. 234 Hythe, Sandgate, and Cheriton Herald for to this section of Owen 19 Dec., 1908, p. 10, col. 4, and that news- by Renouard in the prefa paper contained another item on the same of Joannis Audoeni Cam family in the issue for 20 Feb., 1909, p. 10, grammata,' printed by I

Er University College, Aberysty

"THE DEBATABLE."-1 two illustrative quotation sources (of 1551 and 1568 "The Debatable" as me batable Land between Engla claimed (before the Union) one from an English sourc from a letter (sent from 21 June, 1552) of the Duke land, the Earl of Pembrok the Privy Council, commun ceedings "with reference the Debatable" (Cecil M 96-7). ALFRED

"According to the National Zeitung [a daily journal published at Bâle], in the compilation of the catalogue at the Frey-Grimäisch Institute, a large number of very valuable books by English writers have been discovered-notably the second edition of Shakespeare in folio, a work which ranks amongst the greatest of bibliographical rarities. By arrangement with the managers of the Frey"I SHALL JOURNEY THRO Grimäisch Institute, this scarce edition and other English books, amounting in all to 6,000 volumes, BUT ONCE." (See ante, p. have been transferred to the Public Library [i.e., of Correspondents.')-Canon J Bâle]."

"FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS."-In spelling is phonetic according to Welsh Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'; in 'The pronunciation. Much of it is obscure to Cyclopædia of Practical Quotations,' by me, perhaps owing to MS. corruption, or J. K. Hoyt and Anna L. Ward, 1892; and perhaps because the English was in the at 8 S. x. 498, this proverbial saying is first instance incorrect. As a specimen, I alleged to occur in Smollett's translation give the first two stanzas, which are in the of Gil Blas.' Book X. chap. i. englyn metre, the most elaborate of all the strict metres :

.

The Rev. James Wood in his 'Dictionary of Quotations' attributes it to Le Sage.

Mr. W. Gurney Benham in Cassell's Book of Quotations' does not refer the saying to either Le Sage or Smollett.

I have not found it in the said chapter. A little before the middle of the chapter is "For their actions speak," being the translation of "Car les faits parlent.'

Perhaps my little edition (viz., Cooke's, the illustrations of which are dated 17971810) is at fault.

In Le Livre des Proverbes Français,' by M. le Roux de Lincy, seconde édit., 1859, tome ii p. 333 (Série No. xiv)., is the following proverb :—

Les faits se montreront Et les ditz se passeront. This is apparently quoted from 'Proverbia Gallica,' alias Recueil des Proverbes françois, avec des Commentaires latins'; MS. of the fifteenth century (see ibid., p. 557).

At 10S. iv. 204 W. C. B. quotes from the Copy of the Will of Matthew Tindal,' 1733, p. 23, Matters of fact, as Mr. Budgell somewhere observes, are very stubborn things.'

Smolett's translation of 'Gil Blas' was published in 1749. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

transated:

Here is another ode to God and to Mary which Welshman in Oxford made while he was studying here, because one of the Englishmen said that there was neither measure nor cynghanedd [see below] in Welsh. He answered that he would make a poem in English to Welsh measure and cynghanedd such that neither the Englishman nor any of his companions could make one of the kind in their own language, and he composed it as follows; but since I write this book all in Welsh orthography, this in English must follow our way; read it like Welsh."

The poem, then, is in English, but written in Welsh metre, as an awdl, with cynghanedd, the complicated system of alliteration distinctive of Welsh strict metres," and quite alien to anything in English; and the

"O mighty lady, our leading, to have at [= in?] heaven our abiding; into thy feast everlasting...... us to bring. You wan this with bliss, the blessing of God, for your good abearing; where you bin [are], for your winning, since Queen, and your son is King."

The whole poem would repay study by students of English phonology "I set a braints" is obscure to me. I should add that Howel and Ieuan Swrdwal were poets of the fifteenth century. H. I. B.

"WATCHET." In his 'Milleres Tale' Chaucer manifestly revels in his account of the parish clerk "that was i-cleped Absolon." Part of the elaborate delineation runs thus:

In his hoses reed he wente fetusly.
I-clad he was ful smal and propurly,
Al in a kirtel of a fyn wachet,

Schapen with goores in the newe get.

66

"A sort of blue cloth" is the definition given of wachet by Dr. Morris in his glossary to the revised edition of the Aldine Chaucer. Later poets-such as Browne in 'Britannia's Pastorals,' ii. 3, and Warton in the Ode on Approach of Summer'—use "watchet." These authors comthe form mand the attention of the lexicographer, who says that as an adjective the word is employed in the sense of blue, pale blue," while as a substantive it denotes " a blue or pale blue colour or tint." The origin of the word appears to give trouble, and the suggestion offered by the philologist is that it is perhaps from a Low Lat. wadio-to dye with woad, from Ger. waid=woad."

66

Athwart this tentative interpretation Mr. C. G. Harper confidently moves in his new book, "The Somerset Coast.' He misquotes Chaucer's description of the parish clerk

66

"shares with the Italian town of Magenta the honour of giving a name to a colour; only, while the colour magenta' is a modern and a horribly in artistic kind of reddish purple, introduced soon after 1859, when Louis Napoleon's victory over the Austrians at Magenta was popular in France, 'watchet' is certainly as old as Chaucer."

66

an

In his description of the place Mr. Harper does not afford much help towards acceptance of his contention. Twice within the last few years, he says, furious seas have demolished the local harbour, and it was while walking from Nether Stowey towards Watchet that Coleridge composed the Ancient Mariner' and the first part of Christabel.' Finally, he intimates that "it is a small place, with paper mills and iron foundries, railway-sidings that come down to the waterside, and a mineral line descending from the Brendon Hills." All these interesting statements shed but little light on any connexion between the proper name and that of the colour.

THOMAS BAYNE.

SPANISH STORIES IN IRISH.-I find in a manuscript volume two or three stories in Irish which are supposed to be translated f om the Spanish :

1. Adventures of Richard and Lisarda.' -The birthplace of the lady is "the royal city built in 1272 on the borders of Andalusia by Alfonsus, King of Spain."

2. A tale entitled 'Adventures of the names ocCompassionate Bandit.'-The curring are Vincente, Valerio, Claudius, and Camilla.

3. A tale of which the scene is in Greece, an the hero Claudius, son of Lysimachus, King of Achaia.

66

"TOTTENHAM IN HIS BOOTS."-In a letter to Dean Swift from the Archbishop of Dublin, dated "Dublin, Oct. 27, 1711," on a question political subjects, it is said that [in the Irish House of Commons] was carried in the negative by two accidents, the going out of one member by chance to speak to somebody at the putting the question, and the coming in of another in his boots at the very minute."

I appended a note to this, in ‘A Great Archbishop of Dublin, Wm. King, D.D., 1650-1729,' to the effect that the MP.

66

alluded to was Charles Tottenham, of Tot-
tenham Green, co. Wexford (ancestor of the
A correspondent,
Tottenham in his boots."
Marquesses of Ely), consequently known as
however, 'pointed out that I was mistaken
in doing so, as Mr. C. Tottenham (he wrote)
was not a member of the House st that

time.

I shall be glad of any information as to
Mr. Tottenham's predecessor "in boots."
CHARLES S. KING, Bt.
St. Leonards-on-Sea.

GAINSBOROUGH'S SIGNED PICTURES.-It would be interesting to have as complete a list as possible of authentic pictures by Gainsborough bearing his signature. Although the National Gallery British Catalogue states, on the authority of Ecwards's Anecdotes of Painters,' published n 1808, that "Gainsborough is said never to lave put his name to any picture," it is indisputable that there are at least half a dozen anvases Portait of inscribed with his name or initials. It would appear that the Lord Archibald Hamilton,' which is in one of the Rothschild collections, and wis lent to the Old Masters Exhibition of 191 by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, is the only picture signed "T. Gainsborough.'

6

The well-known' Portrait of John Rassell, Fourth Duke of Bedford,' which was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery (No. 755) from the Blenheim Collection, is inscribed

66

Gainsborough." It was exhibited at Scuti Kensington in 1867, at the Old Master: in 1882 (No. 16), and at the Gainsborough Exhibition held at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1885 (No. 38), when it was lent by the Duke of Marlborough.

The large and striking Portrait of the Second Mrs. Thicknesse,' which was seen at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1885 (No. 5), and was lent by Mr. Charles Wertheimer to the "wife to Phil Old Masters Exhibition of 1894 (No. 101), is inscribed with the words T. K. ABBOTT. Thicknesse Esq" and "Gainsborough."

I should be much obliged to any reader who could direct me to the originals of these.

Dublin.

A small oval Portrait of John, Second Viscount Bateman,' which was contributed by Lord Bateman to the Burlington House Exhibition of 1881 (No. 40), and is now in another collection, is initialed "T. G." It seems likely that other portraits and landscapes which were painted by the artist for Lord Bateman also bore the painter's

The portrait which was lent to the Whitechapel Exhibition in 1906 (No. 65) by the late Mr. Alfred Beit, and was exhibited under the misleading title of Martha Gainsborough, Daughter of the Artist,' appears to be signed with the monogram "T. G." The artist had, of course, two daughters: Margaret, who never married, and Mary, who married Fischer the hautboy player.

At least one other picture, the Portrait of Heneage Lloyd and his sister,' which was formerly in the possession of Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi, is signed with the monogram