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edited the verses on old Hobson-which any other poet would have chosen to suppress.

I have admitted the epitaph to be rather Miltonic: such was my first impression. Its philosophic conceptions, its classic allusions, the intermixture of lines other than octo-syllabic, and the variations of cadence which thence arise, give it a Miltonic air. It is, to my feelings, a very impressive composition, and entitled to a conspicuous place in a collection of fugitive poems.

But the proofs which I have given of the care with which Milton cherished his poetic offspring forbid me to class the epitaph as one of the family. If we ascribe it to Milton, we cannot believe that he was insensible to its beauties; and if he wished to remove its defects, he had sufficient time for the task-just a quarter of a century!

On a late occasion I gave a quotation from Pope, and repeat it as applicable to this debate: "There is nothing more foolish than to pretend to be sure of knowing a great writer by his style." It was not an off-hand or after-dinner remark. Spence adds, "Mr. Pope seemed fond of this opinion. I have heard him mention it several times, and he has printed it as well as said it." The decision seems harsh, but the word sure is equivalent to a saving clause, and protects those who may be apt or over-apt to set forth conjectures.

Barnes, S.W. 25 July.

BOLTON CORNEY.

Upon the supposition that the initials annexed to the poem recently noticed by Mr. Morley may be determined to be "P. M.," and not "J. M.," I looked into a few works of reference to see if there were any writers of the period, about 1647, to whom the letters "P. M." might apply. The following are from Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt's Handbook to the Popular, Poetical, and Dramatic Literature of Great Britain. I know nothing of the writers. The date might perhaps induce inquiry. It may be useful to interrogate all the "P. M.s" of the period, or in relation to it, to give up the secret of authorship, if they have one, until the signature is accurately determined. This is rather a prosaic method, and tedious, and the lines may not have been written by any known author. Yet they seem to refer to one who was known:

"Meanwhile the Muses do deplore
The loss of this their paramour."

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seldom of itself decides the point at issue. A successful imitator catches the "clinquant" of the style of a great author, but cannot infuse the spirit, which is the life.

"Deplore" and "paramour," ""upon" and "Helicon," "tree" and "plenteously," "compare❞ and "sepulchre," may have been written by John Milton; but would he have written the lines from "Then pass on gently"?

Was Milton ever less than grandly intellectually clear? Does not the mind feel, when reading him, as if it were robed in light?

"Mackenzie (P.), Religions Complaint to the Honorable Ladyes of Scotland, lamenting for the torne estate of that Kirk and Kingdome. By P[atrick] M[ackenzie ?]." A broadside. Charles I. under 1633.

"Mackguier (Patrick), Teares for the Death of the most gracious Prince Lodovicke, Duke of Richmond and London: Printed for John Wright, and are to be sold at Lenox, Earle of Newcastle and Darneley, &c.; a Poem. the Signe of the Bible, neare New-Gate [1624]." A broadside, with woodcuts.

S. H.

EARLY RAILWAY TRAVELLING. On looking over a diary kept by my father during two journeys northward in 1830-31, 1 thought the readers of " N. & Q." might be amused with his account of what he saw of railway travelling, then in its infancy:

"Monday, Oct. 11, 1830, Darlington.-Walked to the railroad, which comes within half a mile of the town. Saw a steam-engine drawing about twenty-five waggons, each containing about two tons and a half of coals. A single horse draws four such waggons. I went to Stockton at 4 o'clock by coach on the railroad: one horse draws about twenty-four passengers. I did not like it at all, for the road is very ugly in appearance, and being only one line with occasional turns for passing, we were sometimes obliged to wait, and at other times to be drawn back, so that we were full two hours going eleven miles, and they are often more than three hours. There is no other conveyance, as the cheapness has driven the stagecoaches off the road. I only paid 1s. for eleven miles. The motion was very unpleasant-a continual_jolting and disagreeable noise."

On Sept. 1, 1831, he remarks: "The railroad to Stockton has been improved since I was here, as they are now laying down a second line."

"Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1830.-Left Manchester at ten o'clock by the railroad for Liverpool. You enter upon it by a staircase through the office from the street at present, but there will, I suppose, be an open entrance by-and-bye: they have built extensive warehouses adjoining. We were two hours and a half going to Liverpool (about thirtytwo miles), and I must think the advantages have been a good deal overrated, for, prejudice apart, I think most people will allow that expedition is the only real advan tage gained the road itself is ugly, though curious and wonderful as a work of art. Near Liverpool it is cut very deeply through rock; and there is a long tunnel, passengers to the inns. The tunnel is too low for the which leads into a yard where omnibusses wait to convey

engines at present in use, and the carriages are drawn through it by donkeys. The engines are calculated to

draw fifty tons. I cannot say that I at all liked it the speed was too great to be pleasant, and makes you rather giddy, and certainly it is not smoother and easier than a good turnpike road. When the carriages stop or go on, a very violent jolting takes place, from the ends of the carriages jostling together. I have heard many say they prefer a horse-coach, but the majority are in favour of the rail-road, and they will no doubt knock up the coaches."

"Monday, Sept. 12, 1831.-Left Manchester by coach at ten o'clock, and arrived in Liverpool at half-past two. The railroad is not supposed to answer vastly well, but they are making a branch to Warrington, which will hurt the Sankey Navigation, and throw 1500 men out of employment: these people are said to be loud in their execrations of it, and to threaten revenge. It is certain the proprietors do not all feel easy about it, as one living at Warrington has determined never to go by it, and was coming to Liverpool by our coach if there had been room. He would gladly sell his shares. A dividend of 4 per cent. had been paid for six months, but money had been borrowed. Charge for tonnage of heavy goods 10s. for thirty-two miles, which appears very dear to me."

P. KER.

L. C. R.

Inquiries have been made in "N. & Q." for this author, without result. Chance has lately thrown in my way a little book, entitled Flosculum Poeticum: Poems, &c. by P. K. 1684. In Lowndes (new edit.) this is given to P. Kirk, and Hazlitt omits it altogether. Looking through it I find it contains the "Triangle" fronting "The Map of Man's Misery," which I have shown ("N. & Q." 2nd S. i. 281) to be by P. Ker. This I consider sufficient to identify it as another of his productions. In this the author comes out stronger as a poet, and throws his whole soul into the Royalist scale, the bulk of the book being occupied by elegiac harpings upon the royal martyr. Besides the Triangle, there is a grotesque cut on the page, of Charles II. in the oak. In the Luttrell Collection, British Museum, there are two broadsides, entitled respectively "An Elegy on the Death of Charles II." and "A Panegyrick Poem on the Coronation of James II.," subscribed P. K., which, looking to Ker's devotion to the Stuarts, I should also consider his; indeed, Mr. Halliwell, in his Catalogue of Broadsides, &c., 1851, calls this a "Coronation Poem by Peter Ker," his copy being probably so manuscribed. Another piece by a P. K. is, "Logomachia; or, the Conquest of Eloquence, from Ovid, 1690," given in the Heber Catalogue to P. Kirk, omitted by both the bibliographers named; most likely another article by Ker, but not findable for examination. The name of Ker again occurs in a volume in my possession, entitled The Grand Politician; or, Secret Art of State Policy, from the Latin of Conrad Reinking, 1691, the address to the Earl of Nottingham being signed Pat. Ker. The initials P. K. also figure as the author of Nomenclatura Trilinguis, n. d.

(Licensed 1686.) Dunton speaks of a famous Dr. Ker, of Clerkenwell, as a tutor for young ministers-Mr. Roxwell and Mr. Marriott put forth as examples of his success that way; and among his lay authors, notes one Dr. Kerr as a man of great piety and learning: Sam. Palmer, too, had the happiness to be educated by Dr. Kerr, of Highgate.

In this note I have shown a Peter on the authority of Mr. Halliwell, and a positive Patrick. Can any reader of “N. & Q." show that they are identical, and furnish any information about this or these P. Kers? It might not be out of place here to refer to the belief that Patrick and Peter are interchangeable. I knew a Scottish gentleman in London, of good family, who bore the first name; and have seen letters from some of his oldfashioned relatives in the North addressed to him as Peter. In the Free Church Magazine, a few years ago, when reviewing The Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, they have occasion to quote the "Presbyterian Biographer of Bristo Port"-calling him first Patrick, and a few lines on, Peter Walker; and a friend has just assured me that his brother Peter was so named in compliment to their uncle Patrick! J. O.

UNPUBLISHED WORK OF HUGO GROTIUS. Mr. Nijhoff, at the Hague, one of the most intelligent Dutch publishers, is preparing for publication an unpublished work of Hugo Grotius, entitled De Jure Prædæ. In 1864 it was accidentally discovered amongst the family papers of Cornets de Groot, who is a direct descendant of the celebrated author, and bought up for the library of the Leyden University, where it remains at this moment.

The value of the book consists chiefly in -1. The masterpiece De Jure Belli ac Pacis is nothing but an amplification and an enlargement of this dissertation. 2. A chapter of it, the famous Mare Liberum, published separately in 1609, can now be studied properly in connection with other chapters. 3. Another chapter gives an interesting description of the struggle of the Dutch and the Portuguese in India. It contains many inedited documents, and particulars not to be found elsewhere. The work dates from the last months of 1604 and the first months of 1605, when Grotius was twenty-two years of age. No one so young has perhaps produced a work so full of extensive learning, sound judgment, and knowledge of the Latin language, as this dissertation De Jure Prædæ. Its publication, entrusted to the able hands of Dr. G. IIamaker, will no doubt enhance Grotius's renown. It is being printed in the workshops of Messrs. Enschedé, at Haarlem, with the type used in Grotius's time by the celebrated Elzevir family. H. TIEDEMAN.

Amsterdam.

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This is supposed to be the most complete and extensive collection of its kind in this country, and is very rich in scarce and valuable works. It has been the loving labour of many years, and no expense has been spared in getting it together. As may be supposed, I found a great number of duplicates in it. All these have been taken out, and themselves form no mean collection. These I am arranging for sale, and should be glad to send catalogues, when ready, to any persons who will favour me with their names and addresses. I venture to send you these particulars as interesting to book-collectors among your readers. W. ROBERTS.

13A, Great George Street, Westminster, July. "SPIRIT-SOUL."-Delitzsch, in his "System of Biblical Psychology,” p. 182 (Clarke's For. Theol. Lib.), says,

"But in this expression, en-nefs means the spirit-soul; for (en-nefs), according to a usus loquendi that has become prevalent, is the spirit-soul, originating out of the spirit world, and ~ (er ruch), the soul of nature

حامل the bearer .

turned towards the sense-world
(hamal) of the natural powers of life. Therefore ruhi
in Arabic, is used quite in the same sense as
in Hebrew, nafshi=myself (ipse).

(روحی)

66

ASUSSEX CRICKET MATCH.-Whilst staying with a friend at Boxhill last April, a man in hot haste galloped by, without a saddle, to the medical practitioner. Of course the village was in a commotion, and the idlers, glad of a sensation, anxiously sought the news. Their query was resolved by "Only a cricket match.' What," was innocently asked, "a cricket match such a drenching day? Why, it must be played in a parlour." A loud laugh greeted the querist, who then learned that in that locality a cricket match was an euphemism for a lady contributing her mite to the next Sussex census. Αλφρεδ.

HALL.-Anciently in Scotland the ha' or hall was a term used to designate the farmer's kitchen. In England the name is applied to the lobby or vestibule. The small trader, with his dwelling of three and four apartments, is informed, it may be, that some one is waiting for him in the hall. Latterly the hall has, among the Scottish peasantry, signified the mansion of the district landowner. CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D.

Snowdoun Villa, Lewisham, S.E.

NOBLEMEN AT FIRES.-The Duke of Sutherland is not the first nobleman who has had a taste for attending conflagrations. For

"Lord Craven,* in King Charles II.'s time, was a constant man at a fire; for which purpose he always had a horse ready saddled in the stable, and rewarded the first who gave him notice of such an accident. It was a goodnatured fancy, and he did a great deal of service; bat in that reign everything was turned into a joke. The king being told of a terrible fire that broke out, asked presently if my Lord Craven was there? Oh!' says somebody by, 'a'nt please your Majesty, he was there before it began, waiting for it. He has had two horses burnt under him already.'"

Thanks to the telegraph wires, the Duke of Sutherland is enabled to obtain his intelligence without any destruction of animal life.

Dartford.

ALFRED JOHN DUNKIN.

SHAKESPEARE EMENDATIONS.

1. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Sc. 4.

read

"Is it mine,"

"Is it, in fine."

2. Coriolanus, Act III. Sc. 3. 1. 26.-For
"To have his worth," &c.,

But this lexicographical explanation is quite erroneous, the converse being the fact. In Freytag's Lexicon (p. 244) all the meanings of ruch will be found, and it will also be found to correspond with the Hebrew, ruach, in neither of which languages does it mean 66 myself (ipse);" | 1. 196.-For, but, in Arabic, tempus vespertinum, quies; and, in the plural, anhelitus, spiritus, anima, sc. vitæ causa in corpore, inspiratio divina, prophetia, &c. In Hebrew it means halitus, spiritus, anima, ventus, anima vitalis, yuxh, spec. animus hominis, quo vivit, intelligit, vult et movetur, &c. (Fuerst, 1047.) Nefs, on the other hand, in Arabic, means, according to Freytag (p. 624), anima, persona, individuum res, IPSE, and in the plural, spiritus, anhelitus, &c.; and W, nephesh, in the Hebrew, means spiratio, flatus, halitus (syn. ), IPSE, ego, &c. &c. (Fuerst, 721.) These words form the basis of Delitzsch's "System," and, if wrong taken, necessarily overturn the whole of it.

T. J. BUCKTON,

read the passage,

"Go about it.
Put him to choler straight: he hath been used
Ever to conquer and to heave his wroth
On contradiction; being once chafed, he cannot
Be reined to temperance."

3. Idem. Act IV. Sc. 7, 1. 52.
"Hath not a tomb," &c.,

read the passage,

• Vide Richardsoniana, p. 373.

"So our virtues lie in the interpretation of the time:
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a proem so evident as a tear
To extol what it hath done."

4. Not having at hand the Cambridge Shakespeare, I shall be glad if you will tell me who proposed the following reading (Henry VIII, Act III. Sc. 2, 1. 436): —

"Say, Wolsey, that once rode the waves of glory,*
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor,
Found thee a way out of his wreck to rise in."
J. WETHERELL.

Queries.

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FAMILY OF ALEXANDER. - I have been so successful in my inquiries concerning the pedigree of the Paisley Alexanders, through my question respecting them in "N. & Q.," that I venture to put a query in regard to another branch of the sept. Can any of your readers cast light on the descent of James Alexander, merchant in Dublin, who died in 1706? The validity of his will was disputed, and it was set aside by the court. His son Edmund, who seems to have been obnoxious to the other members of the family, made a curious settlement referring to certain transactions about "the will." There was another James Alexander of Dublin, who died in 1701. He came from Paisley, and his lineal descendant is a clergyman

in the South of Ireland. I have hitherto failed to trace the origin of James Alexander of the "will." May he have been related to Sir Jerome Alexander, the Irish judge, and founder of the Alexander Library in Trinity College, Dublin? CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D.

Snowdoun Villa, Lewisham, S.E. CRASSIPIES.-In an extract from an old charter relating to Battle Abbey, given in the Antiquarian Itinerary (vol. iii.), is the following:

"He likewise gave them his royal customs in Wye [query, by Ashford], together with his right of wreck in Dingemarsh [query, Dungeness], a member thereof; as also of any great or royal fish called crassipies which should be driven ashore, except when it happened without certain limits; in which case they were to have only two parts of the fish and the tongue, these being all the king usually had."

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inflicted on Lord Monson by his wife, as mentioned in Hudibras, 11. i. 885 ?*

There has recently been a correspondence in a journal called Public Opinion on contemporaneous flagellation of schoolgirls. A year or two ago a similar but much more detailed correspondence appeared in the Queen, which is emphatically a ladies' newspaper.

The statements made would furnish a new chapter for the History of Flagellants. Can any one inform us, for our own advantage and that of "the future historian," whether these nauseous narratives of feminine flagellation were real or imaginary? MAKROCHEIR.

FURRICKER.-There are very few hedges in the Isle of Thanet, and what is generally called the is usually ploughed crosswise to the rest of the "head-land"-that is, the edge of the field, which land-is here generally planted with a different This is called by the above name. Is the word derived from any foreign language, or is it simply a corruption of "fore-acre," or front of the

crop.

field ?

(Of) Poets' Corner.

A. A.

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THE JOURNEY TO CALVARY. - Scenes from our Lord's journey to Calvary are sculptured in high relief on an arcade flanking the approach to Frome church, Somersetshire, where the crucifixion is placed over the porch-door. There are, I believe, many instances of such representation on the Continent; one I remember at Bologna. Can your correspondents inform me of others?

THOMAS E. WINNINGTON.

HANDFASTING.-Did the practice of handfasting exist in any other country than Scotland? Did it cease at the Reformation? t

CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D. Snowdoun Villa, Lewisham, S.E.

GUIENNE AND LANGUEDOC.Are there any works on the departments contained in the old French provinces of Guienne and Languedoc similar in design to our county histories? I shall feel obliged by any information on this subject.

M. L.

See "N. & Q." 3rd S. vi. 252.] It On the practice of Handfasting consult "N. & Q.,” 1st S. ii. 151, 282, 342.—ED.]

MISSING LETTERS OF JAMES VI. AND CHARLES I. A letter from James VI. to Archbishop Spottiswood, and a letter from Charles I. to the same person on his resignation of the seals as Lord Chancellor of Scotland, have disappeared from Spottiswood House within the last year and a half. If they have been borrowed by any one for examination, it is earnestly requested that they may now be returned. If any reader of “N. & Q.' can give information respecting such letters, it will greatly oblige the writer.

L. M. M. R.

JEFFREY NEVE. In an amusing article in The Cornhill for the present month, entitled "Witches and their Craft," the author names, amongst a batch of conjurors and impostors about the close of the sixteenth century, one "Jeffrey Neve, a fraudulent bankrupt." I shall be obliged for information about Jeffrey Neve's frauds and impostures, where he lived, and when he died, or for a reference where such information may be found. G. A. C.

NOBLE OF EDWARD III.-I have in my cabinet a noble of Edward III., on which the arms of France in the first and fourth quarters of the shield held by the king are represented by three fleurs-delys, and not as being semé-de-lys, which was the authorised form of charge until the reign of Henry V. (Ruding, i. p. 255, last ed.)

How, then, does this form come to be on a coin so long before (according to all the authorities I have met with) the modification was introduced? J. H. M.

BIRTHS OF THE PALMERS.-In a pedigree of Palmer written by Roger Jenyns, Esq., a relative of the family, in 1672, which has been recently published in Mr. Howard's Collectanea Heraldica et Genealogica, the following account is given of the progeny born of Sir Edward Palmer of Angmering in Sussex, and his wife Alice the coheiress of William Clement:

"Memorandum that this Sr Edward and his Lady never had any children but three sons, which were all of one conception, and born three Sunday's successively, Whitsunday being the first. This happened about Anno Domini 1487, in the 3d year of Henry 7th's raigne, and they all lived to be men of great age and note.

The first was John Palmer, Esq. who married the daughter of Lord Sands, K.G., and continued the line at Angmering.

The second was Sir Henry Palmer, Master of the Ordnance at Guisnes at the time of its siege and surrender in 1555, and who died of a wound there received, in the seventieth year of his age (as is stated).

The third was Sir Thomas Palmer, the satellite of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and who was beheaded in 1553 for the prominent part he took in the usurpation of the Lady Jane Grey.

I wish to ask whether the marvellous account of the birth of these brothers can be credited, and whether there is any parallel of such an occurrence? J. G. N.

PAPAL BULLS RELATING TO ENGLAND. Has

any attempt ever been made to form an index, calendar, or catalogue of papal bulls relating to England? Of course the Bullarium Magnum contains a vast collection, but hundreds which are not to be found there exist in our manuscript libraries. It would be very useful to have some sort of key to them. A. O. V. P.

PEERAGE.—I read in the history of a Scotch family that one of its members had King Charles I.'s warrant for creating him Lord So-and-so, but that he died before the patent was completed. If this statement is correct, should not the original warrant still be traceable in the records of the Office of the Presenter of Signatures, Parliament House, Edinburgh? If not there, where should I look for it? I shall be glad to have some account of the steps a patent of peerage went through in Scotland circa 1650, from the first signature to the completion of the charter under the great seal.

F. M. S.

POPE'S INDELICACY. In Mr. Moy Thomas's "Memoirs of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu," prefixed to that gentleman's edition of her Letters and Works (p. 24), I find the following allusion to Pope's correspondence with ladies:

"The indelicacy with which the spirit of the time permitted him to address even unmarried ladies, is exemplified in his letters to the Miss Blounts and to the daughter of his acquaintance Mrs. Marriott of Sturston, to whom he transmitted, apparently through his friend

Broome, then rector of Sturston, compositions whose

ribaldry and grossness no wit or art could now render tolerable."

Can any one inform me where these letters to "the daughter of his acquaintance Mrs. Marriott " are to be found? I have searched in vain in the editions of Warburton, Warton, Bowles, and Roscoe, as well as in the Additions to Pope's Works, 1776, 2 vols., and Chalmers's Supplement. F. J. H.

PRAYER FOUND IN THE TOMB OF THE SAVIOUR, USED AS A CHARM.-At the recent assizes at Wicklow (see the Dublin letter in The Times of Thursday, July 9,) a prisoner was convicted of arson. Upon him was found a paper covered with shorthand characters. This paper was deciphered by a professional short-hand writer, who was examined at the trial. "It set out a curious prayer which was said to have been found in the tomb of our Saviour in 803, and which was sent for preservation to the Emperor Charles; and it was thought that as long as the prayer was in the possession of a man he could never be drowned or poisoned." No doubt some of your correspondents can tell me

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