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Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Vol. IV Number 108 November 22 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men Artists Antiquaries Genealogists etc. by Various Bell George Editor
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 228 lines and 23819 words, and 5 pagesPage NOTES:-- Age of Trees 401 Lines attributed to Admiral Byng 403 Folk Lore:--Music at Funerals--Cheshire Folk Lore and Superstition 404 QUERIES:-- Masters and Marshals of the Ceremonies 405 Minor Queries:--Cause of Transparency--Gold Medal of the Late Duke of York--Compositions during the Protectorate--Bristol Tables--Macfarlane's Geographical Collection--"Acu tinali meridi"--Sir Joshua Reynolds--Great Plough at Castor Church--Church of St. Bene't Fink--Inscription on a Pair of Spectacles--Campbell--Family of Cordeux--Panelling Inscription--Infantry Firing 406 REPLIES:-- The Reverend Richard Farmer, by Bolton Corney 407 Anglo-Catholic Library 408 General James Wolfe 409 Elizabeth Joceline's Legacy to an Unborne Child 410 MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 413 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 413 Notices to Correspondents 414 Advertisements 414 Notes. AGE OF TREES. Unfortunately this mode of determining a tree's age cannot be applied to a living tree; and it is only certain where the tree is sound at the heart. Where a tree has become hollow from old age, the rings near the centre, which constitute a part of the evidence of its duration, no longer exist. Hence the age of the great oak of Saintes, in the department of the Charente Inf?rieure, which measures twenty-three feet in diameter five feet from the ground, and is large enough to contain a small chamber, can only be estimated; and the antiquity of 1800 or 2000 years, which is assigned to it, must rest on an uncertain conjecture. "It is commonly and very probably asserted, that a tree gains a new ring every year. In the body of a great oak in the New Forest, cut transversely even, three and four hundred have been distinguished."--Vol. ii. p. 202. ed. Hunter. The age of some trees is determined by historical records, in the same manner that we know the age of an ancient building, as the Parthenon, the Colosseum, or the Tower of London. It is, however, important that such historical evidence should be carefully scrutinised; for trees which are known to be of great antiquity sometimes give rise to fabulous legends, destitute of any foundation in fact. Such, for example, was the plane-tree near Caphyae, in Arcadia, seen by Pausanias in the second century after Christ, which was reported by the inhabitants to have been planted by Menelaus when he was collecting the army for the expedition against Troy. Such too, doubtless, was the oak of Mamre, where the angels were said to have appeared to Abraham. A rose-tree growing in the crypt of the cathedral of Hildesheim is referred, by a church-legend, to a date anterior to 1061; which would imply an age of more than 800 years, but the evidence adduced seems scarcely sufficient to identify the existing rose-tree with the rose-tree of 1061. "If we consider the quick growth of the chestnut, compared with that of the oak, and at the same time the inferior bulk of the Tortworth Chestnut to the Cowthorp, the Bentley, and the Boddington oaks, may we not venture to infer that the existence of these truly venerable trees commenced some centuries prior to the era of Christianity?" The oaks here alluded to by Marshall are of immense size. The Cowthorp Oak is near Wetherby; the Bentley Oak, in Holt Forest, near Bentley; the Boddington Oak, between Cheltenham and Tewksbury . LINES ATTRIBUTED TO ADMIRAL BYNG. "Come all you true Britons, and listen to me; I'll tell you the truth, you'll then plainly see How Minorca was lost, why the kingdom doth ring, And lay the whole blame on Admiral Byng. Sing tantararara, rogues all, rogues all. "Newcastle, and Hardwick, and Anson did now Preside at the helm, and to whom all must bow; Minorca besieged, who protection will bring; They know 'tis too late, let the victim be Byng. Sing tantararara, rogues all. "With force insufficient he's ordered away; He obeys, and he sails without any delay; But alas! 'tis too late: who shall say to the king Minorca must fall, why, accuse Mr. Byng. Sing tantararara, rogues all. "Minorca now falls, and the nation enraged; With justice they cry, let all who engaged In traterous deeds, with curst infamy swing: What! none to be found but poor Admiral Byng. Sing tantararara, rogues all." Is there any reason to doubt the truth of this tradition, or that the verses were written by the unfortunate admiral? A. C. G. Ripley, Nov. 10, 1851. In our own, and in other languages, many beautiful poems--some of them very gems--exist, attached to, and written on some of "the most ridiculous prints that ever excited merriment." A tasteful collection of the more beautiful poems, with some spirited woodcuts, or engravings to accompany them, would form a beautiful volume. This, however, is a suggestion different from, and secondary to, Mr. Willmott's. Emblems, figures, symbols, &c., constitute a vast ocean of associations which all enter on, all understand, all sympathise with more or less. They enrich our language, enter into our commonest thoughts and conversation, as well as our compositions in poetry and prose. In a work on the subject it would be desirable to keep the classical, artistic, political, and other emblems apart from the sacred and moral, &c. Pia Desideria. Each book contains fifteen emblems. The principal editions are, Antv. 1624, ed. princeps; Antv. 1628, 1632; Graecii, 1651; Lond. 1677, sumptibus Roberti Pawlet, Chancery Lane. This London edition contains only verse, whereas all the other editions contain metre and prose before each picture, the prose being far the better of the two. The only prose that Pawlet's edition has is a motto from one of the Fathers at the back of each picture. MARICONDA. FOLK LORE. Farewell all, my parents dear, And all my friends, farewell! I hope I'm going to that place Where Christ and saints do dwell. Oppress'd with grief long time I've been, My bones cleave to my skin, My flesh is wasted quite away With pain that I was in, Till Christ his messenger did send, And took my life away, To mingle with my mother earth, And sleep with fellow clay. Into thy hands I give my soul, Oh! cast it not aside, But favor me and hear my prayer, And be my rest and guide. Affliction hath me sore oppress'd, Brought me to death in time; O Lord! as thou hast promised, Let me to life return. For when that Christ to judgment comes, He unto us will say, If we His laws observe and keep, "Ye blessed, come away." How blest is he who is prepar'd, He fears not at his death; Love fills his heart, and hope his breast, With joy he yields his breath. Vain world, farewell! I must be gone, I cannot longer stay; My time is spent, my glass is run, God's will I must obey. Another dirge, ending with the sixth stanza of the foregoing, is used at an infant's funeral, but the rhyme is not so well kept. WM. DURRANT COOPER. Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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