Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Vol. IV Number 110 December 6 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men Artists Antiquaries Genealogists etc. by Various Bell George Editor

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"How wonderful is death-- Death and his brother sleep!"

"Since the Brother of Death daily haunts us with dying mementoes."

"Oh! what a wonder seems the fear of death, Seeing how gladly we all sink to sleep, Babes, children, youths, and men, Night following night, for threescore years and ten!"

"A sleep without dreams, after a rough day Of toil, is what we covet most; and yet How clay slinks back from more quiescent clay!"

"In brief all things are artificial; for Nature is the art of God."

"The course of Nature is the art of God."

The following are not exactly parallel, but being "in pari materia," are sufficiently curious and alike to merit annotation:

"But the common form with necks was a proper figure, making our last bed like our first: nor much unlike the urns of our nativity, while we lay in the nether part of the earth, and inward vault of our microcosm."

"The babe is at peace within the womb, The corpse is at rest within the tomb. We begin in what we end."

"The grave is as the womb of the earth."

HARRY LEROY TEMPLE.

FOLK LORE.

Seeing that another P-urveyor to your useful P-ages has assumed the same signature as myself, for the future permit me, for contradistinction, to be--

"J. P. P.," but not "CLERK OF THIS PARISH."

THE CAXTON COFFER.

L. B. L.

Minor Notes.

A. E. B.

PHILIP S. KING.

E. S. TAYLOR.

"Ut Rhadamantheum stetit ante tribunal Erasmus, Ante jocos scribens serio damnor, ait Cui Judex, libri dant seria damna jocosi, Si tibi culpa jocus, sit tibi poena jocus."

"Erasmus standeinge fore hell's tribune said, For writeinge iest I am in earnest paid. The iudge replied, Iests will in earnest hurt, Sport was thy fault, then let thy paine be sport."

D. B. J.

M. C. E.

"A coppy of certaine Verses dispersed in and about London in febr. 1634 in ye 10th year of ye Raigne of ye King Charls occasioned by ye eager prosecucon of Shipmoney, and Imprisonm'ts therefore.

"The Cittie Cofers abounding with Treasure, Can pay this ship Tribute, and doe poor men pleasure To save that Pelfe: the more is the pitty, The Grey Cloaks divide it and yet tax the Citty. A p'sent there being small occasion for Gold Hast thether Collectors, 'tis time it were tould And taken from such citty Asses: Mony whom sly Proiects easily passes, And speedily conveyt to Court Wher they to see it will make sport, And set out Shipps from Puddle dock To scoure ye seas. A pretty mock

"If that this ship Tribute be not speedily paid Pycrust Lord Maior saith in Newgate you shall be laid, Wher you shall see rogues, theeves, and vile knaves, Yet none so bad as are Tributarie Slaves.

"If men like Pycrust could make so great gain As xx'ty in ye hundred to Irish mens paine For moneys lent, some reason ther were, To pay this ship Tribute w'thout wit or feare.

"O crewell hard Pycrust though pay all men must This crewell hard Tribute cause thou art uniust And favourest this Project, when laid in thy grave All good men will say then: Parkhurst was a knave.

"Finis."

"O restos e imagen del grande Colon, Mil siglos durad guardados en la urna, Y en la remembranza de nuestra nacion!"

"O remains and image of the great Columbus, For a thousand centuries rest ye securely in this urn, And in the remembrance of our nation."

A. L.

West Indies.

Queries.

ADDITIONAL QUERIES RESPECTING GENERAL JAMES WOLFE.

I beg to thank the six gentlemen who have so promptly and courteously responded to my Queries respecting this admirable soldier. The information they have communicated is valuable and interesting, and tends to remove much of the obscurity that had attended my researches into the earlier portion of his history; and I feel greatly obliged to your correspondents. Still, some of my Queries are unanswered, and I venture to repeat these, in the hope that the information wanted may be elicited.

May I further inquire--

You farther state, that Wolfe was ardently attached to Colonel Barr?. It is curious enough that their introduction to each other was chiefly in consequence of a letter which Barr? carried to Wolfe, from the officer to whom Wolfe's letters in my possession are addressed. In one of these, dated "Portsmouth, 7th Feb. 1758," Wolfe, after speaking favourably of Barr?, states--

"I did not know that Barr? was your friend, nor even your acquaintance. Now that I do know it, I shall value him the more.... I trust I shall have good reason to thank the man that mentioned him. Nay, I am already overpaid, by the little that I did, by drawing out of his obscurity so worthy a gentleman. I never saw his face till very lately, nor ever spoke ten words to him before I ventured to propose him as a Major of Brigade."

And he adds:

"Barr? and I have the great apartment of a three-decked ship to revel in, but, with all this space, and fresh air, I am sick to death. Time, I suppose, will deliver me from these sufferings , though in former trials I never could overcome it", &c.

I cordially assent to your encomium on England's young general.

The lady to whom the affectionate and touching lines you have quoted were addressed was Miss Louther, a sister of Sir James Louther; rich, highly accomplished, and most amiable. Wolfe was to have been married to her, had he returned from Quebec. She was very averse to his accepting the command. But nothing could stay his military ardour, even though in indifferent health. Well might the epithet be applied to him--"favourite son of Minerva."

May I ask if the verses in your possession are signed by Wolfe; or in his autograph; and dated? It would be very interesting to have precise information, tending to identity Wolfe as the author of these lines.

I shall be glad to know the contents of the petition, dated February, 1746, and of the six letters mentioned by you. They may throw some light on Wolfe's history. Will you allow me to communicate with you on this subject, by letter, through the Editor, as I reside at a distance from London?

P.S.--Since expressing my acknowledgments to the other gentlemen who have kindly answered some of my inquiries respecting Wolfe, I have had the pleasure to peruse the information communicated by J. R. , and I beg to thank him for his courtesy. The sketch he has given of Wolfe's ancestors is very interesting, the more so, as J. R. mentions he is himself connected with Wolfe's family. Would J. R. be kind enough to supply information on the following additional points, viz.:

Answers to these Queries would connect some of the broken links in the history of one of the most gallant and skilful young generals that England ever entrusted with her armies.

General Wolfe's executor was General Warde, of the family of Squerries, near Westerham, by whom the epitaph was written, which is now over the south door of Westerham church. General Warde's nephew and executor was General George Warde, who by that means became possessed of several very interesting objects, viz., an original portrait of Wolfe, representing him with his natural red hair. After some time the natural red was converted, by water colours, into a powdered wig; consequently a sponge and clean water would restore it to its original state. Another portrait of Wolfe painted after his death by West; he is represented sitting and consulting a plan of military operations. West has given him the same countenance in which he appears in the celebrated picture of his death. When West was offered the original portrait on which to form this picture, he declined making use of it, as he had already committed himself in the historical portrait, and it would not do for him to alter it, and send out in his name two different portraits. Gen. G. Warde also possessed Wolfe's short sword and black leather letter-case, and a collection of original letters; among which was one of much interest, where Wolfe, mentioning the flattering terms in which he was spoken of by the public and high military authorities, says, that unwarranted expectations were raised, and that to maintain his reputation he might be driven into some desperate undertaking.

I write all this from memory, but my details cannot be very far from correct.

GRIFFIN.

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