Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/187

 io s. i. FEB. 20, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

151

See the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' i. 130 (where it is said she was " of rather defective in- tellect "), and the references there supplied. See also the 'Parish Registers of St. Ed- mund's, Lombard Street,' by W. Brigg, B.A., 1892, preface and p. 54. Addison's marriage took place on 9 August, 1716, not on the 3rd, as in 'D.N.B.,'i- 129. W. C. B.

A great deal of interesting information concerning this lady and her residence, Bilton Grange, near Rugby, may be found in Howitt's 'Homes and Haunts of the British Poets' (fourth edition, 1858), published by Routledge & Co. She died in 1797, at the age of eighty, was buried in the chancel of Bilton Church, and according to this autho- rity^ left all her property away from the Addison family, and to the Bridgemans.

Mention is made of a portrait existing in the house at that time of Addison by Kneller in light blue, as represented in the hall of Queen's College, Oxford ; of her mother, the Countess of Warwick; of herself when a child, and many other fine portraits. As is well known, the house was once in the occupation of C. J. Apperley, the Nimrod of sporting literature.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

The accounts we have of this lady differ somewhat. See 'Annual Register,' xxxix. 12, and * N. & Q.,' 7 th S. x. 434, 513.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

' ADDRESS TO POVERTY ' : BY CHARLES LAMB? (10 th S. i. 43.) I have been long familiar with the 'Address to Poverty,' tran- scribed by COL. PRIDEAUX from the ' Poetical Register' for 1806-7 (London, 1811, vol. vi. p. 264). The lines first appear in the opening number of the Monthly Magazine (February, 1796), vol. i. p. 55, where they are signed L. and dated 1 February, 1796. Their melan- choly cast is not unlike the tone of despond- ency which occasionally, though rarely, strikes us in Lamb's earliest letters to Cole- ridge (see, for instance, the letter dated 10 December, 1796 ' Letters,' ed. Ainger, 1888, vol. i. p. 55). Yet I do not believe them to be Lamb's. Certain other pieces, written in rhymed decasyllabics and signed L., but differing from Lamb's known early verse in style and sentiment, are to be found in the poets' page of this magazine in the years 1796-8. In the second number of the magazine there is a poem in this metre and with this signature, entitled ' The Prostitute'

(dated 3 March, 1796), which might also con- ceivably be Lamb's :

THE PROSTITUTE.

As trav'lers through life's vary'd paths we go, What sights we pass of wretchedness and woe Ah ! deep and many is the good man's sigh O'er thy hard sufferings, poor Humanity !

What form is that which wanders up and down ? Some poor unfriended orphan of the town ! Heavy, indeed, hath ruthless sorrow prest Her cold hand at her miserable breast ; Worn with disease, with not a friend to save, Or shed a tear of pity o'er her grave ; The sickly lustre leaves her faded eye ; She sinks in need, in pain, and infamy !

Ah ! happier innocent ! on whose chaste cheek The spotless rose of virtue blushes meek ; Come shed, in mercy shed, a silent tear, O'er a lost sister's solitary bier ! She might have bloom'd like thee in vernal life ; She might have bloom'd. the fond endearing wife ; The tender daughter ; but want's chilling dew Blasted each scene hope's faithless pencil drew ; No anxious friend sat weeping o'er her bed, Or ask'd a blessing on her wretched head.

She never knew, tho' beauty mark'd her face, What beggars woman-kind of ev'ry grace ! Ne'er clasp'd a mother's knees with fond delight, Or lisp'd to Heav'n her pray'r of peace at night ! Alas ! her helpless childhood was consign'd To the unfeeling mercy of mankind !

This second poem, which contains one line (1. 25) borrowed from Bowles ('Verses to the Philanthropic Society,' 1. 116), is reprinted in a little volume entitled ' Beauties of British Poetry,' edited by Sidney Melmoth, and published at Huddersfield in 1801. It also contains a phrase " want's chilling deio" which seems to be suggested by Coleridge's ' Lines on a Friend who died of a Frenzy Fever,' 1794 :

such chill dew Wan Indolence on each young blossom shed.

Had the 'Address to Poverty' and 'The Prostitute ' been Lloyd's, they would most likely have been collected in one of his sub- sequent volumes. On the whole, I incline to think they were written by Robert Lovell, Southey's brother-in-law and collaborator in the little volume entitled ' Poems by Robert Lovell and Robert Southey.' published at Bath in 1795. In this volume the poems contributed by Southey were signed " Bion," while those of Lovell were distinguished by the signature "Moschus." Lovell died, after a brief illness, in April, 1796, but he may have sent a number of verses to the magazine shortly before.

Amongst the crowd of contemporary poet- asters were two other "L.s" Capel Loffc and the Rev. William Lipscomb. But the general resemblance to Bowles of the 'Ad- dress' and 'The Prostitute' on the one