Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/261

 10* S. I. MARCH 12, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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local grammar school. The father lectured before the Natural Philosophy Section of the Society on 'Cosmic Ether' on 18 March, 1875; on ' The Raindrop and some of its Uses ' on 8 March, 1877 ; and again on ' The Sunbeam ' on 19 Dec., 1878. His name does not appear in the list of members for 1882-3.

Mrs. E. Comber was a member from 1889-90 to 1892-3.

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A,

Lancaster.

QUOTATIONS (9 th S. xi. 148). (1) Apparently Saurin merely proposed the phrase " Rien ne manque a sa gloire ; il manquait a la notre," as the inscription on Moliere's statue, so that it would scarcely, I should think, be found in the poet's works ; but, quite by chance, I some time ago met with the fol- lowing lines in Racine's 'Andromaque' (III. iii. 21-2) :

Intrepide, et partout suivi de la victoire, Charmant, fidele ; en fin rien ne manque a sa gloire,

which would seem to be the original of the idea, whether Saurin had seen or heard of them or not.

(2) Learning that De Caux had written a poem called ' L'Horloge de Sable,' I thought the lines quoted might probably be contained therein, which I found to be the case. The poem is well worth quoting in extenso (it contains ninety-six lines), but I will now give only the first twelve lines :

Assemblage confus d'une arene mobile, Que 1'art sut enfermer dans ce vase fragile ; Image de ma vie, Horloge dont le cours Regie tons mes devoirs en mesurant mes jours : Puisqu'a te celebrer ma Muse est destinee, Fais couler pour mes Vers une heure fortunee. Et vous, pour qui le monde a de si doux appas, Qui souffrez a regret ceux qui ne 1'aiment pas, Mortels, venez ici. Je veux dans cet ouvrage, l)u monde tel qu'il est vous tracer une image. Quel est-il en effet ? C'est un verre qui luit, Qu'un souffle peut detruire, & qu'un souffle a produit.

I have preserved the original spelling, and it will be seen that your correspondent has not quoted the lines quite correctly.

In the same volume (published 1745) are the following remarks :

"II donna une Tragedie au Theatre Francais, intitulee ' Marios,' qui fut assez bien reciie. On a encore de lui quelques Pieces de Vers estimees, & surtout ' L'Horloge de Sable,' qui pourroit faire honneur a un Poete du premier ordre."

Having read the poem, I agree with this opinion, and if any readers should ask for the rest, I shall be pleased to transcribe it if so requested by the Editor.

EDWARD LATHAM.

MINISTERIAL WHITEBAIT DINNER (9 th S, xii. 189, 272, 337). Among "the gay con- sequences " which Benjamin Disraeli in one of the ' Runnymede Letters,' dated 12 March, 1836, thought possible from "a Reform Ministry and a Reform Parliament, 1 ' 7 was that " His Majesty's Ministers may hold Cabinet Councils to arrange a whitebait dinner at Blackwall, or prick for an excursion to Richmond or Beulah Spa." That ministers were at one time accustomed to hold their whitebait dinner at Blackwall may further be gathered from an incidental reference, under the heading ' Sandlins,' in 2' Kl S. iv. 250, to

" the description of fish sauce served up at the Cabinet dinner given at the 'Plough' at Black- wall, or the quality of the whitebait which that renowned restorcvtenr, Lovegrove, sends to table on that occasion."

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

CLAVERING : DE MANDEVILLE (10 th S. i. 149). De Mandeville does not appear to have held any manor in Clavering, though possessed of a holding in Uttlesford Hundred assessed in Clavering Hundred. The chief manor of Clavering was held by Suain, or Suene, of Essex in William I.'s reign, and continued in that house till forfeited in 1163. The Fitz-Roger family of Wark worth, whose later members were known as De Clavering, came into possession of the lordship late in the twelfth century.

Nothing is left of Suain's castle but the great earthworks, of which I gave a plan in the 'Victoria History of Essex ' (i. 292). These works are of exceptional interest from the enormous labour expended in diverting the river Stort to form a high-banked reservoir on the north of the castle. The place has long been known as Clavering Bury, and is close to the parish church.

In this neighbourhood are many undated farmhouses ; why the outlying one which recently became so notorious should have been styled The Moat Farm it is not easy to say. It certainly was not the " original manor " of Clavering.

I. CHALKLEY GOULD.

These families were not originally iden- tical. Geoffrey de Mandeville, first Earl of Essex, was a grandson of a follower of the Conqueror. He married Rohese de Vere,. daughter of Aubrey de Vere by his wife Alice, daughter of Gilbert de Clare. Alice de Vere, the second daughter of Aubrey de Vere, married, as her second husband, Roger fitz Richard, and was mother of Robert fitz Roger, of Clavering, the ancestor of the Claverings.

The arms of the two families are not quite