Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/592

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JUNK is, MM.

The first poem, "ascribed to Sir Edward Dyer," as it is still, begins with the striking verse :

My mind to me a kingdom is ;

Such perfect joy therein I find, As far exceeds all earthly bliss.

That God or nature hath assign'd.

I have always assumed this to be a genuine verse of Dyer, and used it lately as the best description I knew. of the intellectual con- tentment of Herbert Spencer in his last days.

Since I have been reminded that in the 'Golden Treasury,' compiled by one of the Pal- graves, the verse is differently given, I find Henry Morley, in Cassell's " Library of Eng- lish Literature," 'Shorter English Poems,' no date given (why do publishers of repute issue books without any date ?), follows Palgrave or Palgrave follows him in pub- lishing the verse in the following way : My mind to me a kingdom is,

Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That earth affords, or grows by kind.

Here are several words changed, and the last line needs an interpreter to explain it. It looks as though Dyer (who died 1607) had been reading Darwin or Spencer without improving the quality or boldness of his first thought. The question I want answered is, Did Dyer write as I quoted him in 1847? And if so, who has altered it since ? Has poor Dyer been bowdlerized, or annotated, or improved, or explained away, as is the fate of so many authors when they fall into the hands of modern editors ?

G. J. HOLYOAKE.

Brighton.

BYKONIANA. Who was the author of 'A Sequel to " Don Juan," ' published by Paget & Co., 2, Bury Street, St. James's, without date ? It is a book of 239 large octavo pages, containing nearly 700 eight-line stanzas, in five cantos. This question was a good many years since discussed in ' N. <fe Q.,' but never definitely answered.

Was Byron the author of (any of) 'Ac- cepted Addresses,' published about the time of James and Horace Smith's 'Kejected Ad- dresses ' ? The bibliography of the latter is well known, but I have failed to find any clue to ' Accepted Addresses,' though it not long since appeared as a scarce item in a bookseller's catalogue. W. B. H.

INNS OF COURT. It seems clear that during the Middle Ages the members of each Inn lived in chambers in the Inn. It seems also clear that the wife of a member was not

allowed to share his rooms. Is there any record of a member giving up his rooms- when he married ? or did he still live there, and keep a separate establishment for his wife? Q. B.

DESECRATED FONTS. I shall be glad to be supplied with instances of desecrated fonts. The following examples have lately come under my notice :

When visiting the church of St. James, Thrapston, in 1903, the Northamptonshire Architectural Society reported : "The ancient fourteenth-century font is in a garden in the town. A modern one has taken its place in the church."

The Bev. Thos. Jones, recently appointed vicar of Amblestone Church, Pembrokeshire, discovered the ancient font "fulfilling a sphere of innocent usefulness in a house belonging to one of the oldest parishioners. It had been ingeniously adapted as a cheese press, and was still in an excellent state of preservation." It is interesting to learn that it has again been restored to the church.

The font of Tideswell Church, Derbyshire, " was rescued by the late vicar from a rubbish heap, where it had been placed by the Goths of the eighteenth century, who used it as a parish paint-pot when they 'beautified' the church with blue and mahogany paint."

I have myself seen several instances of ancient fonts relegated to a position amongst the monuments in the churchyard in order to make room for modern erections. This is only the first step towards desecration, or more often total destruction. I maintain that a font should never under any circum- stances be cast out of a church. Even if a new one is absolutely necessary, the ancient receptacle should be fondly cherished and reverently placed in some quiet corner within the walls of the sacred edifice.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

NAPOLEON ON IMAGINATION. The following passage, attributed to Napoleon, occurs as a motto to the ninth chapter of the third volume of Mr. Morley's 'Life of Gladstone.' Will some one tell me where the original is to be found 1

" You can only govern men by imagination ;

without imagination they are brutes 'Tis by

speaking to the soul that you electrify men."

K. P. D. E.

"LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD." The

sense of these words spoken by Jesus is clear, but not the setting. Dead people cannot