Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/12

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. JDLY 4, im

of either knife or fork. He passed the evening on the quarter-deck, and chatted with easy pleasantry with those near him. Henever moved his hands from their habitual places in his dress, except to apply them to a snuff-box ; but he never offered a pinch to any one with whom he was conversing. He played at cards during the evening. He never omitted an opportunity of asking

rstions. On one occasion he inquired ut a religious community in Scotland called Johnsonians ! a question which no one could answer ; the only probable solu- tion being that when he contemplated invading England he had the Hebrides in mind, and Johnson's * Tour to the Hebrides ' got mixed up in his mind as hav- ing relation to some religious community or other.

As for Napoleon's invasion of England, our surgeon says that according to his recol- lection it was not generally considered practicable, but he gives his authority for the actual intention of carrying it out :

" Bonaparte positively avers it. He says that he had 200,000 men on the coast of France opposite to England ; and that it was his determination to head them in person. The attempt he acknowledged to l>e very hazardous, and the issue equally doubtful. His mind, however, was bent on the enterprise, and every possible arrangement was made to give effect to its operations. It was hinted to him, however, that his flotilla was altogether insufficient, and that rsuch a ship as the Northumberland would run down

fifty of them but he stated that his plan was to

/rid the Channel of English men-of-war, and for that purpose he had directed Admiral Villeneuve, with the combined fleets of France and Spain, to sail apparently for Martinique, for the express purpose of distracting our naval force, by drawing after him .a large portion of, if not all, our best ships. Other /squadrons of observation would follow, and Eng- land might by these manoeuvres be left sufficiently defenceless for his purpose. Admiral Villeneuve was directed, on gaining a certain latitude, to take a, baffling course back to Europe, and, having eluded the vigilance of Nelson, to enter the English Channel. The flotilla would then have sallied forth from Ostend, Dunkirk, Boulogne, and the adjoining

ports But Villeneuve was met on his return by

Sir Robert Calder, and, having suffered a defeat, took refuge in Ferrol. From that harbour he was peremptorily ordered to sea, according to his original instructions ; but contrary to their most imperative and explicit intent, he steered his course for Cadiz. 'He might as well,' exclaimed Napo- leon, raising his voice, and increasing his im- petuosity ' he might as well have gone to the East Indies.' Two days after Villeneuve had quitted his anchorage before Cadiz a naval officer arrived there to supersede him. The glorious victory of Trafalgar soon followed, and the French admiral died a few -days after his arrival in France ; report says by his own hand."

E. MAKSTON.

(To be concluded )

'ENGLANDS PARNASSUS,' 1600. (See 10 S. ix. 341, 401.)

WHENEVEB I have had occasion to examine works which consisted largely of prose I have 'noticed that, as an invari- able rule, Allot skipped translated sen- tences from old writers that were not dropped from the body of the text and printed separately ; but that if such sen- tences were accorded a distinct setting, he very often took note of them for his book. In ' Wits Miserie ' many verses from old poets are mingled with the prose, and Lodge has translated them in a form that made them fit for Allot' s purposes ; but none of these appears in * Englands Par- nassus,' whereas few of the pronounced verses were allowed to escape his notice. The discovery of this peculiarity resulted in lessening the labour of research, and it proved to me that Allot was a superficial reader, who was only anxious to collect certain material which did not involve much labour in its accumulation. Verse is verse, whether it be shown in the body of the text or separately ; and therefore if Ovid, or Lucan, or Virgil is good for quotation in one case, why ignore him in the other ? Because Allot did not see these things that is the answer ; he did not read the whole of a book, only its poetry, and when in a prominent setting.

The last case of jumbling revealed by the pamphlet concerns a translation by Lodge from Horace, and two lines the end ones from some unnamed writer, who, however, will be discovered to be one of the poets who figure elsewhere in Allot' s book. For it is a very remarkable fact that, so far as the names of authors are concerned, 4 Englands Parnassus ' is self-contained ; the only exceptions to this rule being,

the subject later on, and finish at once with the mingled passages that concern * Wits Miserie ' :

4 Words,' p. 366. If so the crow would feast him without prate, More meate hee should receive, lesse brawle and

hate.

A foole hee is, that comes to preach and prate, When men with swords their right and wrong

debate. No author named.

If anybody wishes to find the first two lines of what follows, let him avoid * Hero and Leander* as he would the plague, charm Collier never so sweetly. The lines