Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/375

 10 s. x. OCT. 17, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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THE PORTMAN ESTATES. The following extract from a suburban newspaper affords a curious instance of the manner in which local history is taught nowadays. It is, of course, well known that the London property of Lord Portman has been in the uninterrupted possession of the family since it was conveyed to Sir William Portman, Lord Chief Justice of England, in the first year of Queen Mary's reign :

" Lord Portman, like the Dukes of Bedford and Westminster, and Lord Howard de Walden, is fortunate enough to be among the great ground landlords of the West End of London. The Port- mans have always been extensive landowners in Dorsetshire, but the way in which the London estates came into the family is something of a romance. Nearly 200 years ago, an ancestor of Lord Portman's kept a famous herd of cows, and found, when he went to town, that London milk was very inferior to what he was accustomed to in Dorset- shire. So he decided to bring up some of his own cows, and bought a couple of fields to keep them in, close to his London residence. Those two fields are now the site of Portman Square, which, with its adjoining streets, represents some of the most valuable property in London."

At the same time I must confess that I cannot help viewing with a sympathetic eye these attempts to infuse a little life into the dry bones of London history.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

CONWAY CHARTER. The charter of this town temp. Richard II. is in private hands. Those interested in the town may be glad to know this. MRS. COPE.

LLANGOULEN. This chapel is of very ancient origin. A particularly interesting lawsuit arose about pew rights in it in the seventeenth century. A market was granted to the town. I have lately been studying some interesting deeds relating to this part.

MRS. COPE.

WREXHAM. Any one writing the history of Flintshire and Denbighshire may be in- terested to know that a Muster Roll of 1644 is in my possession. MRS. COPE.

18, Harrington Court, S.W.

CRASHAW AND MAXIMILIAN SANDJEUS.

The best-known line of Crashaw's Latin poetry is undoubtedly the last of the quatrain on the miracle at Cana, which first appeared in his ' Epigrammatum Sacrorum Liber ' (Cantab., 1634), p. 37 in Mr. A. R. Waller's edition of Crashaw :

Joann. 2.

Aquse in vinum versse. Unde rubor vestris, & non sua purpura lymphis ?

Quee rosa mirantes tarn nova mutat aquas ? Numen (convivse) preesens agnoscite Numen : Nympha pudica Deum vidit, & erubuit.

I do not know whether it has ever been pointed out that Crashaw seems to have been indebted here to the Jesuit Maximilianus Sandaeus (van der Sandt, 1578-1656). In the latter 's ' Maria rFlos mysticus siue Ora- tiones Ad Sodales in festivitatibus deiparse Habitse desumpta materia a floribus cum figuris Ereis,' printed at Mainz in 1629, on p. 24, opposite the beginning of the first oration ('Maria in Purificatione Rosa'), is an emblem, a rose with a picture in its centre of the presentation in the Temple, and under it the distich,

Vin' scire unde suum rosa Candida traxerit ostrum ? Purgantem vidit Virginem, et erubuit.

EDWARD BENSLY. Central-Hotel, Frankfurt a. M.

[Many communications have appeared in ' N. & Q. concerning Crashaw's famous line. See 1 S. vi. 358 ; viii. 242 ; 4 S. iv. 198, 244 ; 6 S. viii. 165, 294 ; 7 S. v. 301. Mr. King in the 1904 edition of his 'Classical and Foreign Quotations ' quotes the line as from a 1634 London edition of Crashaw. ]

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

OMAR KHAYYAM BIBLIOGRAPHY. I desire the co-operation of all who are interested in the production of ' A Bibliography of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, with Notes for an Anthology of Kindred Literature.' Apart from the various translations in English and many foreign languages, and the numerous editions of the ' Rubaiyat ' published both in America and abroad, all matter on the subject will be included, such as verses, parodies, criticisms, magazine and newspaper items, &c. It is especially desired to procure the dates and original sources of everything printed on the subject.

The work will be issued during the early months of 1909, and not later than 31 March, the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Edward FitzGerald. The book will be dedicated to the Omar Khayyam Club of America, and the edition will be strictly limited. I desire to make this bibliography as complete as possible, and any sugges- tions and items of interest will be gratefully acknowledged. H. M. SCHROETER.

339, South Hill Street, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

WINSION'S ' THE THEATRIC TOURIST.' I should be obliged to any reader who could acquaint me with the name and address of the present owner of the special copy of Winston's 'Theatric Tourist,' sold at