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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAB. 27, im

size of a half-crown) on the side, half-way up. The crest was that of the Irish La Touche family. I was told that the branch settled at Bellevue, co. Wicklow (wheri this very specimen is preserved), used in former days to have all their wine-bottles distinguished in this manner.

H. G. ABCHEB. 29, Sussex Gardens, Hyde Park, W.

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

" PURFLY." Carlyle (Fraser's Mag., 1832, v. 393) refers to Dr. Johnson as " the purfly, sand-blind lubber and blubber, with his open mouth, and face of bruised honeycomb ; yet already dominant, imperial, irresistible." In Carlyle's notebook quoted by Froude in 'Life of C.,' II. x. (1882) 231, we find also " a very large, purfly, shabby man." What did Carlyle mean to express by purfly ? Can any parallels be adduced ?

J. A. H. MURRAY. Oxford.

THOMAS MAY'S ' JULIUS CAESAR.' Can any ^one tell me where the MS. of Thomas May's Latin tragedy on Julius Caesar is to be found ? Mr. Fleay (' Biographical Chro- nicle of the English Drama,' ii. 84), citing the ' Biographia Dramatica ' (1812), says : " The MS. is in the possession of Mr. Stephen Jones." Can it be traced further ?

H. M. AYRES.

Columbia University, New York.

BEN MEIR'S CHRONICLES. In Longfellow's 'Scanderbeg' ('Tales of a Wayside Inn') the following lines occur :

The cities far and near,

Sayeth Ben Joshua Ben Meir,

In his Book of the Words of the Days,

" Were taken as a man

Would take the tip of his ear." Can any one tell me who was Ben Meir, and in what editions or translations his chronicles are available to the student ? I have always taken a special interest in Scanderbeg since I heard his story from a Macedonian brigand whose acquaintance I made many years ago one of the heroes of the Cretan insurrection of 1867 and Russo-Turkish War of 1878.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL CHORISTERS. As I am desirous of tracing the subsequent careers of several of those who were educated

at the Choir School, I should be glad if any of your readers could inform me whether any register of them has been published in recent years. J. A. NORRIS.

2, Kennington Park Gardens, S.E.

'TIME AND TRUTH RECONCILING THE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS WORLD TO SHAKE- SPEARE.' I should like to learn who was the author of this book, published in London in 1854 by W. Kent & Co. RUNNEMEDE.

[Halkett and Laing state that it is by B. S. Naylor.]

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Who- is the author of the following lines ? Weep not for those departed, But shed the bitter tear For those who, brokenhearted, Are doomed to linger here.

W. RAMSDEN.

Qui severiores artes colimus. Quoted by De Quincey in postscript to ' The Spanish Military Nun.' V. H. C.

Can any of your readers supply the hymn in which these (or similar) lines occur ? The soul on Jesus is leaned for repose ; I will never, no never, desert to His foes.

I should be grateful to any one who could supply the whole of this old hymn.

R. C. C. WILLIAMS.

1. Though beaten back in many a fray, Yet freshening strength we borrow ; For where the vanguard comes to-day The rear will halt to-morrow.

2. God is our Guide ; no sword we draw ; We seek to light no battle fires ;

By union, justice, reason, law,

We claim the birthright of our sires.

Lucis.

DE LA MOTTE DE LA GARRE OF CAEN.

I am anxious to find a pedigree of the above. Baroness Elizabeth (or Margaret) is supposed to have married into the Le Maistre family of Jersey. Could any of your readers help me in tracing the marriage, and give me information about the family ?

E. H. MARTIN. The Cottage, Westhope, Craven Arms.

' THE OLD FARM-HOUSE.' I read and earnt by heart this short poem some forty- five years ago, and have never come across t since. The first stanza is :

This is the old farm-house

With its deep rose-tangled porch,

Where hover and rise white butterflies,

And honey-bees hold debauch. /VTiere did it appear ? and is the author mown ? JOHN E. T. LOVEDAY.