Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/377

 io'- s. ii. OCT. is, i9M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

809

CRUIKSHANK'S DESIGNS FOR ' TAM o' SHAN- TER.' Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh published 'Tarn o' Shanter/ illustrated in colour by George Cruikshank. The title- page of the volume is dated 1884 ; yet in two bibliographies of the artist published since that year I find no mention of this book. What is more, one of the heads of the above- mentioned publishing firm informs me that he does not know what or whence were the originals of the illustrations. They are cer- tainly not, as a whole, characteristic of ** the great George." I know that he did work for 'Tarn o' Shanter ' (vide 9621 A in the Cruik- shank Collection at South Kensington Museum), but I am none the less puzzled about this book. Can any reader of ' N. <fe Q.' enlighten me ? W. H. CHESSON.

337, Sandycombe Road, Kew Gardens.

WALL: MARTIN. Where and when was my ancestor Col. John Wall, of the Lodge, Tewkesbury, married to Mary Brilliana, daughter of Robert Martin, of Peb worth, Gloucs 1 Their eldest child was born 2 April, 1773. EDWIN S. CRANE.

EDWARD VERB, SEVENTEENTH EARL OF OXFORD. I shall be glad to know whether any diary or other information as to the earl's travels on the Continent exists beyond the references in the Cecil Papers.

ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

Oxford.

" GRANT ME, INDULGENT HEAVEN." Loosely inserted in a book dated 1688 I find a contemporary scrap of MS., comprising the following verse. Does any reader of 'N. & Q.' recognize the lines and remember their authorship ?

Grant me indulgent Heaven a rural seat,

rather contemptable then great.

for 'tho I taste Life's Sweets still may 1 be ;

athirst for Immortality.

I wou'd have business, but exempt from Strife ;

A private but an Active Life.

A Conscience bould, & punctual to his Charge,

my stock of Health ; or patience large.

some books I 'de have, & some acquaintance too.

but very good & very few.

then if one Mortal two such grants may crave ;

from silent Life, I 'de steal into my grave.

CHARLES HIGHAM.

FIRST GENTLEMAN IN EUROPE. The Times (Friday, 7 September, 1804) has: "All that urbanity which distinguishes him as the most finished gentleman in Europe." When did this compliment first indicate the occupant of the English throne? MEDIOULUS.

ROGER CASEMENT. Is anything known about him ? It was he who, in 1849, travelled

from Widdin to London to deliver to Lord Palmerston Kossuth's letter, wherein the latter called for England's help to save him from Austria and Russia, who demanded his extradition from Turkey. L. L. K.

GOLDSMITH'S 'PRESENT STATE OF POLITE LEARNING.' There is in my possession a manuscript book of Nathan Drake, once widely known by his essays on eighteenth- century literature. It consists partly of extracts from his favourite authors, partly of notes on their lives and bibliography. Amongst the latter I found a very curious reference to Goldsmith. It is to the effect that the poet, settling down to a literary life after his wanderings abroad, composed the 'Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning,' in two languages, French and English ; that he endeavoured un- successfully to get the former published abroad; but that after the issue of the English edition it was published in London in 1762, under the title 'Considerations sur 1'Etat Pre'sent de la Litterature en Europe.'

I have looked all through the British Museum Catalogue without finding any book with this title, nor have I ever met with any confirmation of this story in any biography of Goldsmith. I should be glad, at any rate, to know if such a French book exists, for it seems to me equally incredible either that Goldsmith should have written it in French, or that in 1762 a translator should' have thought him worth translating. W. D.

[' Considerations sur 1'Etat Present de la Litte>a- ture en Europe' (Londres et Paris, Fournier, 1762, 12mo, pp. iv-284) was falsely attributed to the Abb6 Aubry, but is, according to Barbier, by Jean Baptiste Ren6 Robinet, 1735-1820, a Jesuit who, during many years, wrote as a Freethinker. It is not assigned him in the memoir in the ' Nouvelle Biographie G6ne"rale'of Hoefer, but the ascription is probable enough, since he translated many works from the English and edited the * Dictionnaire Anglais et Francais ' of Chambord, Londres, 1776, 2 vols. 4to.l

SAMUEL BRADFORD EDWARDS was admitted to Westminster School in 1812. I should be glad to obtain any information concerning his parentage and career. G. F. R. B.

AVALON. In a pedigree of the Calvert mily which occurs in Hearne's 'Collec- tions' (vol. vi. p. 221) it is stated that Sir >orge Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, was "First L d Proprietor of Avalon in America. Granted him in 1623." This Avalon was, I imagine, in Maryland. Can any one tell me where it is or was, and how it had acquired a name so intimately con- nected with King Arthur? K. P. D. E.