Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/448

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. m. MAT is, 1905.

paper. Surely Benjamin Disraeli acknow- ledged to no more than a Hebrew extrac- tion, and was wont, as most people are aware, at times to resent even that. The lines run thus :

The statue of a buried Jew Looks darkly down on piles of you (i.e., _ prim roses). "Jew "and "you" arouse suspicion that fact has here been sacrificed to the exigences of rime, which, if so, would, I take it, exceed the bounds of poetic licence altogether. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

[Disraeli was a Jew by birth, which surely is an ample justification for the word as here used. We cannot see that poetical licence has been exceeded, or that the word is curious enough to justify the rather crude suspicion that it was necessitated by rime.]

IRISH AT CHERBOURG. In ' Marguerites du Temps Passe,' Madame Darmesteter (nee Miss A. M. F. Robinson) relates the story of " Phillippe le Cat." Therein she tells of " the numerous Irish emigrants who made up so large a portion of the population of Cher- bourg." The date given is 1429. Can any reader show if there is any historical justi- fication for the statement 1 Names of authori- ties referring to this colony of Irish will be most acceptable. SHAN GHALL.

MOHAMMED'S WILL. Where is the will of the prophet Mohammed deposited ? Is it in- tact ? W.

4 JANUS ; OR, THE EDINBURGH LITERARY ALMANACK.' This is a collection of essays, published by Oliver & Boyd (1826), of very high character, on every variety of topic. I have endeavoured to trace by internal evi- dencethe authorship of some, but in vain. There is reason to believe that among them are to be found some unrecorded biblio- graphical items. la anything known of this publication? EDWARD SMITH.

DUDLEY, EARL or LEICESTER. I should like to know something of the artist, or of the probable date, of a brass plaque (repoussf) bearing the inscription, "Robertus Dudleius Comes Leicestrise, Gubernator Belgarum." The artist's name is A. Arens. It seems an excellent likeness of Leicester, with long curled moustaches, the chin whisker rather longer than in the commonly seen engravings, and with a hat much like that worn by Bacon in the popular pictorial representations of him. n A TT

-T IT. ^~ /> ** il.

New York City.

CIPHER USED BY BALZAC. Many years ago I asked whether the first section of Medita-

tion xxv. in Balzac's 'Physiologie du Mariage' was a mere mystification or a genuine cipher, and, if a cipher, for its key. The one reply declared it a real cipher, bub did not supply the key. Can any correspon- dent now furnish it ?

I cannot give a reference to my previous communication, as my search for it, under each likely word, through all the index volumes, has been fruitless.

FRANK REDE FOWKE.

24, Netherton Grove, Chelsea, S.W.

NELSON COLUMN. There must be some mistake in the popular estimate of the height of this monument. It is said to be, column and capital, 176ft. 6 in. in height, and, in- cluding the statue (stated to be 18 ft.), 193-4 ft. (Weale's ' Handbook of _ London,' Bohn, 1854). But the scaffolding itself was only 170 ft. in height (Builder^ 2 December, 1843, p. 522); and "Moderator," writing to The Builder of 15 December, 1849, says :

"I have gone to the best source for my informa- tion, and find the height of the column as built, from the top of the pedestal to the top of the abacus, to be 101ft. Gin.; the lower diameter IQAft., and the upper diameter Oft."

What is the truth? The Mars Ultor column in Rome, which served as an example to the architect, is only 58 ft.

J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL.

"DUNELMLE FILIUS." Two little poetical tracts, 'A Few Sheaves, In-gathered,' Rams- gate, printed by Edwin Peirce ; and ' Leaves from the Mind's Diary,' Oxford, John Oliver, 47, George Street, are stated on fcheir title- pages to be by "Dunelmise Filius." They are not dated, but are later than 1870. Who was the author? W. C. B.

JOHN SHEPHARD, OF DOCTORS' COMMONS. I shall be glad to learn the name and date of the paper in which mention was made during April of the late Mr. John Shephard, of Doctors' Commons, in connexion with the resignation of the living of Eton by his eldest son, Canon J. Shephard.

(Miss) J. P. SHEPHARD.

2, Mandeville Place, W.

W. W. C. OR W. H. C., ARTIST, 1818.-I have a series of six pretty water - colour drawings of views in St. Lawrence, Thanet, which bear the above initials. One of them . 'South Chilton House,' evidently the ori- ginal drawing of Curling's house from which was reproduced the plate at p. 226 of Cotton's ' Hist, and Ant. of St. Lawrence.' Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' identify the artist ? may add that these drawings were purchased