Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/85

 8. III. JAN. 28, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

65

The book ends with ' Declamatiunculse Dute. ;

In 1798 the same printer issued a quarto pamphlet of forty - five pages, containing "Poems by Robert Farren Cheetham, of Brasen-Nose Coll., Oxon." This is dedicated to Lord Duncan :

" The song of victory is certainly most grateful to a Victor's ear. To your lordship, therefore, I beg'd to present my little offering, which you deigned to accept with that politeness by which you are uo less characterized than by your martial spirit."

This dedication is dated "Stockport, August, 179S." In the preface the young poet has a shot at the reviewers those hardened foes of literature ' The British Critic, when his verses were published under the pseudonym of Mathetes, said that they displayed vigour and melody ; but when they were reissued with Cheetham's name, it declared that " they abounded with puerilities and ill-constructed rhymes." This British Critic is decidedly at a disadvantage in the encounter. The Monthly Revieiv objected to the phrase " Cupid's whet- stone," to whom Cheetham opposes Horace :

" Cupidp

Semper ardentes acuens sagittas. General and unappreciative praise, or censure, I despise ; the self-important reprehension of igno- rance, thanks to niy stars I can heartily laugh at ; friendly and discriminative correction or applause is what I earnestly and solely desire : and this I have, and have had from some characters to whom litera- ture is under the highest obligations."

The first piece in this third collection is an 'Ode spoken at Manchester School in 1796.' It ends :

Thrice happy Britain ! quiet now thy fears ; Around thy shores the duteous bands arise, Prompt to each virtuous and each bold emprize, And proud to boast the name of Volunteers.

This pamphlet also was published by sub- scription, but the proceeds were given to the contributions for the benefit of those who volunteered into the army at a period when projects of invasion were feared. Pictures of these volunteers in their martial costume were formerly favourites in Man- chester homes. A second ode was spoken at Manchester School in 1797, and is also full of warlike ardour and denunciations of " the recreant Gaul." Another poem recalls to memory the abortive French attempt to invade Ireland. The rest of the verse is less bellicose, and we turn from these echoes of half-forgotten wars to happier themes. There are translations from Anacreon, the " wild and animated Statiu.s," and Silius Italicus, and a couple of suggested emendations in the text of Anacreon and Euripides. There

is a letter written on Valentine's Day. " The- old-fashioned but innocent custom of sending, valentines," we are told, " is generally known, to have arisen from the prevalent opinion that birds on this day begin their 'amorous, dalliance.' All the world knows that St. Vin- cent achieved his immortal victory on the- same day."

It is not easy to make any selection from Cheetham's longer pieces. Here is an epi- gram : Heaven's high command, " Thou shall not steal,"

The lovely Zara does not keep ; Our plundered breasts her thefts reveal ;

While, hopeless of redress, we weep.

The last couplet of his first pamphlet reads :

In-Cupid's wars the victors ever fly :

They fly that wound, and they pursue that die.

Cheetham did not publish anything after 1798. He took his B.A. degree at Oxford, 24 June, 1800, and, stricken down in the twenty-fourth year of his age, died at Stock- port, 13 January, 1801. An untimely ending to a promising career : Cut is the branch that might have grown full

straight, And burned is Apollo's laurel bough.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Manchester.

t; JOCKTELEG." (See 8 th S. vii. 506; viii. 113; 9 th S. vi. 328.) In the eighth chapter of the 1 Life of Sir Walter Scott,' Lockhart, referring to Dr. Somerville, the venerable minister of Jedburgh, says, "We heard him preach an excellent circuit sermon when he was up- wards of eighty-two ; and at the judge's- dinner afterwards he was among the gayest of the company." In 1813-14 Somerville- was confined to the house by an accident^ and he turned his leisure to good account by writing ' My Own Life and Times, 1741-1814.' In the chapter of the work devoted to Scotland as it was in the author'* .early days, a reference is made to the unsatisfactory character of the inns that were- then in existence. They were so ill provided with utensils, for example, that travellers- had to carry with them their own knives- and forks " in a case deposited in the side pocket of their small clothes." Having stated this, Somerville proceeds thus :

"And I may here mention that it was not only in travelling that this case and its contents were called into requisition. Most of the clergy, on the- occasion of their catechetical examinations when, according to ancient custom, it was their duty to dine with the farmer of the district visited and the greater number of the company at weddings and public dinners were similarly provided. The knife most in use was called Joclcteleg, a corruption or