Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/169

 ]0"s.iv.Au<;.i2,i905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 137 if small population. This change is no doubt & boon to navigators in these waters, but it is impossible not to regret it from other points of view. The Hysker was a most fascinating spot for the yachtsman, the naturalist, and the lover of nature, and it is to be hoped that the great grey seals and the numerous sea birds, which formerly held undisturbed sway there, will not have reason to regret the intrusion of man. S. G. D. states that Lady Grange was kept at the Hyskers for nearly a year before being removed to St. Kilda. Is this the case? I had always supposed that it was the Heisker lying west of North Uist, one of the Monach Isles. Perhaps some contributor to ' N. & Q.' can settle this question. T. F. D. "VENI, CREATOR" (10th S. iv. 89).— Not in any way answering the precise query of ST. SWITHIN, but only as casting some light on the history of the translation of the"Veni, Creator," to which he refers, it may be men- tioned that Julian, in his ' Dictionary of Hymnology ' (p. 1209), deals at some length with the various translations of this ancient hymn of the Church. He there states that, in the form in which ST. SWITHIN gives, its first appearance can be traced to the Book of Common Prayer of 1662. Hut in an earlier form (the ''alternative" of ST. SWITHIN), as to orthography, &c., it was inserted in the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. (1552), and apparently in the Ordinal of 1549. It was also inserted in Archbishop Parker's Psalter, said to have been written by him while in exile (1553-8). The differences between the two lie more in the ortho- graphy and construction of the sentences than in any other point, and are chiefly interesting on that account. I do not see the difficulty that is suggested by ST. SWITHIN as to the tune to which the "alter- native" hymn could be sung, as it would easily go to any one of the ordinary com- mon-metre tunes, though naturally it would be better fitted to some than to others. J. WATKINSON. Herne Bay. Commentators are apparently unable to produce the name of the translator of the second version of the " Veni, Creator." Procter ('History of the Book of Common Prayer,' 1881) says the composition of the original Latin has been attributed to St. Ambrose, but it is not claimed by lii.s Bene- dictine editors. It may be assigned to Pihabanus Maurus, abbot and bishop of the ninth century. Two metrical versions are given in our Ordinal : the first, or shorter version, probably made by Dryden, was added in 1661. Eleven of the sixteen stanzas of the second version appear in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' No. 508, where they are set to the two well - known C.M. tunes. Tallis or St. Flavian. JOHN T. PAGE. West 11 Dillon, Northamptonshire. [The Rtv. E. S. CRANE is also thanked for a reply.] TULIPOMANIA (10th S. iv. 90).—Information on the subject is given by Lindle.v and Moore. "Bulbs were bought and sold," they write, " without even being seen—without even being in existence. In fact, they were the subject of a speculation not unlike that of railway scrip in this country at no very distant date." Dr. Charles Mackay devotes a chapter to it in his ' Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions,' p. 85. Regular marts, he says, for the sale of tulips were established in various Dutch towns in 1636, and then symptoms of gambling became apparent. "The stockjobbers, ever on the alert for a new speculation, dealt largely in tulips, making use of all the means they RO well knew how to employ to cause fluctuations in prices." In the second satire of 'The Uni- versal Passion,' Young, of 'Night Thoughts,' alludes to the mania in a passage which begins thus :— But Florin's fame, the product of a shower, Grows in his garden an illustrious flower ! Why teems the earth? Why melt the vernal skies? Why shines the sun? To make Paul Diack rise. This appeared in 1726, and about forty years later Churchill touched the suggestive theme in his ' Gotham,' i. 250. The poet, reflecting on the appearance and character of the tulip, accords it somewhat qualified approval, and ultimately dismisses it as " the fop of flowers, the More of a parterre." THOMAS BAYNE. See "Weizen und Tulpe und deren Ge- schichte. Von H. Grafen zu Solms-Laubach. Leipzig, Verlag von Arthur Felix, 1899," a learned and scientific history of the tulip, its cultivation and commerce, concluding with an excellent list of its literature. SENGA. [DK. BKUSHFIELD also refers to Dr. Mackay'a book.] LIVERPOOL PRINTED BOOKS : DK. HOOD (10th S. iv. 67).—The author of the books mentioned by my friend Mil. T. CANN HUGHES would be, I think, Bartholomew Prescot, a native of Buckley Mountain, in the parish of Hawardeu, Flint (Willett's 'History of Hawarden,' 1822, p. 140), and an accountant at Liverpool, whose name appears in Gore's Directories down to the year 1849. He is