Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/187

 10*8. iv. AUG. 19,1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 151 up by the plough in the neighbourhood of Bridgewater was added to his collection Very many of these coins, consisting chiefly of Roman brass and silver, together with the beautiful Louis Quinze cabinet, inlaid with variegated wood, in which they were kept, are in my possession. William Anstice was the second son oi Robert Anstice, and was born in 1781 Through his mother, Susanna Ball, he was connected with the family of the celebrated Bristol philanthropist Richard Reynolds, and on attaining to manhood he entered into partnership with that gentleman's son, William Reynolds, in the conduct of some extensive ironworks at Iron Bridge, in Shropshire. William Anstice, writes Mrs. Sandford, " has been described to me as one of the most fascinating of men, brilliant in wit—all the Anstices possessed that delightful endowment, a strong sense of humour—very poetical, very religious and highly principled, and_ at the same time a first-rate man of business, and of considerable scientific ac- quirements." In 1806 he married Penelope, the youngest daughter of John Poole, of Marshmill, Over Stowey, Somerset, and a first cousin of Tom Poole, Coleridge's friend and correspondent. Miss Poole, though between eight and nine years older than her husband, survived him for seven years. Mrs. Sandford describes her as " a beautiful, dark-eyed girl, with a voice of unusual power and sweetness, and a fine taste for the best music, which made Handel her favourite composer." Tom Poole for years bore an attachment to this attractive cousin which •was never returned. She died on 14 July, 1857, her husband having predeceased her on 12 Aug., 1850. _ Joseph Anstice was the second son of this gifted pair. As a boy he acquired the rudi- ments of learning at a village school which had been established by his uncle, the Rev. John Poole, at Enmore, in Somersetshire, of which place he_ was vicar. John Poole, who had been a distinguished Fellow of Oriel, was an enthusiast in the cause of education, and his school acquired celebrity as a model insti- tution. From Enmore Joseph Anstice pro- ceeded to Westminster, and thence to Christ Church, where he was elected to a student- ship. At the University he became a fast friend of Mr. Gladstone, who was a year or so his junior, and who has acknowledged the benefit he received from his intercourse with his young comrade. Of his University successes therp survives "Richard Coeur de Lion, a prize poem, recited in the Theatre, Oxford, June 18, 1828" (Oxford, 1828, pp. 15), a work not perhaps above the average of such perform- ances, though it contains a few fine lines. He took his degree with much distinction, and when King's College was founded, a year or two later, he was offered and accepted the appointment of Professor of Classical Litera- ture. His introductory lecture, delivered at the College on 17 October, 1831, was pub- lished by B. Fellowes, of 30, Ludgate Street, pp. 31, at the end of that year, and its strik- ing defence of classical scholarship might be read with advantage at the present time. About the same time he married his first cousin, Elizabeth Spencer Ruscombe Poole, daughter of Joseph Ruscombe Poole, a Bridgewater solicitor, who was a brother of his mother, Penelope. This lady, who was about a year older than himself, was known to her friends as Bessy Poole, and had been educated in France, where she had had as a schoolmate no less a person than Fanny Kemble. In the ' Records of a Girlhood' she figures as "E.," and, as Mrs. Sandford says, was an object of unbounded admiration to her volatile schoolfellow. In early life she resembled her aunt Penelope in being beautiful, and on her return to England she became the friend and companion of Sara Coleridge, with whom, as was the custom of young ladies in those days, many tender verses were exchanged. Some specimens of Elizabeth Poole's poetry are in my possession ; but their quality will be better estimated by the version of Schiller's poem ' Thekla's Song' which is given in the notes to her husband's selections from Greek choric poetry. She was also an acquaintance of Arthur Hallam, who addressed to her the sonnet beginning— O gentle nightingale, whose woodland home Is empty now of thine accustomed lay Why is there silence with thee now ? The tone Sleeps in the lyre—wilt thou not break its rest? In 1832 Joseph Anstice published through B. Fellowes, of Ludgate Street, his 'Selec- tions from the Choric Poetry of the Greek Dramatic Writers.' To render adequately a Gireek chorus into English verse is perhaps beyond the capacity of mortal man; but no one can read these ' Selections' without being impressed by the great taste and cultivation of the translator, as well as by his extra- ordinary linguistic ability. In the notes will 3G found parallel passages from the principal wets not only of Greece and Rome, but of France, Germany, and Italy, rendered into English verse with unerring skill and ap- sropriateness. As indicated above, in the ^reparation of these notes he was assisted