Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/331

 io» s. iv. SEPT. so, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 273 en cabochon, shew a star light Such stones are therefore commonly called Star Stones, whilst by the Ancients they were called Astoria*. According to Plutarch, the River Sangaris produced a gem called Aster, which was luminous in the dark, and was known to the Phrygians as Sullen, or 'The King.'" Further on :— "The purple and reddish Corundums, when judi- ciously cut, shew Asterism, thus forming Star Rubies- and in like manner we may have Star Emeialdi and Star Garnets. The Orientals have ever entertained a peculiar veneration for Star Stones, but only of late years have they been of any value in England. The finest Star Ruby lately seen was valued at 2002." ROBERT PIEEPOINT. GEORGE lll.'s CLEVERNESS (10th S. iv. 148). —ST. SWITHIN asks, " Has any other candid writer committed himself to such a favour- able judgment of the abilities of George III.?" One of the pleasures in store for our posterity is the rehabilitation of the eighteenth cen- tury, in the adjustment of the public cha- racters of the men who made the period what it was. King George III. is prominent among those men. The traditions, as we have them from party writers and irresponsible humour- ists, are as far as possible wide of the truth. There are very many "candid" persons (if not writers) who are prepared in these days to assert that George III. had high abilities. It is clear that Mr. Creevey and some of his friends, albeit good Whigs, considered the king to be a " clever" man : but then his cleverness was exhibited in his " revenge, his "hatred," his "tyranny," and so forth. That is to say, he had made a triumphant effort to rescue his country from that oligarchical set of persons who had come to believe that England was delivered unto them, in whom alone dwelt political wisdom. I notice that the writer in the 'D.N.B.' is little afraid to justify his necessary approval of many points in the king's character, as though unwilling to oppose the old traditions, and states that "he renounced the proper sphere of a constitutional monarch in favour of that of a party leader." The fact is that King George wanted to be above party-spirit, and that the Whigs never forgave him. He was an intensely conscientious man, pious to an extreme, patient; he had that firmness •which is naturally called "obstinate" by his opponents ; " slow and prejudiced, yet not without ability," as Mr. Hunt says in the ' D.N.B.' His patriotism was unquestionable —apart from his politics, he was charming to everybody. But4 of course, when Francis Place could call him a vulgar-minded man (whom he never met in the flesh); when John Adams, who was received with almost affec- tionate courtesy, could go home and put it on record that he was slighted ; when the ate Mr. Thackeray could devote his powers of fiction to writing the most appalling non- sense about King George III., it is not to be- wondered at that a vulgar-minded world has 3een wrongly impressed concerning his cha- racter, and continues to hold bigoted and unworthy notions of one of the best men of his time. In this venture I am a little afraid of being ignorant of ST. SWITHIN'S standard of clever- ness. For those students who may perhaps, be urged to go into the matter, I would suggest that they avoid all writers about George, candid or uncandid, and begin by reading the various collections of his able- letters to his ministers and to other persons. EDWARD biiiTH. Putney. An editorial note at 2nrt S. v. 439 says :— " Huish, in his ' Memoirs of George III.,' p. oG2, states that 'The King's letters were seven in num- ber, all of considerable length, and displaying a most profound knowledge of the subject.' The first letter is printed in Young's ' Annals of Agriculture/ vol. vii. p. 65, entitled ' On Mr. Duckett's Mode of Cultivation,' and dated Jan. 1, 1787. The second letter occurs at p. 332 of the same volume, and is entitled 'Further Remarks on Mr. Duckett's Mode of Cultivation.'" EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10th S. iv. 10, 158).—The lines commencing, Sorrow tracketh wrong, were written by Harriet Martineau. The whole composition (four verses) formed one of the hymns that were sung in the Uni- tarian Chapel, South Place, Finsbury. The- collection, dated 1848, was made by W. J. Fox (the well-known M.P. for Oldham, and Anti-Corn Law writer) for use in that chapel during the period he conducted the services there. The second verse runs thus :— Yon sheaves were once but seed : Will ripens into deed. As cave-drops swell the streams, Day-thoughts feed nightly dreams ; And sorrow tracketh wrong, As echo follows song. On, on, for ever. I will forward a copy of the entire hymn should the contributor desire it. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D. Salterton, Devon. "SACR.E PAGING PROFESSOR" (10th S. iv. 188).—This was, no doubt, a formal variation upon the more usual title of the mediaeval and later schools, namely, S.P.D., " Sacrw