Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/14

 NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. VIL JAN. 5, 1907.

who deserve our love and gratitude for what they were in their own noble indi- viduality as well as for what they gave us as undying legacies in literature by their genius. Our reverence and admiration for them both is undimmed, and should remain so whilst life can last. But life is flitting away fast, and while I am still able let me try to furnish to dear ' N. & Q.,' that I have loved from its earliest days, some records ithat I hold in authentic autographs and memories connected with, e.g., William Hazlitt, Sir Henry Bishop, and others who have passed away into the silence. May a blessing rest at this New Year on all who love ' N. & Q.' !

J. WOODFALL EBSWORTH. The Priory, Ashford, Kent.

(To be continued.)

[We trust that our old friend MR. EBSWORTH will pardon the alterations made in the interesting com- munication he has sent us. His far too kind words about all connected with 'N. & Q.' are deeply .appreciated, but we feel that we must retain them for our own private perusal.]

CABDINAL MEZZOFANTI: JEREMIAH CURTIN. According to the Central News of 15 De- cember, Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, who translated ' Quo Vadis ? ' from the Polish, has recently died at Bristol, Vermont. He is said to have known seventy languages. If this be correct, lie must have surpassed Cardinal Mezzofanti, who, according to ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica,' spoke with considerable fluency some fifty or sixty languages of the most widely separated families. Byron, it will be remembered, called him the Briareus of iparts of speech, and a walking polyglot who ought to have existed at the time of -the Tower of Babel as universal interpreter. 'The Countess of Blessington, who met Mezzofanti at Bologna, says :

"Mezzofanti is said to be the master of no less n than forty languages. When, however, we referred to this subject he disclaimed it, and modestly said there was great exaggeration in the statement. But as he has never leit Italy and yet speaks Eng- lish correctly, I can imagine his proficiency in other tongues."

Mezzofanti, it will be observed, disclaimed a knowledge of forty languages ; if Mr. Curtin knew seventy languages, Mezzo-
 * fanti ceases to be a name synonymous with

Briareus in a linguistic sense. When I visited Bologna twenty years ago, I chanced, while passing the corner of the Via dell' Orso, to see some workmen pulling down a house. Tt was the house in which Mezzo- ianti resided while Professor of Oriental

Languages in that city. Through the dust clouds I read the following inscription under a medallion, with a profile portrait of the learned cardinal :

Heic Mezzofantus patrite stupor ortus et orbi Unus qvii linguas calluit omnigenas.

Vicentii Mignani Honoriensis.

It is curious to remember that Mezzofanti, who seems to belong to the eighteenth century, did not die until 1849. There is no mention of the inscription given above in any of the Guide-Books that I have seen.

RICHARD EDGCTJMBE.

Edgbarrow, Crowthorne.

KING ALFONSO'S MARRIAGE. In the speech of our gracious King read in Parlia- ment on 21 December, 1906, the date of the marriage of the King and Queen of Spain is given as " last June." So say the reports published in the London newspapers. The real date was, of course, 31 May. King Alfonso is altogether a May King ; and may he long succeed in making history a blessing to Spain and to England !

EDWARD S. DODGSON, Correspondiente de la Real Academia de la Historia.

GUEVARA INSCRIPTIONS AT STENIGOT : " POTIE " WARDEN. A few months ago local newspapers chronicled the removal from the old church at Stenigot, Lincoln- shire (now closed), to a new church, of two alabaster monumental tablets, with kneeling figures, bearing the following inscriptions :

" Heie lyeth ye bodie of Francis Viles De Guevaraa, naturale Spannyarde, borne in ye pro- vince of Biscay, who had to his first wife Devise Reade, daughter and hey re to John Reade, of Boston, in ye county of Lincoln, Esquire, by whome he had issue one daughter, Eliene, and after married Annie Egerton, daughter to John Egerton, of Willoughby, in ye county aforesaid, Esquire, by whome he had issue 5 sonnes, viz., John, Peregrine, Henry, William, George, and 5 daughters, viz., Anne, Susan, Cathrine, Elisabeth, and Fraunce, and died ye tenth of February 1592."

" Here lyeth ye bodie of Sir John Grevara, Knight, sometimes the Potie Warden of the East Marches of England under the Right Honourable Peregrine, Lo : Willoughby, Baron of Willoughby, Beak, and Eagesby, sonne and Heire to Francis Grevara, Esquire, who maryed Anne, daughter of Robert Sanderson, of Saxeby, in the countie of Lincoln, Esquire, by whome he had issue 6 sonnes, viz., Frannces [x*'c], John, William, Thomas, Charles, and Robert, and 2 daughters, viz., Katherhie and Mary, and departed this life ye 6 th June, 1607."

I have exactly copied these inscriptions as they appeared in print, and the variation in spelling of the surname will be noticed. I am curious, and shall be glad of information,