Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/256

 208

NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vn MARCH 10, 1907.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN AND ROBERT BURTON. With reference to Mr. Joseph Chamber- lain's often quoted phrase, " What I have said, I have said," has it been noticed that Burton in his ' Anatomy of Melancholy ' writes as follows ?

" As the barking of the dog I securely contemn | those malicious and scurrile obloquies, flouts, and j calumnies of railers and detractors ; I scorn the rest. What therefore I have said, pro tenuitate ' mra. 1 have said." ' Democritus to the Reader,' p. 10, W. Tegg's edition, 1866.

And on p. 59 in the same work Burton, in referring to the Utopia that he would establish, says as follows :

"As of such wares as are transported or brought in, if they be necessary, commodious, and such as nearly concern man's life, as corn, wood, coal, &c., and such provision we cannot want, I will have little or no custom paid, no taxes : but for such things as are for pleasure, delight, or ornament, as wine, spice, tobacco, silk, velvet, cloth of gold, lace, jewels, &c., a greater impost."

Had Mr. Chamberlain been studying Burton before he started his Tariff Reform campaign ? WALTER L. JODE.

' A SCOURGE FOR THE ASSIRIAN.' Is it known by whom a volume of 88 pages, bearing this title, was written, and at what date it was published in Shrewsbury ? The title-page reads :

"A | Scourge for the | Assirian | the great Oppressor, | According to the Slaughter of Midian, | by the Anointing, Isai. 10, | 26, 27. [A quotation in five lines from Is. xl. 5, 6.] Collected out of the Works of an Ancient Author. | By The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit | of Prophecy. Rev 19. | Salop : Printed by W. Laplain.

There is a copy in the Bodleian Library, where information about it is lacking. On its back there is an old label, on which is written in faded ink " T. Meredith and Moses Lewis 1756, &c. A Scourge for the Assirian." Bound up with the ' Scourge,' and before it, there is another book, of which all before p. 11 is missing. On p. 73 of this the name Thomas Meredith appears, as concluding the first part of the headless work. The next page is white. Pp. 75-102 inclusive contain twenty " Letters to some of his Friends," the signature Thomas Meredith occurring at the end of 19. The second, third, and fourth letters are ad- dressed " To Moses Lewis.' The letter on p. 92 bears the date 21 Jan., 1758 ; that on p. 97, 1 Jan., 1765, which gives us a ter- minus a quo. Pp. 103 and 104 are not numbered, but contain some obituary verses beginning " Ah ! lovely Appearance of Death." On p. 83, in a letter "To his Brother in Denby Town," Meredith thrice

refers to " the Assirian." Was some enemy- of his sect known by that name ? From the appearance of the pages this book seems- to have been produced at the same press- as the ' Scourge.' On p. 16 of the latter begins a letter " To the Baptized Churches in South Wales." On p. 63 there is a letter signed " Morgan Lloyd " ; on p. 64 another " To the gathered Church at Wrexham," signed W. E., followed by other correspond- ence between these two writers. On p. 77 there is a letter from Ireland signed J. R.,. and another " To Mr. Walter Cradock," signed W. E. On pp. 85-8 there is " A Poem, made by John Cenick, found in his Pocket Book after his Decease." Can any further light be thrown on these worthies ? EDWARD S. DODGSON. 49, Iffley Road, Oxford.

AUTHORS or QUOTATIONS WANTED. The snowclad yew tree stirred with pain

To hear that mournful cry ; The old church listened, and the spire

Kept pointing to the sky.

The quotation may not be exact, as it is twenty-five years since I read it. T. A. H.

Can * N. & Q.' locate the following ?

Man never rises higher than when he knows not whither he is going (Cromwell).

So passeth in the passing of the day (Spenser ?).

Among the wide waves set like a little nest (Spenser).

Patience and gentleness are power (Landor).

Plato, that plank from the wreck of Paradise cast on the shores of idolatrous Greece (Coleridge). ROBINSON SMITH.

1. We mortals cross the ocean of this world Each in his average cabin of a bark.

2. Man dwells apart, but not alone ; He walks among his peers unread.

3. When Byron died we held our breath but

our soul Had felt him as the thunder roll.

4. Icicles clink in the milkmaid's pail,

Younkers skate on the pool below ; Blackbirds perch on the garden rail, And hark how the cold winds blow !

H. T. D.

Who wrote the following lines, which are set to music by Pearsall, of Clifton, in the form of a part-song ? Rest thee on this mossy pillow till the morning

light, Softly wave this whisp'ring willow o'er thy bed

to-night ; Every mortal grief forsake thee as our drowsy

sleep o'ertakes thee, Naught from blessed sleep awake thee till the

morning light.

A. FLETCHER.

SIR GEORGE WOOD'S PORTRAIT. As a relative of Sir George Wood, Baron of the