Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/299

 10 S. VII. MAKCH 30, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

243

ber 29th. He dismisses the idea of a Spanish derivation, and says that

"every page of 'Hiawatha' is the parallelism of the Finnish runes, a rhetorical figure, altogether peculiar to this group of national poetry. I will not say that ' Hiawatha ' is written ' in the old national metre of Finland,' but there can be no doubt but that it is written in a modified Finnish metre, modified by the exquisite feeling of the American poet, according to the genius of the Eng- lish language, and to the wants of modern taste."

On the 27th of May, 1868, Longfellow sailed from New York on his last visit to Europe. He had with him his three young daughters and his son just married, a brother, two sisters, and Mr. T. G. Appleton. Four days previously, at the parting dinner at the house of the Fields, Oliver Wendell Holmes read a poem of affectionate farewell, which included the following lines :

Forgive the simple words that sound like praise ; The mist before me dims my gilded phrase ; Our speech at best is half alive and cold, And save that tenderer moments make us bold, Our whitening lips would close, their truest truth untold.

What wishes, longings, blessings, prayers, shall be The more than golden freight that floats with thee ! And know, whatever welcome thou shalt find, Thou who hast won the hearts of half mankind, The proudest, fondest love thou leavest still behind.

The enthusiasm with which Longfellow was received on reaching the shores of England told him that, although " The proudest, fondest love " might have been left behind, he yet came as no unwelcome guest, and that the friends whose voices had been softened by the distance rej oiced to tell him how for long years his books had been household treasures in every English home. JOHTST C. FRANCIS.

(To be continued.)

'DIARY OF A MODERN DANDY,'

1818.

THE subjoined ' Diary of a Modern Dandy,' which I copy from a newspaper of 1818, is curious in its allusions and phrases, and may serve one day as a means of fixing a date for some of them.

"Saturday. Rose at twelve, with a d d head- ache. Mem. not to drink the Regent's Punch after supper. The green tea keeps one awake.

"Breakfasted at one read The Morning Post the best paper after all always full of wit, fine writing, and good news.

' ' Sent for the tailor and stay maker ordered a morning demi-surtqut of the last Parisian cut, with the collar a la Guillotine, to show the neck behind a pair of dress Petersham pantaloons, with striped flounces at bottom, and a pair of Cumber- land corsets with the whalebone back. A caution

to the unwary : the last pair gave way in stooping to pick up Lady B.'s glove the Duke of C e vulgar enough to laugh, and asked me in the sea slang if I had not 'missed stays in tacking.' Find this to be an old joke stolen from ' The Fudge Family.' Query, Who is Tom Brown? not known at Long's or the Clarendon.

"Three o'clock. Drove out in the Dennet took a few turns in Pall-Mall, St. James Street, and Piccadilly got out at Grange's was told the thermometer in the ice-cellar was at 80 prodigious ! Had three glasses of pine and one of Curacoa the Prince's Fancy, as P calls it. P. is a wag in his way.

" Five to Seven. Dressed for the evening dined at half-past eight, ' nobody with me but myself,' as the old Duke of Cumberland said-^a neat dinner in Long's best style, viz., a tureen of turtle, a small turbot, a dish of Carlton cutlets. Remove : _ a turkey poult and an apricot tart. Desert Pine apple and brandy cherries. Drank two tumblers of the Regent's Punch, iced, and a pint of Madeira _ went to the Opera in high spirits just over forgot the curtain drops on Saturdays before twelve. Mem. to dine at seven on Saturdays. Supped at the Clarendon with the Dandy Club cold collation played a few rounds of Chicken Hazard, and went to bed quite cold.

"Sunday. Breakfasted at three ordered the Tilbury took a round of Rotten-Row and the Squeeze, in Hyde Park, cursedly annoyed with dust in all directions dined soberly with P m, and went to the Marchioness of S y's Conversations in the evening dull but genteel P calls it the Sunday School.

"KB. P m, who is curious in his snuff as well as in his smiff-boxes, has invented a new mixture, Wellington's and Bluchers, which he has named in honour of the meeting of the two heroes, after the battle of Waterloo La belle Alliance a good hit not to be sneezed at.

" Monday. Dined in the City with Sir W. C all the fashion since the Prince went. A d d good dinner and capital wines. The Baronet an hospitable fellow but vulgar sent his plate twice for turtle, and drinks beer after cheese ! P m was of the party the Alderman, holding out his finger and thumb, begged a cool pinch P said he should have it, and put the box on the ice pail a loud laugh which the Baronet said reminded him of the House of Commons don't like practical jokes, hate quizzing and quizzers. N.B. None admitted at our Club. Ccetera denunt.

R. S. B.

(See ante, p. 165.) May th due respect

"BRITISHER."

I be allowed to protest wit against the appearance of this word in the note appended to ' Inscriptions at Bellagio ' ? The first quotation given in the ' New English Dictionary ' is not complete. It should read thus : " Are we to be bullied by these d d Britishers ? " The elimina- tion of the expletive modifies, if it does not destroy, the abusive contempt intended to be conveyed.

The quotation is taken from Marryat's 'Frank Mildmay,' 1829, chap. xx. The