Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/235

10 s. VIIL SEPT. 7, 1907.] Tereus, the hoopoe, in ' The Birds ' of Aristophanes, says to the nightingale :

But the Greeks thought that Procne, not Philomela, was changed into a nightingale. Apollodorus says :

MR. MACMICHAEL does not say that the lines which he quotes are translated from Virgil :

Philomela sub umbra Amissos queritur foetus ; quos durus arator Observans nido implumes detraxit ; at ilia Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen Integrat, et mcestis late loca questibus implet.

'Georgics,' Book IV. ll. 511-15. Virgil, who makes Philomela the night- ingale, supposes her song to be expressive of grief ; but he does not ascribe her sadness to the loss of Itys. Horace refers to Procne, in the form of a swallow, mourning for Itys:

Nidum ponit, Ityn flebiliter gemens,

Infelix avis.

Book IV. ode xii.

The mother, not the aunt, mourns for the loss of Itys, and when the Greeks represent the nightingale as grieving, they refer to Procne ; but they sometimes put the matter out of doubt by mentioning her name, as does Aristophanes in ' The Birds,' 11. 663-6. Itylus, whose story is told in the ' Odyssey,' has been confounded with Itys.

E. YABDLEY.

With reference to the agreeable reminis- cence of the song of the nightingale, perhaps it may be allowed me to quote the following beautiful passage from Sophocles :

Xo.

'AEdipus Coloneus,' 668-78.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Wood bridge.

[NORTH MIDLAND also refers to Coleridge.]

THE THAMES EMBANKMENT : ITS ORI- GINATORS (10 S. viii. 166). COL. MALET is right. Evelyn should be included with Wren as one of the originators of the Thames Embankment. But Evelyn did not " go one better " than Wren, for while Evelyn's plan as to the embankment appears to have been small and crude, the Embankment as it is to-day would, if Wren's suggestions had been carried out, have been anticipated by over two hundred years. While the fire was still burning, both Wren and Evelyn set to work to make plans for a new city.

" Wren's was the first to be shown to the King ; and though there is much resemblance between it and Evelyn's, yet Wren's is evidently the more useful, as well as the finer plan of the two, and was the one which the King accepted

"The London bank of the Thames was to be lined with a broad quay, along which the Halls of the City Companies were to be built, with suitable warehouses in between for the merchants, to vary the effect of the edifices." ' Sir Christopher Wren,, his Family and Times,' by Lucy Phillimore. Wren attempted to prosecute his design for the quay along the northern bank of the- Thames, but the ground was rapidly en- croached upon by buildings, and the King gave but uncertain support. As regards Paterson, the founder of the Bank of Eng- land, I find that I am in error in naming him as one of the originators of the Thames Embankment. I have been misled by relying on Haydn's ' Dictionary of Dates,' usually so trustworthy ; the mistake has- arisen through a similarity of name. It was Deputy John Paterson who was the author of a later scheme for the embankment. I have seen a copy in the Guildhall Library. It is a

"Plan for raising 300,00$. for the Purpose of completing the Bridge at Blackfriars and redeem- ing the Toll thereon, embanking the North Side of the River Thames between Paul's Wharf and Mil- ford Lane, redeeming the antient Toll upon London Bridge, repairing the Royal Exchange, _and rebuild- ing the gaol of Newgate. Printed b;

y Henry Kent. have made the following

1767

From this

extracts :

"But there is another improvement which the course of the river and present form of the shore between Paul's Wharf and Milford Lane make very desirable, if not absolutely necessary.

"The wharfs within those limits, by their dif- ferent and very unequal encroachments, not only form an irregular and disagreeable outline, but afford the owners of some an undue preference and advantage over others ; at the same time that the reflected state of the tides, both of ebb and flood, throws the face of the stream upon the Surrey shore opposite to Blackfriars, and of consequence slackens the current on the London side. This, together with the large sewers that empty them-