Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/426

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NOTES AND QUERIES. t n s. i. MAY 21, 1910.

among the Aryans The Romans afterwards

knew the value of the experience and insight which aj;e was able to supply, and ensured the services of old men for the commonwealth by a special insti- tution (Senatus). But reminiscences of the custom were preserved, the sacrifice of- the argei, and the expression senes depontani.* To these we owe the knowledge that when crossing a stream during the march the old people were thrown over the bridge." P. 333 ; see also pp. 355-7.

N. W. HILL. New York.

PETEB WILCOCK (11 S. i. 347). The trans- lator of Bede's ' Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow l was a clergyman. See Allibone's ' Dictionary,* i. 156. The translation, an octavo volume, with a life of Bede by the translator prefixed, was published, at Sunder- land in 1818. It seems now to be virtually forgotten. LoWndes mentions a copy as having once been sold for 6s. It may be inferred that the Rev. Peter Wilcock was a Church of England divine. W. S. S.

' CHILDE HABOLD, ? CANTO IV. STANZA 182 (10 S. viii. 430, 495 ; ix. 10 ; x. 275, 312)

Thy waters wash'd them power, while they were free.

It is generally recognized that this is the line as Byron wrote it, and it is wonderful that so many editors should have been content to print the old and absurd reading " Thy waters wasted them, 11 which appears even in the selections from Byron edited by Matthew Arnold (" Golden Treasury " Series). With- in the last few days I have seen a letter from Matthew Arnold, now in the possession of a lady in Melbourne, in which he accepts, though with hesitation, the correction suggested by his correspondent. He says :

" I have little doubt that you are right, and that Byron wrote 'washed them power,' and meant It is loose, slipshod English, but this is no
 * many a tyrant ' to be, as you say, in the dative

objection with Byron, and it gives a vigorous, rhetorical sense, quite in his line ; whereas ' wasted them ' gives a poor sense, though a possible one. I must look at the editions, but I am at present inclined to correct the reading when I reprint."

It is certainly surprising that the great critic could have felt a moment's doubt about the matter. One would find it difficult to extract any satisfactory meaning fron " wasted. " ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, University of Melbourne.

[We print DR. LEEPER'S reply on account of it& quotation from Matthew Arnold. The questior has, however, been settled by MR. JOHN MURRAY who has twice stated in ' N. & Q.' (10 S. ix. 10 x. 312) that " wasted" is a misprint, Byron's manu script reading ivashed.]


 * A synonym for sexagenarians.

MARK TWAIN (11 S. i. 367). To the best f my recollection, the American humorist Deferred to .by MB. CECIL CLARKE as having ectured at the old Hanover Square Rooms nust have been the late Artemus Ward, and not Mark Twain. I remember dis- inctly hearing a lecture by the former in he old home of the " Antient Concerts, '*" omewhere about the end of the seventies >f the last century. The hall Was barely lalf filled, the lecturer drawled excessively, and to my youthful appreciation it was a rery dull entertainment.

FRANK SCHLOESSER.

POPE LEO XIII.'s LATIN VERSES (11 S. . 369). The poem asked for will be found, vith several English versions, in The Tablet, 25 July, 1903. The two lines quoted orm the conclusion of the poem.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

The Latin verses by Leo XIII. were written on the first day of his last illness. They were printed in The Times of 14 July,. 1903. WILLIAM BARNARD.

MR. W. COLDSTREAM may, if so disposed learn a good deal concerning these Latin verses if he will refer to letters I wrote in The Western Daily Press of Bristol on 15 Sept. 1902, and 23 July, 1903.

I believe the lines were Leo XIII.'s latest example of " his ruling passion strong in death," and Were taken by me from the Paese of Perugia. WILLIAM MERCER.

The lines will be found (with a free transla- tion in Italian) in ' Da Leone XIII. a Pio X.,' by Adriano Pierconti (Rome, 1904), p. 88.

S. T. P.

[We have forwarded to MR. COLDSTREAM the copy of the verses sent by S. T. P. and M. C. D.]

MAJOR JOHN JOHNSON (11 S. i. 309). Major Johnson of the 3rd Ceylon Regiment published in 1810 ' A Narrative of the Opera- tions of a Detachment in an Expedition to Candy in the Island of Ceylon, in the Year 1804 ; with some ^Observations on the Previous Campaign, and on the Nature of Candian Warfare.' It Was in all probability the same person who, as Lieut. - Col. John Johnson, wrote a ' Journey from India to England in 1817. ? Of his subse- quent career I have no information.

W. SCOTT.

TRUCHSESSIAN GALLERY, NEW ROAD (US, i. 369). There are priced catalogues of the two sales, 1806 and 1810, in the Victoria and Albert Art Library. W. ROBERTS.