Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/49

 ii s. i. JAN. is, mo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

41

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY L', 1010.

CONTENTS. No. 3.

NOTES : Maria Jane Jewsbury in Ceylon, 41" Yon " : its Use by Scotsmen, 43 Bibliography of Publishing, 44 Godfrey Sykes Sowing by Hand 'A Lad of the O'Friels,' 46 H. B. Burlowe : P. F. Chenu Vermont : Dr. S. A. Peters Topographical Deeds -Bishop Compton, 47.

QUERIES : " Tally-ho " Hornbook temp. Elizabeth Scotchmen in France ' History of Bullanabee ' "Earth goeth upon earth," 48 "This world's a city full of crooked streets" Lysons "\Vhen our Lord shall lie in our Lady's lap" 'Critical Review' "Be the day weary" 'Testimony of the Spade,' 49 Authors Wanted Rev. R. Snowe Marriage in a Shift W. Keith E. Plass W. Shippen Characters in 'The Squire's Tale' Sir R. Geffery, 50.

REPLIES : Parliamentary Division Lists Mrs. Browning and Sappho, 51 Fig Trees in London Acres in Yorkshire Walsh Surname Thomas Paine, 53 Dr. Wollaston in Scotland Lovels of Northampton Johann Wilhelm of Neuburg, 54 "Hen and Chickens" Sign -Pin and Needle Rimes "Huel" Lynch Law, 55 "Land Office business" River Legends Marie Antoinette's Death Mask Feet of Fines Rotherhithe, 56 Restoration Plays Restora- tion Characters "He will either make a spoon," 57 Pronunciation of "oo "-Steamers in 1801 'N. & Q.' : Lost Reference Lady Worsley, 58.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Keats's Poems of 1820' Congrega- tional Historical Society Transactions 'Hume Brown's 'History of Scotland' 'The Churchyard Scribe 'Maga- zines and Reviews.

Notices to Correspondents.

MARIA JANE JEWSBURY IN CEYLON AND INDIA.

THE notice of Miss M. J. Jewsbury in the


 * Diet, of Nat. Biog.' says :

" On 1 Aug., 1832, she married, at Penegroes, Montgomeryshire, the Rev. William Kew Fletcher, a chaplain in the East India Company's service, with whom she sailed for Bombay. She died fourteen months later, on 4 Oct., 1833, at Poonah, a victim to cholera. Some extracts from the journal of her voyage to and residence in India are given in Espinasse's 'Lancashire Worthies.' "

It is in the Second Series (1877) of the

Espinasse deals with Mrs. Fletcher's voyage to and brief residence in India.
 * Lancashire Worthies,' pp. 330-37, that

Curiously enough, however, nothing is said of a short stay in Ceylon on the way to Bombay. The Colombo Journal of 23 Jan., 1833, records the arrival, on Sunday, 16 January, of the " ship Victory, Capt, C. Biden, from England 22d Sept. and Isle of France 22d Dec.' 1 Among the passengers for Bombay are mentioned " Revd. Mr. Fletcher and Lady." The same paper, in its issue of 6 February, announces the departure of the Victory for Bombay on the previous day.

Although, strangely, there is no reference, editorial or otherwise, in any of the inter- vening issues of The Colombo Journal, to the gifted writer, she herself has left on record in beautiful verse her impressions of the island. My father, who arrived in Ceylon in 1837, relates in some reminiscences printed in 1886 (' Ceylon in 1837-46,' p. 15) that during her brief sojourn in the island Mrs. Fletcher stayed under the hospitable roof of the Rev. Benjamin Bailey (himself the writer of some little books of verse), where she wrote what is perhaps the most exquisite poem that has ever been penned respecting Ceylon. Mrs. Fletcher appa- rently presented the manuscript to her host, who only some seven months later seems to have sent it to The Colombo Journal, where it was printed in the supplement to the issue of 7 Sept., 1833, in the midst of extracts of political news, and without a single line calling attention to it. The poem is as follows :

THE EDEN OF THE SEA.

(Written at Ceylon.)

A dream ! a dream ! our billowy home ' Before me, as so late, so long, The ocean, with its sparkling foam, The ocean, with its varying song : Our ship at rest where late she rode, Furled every sail though fair the breeze ; And narrow walks, and small abode, Exchanged for roaming land and ease.

Short sojourn make we, yet how sweet The change ; the unaccustomed air Of all we see, and hear, and meet ; Ceylon thy wooded shores are fair ! I love the land left far behind, Its glorious oaks, and streamlets clear Yet wherefore should my eye be blind, My heart be cold to beauty here ?

No in a world as childhood new,

Is it not well to be a child ?

As quick to ask, as quick to view,

As promptly pleased, perchance as wild ?

Deride who will my childish wit,

My scorn to-day of graver things

Let them be proud, but let me sit

Enamour'd of a beetle's wings.

Books for to-morrow : this calm bower (Yet mind and learning know the spot) Suggests to me the primal hour, When goodness was, and sin was not ; When the wild tenants of the wood Came trustingly at Adam's call, Nor he, nor they, athirst for blood, - The world one paradise for all.

I know that creatures strange and fierce Here lurk, and here make man afraid But let the daring hunter pierce Their hidden lairs, in this bright shade Let me forget save what I greet, The air alive with dancing wings, Tame creatures pecking near my seat, Resplendent flowers, and happy things.