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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. x. A. 15, 1914.

ADULATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH (11 S. x. 48). George Buchanan has a similar poem on the same queen : Cui us imago Deae, facie cui lucet in una,

Temperie mixta, Juno, Minerva, Venus ? Est dea : quid dubitem ? cui sic oonspirat amice

Mascula vis, hilaris gratia, celsas honos : Aut dea si non est, Diva est qua; prsesidet Anglis,

Ingenio, vultu, moribus aequa Deis.

' lUpigrarumata,' lib. ii. 58.

There is nothing surprising in this. Little provocation was required to make the Renaissance Latin versifiers cry " O dea, certe ! " and the " Juno, Minerva, Venus," business was worn pretty threadbare.

John Owen hails his patroness thus :

Si nos Pythagorse non fallunt dogmata, corpus Ictrarunt Pallas, Juno, Venusque tuum.

' Epigr.,' i. 4.

Like the elder Weller, Father Persons may have objected to young women being called Venuses, but if he allowed himself to be seriously distressed by such conven- tional deification, he must have added a new source of uneasiness to a life that was already troubled enough.

EDWAKD BENSLY. Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk.

THE LAST KING OF NAPLES (11 S. x. 70). Francis II., son of King Bomba, was a peaceful character, and brought up by Jesuits ; his wife was of more heroic mould, and defended Gaeta when driven out of Naples. I never heard of any pension allowed him by his enemies, and he probably existed on his private funds, as Italians are slow to any extravagance. W. MERGER.

After he had lost his throne poor " Bom- balino " spent most of his time in Munich and Paris, and died at Arco in the Tyrol, in the Archduke Albrecht's villa, on 27 Dec., 1894. He left no issue. L. L. K.

WEST INDIAN FAMILIES (11 S. ix. 489 ; x. 18, 76). The under-named sources of information MSS. and printed books avail- able for reference at the British Museum should not be overlooked :

Genealogical Collections relating to Families connected with Jamaica, Eighteenth and Nine- teenth Centuries. Add. MS. 27,068.

Pedigrees of West India Families. Add. MS. 31,228.

List of Landowners in Jamaica about the Year 1750. Add. MS. 12,430.

List of Marriages on record in the parishes of St. Catherine and St. Andrew, Jamaica, 1686- 1679. Add. MS. 21,931.

List of Testators registered in the Office of the Island Secretary, Ja?uaica, 1663-1750. - MS. 21,931.

Monumental Inscriptions in Barbados ami Jamaica before 1750, with Selections from thus.- of later date and Extracts from Parish Registers. Add. MS. 23,608.

Extracts from Parish Registers and other Public Records in the Islands of Jamaica and Barbados, with Copies of Monumental Inscrip- tions from 1643 to 1800; Add. MS. 27,969.

Abstracts of Wills proved in Jamaica between 1625 and 1792. (Add. MS. 34,181.)

' Antigua and the Antiguans : a Full Account of the Colony and its Inhabitants.' With ;m Appendix containing genealogies of the principol settlers in the island. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1844.

V. L. Oliver : ' The History of the Island of Antigua ... from the First Settlement in lf>:)5 to the Present Time.' 3 vols. folio. London. 1894-9.

Capt. James Henry Lawrence Archer : ' Monu- mental Inscriptions of the British West Indies from the Earliest Date, with Annotations.' 4to. London, 1875.

N. D. Davis : ' The Cavaliers and Roundheads of Barbados, 1650-52.' 8vo, pp. 261. George- town. 1887.

W. A. Feurtado : ' Official and Other Per- sonages of Jamaica from 1655 to 1790.' Svo pp. 135. Jamaica, 1896.

DANIEL HIPWELL.

84, St. John's W r ood Terrace, N.W.

PALM THE BOOKSELLER, SHOT BY NAPO- LEON (11 S. x. 10, 55, 76). I cordially thank all the correspondents who have so cour- teously supplied me with information oil this topic. I subjoin from ' The Annual Register/ 26 Aug., 1806, xlviii. 439 and 440, the rendering of the letter written by Palm to his wife before his execution :

In the Dungeon of the Military Prison of Braunau, August 26, 1806 Six o'clock in the morning.

MY DEAREST BELOVED, When you read these lines you are a widow and our dear, dear children have no longer a father. My destiny is fixed ; in five hours I cease to live. But though I die the death of a criminal, you know that I have com- mitted no crime. I fall a victim of the present calamitous times, times when an untimely death can neither dishonour a man whose whole life has been irreproachable, nor throw a stain on hi* surviving family. In our miserable days what virtue has not expired by the hands of the exe- cutioner. Do not let your affliction for the fate of a husband deprive you of firmness to support the duties of a mother. Our dear, dear babies (Oh, my God, I shall never more press them or you to my bursting heart) have now a double claim on your love, as well as on your maternal tenderness. Implant on their tender minds all those virtuous sentiments which made their good mother so very dear to their unfortunate father.

I advise you to collect, as soon as possible, the wreck of our fortune (if any) and to retire with it to England or America. In those fortunate lands innocence is still secure, and patriotism is still revered.

In my last fervent prayers I recommend you all to the protection of an Omnipotent Providence,