Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/248

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. x. SEPT. 26,

have access. The ' D.N.B.' notice of Mrs. Rathbone does not mention any issue of the book before 1844, and altogether I am inclined to be very sceptical as to the details given by the Grolier Club writer. The whole point of the book lies in the style in which it is written, and though it is possible that Miss Whittingham may have given some advice, or contributed here and there, I very much doubt if she rewrote the book or was in any material way responsible for it. I should be glad of any information on the subject. WM. H. PEET.

'THE COMING K ,' &c.

(See 9 S. viii. 344, 408.)

IT may not be inopportune to notice how remarkably a prophecy, or forecast, to be found in one of the above series of annuals, ' Edward the Seventh, a Play on the Past and Present Times with a View to the Future,' London, 1876, is now receiving fulfilment after nearly forty years. At p. 78 the scene begins :

" SCENE VII. The harbour and quay of Kur- rachee. Transports and ironclads filling the port ; embarkation of troops is rapidly going on. Soldiers from all parts of India throng the land, and intense enthusiasm prevails everywhere .... Enter an Indian juggler, who plays on his tom- tom as he sings :

Our Shah Zadah came to us,

And thus to us did say : Now who their Prince will follow To drive his foes away ?

Now who their Prince will follow

When he to fight goes forth, With Mismarck's savage Prussians,

Up rose the golden morning On mountain and on sea,

It gilded all the temples Of sea-laved Kurrachee ;

It shone where four-score thousand Were marching to their ships ;

It fell upon their lances,

And turned to gold their tips.

From every Indian city

That boasts an old-time name, From every fighting district,

That gallant army came ;

From Agra's marble palaces, From Gwalior's ancient wall,

From Delhi's granite battlements, They answer to his call ;

From where St. George's fortress O'erlooks the Orient sea ;

From the rock forts impregnable Of Trichinopoly ;

From the burning southern cities, From the Punjaub and Peshawur ;

Where the frowning rock defences Of Afghanistan tower ;

The cities of the Nizam

Had furnished of their might ;

The henchmen of the Holkar Had gathered for the fight ;

The Sikhs came from their mountains,.

And mustered at Lahore ; There was bustle at Baroda,

And commotion at Mysore ;

And not a sturdy hill-tribe

But sent horsemen to the plain ;

And twice five thousand Ghoorkas Thought the Prince's call not vain..

All sects, all castes, united

To follow him to death ; There was no thought of sneaking,

Of treason not a breath ;

And all the nations wondered, And the foe fell back appalled,

To see how India answered

When the Prince of India called.

At the second reference given, a corre- spondent questioned an editorial note which suggested the author of this clever- and somewhat daring series of annuals was " a young clerk in the War Office," stating- that he could give the real name, but that the matter should be dropped for twenty years longer, " in order to excite no ani- mosities and to wound no susceptibilities." As much more than half that time has now elapsed, and the personages dealt with have, almost without exception, passed away, may not the veil of anonymity now be with- drawn ? The series created a furore upon publication, and copies were bought by tens' of thousands, though now only remembered by contemporaries, and in some degree known to book-collectors. W. B. H.

DANTEIANA: MICHAEL SCOT. INF.,' xx. 115-17.

Quell' altro che ne' fianchi 6 cosl poco, Michele Scotto fu, che veramente Delle magiche frode seppe il gioco.

Was it ignorance or bias that led Dante into' the injustice of placing Michael Scot in Hell's fourth bolgia ? I believe that he was- culpable under both counts. He had no- business to condemn Scot to the ludicrous punishment which he rnetes out to necro- mancers. Scot was no more a necromancer than Roger Bacon, by whom Dante was-