Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/435

 ii s. x. NOV. 28, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

429

MR. ASQUITH AND THE ClTY OF LONDOJ

SCHOOL. Mr. Asquith is an old City o London Schoolboy, and in his speech at th Guildhall on the 9th inst. referred to th trepidation he felt when he received a priz from the then Lord Mayor. Is there anj record of boys educated at the School wh< have specially distinguished themselves?

LONDONER.

" YABDLAND." By a will made in Wilts dated 1638, two yardlands and a half wen left to the daughters. Can any reader le me know how many acres the yardlan represented ? It seems to have varied in size according to the county. W. H. S.

MOYLE WILLS. In what court shall I fine the following wills ? (1) Richard Moyle o Bake, St. Germans, Cornwall, will datet 4 April, 1525, proved 5 April, 1532. (2) John Moyle of the same place, died 28 Sept., 1586 (3) John Moyle, same place, buried 17 Oct. 1661.

XAPTHINE SURNAME. What is the origin of this surname ? A. STEPHENS DYER. 207, Kingston Road, Teddington.

STEWART OR STUART. Who was the husband of a lady of the above name who lived at 40, Jermyn Street, S.W., about the years 1815-24, and was still alive in 1840 ?

Q.

"O si sic OMNES." Can any of your readers inform me what is the original authority for this proverbial phrase ?

(Miss) HELEN DE G. VERRALL.

HENRY MEYER, ENGRAVER. What is known regarding small engravings, about oj in. by 3 in., by Henry Meyer, of Sir Thomas Lawrence's ' Lord Lynedoch ' and ' Countess of Blessington ' ? ALPHA.

MARY CHURCHMAN. Wanted the maiden name of Mary Churchman, 1654-1734. Her father was High Constable for the hundred of Wetherley, Cambs, 1673. R. H.

"Boss." I should be glad to know where I can obtain ' Fighting Bobs,' Kipling's famous poem, published in 1893. It appears to be excluded from the published editions of Kipling's verse. I hear that it was so excluded by desire of the late Lord Roberts.

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED.

My son is my son till he takes him a wife,

But my daughter's my daughter all my (her) life.

Where can I find this poem if there are any verses beyond this couplet ?

JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A.

JAXE AUSTEN AND COLUMELLA.

(11 S. x. 388.)

THE allusion to Columella by Jane Austeu in ' Sense and Sensibility ' is not to the Latin writer, but to a character in a popular book of the day which was called " Columella ; or, The Distressed Anchoret. By the Editor of ' The Spiritual Quixote.' 2 vols., 1779." The author of this book was Richard Graves, of whom I will add a few notes at the end of what I write.

The book to which Jane Austen alluded was not a novel, although written in narrative form. Its object was, in the words of its author, to prove " that an active life is generally attended with more happiness than an indolent or retired one " (vol. i. p. 10). The narrative contains a story within a story, and some clue to its contents may be gathered from the following passage, which explains why its leading character was called Columella :

" Going to London in the postcoach from Bath, towards the end of the last autumnal season, I had for my companions, a reverend Divine (a Canon of a neighbouring church) and a Kentish Esquire ; who, I found, had formerly been acquainted in the University; but had not seen each other for some years, till they accidentally met on this occasion.

" When we were all seated, and the coachman had taken his dram, and we were now got clear of the town ; having also given each his opinion of the weather, and settled with great precision the state of the air, and other matters of general concern :

' 'Our old Oxford acquaintance Columella,' says the Canon, ' is in a deplorable condition." ' Whom do you mean ? ' replies the Kentish gentleman.

" ' Why, don't you remember our romantic
 * riend, Cornelius Milward,' resumes the Canon,

who was always talking of Virgil's Georgics, Jowjey, and Columella? and, partly for the sake of subject of that author's book on Agriculture, acquired the nick -name of Columella.' "Vol. i. chap. ii. pp. 5-7.
 * he jingle, I suppose, and partly on account of the

The Canon then pulled out a manuscript and began to tell his story of Columella, and of how he had retired into the country in misanthropic mood, and how, when visited >y old college friends, he was found to be iving with his housekeeper Betty, who is depicted as a most ignorant person. The neighbourhood becoming scandalized, Colu- mella marries the housekeeper, and has a amily of three boys, and in the passage \lnVli follows will be found the complete lue to Jane Austen's reference : "Columella, however, contrived to divert his melancholy with this kind of speculations; and