Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/388

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. XL MAY 15, 1915.

years in the temple of Erechtheus (Herodotus, viii. 55). The twelve gods judge Athena -victress, and then,

wrath thereat, as wronged That she should hold from him such prize and

place,

The strong king of the tempest-rifted sea Loosed reinless on the low Thriasian plain 'The thunders of his chariots, swallowing stunned Earth, beasts, and men, the whole blind founder- ing world

'That was the sun's at morning, and ere noon Death's.

Surely, also, we may imagine that those ~who made the myth would have thought the patronage of the city emphatically worth the jealousy of the gods. In the words of the chorus,

Too well, too well was the great stake worth A strife divine for the Gods to judge, A crowned God's triumph, a foiled God's grudge, Though the loser be strong and the victress wise Who played long since for so large a prize, The fruitful immortal anointed adored Dear city of men without master or lord, Fair fortress and fostress of sons born free, Who stand in her sight and in thine, suri, "Slaves of no man, subjects of none ; A wonder enthroned on the hills and the sea, A maiden crowned with a fourfold glory That none from the pride of her head may rend, Violet and olive-leaf purple and hoary, ."Song-wreath and story the fairest of fame, Flowers that the winter can blast not or bend; A light upon earth as the sun's own flame,

A name as his name, Athens, a praise without end.

A. H. C. D.

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. In The Essex Review of last January are published some interesting memoirs of Dr. Dixon of Wethersfield, who says :

"Dr. Jowett was the vicar of our parish [Wethersfield]; he was an LL.D. of Cambridge. Three months of the year he resided and did the duties of his calling. He had rooms in the house hired by my master for his business in the village ; but 1 was a Dissenter, and at all events had little notice from him. The other nine months of the year a curate had the spiritual care of the parish. His name was Bronte, afterwards the father of Charlotte Bronte, of some novel - writing celebrity. This curate occupied the Doctor's room when he was absent. I had no acquaintance with him or notice from him, and nobody took any notice of him."

To this his editor, Mr. H. N. Dixon, F.L.S. (who was no relative of the writer), appends the following note :

" During the residence of the Rev. Patrick Bronte as curate of Wethersfield he became deeply in love with a young lady of the name of Burder ; the feeling was reciprocated, but was entirely dis- approved of by her family. After leaving the village

Bronte wrote to the lady, who had been left an orphan in the charge of an uncle and aunt. Obtain- ing no replies, he supposed he had lost her affec- tion, ana gradually dropped the correspondence, and subsequently married a lady in Cornwall. It afterwards transpired that his letters had been intercepted by the uncle, and the young lady, on her side, no doubt thought herself forgotten. After the death of his first wife Bronte, I understand, renewed his suit, but it was declined, and Miss Burder married the Independent Minister of Wethersfield."

EDMUND OWEN.

"WEATHER HOUSES." While examining a volume of The Kentish Post for the year 1725-6, 1 noticed an advertisement relative to the sale of ' weather houses," which may be of some interest to your readers, proving that these houses were on the market nearly 200 years ago :

Sold at the Printing Office of J. Abree, in St. Margaret's, Canterbury.

The Gentlemen, Ladies and Farmers famous new Invented Weather- Houses, being the best, most useful, most certain, and most di verting Instrument ever yet contrived, for daily knowing of the Altera- tion of the Air and Weather, either as to wet or dry, moist, or fair, &c. This House hath for Master and Mistress two Figures, one of a Man and the other of a Woman, that stands at the two Doors every Morning, and if the same be a rainy or Moist Day, the Man will certainly come out of the Door of the said House and the Woman will go into it ; but if the Day will be Fair, then the Woman will come out and the Man goes into the House, and the more either of theni comes out, the more Fair or Rainy Weather will follow. It is a handsome and strong Machine, and will keep good many Years, and really so useful that no Family ought to be without one of them for to regulate their Affairs by with Respect to the Weather : and with each House is given a small Paper of Observations and Directions.

Kentish Post and Canterbury Nev:$ Letter,

17 Dec., 1726.

W. J. M.

BEY. (Of. ante, p. 333.) It may be of interest to note that there is an incised stone slab, lately removed from the old church of St. Mary, Hornsey to the new one, with full-length figures of a man, his two wives, and kneeling son. It is undated, but the costumes are of the time of Elizabeth. The inscription is as follows :

"Here lieth buried George Rey, of Higate, Gent., who departed this life [here is a blank space], who maried 2 wifes, & by the firste had George Rey his now sone."

Any information as to the persons de- picted would be esteemed.

GEORGE POTTER. 296, Archway Road, N.