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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xn. AUG. 25, ms.

the height of the arch. Beneath the archway, or slightly in the foreground, stands a pedestal which evidently contains an inscrip- tion. Would it be possible for some local reader, to investigate more closely, witji the object of copying the words recorded on this unique memorial ? JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itehinton, Warwickshire.

SCOTCH COURT OF SESSION (US. xii. 101). According to Wood's ' Douglas's Peerage of Scotland,' 1813, vol. ii. p. 637 :

" The title of Earl of Wigton was assumed by Charles Boss Fleming, M.D., of Dublin, eldest .son of the Rev. James Fleming of Kilkenny, who voted at several elections without challenge. He was in 1761 ordered to attend the House of Lords, to show by what authority he took that title. (Robertson's Proceedings, 296, 304, 311, 399, 412.) He presented to the king the humble petition of C. R. F., claiming the title & dignity of Earl of W., showing that, in 1606, John, Lord Fleming, obtained by patent from King James VI. the title & dignity of Earl of W., descendible to the heirs male of his body ; that the said dignity descended lineally in the male line to Charles, Earl of W., lately deceased, without issue ; that the petitioner being the nearest heir male now existing, descended of the body of John, the first Earl, he most humbly apprehends that he is entitled to that dignity, therefore most humbly prays that the said title & dignity of Earl of Wigton, & Lord Fleming, may be declared to belong to him & the heirs male of his body. This petition was referred to the House of Lords, 29 Jan., 1762 ; & it was on the following 25 March ordered by the House that C. R. F., taking upon himself the title of Earl of Wigton, ought to be considered as having no right to the said title, until he should have made out his claim, & that in the meantime he should not be admitted to vote at elections. He died in London, 18 Oct., 1769. His son, Hamilton Fleming, an officer in the 13th Regiment of Foot, presented to the King a petition praying that it might be declared & adjudged that the peti- tioner was entitled to the title, honour, & dignity of Earl of Wigton, Lord Fleming & Cumber- nauld, which petition was referred, 18 April, 1776, to the House of Lords, who resolved, 6 Feb., 1782, that the petitioner had no right to the titles, honours, and dignities claimed by his petition."

A. R. BAYLEY.

JEVONS'S "LOGICAL MACHINE" (11 S. xii. 121). This "reasoning machine, or logical abacus, adapted to show the working of Boole's logic in a half - mechanical manner," was in March and April, 1866, exhibited by Jevons to the Liverpool and Manchester Literary and Philosophical Societies. It is described in his paper On the Mechanical Contrivance of Logical Inference,' read before the Royal Society in January, 1870, and printed in the Philosophical Transactions, clx. 497 sqq.

A. R. BAYLEY.

A SONNET BY WORDSWORTH (11 S. xii. 100, 146).

To Miss SELLON.

The vestal priestess of a sisterhood Who knows no self, and whom the selfish scorn, &c.

See William Knight's edition of ' Words- worth's Works,' vol. viii. p. 325, Macmillan, 1896. The following editorial note is pre- fixed :

" This sonnet exists in Wordsicorth's hand- writing ; but it is doubtful whether it was written by him or not. Possibly Mr. Quillinan wrote it. The place and the date of composition given in MS. are ' Ambleside, 22nd February, 1849.' Miss Sellon was a relation of the late Count Cavour."

WM. H. PEET.

"IT IS WORSE THAN A CRIME, IT IS A

BLUNDER" (11 S. xii. 66, 123). MR. R. PIERPOINT in his remarks at the two refer- ences given above has summed up most of what we can discover as to the author of this well-known phrase. I hope my obiter dictum, ante, p. 7, has not given him too much trouble, but he knows probably better than I do that most authors of dic- tionaries of quotations do but copy the works of their predecessors. During the twenty-three years I have been working at French sayings for my ' French Idioms and Proverbs,' I have found the most original and reliable works to be E. Fournier's ' L'Esprit des autres ' (6th ed., Paris, 1881) and 'L'Esprit dans 1'histoire ' (5th ed., Paris, 1883), M. Roger Alexandre's ' Musee de la Conversation' (4th ed., Paris, 1902), and the late Mr. W. F. H. King's ' Classical and Foreign Quotations ' (3rd ed., London, 1904). These books go fully into the question of authorship, and their refer- ences have been verified. Mr. King's book has a supplement of " adespota," or quo- tations, of which the authorship has not been discovered, that form a fascinating mine for the leisured. Among them is this very phrase : " Whether ever said, and on what occasion, remains unknown." M. Alexandre quotes the dictum of Sainte- Beuve that MR. PIERPOINT translates, and another from M. de Vaulabelle's ' Histoiredes deux Restaurations ' (vol. i. p. 92, 1858) :

" Le role de Fouch, dans ce sanglant diame, pour avoir et moins influent peut-etre que celui de M. de Talleyrand, ne fut cependant pas moins actif : ni Fun ni 1'autre, car tons deux s'en sont vantes, n'a done pu dire a Bonaparte : ' La mo it du due d'Enghien est plus qu'uii crime, c'est une faute.' On ne se defie pas assez de ces sentences, toujours faites apres coup, et que jettent a la cr^dulite" de la foule les charlatans politiques." DE y PAYEN . PAYNE.

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