Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/237

 ii s. xii. SEPr. is, iyi5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED <11 S. xii. 182). (4) Ralph Trumbull : Thomas Hearns notes on 18 Dec., 1706 (' Collections,' Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 313) : " Mr. Ralph Trumbull, Rector of Witney, near Oxoii, sent me a Coyn of Julia Mammsea, of Silver." On 28 Feb. of the next year he msntions " Coyns " sent him by Trumbull. Abstracts of six letters from Trumbull to Hearne between 21 Nov., 1706, and 3 Juti3, 1707, ara given in the Oxford edition of Hearne's ' Collections.' For 4 July, 1709, is a Latin note mentioning " oppidum Witney; ubi minimus aliquot Romanos non ita pridem erutos fuisse a Radulpho Trumbull:), A.M. tune temporis rectore, diiici." (Does " tun? temporis " imply that when Hearne wrote this he was no longer rector ?) On 7 October of the same yea", in referring to these coins, he speaks of " Mr. Trumbald (sic), Rector of the Place." Inside the top cover of Hearn3's note-book, No. xlv., amongst other m?m crania, is written: " What surname Mr. Ralph Trumbull took upon him when lands were left to him ? " (Oxf. ed., iv. 187.) Does this account for a difficulty in ascertaining the date and place of his death ? Immedi- ately afterwards is " Whether Dr. Charles Trumbull be still a Non- Juror ? " Was Ralph Trumbull brother, or otherwise related, to Sancroft's chaplain, and to Pope's early friend, Sir William Trumbull of Easthamp- stead ? Hearne m3ntions Sir William more than once, and has memoranda about the history of the Trumbull family. On 9 Aug., 1721, Heame writes :

' Mr. Collins told me yesterday (and I have heard the sima too from others) that Mr. Ralph Trumbull, late Rector of Witney, when young, was a very bright Man, tho', when he became old, he grew dull and stingy."

EDWARD BENSLY.

BURLESQUE SERMON (11 S. xii. 68, 110). This was the second of a pair written in the fifties by (or so attributed) Andrew Harper of Tennessee, who died an octogenarian late in the century. They travestied those preached on the Mississippi and its affluents by flatboat peddlers, who used to give lay sermons on Sundays (incidentally adver- tising their goods, like some more famous) to the backwoodsmen, largely " Hard-Shell Baptists," as was this putative orator. The first was on the text, " And he played on a harp of a ^Aowsand strings, sperits of just men made perfect " ; the second, " For they shall gnaw a file, and flee unto the mountains of Hepsidam, whar the lion roarath and the wangdoodle mourneth for

his first-born ah ! " (A hang-on and gasp at climaxes, still common with illiterate exhorters.) The texts were " in the leds of the Bible," " somewhar 'tween the lust chapter of the Book of Generations and the last chapter of the Book of Revolutions," though he would not tell " edzackly " where.

Neither " sermon " was collected that I know of except in an 1860 anthology called ' The Harp of a Thousand Strings.' There must be copies in some U.S. libraries, but I personally know of none, and but one in private hands distant. The first, how- ever, has been reprinted in vol iii. of a set entitled ' The Speaker's Garland and Literary Bouquet,' Philadelphia, 1905. If Lucis will send me his address, I will try to help him out on both. FORREST MORGAN.

Hartford, Conn.

BOMBAY GENTLEMEN OF 1792 : SAMPLER VERSES (11 S. xii. 94, 164). ST. SWITHIN'S reply has recalled to my memory a song I used to sing when a girl at school some fifty years ago. It was as follows :

Ding-dong, my passing bell ;

Farewell, my brother. 1,'Jl be buried in the old churchyard

Beside of my dear mother.

My coffin shall be black ;

Six angels at my back : Two to watch and two to pray,

And two to carry my soul away.

When I 'm dead and in my grave, And all my bonos are rotten,

This little stone shall tell my name When I am quite forgotten.

Mary Smithers is my name,

England is my nation ; Heaven is my dwelling-place,

And Christ is my salvation.

The tune also comes back to memory, and enables ms to be sure of the order of the verses. It was a kind of rhythmical chant, and we used to sing it slowly, as befitted the nature of the words. From the third line of the third verse, it is plain that it was orginally intended to be put on a grave stone. I should think ST. SWITHIN'S sampler verses were adapted from the tombstone inscription, as the latter is considerably the longer. The song is not particularly suitable for children, but I do not think we troubled very much about that. M. R.

CAPTURE OF TRTNCOMALEE (11 S. xii. 28, 76, 126). I quote as follows from Percival's * Account of the Island of Ceylon/ published in 1803. The author, Capt. Percival of the 19th Foot, arrived in Ceylon shortly after the capture of Colombo in 1796, accompanied General Hay MacDowall on hi*