Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/253

 11 8. VIII. SEPT. 27, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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la langue, non les auteurs. A Constanti- nople ni^me, c'est la langue du Serail (qui cepen- dant n'est pas la cour la plus e'claire'e du monde) qui est le turc le plus elegant, le plus mele" d'arabe t de persan, le langage le plus releve", le plus poli, le plus fleuri, le plus ce"re"nionieux. Mais s'il y avait une cour qui se mit a afficher le langage des halles, qui imitat ses tournures et ses manieres, alors la langue du pays se perdrait, et on ne la retrouverait plus que dans les bons auteurs."

The writings of authors of that period e.g., Lomonossov and Karamzin abound in studied flattery of august patrons. Meilhan himself penned a comparison of Catherine with St. Peter's at Rome, full of such remarks as " il n'est au monde que St.pPierre et Catherine dont Faspect ne diminue pas le prix."

FRANCIS P. MAR en ANT.

Streatham.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct,.

ARMOUR. I shall be greatly obliged if any of your readers can give me any infor- mation on the following points.

1. At what date was the " Royal Ar- moury " exhibited in the Haymarket ? The catalogue of this exhibition, which was a commercial and not an official undertaking, is tmdated, but it includes the armour worn at the Coronation of George IV., so it must have been after 1820.

2. Grose in his ' Military Antiquities,' vol. ii. pp. 347-50, mentions a military accoutrement maker in the Strand named Rawle as having a collection of armour. 1786-1801. When did Rawle sell his collec- tion ? Are any of his descendants known ?

CHARLES FFOULKES. The Armouries, Tower of London, E.C.

SERIAL ISSUE OF Two STORIES. I desire information as to the first, and, it may be, serial, publication of Henry Kingsley's short story ' Meerschaum,' which appeared in book-form with the ' Boy in Grey ' in Ward & Lock's edition of Henry Kingsley's ' Collected Works.'

I further desire information as to the serial issue, if any, of Mrs. Gaskell's short story f The Half-Brothers,' which was first printed in book-form in ' Round the Sofa,' vol. ii. Sir Adolphus Ward (Knutsford Edition of the ' Works ' of Mrs. Gaskell) gives this

story as from The Dublin University Maga- zine. Kovember, 1858. But this was another story with the same title, and was certainly not by Mrs. Gaskell.

CLEMENT K. SHORTER.

AUTHORS WANTED. (1) I should be glad to know who is the author of the following lines :

The changing seasons come and go ; In each, like flowers, fresh passions blow ; They bud, they blossom, and decay, And from my heart's soil pass away ; But that old love it dieth not.

(2) Also who wrote the following : " To do him any wrong was to beget a kindness in him, for his heart was rich, of such fine mould that if you sowed therein the seeds of hate, it blossomed charity."

Quoted in ' Calvin in his Letters,' by Hen- derson. W.

Who w T rote a song of eight six-line verses, the first being

Come, follow, follow me, You Fairie elves that be : And circle round this greene ; Come, follow me, your queen. Hand and hand we '11 dance around, For this place is Fairie ground ?

The piece is found in the w r ell-known ' Ele- gant Extracts,' where it seems to be at- tributed to the poet Prior in the Table of Contents, but in the body of the work has " Anon." appended to the title. I am the more induced to ask the question because the same piece, with these four lines prefixed to it

Singing and dancing being all their pleasure, They '11 please you most nicely, if you '11 be at

leisure ;

To hear their sweet chanting, it will you delight, To cure melancholy at morning and night is attributed to " Shakspeare " in ' Readings in Poetry,' issued under the superintend- ence of the S.P.C.K., and published by John W. Parker, West Strand, 10th ed., 1850, and is there headed ' Fairies' Vagaries.' The verses are not found in the poems either of Shakespeare or Prior, but they are cer- tainly of somewhat ancient date, and I am acquainted with at least one adaptation of them more than a hundred years old.

W. B. H.

SPILMAN MONUMENT IN WALTHAM ABBEY. There is a handsome wall tablet in this church to James and Hester Spilman. with finely sculptured panel, and also profiles in bas-relief. He is described as " F.R.S., many years one of the Directors of the