Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/147

 n H. in. FEB. 25, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

141

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2.5, 1911.

CONTENTS.-No. 61.

NOTES : Lomonossov, 141 Bishopsgate Street Without, 142 Gray's 'Elegy': Translations and Parodies, 144 Prince of Wales as Churchwarden Keats, Hampstead, and Sir C. W. Dilke, 145 "Scavenger" " Fenelons " 'N.E.D.': Missing Words Marriage on 30 February- Hertfordshire Monumental Inscriptions Mrs. Booth, Actress, 146.

QUERIES : Arnolfini Family" George Inn " at Woburn " Pro patria est dura ludere videraur "Rev. Stephen Radcliff e -Authors Wanted' Saturday Review ' and Saxons Bishop of Durham and Curate Thirty-Nine Articles, 147 Sir Andrew Judd Litany : Spitting and Stamping the Feet Rev. Edward Young Nurmington Church Dedication Pewter Church Flagon Napoleon and Elizabeth Poulyne Thomas Morres Jones' Les Arrivants ' " Owns " : " Blithering." 148" Teapoy" Albertus a Lasco Gratious Street=Gracechurch Street Crevequer Wortley-Montagu Queen's College, Oxford Absinthe-drinking Ear-Piercing, 149.

REPLIES : Vanishing London, 149 Mansel Family, 151 Lamb, Burton, and Spiera George I.'s Statues Gamnecourt, 152 " God moves in a mysterious way" Dickens: " Shallabalah " " The Old Mogul," Drury Lane Oundle Thread Papers, 153 Lady O'Looney's Epitaph Mother's Maiden Name as Children's Surname Geoffrey Pole, 154 "Tewke," "Tuke" "Let us go hence, my songs "Moving Pictures and Cinematographs, 155 Epigram in Schopenhauer Church with Wooden Bell-TurretCourt Life, 156 Scarborough Spa Marine Insurance, 157 The Black Prince's Language Great Snow in 1614 Sir Charles Chalmers, Bt., 158.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-'The Cambridge History of English Literature.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

Jiofcs.

LOMONOSSOV, A GREAT RUSSIAN^PIONEER.

IN view of the approaching celebrations of the birth of Michael Vasilievitch Lomo- nossov (1711-65), organized by the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences and other bodies, some notes on this eminent man of letters and science may prove of interest. Lomonossov is a master and creator in the literary language dating from the refoims of Peter the Great, and the sway of Church Slavonic had in his time already receded.

Michael Lomonossov was born at the village of Dennisovka, near Kholmogory, Archangel government, the son of the fisherman Vassili Dorofeievitch. Khol- mogory at that period possessed the im- portance later acquired by Archangel. There are local monuments of the future gram- marian, including the stone church he .attended with its ikons and vessels, and

graves in the cemetery with names of con- temporaries and relatives. The arrange- ment of a Lomonossov Museum and the foundation of a special school, among other suggestions, have engaged the attention of the goverrtor and municipal authorities of Archangel.

Young Michael shared with his father the perils of the White Sea fishery, but early showed great liking for reading ; and it is said that Dudin, the leading magnate of Kurostrov, had a rich library to which Michael had access. His mother, daughter of a priest, encouraged him, but later a hard step-mother as well as his father reproached Michael for wasting time over books. Finally he started on foot for Moscow, carrying Simeon Polotzky's psalter, Meletii Smotritsky's Slavonic grammar, and the arithmetic of L. P. Magnitzky. In 1731 Michael entered the Slaviano-Greco-Latin Academy. Vassili Dorofeievitch lived ten years after his son left, heard of his success, and was drowned in the White Sea. Michael wrote to his family with regard to the recovery and burial of the body. At the Academy the younger pupils derided this " duffer of twenty years " who had come to learn Latin, but he surpassed them all, and in 1736, after a period at Kiev, he was sent abroad with other students by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg to work at science. Both Henckel of Freiberg and Christian Wolff of Marburg spoke well of Lomonossov's progress in physical sciences. Unfortunately, his career was not only marked by diligence, since he contracted debts, wandered about, and was seized by a Prussian recruiting party near Diisseldorf, and taken to the fortress of Wesel to serve, but escaped.

Returning to Russia, Lomonossov did not readily find recognition of his talents, and when he was appointed adjunct to the Imperial Academy the German party were predominant. In 1746 he became Pro- fessor, and found friends in Counts Orlov and Vorontsov, his special Maecenas being Count Shuvalov. Lomonossov sought to effect reforms in the University and the Academy, and Prof. A. Bruckner says of his abilities that " he stood in place of an academy and a university, technical in- stitutes, and chemical laboratories." He did not hide his light under a bushel, and claimed with justice that he had conferred honour on his country through his work. The Government and the University sent manuscripts for him to examine as censor and corrector, and more stress is laid by