Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/52

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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. m. JAN. 21, 1911.

candidate who crossed to a different quarte of London from that in which he residec and was known. As the carpet-bag is rarely if ever, seen in these days, though the politi cal epithet " carpet-bagger " is likely t( continue in currency, its etymology will be come obscure. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Streatham Common.

["Carpet-bagger," described as U.S. politica slang, is in the section of the ' N.K.D.' publishe in 1888. The last sentence of the article notice the introduction of the term into English politics.

" MUSICE MENTIS MEDICINA

In No. 33, p. 28, of * A Student's Pastime (' N. & Q.,' 3 S. xii. 412) Prof. Skeat writes :

" On the fly-leaf of a Collection of Musica Tunes, by John Dowlande, M.B., in MS. Camb Univ. Dd. ii. 11, is the following specimen o -alliteration : ' Musica mentis medicina mcestae.' '

The source of the quotation does not seem to have been recognized.

A still more striking example of allitera tion is afforded when these words are com- bined with the remainder of the stanza :

Musice mentis medicina moestac, Musice multum minuit malorum, Musice magnis, metliis, minutis

Maxima mittit.

This is the conclusion of a poem by Walter Haddon (1516-72), headed ' De Musica ' on p. 69 (wrongly numbered 66) of his tiones,' London, 1567. The poem consists of five Sapphic stanzas, the first three lines of each beginning with some case of " musice."
 * Poemata,' at the end of his ' Lucubra-

Burton, ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' 2.2.6.3, 6th ed., p. 299, has " Musica est mentis medicina mcestce, a roaring-meg against Melancholy." The last words must have been suggested by the title of a work of 1598 quoted, under ' Roaring Meg, in the "'N.E.D.' : 'Tyros Roring Megge Planted against the walles of Melancholy,' which is in the list (Selden MS. 80, supra) of Burton's books that were given to the Bodleian.

EDWARD BENSLY.

BENJAMIN BATHURST. The ' D.N.B.' has found this English diplomat worthy of notice on account of his mysterious dis- appearance in Germany now more than 101 years ago. With regard to his death The Observer of 18 December last published a short notice under the title of ' A Century- Old Mystery,' according to which a skeleton was found recently in a field close to the little Prussian town of Perleberg, near Berlin, ^buried face downwards, and with a large hole

in the forehead. The only object found with the remains was " a large key, believed to be of old English workmanship." The bones were being examined as to their age.

L. L. K.



THE SECOND EARL SPENCER : HIS DEATH. The recent death of John, fifth Earl Spencer, has occasioned some newspaper references to the Althorp library and its founder, George John, the second Earl. It is rather difficult to say how much assis- tance his eulogizer T. Frognall Dibdin rendered in bringing that marvellous col- lection together probably very little ; but at least in his * Bibliotheca Spenceriana ' he compiled a most useful work, and satis- fied the pride of his patron, who rewarded him by obtaining his appointment to the living of St. Mary, Bryanston Square. The news of Lord Spencer's last illness and death came to Dibdin suddenly in a letter now before me :

Althorp, Nov. 10, 1834. MY DEAR SIR,

As Lord Spencer's illness has only been of four days' duration, it is probable that you may not yet have heard of it. Most truly grieved am I to tell you, as you will be to hear, that there is no doubt of its terminating fatally ; and it is more than probable that the postscript to this will confirm the suspicion. Lord Althorp and all the family are here. You and I and very many more will lose in him their best friend. My dear Sir,

Very sincerely yours,

GEO. APPLEYARD.

P.S. 25 min. past 2.

T have just seen him breathe his last. The Rev'd Dr. Dibdin.

The letter is not addressed, but probably Dibdin was then living at 58, Cambridge Street, Connaught Square.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

WEDGE WOOD WARE AND WATER-CARRIAGE. In the course of a recent search through The Nottingham Journal for 1780 I inci- dentally came across and scanned a note of ome interest to ceramic students, although r did not, unfortunately, note the precise late. The item in question related to the onviction of a Nottingham man for stealing i large quantity of earthenware from a cask n a barge on the Trent, at Wilford Shoals, he said earthenware being the property of osiah Wedge wood of Etruria, Stafford- hire. Wilford is immediately above Not- ingham, on this river, and the note illus- rates the former importance of carriage by ter in England. A. STAPLETON.

Nottingham.