Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/381

 ii s. iv. NOV. 4, Mil.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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' Alexandre Dumas on Cleopatra's Needle ' inclines me to think that the following account of a much earlier date may be of interest to some of your readers, more par- ticularly as it gives the approximate date when our Cleopatra's Needle was over- thrown, and also a curious suggestion as to its removal to England.

The extract is taken from a very inter- esting account of a journey from Madras to Marseilles, via the Red Sea and overland from Cosseir, orKosseir, to Alexandria, by a servant of the Hon. East India Company, Mr. Eyles Irwin, in the year 1777, which is perhaps the first account of an " overland " journey from India to Europe, although it would appear that it was not unusual for servants of the East India Company to proceed from Alexandria to Suez, and via the Red Sea to India in the Company's ships.

" Oct. 1st, 1777. In the afternoon we went to see Cleopatra's Needle, which lies to the east- ward of the city [Alexandria]. It is almost close to the sea, and lifts up its head amidst an heap of ruins, which appear to have been a circle of magnificent buildings, which surround it.

"It is said that there were originally three obelisks which bore the name, and that one has been buried by its own weight and the rising of the sand about it.

"It is certain, however, that two of them stood here at about fifty yards asunder one of them was torn up by the roots in a violent storm some years ago, and ' prone on the ground lies grovelling many a rood.'

" These obelisks are of granite, which is the marble peculiar to this place. They are of a single stone, sixty feet in length, and covered on all sides with hieroglyphics.

" The one which is standing yields only in beauty to Pompey's Pillar among the remains of this august city, and it is a -wonder that no attempt has- been made to transport the fallen needle to Europe.

" What a beautiful termination would it make to one of the vistas at Chatsworth ! What a noble addition would it prove to the collection at Stow 1 But the expenses would be too heavy for any but a princely purse to discharge, and the relic would be too valuable for any but a monarch to possess."

The author also gives an account of Pompey's Pillar and the prank of some Eng- lish sailors, who by means of a kite got a rope over the top, by which they ascended. In proof of this he says that the initials of their names were legible in black paint just beneath the capital. They found that a foot and ankle of a statue were at the top. Near Pompey's Pillar were a number of granite pillars, about thirty feet high, of a, single stone, placed in parallel lines, thirty of which were still standing.

H. A. C. SATJNDERS.

I remember well the solitary obelisk now standing erect on the Thames Embank- ment when it was lying prone on the sand at Ramleh, close to Alexandria in Egypt, as it supplied a convenient seat after a walk on the seashore in the burning heat.

Ismail Pasha or his predecessor, I believe, had presented it to the English nation prior to 1868, the year that I made its acquaint- ance ; and it started its adventurous voyage to England just ten years later through the munificence of Sir Erasmus Wilson, when it broke loose from its moorings in the stormy Bay of Biscay before it was safely landed on our coasts.

Dumas speaks of one Needle as "couchee et a moitie ensevelie dans le sable " in 1830, but he does not mention whether at Ramleh or elsewhere. WILLIAM MERCER.

HISTORY or ENGLAND WITH RIMING VERSES (11 S. iv. 168, 233, 278). I remem- ber approximately the first two verses of the " old song " referred to by MR. HERBERT B. CLAYTON at the last reference : The Romans in England at first did sway, And the Saxons after them led the way, And they tugged with the Danes till an overthrow Which both of them got from the Norman bow ;

Yet barring all pother,

Both one and the other

Were all of them kings in their turn. King William the Conqueror first did reign, And William his son by an arrow was slain, And Henry the First was a scholar bright, And Stephen was forced for his crown to fight.

Yet barring all pother, &c.

JOHN R. MAGRATH. Queen's College, Oxford.

By a curious coincidence MR. HERBERT B. CLAYTON has, so to speak, forced my hand, and I hope he will force others to answer his query satisfactorily. I have spent some time over the ' History of England ' in verse he alludes to, and have some notes on it. There are about half a dozen editions of a song in the Music Catalogue in the British Museum, ranging from 1790 to 1876. The first line is " The Romans in England they once did sway," and the song concludes with " They were all of them kings in their turn." The title is ' The Chapter of Kings : a celebrated historical song, written by Mr. Collins, and sung by Mr. Dignum.' Another edition says, " Sung with universal applause by Mr. Collins, author of 'The Brush. 3 ' The later editions (1839 and onwards) are " carried on to the present Reign with Chronological References, by D. M."

One bibliographical item ought not to be omitted. In 1 8 1 8 a little book was published