Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/64

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. iv. JULY 15, IMI.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (US. j v . g). The writer of the four lines which W. B. C. quotes somewhat inaccurately was not William Smith O'Brien, but Michael Joseph Barry, who was born at Cork in 1817, became a barrister, and joined the Young Ireland party in the forties of the last century. The lines occur in a poem, 'The Place to Die,' contributed to The Nation. This is the last of five stanzas : 'Twere sweet indeed to close our eyes

With those we cherish near, And, wafted upward by their sighs,

Soar to some calmer sphere ; But, whether on the scaffold high

Or in the battle's van, The fittest place where man can die

Is where he dies for man.

I have sometimes ventured to substitute the Creator for the creature in the last of these lines, which, however, is quite true when understood properly :

Nay, whether on the scaffold high

Or at the tyrant's nod, The fittest place where man can die

Is where he dies for God.

There was another barrister of the same name, and Michael Joseph Barry, the writer of these verses, pretended that briefs and invitations intended for him went by mis- take to his namesake : This namesake of mine my anger provokes He 's feed for my law, and he s fed for my jokes.

MATTHEW RUSSELL, S. J.

The lines quoted by W. B. C. are by Michael J. Barry, and appeared in The Dublin Nation, 28 September, 1844.

R, A. POTTS.

The Lord Mayor must have been thinking of some lines which appeared in Punch, I think in 1874. They were headed ' Nursery Rhymes new set for the Times.' The lines were these : -

There was an owl liv'd in an oak, The more he heard, the less he spoke ; The less he spoke, the more he heard 0, it' men were all like that wise bird !

The initial letter was a large owl, the T being a piece of an oak branch, signed " Sambourne del." W. D. SWEETING.

Wallington.

D'URFEY AND ALLAN RAMSAY (11 S. iii 467). The evidence in favour of Ramsay's acquaintance with D'Urfey is, I believe, purely inferential. Ramsay had many friends among literary people south of the Border, and D'Urfey may have been one of them, ij Several of D'Urfey' s songs became

extremely popular in Scotland, owing, it is surmised, to Ramsay's enterprise as a bookseller and friendship with the author. Other grounds than these for supposing intimate acquaintance and correspondence between the two poets are not discoverable. On the other hand, it is to be remembered that Ramsay ceased to be a wigmaker and became a bookseller only six years previous to D'Urfey's death. He was scarcely known as a poet when D'Urfey died. Never- theless, it is quite conceivable that D'Urfey visited Edinburgh, as stated in the c D.N.B/

SCOTUS.

PHILIP DEHANY, M.P. FOR ST. IVES (11 S. iii. 449). David Dehany, a wealthy planter of Jamaica, by his will dated 17 August, 1753, proved 25 October, 1754 (P. C. C. 271 Pinfold), demised his estates to his eldest son and heir Philip, probably identical with the above M.P. Philip wa& born about 1720. V. L. OLIVER.

' THE CHURCHES OF YORKSHIRE ' (11 S. iii. 366, 418, 473 ; iv. 14). The words " I wish- there were on the fly-leaves of each copy,' r &c., are a postscript to Hugall's letter, and not a remark made by me. G. D. LUMB.

' CHURCH HISTORIANS OF ENGLAND ' (11 S~ iii. 308, 373). MR. SCOTT is not quite correct in his enumeration of these volumes, as I have vol. i. parts i. and ii. ; vol. ii. parts i. and ii. ; vol. iv. ; and vol. v. part i.

R, B R.

RIDDLE (11 S. iv. 10). "Spirit of our mother" = ruin; " Yours and mine " = ours ; " Tales ! idle tales ! " = rumours. The last word is accordingly the answer.

W. LEYS ON, [M. sends the same word.]

PORT HENDERSON : CORRIE BHREACHAN (11 S. iv. 10). Amongst the list of foreign and colonial places on p. 216 of ' The Im- perial Tariff" (1911), published by Eyre & Spottiswoode, is Port Henderson, Jamaica.

T. SHEPHERD.

Corrie Bhreachan, more correctly Coire Bhreachain, is the tidal whirlpool between Islay and Jura. HERBERT MAXWELL.

HENRY FIELDING AND THE CIVIL POWER (11 S. iii. 486). Is not this more likely to be the celebrated blind magistrate Sir John Fielding, half-brother of the novelist ? JTSee- ' D.N.B.' F. B. M.