Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/279

 s. v. MAK. -., ,2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

227

"JIMMY"' GORDON, THE CAMBRIDGE ECCENTRIC. The ' D.X.B.' says he was the son of the chapel clerk at Trinity College, Cambridge. This official was apparently the Henry Gordon who petitioned the King an 1771 as follows (P.R.O., S. P. Dom., Entry Books, vol. cclxv. p. 253) :

" Humbly shewtth that your Majesty's peti- tioner has for many years been an underservant at Trinity College, Cambridge, especially in the eare of the Chapel, and has behaved himself well in that station. But, having a family of children & not so able to support them as heretofore, begs your Majesty would Jbe pleased of your royal goodness to grant unto -him a patent for a Hems- man's place in your Majesty's royal foundation of Trinity College, Cambridge."

On 18 Dec., 1771, this petition was backed by J. Peterborough, Master, and eight other authorities :

" We, whose names are under-written, do humbly certify your Majesty that the above petitioner is of sober life and conversation, a loyal subject, and a deserving object of your Majesty's favour."

Cambridge historians may be glad of the item. j. M. BUIXOCH.

123, Pall Mall, S.W.

SCOTT'S ' PIRATE ' : Two READINGS. In several of the excellent reprints of ' The Pirate ' published by Messrs. A. & C. Black reprints that in general are eminently satisfactory both in text and illustrations two points in chap. vi. seem to call for consideration. The scene is that in which Norna of the Fitful Head, in her character of the Reim-kennar, illustrates her influence over the storm-powers within the remote domicile of Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley. Here is the sibyl taking action :

" Having looked on the sky for some time in a fixed attitude, and with the most profound ilence, Norna at once, yet with a slow and elevated gesture, extended her staff of black oak Cowards that part of the heavens from which lie blast came hardest, and in the midst of its iry chanted a Norwegian invocation, still pre- erved in the Island of Uist, under the name of he ' Song of the Reim-kennar,' though some it the ' Song of the Tempest.' "

Perhaps " Uist " as given in this passage is correct, but as the whole story gathers about Orkney and Shetland their political peculiarities, their scenery, their folk-lore, and so forth one feels that appositeness and consistency would have been secured had Unst in the Shetland group been the island associated with the tradition.

The other matter in question is less doubtful. In the second stanza of her appeal to the " stern eagle of the far north-

west," Xorna is represented as chanting

thus :

Thou hast met the rider of the ocean, The tall, the strong bark of the fearless rover, And she has struck to thee the topsail That she had not veiled to a royal armada.

" Veiled " in the last line is obviously a misprint for vailed, which Scott was fond of using on good occasion both in prose and verse. It is the appropriate word here, just as it is for Salarino ('Merchant of Venice,' I. i. 27) when he contemplates his

wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand, Vailing her high top lower than her ribs To meet her burial.

THOMAS BAYNE.

[" Uist " and " veiled " are thus printed in the edition of Scott's novels published by Robert Cadell in Edinburgh, [1845. See also T. F. D.'s note ' The Naval Salute,' ante, p. 86.]

(gwros.

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.

G. K. MATTHEWS. Born about a century ago, George King Matthews was sent to be educated at Galashiels Academy. When there he frequently saw Sir Walter Scott, who occasionally visited the school, and was wont to term the young Southron pupil " Geordie " and " the little Englishman." In 1827, while yet a schoolboy, Matthews composed some " Lines " under a hawthorn bush opposite Abbotsford, which appeared in his ' Poems,' published, together with a play entitled ' Belmour House,' in 1842. Shortly afterwards (perhaps in 1848), he produced ' Hawthorndale Village Revisited'; and this was followed in 1854 by the third edition of his " Miscellaneous Poems and Songs, to which is added ' Hawthorndale Cottage,' a play by the author of ' Hawthorn- dale/ ' From the dates of press reviews, it appears that these 'Poems' were first published in 1842. As I have not seen the following works, I cannot say if his ' Hawthorndale,' ' Hawthorndale Village ' (another title to which I find reference in book advertisements), and ' Hawthorndale Village Revisited ' are one and the same book, or if they form two, or three.

In 1853 Matthews issued his " Abbotsford and Sir Walter Scott, by the author of ' Hawthorndale Village Revisited ' " a work dedicated to Lockhart of which a second