Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/373

 ii s. v. APRIL 20, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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levied on innkeepers in behalf of a certain orphanage (Ambachtskinderhuis still in existence Klaassteeg) we find: "Andries Bart in 't Kysershof, by appointment of Dec, 8th, 1749. Paid 2 May, 1767, 3-." In the Register of Licensed Houses (' Tappersboek ') of 1749 we read : "Andries Bart, Achter den Dom." Andries Bart is not mentioned amongst those entitled to sell gin or strong beer, or who kept a billiard table, but his name occurs among the coffee-house keepers. " Achter den Dom " is the very street where the University has its buildings, right in the centre of the city, so we see that Boswell stayed at a most respectable hotel, with no traffic in spirits, and in the immediate vicinity of his work.

Prof. Godet, in ' Madame de Charriere et ses Amis,' mentions Boswell as one of that lady's friends. Madame de Charriere Isabella of Zuylen was the daughter of Diederik Jacob of Zuylen en Westbroek, Baron van Serooskerken, a scion of one of the noblest and oldest families of Holland, himself a man of great influence in his county, and a magistrate.

Bella was born in 1740, and consequently 23 years old when Boswell sojourned in Holland. She came to know him through the Marquis de Bellegarde, commander of a regiment of the States General. Her high opinion of the young Scotchman we read about in Prof. Godet's work, and it need not be restated here. All things tend to show that at Utrecht Boswell moved in the highest circles possible. This girl, one of the wits of her day, even discussed the reasons why Boswell would never have married her, nor she him ; but a letter he wrote to her she is stated to have preserved till her dying day. Later on, she planned a trans- lation of his ' Account of Corsica,' and urged Boswell to abridge the work ; but he would not hear of this :

" L'auteur, quoi qu'il flit dans ce moment presque decid6 a m'epouser, si je le voulais, n'a pas voulu sacrifiera mon gout une syllabe de son livre. Je lui ai ecrit que j'etais tres decidee a ne jamais I'^pouser, et j'ai abandonne' la traduction."

I readily admit that, as to new matter, the above contains only a few things of minor importance, but it would seem to me better to make them known, if merely because it might save trouble to others interested in the subject and make them follow another track, should they at any time try to explore this barely trodden field of biographical interest.

C. B. A. PEOPEB.

Haarlem.

WALLER : SOME UNCOLLECTED VERSES. I bought last year a volume of folio tracts- which had formerly been in the library of Bishop Burnet. Besides his book-plate, there was at the beginning of the volume- a list of the contents in his handwriting r this disclosed his authorship of a tract which, I believe, has not hitherto been attributed to him, and also included ' Waller's Verses on the New Parl., 1679.' The lines referred to ' A Poem on the Present As- sembling of the Parliament, March the 6th, 1678' are printed on two leaves, small folio, without place, printer's name, or date except as aforesaid. Once his attention has been directed to them, I hardly think that anybody familiar with Waller's political' verse will fail to recognize his hand.

The poem was reprinted in the second part of 'Rome Rhymd to Death,' 1683,- p. 88, and, having been altered and added to, was republished as

"A Poem On the Present Assembly of Parlia- ment, November 9 th 1685. Licensed, November 7 th " 1686 [sic]. Bo. L'Estrange. London, Printed for- George Powell over against Lincoln^- Inn-Gate. 1686 "(sic).

Besides these two pieces, I have also had" the good fortune to acquire another poem of Waller's on the marriage of Sir John- Denham in his autograph. Specimens of Waller's handwriting are, as people inter-- ested know, hard to come by, and, with the possible exception of some lines in a pre- sentation copy of his poems, now in Ame- rica, I am inclined to think that there is no other piece of verse written by his own hand, extant. G. THORN-DRURY.

INSCRIPTIONS IN THE BURIAL - GROUND OF ST. JOHN'S, WESTMINSTER : ADDENDUM., (See 11 S. iv. 302, 403, 484; v. 42.) One inscription escaped me last summer. It is at the extreme north end of the west wall :

53A. Robert Palmer, d. Aug., 1777. Mary,, w. of John Sharp, of this p., d. 3 Nov., 1811, a. 80.

I am indebted to GENERAL G. EVATT,. C. B.,and to MR. H. R. LEIGHTON for informa- tion regarding Nos. 99 and 197 :

No. 99. This Wm. Evatt was one of the Clerks, of the House of Commons. The Registers of 3t. Paul's, Covent Garden, and Bath Abbey, contain \ entries of his father's family. He was descended from the Rev. Anthony Evatt, Rector of Whep- sted, Suff., who died in 1642.

No. 197. Mrs. Bass's obituary occurs in The London Packet for 28 June, 1824 : " June 23,- a. 57, Mrs. Bass, widow of the late George Bass,. Surgeon, R.N., who in 1798 first discovered the Straits, which separate Vandiemen's Land from* the southern extremity of New Holland."

G. S. PARRY,