Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/329

 ii s. vi. O.T. 5, i9i-2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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tobaccoe," and in 1686 Is. 6d. for a 5-lb. box of tobacco i.e., Is. 6d. per Ib. (ibid., ii. 113). N"o doubt price varied with quality, but this seems hardly to explain so great a difference as that seen above between 8*. and Is. 6d. for tobacco in the same district, at an interval of little more than twenty years. Can any one suggest any other explanation ? G. L. APPERSON.^

ELIZABETH HARDY, NOVELIST. Is any- thing known of this writer's private life ? Mr. Francis Watt in ' D.N.B.' says she was born in Ireland in 1794, and died 9 May, 1854, in the Queen's Bench Prison, where she had been imprisoned for about eighteen months for a small debt.

She wrote ' Michael Cassidy, or the Cottage Gardener,' in 1845;. 'Owen Glen- dower, or the Prince in Wales,' an historical romance, 2 vols. post 8vo (or duodecimo authorities appear to differ slightly as to size of volume), London, 1849 ; 'The Confessor, a Jesuit Tale of the Times,' 1854, and pos- sibly some other works "all published anonymously" according to ' D.X.B.'

Halkett and Laing's ' Dictionary of Anony- mous and Pseudonymous Literature ' has a brief reference to one of Elizabeth Hardy's novels ; so has Allibone's ' Critical Die tionary of English and American Authors. I believe there is also a notice of her (whether long or short I cannot say, for I have been unable to consult it) in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1854, vol. i. p. 67 Any details about this unfortunate literary ladv would be very acceptable.

F. C. W T HITE. 71, Newfoundland Road, Cardiff.

SCOTTISH MERCENARIES IN NORWAY. The subjoined cutting from The Pall Mall Gazette of 10 Sept. is, perhaps, worthy of a corner in ' N. & Q.' The history of our mercenaries in foreign service is a fascinating one. I should be grateful for a reference to authentic information about this Scottish expedition.

" ....A little army of 300 Scottish mer- cenaries under Captains Sinclair and Ramsay, who, in 1611, were making their way across Norway then belonging to Denmark from the Romsdal Fiord to Stockholm, to help Gustavus Adolphus in his war against the Danes.

" At a place called Kringer now one of the show places of Norway in consequence of its historical tragedy the Scots, while filing along the foot of a cliff, were overwhelmed by a cataract of boulders heaped upon the summit by the peasants, who then fell upon the invaders, and massacred them, only a few escaping. But the

fact is that the great bulk of the Scots were as yet without arms, which were awaiting them at Stockholm an explanation that is never offered by singers of the ' Sine lair- Lied.' one of Norway's most treasured ballads."

W. ROBERTS CROW.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Joseph Hatton in his novel ' Clytie ' makes one of his characters quote the lines,

You had better be drown'd than to love and to

dream ;

It were better to sit on a mossgrown stone, And away from the sun and for ever alone,

Slow pitching white pebbles at trout in the stream,

Than to dream for a day, then awake for an age, And to walk through the world like a ghost, and

to start, Then suddenly stop with the hand to the heart

Press'd hard, and the teeth set savage with rage.

Alas for a heart that is left forlorn !

If you live, you must love ; if you love, regret. It were better perhaps we had never been born,

Or better at least we could well forget.

I had a copy of the lines pasted in my scrapbook several years before Hatton' s novel appeared. Can any reader tell me who wrote them ? G. L.

Can any of the readers of ' N. & Q.' tell me whether the following lines are Richard Le Gallienne's, and if so in what poem they occur ?

With pipe and book at close of day, Oh I what is sweeter ? mortal, say. It matters not with book on knee, Old Isaak or the Odyssey, It matters not at close of day Whether it be meerschaum or clay

G. A. W. P.

" SHAM ABRAHAM." I should be grateful if any of your correspondents could throw light on the origin of the expression " to sham Abraham." I remember its use in my early childhood to express what is now called " malingering," and it is found in Charles Reade's novel ' Hard Cash.' A more remarkable instance of its use is with reference to one Abraham Newland, chief cashier of the Bank of England, early in the nineteenth or at the close of the eighteenth century, whose many virtues are commemorated on a tablet in St. Sa- aur's Cathedral, Southwark, and about whom there was a saying, " You may, if you please, sham Abraham, but you must not sham Abraham Newland." This points out the phrase as well known and in popular use, but I have not as yet discovered its origin. E. T.

[Ample information on both points will be found at 10 S. vii. 469 ; viii. 293, 395, 477 ; ix. 37, 417-]