Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/49

 ii s. vi. JULY is, 1912. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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DR. FELL: MARTIAL (11 S. v. 490). The translator of the epigram was the facetious Tom Brown (1633-1704), author of numerous miscellanies. When at Christ Church. Oxford, he is said to have got into serious difficulty over an extravagant esca- pade, and to have retrieved his position by conferring poetic immortality on Dr. Fell, Dean of the College. The story is thus told by C. H. Wilson in a biographical preface to ' The Beauties of Tom Brown,' 1808 :

" Tom having committed some great fault at the university, the Dean of Christ Church (Dr. Fell) threatened to expel him; but Tom, in a very submissive epistle, pleaded his cause with such success, that the Dean promised to forgive him upon this condition, viz., that he should translate this epigram out of Martial extempore : Non amo te, Sabidi, nee possum dicere quare ; Hoc tantum possum dicere, Non amo te. Which he immediately rendered into English thus ;

I do not love thee, Dr. Fell,

The reason why I cannot tell ;

But this I know, and know full well,

I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.

He made ample amends, however, for this sally of the moment, in a Latin epitaph on the doctor, which is much admired for the beauty of the expression, and the justness of the thoughts."

In addition to variants given in 7 S. vii., mentioned in the editorial note, one may recall the parallel remark of Lucetta (' Two Gentlemen of Verona,' I. ii. 23), when asked to explain an estimate. " I have," says she, " no other but a woman's reason : I think him so because I think him so."

THOMAS BAYNE.

" STATIO BENE FIDA CARINIS " (11 S. v. 369, 458). The following extract from 1826, may be of some assistance to MR. McGovERN. It deals with the city of Cork :
 * Brewer's Beauties of Ireland,' London,

" Formerly, foreign vessels were received into A canal, which flowed nearly over the site of the present Castle Street. Here they were enclosed, by means of a portcullis, between the two forts termed the King's and the Queen's Castles. In allusion to these local circumstances, the city arms is a ship between two castles, with this motto : ' Static bene fida carinis.' "

J. H. MURRAY,

BALLAD OF LORD LOVEL (11 S. v. 330). The interesting old ballad of which MR. COMPSTON quotes only the beginning and the ending might well have been enshrined in ' N. & Q.' in extenso. I for one should much like to see the whole of it. It was, I think, the lullaby of my earliest infancy, now, as is usual in such cases, very indis- tinctly remembered.

My mother was born and bred in Heytes- bury, Wiltshire, at the beginning of the last century, the lord of the manor of Upton Lovel being a near relative ; and I have no doubt that at that period the Lord Lovel of the milk-white steed was localized at Heytesbury.

In spite of the numerous authorities brought forward by MR. HUMPHREYS (11 S. v. 291) to dissociate the story of LordLovel's skeleton from the neighbourhood of Heytes- bury, I seem to have known it all my life, and although I cannot remember any authority to quote for it, I was always under the impression that the scene of the tragedy was in the old manor house of Upton Lovel, Wilts. G. J., F.S.A.

REV. GEORGE JERMENT (11 S. v. 448). McKelvie's ' Annals of U.P. Church ' has :

" Geo. Jermant, D.D., from P? urntisland, where his father was minister. Ordained Oxenden Church, London, 26 Sept., 1782, D.D. from Ame- rica in 1817. Died 23 May, 1819, in 60 year age, 37 ministry. Author of 3 series Discourses : ' Parental Duty,' ' Early Piety,' ' Religion the Glory of Old Men.' Address ' Peace, to the Heathen.' Memoir Archbishop Leighton pre- fixed to new edition of works, 3 vols. Continua- tion of Gibbons's ' Memoirs of Pious Women.' ' Memoir ' of colleague Rev. D. Wilson, prefixed to posthumous vol. of Sermons, Trump and Harp."

A foot-note adds :

" Native of Peebles. Educated Edin. Uni- versity, U.P. Divinity Hall. Married 1789 a daughter of Prof. Moncrieff, and a second time in 1797 a daughter of Rev. A. Moncrieff of Aber- nethy. ' In the zenith of his days his style both as preacher and writer was nervous, classical, and elegant.' "

Bunhill Fields Burial Register has :

" Geo. Jermant, D.D., Scots Presbyterian minister, Oxenden St. Buried 1819."

He was one of the founders of the L.M.S. " Most fine " is a Scotticism.

R. S. ROBSON. 35, Hawthorn Street, Newcastle.

HEWER OF CLAPHAM (US. v. 429). In spite of the reference to Clapham in the obituary notice of Hewer Edgley Hewer, who died 6 Nov., 1728, aged about 36, leaving a widow and an estate of about 4.000/. a year, but no issue, it would seem that there is no connexion between the Hewer and the Ewer families.

In the 1792 List of London Liverymen there are four Ewer entries, one of them John Ewer of the Skinners' Company and residing at Clapham. There is one Hewer entry, Thomas Hewer of Xewgate Market, of the Butchers' Company.