Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/617

 ii s. vi. OK. a, i9i2.) NOTES AND QUERIES.

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A MEMORV GAME. Can any of your readers throw any light on what, for want of a better phrase, is referred to below as a " Memory Game " ? It has been known in my family and transmitted orally for certainly a hundred years. My grand- mother, whose name was Jane Blencowe, learnt it " as a little girl," and she was born towards the close of the eighteenth century.

Quite recently a book was published in America called ' Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards, 1 852-72.' and in this country it- has been published by Mr. Fisher Unwin. In this the " Memory Game " appears (1860) in a new guise, but there is unmistak- able evidence of a common origin for the two versions. I give both : Blencoice version.

A good fat hen.

Two wild ducks and a good fat hen.

Three squeaking wild geese, two wild ducks, and a good fat hen.

Four air ellises. three squeaking wild geese, &c.

Five bottles of Montefiasco, &c.

Six pairs of Donza Fonza tweezers, &c.

Seven hundred Limerick oysters, &c.

Eight cages of Aragabalus parroquets, &c.

Nine flanks of Macedonian horses, &c.

Ten helescope, telescope, tantafastical tunes, &c.

Eleven hympathetical[*ic], sympathetical, cate- gorical propositions, &c.

C. C. Richards version,

A good fat hen.

Two ducks and a good fat hen.

Three plump partridges, two ducks, and a good fat lien.

Four squaking [sic] wild geese, three plump partridges, &c.

Five hundred Limerick oysters, &c.

Six pairs of Don Alfonzo's tweezers, &c.

Seven hundred rank and file Macedonian horse- men drawn up in line of battle, &c.

Eight cages of heliogabalus sparrow kites, &c.

Nine sympathetical, epithetical, categorical propositions, &c.

Ten tentapherical tubes, &c.

Eleven flat-bottom fly boats sailing between Madagascar and Mount Palermo, &c.

Twelve European dancing masters, sent to teach the Egyptian mummies how to dance, against Hercules's wedding day.

The second version throws some light on the first, and explains Xo. 6. It is not difficult to put No. 11 (Blencowe) and 9 (Richards) into what was probably the original form. But what is an " air Ellis " ?

H. E. ANDREWES.

JOHN WILSON. I should welcome bio- graphical details concerning John Wilson, author of ' A Concise Account of St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell. and of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem,' pp. 22, 8vo, London, 1867; 2nd ed., 1869.

DANIEL HTPWELL.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Could you tell me the author of the follow- ing sentence ? I am not quite certain as to its literal correctness, for I quote from memory.

" He whose ear is untaught to hear the har- monious discord of the birds travels alone when he might have company."

J. RUDGE HARDING.

I should be glad to know if any readers of ' N. & Q.' could say where the following lines are to be found and who are the authors :

1. The soul that fixes upon earth

Unsatisfied desires, Forgetful of its heavenly birth

And what that birth inspires, That soul shall mourn itself too late,

Its winged nature gone, Degraded from its higher state

To that it feeds upon.

2. Who laughs at sin laughs at his own disease, Welcomes approaching ruin with his smiles,

.Dares at his soul's expense his fancj* please, Affronts his God, himself of peace beguiles.

E. FLETCHER.

[2. Was asked at 11 S. v. 90 without eliciting a reply.]

FISHER FAMILY. In a bookseller's recent catalogue I find " Fisher's Drawing-Room Scrap Book, with Poetical Illustrations by L. E. L., 1833."

Can any of your readers say what Fisher this was ? Was it the father of the Drury Lane actress Clara Fisher a well-known character at Brighton about this time ?

W. E. PH.

ONIONS PLANTED WITH ROSES. The Aca- demy, lx. 355, prints a poem by Mr. Thomas Hardy describing a custom of planting an onion at the foot of a rose tree, with the object of making the flowers healthy and improving their perfume. This custom seems to prevail in Wessex. Is it found in other parts of England ? EMERITUS.

POPE'S ' ILIAD ' : PRICE RECEIVED. In an interesting life of Pope by an unknown hand issued in 1853, the writer tells us that, after allowing for various payments for considerable literary assistance rendered, Pope received the sum of nearly 6,OOOJ. for his translation of the ' Iliad.' He adds that Dryden drew only about 1,300?. for his ' Virgil.' Have Pope's figures ever been exceeded for a work of pure literature other than a novel ?

M. L. R. BRESLAB.