Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/186

 178 NOTES AND QUERIES, ru s. vu. mar. i, 1913. Relic of Australian- Explorers (US. vii. 107).—A number of relics of the ill- fated Burke and Wills expedition were recovored and brought back to Melbourne by Mr. A. VV. Howitt, the leader of the relief expedition sent in search of them, and the son of those voluminous authors, William and Mary Howitt. Describing his discovery of the last camp of the explorers, Mr. Howitt remarks in his diary :— " The field-books, a note-book belonging to Mr. Burke, and various small articles lying about, of no value in themselves, but now invested with interest from the circumstances connected with them, and some of the nardoo seed on which they had subsisted, with the small wooden trough in which it had been cleaned. I have now in my possession."—' Uurke and his Companions,' p. 120. If memory serves, these and other relics are now in the custody of the Royal Society, Melbourne. It, was to the Exploration Committee of this Society that the organiza- tion and management of the Burke and Wills expedition were entrusted. No doubt a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Royal Society, Melbourne, would elicit authoritative information on the subject. J. F. Hogan. Royal Colonial Institute, Northumberland Avenue. Belshazzar's Feast (11 S. vi. 411, 495).—In the book of poems by Joaquin Lorenzo Luaces, published in Havana in 1857, there is a poem whose title is ' El Ultimo Dia de Babilonia, Mane—Tecel —Phares,' written in the same year as pub- lished. Lorenzo Luaces was considered one of the seven best poets of Cuba. E. Figarola-Caneda. Havana, Cuba. Earls of Rochford (11 S. vii. 107).— See ' D.N.B.' under ' Zuylestein.' Frederic Nassau, a natural son of the fourth Earl, died, aged 75. on 2 July, 1845. His grand- daughters, about 1860, sold the estate of St. Osyth Priory, Essex, which had come to the third Earl by marriage in 1701. A. R. Bayley. William Henry Nassau-de-Zulestein was created, 10 May, 1695. Baron Enfield, co. Middlesex, Viscount Tunbridge, co. Kent, and Earl of Rochford, co. Essex. The fifth and last holder of these titles died un- married, 3 Sept., 1830, when all the peerages became extinct (G. E. C.'s ' Complete Peerage,' vi. 383). S. A. Grundy-Newman. Walsall. Galignani (11 S. vi. 409, 495; vii. 71, 130).—Might we not add to any information, about Galignani's Messenger the song Albert Smith used to sing in its praise at his entertainment ' Mont Blanc ' ? The refrain, of this, I think, used to run :— lie-side our Press, you must confess All other sheets look small; But Galignani'* Messenger's The greatest of them all. R. W. P. Novalis's ' Heinrich von Ofterdingen * (11 S. vii. 91).—An American translation was. published at Cambridge, Mass., in 1842, and republished, with a new title-page, at New- York in 1853. L. L. K. $lotts on ?8ooka. The Correspondence of Jonathan Stcift. Edited by F. Elrington Ball. Vols. III. and IV. (Bell & Sons.) The letters in Vol. III. date from 1718. Swift was then fifty-one, and had been for five years Dean of St. Patrick's. He had resolved to keep aloof from public affairs, and it was not until 1720 that he published his first political tract relating to Ireland, entitled ' A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures.' Four years elapsed before Swift published anything more. In 1724 the Drapier's letters appeared ; and in November, 1726, ' Gulliver's Travels ' was issued. Gay and Pope in a joint letter, writing to him on the 17th, say :—" About ten days ago a book was pub- lished here of the travels of one Gulliver, which has been the conversation of the whole town ever since : the whole impression sold in a week, and nothing is more diverting than to- hear the different opinions people give of it, though all agree in liking it extremely. It is fenerally said that you are the author; but, am told, the bookseller declares he knows not from what hand it came... .Bolingbroke is the person who least approves it, blaming it as a design of evil consequence to depreciate human nature... .Your friend my Lord Harcourt com- mends it very much, though he thinks in some places the matter too far carried. The Duchess Dowager of Marlborough is in raptures at it ; she says she can dream of nothing else since she read it ; she declares that she has now found out that her whole life has been lost in caressing the worst part of mankind, and treating the best as her foes ; and that if she knew Gulliver, though he had been the worst enemy she ever had, she should give up her present acquaintance for his f riendship.... Perhaps I may all this time be- talking to you of a book you have never seen, and which has not yet reached Ireland. If it has not, I believe what we have said will be sufficient to recommend it to your reading, and that you will order me to send it to you." Swift kept up the secret (?) as to the authorship. In writing to Chetwode from Dublin on February 14th, 1720/7, he says : " As to Captain Gulliver. I find his book is verv much censured in this-