Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/453

 ii s. vii. JUNE 7, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to the masterships of both the Crypt- Grammar School and the College (Cathedral or King's) School recorded in the Cor- poration Minute Books and the Chapter Act Books, and there is certainly no foundation for the statement concern- ing Clarke. Richard Furney, afterwards Archdeacon of Surrey, was master of the Crypt School from 1719 to 1724, and on his retirement was succeeded by Daniel Bond, who held the mastership until his death in 1750. From the Chapter Act Books I find that Benjamin Newton was master of the College (or King's) School from 1712 until 1 5 September, 1718, when he resigned. Then the school appears to have been carried on for a time without a head master, for the only appointment in the Act Book is that of Jeremiah Butt, as undermaster ("hypodi- dascalus"), on 28 August, 1719. On 30 November, 1725, William Alexander was elected, and he remained head master until his death, 1 May, 1742.

Clarke's ' Sallnst ' is mentioned at 3 S. ii- 512, and in addition to the reference on the title-page Clarke is spoken of in the ' Dis- sertation ' as " late Schoolmaster of Hull." Surely some reference would have been given had he held a mastership at Gloucester. An edition of his ' Sallust ' was printed by Robert Raikes of Gloucester in 1799.

Through the kindness of Mr. Cecil T. Davis I have ascertained that the Addit. MS. in the British Museum referred to in the notice of Clarke in the * D.N.B.' does not contain any mention of his connexion with Gloucester. It is known that in 1612- 1613 a John Clark was master of the Col- lege School in Gloucester, and it is possible that by some mischance this has given rise to the mistake of associating his eighteenth- century namesake with the Gloucester School.

Can any reader give the exact dates of Clarke's mastership at Hull ?

ROLAND AUSTIN. Public Library, Gloucester.

PROPOSED EMENDATION IN ASCHAM. In The Modern Language Review for January, 1913 (vol. viii. p. 97), Prof. G. C. Moore Smith proposes to emend a corrupt passage in Ascham's letter to Raven of 20 Jan., 1551 (' Works,' ed. Giles, I. part ii. p. 255), " From Colen .... we went to Bonna .... the country about Rhene here is plain and ioney," by reading "ioney " ( = " rushy," from " junk " or " jonk "=^"rush ") instead of "ioney." He admits that there is no authority for the

adjective " joncy." It seems strange to me to describe a tract of country as " rushy." I should have thought the word was more appropriate to the river than to the land, but the * JST.E.D.,' I find, supplies examples- of the phrases " rushy Bank," " Land. . . . becomes rushy," " rushy dingles," as well as- " russhy sea," " rushie brooke."

In spite of this, however, another emenda- tion seems to me worth suggesting. For " ioney " read lomy. and we have the state- ment credible in itself, and lexically un- impeachable that the country about the Rhine between Cologne and Bonn is " plain and lomy " i.e., " flat and loamy."

L. R. M. STRACHAN,

Heidelberg.

' PERSUASION.' This novel, the last one written by Jane Austen before her death in 1817, was finished on 18 July, 1816, and published posthumously in 1818, along with ' Northanger Abbey.' After its completion the author was dissatisfied with one of the incidents, viz., the re-engagement of the hero- and heroine, Capt. Wentworth and Anne Elliot, which is described as taking place in Admiral Croft's lodgings. With reference to- ft the late Rev. J. E. Austen Leigh wrote a& follows in his Memoir of his aunt, the first edition of which appeared in 1870 :

" She cancelled the condemned chapter, and wrote two others, entirely different, in its stead. The result is that we possess the visit of the Musgrove- party to Bath ; the crowded and animated scenes at the White Hart Hotel ; and the charming conver- sation between Capt. Harville and Anne Elliot, overheard by Capt. Wentworth, by which the twa faithful lovers were at last led to understand each other's feelings. The tenth and eleventh chapters of ' Persuasion ' then, rather than the actual winding-up of the story, contain the latest of her printed compositions, her last contribution to the entertainment of the public."

Had the biographer referred to the chapters cited, he would have discovered hi* error. Instead of these being chaps, x. and xi., they are, as a matter of fact, chaps, xxii. and xxiii. .The misstatement was left unconnected in the second edition, which soon followed ; and every subsequent writer who has referred to the matter and specified the chapters has handed on the error. Even Jane Austen's latest bio- graphers, whose authoritative and probably final ' Life ' of their kinswoman has just been published, have similarly erred by failing to comply wiih that very simple rule, so seldom honoured in the observance : " Always verify your references."

S. BUTTEBWOBTH,