Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/129

 ii s. ix. FEB. u, i9H.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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appearing ' was allowed to mean ' as far as appears.' '

But the first three of these dukes would certainly have opposed Sandwich through a spirit of faction, having been recently removed w T ith great rudeness by the King from their offices, and even their humblest connexions deprived of pensions in the en- deavour to crush the Whig party (Lecky, iii. 57-8).

Much the same evidence was given at the trial in the King's Bench: We have a minute, presumably by Webb, the Treasury solicitor, of what papers were to be put in " On the Tryal of the Information for the Essay on Woman." They were :

I. The Public Advertiser of "10 May, 1763, an- nouncing the Essay as shortly to be published by Webb and Stanhope.

II. The printed ' Essay on Woman.'

III. The printed * Universal Prayer.'

IV. The printed ' Veni Creator ' or ' Maid's Prayer.'

V. Mr. Wilkes's letters to Mr. Kearsley marked Nos. 7, 8, 13, 19, and 23.

VI. The Black Proof of the 'Essay on Woman' from p. 4 to p. 7, with corrections in the margin in handwriting of Mr. Wilkes. Add. MS. 22132, f. 142.

Curry and Jennings were called to repeat their evidence as given in the Lords', and as to the handwriting of the letters to Kears- ley ; they were confirmed also by Thomas Davis. The engraver was also called to prove the copy of the frontispiece (Add. MS. 30885, f. 156).

The material parts of the letters of which the originals, in the patriot's un- doubted writing, which was " as particular as his person," are in the Guildhall MS. 214/1 were as follows :

No. 7. Winchester, Oct. 14, Thursday.

Sm, I am much pleased with the copper

plate. I wish the engraver to make the trifling alterations I have marked, and be so good as to send me a proof here work'd of [sic] in red ink and , in black. Keep the plate till I see you.

&e.

JOHN WILKES. No. 8. Winchester, 18 October, Monday.

SIB, I am impatient for my Essay on Woman

[italics in original MS.]. Let it be on very good paper. Two proofs. &c.

JOHN WILKES.

No. 13. From Add. MS. 22132; original missing in Guild. MS. 214/1.

- SIR, I desire you to send by the bearer the

MS. of the Essay on Woman. &c.

JOHN WILKES.

No. 19. Also missing from Guild. MS.

Great George Street, Wed. Dec. 1. SIR, Let me have by the bearer the manu- script of the Essay on Woman, and let the printer come to-morrow with the proof of this.

&c. JOHN WILKES.

No. 23. Not in Add. MS. 22132, but original is in Guild. MS. 214/1. Winchester, Oct. 21, Thursday.

SIR, I approve the copper plate and desire

you to send me directly six copies in red ink on very strong good paper, and then take the copper plate into your possession. &c.

JOHN WILKES.

I hear there is a print of Churchill's cudgelling Hogarth, which I have not seen.

In no case is the year given, but all were of the year 1762.

Kearsley delivered the frontispiece to Wilkes about 5 Nov. for 21. 15s., paid on delivery (Guild. MS. 214/3, " Mr. Kearsley's discovery," 21 Nov., 1763).

ERIC R. WATSON.

(To be continued.)

B ARBOUR AND PATRICK GORDON"..

IN the Preface to his epic on the history of Robert Bruce, published at Edinburgh in 1613, Patrick Gordon writes as follows :

" To set down all his works and fortitude of mind were too tedious, seeing you shall find many of them in the history following ; although thie old printed book, besides the outworn barbarous speech, was so ill compos'd that I could bring it to no good method, till my loving friend Donald Farquharson brought me a book of virgin-parch- ment, which he had found among the rest of his books. It was old and torn, almost illegible, in many places wanting leaves, yet had it the beginning and had been set down by a monk in the abbey of Melrose, called Peter Fenton, in the year of God 1369, which was a year before the death of King David Bruce. It was in old rhyme like to Chaucer, but wanting in many parts, and especially from the field of Bannockburn forth it wanted all the rest almost, so that it could not be gotten to the press ; yet such as I could read thereof had many remarkable tales, worthy to be noted, and also probable, agreeing with the truth of history, as I have followed it, as well as the other. There are only two parts seemingly fabulous ; the first is the Baliol's Vision. . . .the second is the history of the kings."

Was Peter Fenton the author, or merely the scribe who wrote the book of virgin-

Earchment ? If he was the scribe, was the istory that he " set down " Barbour's poem "or the independent narrative of some contemporary poet ? Although Patrick Gordon does not seem to have been very clear on the point, it would appear that not