Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/200

 194

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. MAR. 7, mi.

earth lie light upon thee!), often found in Roman epitaphs in the abbreviated form 11 S. T. T. L."

ABCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L. Boltoii.

Dr. Abel Evans (1679-1737) of Cheam, Surrey, wrote the famous epitaph upon the architect of Blenheim Palace, &c. :

Under this stone, reader, survey Dead Sir John Vanbrugh's house of clay : Lie heavy on him, earth ! for he Laid many heavy loads on thee !

Evans, who corresponded with Pope, is given a place beside Young and Swift in the second book of ' The Dunciad,' and is in- cluded among the nine Oxford wits whose names are preserved in the famous distich :

Alma novem genuit celebres Rhedycina poetas, Bubb, Stubb, Cobb, Crabb, Trapp, Young, Carey, Tickell, Evans.

A. R. BAYLEY.

Swift handled Vanbrugh's architecture in two characteristic poems. In the first, entitled ' Vanbrugh's House,' he calls the building " a thing resembling a goose-pie," and otherwise amuses himself over its dis- tinctive features. In the second, which is called ' The History of Vanbrugh's House,' he shows how the dramatist, from small beginnings, rose to be the architect of Blenheim, and concludes thus : But raillery at once apart, If this rule holds in every art ; Or if his Grace were no more skill'd in The art of battering walls than building, We might expect to see next year A mouse-trap man chief engineer. "This ridicule [says Chambers, 'The Book of Days,' i. 422] pursued Vanbrugh to his epitaph, for after his remains had been deposited in Wren's beautiful church of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, Dr. Evans, alluding to Vanbrugh's massive style, wrote :

Lie heavy on him, earth, for he Laid many a heavy load on thee."

THOMAS BAYNE.

The epitaph as given by Voltaire, ' Letters,' 1733, p. 187 the first edition, I believe is : Earth lye light on him, for he Laid many a heavy Load on thee.

In Ward's edition of Vanbrugh, 2 vols., 1893, the epitaph is printed on p. li of the Introduction, vol. i., the last line being

Laid many heavy loads on thee. The reference here is to Nichols, * Select Collection of Poems,' 1780, vol. iii. p. 161, the writer being Dr. Abel Evans.

S. L. PETTY.

The alteration in the well-known satirical epitaph was quite unintentionally made by me when speaking in St. Stephen's, Wal- brook. I had in mind the contrast between the heaviness invoked and the lightness of the church, and unconsciously recast the couplet under that influence.

CHAS. H. HOPWOOD. [C. C. B. also thanked for reply.]

BREAST TACKLE (11 S. ix. 109). Your correspondent will find a letter (accom- panied by a photograph) with regard to the breaat-plough, from Mr. Harold Baker, in Country Life for 24 Jan. last.

Writing to The Evesham Journal on 20 July, 1907, from Condicote, a correspon- dent said :

" This implement is used in this district more than in many parts. It is used by every roadman in trim ming the roadside. It is also used by tenants who occupy too little land to justify the purchase of a horse. ''

The following week another correspondent wrote :

" It may be worth recording that this imple- ment was in use, both at Offenham and Bretforton, for surface ploughing (' skimming') within the last four years.

I recollect gangs of breast - plough ers, from Mickleton and Chipping Campden, coming, thirty years ago, eight or ten miles from home to " skim " early stubble, in readiness for a crop of common turnips, sown broadcast. A. C. C.

CLEMENTINA STIRLING GRAHAM (11 S. ix. 129). If Mr. Hare said that Miss Graham was a " descendant" of Claverhouse, he was not strictly correct My authority is Miss Graham's statement to Dr. John Brown ('Horse Subsecivse,' by John Brown, M.D., Third Series, 1897, pp. 117-18):

John Graham of Claverhouse married the Hon. Jean Cochrane, daughter of William, Lord Coch- rane, eldest son of the first Earl of Dundonald. Their only son, an infant, died December, 1689. David Graham, his brother, fought at Killiecrankie, and was outlawed in 1690 died without issue when the representation of the family devolved on his cousin, David Graham of Duntrune. Alexander Graham of Duntrune died 1782 ; and on the demise of his last surviving son, Alexander, in 1804, the property was inherited equally by his four surviving sisters, Anne, Amelia, Clementina, and Alison. Amelia was my mother. Yours ever,

CLEM. STIRLING GRAHAM.

Duntrune, 14th November, 1860.

See the two articles ' Mystifications ' and ' Miss Stirling Graham.' WM- H. PEET.

[MR. JOHN B. WAINEVVRIGHT refers the querist to 8 S. xi. 66, 110, 157.]