Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/212

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. MAR. u,

Benjamin Robert Hay don, edited by Tom Taylor (1853). "Mr. Gandish," says Clive, have read the Hottentots do." The author likewise represents him as gushing about " 'igh art," and declaring that " an English historical painter should be chiefly employed in English 'istry," with the significant com- ment that, regarding all artists save one, he was, perhaps, a good critic. And Gan- dish's huge canvases did not sell. " Why is my ' Alfred ' 'anging up in this 'all ? " For correspondence in tone, almost in the very expression, one may profitably con- sult Hay don's ' Memoirs ' passim.
 * ' went on buttering himself all over, as I

P. T. L.

ROBERT BARON, AUTHOR OF ' MIRZA, A TRAGEDIE.' In my paper on Baron, -ante, p. 22, I suggested that his first work, ''E/ooTOTTouyi/tov ; or, The Cyprian Aca- demy,' was partly written in France, and chiefly because one passage suggested a first-hand knowledge of Paris and its en- virons :

" Flaminius. .. .retired [from Paris] to his 'Tusculanium at Poysey, a prety gentle place, scituated upon the River Sequana, some 15. miles distant from Paris, at the foot of the great Forrest of St. German. .. .the French King at this time had his residence at his standinghouse within a anile of Possy [= Poissy]."

I now withdraw this suggestion, as I find that Baron conveyed the above passage from James Howell's letter ('Epistoke Ho- Elianse,' I. xx. " To Dan. Caldwell Esq: from Poissy " :

"Mr. Altham and I are lately retired from Paris to this town of Poissy, a pretty genteel Place at the Foot of the great Forest of St. Germain upon the River Sequana, and within a Mile of one of the King's chiefest standing Houses, and about 15 Miles from Paris."

Howell's letter had apparently been printed in 1645. G. C. MOORE SMITH.

THE MONKEY NATION. In a ' Voyage made in the Years 1695, 1696, 1697, by a Squadron of French Men-of-War, under the command of M. de Gennes,' occurs the following :

" The most part of the Negroes imagine them [i.e., monkeys] to be a Foreign Nation come to inhabit their Country, and that they do not speak for fear of being compell'd to work."

It is interesting to find that this familiar saying may be traced to the people living -on the banks of the Gambia.

Upham Rectory, Hants.

E. L. H. TEW.

"OCCUPY " : " OCCUPYER." The verb here noted has had a strange history, being at one time in much disrepute, as to which see the word in that great treasure-house the'N.E.D.' As the noun has escaped attention, these "ines. written before 1613, will be found interesting :

Lesbia doth laugh to heare sellers and buyers 3ald by this name, Substantiall occupyers ; Lesbia, the word was good while good folks vsd it, You raard it that with Chawcers iest abvsd it. Sir John Harington's ' Epigrams,' i. 8 (1618).

Words that have once sunk low seldom arise ; and the rehabilitation of " occupy " is probably owing to its use in the A.V.

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

JOHNSONIANA. While reading Boswell lately I noticed a slight inaccuracy to which I do not find that attention has hitherto been drawn. On the monument to Dr. Johnson in St. Paul's his age is given as 75 years, 2 months, 14 days. Instead of 14 it should be 25 days.

Dr. Johnson was born 7 O.S. (18 N.S.) Sep- tember, 1709, and he died 13 Dec., 1784. Now from 18 Sept. to 13 Dec. are 2 calendar months and 25 days, and Dr. Johnson's age at death was therefore 75 years, 2 months, 25 days.

It would seem that Dr. Parr, the framer of the epitaph, reckoned the date of birth to be 18 O.S. (29 N.S.) Sept., 1709, and so deducted the eleven days twice.

In examining authorities on the above point, I came across another small error, which, unfortunately, has crept into the ' D.N.B.' Samuel, son of Michael Johnson, " gent.," was, as Boswell found, baptized on the day of his birth (7 Sept., O.S.) at St. Mary's Church in Lichfield. In The Gentleman's Magazine for 1829 (vol. ii. p. 313) there is a twofold misstatement to the effect that his baptism took place 17 Sept., 1709, at St. Michael's Church. Accepting this, in defiance of Boswell's definite statement, the writer of the article ' Samuel Johnson ' in the 'D.N.B.' asserts that Johnson was baptized "17 Sept. (i.e., 28 Sept., N.S.)," according to " the " parish register. The passage in The Gentleman's Magazine to which he refers and on which he relies is, of course, second-hand evidence. Mr. Wood, honorary corresponding secretary of the Johnson Society at Lichfield, is able to assure me, at first hand, that no one of the name of Johnson " was baptized at St. Michael's Church there in September, 1709 ; and further, that the entry of Samuel's