Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/227

 n s. ix. MAR. 2i, 19U.J NOTES AND QUERIES.

221

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 21,

CONTENTS.-No. 221.


 * NOTES : A Unique Book : Anna Trapnel, 221 John

Wilkes and the 'Essay on Woman,' 222 Irish Family Histories, 223 Inscriptions at Naples " Loci dulcedo nos attinet " " Left his corps "The Taylor Sisters, 225 Gilbert White and the Poet Thomson Casanova and Henriette, 226 Notes on Words for the 'N.E.D.' " Chick," 227.

QUERIES : " Triforium " " Billion " : " Trillion " Harvard College Broadsides, 228 Harwich and George I. Blackfriars : Ancient Schemes of Drainage Oil Paint- ing on Brass Rev. Dr. Rigby ' The Fray o' Hautwessell ' Anglesey House, Drury Lane " Leg of Mutton" Badge Passes to London Parks, 229 Duelling William Hamilton Maxwell Biographical Information Wanted History of Glass - Making Dr. King, Author of 'Anecdotes of his Own Times ' Lombard Street Bankers : Sir Stephen Evance Chile versus Chili, 230 Authors of Quotations Wanted John Cunningham Botany Bay Female " Factory "Mrs. Behn's ' Emperor of the Moon ' Hubertus Languetus Fabric of Churches, 231.

REPLIES : Fire- Walking : Fiji, 231 The Wild Huntsman Page Family Clearances' on Scotch Estates, 232 Author of Quotation Wanted Luigi da Porto Charles I., 233 Breast Tackle : Push-PloughCameron of Fassifern Heart - Burial Milton Queries" Over end," 234 Centenary of the Cigar St. Pancras Anthony Munday, 235 " The Faithful Durhams " Clementina Stirling Orahame Tying Legs after Death, 236" Not room enough to swing a cat " " Within sound of Bow bells " Second Folio Shakespeare, 237 Thomas Cocking Botany Clasped Hands as a Religious Symbol First Barmaid Altars Herodotus and Astronomic Geography, 238.

UOTES ON BOOKS : Kriiger's ' Schwierigkeiten des Englischen' 'The Romance of Names.'

Notices to Correspondents.

JSofcs*

A UNIQUE BOOK: ANNA TRAPNEL.

(See 9 S. viii. 319.)

I GAVE under the first heading, at the refer- ence above, a description of a very curious work of which one copy only appears to have survived. As that copy was without a title-page, and had otherwise no indication of its authorship, I was unable to give any information on that point. Chance, how- ever, has just thrown into my hands a pamphlet which, as I believe, clears up the mystery. But first, for the convenience of readers who may not have the number of peared, I will summarize as briefly as possible the contents of it.
 * N. & Q.' at hand in which my note ap-

The book in question is a folio volume of 990 pages. It is printed in double columns, and consists almost wholly of doggerel verse. It purports to be a series of addresses or discourses which were delivered before gatherings of " Companions " for so the speaker always terms them by a female

E readier. The addresses were taken down y a reporter, who confesses that the lady often spoke so fast that he was unable to follow her. It need hardly be said that the lady's verse is very wretched stuff, the rime and reason of which are about equally defective. I gave a few specimens of it in my former note, and to that I refer readers who may be curious about it. Those, how- ever, who are acquainted with the doggerel verse of Joanna Southcott will have a good notion of that of her predecessor. There was, indeed, a great and curious likeness between the two " prophetesses " ; and any one who believed in reincarnation would find no difficulty in considering the latter lady to be a re-embodiment of her seven- teenth-century forerunner. There is this distinction, however, between the two : the verses of the earlier were extemporane- ous, and were spoken to her hearers ; whereas Southcott, I believe, never claimed this power of extemporizing, but always wrote her compositions.

Recently I purchased at Messrs. Hodgson's sale-rooms a parcel of seventeenth -century tracts, amongst which I found one with the following title :

" The Cry of a Stone, or a Relation of Some- thing spoken in Whitehall, by Anna Trapnel, being in the Visions of God. Relating to the Governors, Army, Churches, Ministry, Univer- sities : and the whole NATION. Uttered in Prayers and Spiritual Songs, by an Inspiration extraordinary, and full of wonder. In the eleventh moneth, called January. 1653. London Printed. 1654."

A very short examination of this pamphlet proved to me that the author of these " Prayers and Spiritual Songs " was also the author of the later volume of addresses or discourses. As the matter is not, per- haps, of much importance, I will not weary the reader by setting forth the grounds of my conviction at full length ; but they are, shortly, as follows. The contents of the pamphlet and the folio book are of the same character, consisting as they do of illiterate and incoherent religious rhapsodies. The doggerel verse, however, is to me the most convincing proof of the identity of the author of the two works. I do not think that any one who compares the style of the verses in the two can possibly have any doubt upon the matter. It is very evident, moreover, that the reporter of the lady's utterances is in each case the same person. I will leave the matter at that, only remarking that the folio book of addresses is now in the Bodleian Library, while a copy of ' The Cry of a Stone ' is