Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/468

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. JUNE 10, me.

1711, and 1750, but I have not seen any of these. The German bookseller's ' Zuschrifft ' in the 1686 edition is dated Nuremberg, Dec. 6-18, 1685.

The Dutch and German translators have taken considerable liberties in rendering the English text, and have made numerous additions. Some of the dates, too, have been altered, or added in an arbitrary way. Thus, e.g., according to the translations the travels were begun in 1668 and completed in 1673, and the traveller left Schemnitz on June 13, 1671, when we know that he was there only once, in 1669. All the evidence as to dates may be found in the English author's letters to his father, published by Simon Wilkin in the first volume of Sir Thomas Browne's ' Works ' (London, 1836).

As regards dates, dealing with the journey from Venice to Genoa first, the author, in his ' Travels,' states that he left " the ancient City of Padua in the Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Eighty Fifth Year after its first Foundation, according to their own com- pute " ; but this is a mistake, as according to one of his own letters to his father he left that city on April 15, 1665, and according to the historian of the city, P.B. Giuseppe Cappelletti (' Storia di Padova,' 1874-5), it was founded in 1179 B.C., which for the year 1665 would give the year 2844 db urbe (Padua) condita.

With respect to the other journeys, Dr. Browne left Norwich on Aug. 14, 1668, and reached Vienna on or about Nov. 19 of the same year. The circular tours from Vienna to the mining towns of Upper Hungary and back, from Vienna into Styria, &c., to Friuli and back, the trip from Vienna to Larissa and back, and, finally, his return journey from Vienna to England via Ham- burg, coming to an anchor in Margaret Road on Christmas Day, were all made in 1669. The only other journey described in his book, that from Cologne to London via modern Belgium, was made in 1673, as stated in the book itself.

The accounts of the journeys described in the 1673 edition were translated into Hun- garian from the French version of 1674, and published by the late Stephen Szamota, fully annotated, in a collection of ' Ancient Travels in Hungary and the Balkan Penin- sula, 1054-1717 ' I Budapest, 1891) Accord- ing to him, Dr. Browne's description of his journeys is not only the longest, but also the most interesting in the collection.

It is therefore a great pity, we may add, that Browne did not leave a record of what

he saw in other parts of Europe. Many of his original sketches and some of his rough notes several of them unpublished are preserved in the MS. Department of the British Museum in two volumes marked Add. MSS. Nos. 5233 and 5234.

L. L. K.

BORDEAUX IN 1739.

THE letter here transcribed is addressed by Ephraim Chambers, F.R.S., to Thomas Long- man. It forms part of a collection of MSS. r letters, c., illustrating the history of Canon- r bury Tower, where the writer died the following year.

Bordeaux July ye 26th DEAR SIB N.S. 1739

I Wonder how it happens, I have been so long without writing to you : Yours of the 23d. of March lyes still by me unanswered. I know not where to lay the fault : My heart, I know, had no- part in it : nor can I tax my memory w'th the least remissness on y'r account Till ye truth can be clear'd up, give me leave to congratulate you on Mrs. Longmans recovery, on ye new Chateau, on ye quick sale of Cyclepsedia, and on diver* other articles of comfortable importance cori"* tain'd in y'r last, none of w'ch but deserved a letter of Compliment a-part, especially Mrs. Longman's escape, w'ch alone merited twenty. I thank Dr. Shaw, as well as yr Self, for ye Share each contributed to it. The good designs, also, w'ch you have formed in my behalf, claim my best acknowledgements, be the Success of r em what it will.

You see by my date y't I am at ye fountain of claret : yet you are not immediately to Conclude I drink nothing but Nectar and Ambrosia, I have no where met worse Wine y'n here : And tho we have chateau-margoo for 8 sous a bottle, & Grave & Pontai Wines for 5 or 6, the liquer chiefly drunk here, at this season, for pleasure, is small beer.. A bottle of this costs as much as two of wine ; & it would not be dear, were it half so good as y'r common table-beer at London. Here is also some Bristol & Hull beer, but this is too potent for French Noddles, who are forced to Drink it with double ye quantity of Water. I suppose you are now busy among y 'r Builders ! Twill be a trouble some time to you ; but 'tis a trouble which a Man will hardly have above once in his life. The Prettiest country-houses I have seen hi France, are here about Bordeaux : But they belong chiefly to ye English & Dutch Merch'ts. For as to ye chateaux of ye French, they are poor Things. One hardly sees anything y't deserves ye name of a Gentlemans seat in all France, unless it be a few near Paris, belonging to ye Princes of ye blood &c- w'ch are rather consider'd as Palaces, than as Country seats. Yet ye French have all their Country houses : scarce a Burgher, or even Villager but has his little maison de campagne- Hound all ye great Citties in ye South of France,, these swarm beyond all belief. Tis computed, there are not less y'n 40 thousand in ye single neighbourhood of Marseilles. Yet these are none