Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/31

 ij 8. ii. JULY 8, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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British libraries and into contemporary publications have not revealed the item. Therefore I address these facts to the readers of ' X. & Q.' in the hope that in some obscure corner of some Napoleonic collection there may blithefully repose the fabulous original. Can any one bring the spirit into the light of gaudy day and help me to learn the facts about this Holcroft writing, to find, perhaps, that my will-o'-the-wisp is substantial reality, though I fancy a trifle dusty ?

ELBRIDGE COLBY. 52 West 126 Street, New York City.

BELL-RINGERS' RIMES. Several examples of bell-ringers' rimes have already appeared in ' X. & Q.' (v. 9 S. iv. 305, 446 ; v. 93), but the following offers yet another variation on the themes common to most of them. It was shown me by Mr. Knight, the Parish Clerk, in the belfry of the Church of St. John the Baptist, Spetisbury or Spettisbury as the P.O. spells it and I took it down there :

I doat on Ringers, and on such

Who delight to ring and love theyre Church,

Beware of Oaths and Quarrelings,

Take heed of Clans and Janglings :

There is no music play'd or sung,

Like unto Bells that are well rung,

Let all keep silence and forbear

Of smoaking their tobacco here ;

And if your Bell doth overthrow,

It is your sixpence ere' you go,

If any ring in hat or spur,

Be sure they pay without demur. 1818.

F. H.

A REMINISCENCE OF MACREADY IN ' EDWIN DROOD.' It is well known that in tragic parts Macready used sometimes to carry his efforts to be impressive to an almost ridiculous point of elaboration. A critic thus describes his exit in the murder scene in ' Macbeth ' :

" Up to that moment he had reached the highest point of tragic horror, but his desire to over- elaborate made him pause, and when his body was actually off the stage, his left foot and leg remained trembling in sight, it seemed fully half a minute."

Macready retired nearly twenty years before ' Edwin Drood ' was written, but Dickens must have been thinking of this peculiarity in his old friend's acting when, in chap, xi., he described the waiter's leg as

"always lingering after he and the tray had dis- appeared, like Macbeth's leg when accompanying him off the stage with reluctance to the assassina- tion of Duncan."

GORDON CROSSE. Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pall Mall, S.W.

" XUMERALLY " IN 1808. In ' The Oxford English Dictionary ' the word " numer- ally " is quoted from the years 1646 and 1691 only. The phrase : " I think the plan of classing under different heads numerally arranged a number of locutions and idiotisms
 * he most essentially necessary," &c., occurs

n a " Letter from Mr. Poppleton," dated Paris, July 14, 1808, in " The Guide of thfr French Conversation. By J. L. Mabire. The third edition. At Paris : 1818."

EDWARD S. DODGSON. Oxford Union Society, Oxford.

BACON SENTENCING A PICKPOCKET. On

hristmas Day, 1611, one John Selman of Shoe Lane " came into the Kings Chappell " at White-Hall,

" in very good and seemely apparell, like unto a jrentleman or Citizen : viz., a faire blacke Cloake laced, and either lined thorow or faced with velvet- The rest of his apparel in reasonable maner being, answerable thereunto. Which was the cause that tie without resistance had free entrance into that tioly and sanctified place."

He there picked the pocket of one Leonard Barrie, servant to Lord Harrington, and in- so doing was noticed by one Edmond Dubleday. Being arrested by the said Barrie and Dubleday, he was taken before- " Sir Robert Banistre, Clerke of the Green- cloth for his Maiesties Houshold," and was committed to the Marshalsey. On Dec. 31,. being Tuesday, Master Richardson, Marshall of the Marshalsey, brought John Selman up " to Westminster to the King's Bench barre r there to receive his trial before certaine o his Maiesties Commissioners," one of whom was Sir Francis Bacon. The charge wa.f given to the Grand Inquest by Sir Francis Bacon, the King's Solicitor. The Great Inquest, having heard the evidence of Banie- and Dubleday, brought in " Billa Vera." Then Selman was introduced, and pleaded guilty.

" This being done Sir Francis Bacon, to whom at that time it did belong, proceeded to Judgement,- and asking on the prisoner, thus or to this effect, in some sort hee spake.

"The first and greatest sinne that ever was- committed was done in Heaven. The second was done in Paradise, being heaven upon earth, and truly I cannot chuse but place this in the third ranke, in regard it was done in the house of God, where he by his owne promise is alwaies resident, as also for that the cause of that assembly was to celebrate the Feast of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus. And Gods Lieutenant here on earth, being in Gods house there present^ ready to receive the holy and blesaed Sacrament.'

Selman was hanged between Charing Cross and the Court -gate, Jan. 7, 1612.