Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/55

 i2s.ii.JuLTi5,i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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SEM, CABICATUBIST. I shall be obliged if any reader of ' N. & Q.' can give me the proper name of this artist and some account of his life, when and where he died, &c. I have seen portraits, mostly caricatures, signed " Sem " from about 1850 to 1875, but I cannot identify his personality.

JOHN LANE.

H. B. KEB, ABTIST. I recently acquired twenty-seven dry-point etchings of Wimble- don Common and Park and Windsor Long Walk, &c., by this artist, all about 1812. As I cannot find his name in any list of ex- hibitors, I hope some correspondent of ' N. & Q.' may be able to give me some information about him and his work, when he died, &c. Some of these etchings are quite fine, and surely something must be known of an artist so accomplished.

JOHN LANE.

The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, W.

' HISTOIBE NATUBELLE,' BY FBANCIS BACON. In 1631 there was published in Paris (" chez Antoine de Sommaville et Andre Soubron ") a book by Bacon entitled ' Histoire Naturelle.' It is entirely in French, and has prefixed to it a ' Life of Bacon,' the first to appear after his departure in 1626. It is highly praised and quoted from by Gilbert Wats in the forewords to his English edition of Bacon's ' Advancement of Learning,' 1640, and is referred to with respect by James and Isaac Gruter, who brought out editions of Bacon's works at Leyden, 1648-61. It formed the subject of correspondence between Isaac Gruter and William Rawley (Bacon's secretary) in letters that have been preserved to us by Tenison in ' Baconiana, 1679. I mention these facts in order to show that, though this book has been quite neglected by modern English writers on Bacon Montagu, Sped- ding, Hepworth Dixon, J. M. Robertson, &c. it was, at the time it was written, in first-class repute in literary circles. It has never been translated into English, though in my book, ' Bacon's Secret Disclosed,' 1911, I gave a translation of the ' Life.'

Bacon makes some interesting statements in the book. At p. 116, when speaking of echoes he says :

" and 1 remember that near Edinburgh in Scotland there is one of them that repeats completely the Pater Noster from the beginning to the end." Such a remarkable echo as this must have been well known, one would think. The Pater Noster was, as I understand, repeated all in one ; and I should think that so delicate an echo must have been in some building.

I should be much interested to know if any one has come across any allusion to tlii's echo in any old book or any account of old buildings. I have a recollection, going back some fifty years, that there was a wonderful echo in Dunkeld Cathedral.

The following gruesome fact Bacon also records. In Book VI. chap, v., ' Du mouvement de quelques animaux apres leur mort,' at p. 373 he says :

"1 have seen, nevertheless, in Scotland the body of a gentleman, very big and powerful, who had had his head cut off: which, being placed at once in a wooden coffin, burst it with great force. But of that I cannot give the explanation."

Such a very strange occurrence as this should be remembered in the Scotch family to which the unfortunate gentleman be- longed. Can any one give the reference ? It is the sort of incident that Sir Walter Scott would have delighted in recording in a foot-note. If the time of the execution of this gentleman could be known, we should have the date of Bacon's visit to Scotland, as well as the place that he was at ; and I do not know that there is anywhere else any record of Bacon's going to Scotland. GBANVILLE C. CUNINOHAM.

MUSICAL QUEBIES. 1. Major and Minor. It is popularly believed that in music the major key always expresses cheerfulness, and the minor key sadness. In refutation of this it is pointed out that ' Oh, Ruddier than the Cherry,' is typically cheerful, though in a minor key ; while ' The Dead March ' in ' Saul,' which is decidedly solemn, melancholy, and dirge-like, is in a major key. I should be glad of other similar examples, i.e., of cheerful tunes in the minor key, and doleful ones in the major key.

2. ' The March of the Men of Harlech.'- What was the origin of this tune ? It has been said there were no men of Harlech, and therefore no march of them !

ALFBED S. E. ACKEBMANN.

GABBICK'S GBANT OF ABMS. What is the exact date of David Garrick's grant of arms and crest ? And was a motto in- cluded ? S. A. GRUNDY-XEWMAV.

Walsall.

COLOUBS OF BADGE OF THE EABLS or WABWICK. -Can any of your readers tell if the bear and ragged staff badge of 1 house of Beauchamp, Earls of Warwick- is of any particular colour ? The statt, J. believe, is argent, but what colour bear ? H. L HALL.

22 Hyde Park Gate, S.W.