Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/22

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. JAN., ins.

' AN ADIEU TO THE TURF ' : 4TH EARL OF ABINGDON. In 1778 a pamphlet was published by M. Smi^h, London, entitled ' An Adieu to the Turf,' from the E 1 of

A n to his Grace the A p of Y k.

Does any one know who was the author of this poetical satire on the 4th Earl of Abingdon (1740-99) ?

On the title is a quotation, said to be from Shakespeare, ' Henry IV.' :

" I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking. I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no strength to repent. Company, villainous company, hath been the ruin of me."

Where does this quotation come from T The first stanza of the satire is as follows :

Great Prelate ! Thou whose bloody Birch More wonders work'd, than e'er in Church

Thy Sermons cou'd perform, At whose dark brow and low'ring face, Old Westminster's affrighted Race

Trembled through every form.

William Markham, previously Bishop of Chester, was Archbishop of York from 1777 to 1807. Was the 4th Earl of Abingdon educated at Westminster ?

In The Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1778, p. 240, there is a notice of a pamphlet, ' A Letter to the Earl of Abingdon, in which his Grace of York's Notions of Civil Liberty are examined by Liberalis,' published in The London Evening Post.

Also the ' Adieu to the Turf ' is reviewed in The Westminster Magazine for June, 1778, p. 226 :

"A humorous satire, but unfair censure, on the Earl, for his having quitted an idle, extravagant, and dissipated life and character, to addict him- self to the service of his country. Shaftesbury recommends ridicule as a test of truth, but we apprehend that it is oftener used to supply the place of it."

C. M. PRIOR.

Adstock Manor, Winslow, Bucks.

[The reference is ' 1 Henry IV ' Act III., sc. iii., Falstaff's opening speech. ' The Oxford Shakespeare ' reads spoil, not " ruin."]

SWINE IN BRITAIN. In ' Social Eng- land,' ed. Traill, vol. i. p. 87, is this -state- ment (by O. M. Edwards) :

" Probably the last [animals] to be domesticated were swine and bees, and concerning the domes- tication of these we have legends. Swine were first brought into Britain by Gwydion ab Don."

Can any one tell me where the legend occurs ? And does any element of fact under- lie it ? Neolithic man in Britain had in some sense domesticated the wild hog, but that would not preclude a considerable importation, at the dawn of historical times, of an already domesticated breed. Was

Don a real person, and is he heard of else- where ? Is he possibly the Don from whom Dunmow (Dono-mowe, Don's mow or farm- stead) took its name ? And if so, is the very ancient custom of the Dunmow flitch a memorial (perhaps, originally, a yearly sacrifice) of this importation ? Essex was certainly the great swine-herding county at the time of the Doomsday Survey ; it then numbered 90,000 pigs, a much larger number than most counties. It was pre- cisely the place for such an importation, being largely forest. The wild breed may have been killed off. E. ILIFF ROBSON. Felsted.

ZOLA'S ' ROME.' It is said that several characters in this powerful study were drawn without disguise from well-known prelates of the Papal Court and household (temp. Leo XIII.). I am unaware that a key was ever actually published, but I should be greatly obliged if your readers could give me information on this point, and identify Cardinal Boccanera, Cardinal Sanguinetti, Cardinal Sarno, Monsignor Nani, Monsignor Fornaro, or any other of Zola's personages.

MONTAGUE SUMMERS, F.R.S.L.

COLUMBUS MEDALLION. I have recently been given a medallion, of metal plated with copper, 2 1 inches in diameter, inch thick, bearing the head and shoulders of Columbus on the obverse, and the Western hemisphere on the reverse. The designer's name, A. O. Ameis, also appears on the right shoulder of Columbus. The inscription, " Presented by the Editor of The Christian Globe as a reward of merit," also appears on the obverse. There is no date. Is anything known of this medallion, or when it was issued ? The present proprietors of the paper have no knowledge of it.

PERCY F. HOGG, Lieut. R.G.A.

8 The Terrace, Lower Barracks, Chatham.

ELIZABETH MONCK. This lady, described as a married woman, is said to have been interred in the parish church of Bromley, Kent ; date uncertain, but probably some time in the closing years of the seventeenth or opening years of the eighteenth century. Certain genealogical authorities say that she " adopted an infant boy." That is all I can at present gather about her with any certainty. In the register of St. James's, Clerkenwell, however, under date Feb. 18, 1714, an Elizabeth Monck, a widow, is recorded to have been " carried away " ! Was it to Bromley for interment ? What