Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/56

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. IV. FEB., 1918.

RYAN or INCH, co. TIPPERARY. Wanted information of the pedigree of this family from about 1660, when Daniel Ryan was the owner. PHILIP H. BAGENAL.

11 Spencer Hill, Wimbledon.

ARISTOPHANES : DROYSEN'S GERMAN TRANSLATION. I shall be very grateful to any one who can tell me how to obtain a copy of Droysen's German translation of Aristophanes. I have tried various book- sellers at Oxford and Cambridge and else- where, but hitherto without success.

J. LEWTON BRAIN.

Toftwood, Dereham, Norfolk.

SERPENT AND ETERNITY. Can any one tell me where the figure of a serpent swallow- ing its tail is used as an emblem of eternity ?

L. R.

MACAULAY : LINES WRITTEN AFTER THE EDINBURGH EJECTION. The legend told in these lines, of the fairies visiting the child's cradle, is said by Macaulay (in his essay on Byron) to have been also narrated of the birth of the Regent of Orleans. I should be glad to know in what book this can be found also whether the fable has a still earlier origin. L. R.

DR. JOHN BROWN, alias " JOHANNES BRUNO." This Scotch celebrity is said to have married the daughter of Lamond or Lament of Edinburgh in 1765. Upon what authority does this assertion rest ? In none of the biographical records of this man which I have seen is the baptismal name of this lady mentioned. The well-known family of Browns claiming descent from the doctor through his son Ford are also silent here. There was another son, William Cullen, who rose to be President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, 1804. Has any life of him been published ? If so, is the full name of his mother recorded ?

Dr. John Brown is said to have had twelve children, eight of whom survived him on his death in 1788 to wit, four sons and four daughters. Surely one of his sons must have been a John, as it was the custom for fathers to hand down their names to their sons (usually the eldest). John Brown was not known as a doctor in 1768 not, indeed, until many years after- wards, when, it is said, he obtained his degree at St. Andrews University, mainly through the influence of two young doctors (his pupils), named Mackenzie and Ford respectively. In those earlier years he was known as a weaver, having been apprenticed

to that business. Now in the official registers of Dundee and district, under date Sept. 21, 1768, there is recorded the baptism of a John Brown, son of John Brown, weaver, and Janet Mackenzie : name -fathers John Thomson and John Stewart. This is the John Brown in whom I am interested, for he died in 1836, aged 68, and so was born in 1768. Family tradition says he came from Dundee shortly before 1791 to settle in London ; also that he was the son of a Mackenzie.

What I want to know is, was this John Brown the weaver identical with Dr. John Brown ? Was the daughter of Lamond named Janet ? Did she first marry a Mackenzie, and afterwards the weaver and doctor ? If any one can answer one or other of these queries, I shall be very

grateful.

JOHN WILLIAM BROWN.

Ty Hedd, North Road, Aberystwyth.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.

1. I'd give the hope of years for bygone days.

MILES.

2. Still the race of hero spirits pass the lamp from

hand to hand.

Can any one tell me where in Kingsley's works these words are to be found ? L. B.

3. The following occurs as a quotation in the preface to an English topographical volume of 1831 : Were every hand a scribe by trade, and every

stick a quill. Prom what author and work was it taken ?

W. B. H.

4. When prodigals return great things are done ;

But then the prodigal must be a son.

P.

5. Unholy is the sound

Of loud thanksgiving over slaughtered men. I first heard this quotation in a sermon delivered in 1913, given as having been used by Lord Morley in a speech during the Boer War. The author was stated to be JEschylus, but I have been unable to find the passage in the poet's works. I have recently read the quotation in W. T. Stead's ' Hymns that have Helped,' p. 11, where it is said to be from " an ancient heathen poet." I should be very glad to have the exact source (author, play, and line), with, if possible, the original Greek.

P. H. LINO.

Bristol.

6. Then be it ours in humble hope to wait, And seek admittance at the Golden Gate, And hear His voice : " Unstain'd and pure

from sin,

Thou good and faithful servant, enter in ; Of righteousness receive the just reward, And dwell for ever with thy risen Lord."

C. L. S.