Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/408

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. VL j ae, ma&

LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY AND THE CHATEAU OF MERLOIT (MEI.LO). Can any reader say where the best description and history of this chateau is to be found ? Lord Herbert, who stayed there for eight months in or about the year 1H08 as the guest of the Constable Henri de Mont- morency, calls it, in his autobiography, the Castle of Merlou. The chateau which stands in a commanding position above the little town of Mello (station Cires-les-Mello between Beauvais and Creil) is now, I think, in the occupation of Baron Seilli ere. H. A. P.

MRS. WALTON, Authoress of ' A Peep behind the Scenes,' and ' Christie's Old Organ.' Where and when was she born, and where and when did she die ? What is known of her career ? I. F.

WOMEN PREACHERS. Is there a list extant of early women preachers who have published sermons ? I have the following : ' Sermons on Various Occasions by ' Mary Deverell, of Nails worth, Gloucestershire, 1776, 8vo, calf. I. F.

R. TEMPLE, H.M. 65TH REGT. A painter, in water-colours, of sketches of military subjects, 18 10-20. Is anything known about him ? MAZINGARBE.

HUXLEY ON ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Can any one give me the reference to the passage in which Huxley says that the brain of St. Thomas Aquinas was probably the finest human brain that has ever existed or words to that effect ? E. R.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. 1, Where can I find the complete poem from, which the following verse is culled ?

A year ago, on more than one occasion, our late and much beloved Rector quoted from the poem, and there are some among us who would like to possess a complete copy and to know who was the author.

A fire mist and a planet,

A crystal and a- cell,

A jelly fish and a saurian,

The cave where the cave men dwell.

Then a sense of law and beauty,

And a face turned up from the clod :

Some call it " evolution "

And others call it God.

W. WFLKIE JONES,

Rector's Warden. The Parish Church of St. Mary, Lambeth.

2. Can any reader state the name of the author and the title of a poem commencing : The children of man When life is a span Protracted from day unto day.

ENQUIRER.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

(12 S. vi. 311).

THERE is a record of money paid on Apr. 13,. 1513, to a carpenter for putting boards " to protect the figures painted by L. da V. in the Great Hall." The Anonimo Florentine (1542-8), spoke of the group of horses as " to-day visible in execution " ; and Mr. H. P. Home quotes from a letter by A. F. Doni of Aug. 17, 1549, enumerating to a friend, among the sites of Florence, in the Sala Grande, " a group of horses and men (a portion of the battle of L. da V.) that will appear a miraculous thing to you." Within little more than twenty years from this date the walls of the Sala del Consiglio had been covered with frescoes by Vasari.. It would appear that what remained of Leonardo's painting was destroyed to make way for them. Vasari's vivid description, of the group adds one to the number of the combatants. He is silent as to its history in the much-revised second edition of 1568, although in the interval between the two- editions the destruction had almost cer- tainly taken place.

Lucensis' engraving of the year 1558 was made from a copy of the original ; and, later, Gerard Edelinck engraved his plate from a copy done by Rubens of the picture drawn with all the licence usual to that master, who finally blotted out the Florentine style behind his own. His copy shows, in fact, a pure Flemish taste, and nothing more ; moreover these two engravings do not entirely correspond to Vasari's de- scription of the original painting. >- '

In one -of the drawings at Venice the bridge is represented in the background to the right ; beside it is the group of four horsemen fighting for a standard. Raphael made a nurried sketch of the Battle of the. Standard, now in the University Galleries at Oxford. In this drawing another horse is visible above the group. The attitude exactly recurs in a drawing at Windsor, a copy of part of the cartoon made by Cesare da Sesto. In the Windsor drawing a com- pany of horsemen are represented to right of this figure, advancing with lances raised and streaming pennons. This company presumably formed the right middle back- Around of the original cartoon. Drawings of horsemen and foot-roldiers at Windsor,