Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/424

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vir. OCT. so. 1920

Me.rtello, Conti, Maffei, and Metastasio, and found its greatest disciple in Alfieri. The later critics examined theories, ideas, ideals and modified them to suit an inner ideal already formulated but insufficiently de- veloped. The most notable example of such modification on already established theory is Calepio's ' Paragone della poesia d 'Italia con quella di Francia ' where Calepio working from a closer interpretation of Aristotle, anticipated in practically every detail the conclusions of Lessing in the ' Hamburgische Dramaturgic. '

As a stylist Montani takes rank with Gravina and Martello as b9ing perhaps the only Italian Letterati of the Settecento who really possessed a pure Italian idiom and not a Latinized, draggle-tailed diction, with- out piquancy, without concentration of thought, without command of the most elementary rules. Conti, however, in his ' Letter to Ceratti ' rose above arid elabora- tion into a forcible literary expression not inferior to that of either Martello in his ' Tragedia antica e moderna ' or Gravina in his ' Ragione Poetica, ' and his theory of beauty as expressed in that letter must, with Montana's essay, be considered the most interesting contribution of the early eighteenth century to the history of literary criticism and aesthetic viewed in a modern light. HUGH QUIGLEY.

HARRY GROAT. It would seem that some correction is required in the ' O.E.D.,' which states that this was "a groat coined by Henry VIII. ; the old Harry Groat, is that which bears the king's head with a long face and long hair."

On Mar. 17, 1483 (Acta Dom. Auditorum in Acta Dominorum Concilii II. [19181 Introd. 116):

"The Lordis Auditouris decretis and deliveris

that Johne of Dalrimpill of the Lacht sail pay

to the said Lord [Alane, Lord Cathkert] the f-ounie of fifterie pundis of auld hare grotis, outher Lundon or Calise, ilk grote f or jj s< "

Q. V.

THE EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. A provincial newspaper recently disinterred and published the following extract from its file of the 1829 issue. The reference is to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which was then being made by George Stephenson, whose name is mis-spelled in the excerpt :

" Mr. Stevenson is about to try an experiment whether the strength of a man mounted on a

velocipede can be advantageously applied to the propulsion of carriages on the railway. The velo- cipede will be attached to the carriage behind, and the rider will push himself and the carriage: forward by the working of his legs."

W. B. H.

BASKET CHAIR. This is not mentioned in the 'N.E.D.', but the word occurs in Donne's first * Elegie,' where a man:

pampered with high fare Sits down and snorts, cag'd in Jais basket-chair.

It is interesting to know that these chairs, were used three hundred years ago.

RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.

MR. SERJEANT BALLANTINE'S FEE. It is strange what different accounts there are of the amount of the fee received by Mr. Serjeant William Ballantiiie (1812-1887) for his defence of the Guicowar of Baroda in 1S75. Mr. Montagu William?, Q.C., ir* ' Leaves of a Life ' (1890), chap, xlix., p. 309, wrote of his old friend and frequent leader at the Bar. "He went out to India to defend the Guicowar having a fee, I think,, of ten thousand guineas."

Serjeant Ballantiiie in his own bock ' Some Experiences of a Barrister's Life ' (1883) does not mention the amount, but remarks that the brief was offered, first of all, to Mr. Hawkins, Q.C., and also to Mr. Henry Matthews (later Viscount Llandaff).

In the ' Reminiscences of Sir Henry Hawkins ' (Lord Brampton), chap. xxxi. Lord Brampton records :

" One brief was delivered with a fee marked twenty thousand guineas which I declined. I -was asked to name my own fee with the assurance that whatever I named would be forthcoming. I promised to consider a fee of fijty thousand guineas and did so, but resolved nofc to accept the brief on any terms, as it involved my going to India."

In ' Chambers's Encyclopaedia' (11)04) and also in ' Chambers's Biographical Dic- tionary,' it is written "He (Ballahtine) is said to have received a fee of twenty tliOH p.and guineas,'' while Mr. Thomas Seccombe in the 'D.N.B.' says: "His (BaRantine's) honorarium of ten thousand pounds is among the largest paid to counsel."

Another version is to be found in ' My Varied Life/ by F. C. Philips (1914), chap, vi., p. 1H9 :

"He (Ballantine) was, I believe, the cnly English Counsel who had ever been instructed to conduct the defence of a foreign Prince in hia own dominions. Report said also, and I believe truly, that the fee he received was the heaviest