Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/43

 12 s. vii. JULY 10, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 31 SOUTHEY AND MALVERN. In compiling an annotated bibliography of Malvern many problems have arisen that so far I have been unable to solve. Can any readers of ' N. & Q.' throw light upon the following : In lines addressed to the author, pub- lished at the beginning of Joseph Cottle's Is Malvern then thy theme ? it is a name That wakes in me the thoughts of other years .And other friends. Would I had been with thee When thou didst wind the heights. I could have lov'd To lead thee in the paths I once had trod, .And pointing out the dark and far-off firs On Clifton's summit, or the spire that mark'd That pleasant town, that I must never more Without some heavy thoughts bethink me of, since I travell'd there, Tune hath much chang'd me, and that dearest friend Who shar'd my wanderings, to a better world Hath past. A most unbending man was he, 'Simple of heart, and to himself severe, In whom there was no guile, no evil thought, No natural weakness .... Upon A hill, Midway, his dwelling stood. To whom do these lines refer ? F. C. MORGAN, Librarian. Public Library, Great Malvern. ;^ [This is Edmund Seward. He and Southey were .in Worcestershire together in the spring of 1793. In a letter written on Easter Sunday of that year to Charles Collins Southey says, " Yesterday -we walked twenty-five miles over Malvern Hills to Ledbury, to Seward's brothers." In the heart-broken letter to Grosvenor Bedford of June 15th, 1795, announcing Seward's death, he speaks of having gone " with him into Worcester- shire."] PLANT AT QUARR ABBEY. Can'^any reader give any information re a plant that is found in great numbers at Quarr Abbey, near Hyde, which grows to a height of about three feet on stalks something like wheat stalks. When the bud opens it resembles the full-blown seed-head of a dandejion. I have never seen this plant anywhere else, and think that it must have been introduced by the French monks who live at the Abbey. ERIC THORNTON. Stanley House, Boscombe. [This question is somewhat beyond our scope, but by the kindness of MR. ST. JOHN BROOKS we are enabled to answer it. He says : " From the description given of the appearance and habitat of the plant, and from the seeds enclosed, I think this must be Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) which has been introduced here from the continent for culinary purposes, and is found in some of the Southern counties. It is impossible to be certain without seeing the plant and the flower."] i.^^ ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA. What is the origin of the Roman Catholic custom of calling upon St. Anthony of Padua to help in finding anything that has been lost ? G. A. ANDERSON. Woldingham. FAIR OF GREAT BRINGTON, NORTHAMPTON. I should be glad of as much genealogical information as possible about this family G. B. MOSS-TROOPERS: BIBLIOGRAPHY. I should be glad to know of any good book relating to the Moss-Troopers; or any novel which in- troduces a good incident regarding them. A. G. SKINNER. JOHN BROWN, fl. 1475. In the Patent Rolls, Edward IV. (1474) John Brown is mentioned as clerk, in connexion with the Abbey of Westminster (p. 472) ; and in 1475, as Under Clerk to the King, from whom he held land at Sutton and Barton in Beds, (p. 507). Did he bear arms ? If so, what were they ? Can any reader supply any further information concerning him ? F. BROWN. 2 Capel Road, East Barnet, Herts. EMERSON'S ' ENGLISH TRAITS.' (See 12 S. v. 234, 275 ; vi. 9, 73, 228, 257, 276, 297.) I should be grateful for elucidations or references explaining any of this further batch of puzzles from the above work. References given here to pages and lines follow the "World's Classics " edition. Phrases in brackets are my own : 1. P. 118, 1. 34. Chaucer found it [Oxford as firm as if it had aways stood. [Is there any more direct reference here than to Chaucer's ' Clerk of Oxenford ' ?]. 2. P. 119, 1. 18 [At Oxford] on Aug. 27th, 1660, John Milton's ' Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio,' and ' Iconoclastes^ were committed to the flames. [Any authority for this statement ?] 3. P. 121, 1. 1. " The whole expense," says Professor Sewell, " of ordinary college tuition at Oxford, is about sixteen guineas a year." [Who was Professor Sewell, presumably living in 1857 and where does he say this ?] 4. P. 125, 1. 25. Charles I. said, that he under- stood English law as well as a gentleman ought to understand it. [Any reference for this ?] 5. P. 126, 1. 27. The best poetry of England of this age, in the old forms, comes from two graduates of Cambridge. [Who are these two poets ? Emerson's son, in the Centenary edi- tion, suggests ' Wordsworth,' and, probably, Byron.' But as Emerson is writing in 1857, are
 * Malvern Hills,' 1798, Southey writes :