Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/210

 168 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.vm.FEB.2o, 1021. Any further information will be welcomed by the writer, especially with reference to the Durham branch. DUDLEY HARBRON. (SJumes. WE must request correspondents desiring in formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers may be sent to them direct. BENJAMIN CHOYCE SOWDEN (OR SOWDON), "EMINENT ENGLISH POET." In 1781 Ben- ja nin Williams edited a volume whose title runs : "The Book of Psalms, as translated, para- phrased, or imitated by some of the most eminent British Poets; viz., Addison...... Milton Sowden Watts. Salisbury : MDCCLXX1. Price four shillings." On p. 471 appears a version of Psalm cxlvi. attributed to Sowden : Indulgent Father ! how divine ! How bright thy Bounties are ! What is known of this "eminent English poet," and where did Williams find the version which he quotes ? The name Sow- den does not appear in the 'D,N.B.' or in the ' Cambridge History of English Litera- ture,' or in Holland's ' Psalnists of Britain ' (1843), or in Julian's ' Dictionary of Hymno- logy ' (1908). In the last (p. 932) it is stated that " numerous versions of individual Psal us are given in the ' Index to Seasons and Subjects ' in this Dictionary ; but no such Index is to be found. The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books has entries of Sermons on various subjects under Sowden, Benjamin (1751, '59, '60), and under Sowden, Benjamin Choyce (1780, '98); but these volumes include no Psalm versions. The two Sowdens turn out to be the same man, who is described as "of Emmanuel College, Cambridge." Through the courtesy of tho Master of Emmanuel, I am able to add that "Benjamin Choyce Sowdon (it is pretty dis- tinctly o in the second syllable in W. Bennetts list of members of the College : Bennet was a Fellow in S.'s time and possibly his Tutor), or Sowden. was born at Rotterdam, and was admitted to the College as a Sizar* on March 25, 1773. He intended to study for the B.D. degree under the Statutes of Elizabeth. He was apparently a 'ten years man,' ie., gener- ally a beneficed clergyman who came up for one term a year with a view to qualifying ultimately for a degree. They did not disappear till the Statutes of 1882. Sowdon never graduated. Our records are probably complete as regard* names o members of the College, but are lamentably lacking in other details down to 1877. The above contains all we have about Sowdon, and none of his works- are in the College Library. The name seems to be rare."- Sowden's credentials as an eminent Eng- lish poet are still to seek. P. J. AlSTDERSON. University Library, Aberdeen. SYRIAC MS. : LIFE AND PASSION OF Ous. LORD. Can any reader give information about the existence and place of the follow- ing manuscript which was mentioned in Sotheby's catalogue as for sale on May 21, 1838- but no price or buyer's name is recorded ? The book belonged to Dr. Adarn Clarke, F.S.A., M.R.I.A., <&c., whose son, the Rev. J. B. B. Clarke, Trin. Coll., Camb,,. and assistant curate of Frome, Somerset, 1834, compiled a catalogue in which among Persian, Syriac, Arabic, &c., volumes the- MS. is thus described : "The life &; passion of our blessed Lord; in- Syriac; collected from the four evangelists: one of the old evangelistaria : it is a kind of Harmony of the gospels, giving our Lord's life in the words o the evangelists. " The .following is a note in the hand- writing of Mr. Edward Ives of Titchfield, Hants : 'Turkey, July 2nd, Sunday, 1758. At a pocsr Christian town called Caiiialisk Gawerkoe, situated about six hours' journey S. of Mosul, this MS. I bought of a Deacon then belonging to the old Christian Church there ; and the town he informed me was once the seat of a Chaldaean Bishop." The MS. is written in the ancient Estran- gelian character, in a very bold hand. It was. much damaged and in ruins, but has- been most beautifully inlaid in English paper and arranged by my father, and now forms one of the best preserved and most ancient Syriac MSS. extant, being probably upwards of 1,000 years old. It formerly belonged to Jacob Bryant. Very large quarto, strongly extra bound by one of the- first hands in stamped Russia, pp. 368. GEORGE HORNER. The Athenaeum, Pall Mall. S.W.I. AN ELIZABETH SHOE HORN : JANE AYRES.. This shoeing horn is inscribed as follows : - " This is Jane Ay res shoeine Home made by the hands of Robert Mindurn 1595. '' Can any reader by any chance give me any information regarding Jane Ayres ? PERCIVAL >. GRIFFITHS, F.S.A* Sandridgebury, St. Albans.