Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/384

 314 NOTES AND QUERIES, [iss.vm. APRIL 16.1921. " THE HAVEN UNDER THE HELL." ( 12 S. viii. 228, 275). Surely the " haven " was Peiiarth roadstead, and the "hill " Penarth headland on the Glamorganshire coast of the Severn sea. Under this headland the " stately ships " obtained safe anchorage when de- layed by wind or tide, and being right op- posite to Clevedon it is very conspicuous from there. As it was probably at Clevedon that Tennyson penned 'Break, break, break, On thy cold grey stones, O sea," at about the same period (1833) that he wrote ' In Memoriam, ' and some five years before the first dock at Cardiff was instituted, there can, I think, be but little doubt that Penarth is the place indicated in the poem. Penarth church, standing so prominently on the headland, is a well-known landmark to navigators steering their course up and down the Bristol Channel. S. D. T. K. T. The place of Arthur Hallam's burial is referred to in section xix. of ' In Memoriam,' and the tablet to his memory in Clevedon Church is mentioned in section Ixvii. In chapter xiv. of Tennyson's ' Life ' we read " From the graveyard you can hear the music of the tide as it washes against the low cliffs not a hundred yards away." The poem ' Break, break, break ' is appropriately prefixed to this chapter (' In Memoriam '). If it were necessary to find an original for all the details, might not " the haven under the hill " describe the Bristol destina- tion of the ships as they passed the hill ? But Tennyson was impatient, as we know, of exact identifications, which left too little to the poet's imagination. It is of interest to remember that, as Tennyson's own note tells us, the poem of ' Break, break, break ' " first saw the light along with the dawn in a Lincolnshire lane at 5 o'clock in the morning." ' Works,' one vol. ed., 1913, p. 921. EDWARD BENSLY. The " Haven " surely is Salcombe Har- bour, and the " Hill," Bolt Head. The house that Tennyson occupied at Salcombe overlooks the harbour and the hill. The bar outside the harbour, which impedes entrance and exit, I think, must have suggested his ' Crossing the Bar ' : " I hope to see my Pilot face to face. When I have crost the bar." JOHN LECKY. 17, Hazlewell Road, Putney, S.W. ^ COLLY MY Cow" (12 S. viii. 190, 238, 257). May I supplement previous com- ments on this expression by referring to a passage in ' Waverley,' c. xxiii : " Cathleen sung with much liveliness a little Gaelic song, the burlesque elegy of a countryman on the loss of his cow." To which Scott appended the following note : " This ancient Gaelic ditty is still well known, both in the Highlands and in Ireland. It was trans- lated into English, and published, if I mistake not, under the auspices of the facetious Tom d'Urfey, by the title of ^ Colley my Cow.' " I am not sure that DR. WILLCOCK gives the whole of Guide's meaning when he calls the phrase as used in ' The Ring and the Book ' (xi. 553) " an expression of con- tempt." No doubt contempt for his inter- viewers underlies Guide's use of it, but what we know of it from other sources suggests a face-meaning which Browning's context seems to support, viz., that Guido is pro- fessing to soothe them. A. K.' COOK. The Close. Winchester. BOOK BORROWERS (12 S. viii. 208, 253, 278, 296). Mr. R, S. Mansergh had the following lines printed for insertion in his books : To whomso'er this book I lend I give one word no more ; They who to borrow condescend Should graciously restore. Now any who this book may find, Return it if you can, Sir, Addressed as under, bear in mind, To Richard Southcote Mansergh. Friarsfield, Tipperary, MDCCCXCIV. The fine armorial bookplate. of Mr. Man- sergh is reproduced and forms the frontis- piece in J. Vinycomb's ' The Production of Ex Libris.' WM. WALE. Cheltenham. The lines " If thou art borrowed by a friend," &c., were kept in stock in the shape of printed book-labels, with heading " This book belongs to," the name to- be filled in with a pen. One specimen I have dates back to a much earlier period than 1840 ; I should think to about 1800. And two others are now before me, identical in words as above, one of them in copperplate and sin-mounted by a crest and motto, with words, " This Book belongs to J. H. Ho- garth " ; the other in ordinary type, headed, " This Book belongs to Richard Ward Lear, East Molesey, Surrey." It would be too