Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/123

12 s. ix. JULY so, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 97 (12 S. viii. 462, 517 ; ix. 57).—With all due respect to my betters, may I suggest that in the lines beginning "Taccia Lucano" Dante is not bidding Ovid and Lucan take back seats as poets, but merely means that the marvels he is about to relate are much more extraordinary than those of either poet?

Surely this passage cannot be quoted as a proof of Dante's want of humilitv.

(12 S. ix. 49).—This lady was born in 1761, and died on Sept. 29, 1841. The Rev. William Webb Ellis preached a funeral sermon on "this benevolent and truly Christian lady" in St. George's Chapel, Albemarle Street, Oct. 3, 1841. There is a copy of it in the British Museum. The best account of her family appears in the 'Scots Peerage' (v. 9-20). I have dealt fully with her husband, Lord William Gordon, in my 'Gay Gordons,' pp. 103-123.

THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS (12 S. viii. ! 473). Your correspondent suggests that the persons and current events to which re- j ference is so often made in the ' Legends,' i should be annotated by the contributors to ' ' N. & Q.' But as there are scores of persons mentioned, it might take up more space) than could be given to one subject if all these Ingoldsby biographies were written. ; As a sample and these are names taken; quite at random who are "Captain Large " and " Mr. Withair," both mentioned in ' Misadventures at Margate ' where the " Mr. j Levi " occurs, of whom so many of your correspondents have written recently ? Or in ' The Tragedy,' "wise Mrs. Williams " ; in ' St. Gengulpnus,' " von Morison " ; in 'A New Play,' "Mr. Munro " ; in 'The Spectre of Tappington,' " Miss Bailey " ; in ' The Black Mousquetaire,' " Mr. Grosvenor of Oxford " and in the same " Mr. M'Clise " ; in 'The Auto-da-* e,' "Thomas Gatacre, ' " Pye Smith," " Jeffrey's Review," " Cock- er," and " Brigadier Evans " ? Explana- tions of things and events to which reference is made would be about as endless. For instance, in ' The Lay of St. Dunstan,' " Just as when the great vat burst in Tott'n'am Court Road " ; in ' Unsophisti- cated Wishes,' "the ball which the Lord Mayor gives for the relief of the Poles " ; in ' The House Warming,' " at Court t'other day, at the fete which the newspapers say was so gay." Or turning to objects men- tioned, in ' Aunt Fanny ' is " Doctor Ar- nott's new stove," in ' Sir Rupert the Fear- less,' " George Robin's filters, or Thorpe's (which are dearer) " ; in ' The Merchant of Venice,' " the right sort of ' flimsy ' all sign'd by Monteagle," and one might go on almost endlessly. Then again, as well as persons, events and objects referred to, there are numberless quotations taken from the books and plays of the day, and in some instances these would be difficult to trace. A well annotated edition of the ' Legends ' would preserve for us in pleasant form many details of the domestic history of eighty years ago, but the collection of the whole of the matter woula be too heavy a bin-den to put upon the shoulders of ' N. & Q.' ETHELBERT HORNE. AMERICAN ENGLISH (12 S. viii. 449). " The United States " is a singular noun since we became a nation, by approved, current usage. We refer to it as " it " and not "thej," &c., &c. C. S. D. H. C.-N., who writes under the head of " American English " of the use by the Presi- dent of the Uaited States in his address of April 21 last of the word " illy," may- be interested to know that in an p,ddress by the President to the graduPting class of the Naval Academy, in June last, he was reported by The New York Herald to use the Words " illy advised." The New York Times, on the contrary, printed it "ill- advised." I wrote to both the Herald and the Times. The Herald stated that it thought its version was correct ; from tha Times I received no answer. I s id in my letters that I thought the President's English ought to be as good as the " King's English." C. E. S. THE PLAGUE PITS (12 S. viii. 450, 4% ; ix. 12, 35). A map of the parish of St. James's, Westminster, 1720, reproduced as a frontispiece to Wheatley's ' Bond Street, Old and New, 1686-1911,' published by the Fine Art Society, shows a rectangular space marked " Pest-house Fields," a portion of which was used as the burial-ground of St. James's, Piccadilly. The fields and burying- ground were bounded by houses, on the north by Great Marlborough Street, on the west by Carnaby Street, on the East by Poland Street, and on the south by Silver Street.