Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/44

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

are portraits of the De Witts, apparently taken from the medal mentioned, " N. & Q.," 1 st S. xii. 244. 310. On the other side of the leaf are the lines quoted by MB. JBBB.

Like P., I was inclined to think the atrocities of the rnob exaggerated ; but a careful examination of contemporary accounts has satisfied me that imagination cannot go beyond the reality. The De Witts' friends asserted them without contra- diction, <and they were recognised approvingly by many on the other side. The prices at which fingers and other parts of the deceased were sold, are stated by serious, and joked upon by comic writers. In the Spiegel van Ondankbarheyte en Wreetheyt, 1672, n, d., the De Witts are eulogised and lamented, a quatrain being devoted to each of the prominent incidents of the murder. One is :

" Op 't ufscheuren hunne Ingetuanden, Zo menschen-vreeters ! zo! schaft menschen-vleesch ;

hangd darmen,

Om hals en raiddel : gras met uw bebloede arineu Mit ingewand, dit vlescb. sal swellen in uw krop : E dit gedarrate werd nock om uw hals een strop."

Page 9.

" Dit vlesch sal swellen in uw krop " is an an- ticipation of Sydney Smith's valedictory address to the Bishop of New Zealand, " May you disagree with the cannibal who eats you !"

De Haegsche Anatomic, door M. Horrebraegt *, n. d., gives a burlesque description of the circum- stances in verse. One poem is called " Besjes Kermeo-Pot." Bessy exults in having the fat of two white (wit) geese to cook. In another, a dialogue between a carver and a butcher ; the latter says :

" 'T is nouw een Batavier, diet meeste schlachten kan, Muu draegt het vlees te koop van VVitte, kees en Jan."

Four pictures of the murder have been painted. I cannot trace the originals, but engravings from them are common. 1. The De Witts coming out of the prison. 2. The murder. 3. The mob strip- ping the bodies. 4. The bodies on the gibbet. These are sometimes separate, generally in four compartments on one sheet, and in the Beroerleii, fyc., above cited, all the events are in one plate. In the Hist, de la Vie ct de la Mort tie C. et J. de Witte, torn. ii. p. 533., is a folding plate repre- senting the bodies on the gibbet, as seen by a painter at half-past ten at night, on August 2,2, lifter the mob had departed.

This is a long reply, but I have confined myself to the questions asked. In the British Museum, under the heading " Witt," will be found three quarto volumes of pamphlets of great rarity, pro- bably many unique. I have examined these and other works with care, and I quote from originals only, except in the reference to Basnage (whose

presented as the author, but as the anatomist.
 * Borrebraegt was one of the assassins. He is not re-

book I have not yet been able to procure), which is taken from the History of England, in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, vol. vii. p. 110. et seq. That contains the best short account of the murder which I know. I had not seen it when, at xii. 70., I asked what became of Tichelaer the barber. Of him and his employers I will give some account in another note. H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

THE VELLUM-IJOCND JONIUS.

(1 st S. xii. 511.)

A Note appears in your publication of this day upon the subject of a vellum-bound copy of the Letters of Junius, presumed to have been sent to the author by Mr. H. S. Woodfall, the printer, and which your correspondent states was formerly in the library at Stowe.

Permit me to assure you that it is an error to suppose that any such copy of the Letters of Junius was ever found at Stowe.

An edition of the Letters printed in 1797, on vellum, and bound in purple morocco, will be found described in the Sale Catalogue of the Stowe Library, prepared by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, in 1849. WILLIAM JAMES SMITH.

Conservative Club, December 29, 1855.

After four years' silence, MR. CHAMP has, at last, replied to my very simple and civil question. Considering the tone and temper of that reply the hints and insinuations about tricks, evasions, and double dealings his offensive allusions to this or that oracle, and the charge of " effrontery not to be parelleled" which he brings against a gentleman, whose essay on the subject of Junius whether conclusive or inconclusive is re- markable for its honesty, truthfulness, and elabo- rate research, he has forfeited all claim to respect- ful attention. MR. CRAMP'S reply might and ought to have been compressed into a paragraph. His original conjecture and statement (1 st S. iii. 262.) was this, that the printer having bound a copy of Junius for and under the direction of the writer of the Letters, followed the pattern in the binding of other copies ; and this, he said, would "account for similar copies having been found in the libraries of so many persons." I asked where and when these many copies had been found, and said " I should be obliged " if he would inform me. At length MR. CRAMP comes forward and refers for his authorities to what In; calls "rumours." The readers of "N. & Q." will, I am sure, agree with mo, that speculations founded on inferences deduced from rumours are not subjects worthy of discussion in its pages. MR. CRAMP himself must agree with me, for since