Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/471

 S. NO 23., JUNE 7. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

463

dying without issue, the baronetcy expired. (Vide Burke's Extinct Baronets.)

The said Lady Curson, of happy memory, was the sister of Catherine, wife of Henry, tenth Lord Teynham. The Cursons were distinguished among the old Catholic families of this county. They maintained a succession of chaplains, who adminis- tered to the spiritual necessities of a scattered flock in very difficult times. On the breaking up of the catholic establishment at Waterperry, the mission was merged into that of Oxford.

The following extracts from the old registers, which are carefully treasured, may interest and assist your correspondent :

" The Waterperry Chapel Register, and likewise Ox- ford, being the same congregation or mission:

"Sir Francis Curson, Bar 1 ., ob'. 29 th May, 1750, just after 9 at night. The Dirge by 5 Priests the 31 st night. Masses and Sermon the I 8t of June, the Funeral the 7 th of June.

" Lady Curson dyed the 2 nd of April, 1764, about 5 o'clock in the evening. The Dirge by 3 Priests the 6 th, and the Mass next morning : buried privately at 10 o'clock at night the 7 th.

"Lady Teynham moritur 16 Jan. 1771."

C. A. BUCKLEB.

Oxford.

Italian Manuscript Operas (2 nd S. i. 291.) In the British Museum is preserved a collection of one hundred and forty-nine volumes of manu- script operas in Italian, with the names of the composers, &c., formerly belonging to the Signor Gaspar Selvaggi, of Naples, and presented to the Museum by the late Marquis of Northampton, in 1843. They are numbered Add. MSS. 14,101 14,249. In the same repository is another col- lection of one hundred and eighty-two volumes, chiefly by Italian composers, bequeathed by Do* menico l)ragonetti, in 1846, and numbered, Add. 15,97916,160. /*.

Major Andre (2 nd S. i. 33.) In The Night Side of Nature, by Mrs. Crowe, vol. i. chap. III. occurs the following :

" Major Andre, the circumstances of whose lamented death are too well known to make it necessary for me to detail them here, was a friend of Miss Seward's, and, previously to his embarkation for America, he made a journey into Derbyshire to pay her a visit, and it was arranged that they should ride over to see the wonders of the Peak, and introduce Andre to Newton, her minstrel, as she called him, and to Mr. Cunningham, the curate, who was also a poet.

" Whilst these two gentlemen were awaiting the ar- rival of their guests, of whose intentions they had been apprised, Mr. Cunningham mentioned to Newton that on the preceding night he had had a very extraordinary dream, which he could not get out of his head. He had fancied himself in a forest : the place was strange to him, and whilst looking about he perceived a horseman ap- proaching at great speed, who had scarcely reached the spot where the dreamer stood, when three men rushed out of the thicket, and seizing his bridle hurried him away, after closely searching his person. The countenance of

the stranger being very interesting, the sympathy felt by the sleeper for his apparent misfortune awoke him ; but he presently fell asleep again and dreamt that he was standing near a great city amongst thousands of people, and that he saw the same person he had seen seized in the wood brought out and suspended to a gallows. When Andre and Miss Seward arrived he was horror-struck to perceive that his new acquaintance was the antetype of the man in the dream."

R. W. HACKWOOD.

Malleable Glass (1 st S. passim.) Evidences of the existence of such glass have been asked for. Bailey says :

"Anno 1610, the ' Sophy ' Emperor of Persia sent to the King of Spain [Philip III.] six glasses that were malleable, i. e. would not break by being hammered."

There must be some further record of this gift, the date of which is so precisely given.

R. W. HACKWOOD.

Morning Dreams (2 nd S. i. 392.) Perhaps the following may be of service to SARTOR. 1 have never seen the words in print exactly as expressed below, although there are many modifications of them :

" Dreams at night are the devil's delight ; ' Dreams in the morning are the angel's warning."

The notion seems to be that night dreams are interpreted contrariwise (perhaps nightmare is in- cluded among them) ; and morning dreams matter- of-fact-wise. AVON LEA.

In Mr. Timbs' amusing little book, entitled Things not generally known, I find the following explanation of the common notion, with regard to the truth of morning dreams :

" The old notion of the ' somnia vera ' of approaching day ' morning dreams come true,' is interpreted by the physical state of sleep being then less perfect : trains of thought suggested follow more nearly the course of waking associations, and the memory retains them : while earlier and more confused dreams are wholly lost to the mind."

F. M. MlDDLETON.

Ellastone, Staffordshire.

Dante has two passages bearing allusion to the popular notion that morning dreams come true, viz. :

" Ma se presso al mattin del ver si sogna."

Inferno, c. 26. v. 7. " Nell' ora che comincia i tristi lai La rondinelk presso alia mattina Forse a memoria de' suoi primi guai, E che la mente nostra pellegrina

fiu dalla came, e men da' pensier presa, Alle sue vision quasi e divina."

Furgatorlo, c. 9. 1318. M. (Exeter.)

In the elegiac stanzas by M. Bruce occur the following lines, the second of which may have suggested SARTOR'S Query :

" Oft morning dreams presage approaching fate, And morning dreams, as poets tell, are true."

THOMAS BAKER.