Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/164

 156

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. FEB. 19, '98.

On 21 Jan., this year, I heard one pouring out his notes over a ploughed field, and I have still a distinct remembrance of the melody which rained down over the Lincoln- shire stubbles in the peaceful autumn days between Tennyson's death and burial. Whether the larks were singing as bravely over the Fens, the Marsh, and the Wolds, I cannot say, but above the Cliff they filled the air with music.

How much of our delight in the skylark arises from tradition and from personal asso- ciation of ideas, and how much depends on intrinsic merit 1 A woman-poet of America cries :

If this be all for which I Ve listened long, Oh, spirit of the dew !

You did not sing to Shelley such a song As Shelley sang to you.

lark of Europe, downward fluttering near,

Like some spent leaf at best, You 'd never sing again if you could hear

My blue-bird of the West.

This is stark heresy to our ears. The blue- bird could never outsing the lark in European estimation, nor the sweetest mocking-bird excel the nightingale. But is not the feeling which is evoked by the melody of our own songbirds predominantly due to the sug- gestiveness of familiar sounds? Only the literary sentiments of an American are stirred by the voice of a small brown speck vanishing skyward, but in an Englishman, Scotchman, Frenchman, German, or any other native of Europe, its cadences may awaken a world of memories, insignificant perhaps in detail, but powerful in combination.

LINCOLN-GREEN.

THE EARL OF DUNFERMLINE (8 th S. xii. 489 ; 9 th S. i. 78). Either your querist, E. C. WEIN- HOLT, is wrong as to the non-marriage of George Seton, fifth Earl of Wintoun, or the author of 'Tombstones of the Covenanters' (a popular book) is, for the latter, in his "Old Dailly " chapter, prints :

" At the north side of the old church, close to the wall, are interred the ladies Lillias and Mary Seton, daughters of George, fifth Earl of Winton. At- tainted in 1716, after the first Scottish Rebellion, his daughters were sheltered by the Laird of Kil lochan, and at their express desire buried in Old Dailly Churchyard."

J. G. C.

"DlFFICULTED" (8 th S. xii. 484; 9 th S. i. 55) This word is used in a letter of Andrew Lumisden (the Scotch secretary of Prince Charles Ed ward) given in the 'Memoirs of Sir .Robert Strange' (London, 1855), vol. i. p. 93:

" The foreign merchants are giving way, excepi those who have stocks to live on, oelong to the

mblic companies, or have been long in trade, and xave correspondents in all countries, which we cannot at this time have. And even with these advantages, the wisest and ablest of them are, in so general a war, difficulted how to conduct their natters with any degree of certainty." -26 Nov.,

HELEN TOYNBEE. Dorney Wood, Burnham, Bucks.

LADY ELIZABETH FOSTER (9 th S. i. 25, 88). This lady became Duchess of Devonshire yhree years after the death of Georgiana (born Spencer), the first wife of William, fifth Duke of Devonshire. It was a portrait of the Duchess Georgiana which " mysteriously dis- appeared a few years ago." Reynolds painted Doth ladies. His portrait of the Duchess Elizabeth belongs to the present Duke of Devonshire, and it was exhibited at the Academy in 1788 and 1877, at the British Insti- tution 1813, the International Exhibition 1862, the Guelph Exhibition 1891, Guildhall 1892, with the "Fair Women" 1894, and at the Grosvenor Gallery 1884, of which see the Catalogue under No. 150 and the Athencevm review of this gallery. The lady was the second daughter of Frederick Augustus, fourth Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. She married, first, John Foster, Esq. Sir Joshua's group of the Duchess Georgiana and her child, Georgiana Dorothy, afterwards Countess of Carlisle, is one of his best and most admired works of the sort. Of " Juno Devon, all sublime," i. e., Duchess Georgiana, there is no doubt Gainsborough painted cer- tain portraits which have not disappeared. See the Catalogue of the Grosvenor Exhibition, 1885, Nos. 145 and 184; 'The Jockey Club,' part i. 3; Madame d'Arblay's 'Memoirs'; various satirical prints by Rowlandson ; Wal- pole to Mann, 29 May, 1783 ; the political literature of c. 1780-90 ; and Coleridge's ' Ode to Georgiana,' anent her ' Passage over Mount St. Gothard,' F. G. S.

THE GREEN TABLE (8 th S. xii. 208, 293, 434). With reference to MR. MOUNT'S inquiry on this subject, perhaps the following occurrence, in which the great Daniel O'Connell took part, may interest your correspondent. A man named Hogan was charged with murder. A hat, believed to be the prisoner's, was found near the body of the murdered man, and this was the principal ground for sup_ Hogan was the perpetrator of the foul d O'Connell, who was retained for the defence, felt the case required the exercise of his utmost powers. The counsel for the Crown made a strong point on the hat. O'Connell cross-examined the witness who identified it. "Are you perfectly sure that this was the