Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/166

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

. I. FEB. 19, '98.

No. 24, Holies Street, London, had been indicated by the medallion which has long been promised for the spot. But this grati- fication was denied him, as it still is to many living admirers of the illustrious poet.

CECIL CLARKE. Authors' Club, S.W.

FRANCIS DOUCE (9 th S. i. 87). Francis Douce died in 1834. I have always under- stood that the MSS, which he had collected were bequeathed to, and kept at, the British Museum, in a sealed box, wnich was not to be opened until 1 January, 1900.

EVERAKD HOME COLEMAN, 71, Brecknock Road.

He left his letters to the British Museum, with other papers, to remain until 1 January, 1900, before any one opens them. It will be for the authorities in office at the time to settle the question of publication.

ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.

CASTLEREAGH'S PORTRAIT (9 th S.i.47). Lord Castlereagh's political character has been differently estimated, but opinion is not divided as to his oratory, which may be described as very poor. Your correspondent's query, therefore, may be answered by the following squib of Torn Moore, Lord Castle- reagh's persistent satirist :

What ' my Thought like ?

Quest. Why is a Pump like V sc nt C stl r gh ? Answ. Because it is a slender thing of wood,

That up and down its awkward arm doth sway, And coolly spout and spout and spout away, In one weak, washy, everlasting flood !

'Poetical Works,' Shamrock ed., p. 136.

The tedium of Castlereagh's speeches, how- ever, was relieved in some degree by his sincerity, pluck, and perseverance.

F. ADAMS. 106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

The allusion is probably to the oratorical style of the first Viscount Castlereagh. Byron (' Don Juan,' c. ix. s. 50) describes him as

that long spout

Of blood and water, leaden Castlereagh.

Further references to the subject of these somewhat prophetic lines will be found in the same author. I believe the line

One weak, washy, everlasting flood also refers to Castlereagh's eloquence.

BREASAIL.

DE Kos FAMILY OF HAMLAKE (9 th S. i. 7). I cannot find any connexion between the above and the French family of that nam in the work of any English writers on the subject, Dugdale, in his 'Baronage,' says

hat they take the name from Eoos, a lord- hip in Holderness (East Hiding), co. York, s not to be doubted ; also that Kobert de los built Helmesley, alias Hamlake. Perhaps )'Anisy et St. Marie sur le Domesday might hrow some light on the matter. To Hamlake anc. Hamelac), co. Leicester, I can find no lue. JOHN RADCLIFFE.

They are commonly supposed to take their iame from Roos in Holderness ; see, e. </., D. N. B.,' xlix. 216 b. W. C. B.

WOODES ROGERS (9 th S. i. 68). MR. WADE will find some additional information respect- ng Woodes Rogers in a communication sent ,o ' N. & Q.,' 4 th S. x. 107, to which, so far as . can trace, no reply has been received. Has your correspondent consulted the 'Dictionary of National Biography "?

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN,

71, Brecknock Road.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Two Duchesses : Georgiana, Duchess of Devon- shire ; Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire. Edited by Vere Foster. (Blackie & Son.)

the two successive wives of the fifth Duke of Devonshire, after whom Mr. Vere Foster has named lis volume, the later, Elizabeth Heryey, though he less brilliant and distinguished, is the more .nteresting. She is, indeed first as Mrs. Foster, then as Lady Elizabeth Foster, and lastly as the Duchess of Devonshire the heroine of Mr. Vere Foster's volume, if heroine there be in a volume consisting wholly of correspondence. Georgiana, her predecessor and intimate friend, is, of course, the duchess celebrated by Coleridge

Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure, Whence learned you that heroic measure ? who entertained Johnson, hanging, while still in the first bloom of youth, upon the sentences that fell from his lips, and who, in the famous Westminster election, is said to have bought with kisses votes for Fox. She is heard of rather than seen through poems of hers, written in the execrable style of the last century, and she is responsible for one or two very pleasing and amiable letters. She is always spoken of as the "dear duchess," and her name is never mentioned except in conjunction with some adjective, such as "angelic" or "heavenly." Three years after her death the duke espoused her friend Lady Elizabeth Foster. The second duchess is the woman whom Gibbon flattered with the recognition she accorded to his 'History,' then, 1787, in MS. startled by a sudden offer of his hand, and of whom he said that ' ' if she chose to beckon the Lord Chan- cellor from his woolsack in full sight of the world he could not resist obedience." Comparing her later with her predecessor, he declared, "Bess is much nearer the level of a mortal, but a mortal for whom the wisest man, historic or medical, would throw away two or three worlds if he had them in poa-