Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/298

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. APRIL 9, '98.

when he is left to himself, is apt to be in- different. For "vast and boundless" Thom- son substituted " universal." " Blisfull " (which I omitted in transcribing for the press) Thomson did not accept; he retains ? ' blowing." We have in the second version all that the Unknown did with the passage ; and readers of 'N. & Q.' can judge for them- selves how much of this "splendid critical pronouncement" really belongs to the dis- puted handwriting. They will see that the original passage has been shortened.

For what concerns myself, if Mr. Churton Collins is "a critic of the very highest authority," it is the less just that doubts first raised and stated in careful detail by students of humbler rank should be attri- buted to him. Let there be a fair reciprocity in this matter. To the dogmatism which asserts that Pope could not possibly have made these corrections I solemnly promise to make no claim.

I hope I may add two remarks addressed to inquirers who, like myself, think that the intervention of " a critic of the very highest authority " is not necessary to give this ques- tion " paramount interest." I do not possess the whole of Prof. Courthope's edition of Pope, but I am informed that there are no letters to be found between Pope and Thom- son, in spite of their close friendship. The fact that they were near neighbours accounts for this. Thomson would go to see Pope if he wished to consult him. That he did consult him, and receive suggestions from him upon 'Liberty,' I have in the pages of 'N. & Q.' made probable to every impartial mind (8 th S. xii. 327). In the second place, I must not rely upon the spelling "quere," in the dis- puted MS., as characteristic of Pope. I have found it elsewhere, and it was possibly the current form of the word in the days of Pope and Thomson. It remains, however, true that the notes beginning thus are more reasonably assigned to a friend than to the author him- self through the medium of an amanuensis.

D. C. TOVEY.

SARAGOSSA SEA (9 th S. i. 207, 231). I have not the opportunity of referring to the Pall Mall Gazette, but, from the passage quoted, have little doubt that the writer intended to refer to the Sargasso Sea, by which name a huge tract of relatively calm water, extending over a thousand miles across the Atlantic and embracing an area of over a quarter of a million square miles, is known, the name being derived from the tangled growth of various seaweeds which float upon the surface, of which the most prominent

are various species of Sargassum : a feature j which astonished Columbus, as the pre- sence of seaweed is in general an indication I of the proximity of land. The main growth | consists of enormous masses of S. bacciferum, which fructifies by means of the small round berries it bears abundantly, of a size vary- ing from one-sixth to one-eighth of an inch, rendering it a pretty and attractive object, frequently gathered by voyagers. This sea is formed by a diverted branch of the Gulf Stream, which passes south-east along the coast of Spain and Africa and then joins the great Northern Equatorial current, stretching away to the fringe of islands which enclose the Caribbean, thus forming a long oval whirl, the centre of which is the region of calms known as the Sargasso Sea. The seaweeds, it may be mentioned, have no attachment, but are supposed to have origin- ally lived on a margin of land surface, which ultimately became submerged, and, indeed, has by some been conjectured to have formed the lost Atlantis. WALTER CROUCH.

Wanstead.

HEBERFIELD AND THE BANK OF ENGLAND (8 th S. xii. 504 ; 9 th S. i. 97, 173, 229). I have much pleasure in replying to COL. PRIDEAUX'S query. Robert Smith Surtees (1802-64), the creator of " Mr. Jorrocks," was not educated at Westminster. The only Surtees of whom there is any record at Westminster is Frederick Richard Surtees, who was ad- mitted to the school on 24 Sept., 1828.

G. F. R. B.

JOHN STEVENSON, THE COVENANTER (9 th S. i. 46, 192). G. T. assumes that, because the parish of Dailly was once called Dalmakerran, therefore the name Dailly has no connexion with the Gaelic dealghe (dailhe), the plural of dealg, a thorn. First let me say that the meaning I have assigned to it is based on the analogy of similar names in Ireland, which are shown in ancient MSS. to have been formed from dealghe. The unaspirated form of the plural, deilge, appears in the Four Masters for the name which is now written Delliga in co. Cork. There are very many instances in Scottish topography also, but Scottish Gaelic was not a literary language till the sixteenth century; at least, the marginalia in the Book of Deer form the only earlier MS. reputed to be written by a Scottish Gael which has come down to our times. We have, therefore, to rely mainly on the analogy offered by Irish place-names. Second, that Dalmakerran can ever have become Daly or Dailly is a violent assump- tion for which I do not know of a shred ot