Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/413

 9 th S. I. MAY 21, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

405

I should like to take this opportunity of saying how pleased I am with Mr. Saints- bury's very pleasant and appreciative little book; but I hope he will forgive me for adding that I wish he cared more for ' The de of Lammermoor,' "to my [i.e. J. G. khart's] fancy, the most pure and power-

il of all the tragedies that Scott ever

nned." In this respect, however, 'Kenil-

orth ' must be allowed to be nearly, if not luite, equal to it.

In all editions of 'The Bridal of Trier- main ' that I am at present able to consult there is a misprint in the preface, which appears never to get itself corrected. In five editions there are the following words : " which is free from the technical rules of the Epte." This is meaningless. Of course it should be fipope'e (Epic).

May I ask readers of this very romantic poem if they would pronounce the G in " Gyneth " hard or soft ?

JONATHAN BOUCHIEE.

Ropley, Hampshire.

EARLY VERSIONS OF POPULAR FABLES. (See ante, p. 316.) 'The Dialoges of Creatures Moralysed ' is so extremely rare a book that during nearly forty years' collecting I have only met with two copies of it nearly com- plete, and about three others very imper- fect. The Earl of Ashburnham had only a poor copy wanting several leaves. So it is actually as rare as some of the books of Caxton. Therefore readers of ' N. & Q.' may be glad to have a well-known fable in the quaint form in which it is given in this book :

" It is tolde in fablys that a lady vppon a tyme delyuered to her mayden a Galon of mylke to sell at a cite/ and by the waye as she sate and rested her by a dyche syde/ she began to thinke y* with y e money of the mylke she wolde bye an henne/ the which shulde bringe forth chekyns/ and whan they were growyn to heniiys she wolde sell them and by piggis/ and eschaunge them in to shepe/ and the shepe into oxen/ & so whan she was come to richesse she sholde be maried right worshipfully vnto some worthy man/ and thus she reioycid. And whan she was thus meruelously comfortid and rauished in- wardly in her secrete solace thinkynge with howe greate ioye she shuld beledde towarde the chirche/ with her husbond on horsebacke/ she sayde to her self. Goo we/ goo we/ sodaynlye she smote the grounde with her fote/ myndynge to spurre the horse/ but her fote slypped and she fell in the dyche/ and there laye all her mylke/ and so she was farre from her purpose/ and neuer had that she hopid to haue." ' Dialoges of Creatures ' (about 1520), LL ii

Boston, Lincolnshire.

R. R.

A REED PAINTED TO LOOK LIKE IRON. The Daily News in a leader in its issue of 3 Feb.

remarks : " No political saying has obtained a greater vogue of late than that which de- scribes Lord Salisbury as ' a lath painted to look like iron,'" and asks if any of its readers can trace the saying back to its source. The saying is incorrectly quoted ; it should be " a reed painted to look like iron," a much more forcible expression, as it involves an anti- thesis between two proverbially opposite things, and a reed suggests the idea of sup- port. The expression was applied to Napo- leon III. after his downfall. JOHN HEBB. Canonbury Mansions, N.

WILL FOUND. I think the following is orthy a place in * N. & Q the Chichester Observer, 2 M

worthy a place in * N. & Q.' I take it from March :

" A remarkable story comes from New Bedford, in the United States of America, where on 2 Feb. a fisherman who was trying his luck with line and hook at what is known as Bad Luck Pond brought to the surface a relic of the first settlers. He was fishing through the ice when he saw indications of a bite. The line was quickly drawn in, but instead of a big pickerel there was a mysterious-looking object upon the hook. This, on being drawn to shore, proved to be an old raw-hide case, about two inches in circumference and ten inches in length. When cut open the package was found to contain a well-preserved paper, which was a will made by one John Coffin, bequeathing two houses and two lots, near Sunderland, county Durham, England, to his daughter Mary. The boundaries were distinctly designated. The will bears the official stamp of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, and is signed by two witnesses named Moses Traf ton and Elizabeth Marsh. The document is dated 3 March, 1646. John Coffin went to America, possibly for political reasons, carrying the will with him. How it found its way to the bottom of Bad Luck Pond is a matter of conjecture. The surmise of the finder is that the testator in a hasty flight from hostile Indians left his cabin with a few valuable papers, and in trying to cross the pond in his canoe was overtaken by his pursuers and killed, his body being consigned to the bottom. Time, and the action of the water, destroyed the body long ago, but failed to have effect on the tough raw-hide covering, which has preserved in a wonderful manner the old-world document of so many years ago, the contents of which remain as decipherable as though written yesterday. The case and contents have been sent to the Smithsonian Institute, at Washington, to be preserved as a relic of the past."

RALPH THOMAS.

[There is here an obvious confusion of dates. Cromwell was not Protector in 1646.]

BURNS AND COLERIDGE. One of the finest of all Burns's letters characterized by his native courtesy, independence, and courage is that written from Ellisland to Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop on "Newyear-day Morning, 1789." From the general idea of anniversaries, with which he starts in addressing his correspond- ent, he advances to the particular effect on