Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/417

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S.I, MAY 21, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

409

hing more to do with him," or "I have formed a bad opinion of his character," There are some traditional verses about a certain Roundlegs, a grinder, which include she lines :

P Roundlegs put a chalk on t' door, And swore ne 'd never go there no more, think the saying must relate to some old custom of making a chalk-mark on a man's door with intention to do him an injury. Is such a custom known to exist anywhere; and is the saying known elsewhere ?

S. O. ADDY.

[Is the reference to the marks on the door in the time of the Plague ?]

DUM CHRISTI.' This Latin hymn is said to have been composed after the return of Pius VII. (Chiaramonti) to Rome. In allu- sion to this circumstance, one verse runs as follows :

O dies felix, memoranda fastis, Qua Petri sedes fidei magistrum, Triste post lustrum, reducem beatS, Sorte recepit.

Is it known who was the author 1

RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.

FAITHORNE'S MAP OP LONDON. Can any correspondent tell me of the existence in this country of an original impression of Richard Newcourt's Map of London, engraved in 1658 by Wm. Faithorne ? I know of the one in the Bibliotheque Nationale, and also the reprints made in 1855 and 1878. I have ascertained that the British Museum does not possess one, nor can I trace the only other known impression (imperfect, I believe) which cer- tainly was in England some years ago, and from which the reprints were made (see Pagan's ' Catalogue of Faithorne's Works,' p. 87). I have lately come into possession of what I believe to be an original and perfect impression of the map, and I am anxious to verify it by comparison. The existence of another impression of this famous map will no doubt interest collectors of London topo- graphy. C. L. LINDSAY.

97, Cadogan Gardens.

SONG WANTED. Some five-and-forty years ago there was a song, much admired by young ladies, which contained the following lines : We shall meet we know not where, And be bless'd we know not how ;

Leave me now, love, leave me now.

I think its name was ' The Dying Maiden's Address to her Lover '; but of this I am not certain. If any of your readers can give me the name of the author, or indicate where it is to be found, I shall be grateful. AFRA.

BOS WELL'S 'JOHNSON.' (9 th S. i, 385.)

GENERAL MAXWELL calls attention to some strange misreading of the inscrip- tion on Dr. Johnson's monument, and writes, " This extraordinary error has never been corrected, so far as I know, in any of the many editions which have appeared of that popular book." The extraordinary part of the matter is that GENERAL MAXWELL nas, apparently, never looked at the most popular edition of all viz., Croker's in which the inscription is correctly given, and the whole story of its origin and adaptation narrated.

It is difficult to obtain justice for Mr. Croker ; but as I am writing about his edition of Boswell, I should like to place on record a fact which may interest some of your readers. I had occasion, some few years ago, to collate the first volume of a new edition of Boswell with the corresponding portion of Croker. I found that in this volume there were about 700 notes. Of these 40 were the additions of the new editor (taken in large part from 'N. & Q.' and other works pub- lished since Croker's day); 40 are mere references ; 254 are Croker's notes, acknow- ledged as such ; 40 more are Croker's, slightly altered in form and not acknowledged; 310 are by Boswell and early editors, all given in Croker. And yet this editor severely criticizes Croker without making any acknowledgment of his indebtedness to him.

Croker, of course, had his faults, and over- edited here and there; but I do not think that his services in discovering and recording the unwritten and fleeting traditions and reminiscences of a generation which had actually touched Dr. Johnson's time have ever been duly recognized. What others have since added to this would lose half its value apart from Croker's contributions.

JOHN MURRAY.

50, Albemarle Street.

GENERAL MAXWELL would perhaps have done better to extend his inquiry before he penned his note. " Let me take his points in his own order. Firstly, the line appears to occur not in Boswell, but in Malone's note. Secondly, in most editions the words are not misprinted at all. Thirdly, even as GENERAL MAXWELL gives them, it is not true that a great part of the inscription is " sheer gib- berish," but only the two misprinted words which he takes "for instance." Fourthly, though Liddell and Scott allow three termina- tions to dvTaios, their quotations do not