Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/53

 9 th S. I. JAN. 15, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

45

Devon deceased." There can, therefore, be no question of his identity with the author The will, which is dated 27 March, 1643, was proved 31 Oct., 1646, by his widow, Helen Therein Gomersall gave to the church o1 Thorncombe 20s., and to the poor of the parish 21. To his son Robert he bequeathec 1,000, and to his two daughters, Helen anc Christian, 5001. apiece upon their coming oJ age. He names as one of his overseers " m brother Richard Bragge." The Bragges, it may be noted, were then, as now, lords of the manor and patrons of the living of Thorn- combe, which was annexed some years ago to Dorset. Doubtless further particulars respecting Gomersall might be gleaned on application to the family.

GOKDON GOODWIN.

LESWALT, WIGTON. Wodrow, the Church historian, in his reference to the parish of Leswalt, calls it Lasswade. The ancient local scribes of the place all through the eighteenth century, and probably before, in their kirk session books also used the same form. This seems puzzling against the well-known Lass- wade, near Edinburgh, one of the homes of De Quincey, and in the teeth of the fact that Leswalt has always officially been spelt Leswalt, i.e., so far back as printed records touching upon it go, I imagine. J. G. C.

CLASSICAL TRAINING OF KEATS. Mr. W. L. Courtney appears lately to have written somewhere that Rossetti was " a Keats with- out his classical training." This seems to have appealed to the sub-editorial mind as a quite remarkable deliverance in literary criticism, for it is now duly presented to readers of provincial journals for their intel- lectual improvement and delectation. But what is the significance of such a remark 1 ? The classical training of Keats was a very limited quantity. He had a school course of Latin, and he learnt no Greek at all. In this respect also, as well as in his elemental outlook and wide grasp, he resembled Shak- speare. It was because he could not read Greek in the original that he was so com- pletely transported with the work of Chap- man as to dance enthusiastically over the perusal of him till the small hours of the morning, much to the disturbance of his landlord, who slumbered in the flat below the poet's quarters. It is because of the limited classical training of Keats that his ability to look at the beautiful from prac- tically the same point of view from which it was observed by the Greeks is so remarkable and praiseworthy. On the whole, it is un- kind to Keats to suggest that he enjoyed a

" classical training." His work shows him to have been practically independent of such experience and discipline ; and had he lived another twenty years it is probable that no estimate of him would have implied any reference to the classics at all.

THOMAS BAYNE. Helensburgh, N.B.

A NOTABLE APHORISM. " Until a man has grasped the truth that there are no classes, but only individuals, he will be all his life- time subject to bondage." Mindful of the monition of our patron saint, " when found " I made a note of this ; but it did not occur to me at the time to ask for it, what I think it deserves, a niche in ' N. & Q.' It occurs in an admirable paper, by Mr. Herbert Paul, on ' The Apotheosis of the Novel under Vic- toria,' in the Nineteenth Century of May last (p. 774). If Mr. Paul continue to write papers so excellent as this he will rank with the foremost of British essayists.

R. M. SPENCE, M.A.

Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

"Bos." (See 9 fch S. i. 19.) The American song quoted is called ' Camptown Races,' and the last line is

Somebody bet on the bay.

F. J. CANDY. Norwood.

We must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. _

INDEXING. Can any of your readers in- form me of the headings under which the following names should be indexed ?

1. Andrea Del Sarto.

2. B. Ten Brink.

3. Fra Bartolommeo.

4. St. Thomas a Becket.

5. B. De Las Casas.

6. Van Dyck.

7. L. A. A. De Verteuil.

8. L. M. D'Albertis.

9. John De Witt.

10. Madame De Witt (Anglo-French writer).

11. Anne Boleyn.

12. Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby.

13. Joan of Arc (about to be canonized).

14. Duchess of Rutland.

15. Simon de Montfort.

16. Earl of Leicester.

I am greatly interested in indexing, and