Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/222

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. SEPT. is, 1902.

sheep on the More, and vain it is for any to search their houses, being a work beneath the pains of any Sheriff, and above the power of any constable. Such is their fleetness, they will outrun many horses ; vivaciousnesse, they outlive most men, living in the ignorance of luxury, the Extinguisher of Life, they hold together like Burrs, offend One and All will revenge his qua,rrel." Readers of Kingsley's ' Westward Ho ! ' will remember how Salvation Yeo killed^ the King of the Gubbings, and there is a reference to them in ' Lydford Law,' the well - known poem of William Browne, the author of 'Britannia's Pastorals.' Brent Tor is about four miles from Tavistock. A. J. DAVY. Torquay.

William Browne, a distinguished poet, author of 'Britannia's Pastorals,' published in 1613, gives in his 'Excursion of a luxuriant Fancy on the most ancient Town and Borrough of Lydford, lying in Dartmoor,' the following verses (out of many) relating to the very interesting tribe of Gubbins, made immortal by Fuller and familiar by Kingsley :

The town 's enclosed with desert moors,

But where no bear or lion roars, And nought can live but hogs ;

For, all o'erturned by Noah's flood,

Of four score miles scarce one foot 's good, And hills are wholly bogs.

And near hereto 's the Gubbins cave ; A people that no knowledge have

Of law, or God, or men ; Whom Caesar never yet subdued : Who lawless live ; of manners. rude ;

All savage in their den.

By whom if any pass that way, He dares not the least time to stay,

For presently they howl ; Upon which signal they do muster Their naked forces in a cluster

Led forth by Roger Rowle.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

Your correspondent will find something to interest him in Charles Kingsley's 'West- ward Ho ! ' Has he consulted the Indexes to 'N. & Q.' ? I have an idea that I once read some communications on this curious body of people in your pages.

FRED. G. ACKERLEY. British Vice-Consulate, Libau, Russia. [See 3 rd S. vi. 128 ; viii. 406.]

SHAKESPEARE v. BACON (9 th S. ix. 245, 414 ; x. 11, 137). Taylor, I think, has written the line :

The world knows nothing of its greatest men. Some of your contributors, with many other people, are surprised that more is not 'known about Shakspeare. There are many reasons

why men of genius should not be fully appre- ciated during their lifetime. When they are so appreciated they generally owe their success to their position or to accidental circumstances. In the time of Elizabeth or James an actor would not hold a high posi- tion, though he might be generously treated by a few noblemen. If we do not know much about Shakspeare, we know more about him than about Chettle, Middleton, and many similar writers. If we consider other great men, we see how unfortunate they often were in comparison with second-rate writers, even when those great men had obtained notice. Dante, Camoens, Tasso, Cervantes, Corneille, Milton, are a few examples. We do not know the authors of some works which have taken a permanent place in the literature of the world. The author of ' The Fisherman's Story ' and of the story of ' The Three Royal Mendicants' in the 'Arabian Nights' is un- known. E. YARDLEY.

EARTHWORKS AT BURPHAM (9 th S. x. 129). In Lewis's 'Topographical History of Eng- land ' (1842), under ' Burpham,' we read :

"Near the church is a high embankment,

supposed to be of Roman origin On the downs

are numerous burrows several of which have been opened and found to contain ancient coins, skeletons, and military weapons. At Peppering, near Arundel, were found, in 1820, near the foot of the downs, in a bed of gravelly loam resting upon chalk about 3ft. from the surface and 80ft. above the level of the sea the bones, a tusk, and some grinders of an elephant ; the body appeared to be lying beneath a bank of earth of great thickness ; the tusk measured 4ft. 6 in. by 24 in. in circum- ference ; and the largest grinder 3& in. wide by 7 in. long, and weighed 6 Ibs. 4 ounces, and one of the molars of the upper jaw was broken in two and detached when found."

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

CASTLE CAREWE, PEMBROKE (9 th S. ix. 428, 490 ; x. 92). The lines quoted by DR. H. H. DRAKE from Carew's 'Survey of Cornwall' may be considered conclusive with regard to the pronunciation of the historian's name, and the "Carey" change appears to be a deviation from ancient rule. So far I am in agreement with DR. DRAKE, but not so in regard to his flirtation with the old-standing tradition of the descent of the Geraldines from the Gherardini of Florence. On this subject two excellent articles have lately appeared from the pen of Mr. J. Horace Round in the April and July numbers of the Ancestor, entitled 'The Origin of the Fitz- Geralds,' to which I would invite the atten- tion of those interested in the subject. Mr. Round's researches result, inter alia, in