Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/415

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

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'The City Madam,' V. ii., Luke Frugal, rejoicing over the discomfiture of his victims, triumphantly exclaims :

"Tis my glory

That they are wretched, and by me made so ; It sets my happiness off : I could not triumph If these were not my captives. Ha ! my tarriers, As it appears, have seized on these old foxes, As I gave order.

THOMAS BAYNE.

SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS. The unsym- pathetic portrait of the publisher in George Borrow's ' Lavengro ' is generally taken as sketched from Sir Richard Phillips, whose vegetarianism makes him easy of identifi- cation. I have just come upon some testi- mony which puts him in a pleasanter light. Amongst the very miscellaneous contents of S. J. Pratt's 'Harvest Home' (vol. iii. p. 178) is the following :

IMPROMPTU

ON MK. PfllLLIPS'S LENDING HIS TOWN HOUSE

TO THE AUTHOR.

This is indeed, my Friend, an age of changes ! And who can say that miracles have ceas'd ? When at his Publisher's the Poet ranges O'er a fair mansion sure they have increas'd !

A mansion too, so goodly and so fine, And large enough, though there were poets

twenty ;

And then so bravely furnished, all the Nine, . And Graces Three, to boot, would find room

plenty !

I' faith, my Friend, so well am I appointed, Cook, Cellar, Kitchen, Parlour all my own !

My Brother Bards will think me your anointed : A vain Usurper of King Philip's Throne.

Yet is your house less spacious than your heart;

And if you '11 give me a warm corner there, With your whole mansion freely will I part,

And quit my enried throne for one more fair.

The ' Harvest Home ' was " printed for Richard Phillips, 6, New Bridge St., Black- friars," in 1805. Phillips was knighted in 1808. As twenty-five of Pratt's publications are enumerated in the ' D.N.B. ' as preceding the ' Harvest Home,' the writer was well qualified to speak on the relations of authors and publishers.

The fullest biographical notices of Sir Richard Phillips are those in Mr. Howard Williams's 'Ethics of Diet' (London, 1883, p. 235 ; second edition, 1896, p. 438) and in my ' Stray Chapters ' (1888, p. 237).

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.

BREAM'S BUILDINGS. In or ajbput 1782- 1790 the following lawyers had offices in Bream's Buildings : Charles Fearne, barrister, conveyancer ; John Desse, equity draughts- man ; and these attorneys : William Elliot, No. 8 ; Thomas French ; Thomas Holloway,

No. 1 ; James Patten ; John Rawlinson, No. 4. (From Browne's 'Law List,' 1782, and the 'Universal British Directory,' 1790.)

W. C. B.

LATIN CONVERSATION. A writer in the current number of the Dublin Review, p. 347, alludes to the fact that in the seventeenth century men of culture could converse with each other readily in Latin. Were it necessary much evidence of this might be produced ; indeed, a knowledge of conversational Latin was not an uncommon accomplishment at a later period. I do not remember the authority for the statement, 'but believe it to be well known that Walpole was accustomed to talk to George I. in Latin, as the king knew no English, and' the commoner could not speak German. Southey tells us that John and Charles Wesley

" accustomed themselves to converse together in Latin, whenever they were alone: when they had subsequently much intercourse with the Moravians they found the great advantage of having acquired this power."

And he further goes on to say that

" it is indeed a notorious defect in modern educa- tion, that the habit of speaking a language which is everywhere understood by all educated men, should nowhere be taught in schools as a regular part of the course of instruction." 'Life of Wesley, third edit., 1846, i. 52.

Joseph Cottle, in his ' Early Recollections,' speaks of having listened to Latin conversa- tions. He says that

" when a boy, many an evening do I recollect to have listened in wonderment to colloquisms and disputations carried on in Latin between Mr. New- ton and John Henderson." Vol. i. p. 81.

I believe there are, or recently were, news- papers issued in Latin. I have heard of the Vox Urbis, of Rome, and of the Concordia, which is, I think, a French publication. Are there not some Latin reviews published in America? EDWARD PEACOCK.

Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

" EPARCHY." In the 'N.E.D.' the earliest instance of this word, in the sense of "a district or province under the government of an eparch,"is dated 1838; and the quotations refer only to Greece or the Russian Greek Church I have not access to the earlier editions of Sir T. Herbert's 'Some Years' Travels into Africa and Asia the Great'; but in the third edition, 1677, p. 88, I find :

"For Curroon perceiving his design about the Diamond-mine frustrate, very heartily accepts the invitation; but after three months stay in that country, weary of idleness, projects the recovery ot his old Eparchy of Brampore."

EMERITUS.