Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/153

 9* s. xi. FEB. 21, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of Currick's Morning Post for 1815, which exists at the Dublin National Library,* to be searched. The poem was not there, but two cuttings had been made in the journal, one in the issue for 21 July and the other in that for 7 December. The searcher states :

" It is not at all probable that the excerpt from the first should be the one you want, for I found that the date at the foot had escaped the scissors : ' London, 21 July, 1815.' Most likely it was a letter. London would certainly not appear at the end of a poem prefaced by the announcement that it was written by a student of Trinity. So there only remains 7 December, and the space represents some 50 lines of close print."

If MR. FiTzPATRiCK looked through his file backwards from the last issue in December, then, supposing the poem had appeared on the 7th of that month, he would, of course, find it "after a little delay" He says it was prefaced thus : " The following lines were written by a student of Trinity College on reading the affecting account of the Burial of Sir John Moore in the ' Edinburgh Annual Register,'" and signed " W. C." That respect- able authority the 'Dictionary of National Biography' states that the poem was "ori- ginally published in the Newry Telegraph on 19 April, 1817."

In * N. & Q.,' 2 nd S. i. 242, being the issue for 22 March, 1856, MR. R. W. DIXON, of Seaton Carew, co. Durham, writes :

" If any doubts remain as to the authorship of the lines ' On the Burial of Sir John Moore,' I have it in my power to satisfy them satisfactorily ; for I know for certainty that the Rev. Charles Wolfe, when chaplain to the old county jail in the city of Durham, acknowledged the authorship by inserting them in the Durham Advertiser, with his signature attached."

To verify the above statement as regards Wolfe's alleged chaplaincy, the present writer applied to the chaplain of the old county jail, Durham city, thinking that he might have access to a list of his predecessors. The following full and courteous reply was re- ceived from the Rev. E. F. Jackson :

" Your inquiry took some investigation. After consulting Archdeacon Hamilton, an old prison chaplain, and this minute book, which was very badly kept at that period, and only puzzled and misled me, I asked Canon Greenwell, an old anti- quarian and local historian here, and he says the Rev. Charles Wolfe most certainly was never chaplain to the county prison. On reference he believes a Mr. Wheler was chaplain at that period, and that the Mr. Wolfe I found in the minute book was the Governor and not Chaplain. He says this fact causes many erroneously to suppose it was the Rev. Charles Wolfe. I thought it very odd that the chaplain should put men in irons, &c. Canon

Library, Dublin, contains the journal.
 * Neither the British Museum nor Trin. Coll.

Greenwell, being such a reliable authority, is sure to be right."

CHRISTOPHER C. DOVE. Eastbourne.

ROYAL AQUARIUM : DATE OF CLOSING. Under the heading ' Japanese Monkeys ' a correspondent sends you (ante, p. 76) a cut- ing from the Standard of 9 January, and goes on to say, *' The Aquarium closed on that date, it is stated in the advertising columns of the same paper." I am so fully impressed with the importance of accurate dates that I should like it recorded that this place of entertainment closed on the night of 10 Jan- uary, 1903.

I might mention that I paid it a visit during the last week of its existence, and found the entertainments and side-shows what they were reputed to be of a more or less frivolous nature, although I thought the swimming performances of Miss Annie Luker and her lady assistants healthy and whole- some. There were also reminders of the higher aims of the founders in the shape of collections of Cruikshank and other prints and copies of several respectable London and provincial newspapers. The reading-table was fairly well patronized, but the prints did notattract so many in fact, I accidentally discovered some relegated to the rear of a stall. If any reader, as a collector or other- wise interested, would like the programme he is welcome to my copy. W. CURZON YEO.

Richmond, Surrey.

SCHOOLBOY LITERATURE, 1710. Upon the fly-leaf of a copy of Erasmus (1650) is the following :

Hie liber ad me pertinet

To keep it well in mind

Ad me Robertum Barclay

Most courteous and kind.

Si aliquis invenerit

Gar him gie it again

Non illam preceptprem

Shal gar him get his ain.

On another leaf :

" Hie liber ad me Robertum Barclaium pertinetj 25 die Aprilis Anno Dom. 1710."

On the margin of another leaf :

" Alexander Meason can write better nor Robert Barclay, but he is a blockhead at countins." The writer was Robert Barclay, of Ury, Kin- cardineshire, born 20 July, 1699, died 10 Oct., 1760, grandson of Robert Barclay, author of the ' Apology for the Quakers.'

R. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE.

Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

" PILLOW-BER." To the spellings "pillow- bier," "pillow-beer, "and "pillow-bear," given