Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/37

 9* B. XL JAW. io, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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man and an old woman. Between them is a barrel. The man is playing the fiddle, and at his feet there is a dog. The woman has a jug in her left hand, and in her right a cup. She is lifting up the cup to a boy on top of the low arch. The man has sabots on his feet. The whole style is suggestive of Teniers. The group is remarkable for nicety of model- ling. The measurement across the base is 26^ in., the height 13| in. There is nothing to indicate its origin. B. P.

Brooklyn, N.Y.

DANTEIANA. There is a remarkable mis- take, I think, in Cary's translation of Dante in the thirteenth canto of the 'Purgatorio' where the following passage occurs :

Cosi li ciechi, a cui la roba falla, Stanno a' perdoni a chieder lor bisogna, E r uno '1 capo sovra 1' altro a walla,

which Gary translates

E'en thus the blind and poor Near the confessionals, to crave an alms Stand ; each his head upon his fellow's sunk.

Any one who has been much upon the Con- tinent is probably familiar with the spectacle of beggars standing against the walls, or near the entrance-door, of the churches, but I never remember them carrying on operations inside the sacred building, except in the south of Italy, where I have sometimes seen one or two of them going round and asking those seated there for money. And surely it is scarcely possible that even in Dante's time they should have taken their stand, of all places in the world, " near the confessionals." Fraticelli says in a note, "A 5 perdoni, alle chieso ov 'e il perdono o 1' indulgenza e perci6 concorso di gente." But how did Gary come to make such a curious mistake? Had he ever been abroad except in his infancy before he translated the ' Purgatorio ' 1

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

ABRAHAM TUCKER. Gan any of your readers inform me what has become of the MSS. of Abraham Tucker, author of 'The Light of Nature Pursued ' 1 Tucker died in 1774. His grandson, Sir H. P. St. John Mild may, Bart., who prefixed a short life of the author to his edition of 'The Light of Nature ' in 1805, was evidently in possession of the following :

1. Some translations by Tucker of parts of Cicero, Demosthenes, and Livy.

2. Some remarks made by Tucker himself, or gathered from his neighbours about Dork- ing, or selected from ancient and modern authors, on the subject of rural economy.

3. All the letters which had passed between Tucker and his wife, collected and arranged

by himself into a MS. volume, under the title of ' The Picture of Artless Love.'

4. Some biographical notes by Tucker's daughter Judith, who inherited his estates, and died unmarried in 1795.

Leigh Hunt, in an essay published in 1847, conjectured that the letters, at least, were most likely preserved as an heirloom in the Mildmay family. The present baronet, how- ever, says he is afraid there are no such papers in his possession, and he does not know where they could be found. Tucker's father-in-law, Edward Barker, of East Betch- worth, Gursitor Baron of the Exchequer, had a second copy of the letters (item No. 3). None of these papers is to be found in the British Museum. JOHN FYVIE.

11, The Grove, Wandsworth Common, S.W.

JOHN DRYDEN, SURGEON. Any information regarding John Dryden, surgeon, of Jamaica, who published a medical work on 'Rupture of the (Esophagus,' would be gladly received. John Dryden was probably a descendant of Richard Dryden, living 1708, nephew of the poet, of whom nothing is known except that he went to Jamaica. P. C. D. M.

FENTON FAMILY. Gan you get me in- formation as below 1 A branch of the Fen ton family acquired property in Pembrokeshire, in and near St. David's, Fishguard, and Haverfordwest, about the period of the Commonwealth, (say) 1647 to 1659. The re- presentative came from Ireland, and was connected by marriage with the Boyles, Earls of Cork, and the Fitzgeralds of the Glyn, and his descendants claimed to be also de- scended from Sir Geoffery Fenton, of the family of Fenton-on-Trent, county of Not- tingham, Chief Secretary of State for Ireland under Elizabeth and James I., from 1580 to 1608 in continuous power. This man's son or grandson married Diana Lewis, daughter of John Lewis, Esq., J.P., of Manor Owen, near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. Diana's husband was named Richard Fenton, and was domiciled at Rhosser, St. David's. The marriage ap- pears to have been in William III.'s time, ' 1688 to 1700.

I wish to ascertain the name of his father and date of his marriage. All the registers of St. David's, the bishop's registers at Car- marthen, and those of Fishguard and Manor Owen having perished of the dates 1620 to 1724, and up to 1796 and 1808 respectively, and so baffled my search, I appeal to ' N. & Q.' to help me to fill the gap in my list from 1647 to 1700.

The Richard Fenton who married Diana Lewis seems to have held some office under