Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/445

 9* S. XL MAY 30, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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was at the Court of Elizabeth. Among his poetic productions is the 'Pack-Man's Pater- noster.' Geillis, his wife, predeceased him by seven years, and he died in 1625. We have a copy of his wife's will, printed in 1849, which is curious and interesting in many respects ; not the least is a proof of the respect in which old and faithful servants were held in the seventeenth century in Scotland. Among the bequests to " her eldest sone Robert, [is] ane diamont ring." This Robert is the one who "augmented and enlarged ' A Pick-Tooth for the Pope ; or, the Pack -Man's Paternoster.'" The address " To the Reader " is as follows :

This Present (for the present) I present,

To you, good Reader, with my small addition, The which to imitate is my intent : To match, or overmatch, were great ambition : I but enlarge it, not surpasse : for neither I may, can, will, dare parallel my Father.

I may not : for I cannot reach unto it :

And though I could, I will not enterprise it : And though I would, could, might, I dare not do it : To dare, were with disdain for to dispise it. My Parents Poem only to expresse, I presse, of new, to put into the Presse.

The last two lines indicate that his father had, in his lifetime, published 'A Pick-Tooth.'

The copy from which I quote was published in 1849. The original is in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. Two poems by Robert Sempill are in the volume above referred to, ' The Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbar- chan,' and 'Epitaph on Sandy Brings,' who is said to have been a nephew of Babbie's.

Robert Sempill, of Bel trees, grandson of the author of ' Habbie,' wrote an account of Habbie Simson, in which we are told 'The Epitaph ' was made by Robert, son of Sir James, and father of Francis Sempill. Robert Sempill died before the year 1669, for his son Francis Sempill, of Beltrees, made an excamby of a piece of ground, "along with the hall of Beltrees," in this year ; that he was alive in 1660 can be demonstrated. Francis married his cousin in 1655, and he died 1685.

There was, more years ago than I care to name, when I was familiar with Kilbarchan, a family resident there named Anderson re- lated to Habbie Simson ; and a generally received story having its rise, I believe, in the family was that Francis Sempill (son of Robert, author of ' Habbie ') having dis- pleased his father, the latter refused to speak to him for a considerable time. Ultimately he agreed to forgive him if he added a verse to ' Habbie's Epitaph.' This the boy did as follows :

It's now these bags are a' forfain, That Habby left to Jock the bairn,

Tho' they were sew'd wi' Hollan' yairn, And silken thread,

It maks na, they were fill'd wi' shairn,

Sin Habby 's dead.

Robert Serapill could not have been much above thirty years of age at his father's death. Robert married young, say at twenty. His son Francis could not be more than about ten years of age at the time he added a verse to his father's ' Habbie Simson.' I think this circumstance is additional proof, if it was wanted, that Francis was not the author.

In the Paisley Repository, No. xxiii., about 1804, we have ' The Life and Death of the Famous Pyper of Kilbarchan.' Here we are informed it was written by Robert Sempill, of Beltrees. In a steeple attached to the school-house, within a niche, is, or was, a statue of Habbie Simson with his pipes. It is considered a good piece of statuary. Habbie's grave was pointed out years ago, when the stone contained nothing legible except " H. S.," his initials, and a figure which might be a flesher's (butcher's) chopper or a bagpipe. That Habbie was a flesher there is every probability, and that a James Simson, flesher, was at Kilbarchan can be demon- strated from the Craigend records.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS. Thornton Heath, Surrey.

MAYORS' CORRECT TITLE AND THEIR PRE- CEDENCE (9 th S. xi. 389). I believe that only mayors of cathedral cities are entitled to be called "Right Worshipful." Such was the opinion of a friend of mine who was an eminent antiquary and well versed in mayoral matters. In consequence of this, when I was Mayor of Hertford some years ago, I always addressed the Mayor of St. Albans as Right Worshipful when I had business transactions with him.

I should certainly give precedence to mayors according to the date of their charter. I think this is the usual custom.

HELLIER R. H. GOSSELIN-GRIMSHAWE.

Errwood Hall, Buxton.

" TRAVAILLER POUR LE Roi DE PRUSSE " (9 th S. xi. 289, 392). This saying, which has passed into a proverb for "Labour in vain," is referred for its origin either to Frederick William I., on account of his notorious parsimony, or to his greater son, Frederick II. (the Great), and his defeat of Marshal Soubise at the battle of Rossbach in 1757. It is probable that the saying had already passed into a proverb, but it received a new point owing to the marshal's failure. On his return to Paris, Soubise is reported to have been hailed with a popular chanson of the hour, the