Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/394

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 s. n. NOV. 12,

case on record. A mule belonging to a potter in the above state gave birth to a male foal on the day after its return from the Tirah Field Force. ' Parturition occurred on August 6 during the night, and on information being given to the Prime Minister of tt\p State, Sirdar Bhagat Singh, C.I.E., he at once went to see it early the followm morning. The greatest excitement has been causei in the town of Kapurthala by this extraordinary occurrence, and the pundits are all at a loss to know what to think about it. They say that such an event has never been known before, and the Hindu shastras say that whenever a mule becomes preg- nant, it must die before giving birth to the young. Large crowds go daily to see the mother and foal, and the pundits are consulting the stars and shas- tras as to what is portended by the event."

Two photographs one of the marvellous creature which has caused so much bewilder- ment, and another of its mother are given in the Field. That mules, in very rare instances, do bear young has sometimes been asserted, but till now absolute proof of the fact was wanting. T. R. E. N. T.

TRAFALGAR DAY, 1898. The recent demon- stration in Trafalgar Square with regard to the Nelson monument recalls Lord Byron's lines, written eighty years ago, which appear singularly appropriate to the present time : Nelson was once Britannia's god of war,

And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd ; There 's no more to be said of Trafalgar,

'Tis with our hero quietly inurn'd ; Because the army 's grown more popular,

At which the navy people are concern'd ; Besides, the prince [Regent] is all for the land- service, Forgetting Duncan, Nelson, Howe, and Jervis.

' Don Juan,' canto i. iv. (1818).

JOHN HEBB.

Canonbury Mansions, N.

ROUNDS OR RUNGS. Hardly any novelist nowadays writes a book without referring to the climbing of the metaphorical ladder of fame, &c. ; and certainly nineteen out of twenty use the inelegant term rungs. My old schoolmaster (the late Dr. Blain, of the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast), who made a life study of inaccurate expressions, <fce., considered rungs an excessive vulgarity quite as bad as using one's knife for a fork at the dinner-table (his own parallel illustra- tion). The only author of fiction I recollect to have noticed employing the nicer term of rounds is Mr. David Christie Murray.

J. S. M. T.

THE ARCHDUKE OP AUSTRIA IN SHAK- SPEARE'S 'KiNG JOHN.' This character is a blending of two historical personages Leopold, Archduke of Austria, who kept Richard I. in captivity when on his way back from Palestine, and Vidomar, Viscount

of Limoges, in besieging whose castle of Chalus Richard lost his life. In this Shake- speare copies the old play ' The Troublesome Raigne of John' (1591), the framework of which he borrowed so far as suited his own design. But the source of the confusion is much earlier, and may be traced to the black-letter ballad 'Kynge Rycharde cuer du lyon,' printed by Wynkyn de Worde. On f. 99 occur these lines :

Thus kynge Rycharde y' doughty man Peas made with the Soudan And syth he came I vnderstonde The waye towarde englonde And through treason was shotte alas At castell gaylarde there he was The duke of estryche in the castell With his boost was dyght full well.

The story goes on to say that a spy, seeing Richard unarmed, shot at him and wounded him. I dp not think this has been noticed by the editors of the play. It is possibly to a similar source that we owe the killing of Julius Caesar in the Capitol, which has not been traced back further than Chaucer.

PERCY SIMPSON. EPITAPH.

C lose in the bosome of this Mournful Tomb

H urry d from Earth to his Eternal home

A n early Trophy of Death 8 Conquering Power

R eposing waits for Natures Last great hour

L ire Like a Morning Vision fled away

E re we Could Perfectly Percieue the day

S o soon we Lose what Long we d haue to stay

F ate took no pity on his tender years

R egarded not his Parents pious tears

A 11 their vain greef the Victim Could not saue

N or keep their Boy from the Devouring Graue

C rown d with his Natiue Innocence he fell

K ings Crownd with Laurel Sildom dye so well

L et Age and youth from hence this maxim know

I f Heaven Command 9 the best are forc'd to go

N othing that 8 good is permanent below.

The above epitaph to the memory of Charles Francklin, who died 10 March, 1704, is engraved upon a simple stone on the south wall of the nave of Westwood Church, near Bradford-on-Avon.

ALBERT HARTSHORNE.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

'THE FARMER OF ST. IVES.' Who is the author of a spirited copy of verses so entitled ? It consists of fourteen stanzas fifteen if we onclusion and it is stated to have been
 * ount the first, which is repeated at the