Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/395

 9">s.n.Nov.iv98.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

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"Written in Ramsey Churchyard, Hunting- donshire, 1848." Is the poem well known? If not, it deserves to be so. The writer has made an unfortunate slip in the sixth verse. He rhymes " power " with "power." This would not be allowed even in French poetry, where a word may rhyme with itself so long as the two words have different meanings, e. g., joue, plays, joue, cheek (Victor Hugo) ; lui, shone, lui, him (Frangois Coppee) ; also in old English poetry, e. g., Milton's Rut h, the name, and ruth, compassion, and Spenser's meet, fit, proper, and meet, to meet, the verb : but this licence has long ceased to be used in English poetry. The two " powers " above mentioned have exactly the same meaning ; and even if they had not, it would be an illegitimate rhyme in our modern poetry.

Perhaps I may be allowed to quote three verses for the benefit of readers who are un- acquainted with this stirring ballad or lyric, whichever we may call it :

Raise up, raise up, the pillar ! some grand old

granite stone, To the king without a sceptre, to the prince without

a throne ! To the brave old English hero who broke our feudal

To the leader of the "good old cause," the Farmer of St. Ives.

He was the true defender of freedom and of faith ; When through the Vaudois valleys brave martyrs

died the death He threw his banner o'er their homos and wrapped

in it their lives, And the Alpine summits sung the praise of the

Farmer of St. Ives.

Unfurl that dropping banner ! So ! let it float again; Ye winds, receive it in your clasp ! waft it, thou

surging main ! His watchword, "God is with us!" see ye it still

survives ;

The pulse of England beats like his- St. Ives.

-the Farmer of

I am afraid that even at this distance of time there is too much party spirit in the air to allow us to hope that England next April will worthily celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of him whom a French writer calls " peut-^tre celui des dictateurs de tous les temps qui a le plus fait pour la grandeur de sa patrie." JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

Ropley, Hampshire.

AUTHOR WANTED. Can any of your readers tell the author and date of the 'Countrey Gentleman's Vade Mecum ' mentioned several times in ' Nares's Glossary ' (e.g., p. 895, ed. 1888, article 'Trapping'), whether the work is in the British Museum (or other public library), and under what title it is to be found in the Catalogue ? J. S. M. T.

" FEGGY." Aubrey in his ' Natural History of Wiltshire' (ed. Britton, p. 11), speaking of the people of North Wilts, says that " their persons are generally plump and feggy." What does he mean by/e^y ?

A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

" FEGGES AFTER PEACE." This is printed in Ray's 'Scottish Proverbs' (ed. 1678, p. 367). Can any one suggest a rendering into modern English? A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

PROVERB. Could you tell me the origin of the saying, "It takes three generations to make a gentleman " 1 Did it refer to birth or breeding ? SIGMA.

JOSEPHUS. In the 'Hammersmith Dis- cussion between French and Gumming' it is stated that " Josephus the Jew informs us that the Jews were not in the habit of pray- ing for those who had committed suicide." Where does Josephus assert this? I have gone through his works from cover to cover, but fruitlessly, and shall feel indebted to any one who can lay a finger on the re- puted passage. J. B. S.

Manchester.

REFERENCE SOUGHT. Wanted a reference for some verses ending :

When the French ride at the Nore,

We'll go to sea no more.

They were in some magazine (possibly Dublin University) early in the fifties. M.

TOLSTOI. Where in England can I obtain the works of this writer in Russian 1

J. B. S. Manchester.

SIR THOMAS VERNON. I should be glad to have any account of this Sir Thomas, who was knighted 1684 ; also to learn his pedigree and marriage, and what children he had. He is said to nave come from the Vernons of Audley, co. Staffs. A. ARDEN CRALLAN.

Valence House, Godalming.

SIR JOHN RUDSTON. 1 shall be greatly obliged to any correspondent of ' N. & O.' for the name of the wife of Sir John Rudston, Lord Mayor of London in 1628.

WM. JACKSON PIGOTT.

KELTIC WORDS. I wish to form a list of Keltic words still used in the Anglo-Saxon parts of the British Isles. For example, among the Pennine hills I find the word eea used for "yes." This, I believe, is the same as the