Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/480

 472

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. II, DEC. 10, '

and seems more free and spontaneous than that of any bird possessing a set song, the notes leaping out with a heartfelt joyousness which is quite irre- sistible. The sound differs in quality from that of other birds; it is, perhaps, more human; a swallow- like note may be heard in some of the most beautiful contralto voices. The dozen or more notes com- posing the song end with a little jarring trill, so low as to be hardly audible."

Mrs. Carlyle's substitution of " gowdspink " for "Progne" in Minstrel Burne's 'Leader Haughs and Yarrow ' reminds one of an incident alluded to in the Tennyson me- uioir (vol. i. p. 451). The Duke of Argyll, in asking the poet what he meant in one of his poems* by " the red - cap whistled," wrote :

" I know of no such bird : don't you mean the black-cap, which does whistle beautifully? The golden-crested wren is never called 'red-cap,' nor can it be said to whistle, though it has a loud song."

Tennyson re plied that " red-cap " was a pro- vincial name for the goldfinch. (This name, it must be confessed, is scarcely appropriate, for the red appears only about the eyes and bill of the goldfinch; the " cap " is black.)

While on the subject of birds, may I ask whether any one can explain a puzzling passage in George Sorrow's ' Wild Wales '? At the end of chap. xxvi. he says :

" I passed under high rocks, by houses and by groves, in which nightingales were singing, to listen to whose entrancing melody I more than once stopped."

The place was a few miles out of Bangor, the time 8 o'clock in the evening, and the date (as we can find out by a simple calculation) 28 August. I always understood that the nightingale is rarely found so far west as Bangor, and that it ceases singing before the end of June. It is difficult to imagine what bird's " entrancing melody " Borrow could have heard at a time of year when all the well-known songsters are silent.

H. F. MOULE.

Progne was a singing bird, even if the swallow is not so. The original story con- cerning her was that she was changed into a nightingale, and her sister Philomela into a swallow. Apollodorus says : KOL

Sophocles and other authors say the same thing. Apparently, however, the Scottish poet did not intend to be right in this way, since he has spoken of Philomel also as a singing bird. E. YARDLEY.

The 'Gardener's Daughter':

The mellow ouzel fluted in the elm; The red-cap ivhistled.

COINCIDENCE REGARDING WASHINGTON (9 th S. i. 467; ii. 98). I send original copies of the Washington inscriptions at Adwick-le-Street. The first is round the edge of an altar tomb in the chancel. The base of the monument is of stone covered with a thick slab of alabaster, containing effigies of Jacob and Margaret Washington and their twelve children :

1. " Hie jacet Jacobus Washingtonus armiger dominus de Adwycke super stratam et Margareta uxor ejus filia Johannis Anlanye [? indistinct] armi- geri qui septem filiorum et quinque filiarum parentes fuerunt."

At the top beside the figure of Jacob : " Obiit a setatis suae 45 a d'ni 1580"; and beside that of Margaret :

" Obiit a setatis suae 36 a d'ni 1579." The twelve children are represented by twelve small figures, each with the name over the head, but the letters are not in a perfect state of preservation. Those that can be deciphered are : Bartholomew, Phillipe, Rychard, Francis, Frances, Marie.

The second is from a flat stone near the organ :

2. "Hie jacet Richardus Washingtonus armiger dominus de Adwick obiit anno aetatis suse 39 anno domini 1678."

The third is from a stone close to the last, but has been spoilt by dampness :

3. "Here lye [?] Elizabeth Washington, buried

[?] February, 1667, and James Washington,

buried March the 15th, 1668."

Dr. Miller in ' History and Antiquities of Doncaster,' published about 1804, quotes the following inscription, which he says was on the floor of the chancel, nearly obliterated :

" Here lies the bodv of Mr. Godfrey Washington, third son of James W., of Adwick on Street, Esq., who lived to about the age of seventy. He was beloved of all that knew him, and at his death equally lamented. He was a faithful friend, and died a bachelor, 15th of December, 1709."

C. E. CLARK.

OLD PARLIAMENT STREET (9 th S. ii. 401). The description of Dufour and his surround- ings at 17A, Great George Street, Westminster, is true to the life. I remember it in the days when Hungerford suspension foot-bridge was disappearing. Old Westminster Bridge was being replaced by the present structure, and engineers' offices were busy with the pre- paration of plans for the Thames Embankment competition. The Dufours then occupied the drawing-room floor above the shop, and over that were the offices of Capt. W. S. Moorsom, M.Inst.C.E., whose genial countenance, rugged beard, florid complexion, and general get-up were more suggestive of the sea than of H.M.'s 52nd Regiment. From the windowsof thisfloor one had at times a bird's-eye view of the