Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/235

 K.2V99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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events remodelled, since that date." Can any of your readers say positively whether that be so? On the same page of that volume (in the preceding column) I was surprised to read, "and here Bos well tells us that he wrote his 'Town, 'and busied himself during a summer with his essay on the 'Vanity of Human Kiches.'" Must we take two such slips in one sentence as a proof that John- son's poems are but little read in the present day? But Boswell (it need hardly be said) gives the titles correctly, as incleed does almost every biography of Johnson. The poem 'London' appeared in 1738, 'The Vanity of Human Wishes' in 1749; the latter only, I believe, was written at Mrs. Johnson's lodgings at Frognal. W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

" STICKIT " OR " STICKIN MINISTER." It is noted among certain curiosities of transla- tion in ' N. & Q.,' 1 st S. xi. 240, that in the original French translation of ' Guy Manner- ing,' Dominie Sampson is called "un ministre assassin," a literal rendering of the "stickin minister." But Mr. S. R. Crockett's well- known story is called 'The Stickit Minister.' Is either form right ? DUNHEVED.

GRAY'S ' ELEGY.' Could you or any of your readers enlighten me as to the following? In the third line of the epitaph which occurs at the end of Gray's ' Elegy ' are the words :

Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth. The question arises, In what respect would the frown of science have been an advantage to him? W. WALKER, Col.

Pulteney House, Bath.

"A HARD "SIEGE." It is a common thing in the United States to apply this term to a long continuance of sickness or trouble. A current newspaper furnishes an example :

"At the home of R. C. there has been sickness for some time. The entire family were down. It has been a pretty hard siege for them."

Can the phrase be traced to an English or Scottish origin ? RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.

'LUCY'S FLITTING.' I have a note from R. Borland's ' Yarrow : its Poets and Poetry,' 1890, to the effect that the last verse of this song by Sir Walter Scott's friend Willie Laidlaw is by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shep- herci. Is this correct? It is not so stated in Miss M. C. Aitken's' Scottish Song,'" Golden Treasury Series," 1874 ; nor in 'The Songs of Scotland Chronologically Arranged,' Paisley, 1893 (an excellent collection) ; nor does Lock-

hart say this in his mention of ' Lucy's Flit- ting ' in his ' Life of Scott ' (ed. 1869, vol. v. p. 211, foot-note). The verse in question begins

The lamb likes the gowan wi' dew when it's drookit.

Miss Aitken justly calls 'Lucy's Flitting'

"this sweet little song"; and Lockhart

speaks with much praise of its simple pathos.

Where was the song first published? It

appears to have been written long before

Scott's death. Laidlaw survived his loved

and honoured friend more than twelve years.

JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

LEAVES' MARKED BY VAPOURS OF TARTARUS. Will some one be good enough to explain the classical allusion, as I suppose it to be, in the following quotation from 'Wild Eng- land '?-

" The giant poplars which fringe the pools have leaves as dark as those on which the vapours of invaded Tartarus left their mark for ever.' r

M. C. L.

New York.

NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE MS. Mr. R. M. Bucke, in his paper on 'Shakespeare De- throned,' refers to "the famous Northum- berland House MS. that belonged to Bacon, and could never have been seen by Shake- speare." Can any reader kindly tell me where I can see any account of that famous MS. ? THEODORE TYRONE.

EDWARD TAYLOR, PROFESSOR OF Music IN GRESHAM COLLEGE. I have in my possession a proof mezzotint of above from a painting by R. S. Tait engraved by H. E. Dawe. Will any reader kindly inform me whether this refers to Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E.G., and whether the original picture is there? I shall be glad of any particulars respecting Edward Taylor that might be of interest. I believe he was born in 1784 and died in 1863. H. W. SOTHERN.

Whitton Road, Twickenham.

[Consult 'Diet. Nat. Biog.']

"SOONER OR LATER." Why is this mode of expression in general use, instead of " soon or late," which has its equivalent in the French tot ou tard ? WM. UNDERBILL.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Thou art not with me when I tread

The forest path at eve, When the full branches overhead

Their fragrant garlands weave.

There is not a charm upon earth like the feeling That thrills thro' the soul at the sweet voice of home. W. SMITH, Col.

Man was made to wait on woman.

B. C. C.