Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/311

 j. in. APRIL 22,' 99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

305

Geoffrey, not Daniel. A little reflection, o perhaps a little experience of the mistakes n ade by candidates in examinations, tells tl at the lines of Tennyson in the ' Dream of F lir Women ' are responsible for Mr. Clark E ussell's blunder : 1) in Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath

Preluded those melodious bursts that fill T le spacious times of great Elizabeth

With sounds that echo still. Bat surely no literary man should have imagined that Tennyson was abbreviating Chaucer's Christian name.

EDWARD E. MORRIS.

The University, Melbourne.

CROMWELL AND THE ORGAN. Apropos of the statement made by MR. J. FOSTER PALMER (see ante, p. 235) that Cromwell "was a great lover of the organ," may I ask if it is not a fact that he ousted the organ from the Royal Palace of Whitehall when he entered into possession 1 The organ in the west gallery of Stanford Church in this county is j said to have been originally erected in White- hall Palace. Being sold by Cromwell, it I eventually found its way to Stanford, where it still remains at any rate, an ornament to 1 the church. Possibly the Protector may have simply made room for a better instrument. 'concerning this little Cromwellian trans- Action. JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
 * I shall be glad to gain further information

THE BATTLE OF DORKING. This great land decisive battle has been fought over again, but this time by the fleets of England and France. La Stampa-Gazzetta, Piemontese has the following under date 28 March : -r

L"Molti lettori rammenteranno il famoso romanzo pparso alcuni anni or sono in Inghilterra, e nel jquale s' immagiriava una guerra franco-britannica che terrninava colla distruzione della flotta inglese ,nella aqua di Dorking."

J. P. STILWELL. Home.

ALEXANDER BARCLAY. The nationality of he author of * The Ship of Fools ' is said by he ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' to have been natter of much literary dispute. I suggest hat his father may have been Scotch and his nother English. In his will Barclay makes mention of his "cosyn," Thomas Atkynson ; md his mother was probably, therefore, nee A-tkynson, which sounds like an English name. Among the places he had visited Barclay mentions " Barwike," which probably stands for Berwick-on-Tweed, and his mother may Jiave been the daughter of one of the

nglish garrison. Dr. Bullein (who was

Barclay's contemporary) stated that he was "borne beyonde the cold river of Twede." This may possibly point to Coldstream as the place of his birth. See the introduction to Jamieson's edition of 'The Ship of Fools,' pp. 88, 34, 27, 31. C. J. I.

NICHOLAS DOWNTON. The notice of the career of this man in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.' (vol. xv., 1888) commences with his appoint- ment, early in 1610, to command the E.I.Co.'s ship Peppercorn, which took part in the sixth voyage under Sir Henry Middleton. It is curious that the writer of the notice (Prof. J. K. Laughton) overlooked the fact that in 1593 Downton was appointed by the Earl of Cumberland to command the Sampson, one of the three ships newly built by the earl and his friends for the purpose of harassing the Spaniards, and that in June, 1594, these ships encountered off Fayal the Cinque Chagas, a mighty carrack from India, laden with a cargo of enormous value, which they fought for a whole day, but could not capture, the carrack ultimately taking fire and blowing up, with the loss of hundreds of lives. Later on they encountered the Spanish ship San Felipe, which they attempted to capture, but unsuccessfully. Downton's own graphic account of this notable sea-fight is given by Hakluyt (vol. ii. p. 199), and a shorter description will be found in Purchas (part iv. p. 1147). I have not met with any earlier reference to Downton, nor to any between 1594 and the end of 1609, when he petitioned the E.I.Co. to be employed as a factor (being actually appointed to command the Peppercorn). DONALD FERGUSON.

5, Bedford Place, Croydon.

WALLACE'S ' RUSSIA.' For readers not yet familiar with the bibliography of Russian fiction it may perhaps be worth noting (1) that Grigor6vitch's pathetic tale which made such a deep impression on the author of the above standard work (see vol. i. ch. v.) is entitled, in Russ, 'Bobuil' ('The Homeless Peasant'), and is reprinted in the first volume of Grigorovitch's ' Works,' which were given as a premium with that flourishing publica- tion the Niva in 1896 ; (2) that the old play mentioned in a note to vol. iii. ch. xxxiii. of 'Russia,' viz., ' Neslykhannoe Divo [riot Dyelo], ili Tchestny Sekretar'C The Unheard- of Wonder ; or, the Honest Secretary '), is in three acts, in rimed verse, by Sudovtchikoff, of whom little else of interest is known. I have in my possession a copy of the second edition, Moscow, 1829 ; also a copy of Sinir- dine's reprint (' Nakhimoff's, Milonoff's, and Sudovtchikoffs Works'), St. Petersburg, 1849.