Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/332

 326

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. HI. APRIL 29, m

rowing. This method can not only be seen at our seaside ports more particularly if two are in a large boat, the one nearer the stern generally stands up but in the Italian ports it is far more common than sitting down. I think the sculptor has for some reason omitted the rowlock, for he has done the same in another instance (Layard, 'Monu- ments of Nineveh,' 1849, fol., plate 71), where the rowers are sitting down rowing as we row, back to the prow, the under row of oars coming through holes in the side, the top row having nothing to keep them in place. RALPH THOMAS.

EDWARD FITZGERALD'S ' OMAR KHAYYAM.'

With reference to Messrs. Macmillan's boon

to reading people in presenting them with a charming edition of Edward FitzGerald's 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,' I may be permitted to mention in ' N. & Q.' that the translation has often been said to rival the original. Tennyson, in the forefront of 'Tiresias/ makes his dedication to Edward FitzGerald speak of that

Golden Eastern lay, Than which I know no version done In English more divinely well, and Mr. W. L. Courtney, in his critical ex- amination of ' Omar Khayyam ' in the Daily Telegraph, remarks :

"How many translations are there which are as good as, or perhaps better than, their originals? I know only one, the translation of the New Testa- ment, where the Greek belongs to the period of decadence and the English to the great flowering time of British literature. To this may be added North's 'Plutarch.' FitzGerald's 'Rubaiyat' has the singular merit that it can be ranked with these notorious instances." 29 March.

In connexion with the question placed before us, I venture to think that the follow- ing lines from my copy of ' Omar Khayyam ' may not be considered inappropriate : XLVII.

When you and I behind the Veil are past,

Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last, Which of our Coming and Departure heeds

As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.

A moment's Halt a momentary taste

Of Being from the Well amid the Waste And Lo ! the phantom Caravan has reached

The Nothing it set out from Oh, make haste ! HENRY GERALD HOPE.

Clapham, S.W.

"JUDJEUS APELLA," HOR. I. V. 100. The

various ways in which this passage has been explained give us a lively idea of the manner in which doctors disagree. While one com- mentator tells us that Apella was a then famous Jew, others derive the word from sine pelle. The Delphin editor agrees. Are

we not safer in such a case to go with thek? majority 1 The majority certainly agree with) i the Delphin editor. No doubt the commen-h tators saw that this matter of circumcision I; would be what in a Jew would appeal most I to Horace. In explaining the passage Bond 1 1 steers a middle course. His note is: "Judseus recutitus et circumcisus; vel Judsei cujusdamt proprium nomen." For the sake of the proper) name theory it is a pity that no other men-1 tion of Apella can be found.

THOMAS AULD.

COCKED HAT CLUB. A little book which belonged, I believe, to a now deceased Master of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, containing the amusing rules of that (apparently) amiable coterie the Cocked Hat Club, has come into my possession. It contains, in the handwriting of its former owner, copious notes as to the resignation, decease, &c., of his fellow-members. The book was obviously intended for " private circulation " only ; and as the memoranda contained in it may be of interest to some I member of the Cocked Hat Club who reads j his ' N. & Q.,' any such member is heartily I welcome to it if he will let me know.

R. CLARK.

13, Stanhope Road, Walthamstow.

AN OLD ENGLISH INN. The following | notice of the last of an old English inn may be worth preserving. Dartford being on the great Dover road from London, its "Bull" Inn was probably the posting-house, in corre- spondence with those old inns on the same road the " Green Man," at the top of Royal Hill, on the London side of Blackheath, and the " Bull " on the top of Shooter's Hill, on the Dartford side of the heath, both of which interesting old taverns have been entirely or partially destroyed within my memory, to give place to modern erections. The cutting is from the Cardiff Evening Express for 1 April, No. 3683. In 1798 the Irish rebellion broke out, the Irish Directory was appre- hended, and Vinegar Hill battle fought :

" During the work of enlarging the ' Royal Bull' Hotel, Dartford, a hostelry dating back to the days of Wat Tyler, some interesting discoveries have been made. In 1773 a murder was committed ' at the house, and the body disappeared mysteri- ously. A skeleton now dug up 3ft. below the flooring of an old cellar leads to the belief that it is the remains of the victim of the tragedy. This week a secret staircase has been brought to light, and as this communicates, by invisible doors in the walls of the cellar, with the room in which the tragedy occurred it strengthens the belief that the body was taken down the staircase and buried. \ The remains are much decayed, excepting the teeth, and these are in a fairly good state of preservation.