Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/315

 9,h S. IV. Nov. 4, '99.] 373 NOTES AND QUERIES. In this little record of Mr. Thoms's life I have been aided by his eldest son, Mr. Merton A. Thorns. I have also to thank him for allowing me to make a copy of a photograph taken by Dr. Diamond, so that the readers of ' N. & Q.' may be in possession of this interesting souvenir of our founder. The words are facsimiled from those written by Mr. Thorns on the back of a portrait which he gave to my father. I have teen trying to persuade Mr. Merton Thorns to give us a volume about his father, to include some of the rich stores of correspondence now in his possession. With the death of Mr. Thorns my sketch of Notes and Queries is brought to a close. Only those well acquainted with its pages can realize the pleasure I have enjoyed in reviving so many past memories. N. & Q.' has been to me a household word for more than forty out of the fifty years of its exist- ence, and the writing of this history has indeed been a pure labour of love. Many of our contributors would have executed the task much better, but I yield to none in my attachment to "dear old 'N. & Q.'" It is only by turning over the volumes, as I have done, that one can form any idea of the great storehouses they constitute. The refer- ences under Shakespeare alone exceed three thousand four hundred; the'Proverbs and Phrases ' number two thousand five hundred; the ' Quotations' four thousand ; the ' List of Anonymous Works' is considerably over three thousand ; the various Folk - Lore charms, superstitions, and customs amount to eighteen hundred. There are sixteen hundred remark- able epitaphs and over four hundred epi- grams. Bibliography, heraldry, Bible litera- ture, are prominently treated. Much special information is provided respecting America, its early history, customs, and laws, as well as to France and other nations. There are also many details relating to the lives of Nelson, Wellington, Napoleon, and others, not to be found elsewhere. During my search I have observed how helpful' N. & Q.' must be to the historian and the biographer. I will just give one instance of this. On the 8th of January, 1870, Mr. F. Gledstaues - Waugh inquired for particulars about Ebenezer Jones, the Chartist, who had published a volume in 1843,entitled 'Studiesof Sensation and Event.' This brought a reply, which appeared on the 5th of February, from Dante G. Rossetti,* who stated that to the Rossettis, as Dante Rossetti was, and his brother William continues to be, a constant con- tributor. The two following notes will be read "this remarkable poet affords nearly the most striking instance of neglected genius in our modern school of poetry. This is a more important fact about him than his being a Chartist, which however he was, at any rate for a time. I met him only once in my life, I believe in 1848, at which time he was about thirty, and would hardly talk on any other subject but Chartism. His poems (the ' Studies of Sensation and Event') had been published some five years before my meeting him, and are full of vivid disorderly power. I was little more than a lad at the time 1 first chanced on thorn, but they struck me greatly, though I was not blind to their glaring defects and even to the ludicrous side of their wilful'newness'; attempting, as they do, to deal recklessly with those almost inaccessible com- binations in nature and feeling which only intense and oft-renewed effort may perhaps at last approach. For all this, these ' Studies' should be, and one day will be, disinterred from the heaps of verse deservedly buried. Some years after meeting Jones, 1 was much pleased to hear the great poet Robert Browning speak in warm terms of the merit of his work ; and I have understood that Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) admired the 'Studies' and in- terested himself on their author's behalf." It had been my intention to have included obituary notices of our late contributors ; but while I was preparing these, one of those many friendly messages we are constantly receiving from that land dear to us all, America, came, and it is to Mr. Richard H. Thornton, of Portland, Oregon, that our readers are indebted for the interesting list he has sent. I will conclude with the wish expressed by our founder. Long may his offspring occupy the position it so worthily fills, and long may the contributors to "dear old ' N. & Q.' " join in the' greeting Floreat 1 Floreat ! Floreat! John C. Francis. OBITUARY NOTICES OF CONTRIBUTORS, 1849-1899. The following is a list of some contributors whose obituary notices have appeared in these columns during fifty years. The small letters attached to some of the names refer to the list of noms de plume given at the end of the article. John H. Abrahall, 7th S. xii. 400 Alex. Stewart Allan (A. S. A.), 6,h S. iv. 548 with interest. On November 34th, 1866, Lord Howden refers to having had the honour of being taught Italian by Mr. Gabriel Rossetti at Malta forty years ago; and Mr. William Rossetti, on the 15th of December, says that his father escaped to Malta by the friendly aid of Admiral Sir Graham Moore. Mr. Rossetti in his note quotes the first line "from the most famous, perhaps, of all" his father's " national lyrics, composed for the day when the constitution was proclaimed" by " the faithless Ferdinand I. in 1820,r:— Sei pur bella con gli astri sul crine.
 * Wo/ex awl Queries contains frequent references