Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/337

 9* s. iv. Nov. u, -99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 391 LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1898. CONTENTS. —No. 98. NOTKS:-A Jubilee Greeting—Jubilee of 'N.ft Q.,' 391 — A Ballade of 'N. 4 Q.'-To 'N. ft Q.'—Walpole and his Editors, :»3—Mistakes of the Learned, 393-Whorwood Family —Bell-ringing Custom — Misprint in Browning, 394—No. 17, Fleet Street - " Ignorami "—Birthplace of Lord Beaconsfleld, 395—May Road Well—"Outlanders"— Fossils—Gladstone and Lord Rosebery—Kent Services, 396. QUERIES :—"Gradient" — "Hattle — T. Dover, M.D.— "The ass bearing books"—Prince Augustus of Prussia- Bill of Exchange — " My lodging Is on the cold ground "— " God's first creature, which was light"—G.'andM. Boole— "Ce canaille de D—"—Breton Calvaries—English Family —Parry Family—Bear and Ragged Staff—St. Brth, 398— Guide-books — Double-name Signatures — Bryan, Lord Fairfax—Armorial—Flaxman's Wife, 399. REPLIES:—"Bucks" and "Good Fellows," 399-"Cha- racterie"—'Pyramus and Thlsbe'—Hawker MSS., 400— National Nicknames—W. Duff—Memorial to Campbell- Mr. Thoms's Library—St. Mary's, Westminster—Cromwell and Music 401—Topographical Collections—" Ugly mug " —' A Stately Dance —Pluto In Shakespeare—Luton Trinity Gild, 402—Henbane — Epitaph—"A reel in a bottle"— Calvert Family —The Mint, 403 - "Judgment"- Sir E. Wright — Sunken Lanes, 404 — Booksellers' Blunders — " Briveting " — "Haives " — " Han " — "Vulgar "—Gates on Commons, 405—Monster from the Tiber—Morcom— P as a Roman Numeral—Crest on a Horn—Rev. R. Butler — "As fu '8 the Baltic"—Christianity in Roman Britain, 406—Bleeding Image in Christ Church, Dublin—Swansea, 407—"To Hele "—Portrait of Dean Vincent—Letter of James VI., 408—Authors Wanted, 409. NOTES ON BOOKS :—Hull's ' Economic Writings of Sir W. Petty'—Mathew's 'Kaglehawk and Crow —"Chis- wick Shakespeare "—Smeatou's * English Satires.' Notices to Correspondents. A JUBILEE GREETING. Who wrote " Of making many books There is no end " ? To us it looks As though he grappled truth with hooks. The feeble flesh much study wearies. None know it better than the men Of quite encyclopaedic ken, Whose hands have held the ready pen Through fifty years of Notes aiid Queries. King Solomon ! In days long past Were you that rare Ecclesiast Whose watchful eye was daily cast On scenes of sain ting and of sinning ? Great preacher-monarch ! 0 had you, With largely comprehensive view, Inaugurated ' N. a Q.' Three thousand years ere our beginning! You could have said where Tarshish stood, And how King Hiram sawed his wood (He sent you timber that was good), And whether Homer was a person. (The question oft engenders doubt Among our literary rout, When would-be critics make him out The product of some Greek Macpherson.) You could have told us in a trice What cook (before the Age of Ice ?) Composed that very grave advice To catch one's hare, and then to stuff it. You knew the chalks and marls and clays: Your plant-lore far exceeded Ray's: You saw the spider's works and ways Long, long before she scared Miss Muffet. You might have added who the first, When floods upon his shallop burst, And winds and seas were at their worst, Poured oil upon the troubled waters; And all the tale of Troy divine, The ins and outs of Pelops' line, The threads of Babel's vast design, The histories of Nimrod's daughters. But we, " the latest seed of Time," Attempting much in prose or rime, With energy almost sublime, Some from the camp, and some from college, Ranging from Beersheba to Dan, Accumulate, as best we can, Line upon line, and man by man, An armoury of scraps of knowledge. Here Thorns, with steady heart and will, Most critical, but kindly still, Wielded the editorial quill, And Doran, full of curious learning. Here notes from Cuthbert Bede we see, And comments by astute Jaydee, By Hermentrude, by H. B. C — For these, and more, is no returning ! When scholars die, forget they all They learned on this terrestrial ball ? Do epics into nothing fall ? Does naught remain of lines and scansions ? Not so. The Seer in Patmos took From angel-hands a little book; And we, who read, perhaps may look For volumes in the " many mansions." Richard H. Thornton. Portland, Oregon. THE JUBILEE OF «N. & Q.' 3 Nov., 1849 ; 4 Nov., 1899. Itself unchanging, the stony staring Sphinx still stands silent on the changing sands, with eyes ever wide open, but with lips ever tight closed, provoking questions, but giving no replies; awful to those of old by reason of its mockery of human ignorance. On the sands of time so stands our ' N. & Q.,' more likely to be lasting, because more compassionate; answering questions touching all things human, that the Sphinx could not have guessed. How strong is 'N. & Q.,' giving to-day more promise of continued life than in her few-paged infancy, and having outlived so many sturdy editors and a vast army of vigorous contributors! How rich is ' N. & O.'! a treasure house which though ransacked every week is never diminished:— Oh, what's thy light the less for lighting mine? Ships sailing over many seas are ever bring- ing fresh cargoes of rich goods from many lands to replenish this literary storehouse. Each contributor adds a pebble to this ever- heightening monumental cairn.