Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/395

 9"" S. IV. Nov. 25, '99.] 439 NOTES AND QUERIES. Mention is made (ante, p. 323) of Mrs. Browne, who became Mrs. Wogan. Perhaps your cor- respondent can help me in a little matter which has been the cause of much perplexity to me. In 1787 Romney commenced a very large picture of Mr. and Mrs. Wogan Browne, described in Rev. J. Romney's ' Memoirs' of his father, pp. 69-70. Mr. and Mrs. Wogan Browne were then living in " Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital." I am very anxious to have some biographical data, of both personages, and .should like also to know of the whereabouts of the picture named above. W. ROBERTS. 47, Lanadowne Gardens, S.W. CLIMATE AND CHARACTER.—Reference is desired to a series of articles some twelve or eighteen months ago—whether in a news- paper or magazine I cannot tell—dealing with prominent men. Particular attention was, I believe, drawn to the fact that certain districts in the country, and certain con- ditions of climate, are responsible for pro- ducing from time to time such men. PHILIP SKIPWORTH. "NONE."—I am well aware that "none" is frequently used with a verb in the plural; but do strict grammarians smile approval on the common practice and hold the comfort- ing assertion of the ' Century Dictionary' as being justifiable] " (a) None of the melons is ripe, (b) None of the melons are ripe. Is (a) faulty English? Is (b) faulty English? Faulty or not, what does (a) mean? Faulty or not, what does (b) mean? ' None' is either singular or plural, therefore both are correct; (a) means that no one of the melons is ripe ; (b) that no two or more, considered collec- tively, are ripe. It would be correct, if one were asked for a dozen melons, to say that 'none are ripe," although there were one ripe melon." Can "none" mean "not several" as well as " not one "; and should I be strictly truthful if I said " none of the melons are ripe " and one of them were so ? ST. SWITHIN. " WHITE-NIGHT."—Does any English writer besides Browning, following the French une nuit blanche, call a sleepless night " white- night "1 The expression occurs in ' Fifine at the Fair,' xxxiii.: — Then O the knotty point—white-night's work to revolve— What meant that smile, that sigh ? Not Solon's self could solve! R. M. SPENCE, D.D. Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B. "To MEND THE FIRE."—I have frequently heard it remarked that this phrase is pro- vincial and improper, although it is difficult to see why it should be regarded as objection- able. In the Temple Bar Magazine, July, p. 328, is a quotation from John Wilson Croker containing the words "in lifting a coal-scuttle to mend his fire." WThat other writers of repute, accustomed to the best society, have inade use of this expression ? M. P. WORDSWORTHIANA. (9th S. iv. 321, 342.) MR. C. LAWRENCE FORD'S notes will be read with pleasure and profit by all students of poetry. Many of the coincidences which he reckons up— e.g., Nos. 3, 12, 20 (in part), 23 (in part), and 27 — are interesting, and have not, so far as I am aware, been pointed out before. Had MR. FORD, instead of consulting Knight's obsolete edition (Edinburgh, 1882-9), made use either of Dowden's Aldine (Bell, 1892-3) or of Knight's recent Eversley edition (Macmillan, 189(5), he would have found him- self anticipated by these later authorities in a few — perhaps three or four — of his observa- tions. The list of verbal loans from Milton and Gray might, were it worth while, be greatly enlarged. In his earlier issues Wordsworth mostly indicated these by quota- tion marks, but in his later editions the marks are almost always omitted, on the ground that by distracting the attention of the reader they served but to break the thread of the argument or check the flow of feeling. 28. Frederike Brun's ballad, 'Die Sieben Huegel' (1793), which Wordsworth foltowed closely in his ' Solitude of Binnorie,' differs in many respects from the ballad given in Jackson's translation of Stilling's autobio- graphy. The German original of this latter is, however, probably a variant of the legend embodied in Frau Brun's animated ballad- tale. In this latter " the tomb-hills of the seven sisters rise on the shore of the lake rather than out of it " (Max Forster ; see his letter on 'Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Frederike Brun,' Academy, 27 June, 1896. p. 529, where ' Die Sieben Huegel ' is reprinted in full). Here Bruu and Stilling are at one ; it is Wordsworth who introduces the touch of magic : — Seven little Islands, green and bare, Have risen from out the deep : The fishers say, those sisters fair By faeries all are buried there, And there together sleep. The English version of Stilling's ballad has ten four-line stanzas with a one-line refrain. ' Die Sieben Huegel ' also consists of ten stanzas, bi ''(.with a two-line refrain.