Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/111

 9">s.v.FEB.io,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

103

blamed the work, as though the writer were still in the Whig Cabinet. It contains nothing that could make, or destroy, the reputation of an author unknown : but seemed to me to be one of those trifles which one enjoys only when they come from somebody who can do greater things on occasion.

I hear often of the papers in Fraser, which are pretty generally known as yours. Most people like them, which is something : and everybody reads them, which is more. I hope you have satisfied Trolnind that none of the characters are drawn from life. I need not ask you if you are in a literary quarrel but what particular quarrel are you in ? As long as the weapons used are only pen and paper, I shall not condole with you, for con- troversy is your element, and you are never happy out of it.

A fellow-citizen of yours (I forget his name) has printed a book on Jamaica, wherein he abuses my pamphlet in good set terms. I wish a few more had done the same, and it might have paid the pub- lisher's bill. The Quarterly has reviewed it in language of rather exaggerated compliment.

Let me hear from you : a monthly article cannot take up all your time. When do you mean to come across again? I have no plans fixed, not knowing what may happen.

I hope Madame is well, and after seeing Paris, has decided like a good American to prefer New York. Paris was in mourning for her departure, as well it niight be.

This is a short and a dull letter, but I write from my bed, and have no energy left to do better. Ever yours,

E. H. STANLEY.

The "pamphlet" first alluded to above was probably ' A Letter to the Hon. Horace Mann ' (1850), being a reply to some remarks on the characters of Stephen Girard and J. J. Astor contained in the latter's 'Thoughts for a Young Man.' It was one of the earliest printed productions of Bristed, who, it may be addetl, wrote also under the pseudonyms of "Carl Benson" and " Frank Manhattan."

W. I. R. V.

ELIZA METEYARD. I do not think the following facts regarding Miss Meteyard's charming story 'Dora and her Papa' are generally known, and therefore they may be considered of sufficient interest to be placed on record in the pages of ' N. & Q. The story is written in Miss Meteyard's most fascinating style, and brings before hei young readers many antiquarian and his- torical subjects in such a way that they are easily understood and appreciated, and an appetite created for knowing more about such tilings. But this in passing. What ] wished to be recorded is that some of the principal characters in the story are drawn largely from actual life from persons whom Miss Meteyard knew. Mr. Flaxdale (Dora's papa) was taken from the late Mr. Thomas Bateman, of Lomberdale House, Derbyshire

the well-known antiquary ; and the original Hornblower was Mr. Samuel Carrington, the village schoolmaster of Wetton, Stafford- shire, a frequent contributor to the early numbers of the Reliquary, a self-taught, but earned geologist, who supplied more than >ne museum with rare geological specimens. The vivid description of the opening of a narrow is a faithful account of one actually opened by Mr. Bateman, and I may add that a portion, probably a good portion, of the book was written during a visit of the authoress to Lomberdale House. I may also here state that 'The Doctor's Little Daughter,' by the same author, is practically a history f her early childhood, and the old-fashioned town mentioned therein as having once been the scene of a battle is Shrewsbury, where she was living with her father from 1818 to 1829. Both books, I believe, are now out of print. CHARLES DRURY.

CYCLOPS. Your reviewer at 9 th S. iv. 548 says : " The Cyclops in Ovid (we cannot call him ' The Cyclop ') offered Galatea two cubs," &c. I would beg to remind him and your readers that the encyclopaedic Dr. Garnett, of British Museum fame, writes thus in his

'Life of Milton,' at p. 119: "Milton

persisted in exhibiting himself as the blind Cyclop dealing blows amiss." I agree with your reviewer, but in the face of so great a general authority as Dr. Garnett, I should like to hear the opinion of others.

NE QUID NIMIS.

[Pope in his ' Odyssey' wrote " Cyclop "; modern classical authorities seem to prefer " Cyclops," e.g., Liddell and 8cott, Smith's ' Dictionary,' Lewis and Short, Paley, Conington, Profs. Jebb, MahafFy, and Jevons, Messrs. Butcher and Lang, &c.~|

"THE CITY OF LUSHINGTON." (See 9 th S. iv. 522.) Early in the spring of 1877 I was, on the introduction of a bohemian artist then of Twickenham, made free of "The City of Lushington," and entered as of the "Juniper Ward." The other "wards" were, I think, " Poverty," " Madness," and " Death," each represented by a small dusky painting under the ceiling at the four corners of the room. The entrance fee was a shilling disbursed on three pots of porter. I do not remember who the Lord Mayor was, but the master of the ceremonies, called, I think, "the town crier," was a man named Moriarty, said to be a sculptor. There were present Mr. Vokes, a theatrical costumier, and father of the well-known family of that name, and Mr. Leno, a second-hand book- seller of Booksellers' Row, Holy well Street, Strand. The proceedings were orderly, and