Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/315

 9*s. V.APRIL si, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Rev. C. E. Donne, the vicar of Faversham, Kent, who writes me on the 3rd inst. as follows : ' Whenever you are at Faversham I shall be pleased to show you the portrait of Cowper's mother. It Was painted by Heins.'" This was placed by the side of Romney's por- trait of the poet, lent by Mr. H. R. Vaughan Johnson. The National Portrait Gallery contains a portrait described in the Catalogue as "William Cowper, painted by George Romney." In the Athenaeum of the 17th of February last Mr. W. Roberts, in a long com- munication, 'Romney's Portrait of Cowper,' states that

"this so-called Romney Cowper differs in every possible feature from all the indubitably authentic portraits, and it is least of all like the well-known

engraved sketch in crayon by Romney In no one

single point does this National Portrait Gallery por- trait agree with the genuine Romney drawing in crayons, nor with either of the portraits by other artists."

The Gallery also contains another portrait of Cowper drawn by W. Harvey after Francis Lemuel Abbott. This was presented De- cember, 1888, by the Rev. W. J. Loftie.

On the 27th of July, 1872, the Editor, in reply to MR. S. BANKES, gives, from Mr. Brace's edition of Cowper, the passage suppressed in the first edition of l Expostulation.'

A note is made on the 31st of August, 1872, of an interesting sale of Cowper corre- spondence, which took place on Wednesday, August 21st, when Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkin- son & Hodge sold by auction

"about thirty autograph letters of the poet Cowper, addressed to his friend Mr. Hose of Chancery Lane, between the years 1788 and 1793, when he was busy on his translation of Homer. Many of the letters were full of interesting criticisms on Homer's style, the rela- tive merits of the 'Odyssey' and the 'Iliad,' and occasional notices of the work of his great rival, Pope. Others referred to George Romney, John- son, Mrs. Unwin, the Throgmortons, and his dog 'Beau'; while others dealt with the more prosaic subject of his publisher, the copyright question, and some projected reviews of his translation. A few of the lots fell to private purchasers, though many were bought by Messrs. Waller of Fleet Street, realizing prices in some cases as hierh as 4/. 4-s-. One of them, containing a sonnet written by Cowper on behalf of a printer at Leicester, who had got into prison for selling some of Tom Paine's publications, fetched four guineas and a half. Together with the Cowper letters were sold a quantity of original correspondence of George belwyn and his contemporaries, Fox, Pitt, Canning, Edmund Burke, Dr. Johnson, Horace Walpole, Lord Erskine, &c., and also an autograph letter of Drake, the great navigator, which was knocked down, after a keen competition, at five guineas."

'Yardley Oak' forms a subject for corre- spondence in the numbers for December 6th

and 13th, 1873. On January 10th, 1874, ME. EDWARD SOLLY writes that the most com- plete account of the 'Yardley Oak' is to be found in Loudon's 'Arboretum,' vol.iii. p. 1765, 1838, and that there is a large engraving of it in Hayley's ' Cowper,' vol. in., 1806.

In response to a query by J. L. P., on May 13th, 1876, about the locality of the 'Yardley Oak,' CUTHBERT BEDE on the 3rd of June states that it is fixed by Cowper's own letters :

"It was at the Northamptonshire Yardley, near to the poet's ' beloved Weston.' In his letter to Mr. Samuel Rose, dated 'Weston, September 11, 1783,' he says : ' Since your departure I have twice visited the oak, and with an intention to push my inquiries a mile beyond it, where it seems I should have found another oak much larger and much more respectable than the former ; but once I was hindered by the rain, and once by the sultriness of the day. This latter oak has been known by the name of Judith many ages, and is said to have been an oak at the time of the Conquest."

On the 1st of June, 1878, it is stated that at the recent sale of the Hayley collection of autographs, Mr. W. H. Collingridge (the owner of Cowper's house at Olney) became the purchaser of the 'Yardley Oak,' 10 pp. 4to., in the handwriting of Cowper. It fetched III.

On November 16th, 1878, over the signa- tures of CHARLES JOHNSON and C. A. WARD, references are made to' Fuseli, of whom Cowper wrote, "The man is all fire, and an enthusiast in the highest degree on the subject of Homer, and has given me more than once a jog when I have been inclined to nap with the author."

The question as to the size of the first edition of 'John Gilpin' is raised on March 15th, 1879, by A, who quotes from Lowndes (Bohn's ed.) : "'John Gilpin,' a ballad, Load. Johnson, 1783. First appeared in the Public Advertiser, 1782. Afterwards in 24mo."

" This leaves us somewhat in doubt as to the size of Johnson's edition. Is the 24m o. meant or not meant to refer to this first separate issue of the ballad ? Could some of your readers kindly supply a transcript of the title-page, size, pagination, and other bibliographical details ? Was the poem first published in a paper wrapper? I have an early undated chap-book edition, which I suspect copies the text of the first edition, inasmuch as in many small details the ballad has since been recast, and in all instances for the better. The chap-book is entitled ' The Humourous History of John Gilpin, of Cheapside, London, to which is added, the Story of an Elephant. Printed by Howard & Evans, Long Lane, West Smithfield, London,' n.d. 16mo. pp. 24, with rude and very inappropriate cuts. It will be seen from the two subjoined stanzas, which I have contrasted with the version of the ballad which appears in the 'Poems,' second edition, Lond., Johnson, 1786, 2 vols. 8vo., that the ballad has been considerably altered.