Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/365

 9 th S. V. MAY 5, 1900.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

357

magnificent, making good choys of the receivoures." What are " choys " ? There is an index, but no glossary. Halliwell gives " choys, shoes." S. ARNOTT.

Baling.

[Is it not old spelling of choice ?~\

FRENCH STANZA. Through your medium I was so fortunate as to get an answer for the authorship of a verse I much wanted, and now if you will again kindly help me I shall be grateful. My query refers to a well-known French stanza beginning with these lines :

Le temps emporte sur son aile

Le printemps et 1'hirondelle.

The remaining five lines I do not remember, but I have my translation of the stanza, which I append :

Time bears off upon his wing Both the swallow and the spring ; Life and many a wasted day, All things fade like smoke away ; Not a joy, not a hope can stay, Nor I who like thee so, nor yet Thou who dost my love forget.

It is strange that I forget the author's name, but so it is. Will you or some of your gifted correspondents help me?

HENRY CARRINGTON. Deanery, Booking, Braintree.

[We can add one line more, but know not the author :

Et la vie et les jours perdus.]

HAMILTON FAMILY. Can any reader inform me as to the branch of the above family to which belonged Robert Hamilton, of Birken- shaw, West Lothian, N.B. 1 He died in 1798, leaving Birkenshaw to his nephew, Dr. John Marshall, father of the Col John Marshall who fought in the Peninsula and died in (I think) 1838. In all probability Robert Hamilton was of the Bathgate branch, but no records of this branch seem to be at hand.

J. C. W.

"ScomsoN ARCH." An antiquarian friend uses this name for the inner arch of a window. I can find it in no dictionary to which 1 have access ; but he assures me he has seen it in print, though he cannot say where. Is it a correct name 1 YGREC.

THOMAS BRYCE'S RIMING 'REGISTER.' In Dr. Raven's * History of Suffolk ' (1895, p. 163) reference is made to the " Norwich Nobody " of Thomas Bryce's riming 'Register.' The " Norwich Nobody " was Bishop Hopton ; but who was Thomas Bryce 1 He is not in the 'D.N.B.' JAMES HOOPER.

Norwich.

THE COWPER CENTENARY.

(9 th S. v. 301.)

I ANTICIPATE that the thanks of every reader of ' N. & Q.' will be readily accorded to our old friend MR. JOHN C. FRANCIS for the most interesting article upon the above subject with which he has favoured us, for there is little doubt that the gentle Cowper holds a very real and foremost place in the affections of all who speak the English language. It was an excellent idea to give extracts from previous volumes relating to the poet, and it is to one of these that I wish to direct a little attention, saying a few words about it. The extract to which I refer is that dated 1 July, 1882, wherein "it is denied that the stone to John Gilpin in St. Mar- garet's Churchyard, Westminster, marks the grave of the hero of Cowper's poem." The writer of this denial, who signed himself AN OLD INHABITANT, was really very well qualified to speak upon the subject, being none other than Mr. Henry Poole, the head of an old-established statuary and marble mason's business in Great Smith Street, Westminster, and the master mason to the Dean and Chapter of the Abbey, who went so far as to say that he was the "person who under the order of one of the family of a modern John Gilpin had the original faded inscription re-engraved." What brought this denial about was undoubtedly an article and a very clever one too that appeared in the Saturday fieview of 9 October, 1875, upon the subject of the restoration of St. Margaret's Church. The writer, among other memories of the church and its surroundings, speaks about the impression wrought upon the mind of the future poet through a gravedigger throwing up a skull from a grave, which fell at Cowper's feet. That this is a fact is well known and well attested. The writer then goes on to say :

"A less gloomy cause of speculation may still be found in the same graveyard. A stone not far from the south aisle is marked with rapidly fading characters with a name which Cowper has for ever commemorated. The burial-place of John Gilpin was then probably fresh and new, the name now so famous in every nursery had then but lately been cut upon the stone, and the fact has never been noticed by the poet's numerous biographers. We may well believe that it was in this place he received the first impression of an idea which he afterwards so pleasantly worked for generations of happy children."

A very excellent bit of copy, truly, but nothing more. Cowper, born in 1731, left