Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/108

 NOTES AND QUERIES. s. vi. Ana. 4, im. spondence concerning the authorship of the enigma on the letter H. 1 can give you I he most unequivocal assurance that the verses were not written by Byron, and arc not included in any edition of his works published by my firm. The false tradition that he wrote them has long been widely prevalent, _but I have never succeeded in tracing it to any definite source. The lines were written bv Miss Fanshawe, and are included in the memoir of her written by Byron's intimate friend, the Rev. W. Harness, and privately circulated in 1S65. Mr. Harness died in 1869, and I believe the volume was published in 1876. Yours, &e. JOHN MURRAY. 50, Albemarle Street, June 13. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. [We have before us the work in which this much- discussed poem first saw the light. It is an octavo volume of xliv-330 pages, entitled " A I Collection Authors. | Edited for the Benefit of a Friend, | by Joanna Baillie. LLondon : I Printed for | Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, | Pateruoster-row I 1823." In the list of contents at the end the poem, which is headed ' A Riddle—Twas in heaven pro- nounced,' appears p. 71. It is with nine others ascribed to F. The book opens with Sir Walter Scott's ' MacDufTs Cross,' and has poems by William Sotheby, Thomas Campbell ('The Rainbow'), Robert Southoy ('Lines in the Album at Lowther Castle— The Cataract of Lodore'), William Wordsworth, the Rev. G. Crabb (sic), Mrs. Barbauld, Samuel Rogers, Mrs. Hemans, the Rev. W. L. Bowles, Anna Maria Porter, the Rev. Walter Farquhar Hook, Mrs. Grant of Laggan, the Rev. H. Milman, H. Gaily Knight, Sir George Beaumont, Miss Benger, and many others, including the editor. A very long list of subscribers, comprising the King and the Duke and Duchess of York, is prefixed, and an "advertisement" states that "a permanent ser- vice" has been rendered "to one who is worthy of receiving it." One of the poems signed F. consists of an ' Epistle to Earl Harcourt,' on his wishing the writer to spell her name of Catherine with a K. It is too long for quotation, but begins: — And can his antiquarian eyes My Anglo-Saxon C despise? And does Lord Harcourt, day by day, Regret th' extinct initial K ? This establishes that the poems are by Catherine Ffanshawe]. Among the contents is the poem by the Rev. John Marriot likening marriage to a Devonshire lane. The copy from which we quote is in a binding of Edwards of Halifax, as we think, and probably belonged to Miss Baillie, or some one behind the scenes, since, in a neat contemporary handwriting, some few additions are made to the list of subscribers. These include F. P. Macaulay, Esq., two copies; Henry Maldon, Esq., two copies. Connexion with ' N. & Q.' is in a sense established in the fact that J. Carrick Moore, subsequently and till recently a contributor to our columns, subscribes for ten copies.] ".IOURNALIER PAPERS."—In the fifth volume of the Portland MSS., recently published by the Royal Historical Manuscripts Commission, is given (p. 436) a letter from Erasmus Lewis to Thomas Harley, dated 7 May, 1714, which contains an expression worth noting :— "Since you left us we have several new journalier papers, viz., the Recuicr, the Monitor, the Patriot, and the JUuxcorite. I may add the Lover, for being of late turned wholly to politics, contrary to the first intention, it may be called a new paper [«<•]." JOURNALIST. EMMAUS.—This village was supposed to be situated about sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, and, according to Josephus, meant " warm bath,"aGrecianized form of the Hebrew word chdmous, fern. plu. of cAam=heat. Lieut. Conder, K.N., discovered a ruin, Khamasa, about eight miles from the Holy City, near which is a spring of clear water—he says nothing of its thermal properties—which djs- covery has been regarded "as the most satis- factory yet proposed." Now, having regard to the historical facts set forth in the Lukian narrative, the writer inclines to the view that all attempts to connect Emmauswith thermal springs are most misleading. The name clearly arose from the Hebrew chouma=v/a\, pi. choumous, i. e, some inconsequent village outside the walls of Jerusalem no further in distance than the " Sabbatical walk " allowed by the rabbis. M. L. R. BRESLAR. CATALOGUE OF FIRST BOOK AUCTION IN ENGLAND.—The annexed cutting deserves a corner in ' N. & Q.' It is from the pen of the London correspondent of the Manchester Courier, and bears date 12 July :— " The original catalogue of the first book auction ever held in England was sold in London this after- noon. It is nearly two and a half centuries since this method of disposing of libraries was introduced into this country from the Continent, and it is probable that not more than half a dozen copies, even if as many, of the record of the first event of the kind have come down to the present day. The remainder have gone the way of most cata- logues. The initial attempt ' to make sale of books by way of auction, or who will give most for them,' was in connexion with the library of Dr. Lazarus Seaman. According to the catalogue, the proceedings commenced at 9 o'clock in the morning, and, after an interval of two hours for refresh- ments, were resumed at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the auctioneer being William Cooper, who carried on the business of a bookseller and publisher at the ' Pelican,' in Little Britain. The conditions of sale are set out in quaint language, and it is worthy of note that they remain to-day as nearly as possible the same as on 31 Oct., 1676. This is, I believe, the first occasion on which a copy of this rare catalogue has come up for sale, and the 35*. which Mr. Pickering gave for it may be regarded as a remark- able price. The writer surmises that " not more than half a dozen copies of the record of the first event of the kind have come down to the present day." One has turned up, but where
 * of | Poems, chiefly Manuscript, | and | from Living