Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/355

 r 9* s. VL OCT. is, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 293 ber, 1757, by the then Duke of Marlborough They are given by Smollett in his ' History under the year 1758. They are of the " Your money or your life " order ; but they astonished the Duke, as also Smollett, by their literary style. This is very like the style of Junius in its polish, inscrutability, and haughty contempt. The Duke fell under the spell of this style and became an inves- tigator, with result his complete mystification. For a young man named Barnard turned up repeatedly at the rendezvous appointed by "Felton," yet had nothing to say to the Duke, and upon being prosecuted accounted for his presence by natural coincidence, and proved himself of good character, means, and position. His handwriting was also entirely in his favour. He was acquitted. Another coincidence was that the Duke died shortly afterwards, and this may have led to the pre- servation of the letters, which might now be compared with the writing of Junius and Francis. Had Francis a Barnard among his acquaintances? In the nature of the man there is nothing that makes it improbable he should attempt blackmail, at least in his em- barrassed youth, and if, as "Felton" intimates, he had devised a system by which he could defy discovery. The only presumption, how- ever, of the identity of " Felton " and Junius is from similarity of style. Thus " Felton " writes:— " It has employed ray invention for some time to find out a method of destroying another without exposing my own life. That I have accomplished, ana defy the law. Now for the application of it. I am desperate, and must be provided for. You," &c. " I know the world too well to trust this secret in any breast but my own." " You receive this as an acknowledgment of your Punctuality as to the time and place of meeting on unday last, though it was owing to you it answered no purpose. The pageantry of being armed, and the ensign of your order, were useless, and too con- spicuous." MONMOUTH. The Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, in his ' Devon and Cornwall Guide' (p. 510), repeats the local error that the great Lord Chatham was born at Boconnoc, and states that the por- traits of George Grenville and Richard, Earl Temple (supposed to be Junius), are in the gallery there. Under the above heading (9th S. v. 510) CEDIPUS suggests, from the internal evidence of the letters of the steward of Boconnoc and of the son-in- law of the Hon. George Fortescue (9th S. ii. 329 ; iii. 250), that Junius " might have been a skeleton in the family cupboard." Boconnoc belonged to Lady Grenville, who preserved the important Dropmore packet that Mr. Fortescue of Boconnoc destroyed, possibly for the reasons given by Dr. Fellowes (9th S. ii. 171). OBSERVER. SOURCE OF QUOTATION SOUGHT (9th S. vi. 106).—In Schaff and Oilman's 'Library of Religious Poetry' (Sampson Low <fe Co., 1881) the poem in question appears on pp. 10, 11, and prefixed to it is this note :— " The following linos, sometimes attributed to Milton, and once included in an Oxford edition as a newly found poem by him, were written by Miss Elizabeth Lloyd, a member of the Society of Friends of Philadelphia. She afterwards became the wife and widow of Mr. Robert Howell, of the same city." There is much beauty in the poem ; but it seems strange to me that any one acquainted with Milton s style should ever have thought of attributing it to the "organ-voice of England." C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A. Bath. ANGLO-ISRAEL (9th S. vi. 185).—It would be a misfortune were a discussion on this sub- ject to arise in 'N. & Q.' Meanwhile, one may be allowed to compare what is said in the closing sentences of the note at the above reference with a passage in the opening chapter of the late Henry Morley's ' First Sketch of English Literature.' The following is a good specimen of tentative writing :— "Through the passes of the Caucasus it may be true that those known as the Celts first migrated to the region north of the Black Sea. Ezekiel, 600 years B.C., named Gomer as a nation, placing it in the north quarter—that is, south of the Caucasus. . K .I'lu In, about 130 years later, placed the Cim- merians (whose name lives with our Welsh country- men as Cymry) about the Sea of Azov and in the peninsula called from them the Crimea North of the Black Sea, between the Danube and the Don, were the Cimmerian or Cymric Celts. East of the Don were the Scyths, whose name may live among jurselves as Scot, since they are thought to be the orefathers of those Gaels who are of our nation as First Sketch of English Literature,' p. 2, ed. 1887. THOMAS BAYNE. SHREWSBURY RECORDS (9th S. vi. 230).—The municipal archives of Shrewsbury have been itilized by Owen and Blake way in their History of Shrewsbury' in writing their account of the visit of the Council of the tfarch.es to this town prior to the date 1478. They quote the following under date 1475 :— " The x° daye of April the xviij yer of the Regne if o' sov'eign ford king E. the iiijth the right reu ent ad" in god John Byshop of Worcester p'sident of my lord prince councell, And the right noble lord Antony Erie Rivieres, uncle and gouW to the said jrince, And other of hys honorable councell beynge n the Town hall of Shrouysbury, for the wele rest ml t'nquillite of the same Towne and for good rule
 * he Celts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands."—