Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/518

 430 vi. DEC. i, im NOTES AND QUERIES. old custom which has not survived to these prosaic days 1 ALEYN LYELL HEADE. Park Corner, Blundellsands. [There existed a delusion that a man who married a woman clad in nothing but her smock escaped responsibility for her debts. See under ' Marriages en Chemise and other entries, 1" S. vi. 485, 561; vii. 17, St: and consult Brand's 'Popular Anti- quities.' The idea seems to have crossed the Atlantic to New York.] CAMDEN ANCESTRY.—Could any of your readers tell me the names of the parents and grandparents of Camden ? The information may possibly be found in ' Gulielmi Camdeni Epistolse,' published by T. Smith in 1691, but I have not access to the book. ALFRED F. CURWEN. [Camden's father was Sampson Camden, of Lich- field, who came up to London to follow the occupation of a painter, and was a member of the Guild of Paintor-Stainers. His mother was Eliza- beth, daughter of Giles Curwen, of Poulton Hall, Lancashire, one of the Curwens of Workington, Cumberland. SrrCamden's' MemorabiMadescipso and Sir E. Maunde Thompson's memoir in the ' Did. Nat. Biog.'J BOOK BY RICHARD BAXTER.—I havo in my possession a curious little volume ; the exact wording of the title-page 1 shall quote :— "A | Just and Seasonable | Reprehension | of Naked | Breasts | and | Shoulders. I Written by a Grave and Learned Papist. | Translated by Edward Cooke, Esquire. | With a Preface by Mr. Richard Baxter. | London, | Printed for Jonathan Edwin, at the three | Roses in Ludgate-street. 1678." My object in writing is to draw attention to a statement in a foot-note to ' The Memoirs of Count de Graraont' (Vizetelly, 1889, vol. ii. p. 208) that " the author was actually a Non- conformist divine." The title-page just cited is sufficiently explicit, while the opening sentence of the preface by Richard Baxter goes on to say: " It will be perhaps objected, upon the first view of this following Treatise, why does this man Preface to that which is written by a Papist ?" It would thus appear that both the translator and the author of the preface had no doubt whatever that the work was written by "a Grave and Learned Papist." I shall be glad if any reader of 'N. & Q.' can eitlier confute or confirm the statement made by Gramont's editor. Any other information connected with the book I shall be glad to have. A. S. THE PENNY.—A note in an old book says that an Act of Parliament passed about 1792 gave licence to several cities to coin copper in order to make copper currency plentiful, and that in consequence many counterfeit coins were in circulation. This led to the recall of the whole copper coinage and the issue of new coins, among which were pennies and twopenny pieces. Wanted the date of the Act of Parliament, and of the first issue of pennies and twopenny pieces. J. MILNE. LORD MANSFIELD AND THE RUBICON. — Horace Walpole, writing at the time of the Gordon Riots, says (' Letters," ed. Cunning- ham, vol. vii. p. 392) : " I cannot feel pity for Lord Mansfield ought not a man to be taught sensibility, who drove us cross the Rubicon 1" Is there any well-known saying of Lord Mansfield in connexion with crossing the Rubicon? H. T. B. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.— A dreamy haze Films o'er and mingles with the skies ; Sweetly the rich, soft sunshine plays, Bronzing each object where it lies. M. N. G. His stronger mind shall her weak reason sway, And he through love her beauty shall obey; He shall protect her helpless sex from harms, And she his cares shall sweeten with her charms. D. K. T. AN UNCLAIMED POEM BY BEN JONSON. (9th S. iv. 491 ; v. 34, 77, 230, 337/477 ; vi. 96.) I HAVE been unable to consult Gilford's original edition of the poet's works, pub- lished in 1816. It is not in our reference library, and, so far as I am aware, a copy does not exist in this city, which many con- sider to be the second in the empire. I have, however, seen Col. Cunningham's handsome reissue, and in vol. viii. p. 306 I find that Gifford's extravagant praise is bestowed, as MR. SIMPSON says, on ' Underwoods' (2). That this is correct I learn from a perusal of Mr. Swinburne's eloquent 'Study of Ben Jonson," from which I quote his observations on the poem just mentioned. "There is," he says, " exceptional case of movement, exceptional grace of expression, in the lyric which evoked from Gifford the ' free' avowal, ' if it bo not the most beautiful song in the language, I know not, for my part, where it is to be found.' Who on earth, then or now, would ever have supposed that the worthy Clifford did ? But any one who does know anything more of the matter than the satirist and reviewer whose own amatory verses were ' lazy as Scheldt and cold as Don' will acknowledge that it would be difficult to enumerate the names of poets contemporary with Jonson, from Frank Davison to Robin Herrick, who have left us songs at least as beautiful as that beginning— Oh do not wanton with those eyes, Lest I be sick with seeing."—Pp. 100-1. I refrain from any comment on this criticism