Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/539

 9"-s.v1.D»<=.s.19oo.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 447 Two such contrary statements are certainly confusing. I am under the impression that, whether it was really delivered or not, the lecture, or lay sermon, appears in the last volume of ‘ Chips from a erman Workshop,’ under the title ‘ A Lecture on Missions.’ Why was this unassumin label attached, instead of ‘ Religions of the %Vorld "l J ons T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. “ SoUN1>, soUND 'ras cL.uuoN.”-In a little of selections from English poetry entitled ‘From Blake to Arnold (Macmillan & Co.), Mr. Brennan, who writes introductory essays, &c., quotes from Scott, as illustrative of his essentially heroic manner, the follow- ing quatrain :- Sound, sound the clarion ! Blow the fife ! And to the sensual world proclaim One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name. As in these days it is more fashionable to read “appreciations,” dzc., than to study the works of _authors themselves, it seems esirable to point out that Mr. Brennan’s quotation is in- accurate. The stanza, it may be ex lained, is _the “Anonymous” motto of ‘ ofii Mor- tal1ty,’ chap. xxxiv., and reads thus :- Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of lorious life Is worth an age without a name. Mr. Brennan also says that Scott lost his wealth by “the failure of the publishing house of Constable & Ballant ne.” There was, of course, no such “publishing house,” but there were the separate houses of Messrs. Archibald Constable & Co. and Messrs. James Ballantyne dz Co., both of which were concerned in the deplorable downfall of Sir Walter Scott. One other point in Mr. Bren- nan’s introductory note may be alluded to. He quotes with ap roval the opinion of Mr. Gosse that Scott’s long narrative poems are “ Waverley ” novels spoiled in the telling, and that the best passages in them “are those in which, with skill not less than that of Milton, Scott marshals heroic lists of Highland proper names.” In the first place, there is nothing in the language that approaches the poetry of movement as exhibited in Scott’s epical poems ; and, secondly, while the poet is un- questionably a master of resonant name-lists, he is also the author of the incomparable duel scene in the ‘ Lady of the Lake’ and the more than Homeric Flodden fight in ‘Marmionf These are the things in Scott “ for a youngster to happen upon,” to use Mr. Brennan’s words in his c osing com- mendation of the poet. THOMAS BAYNE. THE Surrossn DATE or PsPYs’s Mnisnom. -It has long been a paradox that whereas the arish registers give 1 December, 1655 for E16 weddin day of Samuel Pepys and his wife Elizabeth, yet that couple per- tinaciously affirm that it took gace on 10 October. Three times in his ‘ iary’ is this repeated, once with his wife’s reported confirmation. I take this opportunity, there- fore, to repeat my suggestion that there were two marriaghes. ithout gping into detail, I assume t at it cannot enied that his wife was a Catholic; she had been temporarily immured in a French convent, and Pepys twice notices her religious ognious in his ‘Diary,’ while her brother “ alty” some years after her decease, confirms all this, with the statement that she subse- quently recanted. Assuming this diversity of faith, it becomes inevitable that a Catholic should insist on a marriagle in conformity with her faith. Such may ave taken place on 10 October, as Petp 's aflirms, followed up by the publication o banns and a civil mar- ria e at St. Mar§aret’s. _ §'e have no etails whatever of this first ceremony, but Pepys’s statement is entitled to credence, subject to such suggestive ex- planations as may turn up. The wife died_ in 1669, aged twenty-nine, having been married fifteen years. N ow this appears toaccord with the registry, 1669 being the fifteenth year, including 1655. Pepys, in his ‘ Diary,’ records 1661 as the sixth anniversary 1664 as the ninth anniversary ; but the phraseology is altered on the tombstone inscription to include the actual year of marriage. Her famil name was St. Michel, and 10 October would’ be the feast of St. Michael, new style, when they married. A. HALL. Highbury, N. UNITED EMPIRE Lovzlmsrs.-It is proposed to found an English branch of this associa- tion, which has its headquarters at Toronto. All who are descendants of those who sacrificed home or fortune to preserve their alle iance to the British Crown during the revglt of the American colonies are invited to become members of the organization, which has for its chief ob`ect the (preservation of family records of suffering an heroism before their memory has passed away. Names and addresses may be sent to Mrs. H. S. Boys, Hullbrook, by Guildford, who is in com- munication with the Executive Committee at Toronto. E. R. S. BoYs. Bsnronozzr. - It may not be generally known that the original copper-plate actually engraved in line by Bartolozzl, and used as a