Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/51

 9* s. vii. JAN. 19, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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If the answer be yes, I deny it. If I am asked to be patient, as we are only beginning, I will be patient and hope in future for what has not yet been attained. I speak of the community. Cer- tainly our inventions have hitherto been misunder- stood or misapplied. If all the improvements in science had lessened human toil but one hour in the day, it would be something ; instead of this, human toil has been prolonged; and allowing all the advantages possible, we must take care that our velocities, our momenta, our rail-ways, and inclined planes, do not scare away the muses and the graces. Although the early and middle part of life delight in a little bustle and noise, the latter part demands rest, tranquillity, and comfort ; for which purposes the cultivation of poetry will come in for the greatest consideration : nature will have her course. It is time that the heads of our states- men were occupied with this question ; the bulk of the community are ready to take it up : let not philosophers and the learned be backward in its examination."

Is not this reminiscent of Ruskin in one of his moods, or of Arnold on Wordsworth?

He grew old in an age he condemned.

He looked on the rushing decay

Of the times which had sheltered his youth.

Felt the dissolving throes

Of a social order he loved.

Outlived his brethren, his peers,

And, like the Theban seer,

Died in his enemies' day. Or,

What shelter to grow ripe is ours ? What leisure to grow wise ?

It is quite possible that Matthew Arnold knew of this little book when he made his selections. To conclude, and to illustrate how little Wordsworth was appreciated about this time, may I ask if you have ever heard of * Wordsworth's Horse'? Here it follows, if you can find a little space for it to canter in. It was the work of a Dublin physician, once (long ago) a contributor to ' N. & Q.'

WORDSWORTH'S HORSE. Will Wordsworth was a steady man,

That lived near Ambleside, And much he longed to have a horse,

Which he might easy ride.

It chanced one day a horse came by,

Of pure Arabian breed, Gentle though proud, and strong of limb :

It was a gallant steed !

Full many a noble rider bold

This gallant steed had borne ; And every one upon his brow

The laurel wreath had worn.

Those noble riders dead and gone,

And in the cold earth laid, The gallant steed by Wordsworth's door

Without an owner strayed.

No more ado ; the steed is caught ;

Upon him Wordsworth gets ; The generous courser paws and rears,

And 'gainst the bridle frets.

" He 's too high-mettled," Wordsworth says,

" And shakes me in my seat : He must be balled, and drenched, and bled,

And get much less to eat."

So balled, and drenched, and bled he was,

And put on lower diet ; And Wordsworth with delight observed

Him grow each day more quiet.

And first he took from him his oats,

And then he took his hay ; Until at last he fed him on

A single straw a day.

What happened next to this poor steed

There's not a child but knows ; Death closed his eyes, as I my song,

And ended all his woes.

And on a stone, near Rydal Mount,

These words are plain to see, " Here lie the bones of that famed steed,

High-mettled Poesy." (1840.)

THOMAS AULD.

'NOTES AND QUERIES': CORRECTIONS IN GENERAL INDEXES.

THE following list of errors and omissions in the General Indexes may be of use to other readers, and spare them some waste of time :

FIKST SERIES.

P. 11 b. Bartholomew, St., the Less, for iv. read vi.

P. 58 b. Funeral Customs, add ii. 259.

P. 62 a. Insert : Gote, see Sculcoates.

P. 62 b. Gray's 'Elegy,' omit ii. 347, and insert : passage in, i. 150 ; ii. 347.

P. 88 b. Mon mouth, capture, for 328 read 358, and omit 324.

P. 106 a. Amicus Plato, add 484.

P. 108 a. Vox et prseterea nihil, add 419.

P. 110 a. Cum grano salis, for 66 read 88.

P. 115 a. Roccha de Camponis, read Cam- panis.

P. 119 b. Sculcoates Gate, read Gote.

P. 133 b. Tennyson, 'In Memoriam,' for 277 read 227.

P. 134 a. Thompsons of Yorkshire, for ix. read x.

P. 140 b. Water cure, see Hydropathy.

P. 142 a. Whichcote, for 482 read 488.

SECOND SERIES.

P. 8 b. Whole Duty of Man, see Packington.

P. 35 b. Centenarianism, see Longevity ; add ix. 438.

P. 66 b. Gipsies, funeral, for 124 read 442.

P. 74 b. Hensley, read Wensley.

P. 89 a. Liddle, read Liddell.

P. 91 a. Longevity, see Centenarianism ; for x. 376 read x. 377.

P. 105 b. Insert : Number 666, see Beast,