Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/151

 s. viii. AUG. 17, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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had heard "old folks" employ it. The 'E.D.D.' gives three possible explanations. " Bat," the thin, crusty oven-cake, may be meant, or the turf used for burning that is called a " bat "; but most likely the reference is to coal that contains pieces of shale or slate. This gives the requisite idea of warmth without consumption. And of course the substance is common in Lancashire. "Bath " is an equivalent word, but the usual term is "bass." The ' H.E.D.' confirms the surmise. ARTHUR MAYALL.

"CARAGE." In 'H.E.D.' the only mention of carage is as " obsolete form of carriage " ; but a building close to the Westminster Aquarium has over its door a prominently painted sign, "Automobile Club Carage," which suggests that the word is to be used for a store for motor-cars. A. F. R.

CIGARETTE-HOLDER. I was recently offered a cigarette by a Parliamentary counsel, M.A. Oxon. (B.N.C.), and accepted it, proceeding to fit it into my holder. He expressed dislike to holders, and remarked that the following saying was current at Oxford in his time : "Smoking a cigarette through a holder is like kissing a young lady through a respi- rator." This bonmot may be worth recording. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.

Brixton Hill.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

TRANSLATOR'S NAME WANTED. I have a quarto volume entitled * Pamphlets,' which I bought some two or three years ago. Among the papers, seven in number, there is a trans- lation of a famous poem which Caesar Scali- ger is said to have preferred to the works of Homer. Its full title is " Hero and Leander. A Poem. Translated from the Greek of Musseus." It was "printed by Andrew Foulis"at Glasgow in 1783 in his very best manner, and is there- fore a typographical gem, so to speak. The work of Musaeus contains 341 hexameter lines, which the translator has expanded into 451, written in rimed heroic verse. But it is no paraphrase like Kit Marlowe's* poem,

Stuff,' "hath anybody in Yarmouth heard of Leander and Hero, of whom divine Musseus sung, and a diviner muse than him, Kit Marlowe ?" The sixteenth century was no less lavish of its praise of the poet than the nineteenth.
 * "Let me see," says T. Nash in his * Lenten

" that divinest dithyramb in praise of sensual beauty," as J. A. Symonds calls it ('Shak- speare's Predecessors,' p. 614). I consider it a faithful and not inelegant version, so far as I have compared it with the original. The writer begs for indulgence on account of his youth, " as it is a first essay." Who he was I have been unable to ascertain. Lowndes gives no assistance. The translator's auto- graph is on the back of the title-page in these words : "Dr. Reid from the Author." Now I take it this is no other than the well-known philosopher, whose signature, " Tho. Reid," is on the first page of the volume, which begins with Newton's * De Mundi Systemate Liber.' Perhaps these facts will furnish a clue to the authorship of the poem. JOHN T. CURRY.

"'TlS A VERY GOOD WORLD," &C. It has

been hitherto generally decided that the authorship of the lines commencing thus is unknown. In a small weekly paper I recently found them attributed to Butler. Is there any warrant for this 1 If so, which Butler is meant? Presumably Samuel, of 'Hudibras' fame. I may add that the first line quoted differed from the accepted ver- sion, for it ran, " This world is the best that we live in." Is that or the more familiar beginning correct ? CECIL CLARKE.

Authors' Club, S.W.

[Found in 'A Collection of Epigrams,' London, printed for J. Walthoe, 1737, vol. ii. No. 437, with the first line, " This is the best world that we live in." ' Familiar Quotations,' eighth edition, Rout- ledge, p. 235, ascribes to Rochester. See 1 st, 3 rd , 4 th , 6 th, 7 th , and 8 th S. * N. & Q.' passim, where not much is said definitely, but the use of the lines on a board by an eccentric character near Gadshill is noted.]

SIR CHARLES GRAHAM, BARONET. Exam- ining Graham wills at Somerset House, I met with the following one, and am in search of information concerning the parties named therein. Translated out of Dutch, its essence is :

" Charles Graham, knight and baronet, Till- borough, Brabant ; late wife Joanna van Ryle ; brother William Ludovick Graham and wife Sara van Couvenhoven ; brother Henry, deceased ; sister Anne Graham, widow of Philip Adolph Bayart ; sister Leonora Graham, her two children ; brother Peter Graham, and little daughter; Philip and Ambrose, sons to brother Henry."

It is of date 1700. I have thought that readers of * N. & Q.' in the Netherlands may be able to throw some light on the subject. Who, for instance, were the Ryles, Couvenhovens, and Bayarts ; and have they representatives at the present day] I shall be thankful for any informa- tion whatsoever.

WALTER M. GRAHAM EASTON.