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NOTES. AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL AUG. 24, 1901.

of his manuscripts has come down to us, and it is remarkable that, with the exception of a few signa- tures and a line in the poet's will, not a single word in Shakespeare's handwriting is known to exist. Lady Barnard, his granddaughter, and the last of his lineal descendants, is said to have carried off a number of papers from Stratford, and possibly the tire at the Globe Theatre, in 1613, and the Great Fire of 1666, account for the loss of many more. The only real and authentic relics of Shakespeare that we know of consist of his jug and cane, which were sold at Christie's in June, 1893, for 155 guineas the two."

It would be interesting to have further in- formation when it is not " too hot to make inquiries." H. J. B.

' N. & Q.' : A MOTTO. While unwilling to displace the excellent motto already associated with * N. & Q.,' I think the following, which I chanced on in the almost obsolete pleasure of reading Ovid, apt enough to be worth a passing record :

Srepe aliquod quaero verbum nomenque locum que : Nee quisquam est, a quo certior esse queam, ' Tristia,' iii. 14, 43-4,

which, with hope of a better version, I have

the impertinence to render :

I often want a word, a place, a name, And no one 's by to help me to the same.

HlPPOCLIDES.

"WEEK END." The following paragraph, which appeared in the Athenaeum of 10 August, deserves a corner in ' N. & Q.' :

"Our new contemporary the Week End and our biggest English dictionary may be interested to know that this brief holiday has got into serious history. No less an authority than Dr. S. R. Gar- diner notes in his ' Oliver Cromwell' that 'Oliver if he invented nothing else may be regarded as the inventor of that modified form of enjoyment to which hard-worked citizens have in our day given the name of the "week end."' He escaped from London to Hampton Court from Saturday to Mon- day."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

" PROVIDING " = PROVIDED. Of late years I have noticed a distinct increase in the above usage. In the Outlook for 4 May (for instance) it may be found in at least three places : "Providing always, as I have said before, That you paid the price " (p. 427, 'Ode to Mr. Pierpont Morgan ') ; " Cody agreed, providing

that two gentlemen of his own kidney

could be induced to act as 'pards' in the enterprise" (p. 440, 'Buffalo Bill'):

Omniscience is a useful thing, providing always you do not go too far with it " (p. 442 ' Literary Gossip '). Speaking offhand, with- out referring to any book, I should say that the usage is a sign of illiteracy. Of course

the old-fashioned " beholding " for "beholden" is not parallel. J. P. OWEN.

JOHN CLARE AND HEINE. Of all the nature-poets of the Victorian era, John Clare (1793-1864) is the most obscure and the least read to-day, yet it would seem that Heine was indebted to him for a gem-like thought. I have no access to the Jewish poet myself, but am relying upon the authority of Dr. Furness, who embodies Heine's words in a fine critical passage regarding the " origin- ality" of 'King Lear.' John Clare in his poem ' Insects ' sings : One almost fancies that such happy things, With coloured hoods and richly burnished wings, Are airy folk in splendid masquerade Disguised, as if of mortal folk afraid ; Keeping their joyous pranks a mystery still, Lest glaring day should do their secrets ill.

It is too much to presume that the rustic poet can have borrowed from the author of the * Reisebilder.' Perhaps some lover of Heine will favour us with the exact wording, to enable us to compare at first hand.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

THE LATE MARQUESS OF BUTE. When Lord Bute died in October, 1900, it was found that he had expressed in his will a desire that his heart should be buried on the Mount of Olives, which was done, and the following inscrip- tion is now placed in the " Dominus flevit " chapel near the spot :

Pax. esto. seterna

AriimaB pientissimse

Joannis. Patricii. Crichton. Stuart

Marchionis III. de Bute

In Scotia

VII. Idus. Octobres

Anno. Dni. MDCCCC

Mortem in Christo Obeuntis

Cujus Cor

In Terram Sanctam

Suprema Testament! Cautione

Delatum Guendolina Conjux

In Horto Huic Dominus Flevit JSdiculae

Annexe

Quatuor Adsistentibus Filiis

Idibus Npvembris eodem anno

Propriis religiose manibus

Sepelivit.

The inscription was composed by Dom Oswald Hunter Blair, O.S.B.

GEORGE ANGUS. St. Andrews, N.B.

CHALICE AS RACE CUP. Perhaps the follow- ing from the Globe of 2 August may be worth recording in ' N. & Q.' :

" That a chalice should, in the course of a che- quered career, figure as a prize in a horse race is a strange fate indeed; but such has been the ex-