Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/79

 9*8. viii. JULY 20, 1901.) NOTES AND QUERIES.

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arisen regarding the 'Ode,' which is not uniformly attributed to Bruce. For instance, the ' Oxford Book of Poetry,' edited by Mr. Quiller-Couch, and the 'Anthology' of Prof. Arber, both recently issued, give Logan as the author. In Robert Louis Stevenson's the following reference occurs in a note pre- fixed to a letter of Robert Louis Stevenson's to Mrs. Sitwell. The editor remarks :
 * Letters/ 1900, edited by Mr. Sidney Colvin,

" On the question of the authorship of the ' Ode to the Cuckoo,' which Burke thought the most beautiful lyric in our language, the debate is between the claims of John Logan, minister of South Leith, 1745-85 [this should be 1748-88], and his friend and fellow- worker, Michael Bruce. Those of Logan have, I believe, been now vindicated past doubt."

The letter is dated (Edinburgh) Saturday, 4 October, 1873. Stevenson says :

" I want to let you see these verses from an ' Ode to the Cuckoo,' written by one of the ministers of Leith in the middle of last century the palmy days of Edinburgh who was a friend of Hume and Adam Smith and the whole constellation. The authorship of these beautiful verses has been most truculently fought about, but whoever wrote them (and it seems as if this Logan had) they are lovely."

Three verses are quoted (five, six, and seven as usually printed). Considerable discussion took place in the Glasgow Herald and other Scottish newspapers and magazines in 1897, in which the present writer advocated the claims of Logan. I am anxious to obtain a sight of any MSS. in the handwriting of Bruce and Logan. The late Mr. Douglas J. Maclagan, in his exhaustive monograph 'The Scottish Paraphrases ' (Edinburgh, Andrew Elliot, 1889), was a strong supporter of Logan. He mentions, pp. 186 et seq., two MSS. of the Paraphrases, and says that "our efforts to trace them have proved fruitless." Can any of your readers supply information regarding them or any other documents bearing on this subject? ADAM SMAIL.

13, Cornwall Street, Edinburgh.

We are told in the note referred to that Michael Bruce was the author of the * Ode to the Cuckoo.' Is it proved that he was? Archbishop Trench, who at first attributed it to Logan, afterwards changed his mind and gave it to Bruce (see note on the poem in * A Household Book of English Poetry,' 1870) , but I understand that a good defence of Logan's claim has since been made, and Mr. Quiller-Couch attributes the poem to him in his 'Oxford Book of English Verse.'

C. C. B.

"THE BIBLE, CROWN, AND CONSTITUTION (9 th S. vii. 469). Nothing remains of either the house or sign of James Asperne, publisher,

at the "Bible, Crown, and Constitution," which was No. 32, Cornhill, and had a shop front, judging from a small engraving in my possession, like that still standing of Messrs. Ring & Brymer, No. 15, Cornhill, with the number 32 on the doorpost, while the sign over the centre of the shop- window consisted of an open Bible supporting another book, presumably containing the laws of the realm and signifying the constitution, while upon this rested a royal crown. The sign was also adopted by Cobbett when publishing in Pall Mall, presumably when he started his Weekly Register as an aid originally to the Tory party, and before it began to change its views in 1803. The " Constitution " alone, without the " Bible and Crown," was not an uncommon sign, of which four instances, according to the ' London Directory' for 1901, survive. Until 1879, perhaps later, a popular tavern called the " Constitution " was still standing at No. 32, Bedford Street, and was renowned for its "peerless punch." Its sign was painted symbolically, and represented Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall, signifying Church and State (see ' Epicure's Almanack,' 1815). Neither the "Constitution" nor the particular sign in question is mentioned in Larwood and Hotten's 'History of Sign- boards.' J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL.

William Cobbett, M.P. for Oldham, the celebrated political writer, and for forty years connected with the periodical press of England, chose, at the beginning of the last century, for the sign of his publishing office

The Bible, Crown, and Constitution." J. Asperne issued his broadsheets (of which I possess many) from No. 32, Cornhill, but the sign no longer exists.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

DENDRITIC MARKINGS IN PAPER (9 th S. vii. 389, 477). I possess a copy of the 'Mathe- matical and Philosophical Works of Bishop John Wilkins ' (2 vols. 8vo, 1802). The book- sellers' catalogue (Messrs. J. W. Jarvis & Son) states that " this copy is one of a few printed on paper made from wood "; and the appear- ance of the book leaves little doubt that the experiment of manufacturing paper from wood pulp was tried at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. C. E. D.

Oxford.

ECCLESIASTICAL " PECULIARS " (9 th S. vii. 421, 463). The custom by which the Arch- bishop of Canterbury reserved to himself all episcopal jurisdiction in places where he had property did not originate with Lanfranc,