Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/485

 9* s. ix. JUNE H, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 477

controlling the spirits of earth. These, with

conrong e sprs o eart. These, with perhaps, the most widely-known i

hydromancy and aeromancy were classical nected with the celebrated s?relm Kd vaffiv"

modes of divination effected through the Disraeli, in his 'Calamities 7 Abhors' in'

lemons, who generally may be thought to be eludes the name of this unfortunate geniu*

elementary beings. Burton, in his ' Anatomy who was driven from his ministry bv the

of Melancholy,' says that the devils were publication, and ,nh~nJnf r

-f - " i publication, and subsequent performance a

worshipped through pyromancy and hydro- the Edinburgh Theatre, of W trTgedv of mancy. The note to the line in > Hudibras.' I Runnimede * while the Michel Bruce story

was long since cleared up by Mr. Laing, who

/,. t .1 1 il i. . 1 * * t, 1 T.I,., T ^. >^ _1 _ _ ,. i ,

established John Logan's claim to the author- ship of 'The Ode to the Cuckoo,' as Dr.

raancy. The note to the line in k Hudibras/ But those that trade in geomancy,

tells us that geomancy is sorcery by pricks

and circles in the earth ; and a reference is. . ,

made to a tract of Cornelius Agrippa con- Carruthers says in ' Chambers's Cyclopaedia/

cerning geomancy, and to other works. " beyond all dispute."

To those who would learn more of the peculiar power exercised by Yarrow on her votaries I would recommend a capital little anthology by the Rev. R. Borland, minister of Yarrow, entitled ' Yarrow : its Poets and Poetry,' published by Mr. Thomas Fraser, Dalbeattie, in 1890. G. YARROW BALDOCK.

E. YARDLEY. THE ORIGIN OF SWEENY TODD (9 th S. ix.

345). A serious error occurs in this commu- nication anent the "fiend-like Figaro" and his pie-making " paramour." It concerns two ladies with whom I was well acquainted, Mrs. Atkinson of the " Brit." and Miss Emma Atkinson of Sadler's Wells, between whom there was not the slightest relationship. I began to know Emma (then a slip of a girl her sister Alice, and their mother as far bac as 1844-5 in Newcastle. I also knew Mrs. Atkinson at the Britannia while I was under a two years' engagement to Mr. S. Lane, commencing in 1853. In my early days at the Adelphi I often visited Emma and her mother at their home near Islington Green, to chat over old days in the North. Emma was a kindly woman and a loving, dutiful daughter. Whether she is yet in the land of the living is unknown to FATHER TOM.

PASSAGE IN THACKERAY (9 th S. iv. 207). The reference for the passage in Thackeray asked for by J. C. does not appear to have been given in * N. & Q.' See * Barry Lyndon,' chap, i., paragraph 46. The words, when correctly quoted, are as follows :

" Love ! sure the word is formed on purpose out of the prettiest soft vowels and consonants in the language, and he or she who does not care to read about it is not worth a fig, to my thinking."

Probably J. C. has already ascertained the source of his quotation, but, as the query has appeared, it may seem fitting that an answer should be recorded.

EDWARD BENSLY The University, Adelaide, S.A.

YARROW UNVISITED (9 th S. ix. 386). The Academy writer quoted by MR. THOMAS BAYNE at the above reference has evidently made a lapsus, and written "Thomas" for John. There is only one Logan associated with the minstrelsy of Yarrow John Logan, the erstwhile minister of South Leith, whose immortal ballad ' The Braes of Yarrow ' is,

South Hackney.

" AWAY WITH " (9 th S. ix. 348). Apparently Babington uses this phrase similarly in a passage quoted in the 'H.E.D.' under

"away": "Yea, we would bid away

with it, and not abide the sight of it." This dated 1590. C. C. B.

MONOSYLLABLES IN LITERARY COMPOSITION (9 th S. viii. 521). To Newman's lyric "Lead, kindly light," may be added Bonar's well- known hymn " Thy way, not mine, O Lord." Comparing the two, we find that Newman's, out of 131 words, has only 10 that are not monosyllabic, while Bonar's, out of 135, has only 8 that are not monosyllables. The former, as correctly stated by MR. TAYLOR, has 30 consecutive monosyllables ; the latter, in the third verse, has 32. In Coleridge s little poem 'Something Childish, but Very Natural,' out of 96 words only 7 are of more than one syllable. So far as I can tell with- out actually counting, monosyllables seem largely to preponderate in * In Memoriam.'

In all such cases the Anglo-Saxon element will probably prevail, and be more simple and forcible than the ponderous Latin derivatives of the Johnsonian style. There seems, therefore, hardly room for Pope's imitative satire in his 4 Essay on Criticism/

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line, which, in fact, we may suppose to have mainly applied to poems written in the same decasyllabic metre which he was then using, and which was the fashionable one of the day. However, if this be a fault, Pope himself lies open to the same censure. For in this very essay, without reckoning the imitative line, there are no fewer than two dozen exactly