Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/517

 9s.ix.JunK28,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

Dr. Turner, which is supposed by some to be the original of Miss Pinkerton's ladies' school. His mother, having married again, returned to England in 1821, and settled at Addis- combe. Thackeray was at Charterhouse School from 1822 to 1828, first as a boarder and afterwards as a day boy. During the latter part of his schooldays he lived at a boarding-house in Charterhouse Square, but there is no record of his having lived in Wilderness Row. JOHN HEBB.

BYRON'S GRANDFATHER. Byron's maternal grandfather, George Gordon, thirteenth Laird of Gight, Aberdeenshire, died at Bath 9 Jan., 1779. He is sometimes said to have committed suicide in the canal. What is the authority for this statement ? a very important one, as it bears on Byron's heredity. I have searched contemporary newspapers in vain.

J. M. BULLOCH.

118, Pall Mall.

THE METRICAL PSALTER. Can any reader of 4 N. & Q.' say whether the Metrical Psalter either Sternhold and Hopkins or Tate and Brady is still used by any congregation ? Or, if not, when and where was it last in use 1 The substitution of hymnody for psalmody is one of the most remarkable among the changes in English religious life which the last fifty years have seen. H. DAVEY.

MRS. THRALE'S HOUSE, STREATHAM PARK. Where can I find the history of the above house and the land adjacent sub- sequent to the death of Mrs. Piozzi 1 When was the famous villa pulled down, and who became the owners of the property ? I shall feel greatly obliged if any reader of ' N. & Q.' can afford me full details. B. R. J.

" STEER " OF WOOD OR BARK. Can any of your readers inform me of the meaning of the word as used in this conjunction 1 It appears in sec. 17 of 24 & 25 Vic., cap. 97, the Mali- cious Injuries to Property Act. I should be much obliged if any one would refer me to his authority. H. E. G.

book I have been reading there is a quotation from Sir Francis Palgrave : " Language ad- heres to the soil when lips which spake are resolved in dust." Can any one give me the exact reference 1 AYEAHR.
 * LANGUAGE ADHERES TO THE SOIL." In a

CIPHER-STORY BIBLIOGRAPHY. Would some literary expert think it worth while to compile a bibliography of all the essays, articles in periodicals and daily papers, treating the cipher questions put forward by Mrs. Gallup?

We must look to England for a thorough refutation of the latest humbug, as only Englishmen can master the details of their own history to an extent necessary for that purpose, and as only in England the docu- ments and books relative to the question are accessible. G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

" POETRY NEEDS NO PREFACE." Is " Poetry needs no preface " a 4 * winged word "; and, if so, can any reader oblige me by naming its author and giving me a reference ?

DR. C. STOFFEL.

Nijmegen, Holland.

GERMAN LETTERS. Will some reader of 'N. & Q.' enlighten my ignorance on the following subject 1 I wish to learn the names of those Germans of note whose published correspondence has real literary value. Heine's letters are admirable. What other Germans have attempted to rival the French in epistolary dexterity ? G. W.

"THE BEATIFIC VISION." According to the ' N.E.D.' the earliest occurrence of this phrase in English literature is in the seventeenth century. What is the earliest known use of the Latin or Greek expression, which is, pre- sumably, the original of it 1 PERTINAX.

" HEROIN A." I find in some seventeenth- century Latin correspondence this term ap- plied to the wives of gentlemen and noble- men, e.g., So-and-so and " heroina sua." Was this a term in common use ? LOBUC.

SHELLEY'S ANCESTRY. (9 th S. ix. 381.)

IN tracing Shelley's ancestry MR. BAYLEY might have gone back one step further, namely, to Bernabo Visconti, Lord of Milan. " This unscrupulous and dissolute tyrant "- to quote the chroniclers in order to attach the redoubtable Sir John Hawkwood to the league which he had formed against Pope Urban V., gave Donnina, one of his natural daughters, in marriage to Hawkwood. This marriage, which took place at Milan, is thus described by the Mantuan ambassador in that city. The date is May, 1377 :

" Last Sunday, Sir John Hawkwood conducted a bride with all honours to the house where he was living, that is to say, to the house once belonging to Gasparo del Conte, in which the late Bishop of Parma lived, and the wedding was honoured by the presence of the lady duchess, and all the daughters of Signor Bernabo. After the dinner the said lord Signer Bernabo, with the mother of the bride, went