REMOVING INK STAINS (4th S. iv. 532.) HERMANN KINDT will certainly be successful with a solution of one or other of the following salts applied with a hair pencil-oxalate of ammonia, chlorinated lime, cyanide of potassium. If oxalate of ammonia be used, the solution should be warm, and I only advise the employment of the cyanide in the event of failure with the other two substances, as it is extremely poisonous. When the ink has been removed the paper must be carefully washed in water and dried. Dublin. HARRY NAPIER DRAPER. HENRY IV. OF FRANCE (4th S. iv. 513.) The books recommended for this reign by Professor Smyth of Cambridge are Perefixe's Life, De Thou, Sully's Mémoires, Mably, Wraxall, Voltaire's Henriade, and the Edict of Nantes. Wachsmuth refers to Cayet, Chronologie dep. 1589-1598 (Paris, 1608, 3 vols. 8vo); Lettres de Bongars, 1695 (2 vols. 12mo), and du Card. d'Ossat, 1627, &c. There are some references in the Penny Cyclopædia, xii. 117-118, which may also be consulted by M. A. if the preceding do not supply his wants. T. J. BUCKTON. TENNYSON (4th S. iv. 561.)- Tennyson very probably refers to the poet Longfellow, whose poem "The Ladder of St. Augustine" opens thus: "Saint Augustine! well hast thou said, That of our vices we can frame A ladder, if we will but tread Beneath our feet each deed of shame. "All common things, each day's events, Are rounds by which we may ascend." GENEALOGICAL QUERIES, No. 2 (4th S. iii. 104.) "Alianora, widow of Richard le Despenser." Concerning the above I have found the following, which I hope may be of service to your correspondent HERMENTRUDE: Thomas Spencer, created second Earl of Gloucester, 1398, was slain in a tumult at Bristol, 1599. He had by his wife Constance, daughter of Edmund Plantagenet, sou to Edward III., besides two daughters, a son Richard Spencer, who married Elianor, third daughter of Raphe de Nevill, first Earl of Westmorland, by his second wife Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, by his third wife Katherine Swinford, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Pain Ruet. Richard died s. p. and his widow married secondly to Henry Percie, Earl of Northumberland, by whom she had a numerous issue. D. C. E. ST. ALKELDA (4th S. iv. 297.)-The following extract from the will of "Wyllia Wylle, Clarke, Dean & pson of Mydelehm" may be of interest to your correspondent: "Itim. I bequiethe & gyve to my pyche churche of Mydelehm toward of a bell the thyrde bell & smailyste, a boylle of sylu? the greateste, and all the syluer in the. in the churche of Mydlam yt was of saynte Alkyld heyd, & a peice of saynte Alkyld head yt is in my chyst in yo yf yt they wyll by a bell, or els, not." (Part of the will is torn away, hence the defects indicated by dots.) J. C. C. SMITH. "AVOIR LE TOUR ET LE POUR" (4th S. iv. 559.) About "avoir le tour" I know nothing; but "avoir le pour" is an historical fact. The Duc de St. Simon gives an account of the fuss which was made by certain ambassadors at the court of Louis XIV. because the camp-lodgings assigned to them did not, like the lodgings of princes, bear the inscription "pour" preceding their names. As to the general question of Victor Hugo's accuracy, I would submit whether some of us little midges of literature might not do well to bask in the beams of that radiant, intellectual, and imaginative luminary, rather than pry out his spots. After all, is there in L'Homme qui Rit anything more monstrously nonsensical (if tested by the canons of plain matter-of-fact) than things which stare us out of countenance in Shakspeare? us just try to realise to our mind, as men of common sense and none of your infernal French rubbish," this situation. A leading "Merchant of Venice" enters into a legal bond for the purpose of raising money to assist a friend to choose a wife by the process of guessing between a golden, a silver, and a leaden casket. The penalty of the bond is the cutting-off of a pound of the merchant's flesh nearest the heart. The bond is enforced in a court of law. No lawyer can discover a flaw in it; but at last the bride, disguised as a lawyer, comes forward, and thunder-strikes Let the bondholder and the court by pointing out that Stowe's officious intermeddling in a matter with which she the bond does not give any blood along with the had no concern. The story of Elizabeth Medora Leigh (was the unhappy lady really christened Medora ?) bears upon flesh, and moreover, that under the existing its face such evidence of the erratic mind of the writer, statute-law the whole transaction exposes the and of its not telling the whole truth, that little importbondholder himself to crushing penalties. For a ance ought to be attached to it. All who knew how nation of shopkeepers that will, I fancy, do pretty poor Mrs. Leigh's life had been embittered by the painful well; but then we can produce one Shakspeare events which form the subject of this autobiography must have expected that Mrs. Stowe's indiscretion would be along with many shopkeepers, and France can the means of bringing the shocking story before the produce one Victor Hugo along with many voters public; though few could have anticipated that what for a "saviour of society." I suspect that most Mrs. Stowe calls "the abnormal propensities to evil" of of Hugo's eccentricities of research in L'Homme the writer could have culminated in an endeavour to fix qui Rit have some foundation, though many of upon her unhappy mother so cruel a stigma. Nothing has been gained by the publication of this statement; them may be viewed by the author out of their due proportion and relation. Of course, however, be suppressed was not adopted; but that advice being reand we regret that Dr. Mackay's advice that it should there always will be a residuum of mistake. Per-jected, the book could not have been edited with better haps it will be permanently impossible to persuade judgment than Dr. Mackay has displayed. a Frenchman that Barkilphedro and Tom-JimJack do not look to the eye or sound to the ear like English names; or that "Frith of Forth " are words differing from "First of Fourth." When we amend all our own blunders in the same line, and cease to fancy (for instance) that cricketers who dub themselves "I Zingari" are thereby airing their knowledge of Italian, we may begin to qualify ourselves for "chaffing" Victor Hugo. 56, Euston Square, N.W. W. M. ROSSETTI. Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. Prehistoric Times, as illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S. Second Edition. (Williams & Norgate.) It is fortunate for prehistoric archæology —a branch of study which is obviously destined to contribute very largely to our stock of knowledge-that it has found for its chief exponent the author of this interesting volume. Careful in the selection of facts, judicious in the deductions he draws from them, Sir John Lubbock adds to these important qualifications the gift of arranging his materials in a clear and distinct manner, and bringing the whole subject before his readers in a most pleasant, lucid, and agreeable style. Since the publication of the first edition of the work before us, the progress of this new branch of ethnology has been very rapid, and the discoveries in it both numerous and important; and to record all these without inconveniently increasing the size of the book, the author has in many cases compressed his matter into the form of statistical tables. A large portion of a hundred additional pages, of which it consists. is occupied by the addition of more than seventy new figures, which," as the author well observes, "will tend to diminish rather than increase the time occupied by its perusal." Of the beauty of the woodcuts (in number nearly three hundred) by which the book is illustrated, it is impossible to speak too highly. Medora Leigh: a History and an Autobiography. Edited by Charles Mackay. With an Introduction and a Commentary on the Charges brought against Lord Byron by Mrs. Beecher Stowe. (Bentley.) This is another sad story of sin and shame which would never have been dragged into light but for Mrs. Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, &c. Collected by David Herd. Reprinted from the Edition of 1776, with an Appendix containing the pieces in the Edition of 1791 for Omissions in that of 1776, &c. In two volumes. (Kerr & Richardson, Glasgow.) The two volumes of Scottish popular poetry which are here reprinted, which were pronounced by Sir Walter Scott "the first classical collection of Scottish songs and ballads," have long been numbered among the books which collectors had a difficulty in procuring. This has induced Messrs. Kerr & Richardson, the publishers of Glasgow, to issue a fac-simile reprint of the edition of 1776, but it is a fac-simile with a difference, as the heralds would say; for it is, in a literary point of view, better than the original, inasmuch as to this re-issue is added an Appendix containing all the pieces substituted in the edition of 1791 for those omitted of the edition of 1776, and one which was contained in the first edition, and not included in any of the subsequent ones. Herd's notes in the 1776 edition-many of which were left out in the later-are restored; and as his two versions of "Auld Robin Grey" differ so widely, both are printed. This will show that the publishers deserve the thanks of all lovers of good old ditties. Notices of Archbishop Williams. By B. H. Beedham. (Printed for Private Circulation.) The writer of these interesting notices of the great Lord Keeper (of which only one hundred copies have been printed), states that his investigations have been a labour of love, and have furnished an object to many a pleasant journey, for nothing is so satisfactory to him as to make researches personally and upon the spot. We might have hesitated to call attention to the book, bearing as it does upon its title-page the announcement that it is "printed for private circulation," but that we gather that the writer is still engaged upon the Life of Archbishop Williams, and is anxious to hear of any unpublished letters of his which are in private hands, and of any particulars relating to him. This hint will, we are sure, not be lost upon our readers. New Exposition of the Science of Knowledge, by J. G. Fichte. Translated from the German, by A. E. Kroeger. (Trübner & Co.) We must content ourselves with calling the attention of English readers to this translation of Fichte's "New Exposition of the Science of Knowledge," a translation of the original and first presentation whereof, published by Fichte in 1794, was published by our author in 1868, as was also a translation of his "Science of Rights," in 1869. The Journal of Philology, Part IV. (Macmillan.) This new number of the Journal of Philology, contains eighteen papers on various points of Classical and Biblical Learning, Notes on Roman History, Explanation of a passage in Firdausi, and a graceful tribute to the memory of one of its most distinguished contributors, the late Professor Conington. MR. RUSSELL SMITH, from whose large and well-selected stock of old books many of our readers have no doubt enriched their own special collections, is about to give up that branch of his business to his son, and confine his attention entirely to publishing. Those who have had any transactions with Mr. Russell Smith as a publisher, will, we are sure, join in wishing him every success. ENGLISH SATIRICAL PRINTS AND CARICATURES.When announcing, some time since, a Catalogue of the Satirical Prints and Caricatures in the British Museum, we attributed the preparation of it to Mr. Reid (a gentleman who would be the last to assume the credit which was due to another) instead of Mr. F. G. Stephens. This Catalogue will enumerate not only all the works of this description in the unrivalled collection of the late Mr. Hawkins, but also all those discovered by Mr. Stephens in the King's Tracts and similar pamphlets in the Museum; and the first volume, which comprises all issued between 1555 and the Revolution, will describe somewhere about 800 prints. This mention of Mr. Reid reminds us that his Catalogue of the Works of George Cruikshank-works almost as remarkable for their number as for their excellence-which is to be published by Messrs. Bell & Daldy, is very nearly ready. NEWSVENDORS' BENEVOLENT AND PROVIDENT INSTITUTION. Mr. Charles Dickens (the president) who, it will be remembered, was prevented by ill health from filling that position in April last, will take the chair at the approaching annual dinner. We congratulate the Newsvendors upon gaining so able a chairman, and recommend their deserving institution to a generous public. THE BYRON SCANDAL.-If we may judge by the telegram from New York, Mrs. Stowe's defence, which she entitles "Lady Byron Vindicated," has given great dissatisfaction. The press almost unanimously condemns the book in severe terms. The New York Times declares that she evades dates and proves nothing, and it regrets that she should persist in recording herself as the autho rity for a revolting slander. The Herald says that her arguments are weak, and that her motives are to make money or to gain notoriety by pandering to depraved tastes. The World also very strongly condemns the book. A FICTITIOUS AUTOGRAPHS. - Another manufactory of fictitious autographs has been discovered in Paris. bookseller's assistant having purchased a number of what purported to be autographs of Béranger, Rossini, Talleyrand, &c., M. Etienne Charavay, to whom they were shown, at once declared them to be false. A few days afterwards the female who had sold them offered some others to M. Charavay, who immediately gave her into custody. Her residence was found to be furnished expensively, and with great taste; with a library of rare books, fragments of ancient MSS., and fac-similes of the writing of most of the remarkable people of the time. Upon being questioned, she acknowledged the pretended autographs were the production of her son. accordingly arrested at the office at which he was engaged, and was found by the police agents busy in making an autograph of Silvio Pellico, of which they had previously discovered four copies. He was BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE. Particulars of Price, &c., of the following Books to be sent direct to the gentlemen by whom they are required, whose names and addresses are given for that purpose: ORDNANCE SURVEY MEMOIRS: Abstract of the Principal Lines of Spirit-levelling-England and Wales. 2 Vols. Wanted by Mr. Henry Prigg, Jun., Bury St. Edmunds. LES SYMBOLES DES EGYPTIENS, par Portal. Wanted by V. Rev. Dr. Rock, 17, Essex Villas, Kensington. BURKE'S EXTINCT AND DORMANT PEERAGES. New Edition, 1866. Wanted by Mr. G. F. Duncombe, South Kensington Museum. GOULD'S BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 7 Vols. HUMMING BIRDS. 5 Vols. LYSONS'S HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE. NASI'S MANSIONS. 4 Vols. STAFFORD GALLERY. 4 Vols. folio. India proofs. CORYAT'S CRUDITIES. 3 Vols. Any Illuminated Missals. Wanted by Mr. Thomas Beet, Bookseller, 15, Conduit Street. Bond Street, London, W. ARCHBISHOP BOULTER'S LETTERS. 2 Vols. Oxon, 1769-70. AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO SEEK THE LORD, ETC., in an Account of Wanted by Mr. W. C. Boulter, 6, Park Row, Hull. Notices to Correspondents. UNIVERSAL CATALOGUE OF ART BOOKS. All Additions and Corrections should be addressed to the Editor, South Kensington Museum, London, W. T. H. D. The population of Great Britain and Ireland at the last Census in 1861 was 29,192,419. It is probably at the present time upwards of 2,000,000 more. We know of no return of the number of orphan boys and girls. H. C. The carols, "Three Ships" and "The Seven Joys," are well known. COCKADES. A reference to our Indexes will furnish Inquirer with full information on this subject. W. C. will find the line "Cur moritur homo, cui salvia crescit in horto?" in Carminum Proverbialium Loci Communes, &c. Lond., 1670-a curious book, to which for some time we have intended to call attention. T. L. C. for the etymology of "Donkey" consult our Third Series, vols. vi. and vii. Correspondents who answer Queries will add to their obligation by confining themselves when replying to the answers required, i. e. by not raising fresh queries in the body of answers. Queries and replies should always be written on separate sheets of paper. The original heading of the query replied to, together with precise reference to series, volume and page, should always be given. The omission of such information saves the writer very little trouble, but entails much on the Editor to supply it. MR. THOMAS B. ROBERTSON, whose query respecting the Bourbon Family appeared at p. 435 of our last volume, is requested to state where a letter may be addressed to him. HERMENTRUDE. It has been conjectured that the political Whig ladies patched on the right, and the Tory belles on the left side of their faces. See "N. & Q." 3rd S. iv. 516. A Reading Case for holding the weekly numbers of "N. & Q." is now ready, and may be had of all Booksellers and Newsmen, price 18. 6d.; or, free by post, direct from the Publisher, for Is. 8d. **Cases for binding the Volumes of "N. & Q." may be had of the Publisher, and of all Booksellers and Newsmen. "NOTES AND QUERIES" is published at noon on FRIDAY, and is also issued in MONTHLY PARTS. The Subscription for STAMPED COPIES for Six Months forwarded direct from the Publisher (including the Halfyearly INDEX) is 11s. 4d., which may be paid by Post Office Order, payable at the Strand Post Office, in favour of WILLIAM G. SMITH, 43, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, W.C., where also all COMMUNICA TIONS FOR THE EDITOR should be addressed. MODERN INVENTIONS.-That great invention the "Chronograph," which times all the principal events of the day, and has superseded the old-fashioned "Stop-watch," seems likely to be eclipsed in fame by that still more useful invention the "Keyless Watch." The fact of no key being required renders these Watches indispensable to the traveller, the nervous, and invalids. The enormous number sent even by post to The all parts of the world, is a convincing proof of their great utility. prices range from 5 to 100 guineas. Thousands of them are manufactured by Mr. J. W. BENSON, of Old Bond Street, and of the Steam Factory, Ludgate Hill, London, who sends post free for 2d. a most interesting historical pamphlet upon watch-making. "NOTES & QUERIES" is registered for transmission abroad. . REPLIES:-Armorial Book-plates, 65- James Bisset, 67De Scotenay, 68 Broidered, 69 Dr. Franklin, 70 Chaucer's Bob-up-and-down, 71 Crumble" in Topographical Names, Ib.-Old Sayings or Old Songs, 72Literary Intercourse between England and the Continent, &c., Ib.-The Man in the Iron Mask, 73-The "Hawkius' Collection of Historical Prints" at the British Museum Rev. A. B. Grosart and a "Lover of Correct Texts Jeresgive," a Mistake for "Yeresgiue" Greek Ring Inscription-Friday Unlucky, &c., 74. Notes on Books, &c. Rates. "WILLIE STEWART" AND HIS DAUGHTER "POLLY." It was about the year 1790 that Burns became acquainted with the "lovely Polly Stewart" and her father "Willie Stewart," who was at that time, as I have already stated (4th S. iii. 281), factor to the Rev. James Stuart-Menteth, Rector of Barrow by in Lincolnshire, who had bought the Closeburn property from the old historical family of the Kirkpatricks in 1783. I have made an attempt to trace the history of Polly and her father, and it may not be without interest to the admirers of Burns who know the poems in which the bard celebrates their praises, to have a short account of their chequered lives. Mr. William Stewart was the son of a native of Close burn in Dumfriesshire, who kept a small spirit shop at "Close burn Kirk-brig," but the house has long since disappeared. He was session-clerk for some years, and, like all Scotchmen, was anxious to give his five sons the best education that his means and the times would allow. The result was that they all made their way in the world, and rose above their original station. William was born in 1750, beginning life as a packman in England, carrying drapery goods; and the first distinct notice of him that I have been able to recover is an anecdote which brought him in contact with the Rev. James Stuart-Menteth. I believed him to have been factor to Sir James Kirkpatrick, but in this I was mistaken. Happening to call, in the way of his trade, on Mr. Menteth in 1783 at Barrowby, he was asked if he knew the Closeburn property, which was then advertised for sale. As it was his native parish, he was well acquainted with it, and his intelligent answers seem to have so won on Mr. Menteth that he was asked by him to accompany him to Scotland to view the property. The result of this visit was, that Closeburn property passed into the possession of Mr. Menteth, and Mr. Stewart was appointed factor. Closeburn Hall had been destroyed by fire in 1754, and had never been rebuilt; so that there was no proper dwellinghouse on the estate. The old castle, the keep of the Kirkpatricks, and said to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland, had been fitted up by the Kirkpatricks as a temporary abode; and here Mr. Stewart on the removal of the old family ensconced himself, to look after the property, and to watch the building of the new mansion which Mr. Menteth set about erecting. It appears that Mr. Menteth was advanced in years, and left the management of everything very much to Mr. Stewart, who found himself more of the laird than his master. When the young laird, however, the late Sir Charles Granville Stuart-Menteth, came of age in 1790, his father gave over the management of the property to him, and then Mr. Stewart began to find himself curbed in a way to which he had not been accustomed. It was at this time that Burns seems to have been on intimate terms with Mr. Stewart, and used to visit him at the castle, where they were accustomed to sit late, and often see the sun above the horizon before the company dispersed. An old man, Robert Anderson (only lately dead), was the boy in attendance on the guests; and he said that Burns never took more than his head could carry, and that the poet used to assist those less able to take care of themselves up the narrow stairs of the keep; and after he had seen them all safe in bed, would order Robert to bring out his pony, and set off homewards. Possibly the intercourse of Burns and Stewart was made more intimate from the circumstance that Mrs. Bacon, the landlady of Brownhill inn, where Burns was only too often to be found in the evenings, was sister to Mr. Stewart. She had been married to an old man, Mr. Brown, who built the inn on the new line of road from Dumfries to Glasgow about 1776; and when he died, she married Mr. Bacon, a young man who had come down from England to look after the wood on Close burn estate, which had been bought by some parties in England. It appears that Mr. Stewart found that it would be more prudent to retire from his office of factor, and in 1793 we find him taking the farm of Laught, Laughtmoor, Bankhead, and Blacknest a large tract of uncultivated land in the neighbouring parish of Morton, on the Queensberry estate. Here Mr. Stewart remained till 1806, when he gave up the farm and retired to Maxwelltown on the opposite side of the river Nith from Dumfries; dying there in 1812, and being buried in Closeburn churchyard. In another note I shall give the life of his daughter Polly, with several unpublished letters, showing that she possessed higher qualities and nobler feelings than we would have been led to imagine from what Dr. Chambers, in his Life of Burns, says of her. CRAUFURD TAIT RAMAGE. TWO NOTES ON THE OLD AND NEW EDITIONS OF "A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM." 1. 66 [Enter the King of the Fairies at one door with his traine, and the Queen at another with hers.] Ob. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. (ii. 1, 1. 61.) Fairies ship. Theob. and Cam.-Fairies keep. Harness.- -Fairies trip. Dyce.-See Cam. ed. While making an antipodeal forest-journey, with the Midsummer-Night's Dream to beguile my weariness, I thus defended to myself the older reading. The old stage direction sufficiently proves that these lilliputian potentates moved about in imitation of human mortals' state, such state as might have been seen when great Queen Bess moved abroad. In a time of ceremony and state-like observances, the king and queen of fairy-land would observe a like, but an antic and mirthful, extravagance of state. We have an example of such state in Ben Jonson's masque of Oberon: "At the further end of all, Oberon in a chariot, which to a loud triumphant music began to move forward. . . on either side guarded by three sylvans, with one going in front." Only the sylvans with some quaintness kept a greater solemnity than did Shakespeare's trains, because Oberon was much be-praised and was represented by Prince Henry. În Shakespeare's dream of elves the movements would be brisk and gambolling, perhaps made even to dance music; some would guard their lord or lady, as gentlemen-pensioners guarded Eliza; and before all would be an usher, or it may be officer of the guard or other official, personated perhaps by the infant Taglioni of the troupe, whose movements would be as agile and sportive as the step and bearing of the starched queen's officer were solemn and dignified. Hence the majestic command"Fairy skip hence"; the others moving with the queen's movements. But, said my objecting self, I find that, at the close of the conference (for her wilful majesty obeys her lord when her obedience gives her the chance of reiterating all his injuries), Titania uses the plural and cries "Fairies away." True, answered my conservative spirit; but, distinguo, the circumstances are changed. While king and queen have been parleying and wrangling, the attendant courtiers and maids of honour have been frisking, intermingling, flirting, renewing acquaintance, gossipping on the events of their enforced separation, much as Biron and his colords talked and renewed acquaintance while the King of Navarre conferred with the Princess of France as touching acquittances and love-bonds. It is her thus scattered train that Titania recals with "Fairies away!" Besides, her majesty is in a pet, and will not that one remain behind or be out of her ordered place. 2. I have also been comparing the old stage directions where Bottom is transformed (iii. 1) with the new, and the resulting conclusion is, that the modern editions have injured the humour and action by unwittingly curtailing the latter, and rendering it less natural. The direction for the re-entry of Bottom as transformed by Puck is omitted in the old editions; but it is certain that at his cue of "tire," he comes on with "If I were fair," &c.; and this certainty is (as often) the reason it was omitted. Quince even calls to him to enter, therefore no other call was required by the old actors. Bottom having entered, our modern books, at the exclamations of Quince and his "Fly, masters!" send off the rest, but keep Bottom and Puck on the stage; and then, when Puck has left, Snout and Quince successively reenter. But in the folios, "[The clowns all exeunt]" after Quince's "Fly, masters!" and after Puck has spoken, "I'll follow you," &c., we have the direction-"Enter [frequent for "re-enter"] Piramus with the Asse head." That is, at the cry of Quince, Bottom runs out with the rest, as why should he not? Panic-struck with the rest, unconscious that he is himself the cause, he hurries out with and after them-"it might, God shield us, have been a lion, or other fearful wild fowl." His odd gestures when frightened, and while endeavouring to see the cause and its whereabouts, alarm his comrades the more; and his following them ensures their dispersion this, that, and every way. Moreover, his then appearance of affright makes his after-assumption of confidence the more marked and ludicrous: his after-assumption I say, because it is clear that he sings to encourage himself, though he excuses it to himself on the plea that it is to show his friends that he is not afraid. BRINSLEY NICHOLSON. |