with fair prospects at the bar, he was prematurely cut off in 1787 at the age of twenty-eight.* He contemplated a History of Craven, but had merely commenced his labours. From this letter it would appear that he had been attracted to the Countess's Memoirs. "Embsay Kirk, Sept. 8, 1785. "I have not succeeded so well at Appleby as I expected, not having met with that which was my chief object, namely, the Countess of Cumberland's Diary; but I have found still more and more reason to admire the spirit and industry of Lady Anne, having seen the collections made by her orders, and under her inspection, relative to the Clifford family, which are such as, I will venture to say, no other noble family in the world can show. They are comprised in three enormous volumes, folio, and contain not only pedigrees of every branch of the family, but every grant, charter, or other document concerning the Cliffords, which could at that time be procured or met with. The usefulness of such a collection is not to be de scribed; it has ascertained their rights so clearly, as to have settled numberless disputes, not to mention those it must have prevented." 66 It is strange that whilst examining these evidences, Mr. Baynes should have overlooked the autobiography; and what is the more surprising, we find in the third volume of the Biographia Britannica, which was published in 1784, that Dr. Kippis, in a note on the article "Clifford," speaks of papers which had been put into his hands by his ingenious and learned friend Mr. Baynes," and especially, he adds, "he has obliged us with a transcript of the original narrative left of herself by the Countess of Dorset." Who may be the possessor of this transcript? Extracts are given from it, accompanied by this chilling remark: "The perusal of this MS. has given us little satisfaction. It is written in a manner extremely tedious, abounds with repetitions, and the facts related in it are for the most part equally minute and uninteresting."‡ Enough has been said to show how confused are the statements regarding the MSS., and that diligent investigation is necessary to combine the materials left by the Countess, as "Memorables for her biography. Your readers will doubtless join with me in the wish already expressed, that Mr. Hailstone will still give us the Countess's Diary, or copious extracts from it. If he should not carry his original design into effect, may we not hope Mr. Douce, who was a warm friend and great admirer of Mr. Baynes, terms him "another Crichton," and adds, what will not be generally admitted, "He was certainly the author of the Archæological Epistle to Dean Milles." This may be accounted for by a mistake being made in the date of the letter, or in the copy of it. Biog. Brit., vol. iii. p. 640. that the gentleman who has lately read before the Society of Antiquaries, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a brief memoir of the Countess, the Rev. James Raine, Jun., may undertake this task. Or if both should decline it, is not this a work worthy of the Roxburghe Club? The Diary would be a fitting companion to the very valuable volumes, Manners and Household Expenses of England, the splendid gift of Mr. Botfield in 1841, and the Howard Household Books, so ably edited by MR. COLLIER in 1844. J. H. MARKLAND. ARITHMETICAL NOTES, NO. II. Edmund Wingate.-The first edition of Wingate's Arithmetic, published in 1629 or 1630, is a work of great rarity. I have never seen nor heard of a copy. It is an incunabulum of decimal fractions in England; and though, owing to Kersey (Comp. Alm., 1851, p. 12.), it is not absolutely essential to the historian of arithmetic, yet it is very desirable that it should be produced and compared with the second edition. The first edition of Cocker, of which several copies have appeared in sales in the last twenty years, is a mere curiosity; that of Wingate is more. It should be noted, that it was common with Wingate to publish under the initials E. W., adding sometimes "of Gray's Inn." Perhaps the obscurity of the first edition is owing to this concealment: all the other editions (eighteen at least) have the name in full. Wingate was a landed proprietor; and persons so gifted, whenever they published translation, elementary writing, or anything low, seldom put their names; often it was only a person of honour." Thus we have The Gentleman Accomptant done by a Person of Honour : London, 1714, 8vo. Few, either among mathematicians or musicians, know that Lord Brounker translated Descartes's Compendium of Music under this mode of concealment. Ready Reckoner. — 66 Accompts cast up. With an Addition of Measuring Timber, Boord, Waynscot, Glasse, and Land, working any Question in Division as also rules of Fellowship. By John Bill: London, 1632. 12mo." This is the earliest approximation to the ready reckoner which I have yet met with: but the body of the work is only an extended multiplication table of integers. My notion that the ready reckoner is not a very ancient contrivance is rather confirmed by this writer never having heard of anything of the kind. He says: "To the end that every man may buy and sell without mis-reckoning in his accompt, and without the trouble of Pen or Counters, I have with long time and much labour endeavoured to finde out an Abridgement . . .” The earliest ready reckoner mentioned in my If the boy wrote his own preface and descriptions, he tells us that necessitous virtue gained him a knowledge of numbers from indulgent nature. He tells the king, in the dedi21 cation, that his firstlings in arithmetic are raised to so august a patrociny as the royal 2 name! He quotes Horace, Florus, Cicero, Proclus, &c.; and also hundreds of names 3 of Members of Parliament as subscribers. 10 4 Probably the author was a lad of rapid 7 calculating power, whose friends thought it would be a good speculation to tell the 4 public that any one who used the boy's method could do as well. In the margin is the way to multiply 432 by 21. An instance of fifty figures by fifty figures takes 8 two large folio pages, and could be done in 1 no five minutes except those of the people who assure you they will not detain you 9 longer. Some of your readers may have 9072 the means of giving this curious production. I suppose that "by authority of Parliament" means "entered at Stationers' Hall." A. DE MORGAN. some account of COLERIDGE'S MARGINALIA ON RALEIGH'S HISTORY 99 OF THE WORLD.' I possess a copy of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, 1st edit., 1614, upon the margins of which are several MS. notes in a handwriting resembling Coleridge's, but without his initials. That they were written by him is rendered almost certain, from the following considerations: that he was familiar with the book (a fact which we learn from his marginalia on Stillingfleet's Origines Sacra, published in a periodical called Excelsior, No. IV.); that some at least of the opinions expressed in the margin of the History of the World are coincident with those of Coleridge; and that the style of their composition is Coleridge's own. When it is considered how large an amount of the MSS. of the great poet-philosopher are withheld from publication, his admirers will I am sure feel grateful for any accession to the small amount of his published prose writings. I heartily wish my contribution were greater. Preface, p. 10. : "But had the Duke of Parma, in the year 1588, joyned the army which he commanded with that of Spaine, and landed it on the south coast; and had his majesty at the same time declared himselfe against us in the north, it is easie to divine what had become of the liberty of England; certainely we would then without murmur have [brought] this union [a far greater praise] than it hath since cost us." "He will disable God's power to make a world, without, matter to make it of. He will rather give mothes of the aire a cause, cast the work on necessity or chance; bestow the honour thereof on Nature; make two powers, the one to be the author of the matter, the other of the forme; and lastly, for want of a worke-man, have it eternall: which latter opinion Aristotle, to make himself the author of a new doctrine brought into the world: and his Sectatours have maintained it." Coleridge: = "I do not think that Aristotle made the world eternal, from the difficulty of aliquid a nihilo materiali; but from the idea of God as an eternal Act-actus purissimus, and eternity Simultaneous possession of total Being-for, strictly, God neither was nor will be, but always is. We may, without absurdity or contradiction, combine the faith of Aristotle and the Church, saying, God from all eternity creates the world by and through the Aoyos." In the marginalia on Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, above referred to, Coleridge says: "And where is the danger to religion, if we make preservation a perpetual creation, and interpret the first words of Genesis as we must do (if not Socinian) the first words of St. John. From all eternity God created the universe, and the earth became waste and void," &c. Whether this were the faith of Aristotle or not, it was certainly that of Plato. Cf. Timæus. The above are all the notes on the Preface.. The following are on the text of the History: Book I. p. 65. ch. v. § 5.: "Of the long lives of the Patriarchs: and of some of late memory." Coleridge: "It is said that the first years were three moons: that the ideal of each animal's life (of the warm-blooded) is eight times its full growth: that man is at his full at twenty-five, which by 8 = 200; and that, taking three as the first perfection of number by [&?] unity (that is, three is tri-une), and three moons as the first year, this would agree with the age of Methusalem, the only man who ever reached the ideal. A negro in Peru, who was still living eight years back, was then one hundred and eighty-six, as known by public registers of sales. "1817 [or 1807?]" From this note we arrive at the date at which these marginalia were written. The second 1 is thick, and might have been intended for a 0. Book I. p. 132.: "These riddles are also rife among the Athenians and Arcadians, who dare affirme, that they are more ancient than Jupiter and the Moon; whereof Ovid 'Ante Jovem genitum terras habuisse feruntur Coleridge: "This may be equally true, whether the moon were a comet stopped by the attraction of the earth, and compelled, though not without some staggering, to assimilate its orbit; or whether the inward fire-matter of the earth, turning an ocean suddenly into steam, projected a continent from that hollow which is now filled up by the Pacific and South Sea, which is about the size of the moon." I can find nothing like the chronological or geological views expressed in the last two notes in the published works of Coleridge. Birmingham. C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY. COWLEY AND WALLER. There is a passage in one of Cowley's poems which exhibits a blank in all the editions to which I have ready access. The poem is entitled "An Answer to a Copy of Verses sent me to Jersey." One lately did not fear (Without the Muses leave) to plant it [verse] here. Year of our Lord, six hundred thirty-three. Now I can fill up the blank. The name omitted is that of William Prynne; and my authority is Pope, in a note to The Dunciad, 8vo., 1729, 2nd edit., p. 64. Will MR. JOHN BRUCE kindly throw some light on this Jersey allusion to his favourite Prynne? When Mr. Bell comes to Cowley he will not, I am sure, let this annotation escape him. There is a passage in one of Waller's poems, that "Of Divine Love," which in all the modern editions that I have seen contains a corruption. My attention was first called to the passage by a letter from Bishop Warburton to Dr. Birch (Nichols's Illustrations, ii. 931.). The couplet runs thus in Fenton and his followers: "Who for himself no miracle would make, Dispens'd with several for the people's sake." Now several, as Warburton says, is nonsense. The true reading is nature, as Warburton gathered from a MS. of the poem in his possession. Thus far Warburton; and my Note is, that the edition of 1686 of Waller now before me reads nature, and thus confirms the reading which future editors should certainly adopt. PETER CUNNINGHAM. Kensington. "The generall of the artillery hath vnder his charge a great number of labourers or pioners, which of necessity must be had in a camp, and follow an army, to make trenches, rampiers, minings, countermines, ditches, caues; to make plaine the wayes for the army to march; to accommodate the passages for the artillery to passe; to raise mounts to plant ordinance vpon; to place and fill the gabbions; to digge earth for the same; to undermine wals, and townes, and to raze those of any gained places downe; to cut timber to fortify withall; to digge wells for water, and great pits to bury and to cast therein, the garbedge, filthinesse, and offalls of the campe; and seruing to a number of such necessary uses. "Ouer the sayd pioners there are captaines appointed fortifications, trenching, mining, counter-mining, and in to gouerne them, which should be men very expert in all sorts of engines concerning a campe, and battery actions; and therefore besides their experience, they ought to be learned and well skilled in all maner of fortifications, both in campe, towne, or fortresse. These souldiers for their guard, carrying with them mattockes, pioners do go before the campe with a sufficient band of spades, shouells, pikaxes, crowes of iron, barrells, baskets, hampiers, and such other tooles; and ouer euery three or foure hundred pioners a captaine." The above is from The theorike and practike of moderne warres, discoursed in dialogue wise. Written by Robert Barret. London, printed for William Ponsonby. 1598. Folio. BOLTON CORNEY. A" Crannock."-There is not, I believe, any recorded proof to be found in "N. & Q.," or elsewhere in a printed form, of the contents of an Irish measure called the crannock. Having lately met with this term upon one of the records of the Exchequer of Ireland, I shall feel obliged by the which have been taken from the Memoranda Roll insertion in "N. & Q." of the following extracts, of the 13 & 14 Edward II., membranes 8 and 9: "Memorandum quod, etc., et Johannes de Grene recognoverunt se teneri Philippo Braoun janitori castri Dublinensis in tribus crannocis frumenti quolibet videlicet crannoco continente octo pecks boni sicci et mundi bladi." "Wolsey, they tell us, was a butcher. An alliterative couplet, too, was made upon him to that import: "By butchers born, by bishops bred, How high his honour holds his haughty head.' Notwithstanding which, however, and other similar allusions, there have arisen many disputes touching the veracity of the assertion; yet doubtless, those who first promulgated the idea were keen observers of men and manners; and probably, in the critical examination of the Cardinal's character, discovered a particular trait which indubitably satisfied them of his origin."-Absurdities, by A. Crowquill, p. 89., 1827. What a pity that the Duke of Buckingham did not avail himself of "apt alliteration's artful aid" in his invectives against the "butcher's cur!" CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A. Shakspeare's "Seven Ages." In a former Number of "N. & Q.," (Vol. viii., p. 383.) some Latin verses were quoted, as resembling these celebrated lines in As You Like It. I do not know whether it has been observed, that there is a parallel passage in one of the spurious dialogues of Plato (the Axiochus), in which Socrates sums up the successive miseries of human life, much in the spirit of Jaques, though more grave and less satirical. See the English translation of Plato in Bohn's Classical Library, vol. vi. p. 44. F. Enigma on a Hole. - Pontanus having made the following enigma on a hole, "Dic mihi quod majus fiat quo plurima demas." Scriverius answered, – "Pontano demas carmina, major erit." N. L. T. Queries. WAS THE DUKE OF YORK IN EDINBURGH IN 1684 ? The above question has lately turned up among the historical antiquaries of Edinburgh, and given rise to a good deal of discussion. As a question of the greatest importance regarding the force and value of evidence depends upon it, I venture to submit a few particulars to the public through your esteemed medium. Yet, The Duke of York, as is well known, spent some years previous to May, 1682, in Edinburgh, in consequence of his desperate unpopularity in the south, and from a desire to cultivate an interest in Scotland. He has not hitherto been supposed to have visited Edinburgh after that period; not a single writer, even among such minute cotemporary chroniclers as Lord Fourtainhall, speaks of his having done so. strange to say, in the written record of the Privy Council of Scotland, preserved in our General Register House here, the duke is described, under his usual style of "His Royal Highness his Majesty's High Commissioner," as presiding at four meetings in the latter half of July, 1684, namely, those of the 15th, 17th, 22nd, and 24th. I apprehend that, in the practice of our law courts, including the House of Lords, this evidence as to the whereabouts of a man at a particular date would be held as paramount and irrefragable. Nevertheless, there can scarcely be a doubt that the duke was not in Edinburgh at that time. In the first place, there is the remarkable circumstance that we have no other notice of the fact whatever. Fountainhall notes from day to day every movement of the state, every meeting of the Privy Council, and a vast number of small local matters, and yet takes no notice of a visit of the duke. On the contrary, describing the reception given on the 10th of July to the Ear of Perth, newly arrived as Chancellor, vice Aberdeen displaced, he says, the demonstrations could not have been more honourable, though the king or the duke had been of the party. If the duke really had appeared, in however incognito a manner, at the council board, fully twenty people were there to recognise him; and that such a secret should have been preserved in such a town as Edinburgh is inconceivable. In the second place, the first day's minutes present us with a letter addressed by the council to the duke himself, thanking him for his share in bringing about the late ministerial changes; and this letter, as well as an address to the king, is sent in another to the English Secretaries o State, with a request that it may be delivered. We can scarcely suppose that all this business would be gone through in obedience to mere form without any reference being made to the duke personal presence, if he had been present. Thirdly. While it was common, though not invariable, in the minutes of 1680, 81, and 82, when the duke was present, to commence the deliverances of the council, "His Royal Highness his Majesty's High Commissioner and the Lords of the Privy Council, having considered," &c., we find in all the four meetings of the latter half of July, where the duke's style is placed at the head of the sederunt, the ordinary formula of "Lords of Privy Council having considered," &c. is adopted. On the other hand, it is remarkable that the duke had certainly, in the early part of this year, contemplated a visit to Scotland. In a letter of his duchess, printed in the Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. iii., dated only "Jan. 7," but which we know from allusions to have been of 1684, she tells her correspondent, the Marchioness of Huntly, "We must be contented only with writing to one another, for we are not likely to meet, the duke's journey being for so short a time that I shall not go with him into Scotland." If the matter had stood at this point, there might ⚫ have been room for doubt about it. But the debate has been in a great measure set at rest by the discovery amongst the papers of the Lord Treasurer the Duke of Queensbury, now in the possession of his representative the Duke of Buccleuch, of two letters holograph of the Duke of York, addressed to the said Lord Treasurer, and dated at Tunbridge and Windsor, respectively on the 22nd and and 25th of July, 1684. In the first he tells the Lord Treasurer that he is "glad to find that most of the loyal men are pleased at Lord Perth's being made chancellor." In the second, he acknowledges receipt of a letter from the Lord Treasurer, dated the 17th, and two from the Secret Committee, and makes special allusion to matters then under the attention of the Privy Council of Scotland. It is of course evident that he could not both be in Tunbridge and in Edinburgh on the 22nd of July, or at Windsor and Edinburgh on the 25th. The allusions also to business make it clear that no suggestion as to difference of style will avail to render it possible that the duke was in Edinburgh at the time of the four sederunts. It will remain for those who may be conversant with such business, to surmise reasons for introducing the name of an absent member into the record of Privy Council on those four occasions. I have not as yet heard a single plausible conjecture on the subject. If none such can be presented, the facts thus elicited must certainly be held as reflecting strongly on the value of documentary evidence of this class. R. CHAMBERS. Edinburgh. UNPRINTED LETTER TO SIR FRANCIS BACON. ing undated letter among Ayscough's MSS. in the There are two points of interest in the followBritish Museum (No. 4108.), regarding which I am desirous of information. In the first place it is addressed to Sir Francis Bacon, who was not created Lord Verulam until July, 1618, so that it was evidently anterior to that year. I have no very good authorities at hand, but I have had the copy by me for some time, and I have not observed that the original is mentioned in any of the various accounts of Bacon; although it affords little man for which he has not usually had much proof of a trait in the character of that greatcredit. The writer appealed to him to lend his aid in silencing aspersions, regarding which even the severities of the law had been threatened. Is anything known of the nature of these aspersions, or of the person against whom they were circulated? This brings me to my second question : Who was Edmond Anderson, the writer of the letter? There was a chief justice of the Common Pleas of both those names, but he died in 1605, and he left behind him no son of the name of Edmond his male issue were respectively Edward, Francis, and William. The last of these three sons had a son named Edmond, grandson of the chief justice, who was created a baronet by Charles II., and he was perhaps not born at the date when the letter in question was written. It is a biographical matter of some interest, upon able to throw light: if he can do so, I shall be which it is very possible that MR. Foss may be much obliged to him. My Queries are, Has the following letter been noticed in any of the Memoirs of Lord Bacon? and who, and what, was Edmond Anderson, the writer of it? "Mr. Edmond Anderson's Letter to Sir Francis Bacon. "Noble Sr,-There is ever certaine presumption to be had of the favor of great men, soe there be a reason added to accompany their justice: myne that gives boldnes to call upon your succour is, that I am fallen more under the malignity of rumour than severity of lawes, though that hath oversett myne offence at the blackest marke. To force this latter cloud away none can, but the breath of a kinge: the other, which threatneth and oppresseth more, every good spirit may helpe to disperse. In this name (Hoble Sir) I beseech your goodnes to spend some few words to the puttinge of false fame to flight, which hath soe often endangered even the innocent. And if the savinge of a poore penitent man may come to be parte of your care, let it ever be reconed to your vertue, that you have not onely assisted to preserve, but create a person so corrected by necessity as the example of his repentance was not worthy to be lost, whoe will live and dye thankfully yours. "EDMOND ANDERSON.” Whatever were the offences imputed to Lord Bacon's correspondent (a matter of comparatively little moment), the tone and expressions of the above communication read almost like a confession of guilt. Maidenhead. J. PAYNE COLLIER. |