118 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[2-"i S. VII. Feb. 5. 'o9. 



commences with the purchase of the slaves at the 

 markets in the interior, and their deportation to 

 the coast for shipment. The second is their in- 

 termediate, commonly known as the " middle 

 passage " across the Atlantic. The third is that 

 which follows upon their landing, their consign- 

 ment, which is attended with considerable risk 

 owing to the illegality of the traffic, the conse- 

 quent rigour exercised of course aggravating the 

 misery of their victims and inflicting a propor- 

 tional increase of mortality. F. Phillott. 



Epitaph (1" S. xi. 190.; 2"* S. vi. 356. 535.)— 

 The version of this epitaph I find in my Notes on 

 Epitaphs was given to me as occurring in Ash 

 churchyard, Kent, on one John Thomas, and runs 

 thus : — 



" Poor John Thomas, here he lies ; 

 No one laughs, and no one cries ; 

 Where he's gone, and how he fares. 

 No one knows, and no one cares." 



Possibly some one can verify its existence there, 

 which would only prove what I have often found, 

 the same epitaph, slightly altered, in several places. 



T. W. WONFOB. 

 Brighton. 



Feminine of Hisn (2"'* S. vii. 45.) — I am dis- 

 posed to think that " shis'n " is the feminine of 

 " his'n " is wrong, and was invented to suit his 

 convenience by the writer of the two lines quoted 

 as an authority. A better known quotation states 

 it thus : — 



" He what prigs what isn't his'n, 

 When he's cotch'd 'II go to pris'n ; 

 She as nails what isn't her'n, 

 At the mill must have a turn." 



H. M. 



" Eagle and Arrow : " Kii-he White, Brjron, 

 Waller, ^c. (2°* S. vi. 178.) — One of the Greek 

 fables of Gabrlas is entituled Tlepl atrov re Ka\ 

 oicTTov. The subject is an eagle pierced by an 

 arrow guided by some of his own feathers : the 

 moral being not to trust too much to one's own 

 beauty or capacities. A. J. H. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Jownal of the Iteign of King George the Third from the 

 Year 1771 to 1783, hy Horace Walpole, now Firxt pub- 

 lished from the Original MSS. Edited, with Notes, by Dr. 

 Doran. 2 Vols. 8vo. (Bentley.) 



Ecce iterum Crispinus! No sooner have we laid down 

 the ninth volume of the matchless Letters of Horace 

 Walpole, than we are invited to take up two bulky oc- 

 tavos containing the last Journals of that imtiring re- 

 corder of the social and political gossip of his day. It 

 will be remembered that his Memoirs of the Reign of King 

 George III. terminate with the year 1771. After that year, 

 Walpole continued his manuscript collections under the 



title of Journals; and in the concluding paragraph of that 

 for 1772, he describes their object : " This Journal," he says, 

 "is rather calculated for my own amusement than for 

 posterity. I like to keep up the thread of my observa- 

 tions : if they prove useful to anybody else, 1 shall be 

 glad ; but I am not to answer for their imperfections, as I 

 intend this Journal for no regular work." Th^t they will 

 be useful, and very useful, to others, and especial^' to the 

 historian who may hereafter treat of the eventful period 

 to which they refer, one glance at their varied contents is 

 sufficient to establish. Well does Dr. Doran, who has be- 

 stowed most exemplarj' pains in editing the book, and 

 who has given it to us without any of the mutilations 

 which the Memoirs have been subjected to, describe the 

 Journal as detailing, during ten years of the greatest peril 

 which ever threatened our countrj', " the daily intrigues, 

 the defeats, the triumphs, the alternate exultation and 

 depression, the glory and the shame of that eventful 

 epoch." But the Journal is far from being entirely oc- 

 cupied with political matters. It abounds in literary and 

 social gossip. Walpole's account of the Duke of Glou- 

 cester's marriage, and the difficulties which arose out of 

 it — of the life and trial of the Duchess of Kingston — of 

 the melancholy history of Dr. Dodd — of Charles Fox's 

 dupery by the Sensible Woman, and hundreds of other 

 little episodes — are among the most amusing bits which 

 ever flowed from his most amusing pen. 



Shakspeare's Legal Acquirements Considered. By John 

 Lord Campbell, LL.D., F.R.S.E., in a Letter to John 

 Payne Collier, Esq., F.S.A. (Murray.) 



Lord Campbell is of opinion that were an issue tried 

 before him as Chief Justice at the Warwick Assizes, 

 Avhether William Shakspeare ever was clerk in an at- 

 torney's office, he should hold that there is evidence to go 

 to the jury in support of the affirmative ; but that he should 

 tell the twelve gentlemen in the box that it was a case 

 entirely for their decision, without venturing even to hint 

 to them for their guidance any opinion of his own. What 

 the Lord Chief Justice as Lord Chief Justice would not 

 do, however, Lord Campbell clearly does : for no one can 

 read this Letter without a conviction that if his Lordship 

 were on the jury, he would go beyond the " not proven " 

 of the Scottish Courts, and agree in a direct verdict in the 

 affirmative. If we ever entertained any doubts, which we 

 admit we never did, that Shakspeare as a young man 

 had had opportunities of acquiring legal knowledge. Lord 

 Campbell's interesting Letter has utterly dispelled them : 

 and tliough we believe, for reasons which at a more con- 

 venient opportunity we shall lay before our readers, that 

 the period during which Shakspeare was exposed to the 

 temptation of penning stanzas when he ought to be en- 

 grossing was a very brief one. Lord Campbell has quite 

 convinced us that there was in Shakspeare's youth a 

 period during which he attended Sessions and Assizes, 

 and kept leets and law days. 



Hosannah to the Son of David and Gloria in Excelsis, 

 by William Williams. (D. Sedgewick, Sun Street, Bi- 

 shopsgate.) 



This is the first of a Series which it is intended to pub- 

 lish, of the best hymns of the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries, in the exact words of their authors. The idea 

 is a good one ; for our best hj'mns have been sadly muti- 

 lated and spoiled. But W. Williams' hymns will hardly 

 rank among our best. He too often lowers the dignity 

 of his theme by unendurable vulgarities. Thus he makes 

 Our Saviour speak from his throne : — 



" I was in the world an hung'red, 

 And ye fed me chearfullj- ; 

 And 3'e gave me drink with pleasure, 

 When I was extremely dry." 



