128 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[2nd s. VII. Feb. 12. '59. 



Smith in "N. & Q." 2°^ S. vi. 470., but they can- 

 not properly be termed prophetic. S. B. 



Scribbling on Tombstones. — As the subject of 

 scribbling on windows, fly-leaves, &c. has had 

 a corner in " N. & Q.," perhaps the following 

 may be also worth recording. In many church- 

 yards in Ireland, and on mural slabs in very 

 old churches, I have often remarked lines and 

 sentences scribbled on the stones, evidently with 

 nails or other sharp-pointed implements, beside 

 that of the cutter's chisel. One of the most re- 

 markable that I have met viith is the following, 

 written on a tombstone in the centre of the ruins 

 of the celebrated cathedral on the rock of Cashel. 

 Curiously enough it bears the initial letters of my 

 own name at the end. The following are the 

 lines : — 



« The Rock of Cashel is a proud memorial 



Of the former greatness of the Emerald Isle : 



The scenes about it so exquisitorial, 



Since good St. Patrick did on them smile. 



But in the Round Tower 



There's no shady bower 



From winter shower 



Or summer sun ; 



But in King Cormac's Chapel 



There one may grapple 



With a marble friar or freestone nun.* 



" There's an old Abby nicely situated, 

 Standing all convenient on the plain below ; 

 But how it came there, or was fabricated, 

 No man is living now at all to know. 

 The snow white thorn 

 The green fields adorn 

 At rosey morn 

 And scent the gale, 

 Through low anc^liigh-land 

 In this beauteous island. 

 And wafts it sweetly to Innisfail. 



S. R." 



Innisfail is an island near Cork. In North 

 Wales I have met with a great deal of scribbling 

 on tombstone?, but nothing so remarkable at any 

 place as the above. S. Redmonb. 



Liverpool. 



Epigram on Dr. Willis. — As you have inserted 

 (2""* S. vii. 88.) an epigram rather disparaging to 

 the medical attendants of Geo. III. during his in- 

 sanity, I hope you will find room for the following, 

 rather more complimentary and just to one of 

 those gentlemen, to whose skill and judgment I 

 believe his temporary recoveries were generally 

 attributable. 



When on one occasion (the first attack I be- 

 lieve), the King suddenly recovered in the very 

 crisis of the great Regency debate, the rush of 

 congratulation to St. James's was extraordinary. 

 Books were opened in the apartments to receive 

 the signatures of those who came to record their 



* This is in allusion to the chapel of King Cormac, the 

 underneath of which is remarkable for the beauty and 

 classic character of the figures, representing the religious. 



loyal anxiety, and among the rest many waverers, 

 who had hitherto hung between the " rising sun " 

 of the Princess party, and " the Pittites," who 

 stood by the King, now flocked in amazingly loyal 

 and anxious. My father told me that as he was 

 struggling up the staircase among others, he 

 heard one gentleman, looking significantly at a 

 knot of these trimming courtiers, observe to his 

 friend, " Tempora mutantur etnos mutamur in illis." 

 " Yes," replied the other quickly, " The king's 

 recovered, thanks to Doctor Willis." Although my 

 father followed these gentlemen close into the re- 

 ception room, he was unable to discover the 

 names of the authors of this admirable " im- 

 promptu.'" A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



John Wesley s Visit to Zeyst. — In An Extract 

 of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's Journal from Sept. 

 4, 1782, to June 28, 1786, vol. xx. (London, New 

 Chapel, City Road, 1786), we find some parti- 

 culars concerning a visit he paid to Zeyst, a Mo- 

 ravian settlement in the province of Utrecht. As 

 I am able to give you the translation of a tran- 

 script from the Diary of the Brethren's community 

 in that place for the year 1783, I think you will 

 perhaps consider it worthy of insertion : — 



" On June the 28th the Children's Prayer-meeting 

 was held, and Brother Wiirgatsch presided at all their 

 assemblies. At nine o'clock they prayed their wonted 

 Litany, had a sermon in the afternoon, at three o'clock 

 their love-feast, and, after that, the prayer. This after- 

 noon we had here from England, by wa3' of Amsterdam, 

 the well-known minister of the Methodists, John Wesley, 

 in the company of some other ministers. He came to 

 visit our Brother Anthony [viz. Anthony Seiflfert], his 

 old friend; went hastily over the Brethren's and Sister's 

 Houses, and was present at the love-feast of the Children, 

 who sang in his behalf a couple of benedictory verses, on 

 the occasion of his eightieth birthday, which he is just cele- 

 brating. In conclusion the blessing : ' The mercy of our 

 Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen ! ' was sung. At 

 half-past four he returned with his company to Utrecht, 

 where he had preached yesterday." 



In the Sister's house at Zeyst there still is a 

 lady living who remembers having joined in the 

 children's hymn, and who thus can be said to have 

 concurred to the blessings of John Wesley's 

 eightieth birthday. J. H. van Lennep. 



Zeyst, Jan. 15, 1859. 



^Vitxiti. 



BURT (captain), AUTHOR OF " LETTERS FROM 

 THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND, ETC." 



Can any of the correspondents of " N. & Q." 

 furnish me with any particulars of Capt. Burt, the 

 reputed author of the above-mentioned curious 

 letters ? * I have had four different editions of 



[* Cough's conjectures of the authorship of this work 

 will be found in our I't Ser. xii. 496.— Ed.] 



