146 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'«i S. VII. Fek. 19. '59. 



entranced hearers, we may learn the lessons of 

 wisdom which that trial has left us, and apply 

 them, as far as they are applicable, to the mo- 

 mentous business of our Indian government. 



P. H. F. 



Sohert Burns. — The following, from the Man- 

 chester Guardian, Jan. 10, 1859, may perhaps be 

 thought worthy of preservation in the pages of 

 " N. & Q " : — 



" The First Copy of Burns' s Poems. — The first copy of 

 Robert Biirns's Poems issued from the press was presented 

 by the bard himself to Hugh Morton, who was his fellow- 

 ploughraaa on the farm of Lochlie. Burns handed the 

 book to Morton when standing at the 'publisher's door in 

 Kilmarnock, on the morning when the poems were ready 

 to be issued. This copy of the poet's works is now in the 

 possession of the son of Hugh Morton." — Ayr Advertiser. 



Akterus. 

 Dublin. 



The Centenary of the Poet Burns. — The fol- 

 lowing paragraph, copied from the Edinburgh 

 JEvening Post and Scottish Record, bearing date 

 January 26th, 1859, and describing the festivities 

 held in Edinburgh in commemoration of the cen- 

 tenary of the birth of Scotland's greatest poet, on 

 the day previous, contains a notice of what ap- 

 pears to me to have been the most remarkable 

 event of the day, and to be worthy of a place in 

 the pages of " N. & Q." The paragraph relates 

 that the centenary festival was held in the Edin- 

 burgh Music Hall, Lord Ardmillan being chair- 

 man, and then proceeds as follows : — 



" The Chairman gave the ' Peasantry of Scotland,' 

 which was drunk with rural * honours. After this toast 

 had been drunk, the Chairman introduced Mr. Glover, a 

 contemporary of Burns, who was upwards of 100 years of 

 age, and who recited ' Tam O'Shanter ' with a humour 

 that drew forth loud laughter from the audience." 



John Pavin Phiixips. 



[On the same day there was a tea banquet in the Corn 

 Exchange, under the auspices of the Edinburgh Total 

 Abstinence Society, when towards the close of the pro- 

 ceedings, Mr. Walter Glover, the centenarian, arrived 

 from the Music Hall, and related several interviews he 

 had had with Burns, " the gauger," in 1795, when em- 

 ployed in his vocation as a carrier to drive a number of 

 puncheons of rum from Dumfries to Leith ; and how, on 

 one occasion, being storm-staid at Dumfries in the severe 

 winter of that year, he was treated to share of half-a- 

 mutchkin in his landlady's by Mr. Burns. He described 

 Burns as a " weel-made man, with dark hair and chestnut 

 eyes," and said " he was not talkative ; but of coorse he 

 had nae business to converse with me ; he just signed my 



Sermits, and my business was dune wi' him." — Times, 

 an. 27, 1859.] 



" A Man's a Man for a' that. — In looking over 

 The Plain Dealer, a comedy by Wycherley, 

 altered by Isaac Bickerstaff for the stage in 1766, 

 I came upon the following passage, Act I. Sc. 1. 

 (Manly log.) : — 



" A lord ! What, you are one of those who esteem men 

 * Query. What are " rural " honours? 



only by the value and marks which fortune has set upon 

 them, and never consider intrinsic worth I But counter- 

 feit honours will not be current with me ; I weigh the 

 man, not his title : it is not the king's inscription can make 

 the metal better or heavier. Your lord is a leaden shilling, 

 which yon bend every way, and debases the stamp he 

 bears, instead of being raised by it, &c. &c." 



This is certainly (if nothing else) a curious 

 coincidence of ideas with those expressed in 

 Burns's song, " Is there for honest poverty," and 

 may at this time, when everything relating to the 

 poet seems interesting to the public, be deemed 

 worthy of notice in " N. & Q." J. R. 



The word Rapid. — There is a use of the word 

 rapid, among the inhabitants of some parts of 

 Gloucestershire, which seems worthy of notice in 

 your columns. This noun is employed in the sig- 

 nification oi great or violent, as in the very com- 

 mon expression of "rapid pain." It will be found, 

 I think, that equivalents in other languages aro 

 used in a similarly metaphorical sense. W. J. D. 



^ntviti. 



"O MI JESU, QUI SUBIRE : DEAN TRENCH S SACBfef) 

 IiATIN POETRY. 



I too am rejoiced to see that this volume is 

 being re-edited. It is perhaps too much to hope 

 that every one's favourite hymn should find ad- 

 mission in the new edition of this delightful book. 

 But as the one which I should like to crave ad- 

 mission for was given to me in MS. many years 

 ago, its authorship — unknown to my friend the 

 donor — still remaining unknown to me, and as I 

 have sought for it hitherto in published collections 

 without success, I do hope that you will be able 

 to afford space for it, if it be only to secure its 

 being once edited, with the bare chance of some 

 of your readers informing me as to its author's 

 name. It is as follows : — 



" O mi Jesu, qui subire 

 Voluisti pro me dirae 



Crucis ignominiam ; 

 Qui pro meis Te peccatis, 

 In hac ara pietatis, 



Dederas in hostiam ; 



" Coram Te en supplex cado, 



Et me TiBi totum trado, 



Ac in servum consecro. 



Scio quidem me peccasse, 



Et ut ovem aberrasse, 



Ah ! condones obsecro. 



" Tandem rogo tot labores, 

 Tantus sanguis, et dolores, 



Fac in me non pereant : 

 Sed quod hactenus peccavi, 

 Tua Crux, cum Spinis, Clavi, 



Ac MOES Tua deleant." 



N. 



Avington. 



