2"* S. VII. Mab. 19. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



241 



one of the choruses in " The Triumph of Time and 

 Truth ; " and the theme of the fugue in the latter 

 part of the same motett is used in the chorus 

 "Mourn ye afflicted children" in Judas Maccabaeus. 

 Still I had no idea, till I saw the papers of Dr. 

 Gauntlett, that Handel had plagiarised to such 

 an extent as he has shown him to have done. 

 Even yet it seems a strange thing to speak of 

 Handel as having " no command of counterpoint," 

 and as having never composed alia capella choruses, 

 and to find him chiefly commended as a writer of 

 recitative. Are, then, none of those stupendous 

 and massive choruses with which Handel's name 

 is specially associated in the minds of most ordin- 

 ary musicians, his own works ? Is the Messiah 

 not his own original composition ? And (unless 

 it can be shown that this also is a compilation from 

 other authors), do not many parts of it — of his 

 other oratorios and of his anthems — and his fugues 

 for the organ— show very great command of coun- 

 terpoint ? and is not the chorus, " And with his 

 stripes we are healed," an admirable example of 

 a chorus alia capella ? 



Dr. Gauntlett probably has it in his power to 

 tell us much more than he has already stated on 

 the subject to which his letters refer ; and in pur- 

 suing it, he will no doubt greatly interest all 

 lovers of sacred music. I for one should feel much 

 obliged if he would favour us with a detailed 

 statement of all that he has discovered in respect 

 to Handel's plagiarisms ; so that we may know 

 how much of what we have so long been accus- 

 tomed to admire as his, is really his own work- 

 manship. ^ W. H. 



P. S. I see that Sch(elcher states that the 

 chorus, " And with his stripes," has been said to 

 have been taken from Bach ; but no proof of this 

 has been produced. If it is merely meant that 

 Bach has written a fugue on the whole or part of 

 the same subject (as Haydn has done in one of his 

 quartetts, and Mozart in his Reqidern), this is 

 quite a different matter from adopting without 

 acknowledgment whole pieces of other authors ; 

 which is, I presume, what Dr. Gauntlett charges 

 Handel with having done in respect to Uria, 

 Stradella, and Carissimi. His reproducing his 

 own works, as in the case of his Magnificat, seems 

 perfectly legitimate, if it suited his purpose. I 

 once obtained from a musical library a score en- 

 titled Empfindungen am Grabe Jesu, expecting to 

 find in it a work that would be new to me. It 

 proved to be identical with his well-known funeral 

 anthem. Thus the part of Haydn's motett, " In- 

 sanse et vanas curse," which is in the major key, is 

 taken from an air in his oratorio, " II Ritorno di 

 Tobia." The chief point of interest to ascertain, 

 is, what parts of the works that are generally re- 

 garded as Handel's, are not his at all, but altoge- 

 ther the works of other authors ; and who are 

 those authors in respect to each such piece ? 



the donnes op badnorshibe, etc. 

 (2"'J S. vii. 36.) 



One of your correspondents wants to 'learn 

 something more about the Donnes of Radnor- 

 shire, Oswestry, and Norfolk. I send you a copj 

 of a letter from the late Theophilus Jones (His- 

 torian of Brecknockshire) to my father, the late 

 Rev. James Donne, D.D., of Oswestry, which you 

 are at liberty to publish, if you so think fit. 



John Donne. 



Copt/ of a Letter from Theophilus Jones, Historian of 

 Breconshire. 



"Brecon, June 21st, 1804. 

 " Reverend Sir, 



" I do not know whether I have a legal claim to the 

 genealogy of the Donnes of Eadnorshire: I shall certainly 

 notice them, because James Donne, Esq., married one of 

 the daughters of James Watkins of Trego3'd, Breconshire, 

 about the latter end of the 17th century. Anne, the only 

 issue of this marriage, married Pryce Devereux in 1711, 

 who, in her right, became possessed of that estate, which 

 has descended from him to the present Lord Hereford, 

 who resides there the greatest part of the year. I don't 

 know where the family estate of the Donnes in Radnor- 

 shire was situate, but James of Tregoyd had an uncle, 

 Stephen Donne, of Glandw, Gent., who married Beata, 

 daughter of Howel Gwyn, of Glanbran, Esq., by whom 

 he had one son, James, who died in 1711, without issue, 

 leaving his personals to his cousin James, and his real 

 estate to his niece Anne Donne. I should be glad to 

 learn from you if you have any written documents, or 

 have preserved a tradition, as to your family, whether 

 you are descended from either of these brothers, and 

 which was the eldest. If you will furnish me with the 

 names of your ancestors, as far back as you can go, I'll 

 send j'ou as connected a pedigree as I can make out. 



" You will not, perhaps, be pleased with the origin of 

 your name ; it is Dwn, Swarthy. There were two families 

 of the Dwns, or Donnes, who were in nowise related to 

 each other. The person mentioned in the note to the Life 

 of Sir Rhys ap Thomas was descended from Griffith ap 

 Llewelyn ap Gwrgan, who offering his services to Gwen- 

 Uian, wife of Griffith ap Rees, Prince of South Wales, at 

 the siege of Cydweli, and not being treated with the re- 

 spect he expected, led the army of the Norman general, 

 Maurice de Londres, and defeated the troops of this lady 

 at Maes GwenUian, Warrington Powel. The descendants 

 of this Griffith settled in Pembrokeshire and Gaermar- 

 thenshire, but not one of them ever came into Radnor- 

 shire. A branch of this family went into England. Sir 

 John Donne married a daughter of Lord Hastings. This 

 branch is extinct, as are indeed the whole of the family 

 of that name in Pembrokeshire and Caermarthenshire. 

 Their arms were azure, a wolf salient, coward argent, 

 which you seem to have considered as your arms. If 

 they were adopted by some of your ancestors, they were 

 assumed (as I apprehend) erroneously. Your arms are 

 argent, 4 bars azure, on a bend gules, 3 arrows argent, 

 which, with some difference, are borne by the Donnes of 

 Cheshire, whose crest is a bundle of arrows, or, headed, 

 and feathered, argent, banded gu. You are descended 

 from Tewdwr mawr, Prince of South Wales ; your ances- 

 tors are the same as those of Lewis of Harpton, in Rad- 

 norshire, for manj' generations. Stephen David, Esq., I 

 believe, towards the latter end of the 15th or beginning 

 of the 16th century, married Ellis, daughter of Howel ap 

 Griffith Dwn, bj' whom he had issue Lewis ap Stephen ; 

 from whom the Lewises of Harpton. He married, 2ndly, 



