2>«i S. VII. Mae. 12. '59.] 



NOT^S AND QUERIES. 



213 



common-sense explanation of the miracle of the 

 African Confessors. The author does not give 

 Hodgson's authority for the story, but we may be 

 sure, if there were not good evidence for its truth, 

 one so cautiously accurate as Dr. Raine would 

 not have printed it without a note : — 



" I well remember his horrifying us as we were passing 

 the scene of the outrage, with the story how two notorious 

 thieves of the name ot Armstrong, in the beginning of 

 the last century, by way of vengeance for his having 

 been instrumental in bringing two of their associates to 

 justice, had there cut out the tpngue of William Turner 

 of Cringledikes, and had sliced off part of his cheek and 

 the whole of his right ear. They had, however, unin- 

 tentionally left to the poor man enough of his tongue to 

 enable him to depose to them in a court of justice as his 

 mutilators, and bring them to due punishment." — Vol. ii. 

 G3. 



K. P. D. E. 



PORTRAITS OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 



The one prefixed to his Memoirs by Dr. Zouch 

 (4to. 1808) has this description placed under it, 

 viz. — • 



" Sir Philip Sidney. Engraved by C. Warren from an 

 Original Painting by Diego Velasquez de Silva in the 

 possession of Henry Vernon, Esq., at Wentworth Castle." 



It is a two-thirds length. The face is unlike to the 

 portrait painted by J. Oliver, which is engraved 

 in the Correspondence of Sir Philip with H. Lan- 

 guet (8vo. 1845) : the coat of arms also, on the 

 window introduced into the picture, appears to 

 me, who am no herald, not to belong to the Sid- 

 ney family. It seems inexplicable how Velasquez, 

 who was not born until 1599, full thirteen years 

 after the death of Sidney, should have painted his 

 portrait. 



From the Sidney and Languet Correspondence 

 (pp. 42. 94.) we learn that Sir Philip's portrait 

 was painted by Paul Veronese at Venice, in 1574, 

 and presented to Languet, then at Prague, who 

 had it framed, and considered it a " beautiful," 

 though " sad and thoughtful," likeness, strongly 

 resembling the original. In another letter, Lan- 

 guet writes concerning a portrait of his friend, 

 that it is " far more juvenile than it ought to be 

 — I should think you were not unlike it in your 

 12th or 13th year" (p. 77.). I find it difficult to 

 reconcile these apparently contradictory allusions, 

 unless on the supposition that Languet, in the 

 former instance, is writing of the portrait which 

 Sidney gave him, — and, in the latter, of another 

 portrait, belonging to Corbet, Sidney's cousin, 

 then on his travels, and by him shown to Lan- 

 guet. Of the portrait by P. Veronese, Vulcobius, 

 a common friend of the two correspondents, in- 

 tended to order a copy. The Rev. S. A. Pears, 

 the editor of the Correspondence, observes in a 

 note, " I cannot find that this portrait of Sidney 

 by P. Veronese is known to be in existence." 



In Mr. Dallaway's Anecdotes of Painting (Lond. 

 1828), I perceive mention made of two pictures 

 by Isaac Oliver: one, "Sir Philip Sidney sitting 

 under a tree, large size, with a caparisoned horse 

 held by a servant, purchased at Mr. West's sale 

 for 16/. 5,9.," once in the Strawberry Hill collec- 

 tion ; and another, " Sir P. S., by Oliver, in oil : 

 the last is now Lord Chesterfield's " (i. 296. 299. 

 301.). Mr. Dallaway mentions a third by J. de 

 Critz (v. 33.). 



Evelyn wrote to Pepys of a " Sir Philip Sidney 

 at full length," in the great Lord Clarendon's 

 collection, which Lady Theresa Lewis, in her 

 Clarendon Lives, says is " missing." In Mr. 

 Bohn's Lowndes, we read of one engraved por- 

 trait of Sidney, by Howe, in 1652, and of ano- 

 ther, accompanying Sir E. Brydges's edition of 

 Lord Brooke's Life of Sir P. Sidney, published at 

 Lee Priory in 1816. 



At Knole, near Sevenoaks, I remember a por- 

 trait of Sir Philip, resembling in character the 

 one by Oliver, as engraved for the Sidney and. 

 Languet Correspondence. I am told that, at 

 Wilton, there is a miniature of Sir Philip by 

 Oliver. 



Mr. Stirling's graceful memoir of Velasquez 

 contains no allusion to the alleged portrait, by 

 that master, of Sir^ P. Sidney at Wentworth 

 Castle. 



Whom does the portrait, engraved for Dr. 

 Zouch's Memoir, represent, and by whom was it 

 painted ? J. K. 



Highclere. 



P. S. In Gough's British Topography, 4to., 

 1780, i. 485., I find mention made of "a whole- 

 length print of Sir Philip Sidney by Vertue, from 

 a painting by Isaac Oliver in the hands of Dr. 

 Mead, prefixed to the Sidney Papers" with a dis- 

 tant view of Penshurst in it. In the copy of the 

 Sidney Papers, now before me, I see no such 

 print, nor any allusion to it. 



SCRIBBLING ON WINDOWS. 



Some years ago the Irish Court of Common 

 Pleas was a perfect wilderness. Somehow the 

 Irish attorneys took a dislike to the late Chief 

 Justice Doherty ; and, fromi his appointment, the 

 business gradually decreased, until it actually 

 ceased altogether. It was an extraordinary sight 

 to enter the Court in terra time. Term after 

 term, three of the judges sat (one was always ill, 

 of course,) daily for about half an hour, and it 

 was a scene of the most ludicrous description to 

 hear the crier call (when their lordships took 

 their seats) : " Any application to be made to the 

 Court?" He was speaking to the walls, for their 

 Lordships and the crier were the only persons in 

 the hallowed precincts of this temple of justice. 



