278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»« S. VII. April 2. '59. 



and in very positive terms, any person copying or 

 making any use whatever of its contents ; and its 

 acceptance was accompanied with a solemn pledge 

 given by his lordship that this injunction should 

 be scrupulously observed. At the end of the 

 manuscript is a very long letter, also written by 

 the donor, in which, as I am told, he describes 

 Chatterton himself, and the manner of finding the 

 poems ascribed to Rowley. 



On becoming acquainted with the above parti- 

 culars from a gentleman who, some ten years ago, 

 saw the exterior of the book at Lord Charlemont's 

 residence, and was informed by an attendant of 

 what I have stated, I wrote to the Rev. the S. F. 

 T. C, Dublin (a gentleman well known to anti- 

 quaries as eminently qualified to undertake the 

 task) to aid me in an endeavour to discover the 

 nature of the contents of the mysterious volume. 

 This he very readily engaged to do ; but after 

 various applications, personally and by letter, he 

 was unable to accomplish what I know would 

 have been a source of pleasure to him. In his 

 final letter to me on the subject, dated January 

 ]5th, 1858, he says: — 



" I regret very much that my efforts to procure access 

 to Lord Charlemont's MSS. of Chatterton were abortive. 

 There seemed some unwillingness to allow them to be 

 examined, and every application I made to his lordship 

 received a civil answer, and a promise at some future 

 time to permit me to see the MSS. My last application 

 was made about August last ; and the answer was that 

 the MSS. were locked up, and that it was not then pos- 

 sible to get at them, but that his lordship would give 

 directions to have them taken out of their place of cus- 

 tody, and would let me know as soon as he had them; 

 but I have never heard anything of them since, and I 

 could scarcely write again after that answer." 



It is clear from this letter that the volume is 

 still in existence, and also that the secresy re- 

 garding it is rigidly observed. But what are its 

 contents ? This is a question it is very desirable 

 should be answered ; and in the hope that the 

 subject will be taken up, and the answer given by 

 some of the antiquarian readers of " N. & Q.," I 

 desire to place these facts upon record in its 

 columns. A local friend has suggested that its 

 contents may be the " Exhibition," a poem of 

 Chatterton's, which Mr. Catcott once had an idea 

 of publishing ; but on consulting his friends, "they 

 wei-e unanimously of opinion that it ought to be 

 altogether suppressed," on account of its gross 

 personality both in relation to " the faculty, and 

 the clergy in general, and his own (Mr. Catcott's) 

 family in particular;" that gentleman himself 

 observing, they " are so grossly satirised, that I 

 am almost ashamed to be m possession of such an 

 abusive libel." My friend's suggestion, however 

 probable, does not settle the question ^s to the 

 contents of the MS. volume in question, which yet 

 awaits decision by some one favoured to examine 

 it. George Pbycb. 



Bristol City Library. 



" A Long History of a Shoi-t Session" Sfc. — 

 Who was the writer of a good-sized 8vo. pamphlet, 

 " printed in the year 1714," and entitled A. Long 

 History of a Short Session of a certain Parliament 

 in a certain Kingdom ? I have two editions of the 

 publication, which differ in this respect, that in 

 one of them the names of the leading characters 

 are given in full, and not in the other. There is 

 nothing in either of them to tell the reader of 

 another edition. Abhba. 



CamphelVs " Pleasures of Hope^^ Part I. : — 



" Thus, while Elijah's burning wheels prepare 

 From Carmel's heights to sweep the fields of air, 

 The prophet's mantle, ere his flight began, 

 Dropt on the world — a sacred gift to man." 



Is not Campbell wrong In making Mount Car- 

 mel the scene of the translation of Elijah ? In 

 2 Kings ii. we have the whole account, viz. that 

 Elijah came to Jericho, then passed over Jordan, 

 and, " as they still went on," he was taken up in a 

 chariot of fire. This of course was on the eastern 

 coast of Jordan, whereas every one knows that 

 Mount Carmel is far up situate on the west by 

 the sea shore. Surely poetical licence could never 

 extend so far. I have not seen it mentioned in 

 any annotated edition. T. F. D. 



Execution of Domestic Animals for Murder. — ' 

 Did the law of any continental state during the 

 Middle Ages require this ? I have lately met 

 with three anecdotes, — of the hanging of a bull 

 for killing a girl ; of one boar for killing, and of 

 another for killing and eating, a child. The first 

 and third cases occurred in the Low Countries, 

 and the second at Ma(jon in Burgundy, appa- 

 rently after that province had been annexed to 

 France, and all during the latter part of the fif- 

 teenth century. These seem to have been judicial 

 acts, as the public executioner was employed 

 under the superintendence of the authorities. 

 Unless you are of opinion that the practice was 

 merely a sort of lynching, I would farther inquire 

 whether any canon of a provincial council, based 

 on the well-known provision in Exodus, xxi. 28., 

 can have sanctioned such an. extraordinary pro- 

 cedure ? The canon law, as far as I can discover, 

 is silent on the subject ; and the civil law, in re- 

 quiring the forfeiture of the offending animal, 

 agrees in the main with ours respecting deodands, 

 which, having long fallen into abeyance, was 

 finally abolished in 1846. H. Pk. 



The " Cup of Love." — I saw the other day a 

 " cup of love :" the inscription on it I give below. 

 It was, the owner told me, one of four, two of 

 which (as the last representative of the family) he 

 possesses ; and it is possible he may ascertain the 

 whereabouts of the two missing ones through the 



