284 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»-» S. NO 67., Apkil 11. '57. 



the duties incumbent upon the prebendal stall by 

 resigning the coveted appointment. This strange 

 request brought from his patron a truly laconic 

 and thoroughly characteristic reply : " I gave the 



Stall to your wife, and you may go and be ." 



Hbnei D'Avenet. 



INSCBIPTION AT BINSTEAD- 



The following inscription was a few years ago 

 written in pencil on the wall of the church porch 

 of Binstead, near Ryde, Isle of Wight : 



« A wand'ring Stranger through Quarr's woods I stray, 

 Where pensive thought recurs to ages fled, 

 And slow returning at declining day, 

 Beneath this sacred porch to rest am led. 



" Here in the calm of this sequestered spot 

 Musing I listen to the murmuring main, 

 Whose terrors now at distance are forgot, 

 Like distant troubles in this world of pain. 



" But I must quit this solemn, still retreat, 

 And to the busy world again return ; 

 Leave this seclusion with unwilling feet. 

 New cares to combat, and new sorrows mourn. 



" But why lament thy lot ? Dismiss thy fears, 

 Kecall thj' high original and end : 

 Discharge life's duties and sustain its cares, 

 Thou'lt find eternal Providence thy friend." 



Shortly afterwards this "Reply" was placed by 

 its side : 



«' Though time or wintry storms may soon efface 

 The lines that grace this silent sacred porch, 

 Think not that memory e'er forgets to trace 

 Those strains illumed by melancholy's torch. 



" Thou hast not tuned in vain thy pensive lyre. 

 Nor struck in vain its sad and plaintive strings. 

 Nor vainly do its mournful sounds expire 

 Unheai*d, unnoted, on oblivion's wings. 



" Full many a pilgrim wand'ring near this shrine 

 The copied verse shall careful bear away, 

 Full many a pensive care-worn heart like thine 

 Shall here devote the closing hours of day. 



" Responsive to each care that heaves thy breast. 

 Full many a beating heart shall join thy strain. 

 Shall look to bounteous Heaven for peace and rest, 

 Till faith and hope forbid them to complain. 



" Go, unknown Wanderer, wheresoe'er you stray 

 Hope kindly lights her sacred torch for thee, 

 And sheds refulgent o'er thy devious way 

 A ray to guide to peace and pure felicity. 



" And if thy wand'ring steps again should stray 

 Where Binstead's sacred porch boasts charms for thee. 

 List to this feeble song the while you staj% 

 And hear the echoing notes of sympathy." 



Thistle, 



PLATO AND CAMBRIDGE. 



The Edinburgh Essays, a work recently pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, pur- 

 ports to be a sister volume to the Oxford and 



Cambridge Essays. It was said by S. T. Cole- 

 ridge that all men are born either disciples of 

 Plato or of Aristotle. Now, Professor Blackie is 

 a Platonist. And the first article of the Essays 

 contains a good account by him of Plato, his po- 

 sition and philosophy, in which the worthy Pro- 

 fessor deals out stoutly right and left ; cutting 

 smartly and unmercifully at friend and foe — High- 

 land deer-stalkers, Puseyites and Rationalists, 

 choric-metre scanning prelates, and the like. In 

 wading through the article, let me warn the per- 

 severing student to be undeterred by such occa- 

 sional strains as the following : 



" Scholarship dressed itself up in modes of verbal prig- 

 gery. Theology stood aloof — partly from a frigid jea- 

 lousy of introducing a stirring soul of inoculated vitality 

 beneath the stiff ribs of its reputable formalism," &c. 



But apart from criticism, which is not my vein, 

 I would now merely wish to remark a curious 

 blunder. Professor Blackie declares that even 

 among scholars Plato is " caviare to the general ; " 

 but that between the divine idealist and the En- 

 glish mind there is a great gulf That as in frigid 

 and precise Oxford he has never found a habita- 

 tion or a home, the " Wellingtonian Aristotle " 

 (sic) being the god they have always worshipped, 

 it is vain to expect aught of appreciation or love 

 for the great dialectician. As a contrast Cam- 

 bridge has ever cherished the Platonic Philosophy 

 with especial favour. Instance Smith and Cud- 

 worth, Kingsley and Maurice. After thus eulo- 

 gising Granta, the learned Professor commits 

 himself oddly enough, and completely turns the 

 edge of his meaning ; for in a foot-note at p. 7. 

 he writes, — 



" It is understood that Professor Jowett of Cambridge 

 ( ?) is occupied with a new edition of the whole works of 

 Plato. This is just wluit was to have been expected from 

 that quarter." 



^ F. S. 



Churchdown. 



CHABLES COTTON AND SMOKING. 



Tobacconists, — to use the term in its old sense, 

 takers rather than sellers of tobacco, — are apt to 

 think that they have the authority of Charles 

 Cotton, the angler, for the indulgence of their dar- 

 ling habit. So, the thought of "that delicate 

 room, 'Piscatoribus sacrum,'" in which he and 

 his friend Izaak Walton were wont to enjoy their 

 morning pipes, made poor Lamb yearn for a simi- 

 lar indulgence in the midst of his resolutions to 

 forego it, and "in a moment broke down the re- 

 sistance of weeks." (Confessions of a Drunkard.) 



Cotton indeed, under the title of Piscator, has 

 said enough to warrant the conclusion : 



" Come, boy, set two chairs, and while I am taking a 

 pipe of tobacco, which is always my breakfast, we will if 



