124 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 119. 



man was engaged in the above capacity ? I do 

 not tbink so : for soon aftei* an advertisement ap- 

 peared in tlie papers wliicli I liave reasons for 

 tliinking was by the same hand. 



" Wants a situation in a pious regular family, In a 

 place where the Gospel is preached, a young man of 

 serious mind, who can wait at table and milk a cow." 



The immortal Dr. Busby asks — 



" When energising objects men pursue. 

 What are the prodigies they cannot do ? " 



Whether it is because going a hermiting does 

 not come under the Doctor's "energising objects" 

 I know not; but this is clear, that the two follow- 

 ing instances proved unsuccessful : 



" M. Hamilton, once the proprietor of Payne's Hill, 

 near Cobham, Surrey, advertised for a person who was 

 willing to become a hermit in that beautiful retreat of 

 his. The conditions were, that he was to continue in 

 the hermitage seven years, where he should be provided 

 with a Bible, optical glasses, a mat for his bed, a iias- 

 sock for his pillow, an hour-glass for his timepiece, 

 water for his beverage, food from the house, but never 

 to exchange a s^yllable with the servant. He was to 

 wear a camlet robe, never to cut his beard or nails, nor 

 ever to stray beyond the limits of the grounds. If he 

 lived there, under all these restrictions, till the end of 

 the term, he was to receive seven hundred guineas. 

 But on breach of any of them, or if he quitted the 

 place any time previous to that term, the whole was to 

 be forfeited. One person attempted it, but a three 

 weeks' trial cured him. 



" Mr. Powyss, of Marcham, near Preston, Lancashire, 

 was more successful in this singularity: he advertised 

 a reward of 50/. a-year for life, to any man who would 

 undertake to live seven years under ground, without 

 seeing anything human : and to let his toe and finger 

 nails grow, with his hair and beard, during the whole 

 time. Apartments were prepared under ground, very 

 commodious, with a -cold bath, a chamber organ, as 

 many books as the occupier pleased, and provisions 

 served from his own table. Whenever the recluse 

 wanted any convenience, he was to ring a bell, and it 

 was provided for him. Singular as this residence may 

 appear, an occupier offered himself, and actually staid in 

 it, observing the required conditions for four years." 



Floeence. 



Dublin. 



DAVID MALLET, HIS CHAEACTER AND BIOGEAPHT. 



When an editor selects a favourite ballad for 

 notes and illustrations, he may be supposed, na- 

 turally, to have a sort of respect, not to say 

 veneration, for its author. Such is the case with 

 the recent editor of Edwin and Emma (Dr. Dins- 

 dale), when, in his brief biography of David Mallet, 

 he glosses over the vices of this man's character in 

 the quietest and most inoffensive manner possible. 

 If he was a "heartless villain" I do not see that 

 vre ought to screen him ; and I think those who 



may choose to look into his doings will find him 

 full as " black" as he is painted. 



Southey, in his Specimens of the Later English 

 Poets, vol. ii. p. 342., does not mince the matter. 

 His words are these : — 



" A man of more talents than honesty, who was al- 

 ways ready to perform any dirty work for interest ; to 

 blast the character either of the dead or the living, and 

 to destroy life as well as reputation. Mallet was 'first 

 assassin' in the tragedy of Admiral Byng's murder." 



In a copy of Gascolgne's Works, sold in Heber's 

 sale, was the following MS. note by George 

 Steevens : — 



" Tiiis volume was bought for 11. 13s. at Mr. Mal- 

 let's, alias Malloch's, sale, Marcii 14, 1776. He was 

 the only Scotchman who died in my memory unla- 

 mented by an individual of his own nation." 



David Malloch, or Mallet, is said to have been 

 born about the year 1700, at Crieff, in Perthshire, 

 at which place his father was an innkeeper. A 

 search has been made in the parochial registers of 

 Crieff, from 1692 to 1730, but his baptism is not 

 registered. 



The names of various children of Charles and 

 Donald Malloch's in the neighbourhood of Crieff 

 occur, including a David, in 1712. This obviously 

 was not the poet ; but it appears that his fatlier 

 " James Malloch, and Beatrix Clark his wife," 

 were brought before the Kirk Session of Crieff in 

 October and November, 1704, for profanation of 

 the Lord's day, " by some strangers drinking and 

 fighting in their house on the Sabbath immediately 

 following Michaelmas." On the 12th of November, 

 "they being both rebuked for giving entertain- 

 ment to such folks on the sabbath-day, and pro- 

 mising never to do the like, were dismissed." 



Some of ISIallet's letters are printed in the 

 Edinburgh Magazine, a literary miscellany, for 

 1793. They contain a number of curious literary- 

 notices, including some particulars of the writer s 

 life not generally known. 



Much interesting matter concerning the literary 

 career and character of David Mallet may also be 

 found in the recent Life of David Hume by John 

 Hill Burton, Esq., Advocate. 



Edwaed F. Rimbault. 



Minor ^ateS, 



The Hyphen. — Dr. Dobbin, lecturing some time 

 back on physical education in Hull, condemned 

 the practice of tight lacing as extremely injurious 

 to the symmetry and health of the female sex, and 

 jocularly proposed the formation of an "Anti- 

 killing - young - women - by- a-lingering - death- So- 

 ciety." This was gravely reproduced in other 

 parts of this country and on the continent as a 

 sober matter of fact, the Germans giving the hy- 

 phenated title thus : Jungefrauenzimmerdurch- 

 schwindsuchttoedtungs-gegenvcrein. I. C. 



