102 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 118. 



consisting of a flaminnr crucible, with a Hebrew 

 motto, signifying, " T;ike from me all my tin," in 

 allasion to Isaiali i. 25. The reason for selecting 

 these particular words was, that the Hebrew word 

 for tin is hedil. Clericus (D.) 



Foreign Guide-hooks. — The samples of foreign 

 English preserved in your pages are nearly equalled 

 in ludicrous effect by the novel information often 

 found in guide-books and manuals published on 

 the continent for the use of strangers in England. 

 Our metropolis is an inexhaustible subject of 

 blunders on the part of the compilers of these 

 works, of whom not a few deserve to rank with 

 the Frenchman who, having heard something of a 

 coal duty in connexion with St. Paul's, gravely 

 told his readers that the cathedral was built on 

 sea-coal. 



The following extract is from a work entitled 

 Londres et ses J^nvirons, Paris, 2 vols, with plates: 

 the compiler states that, having resided fifteen 

 years in I^ondon, " il est, plus que tout autre, en 

 etat d'en parler avec certitude." 



" Ce goufFre majestueux a englouti la ville de West- 

 minster, le bourg de Southwark, et quarante-cinq vil- 

 lages, dont les noms, conserves dans les diflterens quar- 

 tiers qu'ils occupoient, sont — 



Mora I.ambeth math Newington Butts 



Islington The Grange Kotherliite 



Falgate Finsbury Clerkenwell 



Mile End New Hoxton Norton 



Town The Spital ^ Mile End Old 



RatclifFe Poplar Town 



The Hermitage Shadwell Limehouse 



The Strand S. Catherine's East Smith Field 



Shoreditch Charing Cross S. Clement Danes 



White Chapel S. Giles in the Knightsbridge 



Stepney Fields Portpool 



Wapping Holborn l^ambeth 



The Minories Kennington Bertnondsey 



S. James Horsley Down Paddington, et 



Bloomsbury Wenlaxbarn Mary-le-Bone." — 



Soho Wauxhall Vol. i. pp. 39, 40, 



Saffron Hill 



We have here a strange admixture of the names 

 of parishes, streets, and prebends ; amongst the 

 last are Portpool, Mora, and Wenlake'is Barn, the 

 precise locality of which many old Londoners 

 would be puzzled to state. 



I think the following specimen of foreigners' 

 English, which appeared as the address of a huge 

 package received at the Exhibition, is worth adding 

 to your collection : — 



" Sir Vyat and Sir Fox Henderson Esqvire 

 Grate Exposition 



Pare of Hide 



at London. 

 " Glace 

 to be posid upright." 



James T. Hammack. 



Wearing Gloves in Presence of Hoyalty (Vol. i., 

 p. 366. ; Vol. ii., pp.165. 467'.). — Hull, in his 

 History of the Glove Trade, says that Charles IV., 

 King of Spain, was so much imder the influence 

 of any lady who wore white kid gloves, that the 

 use of them at Court was strictly prohibited. He 

 refers the reader to the Memoires de la Duchesse 

 d'Abrantes, tome viii. p. 35. Philip S. King. 



Errors of Poets. — In Vol. iv., p. 150., amongst 

 the " Errors of Painters " a picture is noticed, in 

 which " the five wise and five foolish virgins have 

 increased into two sevens." A similar mistake is 

 made by Longfellow in his last poem, 2Vie Golden 

 Legend, p. 219., where one of the characters says : 



" Here we stand as the Virgins Seven, 

 For our celestial bridegroom yearning ; 

 [Our hearts are lamps for ever burning, 

 With a steadyand unwavering flame, 

 ; Pointing upward for ever the same, 

 Steadily upward toward the Heaven." 



H. C. DE St. Croix. 



cattcn'f^. 



THE POET COLLINS. 



The deeply Interesting additions lately made in 

 your pages to our knowledge of General Wolfe, 

 induces me to hope, if not quite to expect, that 

 something, however small, may be done in the 

 same joint-stock manner for the memory of the 

 poet Collins. Sir Egerton Brydges asserts that 

 " new facts regarding Collins are not to be had," 

 and I am deeply sensible of the value of Mr. 

 Dyce's labours, as well as of those of the editor of 

 Mr. Pickering's Aldine edition of his works. No 

 pains, trouble, or expense, have been spared in 

 collecting and arranging the " dulces exuviae" of 

 the highly gifted poet ; and the memoir prefixed 

 to Pickering's edition reflects no small ci'edit upon 

 the good taste and feeling of the editor. 



Still may I not ask, through the medium of the 

 " N. & Q.," whether some further discoveries may 

 not possibly be made ? Cannot any one connected 

 with the town of Chichester, where Collins was 

 born and died — any one brought up at Win- 

 chester College, where he was educated, lend a 

 helping hand ? Are there no additional traces of 

 him as directly or indirectly associated with the 

 Wartons, Johnson, Quin, Garrick, Foote, _ and. 

 Thomson ? Cannot some of his letters be disco- 

 vered ? Some fragments of his poetry, however 

 disjointed? Some portions of his prose ? There 

 seems a mystery about Collins himself, as strange 

 as that about his own weird compositions. Though 

 beloved and admired by all, no one ever picked 

 up accurate information respecting him. He has- 

 been blamed for waywardness and want of perse- 

 verance, as if these were not symptoms of the 



