Feb. 28. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



197 



" Once as Sir David Wilkie (Mr. Washington Irving 

 and myself being then his fellow-travellers in Spain) 

 was gazing on one of Titian's master-pieces — the fa- 

 mous picture of the Last Supper in the refectory of the 

 Escurial — an old monk of the order of St. Jerome 

 came up, and said to him, ' I have sat daily in sight of 

 that picture for now nearly three score years. During 

 that time my companions have dropped oft", one after 

 another — all who were my seniors, all who were of 

 mine own age, and many or most of those who were 

 younger than myself; nothing has been imchanged 

 around me except those figures, large as life, in yonder 

 painting ; and I look at them till 1 sometimes think 

 tliat they are the realities, and we the shadows.' " 



The great resemblance between these two pas- 

 sages is very striking ; the latter only amplifies 

 the former by a very few words. D. F. M'L. 



Cork. 



Antiquittj of County Boundaries. — In the loop of 

 Devonshire, on the western side of^the Tamar, 

 formed by the parishes of Werrington and North 

 Petherwyn, none of the names of places are Cornish, 

 but end in the Saxon termination of cot, whilst in 

 all other parts the Cornish names are used up to 

 the banks of the river. Modern Cornwall is a 

 province so well defined by the language of its 

 place-names, that it could be marked off without 

 difficulty, if its artificial boundary-lines were 

 omitted on a map. How does this limited extent 

 of the language consist with some accounts of the 

 former extent of the kingdom ? S. E,. P. 



Launceston. 



Zachary Pearce not a Pupil of Bushy. — The 

 birth* of Zachary (afterwards Bishop) Pearce was 

 prior to the death f of the famous Master of West- 

 minster, which took place at the short interval of 

 five years : consequently, it was impossible that 

 the relation of teacher and pupil should exist 

 between them. 



In the Memoir of this prelate, which goes before 

 his Commentary on the Gospels, it is expressly 

 stated that he was removed to Westminster School 

 in Feb. 1704. At the same time, his biographer 

 speaks of his being elected to Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, after he had spent six years at West- 

 minster, and " endured the constraint of a gram- 

 mar school to the twentieth year of his age." Then 

 follows the sentence, " Why his removal was so 

 long delayed, no other reason can be given, than 

 that Dr. Busby used to detain those boys longest 

 tinder his discipline of whose future eminence he 

 had most expectation ; considering the funda- 

 mental knowledge which grammar schools inculcate, 

 as that which is least likely to be supplied by 

 future diligence, if the student be sent deficient to 

 the university." 



Bishop Pearce's biographer was the Rev. John 

 Derby, his chaplain, who could not well be mis- 



1690. 



t 1695. 



taken as to a plain and palpable matter of fact. It 

 is perfectly conceivable, however, that the future 

 prelate was long detained at Westminster School 

 in consequence of a regulation first laid down by 

 Busby, and regularly acted upon by that eminent 

 man. This circumstance will sufficiently explain 

 the apparent incongruity. 



If I am right in this conjecture. Bishop Pearce 

 must have entered under Knipe.* N. 



The Poet Gay and his Relatives. — In a letter 

 from the late Bishop Copleston to the Rev. E. 

 Tyler, in Jan. 1839, on the death of his mother at 

 the age of ninety-two (published in his Memoirs), 

 he says, " Her father and poet Gay were brothers' 

 sons." H. T. E. 



€iutviti. 



THOMAS BASTARD, AND SONG AGAINST SHEEP- 

 FAKMING. 



The twentieth epigram in the fourth book of 

 Chrestoleros, by T. B. (poor Thomas Bastard), 

 printed 1598, is to the following effect : 



" Sheepe have eate up our medows and our 



downes, 

 Our corne, our wood, whole villages and townes. 

 Yea, they have eate up many wealthy men, 

 Besides widowes, and orphane childeren : 

 Besides our statutes and our iron lawes. 

 Which they have swallowed down into their 



maws. 

 Till now I thought the proverbe did but jest. 

 Which said a blacke sheepe was a biting beast." 



Here the allusion is of course to the miseries 

 entailed by the system of sheep-farming ; a system 

 which had been introduced and carried to excess 

 by the monastic bodies. Some years ago I met 

 with an old satirical song on this subject, of which 

 the above "proverbe" formed a kind of burden, 

 but where, or in what collection I met with it, 

 I cannot for the life of me remember. Now, 

 seeing that your periodical exemplifies very accui 

 rately the definition once given by a Surrey pea- 

 sant of a highly accomplished man — " Sir ! he 

 knows everything, and what he don't know he 

 axes," — perhaps you will allow me to ask whether 

 some one of your many able correspondents may 

 not have the power and the will to give me this 

 information. A worthless memory seems to sug- 

 gest that the song was a Cambridge production, 

 and interspersed with Latin phrases. 



Now, one word about the author of the epigram 

 above quoted. It is not, I hope, an abuse of the 

 freedom of speech which ought to prevail in the 

 republic of letters, if I express a strong opinion 



"' Noble's Continuation of Granger, vol. iii. p. 11 9, &c. 



