198 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 122. 



that your learned contributor, Mr. Payne Colmer, 

 Las rendered very scant justice to the memory of 

 Bastard. The epigrams selected by that gentle- 

 man as favourable samples, are among the very 

 worst of the author's efforts. 



Probably not twenty copies of the Chrestoleros 

 are in existence ; but as, by the kindness of my 

 esteemed friend E. V. Utterson, I possess one of 

 the sixteen struck off at his own private press, I 

 beg to supply a specimen or two, that will not only 

 gratify your readers in general, but elicit an ap- 

 proving verdict from Mr. Collier himself. 



For example, is not the finished cadence, as well 

 as the nervous force, of the following lines to Sir 

 Ph. Sidney, greatly to be admired ? 



" When Nature wrought upon her mould so well, 

 That Nature wondred her own work to see, 

 When Arte so labourde Nature to excel, 



And both had spent their excellence in thee ; 

 Willing they gave thee into Fortune's hand. 

 Fearing they could not end what they beganne ! " 



In my poor judgment, those are truly noble 

 lines. And what say you to the following, Mr. 

 Editor, which form a sonnet rather than an 

 epigram ? 



*' The world's great peers and mighty conquerours, 



Whose sword hath purchased them eternal 

 If they survived in this age of ours [fame. 



Might add more glory to their lasting name. 

 For him which Carthage sack'd and overthrewe, 



We have found out another Africa ; 

 Newe Gauls and Germaines Caesar might subdue, 



And Pompey Great another Asia. 

 But you, O Clirlstlan princes, do not so ; 



Seeke not to conquer nations by the sworde, 

 Whom you may better quell and overthrowe 



By winning them to Christ and to his worde. 

 Give Him the new worlde for old Asia's losse, 

 And set not up your standard, but His crosse ! " 



I not only challenge Mr. P. Collier's hearty 

 approval of those magnificent lines, but I would 

 venture the expression of a doubt whether any- 

 thing finer can be produced of the same date and 

 character. 



Now take a spice of Bastard's quality as a hu- 

 morist ; not failing to mark again the solemn 

 flow and well-balanced cadence of the lines : 



" You who have sorrow's hidden bottom sounded. 

 And felt the ground of teares and bitter 

 moane. 

 You may conceive how Gilloes heart is wounded. 



And judge of his deep feeling by your owne. 

 His toothlesse wife, when she was left for dead, 

 When grave and all was made — Recovered !" 



I have other evidence as strongly favourable, 

 but I shall not adduce it, lest after all it be wasted 

 on unwillincr ears. But if It be the verdict of 



your readers that Thomas Bastard has been un- 

 justly forgotten, he shall live again in your 

 pages. R. C. C. 



INUNDATIONS AND THEIR PHENOMENA. 



The remarkable inundations that have recently- 

 taken place (I do not, of course, allude to the 

 accident at Holmesfirth) in various parts of the 

 country, without any such very long-continued 

 and violent storms of rain as one would naturally 

 look to as their cause, have called to my recollec- 

 tion some remarks in the "Notices Scientifiques'* 

 of M. Arago, attached to the Anmiaire pour VAn 

 1838, published by the Bureau des Longitudes at 

 Paris. I beg to transcribe them : 



" Des historiens, les meteorologistes, citent des in- 

 ondations locales dont les effets ont semble bien sup6- 

 rieures a ce que pouvoit faire craindre la mediocre 

 quantite de pTuie provenante des nuages et tombee 

 dans un certain rayon. II est rarement arrive qu'alors 

 on n'ait pas vu, pendant un temps plus ou moins long, 

 d'immense masses d'eau surgir des entrailles de la terre- 

 par des ouvertures j usque la inconnues, et aussi, qu'un 

 violent orage n'ait pas etc la precurseur du phenomene, 

 et prohahlement sa cause premiere. Telles furent, du 

 point en point, par example, en juin, 1686, les cireon- 

 stances de I'inondation qui detruisit presque en totalite 

 les deux villages de Ketleeell et de Starhottom, dans le 

 comte d'York. Pendant I'orage une immense crevasse 

 se forma dans la montagne voisine, et, au dire des 

 t^moins oculaires, la masse fluide qui s'en echappa avec 

 impetuosite contribua au moins tout autant que la 

 pluie, aux malheurs qu'on eut a deplorer." — P. 361. 



1. Is there any reason to suppose that a sub- 

 terranean outburst of this nature accompanied any 

 of the recent inundations ? 



2. Does the " Immense crevice " alluded to by 

 M. Arago still exist ? and does water continue to- 

 proceed from it ? Sydney Smirke. 



A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERY. 



In the year 1704 was published anonymously : 



" An Essay towards a Proposal for Catholic Commu- 

 nion ; wherein above sixty of the principal controverted 

 points, which have hitherto divided Christendom, bein^ 

 called over, 'tis examined how many of them may, and 

 ought to be laid aside, and how few remain to be 

 accommodated, for the effecting a general Peace. By 

 a Minister of the Church of England. Sold by John 

 Nutt, near Stationers' Hall, 1704." 



This Essay has passed through several editions 

 in London and Dublin : to that of 1801 is pre- 

 fixed a 



" Dedication to the Right Hon. the Lords Spiritual 

 and Temporal, and to the Hon. the House of Commons 



and the perusal of it earnestly recommended by 



a Lover of Christian Peace and Union and a Loyal 

 United Briton." 



