316 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 127. 



in a handwriting of the last century are inserted 

 on slips in various parts of the volume, chiefly 

 passages from the Diary " maliciously omitted by 

 Prynne." 



The writer of this notice has not the means of 

 identifying the hand by which these more recent 

 notes, or the transcript of those of the Archbishop, 

 were written ; but will take this occasion of sug- 

 gesting what has often appeared to him a great de- 

 sideratum in literature — that is, a collection of fac- 

 similes of the autographs of distinguished people, 

 whether literary or public characters ; not merely 

 their signatures, which are found in existing col- 

 lections of autography, but passages sufficiently 

 long to aid in identifying their ordinary writing, 

 and, if possible, taken from writing made at dif- 

 ferent periods of their lives. With the improve- 

 ments of mechanical skill which we enjoy, such 

 works might be afforded at a much cheaper rate 

 than formerly, and would, it is conceived, com- 

 mand a remunerating sale. 



It remains only to add, that information on the 

 points about which inquiry is made may be com- 

 municated through the medium of the "N. & Q.," or 

 by letter to the Rev. James Bliss, Ogborne St. An- 

 drew, near Marlborough, who is engaged in editing 

 the works of Archbishop Laud ; and who would be 

 glad to receive any information with respect to 

 unpublished letters or papers of the Archbishop. 



C. R. O. 



EPITAPH ON VOLTAIRE. 



I send you two versions of the epitaph on 

 Voltaire given in Vol. iv., p. 73., not for their in- 

 trinsic merit, but as illustrations of a curious phy- 

 siological trait, as to the nature and power, or 

 powerlessness, of memory : 



" Plus bel esprit que grand genie, 

 Sans loi, sans moeurs, et sans vertu, 

 II est mort, comme il a vecu, 

 Couvert de gloire et d'infamie." 

 Version No. 1. : 



" With far less intellect than wit, 

 Lawless, immoral, and debased ; 

 His life and death each other fit, 

 At once applauded and disgraced." 

 Version No. 2. : 



" Much more a wit, than man of mind ; 

 Alike to law, truth, morals blind 1 

 Consistent as he lived he died. 

 His age's scandal, and its pride." 



These are not offered as competing in excel- 

 lence, for they are both the productions of the 

 same mind, but for the purpose of recording the 

 following remarkable fact respecting their compo- 

 sition. No. 2. was written down immediately on 

 reading your Number in July last (1851) ; having 

 composed it, I took from my library shelf Lord 



Brougham's Life of Voltaire, in which I knew the 

 lines were, for the purpose of pencilling in my 

 rendering of them. You may conceive my sur- 

 prise at finding already there the version No. 1. 

 with the date 1848, which I had made in that 

 year, but of which I had so totally lost all remem- 

 brance, that not a single turn of thought or ex- 

 pression in one resembles the other, t perfectly 

 remember the mental process of hammering out 

 No. 2., and can confidently affirm that, during the 

 time, no recollection whatever of No. 1., or any- 

 thing about it, ever crossed my thought. I fear 

 such a total obliteration is a token of failure in a 

 faculty once powerful and accurate, but, perhaps, 

 unduly tasked ; yet I offer it to be recorded as a 

 singular fact connected with this wonderful func- 

 tion of mind. A. B. R. 

 Belmont. 



THE MIX.LERS MELODY, FRAGMENT OF AN OLD 

 BALLAD. 



"V^Tien I was a good little boy, I was a favourite 

 visitor to an old maiden lady, whose memory re- 

 tained such a store of old ballads and folk-lore as 

 would be a treasure to many a reader of " N. & 

 Q." were she still living and able to communicate. 

 One ballad, parts of which, as well as the tune, still 

 haunt my memory, I have tried to recover in its 

 integrity but In vain ; and of all the little wearers of 

 frocks and pinafores, who had the privilege of oc- 

 casionally assembling round the dear old lady's tea- 

 table, and for whose amusement she was wont to 

 sing It, I fear I am the sole survivor. The asso- 

 ciations connected with this song may perhai)s 

 have invested it with an undue degree of interest 

 to me, but I think it sufficiently curious to desire 

 to insert as much as I can remember of it in 

 " N. & Q." in the hope that some of your correspon- 

 dents may be able to supply the deficiencies. I 

 wish I could at the same time convey an idea of 

 the air. It began in a slow quaint strain, with 

 these words : — 



" Oh ! was it eke a pheasant cock, 

 Or eke a pheasant hen, 

 Or was it the bodye of a faire ladye 

 Come swimming down the stream ? 

 Oh ! it was not a pheasant cock, 

 Nor eke a pheasant hen. 

 But it was tlie bodye of a faire ladye. 

 Came swimming down the stream." 



For the next two verses I am at fault, but their 

 purport was that the body " stopped hai-d by a 

 miller's mill," and that this " miller chanced to 

 come by," and took it out of the water " to make 

 a melodye." 



My venerable friend's tune here became a more 

 lively one, and the time quicker ; but I can only 

 recollect a few of the couplets, and those not cor- 



