318 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 127. 



ments of the Bible respecting doctrine ;" the author 

 evidently meaning, not what his words imply, — 

 to get rid of the statements of the Bible,— though 

 that has been sometimes the problem of exegesis, 

 but to present the doctrinal result in a clear form, 

 aud detached from everything else. 



A Precisian. 



caucrtPi. 



ALGERNON SYDNEY. 



In no way, perhaps, has " N. & Q." been so 

 useful to the literary public as in making itself tlie 

 ready means of concentrating on any given point 

 the various readings of many persons ; unless, in- 

 deed, it should be considered more useful to have 

 proved how courteous, how willing to oblige — 

 even at some personal sacrifices — men of reading 

 are in this day and generation. The information 

 recently sent from so many quarters in relation to 

 General Wolfe is a good example of what may be 

 done in other cases ; that about Sterne in Paris is 

 another. The latter instance suggests to me a 

 way in which some of your correspondents, whose 

 private communications I have had to acknowledge 

 in reference to other inquiries, miglit do me a real 

 service at no great inconvenience perhaps to 

 themselves. 



I am collecting materials for a volume on Al- 

 gernon Sydney. A great part of this illustrious 

 patriot's ' life was spent abroad ; in many parts of 

 the continent, France, Holland, Denmark, Italy, 

 Germany, &c. This part of his history has been 

 so far veiled in considerable obscurity, and in- 

 cidents of it misrepresented. Some better know- 

 ledge of it than we now possess, must be, I think, 

 recoverable. A man of Sydney's birth, active 

 temperament, and distinguished abilities, must 

 have been spoken of in many letters and memoirs 

 of that time. No doubt anecdotes and traits of 

 character may be found in cotemporary French, 

 Italian, German, and Scandinavian literature. 



But with a library so vast to examine, no single 

 man could ever feel sure that nothing was over- 

 looked. Other exploi-ers, working for themselves, 

 may have hit upon statements or anecdotes of the 

 greatest value to me. May I ask any such to 

 oblige me by references to any works in which the 

 information that I seek is to be found ; sent either 

 to " N. & Q.," or to my address as under ? 



Hepworth Dixon. 



84. St. John's Wood Terrace. 



OLD IRISH TALES. 



A black-letler duodecimo, printed in London in 

 1584, under the anomalous title of Beware the Cat, 

 was advertised for sale in one of Thorpe's Cata- 

 logues a few years back, at a price of seven 



guineas. The copy was believed to be unique; it 

 had been in the libraries of several book collectors,' 

 and among others of Mr. Heber, who considered 

 it the most curious volume illustrative of the times, 

 in all his vast collection. It appears, by the short 

 abstract of contents, that the book contains some 

 curious notices of Ireland and Irishmen ; an " ac- 

 count" is given "of the civil wars in Ireland, by 

 Mackmorro, and all the rest of the wild Irish 

 lords." This hero was probably Art Kavanagh, 

 "the Mac-Morrogh" (the hereditary title of the 

 chief of the Leinster septs) whose rebellions 

 were, on two occasions, the cause of Richard II.'s 

 two great expeditions to Ireland. Then follows 

 the tale of " Fitz-IIarris and the Prior of Tin- 

 tern Abbey." Fitz-IIarris, or Fitz-Henry, was 

 an Anglo-Irish baron, who resided in the south of 

 the county of Wexford, in the neighbourhood of a 

 convent, which having been founded by Marshal, 

 Earl of Pembroke, and supplied with monks from 

 Tintern in Monmouthshire, was named after the 

 parent monastery. The Fitz- Harris's are said to- 

 have descended from Meyler Fitz-Henry, the 

 "indomitor totius gentis Hibernije," but they be- 

 came, to quote Spenser's adage current of the 

 Anglo-Irish of his day, 



" As Irish as O'Hanlan's breech; " 

 they " matched with the Kavanaghs of Carlow, and 

 held with them," and thus became involved in the 

 interminable feuds of the native tribes, and, like 

 them, they left their estates to their bastards. 



"The fashion of the Irish wars at thnt time" is 

 there described, but probably not more graphically 

 than in Derrick's quaint doggrel verses. " The 

 Irish Churle's Tale " is next told ; tlie churl was 

 the husbandman, the "Protectionist" of the day, 

 who doubtless could tell many piteous tales of op- 

 pression, rapine, and ravislnnent, whoso only hope 

 of protection lay in acting as a sort of sponge to- 

 some " wild lord " (who would guard him from 

 being plundered by others, that he might himself 

 devour his substance), and whose " tenant-right "^ 

 cry of that day was "spend me, but defend me." 



The volume affirms that " the wild Irishmen 

 were better than we in reverencing their religion : " 

 the verb is used in the preterimperfect tense. 

 " The old Irish diet was to dine at night ; " this is 

 even a stranger assertion. Higden, in his Poly-^ 

 chronicon, declares of the Irish clergy, 



" They ben chaste, and sa3'en many prayers, and done? 

 great abstinence a-day, and drinketh all night." 

 That glorious chanson d boire, commencing 



" I cannot eat but little meat, 

 My stomach is not good ; 

 But I do think that I can drink 

 With him that wears a hood ! " 



must have been composed in Ireland. If the old 

 black-letter book had said that the Ii-isli got their 

 dinner at night, it would have been nearer the 



