May 15. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



463 



ifHtitor '^ate^. 



" Thirty days hath Septemher." — The unknow n 

 author of Thirty days hath September may be fairly 

 described as the most popular versifier in the 

 history of English literature. I believe he was 

 rather a translator than an author, and that both 

 the Latin text and the English version are of very 

 early date. Be it as it may, no one can dispute 

 its merit as a specimen of mnemonic verse. 



On the list of claimants to the honour in ques- 

 tion it is my wish to place, but without advocating 

 the cause of either, 1. Richard Grafton, citizen 

 of London ; and 2. Arthur Hopton, a. b. Oxon ., 

 the " miracle of his age for learning." 



(1.) "A rule to knowe how many dayes euery 

 moneth in the yere hath. 



Thirty dayes hath Nouember, 

 Aprill, June and September. 

 February hath .xxviii. alone. 

 And all the rest haue xxxi." 



Graftons Abridgement of the chronicles 

 of Englande, 1570. 8vo. 



(2.) " The which ordination of the moneths, and 

 position of dayes [by Julius Caesar], is vsed to this 

 present time, according to these verses : 

 ' Sep. No. Ian. Ap. dato triginta : reliquis magis vno : 

 Ni sit bissextus, Febrmis minor esto duobus.' 



Which is, 



Thirtie dayes hath September, 

 Aprill, lune, and November : 

 The rest haue thirtie and one, 

 Saue February alone. 

 Which moneth hath but eight and twenty meere, 

 Saue when it is bissextile, or leap-yeare." 



Arthur Hopton, A concordancy of 

 yeares, 1615. 8vo. p. 60. 



Wood states that Hopton left " divers copies 

 of verses scattered in books," so that we may ven- 

 ture to ascribe to him the above version — but it 

 is not the popvlar version. Bolton Cornet. 



" When found, make a Note of." — The follow- 

 ing poem may be considered in the light of an 

 enlarged paraphrase on the motto of your valu- 

 able periodical. It is one of a collection of poems 

 by John Byrom, first published in 1773. An edi- 

 tion was published at Leeds in the year 1814. 



" A Hint to a Young Person, for his better Improvement 

 by Reading or Conversation. 

 " In reading authors, when you find 

 Bright passages that strike the mind. 

 And which perhaps you may have reason 

 To think on at another season, 

 Be not contented with the sight. 

 But take them down in black and white. 

 Such a respect Is wisely shown, 

 As makes another's sense one's own. 

 When you're asleep upon your bed, 

 A thought may come into your head. 



Which may be useful, If 'tis taken 



Due notice of when you are waken. " 



Of midnight thoughts to take no heed 



Betrays a sleepy soul indeed ; 



It Is but dreaming lu the dav, 



To throw our nightly hours away. ' 



In conversation, when you meet 



With persons cheerful and discreet. 



That speak or quote. In prose or rhyme, 



Facetious things or things sublime. 



Observe what passes, and anon. 



When you get home think thereupon ; 



Write what occurs ; forget it not ; 



A good thing sav'd is so much got. 



Let no remarkable event 



Pass with a gaping wonderment, 



A fool's device — ' Lord, who would think!' 



Rather record with pen and Ink 



Whate'er deserves attention now ; 



For when 'tis gone you know not how, 



Too late you'll find that, to your cost. 



So much of human life Is lost. 



Were it not for the written letter, 



Pray what were living men the better 



For all the labours of the dead ? 



For all that Socrates e'er said ? 



The morals brought from Heav'n to men 



He would have carry 'd back again ; 



'Tis owing to his short-hand youth 



That Socrates does now speak truth." 



Vol. i. p. 59. Edit. 1814. 



Dublin. 



M. 



The Dodo, existing Specimen of. — A friend of 

 mine has just informed me, on the authority of one 

 of the principal members of the family, that at 

 Nettlecombe Park, in Somersetshire, the seat of 

 Sir John Trevelyan, Bt., there is now existing a 

 stuffed specimen, entire, of the supposed extinct 

 bird, the Dodo. 



How is it that such an Important fact should 

 have escaped the notice of the principal naturalists 

 of the country ? At the Great Exhibition there 

 was a manufactured specimen of this bird, which 

 called forth, I believe, the encomium of Mr. 

 Strickland and other well-known naturalists ; but 

 not a word was said about this alleged real spe- 

 ciiuen at Nettlecombe Park. There was in the 

 same case which contained this fictitious Dodo, a 

 cast of the head and leg from the remains now 

 in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, — the only 

 portions, I believe, that were rescued when the 

 entire specimen of the bird, once in that collection, 

 was destroyed. It is said, I think, there are other 

 remains somewhere abroad ; but that there is no 

 entire specimen of the Dodo now in existence any- 

 where. Is, I imagine, the universal belief. I hope 

 that you, or some of your correspondents, may be 

 able to solve this mystery, or set my friends right 

 should they be labouring undei* some mistake. 



KowLAND Winn, 



