June 19. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



»97 



Love, Fire, Fancy and Taste Universal. Written by 

 Mr. Samuel Johnson. Lend., for E. Withers, &c., 

 where may be had Hurlothrumbo, 1738." 8vo., two 

 neat engravings, and sis pages of music. 



The compilers of the Biog. Dram, state that 

 they had not discovered the date of his death ; but 

 we learn from Hanshall's Hist, of the County Pala- 

 tine of Chester: 1817, 4to. p. 515., that he died 

 in 1773, aged eighty-two, and was buried in the 

 plantation forming part of the pleasure-grounds of 

 the Old Hall at Gawsworth, near Macclesfield, in 

 Cheshire. Over his remains is a stone (now there) 

 with an inscription, stating that he was so buried 

 at his own desire. F. R. A. 



MarveWs Life and Worhs (Vol. v., pp. 439. 

 513.). — I thought the question proposed by 

 J. G. F. had been answered to the satisfaction of 

 all unprejudiced minds by the remarks on this 

 subject published long ago. (See GentlemarCs Ma- 

 gazine^ vols. xlvi. & xlvii. ; Retrospective Review, 

 vol. xi., &c.) I say all unprejudiced minds ; for I 

 confess that, although I am strongly prejudiced 

 in favour of Marvell, yet the internal evidence of 

 the poems in question is so strongly against 

 Marvell, that I am compelled to resign them to 

 their rightful owner. Any careful reader of 

 poetry must acknowledge that every feature in the 

 style is Addison's. Captain Thompson's having 

 found them in MSS. in Marvell's own hand, is no 

 proof of parentage, as in the same MSS. is one 

 which undoubtedly belongs to Mallet, and another 

 which has been proved to be from the pen of Dr. 

 Watts. 



My chief reason, however, for intruding on your 

 space is for the purpose of correcting a mistake 

 into which all the biographers of Marvell have 

 fallen, as to the time and place of his birth. It is 

 again and again stated, without any correction, 

 that he was born at Hull, on the 15th November, 

 1620. That he was not born at Hull I am at 

 length reluctantly compelled to believe ; and that 

 the date of his birth is " March 2, 1621," I can 

 prove from authorised documents in my own pos- 

 session, copied from MS. in his father's hand- 

 writing. 



With reference to Mr. Crossley's hope that a 

 Bew edition of his works might soon be published, 

 I may say that a new biography of Marvell, with 

 a selection from his works by a townsman, is 

 already in the press. Jos. A. Kidd 



Hull. 



The Death- Watch (Vol. v., p. 537.).— A good 

 account of this small insect will be found in the 

 second volume of the Introduction to Entomology 

 by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. A chapter is de- 

 voted to the " Noises produced by Insects." 



" In old houses, where these insects abound, they 

 may be heard in warm weather during the whole day. 



The noise is produced by raising the head, and striking 

 the hard mandibles against wood. 



" Thus sings the muse of the witty Dean of St. Pa- 

 trick on the subject : 



________ < a wood worm * 



That lies in the old wood, like a hare in her form : 



With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratch, 



And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch : 



Because like a watch it always cries click ; 



Then woe be to those in the house who are sick ! 



For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost. 



If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post ; 



But a kettle of scalding hot water injected, 



Infallibly cures the timber affected : 



The omen thus broken, the danger is over. 



The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.' " 



The kettle of scalding hot water is also very 

 useful in houses infested with ants or black- 

 beetles. Wm. Yarrell. 



The Query of M. W. B. reminds me of a family 

 bereavement that followed the visit of this insect to 

 my father's homestead. The ticking was heard in 

 a closet, which opened out of the drawing-room. 

 I first discovered it ; and was struck with the fact 

 that it occasionally altered the interval which 

 formed the standard of the beats, though with 

 one standard the beats remained punctually 

 uniform. On examination, I found a very tiny 

 insect, in shape like an elongated spider, whose 

 "hind leg" kept beat with the sound; so I 

 suppose that member to have been the instru- 

 ment by which the ticking was effected. The 

 family bereavement that ensued was the total ex- 

 tinction of the last dying embers of our faith in 

 this world-famed omen ; for unhappily, in this 

 instance, no death ensued in our domestic circle. 

 C. JVIansfieu) Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



The Rabbit as a Symbol (Vol. v., p. 487.). — 

 It will be remembered that Richard of the Lion 

 Heart, on his way to the Holy Land, proceeded to 

 Sicily, where he played all manner of rough fan- 

 tastic tricks, to the infinite disgust of the king and 

 people of the island. On pretence of certain 

 assumed claims, but the rather /)OMr passer le temps, 

 our Achilles and his myrmidons fixed a quarrel 

 upon the reigning sovereign, Tancred the Bastard, 

 whose immediate predecessor, William the Good, 

 had married Joanna |, Richard's sister ; took 

 forcible possession of an important fortress ; turned 

 the monks out of a monastery whose situation was 

 convenient for the purposes of his commissariat ; 

 and at last, by an act of most unjustifiable aggres- 

 sion, laid siege to the city and castle of Messina, 



* A small beetle, the Anobium tesselatum of Fabricius. 



f This lady afterwards married Raymond, Count de 

 St. Gilles, son of the Count of Toulouse. Eleanora, 

 another of Richard's sisters, married Alphonso, third 

 king of Castile. 



