30 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'«» S. X. July 14. '60. 



^utriti tBt'tt flKStDtti. 



" Pallas Anglicana." — Can you give me any 

 account of the subject, &c. of a Latin political 

 drama called Pallas Anglicana, written by Myles 

 Davies, a Welsh clergyman ? I only know this 

 piece from the notice of it in Nichols's Literary 

 Anecdotes, viii. 501. Neither the drama nor its 

 author are mentioned in the Biographia Dramu' 

 tica. Can you give me the date of the author's 

 death ? R. Inglis. 



[In attempting to describe this work, there is a difll- 

 culty arising out of the character of the work itself, 

 D'Israeli expresses a suspicion (^Calamities of Authors, 

 1812, p. 71.) that, as the author proceeded with liis 

 volumes, "his mind became a little disordered;" and in 

 the Pallas Anglicana, which is the fifth volume of his 

 Athenm Britannica, there certainly are apparent symp- 

 toms of an unsettled brain (brought on, as D'Israeli sug- 

 gests, "by want and indignation"). The author himself 

 describes his drama as "Drama Ethico-Politico-Episte- 

 niicum. Tarn Varietate Styli quam materia ubique reg- 

 nante ; " and this is perhaps as good an account of it as 

 can be given. According to his " Argumentum " prefixed, 

 p. 1., Albionopolis (London?) is invaded by certain 

 strangers who are led on by Ars Magica and Discordia, 

 i. e. Genius Jesuitism! and Irreligio Atheistica; and 

 these, after giving a great deal of trouble, are at last 

 eternally exiled by Pallas or Irenastes, " Regio nempe 

 ceu Supremo Regimine " ! It is a strange farrago, but 

 not without marks of learning and ability. The date of 

 - the author's death is uAnown.] 



Rev. Charles Jennee. — Can you give me any 

 account of the Rev. Charles Jenner, rector of 

 Claybrook, Leicestershire ? He was author of 

 poems, plays, novels, &c. R. Inglis. 



[The Rev. Charles Jenner was educated at Pembroke 

 Hall, Cambridge, B.A. 1757 ; M.A. 1760 ; and obtained 

 two of Mr. Seaton's prizes. He succeeded Dr. Hutchin- 

 son in the living of Claybrook ; and having obtained a 

 dispensation to hold that vicarage with Craneford St. 

 John, CO. Northampton, was instituted in 1769. His 

 numerous works show that he possessed elegant literary 

 accomplishments, refined taste, and exquisite sensibility 

 of heart. Mr. Jenner died May 11, 1774, aged thirty- 

 eight. A monument was erected to his memory in Clay- 

 brook chancel bv Ladj- Craven. Nichols's Leicestershire, 

 iv. 114. 135.] 



Portrait of Colonel Barrb. — Is there now 

 in existence, and if so, where, a portrait or engrav- 

 ing of Col. Isaac Barre, member of the House of 

 Commons, and a strong friend of the American 

 colonies, previous to their revolution ? I know of 

 none except in the picture of the death of Gen. 

 Wolfe, whose aide-de-camp he was at the siege of 

 Quebec. R. E. H. 



[There is a portrait of Col. Barrd painted by Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds in the possession of the Marquess of Camden. 

 Sir Joshua also painted a portrait of Barr^ with Lord 

 Shelburne and Lord Ashburton (Dunning), now in the 

 possession of Sir Thomas Baring. From this a large mez- 

 zotinto was engraved by James Ward, A.R.A., which 

 has never been published, and it is also engraved as a 

 frontispiece to the late John Britton's Autliorship of the 

 Letters of Junius Identified, 8vo. 1848.] 



Sir John Perring. — Can you afford me in- 

 formation as to what year (I believe long since) 

 one Perring held office as Lord Mayor of Lon- 

 don, and if during his mayoralty he received a 

 title ? (as knighthood or a baronetcy ?) A. B. H. 



[Sir John Perring of Membland, co. Devon, was elected 

 alderman of Broad Street Ward in 1798; served the 

 office of Sheriff of London in 1800, and that of Lord 

 Mayor, 1803; elected M.P. for Romney, 1806; and 

 raised to the dignity of a baronet by patent dated Oct. 3, 

 1808, He died on 30th Jan. 1831.] 



SCOTISH BALLAD CONTROVERSY. 

 (2""J S. ix. 118. 231.) 



We do not know the "force" of Philo-Bale- 

 don's argument when he says " that the gradual 

 change of language by reciters, besides that it is 

 wholly gratuitous is inadmissible in compositions 

 that appear so perfect and so elegant, so peculiar 

 in a freedom from all vulgar admixture." Why 

 " gratuitous ? " Can any verses recovered from 

 tradition be truly said to retain the same form of 

 words in which they originally came before their 

 hearers two or more centuries ago ? Why " in- 

 admissible," if in point of fact popular poetry of 

 this class changes gradually in the lapse of time. 



The plot of the ballad may, in all its more im- 

 portant essentials, remain pretty much as it was, 

 but the language alters, — words, lines, verses are 

 varied ; and sometimes, we have no doubt, the 

 meaning of the original author is mistaken. The 

 persons, too, by whom the ballads are handed 

 down preclude the possibility of preservation in. 

 their original state. Can it be conceived for one 

 instant that the peasantry of a country would 

 be scrupulous as to phraseology ? or that their 

 taste for antiquated words would induce a careful 

 retention of that which they did not understand. 

 Nurses, husbandmen, and servants have been the 

 means of rescuing many interesting poetical frag- 

 ments from destruction, and surely such persons 

 would be the last in the world to care much about 

 the language. If Philo-Baledon means to say 

 that polished and elegant diction creates a sus- 

 picion of forgery, we are not disinclined to agree 

 with him ; but we see no extraordinary polish or 

 elegance in the lot of ballads Mr. Chambers has 

 handed over to Lady Wardlaw. Again, the in- 

 terpolation of a verse or two in an old ballad is 

 no reason why the entire production should be 

 designated as fabricated. In some instances mo- 

 dern manipulators have taken great liberties with 

 the text, either to suit their own caprice or to 

 obviate that coarseness which the refinement of 

 this century assumes to have disfigured our popu- 

 lar poetry of the olden time. 



From the days of Allan Ramsay to those of 

 Burns and Scott there never has, in our humble 



