2"^ S. X. July 7. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



I 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 7. 18G0. 



Ko. 236.— CONTENTS. 



NOTES : — Colley Gibber and Gay, 1 — Camden, Claren- 

 ceux, 2 — Edgar jEtheling, 3— Christopher Lord Hatton, 

 ' " Author of a Book of Psalmody, 4. 



vr .s Notes: — Web of the Spider a Remedy for Fever 

 • The Solent, the Swale, and Solway Firth — Political Sa- 

 tires, 6. 



UERIES:— The German Church in London, 6— Blake 

 Queries — South Sea Stock — The Cobler of Glocester — 

 Stench and Smell — Armorial — Senex's " Map of Ireland " 

 --■Anglin: Lacount — Sir Edward Bering — Aislabie of 

 Studley, Co. York— Paul Washington alias Haine — Robert 

 Remington — Vowel Sounds — Alfieri — Maelstrom — In- 

 terludes — "The Manuscript " — The Roay Country — 

 Randle Co^rave — Richards's Welch Dictionary — " Albion 

 Magazine " — Charles Johnston, 7. 



Queries with Answers : — Gerberti " De Arte Musica " 



— " King's Prerogative in Impositions " — " Regno delle 

 due Sicilie" — Old Tom — Oleron — Toads found alive in 

 Stone Coffins, &c. 



REPLIES: — College Salting, 10 — " Coqueliner," 11— Dr. 

 Parr and Tobacco, 12 — " Fellowes' Visit to laTrappe," &c., 

 the Note on it in Willis's Catalogue, 13 — Centenarianism, 

 15 — Derivation of Shakspeare — Pencil Writing — De- 

 scriptive Catalogue — Library discovered at Willscot 

 Glebe-House — The Gold Ants of Herodotus — Mural 

 Burial — Hereditary Alias — Ride v. Drive— Paul Hiffer- 

 nan — Ventilate — Carnival at Milan — Vant — Henry Can- 

 trell, M.x\. — Splitting Paper— Publication of Banns — 

 Rutherford Family — Submerged Bells — The Judas Tree 



— The Rev. John Hutton — Colonel Hooke— Britain 1116 

 B.C. — John Wythers, 15. 



Notes on Books. 



COLLET CIBBER AND GAT. 



Gibber succeeded to the "bays" upon the death 

 of Eusden in 1730. The poet who might have 

 calculated more surely than any other upon that 

 distinction was Gay ; but, by a strange incon- 

 sistency of conduct shortly after the accession of 

 George II., he had obstructed his promotion, and, 

 by greater subsequent acts of indiscretion, de- 

 stroyed the faintest hope of establishing his for- 

 tunes, at least through the influence of the court. 

 Gay experienced, in fact, the truth contained in 

 bis own inimitable fable of " The Hare " : — 

 . " . . . . who depend 

 On many, rarely find a friend." 



ITo doubt, he had aspired to the office of lau- 

 reate, and would have obtained it most probably 

 through the intervention of Queen Caroline ; who, 

 whilst Princess of Wales, had always been very 

 favourably disposed towards him, and, imme- 

 diately upon her accession, had given him an 

 earnest of her sincerity and condescension by 

 offering him the situation of gentleman-usher to 

 her daughter, the iPrincess Louisa. The office 

 was almost a sinecure, worth more than 2001. per 

 ann., and a sure stepping-stone to higher prefer- 

 ment; yet Gay had the folly and indecency not 

 only to reject it peremptorily, but with every 

 expression of scorn. The infatuated poet then 



cast himself upon the support of the King's fa- 

 vourite beauty, Mrs. Howard (afterwards Coun- 

 tess of Suffolk), and openly boasted that this 

 " allegorical creature of fancy " (as Swift calls 

 her) was "his sole trust and protector!" By 

 such extravagances of conduct. Gay completely 

 alienated the good will of her majesty ; and Gib- 

 ber, as a matter of course, was preferred before 

 him. 



The selection of Gibber for the vacant " bays" 

 was doubly galling to Gay. The new laureate 

 was not only notoriously ill qualified for his office, 

 having no talent whatever for lyrical compositions ; 

 but, when Gay had avenged himself upon the 

 court, in his singularly successful Beggar's Opera, 

 Gibber had ventured to enter the dramatic lists 

 with, and attempted by affecting a superior mo- 

 rality to turn the current of popular applause 

 from, him. The issue of this vain-glorious endea- 

 vour is best expressed in the laureate's own 

 words : — 



" Love in a riddle, for so my new-fangled performance 

 was called, was as vilely damned and hooted at as so 

 vain a presumption in the idle cause of virtue could 

 deserve." 



The signal failure of that dramatic piece, no 

 less than his " annual Odes," which had no merit 

 but their loyalty, exposed the unlucky laureate to 

 the incessant attacks of Gay and his friends ; and 

 amongst the latter not one was so persistent in his 

 opposition as Fielding. Gay himself had established 

 the precedent of writing " volunteer Odes," and 

 had by such means at first attracted the favour- 

 able notice of the Queen, whilst she was Princess 

 of Wales. The authors of the accompanying " Ode 

 for the New Year" (reprinted for the first time 

 from the original broadside) intended as well to 

 retaliate upon the presumptuous laureate as to ex- 

 pose the foibles of the principal personages in the 

 court. Both the hand and kindly nature of Gay 

 are discernible in it ; in those stanzas, I mean, 

 which refer to that truly excellent, but oftentimes 

 much abused lady. Queen Caroline. For whilst 

 the ballad hints at the parsimonious and irascible 

 disposition of the King, the weakmindedness of his 

 voluptuous and dependent son. Prince Frederic 

 Louis of Wales, and their mutual and disgraceful 

 squabbles, the allusions to her IMajesty are rather 

 complimentary than satirical ; evidencing, in fact, 

 her steady patronage of the most distinguished 

 men of her day, without regard either to their 

 religious or political creeds. 



"An Ode for the New Tear: 

 Written by Colley Cibber, Esq., 

 Poet Laureate. 

 " God prosper long our gracious King, 

 Now sitting on the throne ; 

 Who leads this nation in a String, 

 And governs all but One.* 



His minister, Sir Robert VValpoIe j whose red ribbon 



