142 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[204 S. X. Aug. 25. '60. 



Our critic justly finds fault with the following 

 passage towards the end of the poem : — 



" Thus looked Elisha, when, to mount on high, 

 His master took the chariot of the sky." 



This is certainly blameable ; for it at once must 

 have suggested the idea of taking a hackney- 

 coach, a boat, &c. in London. Yet we could say 

 with perfect propriety, even in the highest poetry, 

 took horse, took wing, &c. If Parnell had written 

 trod it might have been better. 



Mr. Willmott, among the " imperfect harmo- 

 nies of final sound " in this poem, gives "unknown" 

 and " throne," " eye " and " high," " view " and 

 " too." Surely more perfect rhymes do not exist, 

 and does Mr. Willmott really desire that poets 

 should imitate Spenser, in making words always 

 rhyme to the eye as well as to the ear ? Even the 

 French, lovers as they are of .symmetry, do not 

 exact this of their poets. 



The following passage in the Noble Night- 

 piece on Death seems to me to have a defect which 

 has not been noticed by Mr. Willmott or any 

 other critic : — 



" Now from yon black and funeral yew 

 That bathes the charnel-house with dew, 

 Methinks I hear a voice begin : 



It sends a peal of hollow groans, 

 Thus speaking from among the bones." 



Now the imagery here — especially the mention 

 of the " groans " — does not seem to harmonise 

 well with the words of the speaker (which are mild 

 and consolatory), and whose object is to show 

 that there should be really nothing terrible in the 

 idea of death, which 



" Is but a path that must be trod, 

 If man would ever pass to God : 

 A port of calms, a state of ease 

 From the rough rage of swelling seas." 



Thos. Keighti-et, 



THE GUNPOWDER PLOT PAPERS, No. IV. 

 {Continued from 2"* S. ix. 277.) 



Thomas Percy, whose name is so conspicuous 

 in the history of this conspiracy, was the confiden- 

 tial steward of the Earl of Northumberland, and 

 receiver of his immense rents. 



When Catesby, after an interview with him at 

 Bath, proposed calling in some other gentlemen 

 whose wealth would enable them to purchase arms 

 and ammunition, of which they stood greatly in 

 need, Percy willingly consented to make use of 

 his position as Northumberland's receiver, and to 

 keep back all he could get of the Earl's rents, 

 which would probably amount to 4000Z. He also 

 promised to provide, from the Earl's stables, 

 " many galloping horses, to the number of ten." 



From three of his letters we are in possession 

 of his plans. The unexpected failure of the plot, 



however, and the arrest of Fawkes, threw them 

 all in confusion ; and instead of being at Doncas- 

 ter on the 5th of November, as he intended, he 

 was obliged to leave London early on that morn- 

 ing with Christopher Wright, and ride in great 

 haste to Lady Catesby's. If, on the contrary, it 

 had succeeded, he would probably have received 

 on Tuesday night, through his servants, the whole 

 of the money owing to the Earl. 



Northumberland, on the discovery of the plot 

 and Percy's implication in it, felt very anxious 

 about his rent, and despatched messenger after 

 messenger to the North to look after it. It was 

 this anxiety on his part, as will be seen hereafter 

 from the interrogatories administered to him, and 

 his answers, that formed one of the grounds of 

 complaint against him when he was afterwards 

 prosecuted in the Star Chamber. 



The three following letters are taken from the 

 originals, written by Percy himself, and preserved 

 in the State Paper Office : — 



" Sir, 



" I am advised, from those that well understand my 

 lor of Yorke his intent, not to come any more in the 

 towne; for if they had not presumed of my longer stay, 

 I had been taken.that night I was there. The Com- 

 playntes against me and ( ?) the Earle of Northumber- 

 land are so great, as both the Clargie and the knights 

 Comitioners haue seconded one another, imagyning bit- 

 terly against me as the chefe piller of papistry whereby 

 it stands in that Country, lest should it fall to the ground : 

 this and a great deale more do they urge against me, and 

 upon this it is concluded I should be stayed. 



" I hope, Sir, you will hould it my best to prevent this 

 mischeife, and the rather for that theyre is no necessyty 

 of my servis at this tyme. What mony my men receive 

 and give acquittances for I will acknowledge as my own, 

 and will be uppon Tuesday at night at Doncaster, God 

 willing, and there staj' till they come. 



" I must entreate you favour Bartill Phillipes for the 

 Mannor Garth, whereof we had once made him a lose, and 

 it is more fitting for him than for any other. I should 

 be a suiter to you for many, but especially for M" La- 

 sonby: she would paj'c no more for the Close betwixt 

 her pale ( ?) and th« river but my lord's rent, which she 

 hath already payd, and need would have [no] more. 



" I pray you, sir, make perfect the booke for , 



and whatelse you would haue to his lo., and deliver to my 

 man ; and in any thing for his I'ps service or your own 

 perticuler that you please to comand me, you shall (find) 

 me to discharge the trew part of an honest friend, and so 

 will I euer rest, 



" Yours, 

 " Gainsborough, " Tho. Percy. 



this 2n<i Nov. 1605. 



(Endorsed) 

 " To my affecte dear Friend, W"" Wicklift, Esqu, at 

 York."* 



" John, 

 " I pray you be careful of all things comitted to your 

 charge till I see you : I cannot come to Yorke, but will 

 meete you at Doncaster. Let no man take charge of the 

 mony but yourself, and I (pray) you be not carried away 

 with false Business, but be mindful of that so much con- 



* G. P. B., No. 4. 



