2°'' S. X. Oct. 20. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



301 



LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20. 1860. 



NO. 251.— CONTENTS. 



NOTES : — God save the King, &c., 301 — Blank Verse, 802 

 — Inscriptions on Ancient Chalices, 303 — Notes of the 

 Revolution, Jb. 



MiNOE Notes: — The Family of Garibaldi — Anecdote of 

 Oliver Cromwell — Sir Christopher Hatton — "Over the 

 Left" — Similarity of Sentiment between James I. and 

 Robert Burns, 304. 



QUERIES :— Cooper of Surrey: Cromwell's Officers — 

 Gouldsmyth or Gouldsmith — Old London Taverns: the 

 "Hoop and Three Tuns" and "Hoop and Pie" — The 

 Right Hon. Henry Flood's "Literary Remains" — The 

 Quaker's Disease — Mottoes of the London Medical Corpo- 

 rations — Colin Mac Laurin — Rev. Peter Debary — " Birth 

 and Worth," &c. — John Milton — Pendrell Family — 

 Duchess of Marlborough's Birth-place — Captain Rich — 

 Izaak Walton's Angler — Early Italian Versions of the 

 Bible, 305. 



Queries with: Answees :— Thomas Bunyan — Edmund 

 Kean, &c. — "Claustruni Animce — Bull of Paul IV. — St. 

 Paul at Athens, &c. — Nonjuring Prelates— " Doing Goose- 

 berry," 307. 



REPLIES:— Sir Philip Sidney's Portraits," 308— Mathe- 

 matical Bibliography, 309 — Buff, 310 — Value of Money, 

 311 — Chancels, 312 — The Duke's Wounds and Sobriquet 

 "the Beau," 313 — Codex Sinaiticus — Lord Nelson and 

 Lady Hamilton — Barm and Yeast — Painting at Tatton 

 Hall — MS. Life of Dr. George Hickes — Milton on the 

 University Carrier — Parisii or Parhissii — Guernsey 

 Market built without Money: Mr. Stephenson at Shap 

 FeUs — Lengthy Incumbencies — Rev. P. Rosenhaeen — 

 Waltham Abbey — Caradoc Freichfras, &c. — Prohibition 

 of Marriages — Hatch — Etymologies, &c., 313. 



Notes on Books. 



GOD SAVE THE KING, ETC. 



Will you kindly enable me through the medium 

 of your most useful and instructive journal to 

 rectify a few musical errors that have lately been 

 circulated by The Times and other London pa- 

 pers ? 



It is frequently asserted that our immortal na- 

 tional anthem " God save the king " was composed 

 by Dr. John Bull. This is an undoubted mis- 

 take ; the question of authorship was settled some 

 fifteen years ago by the learned Dr. Fink, editor 

 of the Leipsic Musical Gazette (published by 

 Breitkopf and Hartel), which unhappily has ceased 

 to appear for the last eleven years. Dr. G. W. 

 Fink was perhaps the most remarkable musical 

 antiquary that ever existed ; he was indefatigable 

 in his researches, and justly famed both for mi- 

 nuteness of investigation and impartiality of judg- 

 ment. The composition of the magnificent melody 

 to " God save the king " having been absurdly 

 assigned on the one hand (in France) to LuUi, and 

 on the other (in Germany) to Handel, while the 

 generality of English authorities attributed it to 

 Dr. J. Bull, Dr. Fink went to work, with that 

 wonderful patience and power of rummaging out 

 half-developed truths which only a German pos- 

 sesses, and discovered that both the music and 

 the poetry of " God save the king " were composed 



by Dr. Henry Carey, in honour of a birthday of 

 the then reigning monarch, George H., and were 

 produced by the author foi- the first time at a 

 dinner given on that occasion by the Mercers' 

 Company in London. Our information concern- 

 ing Dr. H. Carey is not very extensive, but ha 

 was born about the year 1696 in London, and 

 was a natural son of George Savile, Marquis of 

 Halifax. Few of his compositions have been pre- 

 served to us, but there is not the slightesb doubt 

 of the fact that he was the composer and poet of 

 " God save the king," the. national anthem not 

 only of EnglaiKl, but of Prussia and all the rest of 

 the German States, which borrowed this mighty 

 melody from us. (The great Joseph Haydn com- 

 posed his •' Gott erhalte Kaiser Franz " for Aus- 

 tria, towards the close of the last century.) 



Henry Carey was short-lived (he died in 1744)*, 

 and was exposed to much neglect, and some per- 

 secution ; neither was his eminent genius at all duly 

 appreciated. He committed suicide in consequence 

 of an unfortunate love-affair. Dr. John Bull, born 

 1563, was a very respectable pedantic composer, 

 but utterly incapable of so glorious a musical con- 

 ception as " God save the king." Every real 

 judge of music will also at once perceive that the 

 style and rhythmical construction of this melody 

 indicate a much later period than that in which 

 Dr. J. Bull lived. But even were this not the 

 case, it is no longer a vexed question, but a settled 

 one.f 



In a Life of Handel published a few years ago 

 in London an attempt was made to prove that 

 Dr. Arne plagiarised the greater part of his music 

 to Thomson's ode " Rule Britannia " from the 

 works of Handel ! Your musical readers will, I 

 am sure, agree with me in stigmatising this as a 

 narrow-minded and invidious charge. The entire 

 composition bears an indubitable English stamp, 

 particularly the passage " This was the charter of 

 the land," and the yet grander one "Rule Britan- 

 nia, Britannia rule the waves." Handel's fame 

 needs not the additional honour of having assisted 

 in the composition of this air ; moreover, inimita- 

 bly great as Handel was in the Oratorio, he was 

 not i so successful in the secular song ; and if we 

 compare " See the conquering hero comes 1 " with 



[* 4th Oct. 1743. See Chappell. 



f It is to be regretted that our correspondent has not 

 stated briefly the grounds on which Dr. Fink came to this 

 conclusion some "^fifteen years ago," for it would probably 

 have appeared that he had been indebted for his informa- 

 tion to our friend Mr. Chappell, whose Collection of Na- 

 tional Airs was published " some twenty years," and at 

 pp. 83. and 193. of that work, Mr. Chappell unhesitat- 

 ingly attributed to Henry Care}' the authorship of " God 

 Save the King." The subject of the various claims is 

 very fully discussed by Mr. Chappell in vol. ii. p. 701. et 

 seq. of his very learned and amusing work. Popular Music 

 of the Olden Time ; where also will be found many in- 

 teresting notices of Carey. — Ed. "N. & Q."] 



