2"^ S. X Nov. 10. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



361 



LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10. 18G0. 



N«. 254. — CONTENTS. 



NOTES : — La«raiige, 361 — Byron, and Ridge his first Prin- 

 ter, 362 — Folk-lore : — Leckhampton Custom— The Christ- 

 mas Tree — Charm for Tpoth-ache — Charms for Ague 

 and Tooth-ache — A Fall-of-the-Leaf Saying — The Sab- 

 bath Sun, 36:5 — St. George's hi the East anticipated, 364 



— College Life at Oxford, One Hundred and Thirty Years 

 Ago, 365. 



MiN OE Notes : — Hales of Eton — Specimen of Pulpit Ora- 

 tory of Seventeenth Century -"For youngth is a Bubble" 



— Odd Titles of Books — The Felbrigg Brass — Ancient 

 Ballad, 366. 



QUERIES: — Ben Jonson, 367 — Definition of Wit — Ma- 

 thias Lobel — Shaftesbury Cartularies — Thotnaa Rosoman 



— Canadian Song — Meaning of Platey — Inscription — 

 Colonel Graves — Christopher Ebdon — Consecration of a 

 Mausoleum— Golden Verses of the Pjiihagoreans — Singu- 

 lar JMarriages — Baythorne Family — Symbolism —Temple 

 at Tivoli— Rev. Michael Hartlib— Transportation, &c., 368. 



QuEEiES WITH Answebs : — Bishop Trelawney — James 

 Bradley, D.D. — " Deal Crabs " — Oliver Cromwell's School- 

 master—Bubble and Squeak— "A New Covering to the 

 Velvet Cushion," 371. 



REPLIES : — Turnstile Alley: Norden's "View of London," 

 372— Nouveau Testament, &c., Bourdeaux, 1686, J6.— Ghost 

 in the Tower, 373 —The Oak and the Ash, 374— Paradise 

 of the Soul — Buff— Celebrated Writer— Rev. George 

 Whitefleld-Yepsond —Wit— Mode of concluding Letters 



— Farrendine — Sea Breaches — Round Robin — Dr. Bhss's 

 Selections from the Old Poets — Lists of Nonjurors — 



• Doing Gooseberry — Clerical Longevity — Motto of ther 



College of Physicians — God Save the iCing, 375. 

 Notes on Books. 



lagrangp:. 



Among the minor points which national pride 

 has raised, is to be reckoned the question whether 

 this great mathematician was a, Frenchman or an 

 Italian. But it must be said that the French in 

 general are not very keen in claiming him : they 

 are content with the share in his blood which, as 

 presently seen, they have; and with the honour 

 derived from his having lived long in France, and 

 written all his great works in French. It is felt 

 by all the more learned French writers, no doubt, 

 that every mode of claiming Lagrange for a 

 Frenchman which depends upon residence and 

 language, is a mode of yielding De Moivre to the 

 English. De Moivre, second in mathematical 

 power to none but Newton among those of his 

 day, was driven out of France, passed a long life 

 in England, and wrote his works in English : but 

 the English have never claimed him as an English- 

 man. The French who know history are content 

 that Lagrange should be an honour to their insti- 

 tutions, and De Moivre to their blood. 



Nevertheless, now and then arises a rash and 

 impulsive pretension to what is called the whole 

 hog, an expressive phrase, albeit somewhat irre- 

 verent when applied to an illustrious name. Such 

 a pretension is that of the late M. Arago, who, in 

 his lives of some celebrated individuals, maintains 



stoutly that Lagrange was and hejd himself to be 

 French, and called himself Lagrange- Zburnier. 

 As I had pever heard of this addition to La- 

 grange's name, and have failed in every attempt 

 to find mention of it, I send the result of my in- 

 quiry into the whole matter. 



I cannot do better than begin by giving a copy 

 of a letter from Lagrange himself, which letter is 

 now in the possession of my friend Mr. Libri. It 

 will be seen that Lagrange considered himself a 

 Piedraontese. 



" Libektb'. Egalite'. 



" Paris le 20 Pluviose, an 7. 



" Aux citoyens composant le gouvernement provisoire 

 du Pidmont, 



" Le citoyen Joseph Louis Lagrange. 



" Citoyens, J'ai reiju le D^cret que vous avez bien 

 voulu rendre en faveur de mon p^re. Cette marque d'in- 

 teiet de la part de ma patrie me touche vivement, et je 

 la regarde comme la plus flatteuse recompense de mes 

 faibles travaux. Agreez mes sincferes remerciemens, et 

 lee voeux ardens que je fais pour la prosp^rite du pais 

 confi<5 k vos soins, et auquel je m'honore d'appartenir. 

 " Salut et respect, 



" Votre concitoyen, 



" Lagrange." 



Some time before this letter was Avritten La- 

 grange had found it very difficult to avoid being 

 ordered to quit France, when there was a general 

 expulsion of foreigners. 



Lagrange (born January 25, or 30, 1736,) died 

 April 10, 1813. In the year 1813, immediately 

 after his death, a biography was published by his 

 medical men, Virey and Fotel, who obtained much 

 information "both from himself and from Madame 

 Lagrange. According to these gentlemen, the 

 family of Lagrange was originally from Touraine, 

 the country of Descartes ; and his grandfather^ 

 who had served in the army of Louis XIV., set- 

 tled in Piedmont, where his father lived eighty- 

 four years. This father, as we see, was alive in 

 or shortly before 1798 ; and (Lagrange the son 

 being then sixty-two years old) must have been 

 nearly eighty-four, or more, if alive, and must 

 have been born about 1714, probably earlier. 

 This would carry back the probable birth of La- 

 grange's grandfather to something like 1670-80, 

 which makes it quite possible that he should have 

 served Louis XlV., but makes it equally possible, 

 and something more likely, that it was his father, 

 or Lagrange's greo^-grandfather, who was the last 

 Frenchman of the line. And this is confirmed by 

 a circumstantial account given by Tipaldi, and 

 written by Baron Maurice, in TBiograJia degli 

 Italiani . . . del secolo xviii . . . Venice, 1834, 8vo. 

 (vol. i. p. 356.). According to this account, the 

 grm^-grandfather of Lagrange served Louis XIV. 

 as captain of cavalry, passed, in 1672, into the 

 service of Charles Emmanuel II. of Savoy (who 

 died in 1.675), and married an Italian lady of the 

 Roman family of ContL The family came from 



