424 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[•i-"! S. X. Dec. 1. '60. 



still remain convincing proofs that we had our full pro- 

 portion of them in former times." 



He farther states (p. 486.) the importance of 

 such writings as were once at lona, mentioning St. 

 Columba, &c. : — 



" They (the writers) flourished above eleven hundred 

 years ago, and their writings that remain, are sustained 

 as genuine by all the learned in Europe. They wrote be- 

 fore the Saxon historian Bede. Could we recover more 

 of what has been anciently written at lona, there is good 

 authority for believing, that we should find the lives, 

 deaths, and chief actions of their kings, who, before the 

 union of the Scottish and Pictish kingdoms, used to be 

 crowned and buried there, recorded by those and other 

 religionists of that renowned seminary." 



It is extremely probable that Dr. Johnson, from 

 his well-known antipathy to Scotland, though 

 treated in the most hospitable manner while he 

 visited the Hebrides, never afterwards took the 

 pains to examine the various matters so plainly 

 represented to him by his monitor and able critic 

 Mr. M'^NicoI. My object in making the forego- 

 ing extracts is to bring before the intelligent cor- 

 respondents of "N. & Q." the state of the case 

 in reference to the missing books of lona, which Mr. 

 M'^Nicol doubts not to be something zvort/i the 

 trouble of inquiry by the curious, and especially to 

 ascertain if any information in respect to writings 

 connected with the Monastei'y of lona, or other- 

 wise with the literature of Scotland at remote 

 periods, are to be found in the Seminary (or, as I 

 think, called the Scots College) of Dovxiy before 

 alluded to. Some correspondents may be able to 

 speak of facts from their own knowledge, or if not, 

 at a future time in their Continental rambles aug- 

 ment their pleasure, and likewise profit the world, 

 by an investigation. It might be rather ungra- 

 cious to ask literary gentlemen who come to the 

 Highlands of Scotland to enjoy the healthful re- 

 ergations of fishing and fowling, also to hunt up 

 long dormant Gaelic MSS., but it is believed that 

 many of such in the charter-chests and reposi- 

 tories of old families wait for a resurrection, as 

 well as what else may yet be rallied, scattered 

 about in the monastic houses and in the libraries 

 of France and the Vatican — those libraries, as I 

 was told fourteen years ago by the late Very Rev. 

 Principal Macfarlan of (Glasgow College, contain- 

 ing much of an original and interesting kind bear- 

 ing on the antiquities and histoi-y of Scotland in 

 former ages, and thus so far illustrating and con- 

 firming the sentiments of Mr. M'^Nicol already 

 quoted. If I may be allowed the remark, it ap- 

 pears to me highly worthy the attention particu- 

 larly of every right-minded Scotchman, to the full 

 extent of his power, through any possible sources, 

 to endeavour to repair the ravages which have 

 been committed on the early records, chronicles, 

 and annals of his country by successive invaders, 

 with the barbarous intention of obliterating the 

 reputation, learning, and name of the nation, of 



which it is unnecessary to adduce proofs. Happily 

 national animosities have now become subdued, 

 an enlarged spirit has been evoked by means of 

 numerous societies and printed publications for 

 the revival of what is old, and a brotherhood in 

 literature existing as befitting subjects living 

 under the same political rule : so that with a " long 

 pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether " great 

 things may be accomplished. G. N". 



THOMAS CAREY, « A POET OF NOTE." 



As a pendant to my ISTote upon this forgotten 

 old poet (2"'i S. vi. 112.), I should be glad of the 

 insertion of the following Note. 



Thomas Carey, the second son of the Earl of 

 Monmouth, married the daughter of Sir Thomas 

 Smith, one of the Clerks of the Council and Master 

 of the Requests, teinp. James I., from whom he 

 inherited the estate of Brightwells (or Villa Carey 

 as it was afterwards called). Parson's Green, 

 Hammersmith. Sir Thomas died in -1609, and 

 was buried in the church of Fulbam. His widow 

 held possession of the estate until her death in 

 1633, when it passed into the hands of Thomas 

 Carey. It is probable that he rebuilt the house, 

 as it was from that time known by the name of 

 Villa Carey. Francis Cheyne, who came over to 

 England in the reign of Charles I., was employed 

 to decorate the rooms. Bowack {Antiquities of 

 Middlesex, p. 45.) gives us the following descrip- 

 tion of the house and grounds, when in the pos- 

 session of the Earl of Peterborough : — 



_ " Peterborough-house is a very large square regular 

 pile of brick ; and has a gallery all round it upon the 

 roof. It was bni't by a branch of the honourable family 

 of the Monraouths, and came to the present Earl in right 

 of his mother, the Lady Elizabeth Carej', Viscountess de 

 Aviland. It has abundance of extraordinary good rooms, 

 with fine paintings, but is most remarkable forits spacious 

 gardens, there beiug about twenty acres of ground in- 

 closed. The contrivance of the garden is fine, though 

 their beauty is in great measure decayed ; and the large 

 cypress shades, and pleasant wildernesses with fountains, 

 statues, &c., have been very entertaining. 



" In this garden is a natural curiosity, not to be pa- 

 ralleled, as it is said, in Europe; viz. a tree, which bears 

 a yellow tulip, of seventj'-six feet high, and its stem 

 about five feet nine inches in circumference. It is of 

 almost sixty years' growth, has a smooth, grej' sort of a 

 coat, and a very tine green leaf." 



Thomas Carey died in 1648, and was buried in 

 the chapel of St. Erasmus in Westminster Abbey. 

 Dr. Crull, in his Antiquities of St. Peter's (edit. 

 1741, i. 165.), thus notices his burial and monu- 

 mental inscription : — 



" In the same vault with the Lord Hunsdon and his 

 Lady lies interred Thomas Carey. He was second son 

 to Robert Lord Carey of Leppington, Earl of Monmouth, 

 and Brother to the last Earl of tliat family: one of the 

 Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to King Charles I., and 

 was so afflicted at the fatal exit of his Master, that he 



