2nd s. X. Dec. 22. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



601 



G. W. Brid,o;es's Annals of Jamaica, 2 vols. 8vo., 

 1828 (vol. i. p. 30.) : the Introductory Chapter 

 contains a good account of all the writers upon 

 the West Indies. A New History of Jamaica was 

 pirated from A Neiv and Accurate Account of Ja- 

 maica, by Charles Leslie, which contains much 

 curious information. George Offor. 



Oxford Honorary Degrees (2"^ S. x. 450.) — 

 If Cantabrigieksis will refer to the last Catalogue 

 of Oxford Graduates, he will find all degrees 

 given between Oct. 10, 1659, and Dec. 31, 1850. 

 The Honorary degrees are marked by the letters 

 « cr:' D. C. L. 



Jackson (2«^ S. x. 449.) —The pedigree of Sir 

 George Jackson, Bart., who took the name of 

 Duckett, begins (in Sir Bernard Burke's Genea- 

 logical Peerage and Baronetage,^ with Sir John 

 Jackson of Hickleton, who was knighted in 1619. 

 Of his two sons, one died without issue ; the other, 

 George, was thrice married, and had children by 

 each wife ; but only one son is named. This 

 was William, who had an only son George ; whose 

 son, George, was created a baronet, and took the 

 name of Duckett. A sister of the latter, Dorothy, 

 married a Mr. JeiFery Jackson, of Woodford 

 Bridge, in Essex — of whom no particulars are 

 given. T. JE. S. 



Mode of coNCLtuiNG Letters (2"* S. x. 326. 

 376. 434.) — I .should say there are five gradations, 

 expressing civility, cordiality, regard, close friend- 

 ship, and love. They are — obediently, faithfully, 

 truly, sincerely, and affectionately. Each has its 

 lower stage, in which it stands alone ; its middle, 

 with very ; and its highest, with most. Certain ad- 

 ditions, such as humble, obliged, cordially, re- 

 spectfully, gratefully, &c. &c. are used according 

 to circumstances. To give no subscription except 

 the name is either condescension, or dignified for- 

 bearance, or wounded feeling, &c., and is a very 

 difficult weapon to use rightly. When you make 

 out your correspondent to be a blockhead or a 

 knave, the proper termination is "Yours most 

 respectfully," or "Yours with high consideration." 

 When you wish to neutralise what follows, you 

 say " With truth." " Your friend " is either from 

 a king, or from ah anonymous writer who slan- 

 ders your wife or your daughter. "Your sincere 

 friend" is the proper termination to what school- 

 boys call ajaiving or a rowing. "Your admirer" 

 is for people who can bear anything, and are to 

 do it. The gradations of commencement are, 

 Mr. surname — Sir — Dear Sir — My dear Sir — 

 My dear Mr. surname — My dear surname — 

 My dear friend — My dear Christian name, &c. 

 To dash into the subject, and then use some 

 mode of address, as " Many thanks, my dear Sir," 

 &c., is a figure the meaning of which depends 

 upon the number of words which precede the 



words of address, and its right use is the highest 

 art, which cannot be described or communicated. 

 None of these rules apply to love-letters, which 

 no one can make either head or tail of or to, ex- 

 cept the parties themselves. M. 



Havard Family (2"* S. ix. 124. ; x. 256.) — I 

 thank your correspondent, Mr. Alfred J. DuN- 

 KiN, for the information he has afforded me. But 

 am I to understand that Geo. Havard, of Sydney, 

 is head of the " Ship Commercial Hotel " branch, 

 or of the whole race of Havard ? I should feel 

 obliged if he would farther state from vjhom, ac- 

 cording to the genealogy of them as found in 

 Jones's History of Breconshire, the present head 

 of the family is directly descended ? In prose- 

 cuting my researches, I have lighted upon the 

 following extract, which was inserted some ten ol* 

 fifteen years since in a provincial newspaper : -^ 



" A new Roman Catholic church is forthwith to be 

 commenced in Brecon. There are some curious circum- 

 stances connected with the people for whose more imme- 

 diate use the new church is designed. They are called 

 the ' Havards,' that being the name of the principal per- 

 son amongst them, who came to the principality from 

 France in the time of William the Norman. The}' are a 

 totally distinct race of people, marrj'ing and intermarry- 

 ing amoi^st themselves, and having littl* or no commu- 

 nication with their more primitive neighbours. They 

 inhabit a hamlet about ten miles from Defjnog, called 

 ' Senna,' probably being a corruption of the word Seine, 

 inasmuch as a river which runs near the hamlet very 

 much resembles in its course the river Seine at Paris. 

 From the time the Havards took possession of their colony, 

 they have rigidly professed the Roman Catholic faith." 



Ralph Woodman. 



Bristol. 



NOTES ON BOOKS. 



Political Ballads of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Cen- 

 turies, annotated by W. Walker Wilkins. In Two Volit^i. 

 (Longman.) 



Although we do not undervalue the last collection of 

 Poems on Affairs of State quite so much as Mr. Wilkins, 

 yet we readily agree with him that its contents by no 

 means realise the expectation which the title is calculated 

 to excite. On the other hand, the title of Mr. Wilkins's 

 collection is amply justified by the nature of its con- 

 tents. The task which that gentleman has here under- 

 taken is one of no small difficulty, while it is moreover 

 one which calls for the exercise of great judgment in 

 its execution. The difficulty arises from the vast amount 

 of research among flying sheets, broadsides, common-place 

 books, &c. which an Editor must be prepared to encounter 

 before he could hope to form anj'tning like a collection 

 of these political Satires; while, i" when found," so manj' 

 of them exhibit the coarse and licentious character of 

 the age in which they were written, as to render their 

 reproduction at the present day simply impossible. Mr. 

 Wilkins has, however, exhibited both the necessary in- 

 dustry and the requisite good taste, and his volumes 

 will be found admirable exponents of popular feeling on 

 most of the great political events of the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries, — and indispensable companions to 



