182 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'i S. VIII. Sept. 3. '59. 



more, in a letter to Mountjoy, dated " Oxonio, 

 aiuio 1498," Erasmus gives his patron his impres- 

 sions of England and English society ; whence it 

 is argued that he could not have visited tile 

 country before. But this is trifling. It was under 

 Mountjoy's auspices that he first became ac- 

 quainted with England : what could be more na- 

 tural than that he should convey to the friend to 

 whom he owed his introduction the pleasure 

 afforded him by his increased knowledge of the 

 country and its literary society ? The chief argu- 

 ment, however, for Miiller's side of the question, 

 which the learned German keeps to the last, as 

 though it were decisive of the controversy, is this : 

 that in the Compendium Vitce, written by Erasmus 

 himself, it is said, "Revisit Hollandiam hoc animo, 

 ut maneret apud suos, sed ipsis ultro hortantibus 

 rediit Lutetiam." Hence it is argued that, after 

 leaving Holland, he did not go to England, but 

 returned to Paris. But I cannot see that this in- 

 definite statement in the Compendium refers un- 

 doubtedly to the period of which we are speaking; 

 nor, if it does, that it proves that Erasmus did not 

 visit England after his return to Paris. The 

 above are, I believe, the chief arguments for and 

 against the earlier date of Erasmus's first visit to 

 England. If we were quite certain of the time of 

 More's residence at Oxford, we might perhaps 

 find another reason for rejecting the opinion of 

 Miiller and those who have followed his guidance. 

 It was probably at Oxford that Erasmus became 

 acquainted with More, who, it is stated*, left the 

 University early in 1498, while our scholar con- 

 fessedly did not arrive there till towards the end 

 of that year. In a letter datedf " Parisiis, 12 

 Aprilis, 1498," Erasmus himself mentions More's 

 residence in Lincoln's Inn. His words are : "Nihil 

 refert utrum ad hunc mittas, an ad Thomam Mo- 

 rum ; is agit in CoUegio Lincolniensi." In this 

 Epistle likewise he speaks of having written to 

 Battus from England, and mentions London 

 Bridge in a familiar way: "Ejus nomen nemo 

 toto Londino non novit : habitat in aedibus pater- 

 nis Eduardi mercatoris super pontem Londinen- 

 sem." Lastly, if Anthony Wood's authority may 

 be trusted, there will remain no doubt that the 

 date of Erasmus's first visit to Oxford is 1497. 

 In many places of his Athence'l he distinctly states 

 that the learned Dutchman resided there in that 

 year. After carefully weighing both sides of the 

 question, I have come to the conclusion that the 

 only way to reconcile the seeming contradictions 

 in the Epistles, is to decide that Erasmus was in 

 this country during both the years in dispute. 

 But I say this with the utmost deference to those 

 who differ from me, and with every wish to give 



* Life, by Cresacre More. Edited by Hunter. Ap- 

 pend., p. 374. 

 , t Epistle 29. 



j E. rj- vol. i. pp. 12, 43., comp. Antig., lib. i. p. 237. 



their full weight to any fresh arguments which 

 may be adduced on the opposite side. 



William J. Dease. 



Ashen Eectorj-, Aug. 18, 1859. 



ABEL HOPER AND GEORGE RIDPATH. 



These two worthies, among others, are thus 

 gibbeted in The Dunciad : — 



" Earless on high stood unabash'd De Foe, 

 And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below ; 

 There Ridpath, Roper, cudgell'd might ye view ; 

 The very worsted still look'd black and blue." 

 Pope's note informs us that "Ridpath and 

 Roper were authors of the Flying Post and Post- 

 Boy, two scandalous papers on different sides, for 

 which they equally and alternately deserved to be 

 cudgelled, and were so." Again Swift, in his 

 Journal to Stella, Oct. 28, 1712, complains, that 



" These devils of Grub Street rogues, that write the 

 Flying Post and Medley in one paper, will not be quiet. 

 They are always mauling lord-treasurer, Lord Boling- 

 broke, and me. We have the dog under prosecution, but 

 Bolingbroke is not active enough ; but I hope to swinge 

 him. He is a Scotch rogue, one Ridpath. They get out 

 upon bail, and write on. We take them again, and get 

 fresh bail ; so it goes round." 



It is not, however, generally known that both 

 Roper and Ridpath died on the same day, viz. 

 on Saturday, Feb. 5, 1726, as we learn from The 

 Weekly Journal of Feb. 12 of that year : — 



" On Saturday last died Mr. Abel Roper, formerly a 

 bookseller in Fleet Street, and a proprietor of The Post- 

 Boy, in which paper he has left such abundant testimo- 

 nials of his zeal for indefeasible hereditary right, for 

 monarchy, passive obedience, the Church, the Queen, and 

 the Doctor, that the public can be no strangers to his 

 principles either in Church or State. 



" And the same day died his celebrated antagonist, 

 Mr. George Ridpath, proprietor and first projector of The 

 Flying Post, which he set up in May, 1695, and carried 

 on without interruption till the year 1713, when several 

 prosecutions against him for some reflections on the then 

 administration, forced him to fly to Scotland, his native 

 countr.v, and from thence to Holland, where he wrote 

 Parliamentary Right Maintained, or the Hanover Succes- 

 sion Justified; in answer to Dr. Bedford's Hereditary Right 

 to the Crown of England Asserted, He returned to England 

 upon the accession of his present Majesty, and was made 

 one of the patentees for serving the Commissioners of the 

 Customs, &c., in Scotland with stationery wares. He 

 understood the history of his own country as well as most 

 men, as appears from his Tracts relating to the Darien 

 Companj', the Union, and several other pieces he wrote 

 and published in defence of the antiquitj', indcpciidency, 

 and all the rights and prerogatives of that ancient king- 

 dom both in Kirk and State." 



J. Yeowell. 



OLD ENGLISH BOOKSELLERS. 



Among the many chapters of unwritten bio- 

 graphy that remain yet to be jotted down and 

 recorded in the friendly pages of " N. & Q.," 



