248 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



i:2»<i s. VIII. Sept. 24. '59. 



paper of his, " On Vulgar Errors," is not very 

 long, and is in his peculiarly quaint style, I will 

 transcribe it : — 



" I have alwaj's considered it " (lie says) " as a self-evi- 

 dent absurdity to imagine that the Scotch tunes were com- 

 posed by an Italian Fiddler. But I own that my opinion 

 on this subject has begun to totter ever since it was disco- 

 vered that the author of Ossian's Poems was one Korah 

 Sukkubbit, Esq., an idle drunken fellow, who Ifved some ten 

 or twelve thousand years ago by making and mending of 

 Jew's-harps at the Borough of Gomorrah in the County of 

 Palestine. Good Heavens, how provoking this is ! Bless 

 your ears, the greatest part of the Scotch, Welsh, and 

 Irish tunes were composed long before the Italians, or 

 even the Flemish, knew anything of music. Excepting 

 Corelli, Pergolesi, and perhaps one or two more distin- 

 guishable masters of that charming art, the Italian 

 composers have seldom aspired at anything beyond mere 

 mechanical harmony, in which any one who has a toler- 

 able ear may succeed. But to express the passions is a 

 different affair : it is one of the greatest powers that be- 

 longs to true genius, which happens to be a very uncom- 

 mon gift of Nature. 



" Handel was in general a noisy overbearing bully in 

 music ; sometimes indeed, but not often, pathetick, yet 

 still charming, as far as mere harmony goes. But it was 

 not in him, still less in David RiSzio, a mere old fiddler, 

 . who only executed what other people had composed,to have 

 even imitated with any success the Scottish tunes, whe- 

 ther melancholy or gayj whether amorous, martial, or 

 pastoral ; in a style highly original and most feelingly 

 expressive of all the passions, from the sweetest to the most 

 terrible. Who was it that threw out those dreadful wild 

 expressions of distraction and melancholy in Lady Cui- 

 rass's Dream? an old composition, now I am afraid lost; 

 perhaps because it was almost too terrible for the ear. 

 I'll venture to swear that David Kizzio was as innocent 

 as any lamb of such frantic horrors." 



But it would appear from an old ballad that 

 " Lady Culross's Dream " was a bye-word of ter- 

 ror, and a symbol of the supernatural, long before 

 Eizzio's time ; for in the aforesaid old ballad, 

 printed in Richard III.'s reign, of which a certain 

 Sir Gawyn is the Don Juan and one "■/aire 

 Alice" the victim, the following couplet occurs. 

 I quote from memory, for I regret to say the ori- 

 ginal very curious document was stolen from me 

 some years ago at Geneva, with a book of French 

 autographs of the heroes and heroines of the 

 Fronde. But the couplet, making mention of 

 " Lady Culross's Dream," is, as well as I can re- 

 collect, as follows : — 



" It was/n&, Sir Gawyns Culp, that faire Alice now did 

 seme. 

 Like the ghost Ladye of Culrosse, in her wilde shreeMng 

 dreme." 



ROSINA BuLWER LtTTON. 

 Clarke's Castle Hotel, 

 Taunton, Somerset. 



fSiiviax ^Mtviti^ 



"La ThebaMe:" Remy's ''La Pucelle." — I 

 should be very grateful for any information ad- 

 dressed to me here (or at Mr. Molini's, bookseller, 



17. King William Street, Strand), about the exist- 

 ence in England of copies of the two following 

 dramas : — 



" La The'baide, Tragedie. Pont-k-Mousson, Etienne 

 Marchant, 1584, in 4to." 



" Histoire Tragique de la Pucelle de Dom. Remy, aul- 

 trement d'Orleans. Nancy, 1581, in 4to." 



Of the latter work I have a reprint, of a very 

 limited number of copies, now in the press. 



D. D. L. 

 Pont-Ji-Mousson. 



Jasper Runic Ring. — I should be much obliged 

 to anyone who can inform me as to what has be- 

 come of a jasper ring inscribed with runes which 

 was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 

 1824, and is described In the Archceologia (vol. 

 xxi. p. 117.) ? It then belonged to George Cum- 

 berland, Esq., of Bristol. A. W. Fbanks. 



British Museum. 



Dr. Thomas Brett. — The following inquiry ap- 

 pears on the wrapper of The Biographical and 

 Retrospective Miscellany, 1830 : — 



" We should be obliged to any correspondent who 

 would inform us whether a MS. in our possession has 

 been printed or not. It is a short Autobiography of that 

 eminent Divine and controversial writer, Dr. Thomas 

 Brett, written by himself, including a History of his 

 various works. We ourselves have no recollection of 

 having seen this article in print." 



Is anything known of this manuscript ? J. Y. 



Archiepiscopal Mitre. — How is it that the arch- 

 bishops bear the mitre issuing from a ducal coro- 

 net f The tombs of those prelates in Canterbury 

 and York cathedrals exhibit the mitres without 

 any coronets : their armorial bearings in the win- 

 dows of those gorgeous ecclesiastical ediBces are 

 without, and the assumption seems to be of very 

 modern date. Will some of your readers (amongst 

 whom it is evident you have those who, ex ca- 

 thedra, could answer) be kind enough to answer 

 the Query. These distinctions are only valuable 

 and honourable as they are duly authorised or re- 

 cognised. It is to be regretted that the printed 

 Peerages mislead in such particulars, and too fre- 

 quently give unauthorised bearings, even though 

 the title-pages present high-sounding editorial 

 names. Vebax. 



Baron of Beef at Windsor. — I shall feel much 

 obliged to any of your readers who can tell me by 

 what contrivance the baron of beef is roasted 

 every year at Windsor, as probably the grate is 

 not of a size capable of doing so, without some 

 contrivance. A Subscbibeb. 



Dublin. 



Shawl, at Leyhoum. — Can any correspondent 

 inform me what is the derivation of the word shawl 

 as applied to a lofty natural terrace at Leybourn 



