46 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"> S. No 29., July 19. '56. 



ever been published, but at least I suppose it in few 

 hands. 



Jonathan Couch. 

 Polperro. 



Now Phabus did y* world w*** frowns swrvey, 

 Dark wear y® Clouds, and dismal was y® day, 

 When pensive Harley from y® Court returnd ; 

 Slow by his Chariot mov'd, as that had mourn'd. 

 Heavy the mules before y* statesman goe, 

 As dragging an unusual weight of woe ; 

 Sad was his aspect, and he waking dreams 

 Of plots abortive and of rvin'd schemes ; 

 Like some sad youth, whose greifs alone survie. 

 Mourns a dead mistress or a wife alive. 

 Such looks would Russels Funeral Trump grace. 

 So Notingham still looke, w* such a dismal face. 

 To Kensington's high tower, bright Masham flyes, 

 Thence she affar y^ sad procession spyes ; 

 Whear y* late statesman dos in sorrow ride. 

 His Welsh supporter mourning by his side. 

 At wich her boundless grief sad Cryes began. 

 And thus lamenting thro the Court she ran : 

 •' Hither, yee wretched Toryes, hither Come, 

 Behold y* Godlike Hero's fatal doom. 

 If e're yee went with ravishing delight 

 To hear his Banter and admire his Bite, 

 Now to his sorrow yeild the last releif, 

 Who once was all your hopes is now your grief. 

 Had this Great Man his envy'd Post enjoy' d, 

 Torys had rul'd and Whiggs had been destroy'd : 

 Harcourt the mace to which he long aspir'd 

 Had now possess'd, and Cowper had retir'd ; 

 Sunderland had been forc'd his place to quitt. 

 Which St. Johns had supplyd with sprightly witt ; 

 Sage Hanmer passing Court employment by 

 Had ruld the Coffers Toryes to supply. 

 Gower had shin'd with rich Newcastle's seal. 

 And Harley's self (to shew his humble zeale) 

 Had been contented with that triffling wand 

 Which now dos mischeif in Godolphin's band : 

 Our Fleets secure had been Rook's tender care, 

 And Orraond had been sent to Head the warr, 

 Bleinheim to Radnor had been forc'd to yeild, 

 And Cardiff Cliffs obscur'd Ramellis' ffeild." 



Cheap Travelling on Cows. — In an article on 

 "Fashions," m Encyclopcedia Britannica, 8th edit.. 

 Part II., vol. ix., the following illustration occurs : 



" We have never heard of any one who followed the 

 fashion set and advocated by Asclepiades, who tried to 

 bring cheap locomotion into general favour, and who 

 travelled about the world on a cow, living on her milk 

 by the way." 



Since I wrote that article, however, I have met 

 with mention of a town in which this example 

 was followed. In the Voyage of Italy ^ by Richard 

 Lassels, Gent., — a book which was printed in Paris 



in 1670, and the author of which had made the 

 " voyage " five times as tutor to " several of the 

 English nobility and gentry," — the subjoined sin- 

 gular instance may be met with : 



" I observed in this town (Piacenza) a valuable piece 

 of thriftiness used by the gentlewomen, who make no 

 scruple to be carried to their country houses near the 

 town in coaches drawn by two cows yoked together. 

 These will carry the Signora a pretty round trot unto her 

 villa ; they afford her also a dish of their milk, and, after 

 collation, bring her home again at night, without spending 

 a penny." 



J. DoRAN. 



An Advertisement. — Whether this advertise- 

 ment, which I have as a printed post-bill, was 

 ever posted on the walls of Coleraine I know not, 

 but it possesses sufficient peculiarities of phrase to 

 be preserved in " N. & Q." as a curiosity. S. 



« To he Let, 

 To an Oppidan, a Ruricolest, or a Cosmopolitan, and may 



be entered upon immediatelj'. 

 The House in Stone Row, lately possessed by Capt. 

 SiREE. To avoid Verbosity, the Proprietor with Com- 

 pendiosity will give a Perfunctory description of the 

 Premisses, in the Compagination of which he has Sedu- 

 lously studied the convenience of the Occupant — it is free 

 from Opacity, Tenebrosity, Fumidity, and Injucundity, 

 and no building can have greater Pelluciditj' or Trans- 

 lucency — in short its Diaphaneity even in the Crepuscle 

 makes it like a Pharos, and without Laud, for its Agglu- 

 timation and Amenity, it is a most Delectable Commo- 

 rance; and whoever lives in it will find that the Neigh- 

 bours have none of the Truculence, the Immanity, the 

 Torvity, the Spinosity, the Putidness, the Pugnacity — • 

 nor the Fugacity observable in other parts of the town, 

 their Propinquity and Consanguinity, occasions Jucundity 

 and Pudicity — from which and the Redolence of the 

 place (even in the dog-days) they are remarkable for 

 Longevity. For terms and particulars apply to James 

 Hutchison opposite the Market House." 



« Colerain, 30th September, 1790." 



Cat Worship. — The cat, which old ladies love 

 and cherish with Egyptian fondness, but with just 

 enough of romance in their affection to acquit 

 them of idolatry, was one of the sacred animals 

 before which that people bowed in worship to 

 their sidereal deities. It seems to have owed its 

 consecration and divine honours to a peculiar 

 physical attribute, the contractibility and dilatability 

 of the pupil of the eye, exhibiting so mysterious 

 an illustration of, and (as a matter of course) 

 relation to the moon's changes, as to give rise to 

 the notion that the animal shared in some degree 

 the influence of that luminary ! I do not know 

 whether there was any correspondence in point of 

 time in these supposed ocular demonstrations of 

 the lunar phases, to give birth to so monstrous a 

 superstition. F. Phillott. 



Pronunciation of English Words ending in -il. 

 — There are very few words with this termination 

 in English : five only occur to my recollection, 

 peril, civil, council, evil, and devil. Of these the 



