2" S. No 40., Oct. 4. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



265 



Unchilled by the frost of years, the aged count 

 became captive to the attractions of Diomira. 

 Again my friend's protection was interposed. 

 The noble suitor was induced to settle an ade- 

 quate provision on the object of his admiration, 

 should he not claim her hand by a specified 

 period, and in the interval she was to seek the 

 seclusion of a convent. Availing herself of the 

 opportunities of improvement presented by the 

 convent, aided by the intuitively quick percep- 

 tion, deep sentiment, and artistic taste indigenous 

 to Italy, even in its humblest sons and daughters, 

 Diomira rapidly supplied the defects of original 

 education. To her inherent beauty, sweetness of 

 disposition, and purity of heart, adding the charms 

 of cultivated intellect and refined accomplish- 

 ments, her empire over the noble count was con- 

 firmed ; he resigned his military rank and office 

 of state, and Diomira is now his honoured and 

 happy countess. 



The verses, which I have thus prefaced, were 

 s^Sg^sted by Diomira having been disturbed from 

 sleep by a band of military music passing along 

 the street. Rallied by the poet, who with my 

 friend was presentj on the interruption, by the 

 music, of a dream to which her features had, he 

 asserted, given expression, she invited him to em- 

 body the incident in verses. On the moment he 

 improvised them, and, — at once reduced to writing, 

 — they were given to my friend. 



" StiUa Diomira addormentata mentrepassa una 

 Banda di Soldati. 



" Non la destb un suon guerriero 

 Mentre vinta h dal Sopor; 

 Forse un Nume al su' pensiero 

 Offre i Sogni dell' amor ; 

 E pel volto le diffonde 

 Un amabile rossor ; 

 Quel desio die si nasconde 

 Sotto il velo del pudor. 

 "3 Maggie, X855." 



SlON AP GwiLlYM AP SlON. 



Inner Temple. 



THE NEW ATAIiANTIS. 



I was informed by the editor that a distin- 

 guished literary character, now deceased, had 

 mentioned the above work to him as containing 

 some account of the current scandal relative to 

 Lord Halifax and Newton's niece. Though on 

 examination I found this was not the case, yet, as 

 others may have the same impression as the 

 editor's informant, it may be worth while to de- 

 stroy the grounds of it. 



The Memoirs and Manners of several Persons 

 of Quality of both Sexes, from the new Afalantis, 

 came to its second edition in 1709, in two volumes. 

 Watt does not mention the date of the first edition, 

 nor is there, I believe, a copy of it in the Museum. 



The authoress was Mrg. De la Riviere Manley, 

 daughter of Sir Roger Manley, Governor of 

 Guernsey. This demirep — to give her a name 

 exactly as much above her deserts as it is below 

 those of an honest woman — has the excuse, ac- 

 cording to her own account, of having been de- 

 ceived by a fictitious marriage, and then deserted, 

 by her cousin and guardian. The book is far 

 worse than its name would imply, even at that 

 date. A key accompanies at least some copies of 

 this second edition. The whole was republished 

 in 1720, with two volumes more, by the authoress, 

 who died in 1724. There is no key, and the ad- 

 ditional stories seem to be destitute of personal 

 allusion ; so that it would seem as if the first pic- 

 tures were worth money for their colouring after 

 the outline was lost. 



Lord Halifax is described (vol. i. p. 183.) as^"a 

 certain minister, renowned for wit, and called a 

 poet by all the poets (for fathering a copy of 

 verses, by whomever wrote) ; the Mecenas of the 

 age, an honour acquired with little expense, when 

 few or none are found to contest it with him." 

 This must surely have been written after the 

 death of Lord Dorset, in 1706. The lady then 

 states that this minister procured the means of 

 speaking to a " black lady," who made herself fair 

 by art, by "giving the royal musick, and best 

 voices," which all the court came to hear. This 

 cannot apply to the niece of his intimate friend, 

 to whom he might have spoken any day. 



Again (vol. ii. p. 264.), two persons, whom the 

 key sets down for Halifax and Somers, are jointly 

 mentioned thus : " Both have had the lucky cir- 

 cumstance of finding it for their interest still to 

 remain of the party they first fixed in." They 

 are then described separately. The first, who, 

 according to the key, is Halifax, has a seraglio 

 and a head sultana, who takes care to introduce 

 such beauty as may supply the failure of her own. 

 The other, whom the key contradicts itself by 

 stating to be not Somers but somebody else, ia 

 Horace and Maecenas both, and was once a mar- 

 ried man, descriptions applying to Halifax. And 

 this is all that 1 can find. I may add that, not 

 trusting the key, I have looked through the two 

 volumes, and find nothing else which can be sup- 

 posed to bear on the subject. A. Db Morgan. 



HOW JUaiES USED TO LAT THEIE HEAD3 

 TOGETHEK. 



I have been assured by an excellent legal friend 

 of mine, that it used to be the custom in one of our 

 northern counties at the Quarter Sessions, when 

 the chairman had summed up, for him to conclude 

 his address to the jury with the advice given by 

 Sidney Smith to the Dean and Chapter of St. 

 Paul's, " to lay their heads together," with a view 



