2"-^ S. No 43., Oct, 25. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



327 



difficult to indemnify them on the continent; but the 

 French gain, by this'kind of exportation, more influence 

 in Europe than by ambassadors, spies, and all active 

 afjents of the male sex. It was not on the exportation 

 of herrings and stockfish that the English government 

 should have granted drawbacks and bounties, but on that 

 • of their amiable countrywomen. It is to be hoped that 

 tiie present very judicious ministry will, at least, defray 

 the travelling expenses to the continental capitals ; and 

 they may be persuaded that this outlay will prove more 

 advantageous to Great Britain than many large subsidies 

 for the importation of German soldiers." 



Vespebtilio. 



Rev. C. Wolfe's Wordu to the Air " Grama- 

 chree." — It is stated in the Rev. J. A. Russell's 

 Remains of the late Rev. Charles Wolfe, that, — 



" He never heard this popular Irish air without being 

 sensibly affected by its deep and tender expression ; but 

 he thought that no words had ever been written for it, 

 which came up to his idea of the peculiar pathos which 

 pervades the whole strain. He said they all appeared to 

 him to want individuality of feeling. At the desire of a 

 friend he gave his own conception of it in these verses, 

 which it seems hard to read, perhaps impossible to hear 

 sung, without tears." 



The exquisite verses here alluded to contain one 

 line which it has always surprised me that the 

 author should have retained, when its extreme 

 roughness could have been so easily removed, 

 without any detriment to the sense, and with 

 manifest improvement in sound. The line is the 

 sixth in the second stanza, and reads thus : 

 " What thou ne'er leftist unsaid : " 



Would not the following be an improvement ? 

 " WTiat thou hast ever said : " 



The stanza then, which is perhaps the most 

 pathetic of a composition intensely beautiful 

 throughout, would read thus : 



" And still upon that face I look. 

 And think 'twill smile again ; 

 And still the thought I will not brook, 



That I must look in vain ! 

 But when I speak — thou dost not say, 



What thou hast ever said: 

 And now I feel, as well I may. 

 Sweet Marv, thou art dead ! " 



F. C. H. 



Mottoes for a Common-place Book, Index Re- 

 rum, or Note-book. — I send you two mottoes I 

 have prefixed to my Note-book, and I trust others 

 will do the same : — 



" Adventure not all thy learning in one bottom, hut divide 

 it betwixt thy 3femory and thy Note-books. He that with 

 Bias carries all his learning about him in his head, will 

 utterly be beggerd and bankrupt, if a violent disease, a 

 mercilesse thief, should rob and strip him. I know some 

 have a Common- place against Common-place-books, and 

 yet perchance will privately make use of what publickly 

 they declaim against. A Common-place-book contains 

 many Notions in garison, whence the owner may draw 

 out an army into the field on competent warning." — 

 Fuller's Holy State, 1st edit., p. 17G. 



" Preserve proportion in your reading, keep your view 



of Men and Things, extensive, and depend upon it a 

 mixed Knowledge is not a superficial one ; as far as it 

 goes, the views that it gives are true ; but he who reads 

 deeply in one class of writers only, gets views which are 

 almost sure to be perverted, and which are not only 7iur- 

 roiv but/a/se." — Dr. Arnold. 



EiRIONNACII. 



Unregistered Proverb : " Like lucky John Toy," 

 Sj-c. — At Penryn, in West Cornwall, I frequently 

 used to hear this proverb applied to any one who 

 rejoiced over a small gain, though purchased at the 

 expense of a greater loss : " Like lucky Jahn 

 Toy — lost a shilling and found a tupenny loaf." 

 There was then living a semi-idiot, called John 

 Toy ; but the proverb was of such extended use, 

 that I think it originated ere his time. 



J. H. A. B. 



The War of Sing (China) Independence. — 

 There have arriyed here some proclamations and 

 other printed documents of the new Emperor 

 {Judge, President) of the Confederated States of 

 China. His Excellency Tae-Ping-Teen-Kwo cir- 

 culates with much tact and discernment a great 

 number of translations of the Exodus, as the 

 liberation of the Hebrew people from the kingly 

 rule of Egypt, the establishment of judges, &c., 

 bear a strong resemblance to the present national 

 war in China, That the foreign rule of the 

 Tartar dynasty was never liked there, and that 

 that hatred even pervaded some of the Christian 

 missionaries centuries ago, we learn from a work 

 printed in 1656, which begins thus : 



" Sinense ccelum, mite ac benignum olim — nunc Tar- 

 tarico frigore exasperatum, infestumque ! ! " — Boym, 

 Flora Sinensis, Vienna, fol. 



J. LoTSKT, Panslave. 



cauertc^. 



GOWER QUERIES. 



Can any of your readers explain the words 

 printed in Italics in the following extracts from 

 Gower's Confessio Amantis ? F. R. Daldy. 



1. 



" But fader, for 3-e ben a clerke 

 Of love and this matere is derke. 

 And I can ever lenger the lasse, 

 But yet I may nought let it passe." 



2. 

 " The Gregois weren wonder glade. 

 And of that thing right merry hem thought, 

 And forth with hem the flees they brought. 

 And eche on other gan to Ugh." 



3. 

 "And thus upon his marrement 

 This paien hath made his preiere. 



4. 

 " And though I stonde there a mile. 

 All is forj'ette for the while." 



