64 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[July 28. 1855. 



with divine perception (a central or universal 

 consciousness, or clairvoyance through all nature), 

 and also a divine will, in addition to possessing 

 practical science in chemistry and fire (or elec- 

 tricity). 



Such I have gathered to be the sense of the 

 •word, as used by these rational and christian 

 writers, without reference to the mysterious gib- 

 berish and hocus-pocus assumptions of the self- 

 styled alchemists of the Middle Ages. But will 

 some of your really adept correspondents be 

 pleased to elucidate the meaning of the tincture as 

 used by the theosophers, in simple untechnical 

 language, and with intellectual clearness ? Also, 

 whether (as I have surmised) the original al- 

 chemical science does not, in effect, refer to the 

 spiritual photogenic action of the pure divine 

 light upon the moral and intellectual nature of 

 man, in those who, by a perfect conformity to the 

 Gospel precepts and counsels, have rendered 

 themselves susceptible of its life-giving operation, 

 rather than to the preparation of the philosopher's 

 stone, and transmutation of the base metals into 

 gold. P. T. 



The Widow Cornewulleis. — Stow informs us, in 

 his Survey (edition Thoms), p. 52., that a lady so 

 described received from Henry VIII. the grant 

 " of a fair house and divers tenements near ad- 

 joining, some time belonging to a late dissolved 

 priory," in Sprinckle Alley, in reward of fine pud- 

 dings (as it was commonly said) by her made, 

 wherewith she had presented the king. " Such," 

 adds the old historian, "was the princely liberality 

 of those days ; " but it seems not to have occurred 

 to him, that although the grant was out of all pro- 

 portion to the benefit conferred, it cost the arbi- 

 trary monarch nothing but the trouble of making 

 over property of which he had taken possession 

 illegally. I am, however, digressing from my 

 object, which is to inquire whether any of the 

 readers of " N. & Q." can in any way identify the 

 widow, and tell me whether she belonged to the 

 Suffolk family whose name she bore ? Also how 

 far the story is confirmed by other cotemporary 

 historians, though I am by no means disposed to 

 undervalue the testimony of honest John Stow, 

 regretting only that he does not speak more con- 

 fidently on the subject. Braybrooke. 

 Audley End, July 18. 



r " Monody on the Death of Hellebore" — 



■** Sweet were the winds which rapid Mermaids wore, 

 On L5'bia's realms, when erst th' Antarctic boar 

 Kuled his seraphic proselytes on high, 

 'Midst the grim regions of Europa's sky. 

 Hail ! intellectual Hellebore ; whose strain 

 Dulcifies thunder — bids th' insurgent rain 

 No. 300.] 



} 



Roll upwards —tune thy sweet, cathartic lyre, 



And melt th' empyreal source of Etna's fire — 



Nor wonder, that the fair Cordelia's horn 



With new-born sympathy bedews the mom. 



She first, with horror, orisons demure, 



Sung the chaste banners of the wizard boor ; 



She, from the bosom of departed woe, 



The princely fabric rear'd, ^vlth accents slow. 



Bending the pliant hecatomb around, 



Sharp, sonorous vestals sunk th' emphatic ground. 



Her pye-bald car thro' wond'ring nymphs she drove, 



And silence echoed thro' the vast alcove. 



Hear ! ages yet unborn ! — past, future days ! 



How white her valour, and how tall her lays. 



Yet must interior Fate's athmatic [ ? ] hand 



Hurl the brown Mermaid from th' Ionian land. 



Mute is that lyre, and cold th' unfeeling wound, 



Whose murmuring chords emit a silent sound. 



Yet shall my soul with inborn thraldom burn, 



Shed the dim tear, and burst th' impetuous urn. 



Witness, ye streams ! ye high aspiring vales ! 



Ye mountains, sinking from these mournful tales ! 



If my stern soul that tribute e'er denied. 



Which Mona lavish'd on her purple bride, 



While Orpheus mounts the zone on Lomond's snowy 



side. 

 Begin, my Muse, th' atlantic note inspire ; 

 Let seraph wings proclaim a seraph's ire : 

 No more, indignant Hebrus' hollow head 

 Feeds his blue flocks — for Hellebore is dead ! 

 Angelic Hellebore ! the bending mast 

 Yields its proud syrens to th' autumnal blast. 

 No more chill winter wafts the foliage green ; 

 Sweet emblem soaring on the rustic scene ! 

 For Hellebore, fair nymph of Hecla's flame, 

 Floats on Horizon's old, amphibious name. 

 No more her breath attaints th' unhallow'd fan, "i 



'Mid the proud panoply of Karlo Kan : >- 



For nature sighs in peace ; and human kind is man. "J 



The above lines were given to me by my friend 

 the late Earl of Mountnorris, and are said to have 

 been written by the Hon. and Rev. William Her- 

 bert. Have they ever been printed ? If so, when 

 and where ? F. 



The Lancashire Song. — In the Fourth Part 

 of Miscellany Poems, published by Mr. Dryden 

 (p. 96., fifth edition), is a song thus entitled, 

 which commences, — 



. " In Lancashire, where I was bom, 

 And many a cuckold bred ; 

 * I had not been marry'd a quarter of a year, 

 But the horns grew out of my head. 

 With hie the Toe bent, and hie the Toe bent, 



Sir Piercy is under the line, 

 God save the good Earl of Shrewsbury, 

 For he's a good friend of mine." 



Can any of your Lancashire correspondents, who 

 have made the antiquities of that county the 

 subject of their inquiries, throw any light upon 

 the history of the song, or the many historical 

 allusions to be found in it ? Does Mr. Chappeli. 

 or Dr. Rimbault know anything as to its origin 

 or antiquity? Od. 



Robespierre. — Amongst the papers of Robes- 

 pierre found after his death, was a letter (Jan. 12, 



I 



