164 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Sept. 1. 1855. 



It would be desirable not to admit reputed 

 authors of articles in periodicals, except only 

 when the rumour is furnished, with contradiction, 

 by the reputed author himself. M. 



Junius. — In Rush's Residence at the Court of 

 London, vol. i. p. 310., is preserved an anecdote 

 relating to the authorship of Junius, which may 

 be appropriately recorded in " N. & Q.," not only 

 from its apparent importance, but as more likely 

 in such an index rerum to meet the eye of any 

 future investigator of this vexed question, than in 

 the work from which I transfer it. It is as 

 follows : 



" Mr. Carininfif related an anecdote pertinent to the 

 topic, derived from the present king, when Prince of 

 Wales. It was to the following effect : The late king was 

 in the habit of going to the theatre once a week at the 

 time Junius's Letters were appearing, and had a page in 

 his service of the name of Ramus. This page always 

 brought the play-bill into the king at tea-time, on the 

 evenings when he went. On the evening before Sir 

 Philip Francis sailed for India, Ramus handed to the 

 king, at the same time when delivering the play-bill, a 

 note from Garrick to Kamus, in which the former stated 

 that there would be no more letters from Junius. This 

 was found to be the very night on which Junius ad- 

 dressed his laconic note to Garrick, threatening him with 

 vengeance. Sir Philip did embark for India next morn- 

 ing, and in point of fact the letters ceased to appear from 

 that very day. The anecdote added that there lived witli 

 Sir Philip at the time a relation of Ramus, who sailed in 

 the morning with him. The whole narrative excited 

 much attention, and was new to most of the company. 

 The first impression it made was, not only that it went 

 far towards showing, by proof almost direct, that Sir 

 Philip Francis was the author, but that Garrick must 

 have been in the secret" 



William Bates. 

 Birmingham. 



Brass in Aughton Church, Ormskirk. — I send 

 you a copy of an inscription upon brass against 

 the wall in the ancient parish church of Aughton, 

 near Ormskirk, taken by me a few days ago. 

 " Jesus Saluator. 



My ancesters have been interred here above 380 years, 

 This to me by ancient evidence appears ; 

 Which that all may know and none doe offer wrong. 

 It is ten foot and one inch broad, and foure yards and a 

 half long. 



Amen. 

 « Richard Mosock, 1686. 



" God save the King to the greate glory of God." 



The church itself is very curious in many re- 

 spects, but much neglected ; the stone and wood 

 work within defaced with plaster, and the roof, in 

 all probability handsome, ceiled over, I believe, 

 within the last thirty or forty years. C. E. D. 



Prescot. 



Religious Opinions of Lord Byron. — In a col- 

 lection of autograph letters, sold a i^vf weeks ago 

 by Messrs. Pnttick and Simpson, occurs one 



No. 305.] 



(Lot 119.) purporting to be in the handwriting of 

 Lord Byron, which contains a remarkable, though 

 vague enough, expression of his religious opinions. 

 The passage in question has already appeared in a 

 newspaper, from which I transcribe it, as appear- 

 ing to me to merit preservation among the 

 cimelia of " Is. & Q." It is as follows : 



" In morality I prefer Confucius to the Ten Command- 

 ments, and Socrates to St. Paul (though the two latter 

 agree in their opinion of marriage). In religion I favour 

 the Catholic emancipation, but do not acknowledge the 

 Pope; and I have refused to take the sacrament, because 

 I do not think that eating bread and drinking wine from 

 the hand of an earthly vicar will make me an inheritor 

 of heaven. I hold virtue in general, or the virtues se- 

 verally, to be only in the disposition — each a feeling, 

 and not a principle. I believe truth the prime attribute 

 of the Deity, and death an eternal sleep, at least of the 

 body. You have here a brief compendium of the sen- 

 timents of the wicked George Lord Byron." 



This letter sold for Al. 12s. Qd. 



William Bates. 

 Birmingham. 



Herrick and Milton. — I am not going to speak 



of plagiarism, but of " great resemblances." Who 



I that reads the exquisite opening of Old Herrick's 



" Epithalamium on Sir Clipseley Carew and his 



Lady — 



" What's that we see from far ! the spring of day 

 Bloom'd from the east ; or fair enjewell'd May 

 Blown out of April ; or some new 

 Star fill'd with glory to our view, 

 Reaching at Heaven, 

 To add a nobler planet to the seven ? 

 Say ; or do we not descry 

 Some goddess, in a cloud of tiffany 

 To move ; or, rather, the 

 Emergent Venus from the Sea ? 

 'Tis she ! 'tis she ! or else some more divine 

 Enlighten'd substance. Mark how from the shrine 

 Of holy saints she paces on, 

 Treading upon vermillion 

 And amber, spicing 

 The chafed air with fumes of paradise ! " — 



but must feel that Milton's soul was deep-dyed 

 with the beauty of Herrick's verse when he wrote 

 descriptively, in the " Samson Agonistes," of the 

 approach of Dalila ? — 



" But who is this? what thing of sea or land ? 

 Female of sex it seems. 

 That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay, 

 Comes this way sailing, 

 Like a stately ship 

 Of Tarsus, bound for the isles 

 Of Javan or Gadire, 



With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, 

 Sails fiU'd and streamers waving. 

 Courted by all the winds that hold them play. 

 An amber scent of odorous perfume 

 Her harbinger." 



Both passages are redolent of the same volup- 

 tuous beauty, and seem to issue frova. one and the 

 same gorgeous imagination. 



A DeSULTOKT EjElADEB. 



