362 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Nov. 10. 1855. 



its truth, and I therefore hope it may claim a 

 place in the pages of " N. & Q." "H. G Davis. 

 knight abridge. 



Minor Hatt^. 



Asile and Moranfs MSS. — I have been fre- 

 quently asked where these MSS. are to be found, 

 and have answered, some of Astle's were in the 

 Stowe Library, knowing nothing about those of 

 Morant, the Essex historian. In the JEssex and 

 West Suffolk Gazette of August 31, 1855, there is 

 a note, and more than a note, of extreme interest 

 to historians and antiquaries respecting these 

 MSS., and particularly to those persons interested 

 in the county of Essex. The writer, however, of 

 the article is mistaken as to the purchaser of the 

 Stowe MSS., when he says that Lord Ashburton 

 was the individual; it was Lord Ashburnham, 

 and perhaps the error is one of the press. The 

 catalogues were not destroyed, but were delivered 

 (with the exception of those few which had been 

 circulated) to Lord Ashburnham. 



The columns of " N. & Q." have now become a 

 depositum for so much that is valuable, and will 

 1)6 more so, to future literary pioneers, that a re- 

 ference to the article in question is deserving of a 

 corner, since no Essex historian or collector 

 •should be without the knowledge that such MSS. 

 as are there described still exist amongst the fine 

 and extensive collection of MSS. in the Earl of 

 Ashburnham's library. G. 



Dr. Samuel Clark. — I have a copy of Grey's 

 JSIemoria Techina, which appears to have belonged 

 to " G. Berkeley, Bray, 1767," in which I find 

 the following note : 



« Aug. 5, 1768. Mr. Williara Talbot, nephew of the 



Lord Chancellor, told me this day that Sir Isaac Newton, 



on seeing Dr. Samuel Clark advance, said to Bishop 



Sherlock, who told it to Mr. Talbot, ' Behold a Jesuit.' 



" G. Bep.keley, 



" Prebendary of Canterbury." 



Whether the anecdote be new, or known, or worth 

 preserving, I leave you to decide. D. T. 



Longevity. — Alexander McCracken, a Scotch- 

 man by birth, who came to this country with Gen. 

 Burgoyne during the Revolutionary War, and 

 was taken prisoner with his 'army, died at Col- 

 chester, Connecticut, on the 23rd of August, 1855, 

 aged 104 years. 



Elijah Denny, who is now living in Pulaski 

 County, Kentucky, was 118 years old on the 10th 

 of September, 1855. He is still active, and works 

 daily on a farm. He served for several years 

 during the revolution, was wounded at the siege 

 of Charleston, and was at the battles of Camden, 

 Entaw Springs, King's Mountain, and Monk's 

 Comer, and the siege of Savannah. He has nine 



No. 315.] 



children living, the oldest of whom is seventy- 

 seven, and the youngest fifty-one. In the year 

 1847 he drank a cup of coflTee for the first and 

 last time in his life. ' M. E. 



Philadelphia. 



The Bibliomania in America. — At the recent 

 sale of the library of the late Edward D. Ingra- 

 ham, Esq., in this city, many of the books brought 

 extraordinary prices. The collection embraced 

 upwards of fourteen thousand volumes. 



A volume of Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette, 

 1739-1742, brought thirty dollars ; a lot of Ameri- 

 can Almanacs, between 1758 and 1799, seventeen 

 dollars and fifty cents. Some of these were Poor 

 Richard's. The Diary of Col. Winthrop Sargent 

 (of which only forty-nine copies were printed), 

 was purchased for eighty dollars; A Iieligiou.s 

 Tj'catise, by William Penn, with a presentation on 

 the fly-leaf in Penn's handwriting, " to my friend 

 Henry Sydney," produced fifty-one dollars. 



Philadelphia. 



Selections from Authors little hnown. — Is there 

 extant any work containing chosen extracts from 

 unknown or obscure authors ? And if not, would 

 not such a work be a valuable addition to our 

 literature, and be a good pecuniary speculation to 

 the publisher ? Among the many thousand volumes 

 laid aside and forgotten (and each perhaps de- 

 servedly so, as a whole) by the public, and only 

 known to the curious haunters of public libraries, 

 there must be some passages worthy of being 

 rescued from oblivion, either for their originality 

 or beauty. 



I would instance what I mean by the lines from 

 Aaron Hill's tragedy of Athelivold, cited in "N. 

 & Q.," Vol. v., pp. 78. 138. 212. The tragedy had 

 been forgotten, even by literary men, such as 

 Madan ; but the lines had survived in the memory 

 of a few, and, for their truth and force, deserve 

 to be generally known. 



The work I propose, might bear such a name as 

 " Gleanings from obscure Authors," and might 

 comprise passages both in prose and poetry. ^ It 

 would require taste and judgment to determine 

 where the line should be drawn between obscure 

 works and those in common use, and to select only 

 such passages as had real merit. Well compiled, 

 I think such a book would be a welcome addition 

 to every library. Sttlitbs. 



Mysterious Affair. — For the strange story 

 which it tells, and as somewhat apropos to the 

 observations (Vol. xii., pp. 132. 176. 195.) on 

 likening woman to the moon, jjerhaps the fol- 

 lowing may be worthy of a place in "N. & Q." 

 It is extracted from the Dublin Fi-eemans Journal 

 of November 9, 1808. I may add, that coroners' 

 juries now-a-days would hardly be so simple as (o 



