432 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[Dec. 1. 1855. 



The book alluded to is entitled Pylades and Co- 

 rinna, and is a memoir of Corinna, and filled with 

 letters and notes of more than doubtful authenti- 

 city, and romantic anecdotes, as unlike truth as any 

 of that lady's novelets and descriptions of great 

 men's funerals. If the writer of the article had 

 turned to any biographical dictionary for a memoir 

 of Elizabeth Thomas, he would have found a re- 

 ference to Malone's Dryden, where the learned 

 editor very satisfactorily demolishes the fair 

 Corinna's "authentic" story. Sir Walter Scott 

 alludes to this in his Life of Dryden, when he 

 speaks of " fi}i;ments of the same lady, which the 

 industry of Mr. Malone had sent to the grave of 

 all the Capulets." But as figments of this kind 

 appear to be endowed with the inextinguishable 

 vitality of Sir John Barleycorn — and, as we have 

 seen in the play, that even bodies which have 

 been sent to the grave of all the Capulets may 

 come forth and walk this world once more — so 

 Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas's romantic fictions arise 

 again in the year 1846, and are found to be as 

 lively and " authentic " as ever. All this is absurd 

 enough ; but it is a little too bad to make the 

 lady's stories the ground of an attack upon Pope, 

 by taking them as evidence of her own exem- 

 plary and virtuous character — asking whether 

 such a woman is likely to have " degraded herself 

 by a mean and sordid action, however sorely 

 pressed" — and then demanding whether we ai'c 

 "not justified in believing that to himself [Pope] 

 alone, was the publication of the first volume 

 owing." Such arguments and facts have probably 

 left in the minds of other readers besides H. J., a 

 vague impression that tlie heroic virtue of Co- 

 rinna, and the villainy of Pope in the matter, had 

 at length been established upon evidence derived 

 from "private sources." W. M. T. 



TUMULUS AT I.ANGBURY HILL, 



(Vol. xii., p. 364.) 



This tumulus is, from the description, one of 

 the "long barrows" which are to be met with in 

 the north-eastern part of Dorset, and adjacent 

 parts of Wilts ; but by no means so frequently as 

 the 6ou^^-shaped, or other varieties of the conical 

 tumulus. The "long barrow" is considered by 

 Sir R. C. Hoare, and other competent authorities, 

 to belong to the Celtic period; but it must be ad- 

 mitted, that more searching investigation than has 

 as yet been bestowed upon them, is required 

 before either their date or method of construction 

 can be established with any degree of precision. 

 Hitherto, the unsatisfactory nature of the results 

 obtained by partial examinations, together with 

 their magnitude, have deterred the race of " bar- 

 row diggers" from giving them a thorough explo- 

 re 318] 



ration. But if your correspondent Quidam, and 

 his friends, will undertake this woi'k, they may 

 j)0ssibly solve a doubtful problem, and confer an 

 obligation on their antiquarian friends. Trans- 

 verse sections, and partial openings will not do ; 

 the tumulus in its whole length should be laid 

 open, and a complete examination of its structure 

 and contents made. Practical "barrow diggers" 

 know full well how easy it is to miss the inter- 

 ments in tumuli of a known character, so that it 

 has been often hastily concluded that none have 

 existed in cases where none were discovered, the 

 error having been subsequently made manifest ; 

 hence it is necessary to be satisfied with nothing 

 short of a thorough exploration. The eastern 

 end of this tumulus appears to have been of the 

 nature of a cairn ; the appearance of a sort of 

 whitish mildew on the stones is often found in 

 similar situations, and it may possibly owe its 

 existence to the decomposition of animal matter. 

 The skeletons discovered at a shallow depth above 

 the cairn, were probably interments of a secondary 

 character ; that is, of a period subsequent to the 

 original construction of the tumulus. They are 

 often found superficially deposited in tumuli, in 

 which the primary interments have consisted of 

 calcined bones enclosed in an earthen vessel or 

 urn. Saxon graves differ in toto from the cha- 

 racter of these tumuli ; they are generally but 

 slightly elevated above the surface, and are un- 

 worthy of the name of barrow. Hence, specious 

 and interesting as the tradition is, in reference to 

 the " Lanbury Hill tumulus," a cautious anti- 

 quary would place but little dependence on it, as 

 involving the real explanation of the circum- 

 stances that are connected with its mysterious 

 origin. Durotkix. 



Hastings. 



MUSICAL NOTATION. 



(Vol. xii., p. 301.) 



The enclosed cutting from an educational peri- 

 odical will furnish a clearer account of the names 

 of the notes of the scale than tliat given by B. H. C. 

 The words are a Sapphic verse, consisting of four 

 lines, not of six ; and the si, or B, was perhaps 

 formed from the initial letters of the two last 

 words, in order to complete the scale : 



" The adoption of the first seven letters of the Roman 

 alpiiabet as the names and signs of the octave- system 

 of musical sounds, was one of tlie reforms made in music 

 by Pope Gregory I., at the end of the sixth century, and 

 which has continued in use, as far as regards the names 

 of the sounds, up to the present day in Britain and Ger- 

 many; with this slight difference, however, in the practice 

 of the two countries, that the Germans have two names 

 for the note B : what we call B natural, they call H ; and 

 what we call B fiat, they call B. In Britainand Germany 

 these letters are also used for the names of the different 

 ker/s, chords, &c. In Italy, the syllables do re mi fa sol la 



