2"'J S. No 80., July 11. '57.] 



N0TE3 AND QUERIES. 



29 



(published in 1693) introduces the phrase into 

 the text : 



" Resides, what endless Brawls by Wives are bred : 

 The Curtain- Lecture makes a mournful Bed." 



So in The Spectator", No. 243. (published in 

 1710), Addison, describing a luckless wight un- 

 dergoing the penalty of a nocturnal oration, says : 



" I could not but admire his exemplary patience, and 

 discovered, by his whole behaviour, that he was then 

 lying under the discipline of a curtain lecture." 



Is the facetious author of the famous "Mrs. 

 Caudle's Curtain Lectures," then, in jest or 

 earnest, when he appropriates to himself the 

 merit of originating the idea? In his preface 

 (see edition of 1856) he says : 



" It has happened to the writer that two, or three, or 

 ten, or twenty gentlewomen have asked him . . . ' What 

 could have made you think of Mrs. Caudle ? How could 

 such a thing have entered any man's mind?' There are 

 subjects that seem like rain-drops to fall upon a man's 

 head, the head itself having nothing to do with the 

 matter. . . . And this was, no doubt, the accidental cause 

 of the literary sowing and expansion — unfolding like a 

 night-flower — of Mrs. Caudle. . . . The writer, still 

 dreaming and musing, and still following no distinct line 

 of thought, there struck upon him, like notes of sudden 

 household music, these words — Cuktain Lectures." 



I had scarcely penned the above remarks when 

 I learnt that the talented author of the Curtain 

 Lectures had passed away from our midst. With- 

 out commenting then on this extract from his 

 preface, I will merely ask, does an earlier example 

 of the phrase " curtain lecture " occur than the 

 one quoted, viz. Stapylton, 1647 ? Vox. 



Minav (huexitS. 



Lord Chief Justice Glynne. — In Antony 

 Wood's account of John Glynne, Cromwell's Chief 

 Justice of the Upper Bench (edit. 1817, vol. iii. 

 col. 754.), he says he has seen a book entitled 



"A True Accompt given of the Proceedings of the Right 

 Honourable Lord Glynne, the Lord Chief Justice of Eng- 

 land, and the Honourable Baron Roger Hill, one of the 

 Barons of the Exchequer, in their Summer Circuit in the 

 Counties of Berks, Oxon, &c. London, 1658, qu." 



He says that it was " writ in drolling verse by 

 one that called himself Joh. Lincall." As this 

 book is not, I believe, in the library of the British 

 Museum, I should feel obliged to any of your 

 learned correspondents who will tell me where it is 

 to be found, or give me some account of its object 

 and contents. Edwahd Foss. 



Boswell. — I should be glad of information re- 

 specting a set of caricatures relating to his Tour 

 in the Hebrides, published in May and June, 1786, 

 *'by E. Jackson, No. 14. Mary-le-bone Street, 



[* The Tciefer?— Ed.] 



Golden Square." The plates are about eleven 

 inches by ten. I have twenty. Is that the whole 

 set ? Are they common ? Is there any history 

 connected with them ? - N. B. 



" Harh ! to old England s merry Bells." — Who 

 was the author of a short poem which appeared 

 under the above title in or immediately pre- 

 ceding the year 1841 ? It was given in one of 

 the cheap publications of the day (of which just 

 then there were several, published in opposition 

 to the stamped newspapers), and was, I believe, 

 published by Lloyd. I assume that there is no 

 file of the publication to be seen. The first verse 

 was as follows : 



« Hark to old England's merry bells, how musical they 

 chime, 

 And sing to-day the same glad song they sung in olden 



time; 

 They breatlie a nation's loyalty, the blessings of the 



Queen, 

 And glad the footsteps of the gay upon the sunny 



green ; 

 O'er hill and dale the echoes ring : past ages seem to 



swell, 

 And join with nature in their song of merry ding dong 

 dell." 



H. 



Leopold, King of Belgium, Duke of Kendal. — 

 In some book lately, I found him mentioned as 

 " Duke of Kendal in the English Peerage." This 

 statement, I believe, is incorrect. Was it ever 

 contemplated conferring on him this title ? one 

 that would not have been very complimentary, 

 after being held by such a person as Erangard de 

 Schulemberg, the ugly mistress of George I. 



Heney T. Rilet. 



" Time and again." — No doubt a true idioma- 

 tical expression, as in the sentence "He was 

 frightfully ill used, and time and again was or- 

 dered," &c. But can anyone reduce it to gram- 

 matical structure ? Y. B. N. J. 



University Hoods. — In addition to the question 

 already asked, may I inquire the origin of the 

 present shape of university hoods ? 



A Bachblob of Aets. 



Toronto, Canada. 



Rentals of London Houses. — Dr. Doran makes 

 the following statement (vol. i. p. 112., in his 

 Monarchs retired from Business), as copied from 

 the English newspapers of 1698 : 



" Count Tabard, Ambassador of France, has taken the 

 house of the Duke of Ormond in St. James's Square, for 

 three years, at the rate of 600Z. a year." 



Was not this a very exorbitant rent for that 

 period ? Baixiol. 



Venetian Coin. — I found the other day, amidst 

 some old coins, a copper coin, in size between a 

 half-crown and florin, but rather thinner, bearing 



