106 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. N» 84., Aug. 8. '57. 



ante mortem duxei'at." — Symeon of Durham, Bedford's 

 edition, p. 142, 



E. H. A. 



^ntxiti. 



ENIGMATICAL PICTUEES. 



The paradoxical epitapb, of which we are to 

 seek the explanation in Horace Walpole's tragedy, 

 The Mysterious Mother, is inscribed, Bryan tells 

 us in his Dictionary of Painters, on a tomb in a 

 landscape by J. B. Weeninx, in the gallery of the 

 Duke of Sutherland : 



" Cy git le pere, cy git la mhre, 

 Cy git la soeur, cy git le frere, 

 Cy git la femme, et le mari, 

 Et 11 n'y a que deux corps ici." 



1651. Giovan Battista Weeninx. 



I should be glad to receive an explanation of 

 some equally puzzling lines which accompany a 

 curious allegorical picture of the time of James I. 

 A female is represented seated in a chair, nursing 

 an old man who is asleep in her lap. Three 

 younger men are seen descending a hill, and a 

 fourth, approaching, asks the lady the following 

 question : 



" Madam, be pleased to tell who that may be 

 So sweetly resting there upon your knee ; 

 And to resolve me who are yonder three 

 That come down from the castle, as you see ? " 



To which she answers : 



" The first my brother is, by father's side ; 

 The next, by mother's, not to be denj'de ; 

 The next my own sonn is, by marriage right. 

 And all sonns by mj' husband, this same knight." 



William Bates, 



Birmingham. 



William Perm. — In one of the News-letters 

 published In the Ellis Correspondence (ii, 211,), 

 and dated Sept, 22, 1688, it is said : 



"Another of their shams is that Mr. Penne is made 

 Comptroller of Excise arising from tea and coffee; which 

 is also false." 



True or false the passage is worth quoting, be- 

 cause Mr. Dixon, in his able defence of Penn, 

 mentions, incidentally, that he had never seen the 

 Quaker's name spelt with a final e. But was the 

 report false, or is the news-writer quibbling? 

 Luttrell, in his Brief Relation (i. 461.) records, in 

 Sept. 1688,— 



" Mr. Penn is made Supervisor of the revenue of the 

 excise and hearthmoney." 



This may have been another version of the 

 " sham " — but it may not. Luttrell also tells 

 us — 



_" The Corporations of Warwick and the City of Nor- 

 wich are dissolved, for refusing to take into their bodies 

 Penn and Lobb, and each fellowes." 



Now is this a fact or a sham ? If a fact it would 

 materially influence the judgment as to the pro- 

 babilities of Penn's feelings and conduct in relation 

 to the Fellows of Magdalen College. G, 



" TAe Vnmaskynge of Johannes Horner." — A 

 paper so entitled appeared in a Magazine pub- 

 lished about the middle of the last century. It is 

 supposed to have given rise to Little Jack, and 

 to have been somehow connected with Glaston- 

 bury Abbey and its surrender. Can any reader 

 of "N. & Q." give a precise reference to the Ma- 

 gazine in question ? N. B. 



Pomfret's Choice. — When and in what form 

 was The Choice first published ? I cannot learn 

 either from Watt, or Chalmers, or Johnson. 



N.O. 



General Wolfe's Family. — Are there any mem- 

 bers or representatives of the family of General 

 Wolfe now living ? Mercatob, A.B. 



Irish Almanacs. — What is the date of the earliest 

 Irish Almanac ? and in what year did the Dublin 

 Directory make its first appearance ? I have at 

 this moment before me one for the year 1777 ; 

 but it had many predecessors. It is worth while 

 to compare, as I have done, Watson's Gentlemen s 

 and Citizen's Almanac for 1757 with Thorn's Irish 

 Almanac and Official Directory for the present 

 year, Abhba, 



" Proxies and Exhibits.'" — What the origin and 

 meaning of "proxies and exhibits," for which 

 certain fees are charged to the clergy who appear 

 in person at the visitation (for example) of His 

 Grace the Archbishop of Dublin ? Abhba. 



The Channel Steamers. — In these days of me- 

 morials, it has occurred to me to inquire the name 

 of the man who first navigated a sea-going steamer 

 down either of our channels, and thus led the way 

 in that grand career which has carried our naval 

 and mercantile marine to such an astonishing pitch 

 of power. The name of the man and of the 

 vessel ought not, methinks, to be forgotten, 



I hope some one of your correspondents will be 

 able to satisfy this inquiry, Explorator. 



The first hnown Tragedy, Comedy, and Al- 

 m.anac in the English Language. — It is recorded 

 that the first tragedy was published in 1561, and 

 with the title of Gortuduc, or Ferrex Porrex. 

 The first comedy in 1566, known by the title of 

 Supposes. And that the first almanac made its 

 appearance from the Oxford press in 1673, 



w.w. 



Malta. 



Picture of Achilles. — I am desirous of discover- 

 ing where a picture by " N, Vheughels " of the 

 dipping of Achilles in the Styx is. My object is 



