234 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 90,, Sept. 19, '57. 



presume that the second son of Christopher 

 Emett and Rebecca his wife was Robert Emett, 

 M.D. Dr.Emmett in the year 1770, and down to 

 the year 1776, resided in Molesworth Street in 

 the city of Dublin. 



The following taken from the Hibernian Maga- 

 zine, I conclude alludes to the doctor's mother : 

 " 24, Nov. 1774. Died in Molesworth Street, in 

 her 74th year, Mrs, Rebecca Emmett." Dr. Em- 

 mett, as stated at p. 97., was married to Elizabeth 

 Mason. This marriage took place in Cork on the 

 15th Nov. 1760, and I incline to think that he re- 

 mained in that city until 1770, when he became 

 State Physician. The issue of the marriage were 

 Christopher Temple, Thomas Addis, and Robert 

 Emmett, and a daughter, who was married to 

 Robert Holmes, Esq., the eminent Irish barrister. 

 The eldest son, Christopher Temple Emmett, ob- 

 tained a scholarship in Trinity College, Dublin, in 

 1778. He was called to the bar in Trinity Term 

 1781, being then under the age of twenty years, 

 and possibly not more than nineteen. In Sept. 

 1784 he was married to Miss Anne Western 

 Temple, both then residing in Stephen's Green, 

 and very probably relatives. In 1786 Mr. C. J. 

 Emmett lived at 29, York Street, Dublin. In 

 1787 he was appointed one of his Majesty's 

 Counsel. I am not aware that there is any other 

 instance of a man so young being appointed King's 

 Counsel. He died in Feb. 1788, and his lady 

 only survived him to the following November. 



The second son of Dr. Emmett, Thomas Addis 

 Emmett, obtained a Scholarship in Trinity College, 

 Dublin, in 1781. He was originally bred up as a 

 physician, but afterwards in Michaelmas Term, 

 1790, got called to the bar. In January, 1791, 

 he married a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Patten of 

 the county of TIpperary. After the year 1798 he 

 settled In America, where I believe his descendants 

 still flourish. 



The third son, Robert Emmett, the Irish pa- 

 triot, "whose ruling passion was a love of his 

 country," entered Trinity College, Dublin, Oct. 7, 

 1793, at the age of fifteen years. S. N. R. 



DE. MOOR, PROF. TOtJNG, AND THE POET GRAY. 



(2°'i S. ill. 506. ; iv. 35. 59. 196.) 

 An octogenarian friend of mine, whose reminis- 

 cences of his schoolboy days at Glasgow are re- 

 markably vivid, supports the assertion of your 

 correspondent T. G. S. with regard to the author- 

 ship of the anonymous Criticism on the Elegy 

 written in a Country Churchyard. My friend has 

 a copy of the "second edit., Edinburgh, 1810;" 

 and I well remember reading it with admiration 

 some time since. Noticing on the title-page the 

 following words, written by a former owner, " by 

 Young, Professor of Greek in Glasgow," I In- 

 quired what was thought or surmised as to the 



authorship when my friend was there. He re- 

 plied : " I always understood It was written by 

 Young ; I have often heard the subject discussed, 

 and Young's name was always mentioned in con- 

 nexion with it. I never heard the authorship 

 ascribed to any other person." The Monthly Re- 

 view for Sept. 1783 contains a brief notice of the 

 first edition of this able work. The title given 

 accords with that mentioned by J. O. The price 

 is stated to be "2s" The critique Is as follows : 



" In this ironical imitation of Dr. Johnson, his atra- 

 bilious mocje of criticising is more successfully imitated 

 than his style of expression. Ironj' is a delicate weapon, 

 which requires great skill to manage with dexterity. It 

 is in this pamphlet sometimes used in so equivocal a 

 manner, that it is difficult to guess whether the writer 

 intends to be in jest or earnest." 



A writer in the Edinburgh Review for April, 

 1808, in reviewing Stockdale's Lectures on Emi- 

 nent English Poets, speaks in the following high 

 terms of this anonymous C7'iticism : — 



"Johnson's true glorj' will live for ever; his violent 

 prejudices have already lost their authority. The refu- 

 tation of his errors, therefore, is not now called for. Of 

 all that was ever written against him, there is but one 

 worthy of being preserved as a literary curiosity; we 

 mean the continuation of his criticism on Gray's Elegy, 

 being an admirable imitation of his style, and a tempe- 

 rate caricature of the unfairness of his strictures." 



Perhaps this ardent praise of the work was tlie 

 cause of its being soon after C1810) reprinted. 

 It is of course possible that Pr. Mooi-'s connexion 

 with the work may have consisted merely in re- 

 printing it. But, till it can be proved that the 

 original work came from some other pen, surely 

 the claim set up for Young cannot be so sum- 

 marily set aside. 



The work Is mentioned by Lowndes, but ho 

 makes no conjecture as to its authorship. Vox. 



SENSE OF PRE-EXISTENCB. 



(2nd S. iii. 50. 132.) 



Though this subject, started In Vol. ii. and pur- 

 sued in Vol. iii., has been dropped, you may per- 

 haps think It well to add the following little poem 

 of Tennyson to what has been contributed about it. 

 The sonnet does not appear In the recent editions 

 of his collected poems. 

 " As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood. 



And ebb into a former life, or seem 



To lapse far back in a confused dream 



To states of mystical similitude ; 



If one but speaks or hems or stirs his chair. 



Ever the wonder waxeth more and more, 



So that we say. All this hath been before. 



All this hath been, I know not when or where ; 



So, friend, when first I looked upon your face, 



Our thoughts gave answer each to each, so true, 



Opposed mirrors each reflecting each — 



Altho' I knew not in what time or place, 



Methought I had often met with you, 



And each had lived in the other's mind and speech." 



