2nd S. No 91., SeM. 2G. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



247 



book, headed "Earl of Chatham," has brought to 

 my recollection some stanzas written in the year 

 1813, for the Anniversary Meeting at Exeter, to 

 celebrate his descendant's birth- day, the late Wm. 

 Pitt. The six quotations by Mb. Jacob from his 

 miinuscript, of "qualities peculiar to the Earl of 

 Chatham," are so similar to the spirit of the five 

 stanzas, that I send you the original copy, hoping 

 (o preserve them in your valuable collection. 



" Hail we his Memory, he who braved 

 Temptation, Faction, Power, 

 Hail Pitt the Patriot, he who saved 

 His Country, — his this hour. 



" England, we know, his firmness saved 

 'Midst States in ruin hurled, 

 Europe by that example braved 

 The storm which shook the World ; 



" Firm as our Rock, he quelled the storm 

 Of Anarchy's wild reign, 

 And hence the friends of Mad Reform 

 His principles disdain, 



" But these have stood the test, and proved 

 His greatness and our Fame, 

 And long by loyal subjects loved 

 Be Pitt's a deathless Name. 



" Then Hail his Memory, he who saved 

 His Country, He who Faction braved. 

 When Terror stalked, and Treason raved 

 That Kings should be no more. 



" A Nation's riches at commancl, 



And countless thousands in his hand, 

 Temptation nobly did withstand. 

 And died, as he lived — Poor." 



W. COLLYNS. 



Haldon House. 



Transatlantic Telegraph, its original Projector. — 



"We have been informed that the first telegraphic 

 dispatch to be transmitted across the ocean will be the 

 compliments of James Buchanan, Pi'esident of the United 

 States, to Queen Victoria, and the return dispatch will 

 convey Her Majesty's reply. The third dispatch will be 

 from England, and will be, it is said, a complimentary 

 tribute to Horace B. Tebbets, Esq., the original projector 

 of this great enterprise. Mr. Tebbets was for many years 

 a resident of Boston, and is now of New York. He has 

 devoted the last six jears of his time almost exclusively 

 to the enterprise now so near completion." 



Since the insertion of my Query in the July 

 Number of " N. & Q.," I observe it has been an- 

 swered in the above cutting from the Boston 

 Post. W. W. 



Malta. 



Provision for a Retiring Bishop. — 



" On the accession of Henry VII. to the throne in 

 1485, he was continued Deputy to Jasper, Duke of Bed- 

 ford, the Lord Lieutenant, whereupon that year he held a 

 parliament at Trim on the Monday after Corpus Christ! 

 day, when the manor of Swords was confirmed to John 

 Walton, Archbishop of Dublin, for his maintenance during 

 life, he having resigned the see to Walter Fitzsimons by 

 reason of his being deprived of his sight." — Collins's 

 Peerage, iv. 445. 



E. H. A. 



" ffe is a brick" its origin. — At a duel which 

 took place in Scotland not many years ago, a per- 

 son who was charged with its preliminary arrange- 

 ments, carried with him to the ground two bricks, 

 which he so placed as to mark the distance be- 

 tween the combatants, when their pistols should 

 be discharged. Several shots having taken place 

 without effect, the parties became reconciled, and 

 returned to Glasgow in friendship together. One 

 of the seconds being asked how his principal had 

 behaved, answered, like a " regular brick," mean- 

 ing that he had been as immovable as that which 

 was at his feet, at the time when the shots were 

 exchanged. Hence the origin of the phrase, and 

 the meaning of its application. W. W. 



Malta. 



Growth of Horny Substances out of the Human 

 Subject. — With reference to " Irish Freaks of 

 Nature" (2"'> S. iv. 186.), allow me to observe 

 that the freak alluded to is not exclusively Irish. 

 In a little town on the sea coast of Norfolk, a poor 

 man of the age of sixty, who was formerly a fisher- 

 man, has a horny excrescence growing out of his 

 lower lip. It was at one time permitted to grow 

 to the length of a couple of inches, but he now 

 keeps it down by weekly paring. When at the 

 length I have mentioned the horn gradually ta- 

 pered to a point. I believe that other examples 

 of this Itisus have been recorded. M. G. 



Maltese Cats. — It is stated in the Albany Ex- 

 press : — 



" That a New York merchant recently sent for a cargo 

 of Maltese cats from that celebrated island, per schooner 

 * William E. Callis,' of Nantucket, Captain Smith. Fifty 

 kittens were received on board the schooner as part of 

 the assorted cargo. On the voyage very rough weather 

 was experienced. At first the tars attributed the rapid 

 succession of gales to the comet ; but one old sailor told 

 the crew that it was nothing outside the vessel that oc- 

 casioned the storm ; that one cat was enough to send any 

 ship to Davy Jones's locker, and as they had fifty on 

 board, not a man of them stood a chance of setting foot 

 on dry land again. This was enough for the supersti- 

 tious crew, and the cats were immediately demanded of 

 the captain, given up, and drowned. By a singular co- 

 incidence the storm thereupon abated. The owner of the 

 cats has now sued the owners of the vessel for damages, 

 laying the value of the cats at 50 dolls, a piece, or 2500 

 dolls." 



Jack, it is well known, has his many supersti- 

 tions, but this referring to Maltese cats is not one 

 of the number. 



It being in my power to say that there has not 

 been any vessel at Malta of the name of the 

 " William E. Callis," the "fifty kittens" could not 

 have been shipped " as part of her assorted cargo" 

 — the "very rough weather on the voyage" could 

 not have been " experienced" — the old tar could 

 not have told the sailors that " one cat was enough 

 to send any ship to Davy Jones's locker" — the 

 crew could not have " demanded the cats of the 



