334 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2ia s. No 95., Oct. 24. '57. 



in bringing it out, as he died on Sept. 17, 1779,* 

 though very possibly, from his well-known sati- 

 rical, ironical, and critical powers, he may have 

 contributed to its composition ; but of this there 

 is no evidence, so far as I have seen, in various 

 investigations which I have made on several points 

 connected with the chequered life of the Doctor. 

 From infirm health he resigned the Greek chair 

 of the University of Glasgow in 1774, and was 

 succeeded by Prof. Young, who had the reputa- 

 tion of being an amiable man and a good scholar ; 

 familiarly termed by his students Cochie Bung, 

 from, as I have understood, his father having fol- 

 lowed the business of a cooper in the city of old 

 St. Mungo. He held the Professorship till 1821. 

 It is in the highest degree probable that Dr. Moor, 

 who was an enthusiast in the teaching of Greek, 

 would have much correspondence with his suc- 

 cessor in the course of the last four or five , years 

 of his life, when he was out of harness ; besides his 

 history proves that he was always a friendly gen- 

 tleman in assisting with his literary talents, both 

 as an author and extensive editor, those who re- 

 quired help ; for which he appears in certain 

 cases to have been but ill rewarded, and the latter 

 the cause of some of his adversities. 



I have not had the pleasure of seeing the criti- 

 cism referred to ; but from what I can guess of 

 it, through the opinions of the two reviewers quoted, 

 I should feel much more inclined to ascribe the 

 authorship of it to the ready and accomplished 

 genius of Moor, than to that of Young, who, 

 during his long University career, perhaps never 

 troubled the world with anything from his pen, 

 either anonymous or not — at least, that the author- 

 ship is a question which may fairly be allowed to 

 rest upon debateable ground with a leaning in 

 favour of Dr. Moor. 



I append another of the " manuscript notes of 

 Dr. Moor," to those which have formerly appeared 

 in " N. & Q.," and from the same source : — 



" Muse mount me up to a Pindaric, 

 That I may sing Guy Earl of Warwick, 

 High tip top of Parnassus I haunt, 

 To sound the Slayer of the Giant. 

 'Twas when the mighty Thomas Thumb 

 By Compass sail'd on every Khumb." 



* In the Burial Kecords of the college churchyard 

 (then named Blackfriars), where so many eminent men 

 repose, I find, the following entry : — 



" 1779, September 20th, Mr. James Muir, Greek Pro- 

 fessor, Decay." 



No age is stated, but he had completed his sixty-seventh 

 year. Pie was the son of James (or Robert) Moor, teacher 

 of the Mathematics in Glasgow. The surname is indif- 

 ferently spelled Muir, Mure, Moor, Moore. No stone 

 marks the Doctor's grave, although he had a most original 

 poetical epitaph composed by and for himself, committed 

 into the hands of his beloved friend " Dear Willy," the 

 late William Richardson, A.M., Professor of Humanity, 

 1773—1815. ^ 



" Strophe. 

 " Were I but once as fat and bright 

 As bonest Sancho Panza, 

 By good St. George I would not write 

 One other single Stanza." 



" Antistrophe. 

 " Nay, even to be so bright as he, 

 I shan't so much as seek. 

 My only future wish will be 

 To make me but as sleek." 



" Epode. 

 " Yet no hard case the Poet puts. 

 For here's the size, but where's the guts ? " 



" Hyper-Epode. 



" Some Horace reader here, for higher fun goes, 



Crys ' in seipso totus, teres atque rotundus.' " 



G.N. 



MILTON S AUTOGRAPH. 

 (2°'J S. iv. 287.) 



I send, for the information of your correspondent 

 Lethrediensis, a tracing of the autograph of Mil- 

 ton, from a document formerly under my care In 

 the Manuscript Library at Stowe, being a warrant 

 under the sign-manual of the Protector, Oliver 

 Cromwell, dated January 1, 1654, directing the 

 payment of salaries due to certain officers of the 

 parliament and others, with the autograph sig- 

 natures of the receivers. The only names of note 

 in the tabular statement are those of Thurloe and 

 Milton, the quarter's salary of the latter being 

 721. 4s. 7|c?., and it appears to have been paid on 

 the 12th February, 1654. 



I will not enter into the question of the date of 

 Milton's blindness ; I am aware that his bio- 

 graphers do not agree as to the exact period of 

 his total loss of sight ; some have placed it as early 

 as the close of the year 1652. 



In this uncertainty I have always entertained 

 some degree of doubt whether this signature were 

 really that of Milton himself, or written by an- 

 other person under his authority. The character 

 of the capital letter M differs materially from the 

 facsimiles which have been given in some editions 

 of his works. 



I may add that the document from which the 

 enclosed tracing was made, together with the 

 entire collection of manuscripts from the library 

 at Stowe, passed, some years since, by purchase, 

 into the possession of the Earl of Ashburnham. 



William James Smith. 



Some years ago examining a Bible I had pur- 

 chased, on the back of the title-page to the New 

 Testament, to my great surprise, there appeared 

 the autograph of " John Milton ; " It Is In a bold 

 Italic hand. The Bible is of the present transla- 

 tion, small 4to., Imprinted at London by Robert 



