2^ S. No 95., Oct. 24. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



337 



Henry, for whom all the poets of the day had an 

 elegy. 



Sylvester's contribution to the national wail is a 

 small quarto : the title a black ground, with the 

 Prince s arms in a garter at top ; and underneath, 

 the foregoing in a white letter. The book con- 

 tains fifteen leaves : the Teares occupy the front, 

 in black upon white, as usual, with a deep black 

 band at top and bottom, and skeleton supporters 

 down the sides. The reverse throughout, the 

 Prince's arms, with coronets, white on a black 

 ground ; and it is, perhaps, among the earliest 

 specimens of this oddity in printing. J. O. 



Remains of Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely 

 (P' S. vii. 287.) —J- J- J. will find a letter of 

 Bishop Turner's in the European Magazine, June, 

 1797, p. 389., and others in Lady Russell's Letters. 

 In the second volume of The Christians (not 

 Christian) Magazine (1761), several of Turner's 

 works are printed, beside the Life of Ferrar. 

 Prom Prior's verses " To the Rev. Dr. F. Turner, 

 Bishop of Ely, who had advised a translation of 

 Prudentius," we know that Turner had a liking 

 for Prudentius, and the editors of the magazine 

 tell us that he afterwards himself accomplished 

 the task which Prior declined. (^Christ, Mag..) 

 p. 230.) These translations, and others from 

 Thomas a Kempis and Gregory Nazianzen, to- 

 gether with some original pieces, were in the 

 editors' hands, and they printed some specimens, 

 the most interesting of which is that — 



" On the prospect of the University of Cambridge, from 

 the top of the hill near my house at Therfield. Trans- 

 lated out of Latin by Bp. T." 



This begins, " Hail to those sacred mansions great 

 and high." 



See farther about Turner, Brydges' Mestituta, 

 1.149,150.; D'Oyly's Ze/e of Bancroft (1st ed.), 

 ii. 123.; Todd's Deans of Canterbury, p. 131.; 

 Life of Isaac Milles, pp. 20. 119, 120. ; Patrick's 

 Autobiography, pp. 138, 139, 168. ; and the Index 

 to Evelyn's Diary. J. E. B. Matob. 



St. John's Coll., Cambridge. 



. The English « Ginevra" (2"'^ S. iv. 248.) — A 

 correspondent has inquired whether there is not 

 an English story nearly resembling that told by 

 Rogers, in his Italy, under the title of " Ginevra." 

 I do not know whether the following memorandum 

 will answer his question, but it may help in the 

 elucidation of the matter. 



There was once a merry Christmas gathering at 

 a hall in the county of Rutland. Among other 

 recreations proposed was the enactment of a play 

 in which a funeral occurs. It was accordingly 

 performed, and a young lady was lowered into a 

 chest, which was intended to represent the coffin 

 in this mimic funeral. The lid was closed over 

 her. No one thought for a moment she was in 



any danger, but when the lid was raised she was 

 found to be a corpse. 



I was told this story more than thirty years ago, 

 by an aged relative, before I had read Rogers's 

 poem or any similar story. The tradition reaches 

 me in this way : my great-grandfather, John 

 William Noel Reynolds, was the son of a Dorothy 

 Noel, who (I have been informed) stated she was 

 one of the party present when the melancholy 

 affair occurred. From Mrs. Reynolds (nee Do- 

 rothy Noel) to her son, and from him to my 

 nearer relations, the tradition comes direct. 



Dorothy Noel was born in the year 1692. It is 

 probable, therefore (if she was present as a girl), 

 that the event took place between the years 1702 

 and 1712, when she would be between ten and 

 twenty years of age. 



I have been told that Exton Hall, the ancient 

 seat of the Noels, was the scene of the tragedy, 

 and that no plays were afterwards performed in 

 that mansion. James Thompson. 



Leicester. 



[The story of Ginevra has been noticed in our 1»* Ser. 

 V. 129. 209. 333.] 



^'Sowing light" (2"'^ S. iv. 114.) — In com- 

 menting on the authenticity of the lines attributed 

 to Cowper (p. 4.), Jaydeb takes exception to 

 the phrase " sowing light," as being " rather a 

 strange expression." I would beg to remind him 

 that it is a scriptural one, and will be found in the 

 11th verse of the 95th Psalm, — "Light is sown 

 for the righteous." I am aware the LXX. ren- 

 dering of the passage, ^cos ai/e'reiAe, does not convey 

 the full force of the original, but it has been sug- 

 gested to me by a friend that, possibly the trans- 

 lators mistook mf (the kindred verb from the same 

 root), for vnt the true reading of which our ver- 

 sion is the correct translation. (Cf. this passage 

 (in Gr.) with Matt. iv. 16., where the same phrase 

 occurs ; see also Ps. Ixxxv. 11. ; Ixv. 10., &c. for 

 other forms of the expression.) " Sowing light," 

 then, is not so " strange an expression " as ap- 

 pears at first sight, and in my view contains a 

 bold and beautiful figure, perhaps of a mixed 

 kind, borrowed from the rising light of early day, 

 or the springing of the hidden seed from the 

 opening earth. Thus Calvin : 



" Some think that gladness is sown for the j ust as seed 

 when cast into the ground dies or lies buried in the earth 

 a long time ere it germinates : " 



following the Targum paraphrase, — " Lux vita 

 et conservata est justis." See also Calmet, art. 

 "Nergal" (quoting Montfaucon), for the con- 

 nexion (among the ancients) of corn with the 

 emblem of light. Other instances, I imagine, of 

 the use of this figure could be readily adduced 

 from the writings of classic authors. 



Henkt W. S. Taylor. 

 Southampton. 



