498 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°^ S. No 103., Dec. 19. '67. 



and remarks, " that the subject had scarcely ever 

 been treated on before by any other author that 

 he could meet with or hear of." He candidly 

 admits that the fact of the growth or increase of 

 the rings is a difficulty which his iiypothesis has 

 to encounter ; and mentions the instance of a ring 

 at Hands worth which was only four yards in di- 

 ameter when first observed, but when he measured 

 it, in 1680, was increased to forty ; artd another 

 had enlarged from a small diameter to fifty yards. 

 To obviate this difficulty he supposes that light- 

 ning may give a kind of herpetic quality to the 

 ground, " a sort of shingles qui in una parte 

 sanescens, in proxima serpit." And thus error, 

 like the Fairy Ring in its growth, is ever enlarging 

 the boundaries of ignorance ! Some years ago, 1 

 continued during several consecutive seasons to 

 make observations on the annual increase of these 

 circles, and the result obtained was, that those to 

 which my observations were confined gained from 

 eighteen to twenty inches in diameter. I have 

 also remarked the gradual approach of two con- 

 tiguous rings towards each other until they 

 coalesced, and as at the points of contact they 

 neutralised each other's growth, in the following 

 season the two presented the appearance of one 

 large but imperfect circle. Professor Wray has 

 given an analysis of fungi : on their decay they 

 appear to restore to the soil on which they grew 

 inorganic elements of a highly nutritive property; 

 and it is remarkable that whilst the grass is forced 

 into luxuriant growth, the soil is apparently ren- 

 dered incapable for a time of sustaining a second 

 crop of fungi, although it contains in abundance 

 those elements which their organisation requires. 

 Thus we may be taught that nutriment in excess 

 may be as adverse to the purposes of life as when 

 its supply is sparing and inadequate. W. S. 



Hastings. 



KULE BRITANNIA. 

 (2°^ S. iv. 415.) 



Although Mr. Husk has, on chronological 

 grounds, disposed of the question of " Rule Bri- 

 tannia " as between Handel and Arne, yet it will 

 perhaps be allowed to offer another proof of a 

 different kind, — 



" For truth can never be confirmed enough, 

 Though doubts did ever sleep." — Pericles. 



M. Schoelcher, in his work, has given four pas- 

 sages from Handel, in juxta-position with pas- 

 sages from " Rule Britannia," and makes these 

 remarks upon the evidence offered : — 



" Thus the celebrated National Song, for Avhich Dr. 

 Arne has all the credit, is, with the exception of two bars, 

 composed out of different fragments by Handel. Arne, 

 who nevertheless was a very distinguished musician, 

 has no other merit, and it is certainly a merit, to have 

 chosen them well, and to have employed them properly. 



The following are the onlj' two bars (quoting the first 

 phrase at the words ' Arose from out the azure main ') 

 which he can really claim as his own." 



I will now endeavour to show that there is no 

 ground at all for assuming that these fragments 

 were any more the exclusive property of Handel 

 than of Arne, and that M. Schoelcher, in his well- 

 meaning anxiety to make out a case, has done the 

 latter no small injustice. Of the four passages 

 adduced, I will set aside altogether the one from 

 " Ti rendo questo cor," in " Giustino," as feeling 

 certain that neither to the eye nor the ear will it 

 recall Arne's phrase at " Tliis was the charter," 

 &c. It is not like it, even in style. The phrase 

 from the Occasional Oratorio " Triumphs after 

 victory," which is alleged to be Arne's original 

 for his second phrase at " Arose from out the 

 azure main," is simply an ascent and descent of the 

 octave, and therefore cannot be Handel's especial 

 property. Thus we have left for us to consider 

 the two phrases which constitute the opening and 

 the close in Arne. M. Schoelcher quotes a close 

 from " Un vostro sguardo," in " Giustino," and re- 

 minds us that Dr. Burney had pointed it out as 

 the original of Arne's close. I will here give 

 Dr. Burney's own words respecting Handel's 

 song, begging to remind the reader that, in re- 

 viewing Handel's later operas, Dr. Burney often 

 speaks of certain airs as being " alia mo'derna" 

 that is, airs in which the Great Master is adopting 

 the then modern Italian style : — 



" Conti sang the first air, ' Un vostro sguardo,' which 

 is very pleasing, alia moderna. The first close in this 

 air was soon after copied by Arne in his popular song of 

 ' Kule Britannia ' in Alfred." — History of Music, vol. iv. 



The mere fact that the air was alia moderna 

 would make it probable enough that this close 

 was not peculiarly Handel's own ; but in an oj)era 

 produced in 1746, II Trionfo della Continenza, 

 described by Dr. Burney as " a pasticcio, but 

 chiefly by Buranello " (Galuppi), this very pas- 

 sage, slightly varied, occurs. The song containing 

 the passage was entitled " Cedo alia Sorte," and 

 called forth the following remarks from Dr. Bur- 

 ney, in a note : — 



" We see the model of all the best songs of our own 

 composers in looking back to Handel and his successors." 

 (Page 31.) " Of the songs printed \>y Walsh, we find, in 

 ' Cedo alia Sorte,' the idea and almost all the passages of 

 Arne's 'When Britain first,' &c." — History of Music, 

 vol. iv. 



I have seen Galuppi's song, and I could not 

 find the idea and almost all the passages of " Rule 

 Bi'itannia," but only this one passage, which is, 

 however, modulations Included, used five times. 

 The passage, as it stands in Arne, is, I submit, 

 both more elegantly and expressively turned than 

 in Handel or Galuppi, in neither of whom, by the 

 way, does it constitute the final close of their re- 

 spective airs, as in Arne, who thus makes a new 

 use of it. 



