July 29. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



91 



2 vols. (1851); to Mann, 4 vols. (1843); to 

 Countess of Ossory, 2 vols. (1848). I however 

 *m quite willing to assume the accuracy of the 

 quotation*, and desire only to draw attention to 

 the astounding assertion that Warburton cancelled 

 above five octavo volumes out of nine : and even 

 to get at this limitation, he must have "inserted 

 notes" in every page, and the whole work been 

 printed before he began cancelling; for '■'■ above 

 a hundred sheets" is above sixteen hundred pages, 

 which, at three hundred pages a volume, about 

 the average of Warburton, is above five volumes ! 

 There is indeed a mystery about the printing 

 this edition, to which I wish to draw attention. 

 Walpole's statement, or the reasonable deduction 

 from it, that it was printed by Warburton after 

 Pope's death, is contrary to the received ^opinion 

 of the editors of Pope's Works. Mr. Carruthers 

 tells us that Pope " had prepared a complete edi- 

 tion of his works, assisted by Warburton, and it 

 was nearly all printed off before his death." I 

 doubt this ; and the question is too important to 

 remain with a doubt on it ; for the editors, from 

 Warton to Carruthers, having interpreted certain 

 signs by certain words in Warburton's edition, 

 assume the signs to signify that the notes were 

 written by Pope himself, and have therefore 

 affixed his name to them. That Pope contem- 

 plated such an edition is quite certain. In a 

 letter to Warburton, Sept. 20, 1741, he wrote : 



"If I can prevail on myself to complete the Dundad, it 

 will be published at the same time with a general edition of 

 all my verses (for poems I will not call them), and I hope 

 your friendship to me will be then as well known as my 

 being an author, and go down together to posterity." 



The Dunciad was completed, and was published, 

 not with a general edition, but separately. Pope 

 too, I infer, subsequently published, or printed, 

 an edition of his £Jthic Epistles, and distributed 

 copies amongst his friends. These are the few 

 facts I remember, bearing on the subject ; but I 

 shall be glad to hear what those have to say on it 

 who have better memories, or are better informed. 



Warburton was no doubt anxious to give au- 

 thority to his edition of 1751 ; he therefore stated 

 the case as to Pope's supervision as strongly as 

 he could, with a clear conscience ; but he says 

 nothing that would lead me to infer that the 

 edition of 1751 "was nearly all printed off" in 

 Pope's lifetime. The reason, indeed, which he 

 gives for having delayed the publication so long, 

 would have been equally influential had Pope 

 been living : 



" Mr. Pope, at his death, had left large impressions of 

 several parts of his works unsold . . . and the editor was 

 willing they [the executors] should have time to dispose 

 of them to the best advantage, before the publication of 



[* The passage occurs in a letter to Geo. Montagu, Esq., 

 dated June 13, 1751, in the Private Correspondence of 

 Horace Walpole, vol. i. p. 232., 4 vols., 1820.] 



this edition (which hath been long prepared) should put 

 a stop to the sale." 



"Prepared" does not mean printed: indeed, 

 why should a work be printed before, and years 

 before, it was to be offered for sale? From 

 another statement by Warburton, it is impossible 

 to believe that even a single page of that edition 

 had gone to press at the time of Pope's death : 



"The first volume, and the original poems in tho 

 second, are here first printed from a copy corrected 

 throughout by the author himself, even to the very pre- 

 face: which, with several additional notes in his own 

 hand, he delivered to the editor a little before his death. 

 The juvenile translations, in the other part of the second 

 volume, it was never his intention to bring into this edition 

 of his Works . . . But these being the property of other 

 men, the editor had it 7iot in his power to follow the author's 

 intention." 



There are other passages bearing on this sub- 

 ject, and some in seeming contradiction; but I 

 need not produce them until the subject has been 

 considered by your correspondents. M. M. K. 



MAT-DAY CUSTOM. 



(Vol. ix., p. 516.) 



In answer to the Query of Henrietta M. Cole, 

 as to a Huntingdonshire May-day custom, I may 

 observe, that the doll of which she speaks is in- 

 tended to represent Flora. For the last three 

 May-days I have been in Huntingdonshire, and 

 have made sketches of the May Queen and her at- 

 tendants, the May-garland, and the after-sport of 

 throwing at the garland. In Norfolk, and else- 

 where, the garlands are literal garlands, formed of 

 hoops wreathed with evergreens and flowers ; but, 

 in Huntingdonshire, the "garland" is of a pyra- 

 midal shape, in this respect resembling the old 

 "milk-maid's garland." On referring to my 

 sketches of it, I find that the crown of the garland 

 is composed of tulips, anemones, cowslips, king- 

 cups, meadow- orchis, wall-flowers, primroses, 

 crown-imperials, lilacs, laburnums, and as many 

 roses and bright flowers of all descriptions as can 

 be pressed into the service. These, with the ad- 

 dition of green boughs, are made into a huge 

 pyramidal nosegay; from the front of which a 

 gaily dressed doll (Madame Flora) stares vacantly 

 at her admirers. From the base of the nosegay 

 hang ribbons, pieces of silk, handkerchiefs, and 

 any other gay-coloured fabric that can be bor- 

 rowed for the occasion. The " garland" is borne 

 by the two maids-of-honour to the May Queen (her 

 majesty, in respect of a train, being like the old 

 woman cut shorter, of the nursery song), who 

 place their hands beneath the nosegay, and allow 

 the gay-coloured streamers to fall towards the 

 ground. The garland is thus from four to five 

 feet in height. The sovereignty of " The Queen 



