Aug. 12. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



131 



two letters in the end of his Preface : -which two letters I 

 have set down under the title of the booke itselfe," &c. 



Whoever told F. C. H. that Bunny published 

 the book in his own name, must have a character 

 for mendacity which is exposed by the whole of 

 Bunny's Dedication and Preface. Again, in 1594, 

 where another editor (?) issued the second part 

 of the work on the same plan, the initials " R. P." 

 appear upon the title-page. This part is dedi- 

 cated to Sir Thomas Heneage. The address to 

 the reader thus begins : 



" Curteous Reader, not manie yeeres since, a book was 

 published, Of Christian Exercise, appertayning to Resolu- 

 tion : written by a Jesuit beyond the seas, yet an En- 

 glishma, named M. Robert Parsons ; which booke M. 

 Edmund Bunny, hauing diligently perused, committed to 

 the publique viewe of all indifferent iudgements : as glad 

 that so good matter proceeded from such infected people, 

 and that good might rise thereby to the benefit of others." 



I have said thus much, hoping to appease the 

 manes of good Edm. Bunny ; and advise F. C. H. 

 to see the book in question, which I never read 

 but with pleasure. B. H. C. 



I am sorry that you did not insert the list of 

 Parsons' works which I sent you, as I believe it 

 would be found both more full and more accurate 

 than that given by Dodd, which I also referred 

 to when drawing up my own. But my object in 

 now recurring to the subject, is to vindicate the 

 character of Edmund Bunny from the groundless 

 charge brought against him by F. C. H., of having 

 " stolen the substance of Parsons' Book of Chris- 

 tian Exercise, and published it under his own 

 name." In fact, the title, as given by F. C. H. 

 himself, ought to have been sufficient to exempt 

 him from such an imputation. I have the book 

 now before me, and give the full title as follows : 



" A Book of Christian Exercise, appertaining to Reso- 

 lution, that is, showing how that wee shoulde resolve 

 ourselves to become Christians indeed, by R. P. ; Perused 

 and accompanied now with a Treatise tending to Pacifi- 

 cation, by Edm. Bunny, Lond. 1586." 



In a dedicatory epistle to Edwin Sandys, Arch- 

 bishop of York, he states the nature and grounds 

 of the alterations which he had made in the work, 

 to adapt it to Protestant readers ; and in the pre- 

 face to the reader he says : 



" Who it is that was the author of it, I doe not knowe, 

 for that the author hath not put his name, but onely two 

 letters in the ende of his preface: which two letters I 

 have set downe vnder the title of the booke itselfe." 



And this is what F. C. H. calls " stealing the sub- 

 stance of the book, and publishing it under his 

 own name" 'AXievs. 



Dublin. 



An able Roman Catholic historian, the Rev. 

 Joseph Berington, in his valuable History of the 

 Decline and Fall of the Roman Catholic Religion 



in England (pp. 26. 28.), thus speaks of Father 

 Parsons : 



" To the intriguing spirit of this man (whose whole life 

 was a series of machinations against the sovereignty of 

 his country, the succession of its crown, and the interests 

 of the secular clergy of his own faith,) were I to ascribe 

 more than half the odium under which the English 

 Catholics laboured through the heavy lapse of two cen- 

 turies, I should only say what has often been said, and 

 what as often has been said with truth. Devoted to the 

 most extravagant pretensions of the Roman Court, he 

 strove to give efficacy to those pretensions in propagating, 

 by many efforts, their validity, and directing their appli- 

 cation : pensioned by the Spanish monarch, whose pecu- 

 niary aids he wanted for the success of his various plans, 

 he unremittingly favoured the views of that ambitious 

 prince, in opposition to the welfare of his country ; and 

 dared to support, if he did not first suggest, his idle claim, 

 or that of his daughter, to the English throne. Wedded 

 to the society of which he was a member, he sought her 

 glory and pre-eminence ; and to accomplish this, it was 

 his incessant endeavour to bring under his jurisdiction all 

 our foreign seminaries, and at home to beat down every 

 interest that could impede the aggrandisement of his 

 order. Thus, having gained an ascendancy over the 

 minds of many, he infused his spirit, and spread his 

 maxims : and to his successors of the society, it seems, 

 bequeathed an admiration of his character, and a love of 

 imitation, which has helped to perpetuate dissensions; 

 and to make us, to this day, a divided people. His writ- 

 ings, which were numerous, are an exact transcript of his 

 mind : dark, imposing, problematical, seditious." 



W. Dentoit. 



BETDONE AND MOUKT ETNA. 



(Vol. ix., pp. 138. 255. 305. 432.) 

 Being curious to ascertain, if possible, the 

 origin of the frequently expressed disbelief in 

 Brydone's account of his ascent to the summit of 

 Mount Etna, I have discovered, in the course of 

 looking into various works for that purpose, the 

 following passage in the notes to the Canon Re- 

 cupero's History of the mountain, by the canon's 

 nephew, who published and edited the work many 

 years after his uncle's decease. It will be remem- 

 bered that the canon resided at Catania, and was 

 visited by Brydone. 



" Brydone ebbe il coraggio d' ingannar 1' autore, facen- 

 dogli credere d* esser salito fino al cratere dell* Etna. 

 Egli non pole goder questo piacere per causa di una dis- 

 graziata caduta che gli avenne nel viaggio, onde fu cos- 

 tretto d' abbandonare 1' impresa. I suoi compagni, Ful- 

 larton e Glover, giunsero pero fino a quel vertice fumante, 

 e verificarano lassii la misura barometrica fatta altre volte 

 dair autore." — Storia Natural e Generate delT Etna, del 

 Canonico Giuseppe Recupero, 2 vols. 4to., Catania, 1815. 



Swinburne, who did not ascend to the summit, 

 says : 



« The Canon Recupero dissuaded me from attempting 

 to reach the top oi Mina, for he was certain that the snow 

 would render it impracticable ; he observed that I should 

 enjoy full as fine a prospect half way up the mountain as 

 from the summit, by moving in a horizontal direction, 

 and alternately taking in views towards different points 



