264 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 257. 



some of your Glasgow correspondents ban disclose 

 who was the author of a very odd, very absurd, 

 and now rare drama, of which the following is 

 the title ? 



" Elim and Maria : a Pastoral Tragedy in Two Acts, 

 by a Friend to the oppressed : 



' Nos patrire finis et dulcia linquimis arva ; 

 Nos patriam fugimus.' — Virgil. 



Glasgow. Printed in the year 1792, 12mo., pp. 26." 



The democratic tendency of this little piece 

 may explain why it was not published, and the 

 strong feeling in Scotland against these persons 

 who assumed the title of " Friends of the People," 

 probably made the avowal of authorship dan- 

 gerous. Now, when other notions on liberty are 

 recognised, the disclosure of what was in 1792 an 

 important secret, would not only be quite in- 

 noxious, but might be a feather in the cap of 

 some hitherto unknown Glasgow " Hampden " or 

 Gorbals " Cromwell." 



The author, like Goldsmith, attaches vast im- 

 portance to the agricultural population; and 

 suggests that high rents make insolvent tenants, 

 and that, without persons to farm their lands, 

 landlords will not be able to cultivate them ; 

 that taxes are abominable ; and that, in a word, 

 emigration is the only cure for the manifold an- 

 noyances incident at that period to the peasantry. 

 Accordingly, Wllmor, an aged "shepherd," al- 

 though very humanely entreated to remain at 

 home by his landlord, who offers him every reason- 

 able relief and encouragement, declines doing so, 

 because he has been — 



" Well informed by those fi-om whom I can confide. 

 That lands are cheap, and everj'thing beside ; 

 That little toil will pay the tenant's rent. 

 And few that go, their going will repent." 



This opinion being adopted by the rural popu- 

 lation, who jump at the notion of "little" toil and 

 cheap lands, there is a general embarkation, and 

 the scornful hero Ellm most ungallantly leaves 

 his sweetheart Maria behind him ; her charms 

 being nothing in comparison with the attractions 

 of the " terra Incognita," — for the reader is not told 

 where this land of milk and honey is. The young 

 lady's parents, not being so sanguine as to the 

 success of the scheme as the lover, will not permit 

 her to accompany him, and the drama concludes 

 with the parting of the hero and the heroine ; the 

 former jumping into the boat which was to take 

 him to the ship, and the latter very prudently 

 returning to her papa and mamma. J. M. 



Edinburgh, 



Mitiav ^ntviei. 



"^s sure as a Gun." — Does the above saying 

 take its origin from the circumstance of a gun 

 being regularly fired at sunrise and sunset from 

 all castles and other fortified places, as well as 

 from ships at sea ? It can scarcely have reference 

 to any sure reliance on the contents of a musket or 

 fowling-piece ; for, notwithstanding the old belief 

 that " every ball has its billet," there are nearly 

 as many indifferent marksmen as there are " cer- 

 tain shots," to say nothing of guns missing fire, 

 flashes in the pan, bursting of the barrel, &c. 



N. L. J. 



" A Fox went out" Sec. — Can any of the 

 readers of " N. & Q." give the remainder of the 

 ballad of which I subjoin the first verse, and also 

 the history of it ? 



" A fox went out one cloudy night. 

 And pray'd for the moon to lend him her light, 

 Por he had a long way to travel in the night. 

 Before he could reach the town-a, 



The town-a, the town-a ; 

 For he had a long way to travel in the night. 

 Before he could reach the town-a." 



I used to hear it frequently in West Cornwall. 



J. H. A. Bone. 



Cleveland, United States. 



Hozer. — In a book of 297 pages, 8vo., pub- 

 lished at Paris, 1829, entitled Esquisse de la Phi- 



losophie AHemande, par M. A. de L , Hozer 



Is twice mentioned as a disciple of Fichte, and the 

 following is given as a translation from his chap- 

 ter " Sur le Reallsme : " 



"Expliquer ce qui n'est pas expliquable que par soi- 

 m^e est expliquer dans un cercle. Les choses ou les 

 actualit^s expliquent les choses ou les actualit^s. L'ab- 

 soLU est un songe, mais la vie ordinaire fournit des 

 actualite's qui deviennent les seules verites, et chassent les 

 speculations vides." 



I wish much to know if the above is correctly 

 translated, and shall be obliged by any one who 

 can help me to the passage, and also to the titles 

 of Hozer's works in the original. Griisse does not 



mention him. M. A. de L Is often obscure 



in his versions, but rather from a desire to be too 

 literal than from ignorance. 



Was Hozer a follower of Fichte ? J. A. E. 



Tours. 



Milton's Mother. — The genealogy of Milton's 

 third wife having recently been the subject of an 

 interesting discussion in " N. & Q,.," I venture to 

 put a question closely connected with Milton 

 himself. Was our great poet's mother a Miss 

 Sarah Caston ? a Welsh lady, as some historians 

 have stated ; or was her maiden name Bradshaw ? 

 as others have maintained. The presumption 

 favourable to the latter conclusion seems to be 

 somewhat supported by the circumstance of Presi- 



