Oct. 14. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



305 



But even his facile and graphic pen failed (as I 

 believe he acknowledged) to give a full idea of 

 the talent of the original. The openings of his 

 cantos have been considered profane; but it is 

 obvious that, however bad in taste, they were not 

 directed against religion itself, but against hypo- 

 critical professors of it. 



" La casa cosa parea bretta e brtitta, 



Vinta dal vento, e la natta e la notte 



Stilla le stdle, ch' a tetto era tutta, 



Del pane appcraa ne dette ta' dotte ; 



J'ere avea pure e quaXclie fratta frutta, 



E svi7ia e svena di botto una botte ; 



Poscia }^er pesci lasche prese alZ' esca. 



Ma il letto aXlotta aWnfrasca fufresca." 

 3Iorgante Maggiore, c. xxiii. st. 47. (Rinaldo 

 audFuIigatto arrive at a hermitage.) 



It will be observed that the stanza contains two 

 alliterations in every line of it, each being a double 

 •one, that is, covering the second as well as the first 

 syllable. Perhaps some of your readers may have 

 met with some similar performance. M. H. R. 



^'■Better suffer than revenge." — The motto of 

 the family of Vachell, of co. Berks. With respect 

 to this motto, Captain Kichard Symonds observes 

 in his Diary ^ — 



"'Tis reported in Reading an old story of Vachel y' 

 ■would not suffer y^ Abbot of Reading to carry hay tho- 

 rough his yard, y" abbot after many messengers sent a 

 monke whome Vachel in fury killd, but was forced to 

 €y,aud he and his after tooke the motto of 'Better sufter 

 than revenge.'" 



Aa. 



<BMZXiti, 



LORPSHIPS MAKCHERS IN WALES. 



I should be much obliged by any information 

 as to the probable author of the under-mentioned 

 treatise on the Lordships Marchers of Wales, and 

 as to the present depository of the second work ? 



The first-named excellent treatise is printed in 

 " Documents relating to Ludlow and the Lords 

 Marchers, 1841," from the Lansdowne MS. 216., 

 in which catalogue it is improperly entitled as 

 "The Government of Wales anciently and as it 

 now is, viz. temp. Jae. I." The proper title, " A 

 Treatise of Lordships Marchers in Wales, &c.," 

 ■will be found in Pennant's Wales., vol. ii. p. 429., 

 4to. edit., with a prefatory analysis omitted in the 

 Lansdowne MS., and a full abridgment made 

 from a MS. copy of the same work, stated to have 

 been in the possession of Mr. Lloyd of Overton, 

 in 1740, and agreeing in all respects with one in 

 my own library at present. 



The second treatise, of which the present de- 

 pository is asked, occurs in Mr. Hunter's catalogue 

 of the MSS. in Lincoln's Inn Library, p. 256., in 

 the schedule of books bequeathed by Sir Mat- 

 thew Hale to that society, as the " History of the 



]\f arches of Wales, collected by me, one vol.," but 

 it is not to be found in the library there now. 



Any information as to either of these two se- 

 veral points through your pages, or sent to my 

 address, will much oblige Geo. Obmebod. 



Ledbury Park, Chepstow. 



Fir-trees and Oaks. — To what species do the 

 fir-trees belong which have been dug out of the 

 bogs of England and Ireland ? 



Do the oaks from the same places belong to 

 both the varieties of Quercus robur, viz. sessilijlora 

 and pedunculata ? 



Which is the best English work on trees, more 

 particularly on the Coniferce f W. E. H. 



Birkenhead. 



Phipps. — Is anything known of a family of this 

 name in Bucks ; its descent and matches prior to 

 June, 1646 ? J. K. 



Melodrama by Lord Byron. — In the Gentle' 

 man's Magazine for the year 1813, vol. Ixxxiii. 

 Part II. p. 697., under the heading " Theatrical 

 Register, Drury Lane Theatre," I find the follow- 

 ing notice of the production of a drama called 

 Illusion : 



" Nov. 25. Illusion, or, The Trances of Nourjahad; a 

 melodrame by Lord Byron. The story taken from a 

 romance under the same title, by the late Mrs. Sheridan. 

 The music selected by Mr. Kelly." 



The Mrs. Sheridan alluded to was the mother 

 of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She died in 1767; 

 and, in a list of the works written by her, I find 

 Nourjahad, an Eastern Tale. 



It is, of course, utterly improbable that Lord 

 Byron, who in 1813 was in the full flush of the 

 fame arising from the publication of the earlier 

 cantos of Childe Harold, and of the Giaour, would 

 dress up for the stage a romance which had then 

 attained the mature age of at least half a century. 

 I am therefore induced to ask, if any of your 

 i-eaders can account for tlie conjunction of Lord 

 Byron's name with the melodrama of Illusion f 



RoDEET S. Salmon. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



"ylra Officer and a Gentleman." — At what time 

 did the term " an officer and a gentleman" come 

 into vogue ? Did courts-martial introduce it to 

 the public, or was it in common use previously to 

 its adoption by them ? FuRvus. 



Army Precedence. — In the lower grades of the 

 army, a lieutenant ranks below a major. In the 

 higher grades, a major-general ranks below a 

 lieutenant-general. How is the apparent anomaly 

 to be explained ? O. S. 



