Dec. 9. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



463 



continental works illustrative of this^ subject will 

 also be acceptable. Enivbi. 



Cushendall, co. Antrim. 



THE GREAT SMITH FESTIVAL. 



Can any of your readers give us anjr inform- 

 ation respecting the great family gathermg of the 

 Smiths in London, a century or two ago ? I have 

 recently had under my eye — 



" A Congratulatory Poem upon the Noble Feast made 

 by the Ancient and'Eenowned Families of the Smiths: 

 London, printed for Francis Smith, at the Elephant and 

 Castle, near the Royal Exchange, in Cornhill." 



This curious poem consists of one hundred and 

 seventy-four lines, printed in three columns, on 

 one side of a broad-sheet, 13 by 16i inches square. 

 It is without date ; but the poet, in recounting the 

 honours of the tribe, refers to one Smith who dis- 

 tinguished himself and the family against the 

 Spanish Armada in 1588 ; and another — 



" At Hogans Coast in the late Holland war." 

 The gathering must have been very large, and 

 all present, whether of high or low degree, bore 

 the distinguished name of Smith, — according to 

 our poet, 



" A Name whose early glorys were so hurl'd 

 About ev'n in the Non-age of the World, 

 That the other Families were hardly kno^vn, 

 When this had waded far in bright Renown." 



The dinner was probably given in Drapers' 

 Hall ; and all, from the lord who presided to the 

 lowest waiter who brought in the cabbage, were 

 Smiths. Nor was all the tribe there ; for we 

 learn that a liberal contribution was taken up for 

 those too poor to be present. They resolved to 

 make it an annual festival to last for all time. 



The poet's great card was, of course, Capt, John 



Smith, " sometime Governor of Virginia." The 



chief decorations of -the hall seem to have been 



flags emblazoned with the three Turks' heads — 



" Purchas'd by Smith of CrudwelVs famous deeds." 



One great object of the festival appears to have 

 been for genealogical purposes. If all the families 

 brought with them their genealogical trees, the 

 scene might have reminded one of Burnham 

 Wood. G. M. B. 



Playing Cards. — A friend informs me of having 

 seen at Penshurst a curious old card -table, the 

 cloth of which is worked in exactly the same 

 manner as one at Holyrood, which is called Queen 

 Elizabeth's work, and to which it would seem to 

 be the fellow. The device is, a pack of cards 

 strewed about a table, purses with golden coins 



pourinw out of them, and markers, all mixed to- 

 gether m considerable confusion. The cards being 

 worked with the same pictures as those in present 

 use, suggested the following Query, viz. How 

 long have cards been used with the present pic- 

 tures ? Ace of spades is worked plain on the 

 table in question, i. e. without the duty-mark. 



J. S. A. 

 Old Broad Street. 



Stonehenge. — Some years ago it was stated, at 

 a meeting of the Society of Architects, that the 

 larger stones of Stonehenge are of foreign white 

 marble, and that they were originally hewn in a 

 regular form, their present irregularity being 

 owing to the influence of the atmosphere. I have 

 endeavoured in vain to ascertain the accuracy of 

 this statement, and shall be glad if any of your 

 readers can set me right on the subject. 



Thomas Gipping. 



Ispwich. 



Charles Lanib. — Among the essays of Elia, 

 and at the conclusion of that very fine one on the 

 " Two Races of Men," will be found the following 

 passage : 



"Reader, if haply thou art blessed with a moderate 

 collection, be shy of showing it ; or, if thy heart over- 

 floweth to lend them, lend thy books, but let it be to such, 

 a one as S. T. C. He will return them (generally antici- 

 pating the time appointed) with usury ; enriched with 

 annotations tripling their value. I have had experience. 

 Manj' are those precious MSS. of his (in matter oftentimes, 

 and almost in quantity not unfrequently, vying with the 

 originals), iu no very clerkly hand, legible in my Daniel *, 

 in Old Burton, in Sir Thomas Browne, and in those ab- 

 struser cogitations of the Greville, now, alas ! wandering 

 in Pagan lands (the book wandering, not Greville). I 

 counsel thee, shut not thy heart nor thy library against 

 S. T. C." 



Now, can any of your correspondents inform 

 me in whose custody those " preciously enriched 

 tomes " are now reposing ? Surely the Anatomy, 

 Urn Burial, and the lucubrations of Fvlke Greville, 

 once the property of the author of Elia, and en- 

 riched with the annotations of Samuel Taylor 

 Coleridge, are no common literary treasures, and 

 I, for one, should like to know where they are. 



R.B. 



Headingley. 



[Our correspondent will find Coleridge's Letters to 

 Lamb respecting Daniel's Poems, and some of his notes 

 upon them, in our 6th Vol., p. 117. et seq.—^D. " N. & Q."] 



Does a Circle round the Moon foretell lad 

 Weather'? — In "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 79., I 

 asked " if the full moon brought fine weather," 

 and this question was kindly answered by several 

 of your correspondents, whom I noticed differed 

 in their opinions. 



* Was this " Daniel " Spenser's successor as poet-lau- 

 reate ? 



