124 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 145. 



CurioTis Epitaph. — Of the many absurd epitaphs 

 that a person curious in such matters may meet 

 with, the following is not among the least : 



" To the Memory of James Barker, 



Who died January the 22nd, 1781, 



Aged 30 Years : 



" O, cruel Death, how cou'd you be so unkind. 

 To take him before, and leave me behind ; 

 You should have taken both of us if either, 

 "Which would have been more pleasing to the sur- 

 vivor." 

 St. Philip's churchyard, Birmingham, is the 

 happy place that boasts the possession of this gem 

 of an inscription. T. II. Kersley, B.A. 



Verses written on the first Leaf of Lady MeatKs 

 Sible by Sir Compton Domville : — 



*' My Lady's too wise to study this Libel, 

 Or lose all the day in reading the Bible, 

 But dull hours to pass, when my lord drinks his fill. 

 She Comedys reads, or plays at Quadrille ; 

 And, if censur'd by us, she may lawfully say, 

 She is taught to live thus by the Vicar of Bray."* 



J. F. F. 



Dublin. 



" Blue Bells of Scotland." — It Is not generally 

 known that this beautiful melody was composed by 

 Mrs. Jordan. I have now before me an original 

 printed copy with the following title : 



" The Blue Bell of Scotland, a Favorite Ballad as 

 composed and sung by Mrs, Jordan, at the Theatre 

 Royal, Drury Lane. Printed for Rd. Birchall, at his 

 Musical Circulating Library, 140. New Bond Street." 



It has no date, but from other sources I find 

 that it may be correctly assigned to the year 1801. 

 The words, which are very nonsensical, relate to 

 the Marquis of Huntly's departure for Holland 

 with the British forces under the command of the 

 gallant Sir Ralph Abercrombie In 1799. In The 

 New Whim of the Night, or the Town and Coun- 

 try Songster for 1801, London, C. Sheppard, 

 occurs, p. 74., " Blue Bell of Scotland, sung by 

 Mrs. Jordan," and p. 75., a parody upon it called 

 " Blue Bell of Tothill Fields," whose hero Is a 

 convict " gone to Botany Bay." Ritson, in his 

 North- Country Chorister, 1803, p. 12., prints a 

 version entitled " The New Highland Lad," with 

 this note : 



" This song has been lately introduced upon the 

 stage by Mrs. Jordan, who knew neither the words nor 

 the tune ! " 



What can we now think of Ritson's criticism ? 

 Edward F. Rimbault. 



Ancient Mark of Emphasis. — The following 

 note, extracted from The English Churchman of 



* Mr. John Bushe, 1730. 



Sept. 19, 1851, may not inappropriately be trans- 

 ferred to the " N. & Q." : 



" In a toll case, tried at Bedford, Mr. Devon, who 

 was brought from the Record Office to produce some 

 translations from Domesday/ Book, stated in his evidence 

 the singular fact, that in many old manuscripts, when 

 particular emphasis was given to a word, it was cus- 

 tomary, instead of underlining it as at the present day» 

 to run the pen completely across the word, in the same 

 manner as we now erase them." 



X. p. M. 



A Suggestion to Publishers. — I beg to suggest 

 to those who publish reprints of books, that it 

 would add very much to their use If the paglnatioa 

 of the standard editions were retained in the 

 margins of the reprints. If a reader meets with a 

 reference to the volume and page of a work ori- 

 ginally published In several volumes. It costs some- 

 times much time and trouble to hunt out the same 

 in a one-volumed edition. E. Steane Jackson. 



€ixitvisS. 



DR. COSIN and fuller. 



A letter was originally published In the Appen- 

 dix of Dr. Peter Heylin's Examen Historicum, 

 wherein Dr. Cosin defends himself from certain, 

 charges brought against him by Fuller In his 

 Church History. 



In this letter (dated "Paris, April 6, 1658") 

 Cosin thanks his friends In England for their in- 

 tention to "vindicate him from the Injury done," 

 by Mr. Fuller, " no less to truth than to himself," 

 by the passage In his History : 



" Which," Cosin adds, " I believe he inserted there, 

 as he doth many things besides, upon the false reports 

 and informations of other men ; . . . . whereof he 

 is so sensible already himself, that by his own letter 

 directed to me (more than a year since) he offered to 

 make me amends in the next book he writes ; but he 

 hath not done it yet. Having never been acquainted 

 with him more than by his books, which have many 

 petulant, light, and indiscreet passages in them, I know 

 not how to trust him ; and therefore, if the authors of 

 the intended Animadversions, which you mention, will 

 be pleased to do me right, you may assure them there 

 is nothing but truth in this ensuing relation," &c. 



Heylin, In his preface to Cosln's letter, takes 

 notice of a rumour, to the effect that the Church 

 historian had a review of his work in hand, " in 

 which lie was resolved to make some fair amends to 

 truth, to correct the errors of his pen, and to make 

 reparation to the injured clergy ,-" but he adds, that 

 these reports were " thought at last to have some- 

 what in them of design or artifice, to stave off the 

 business " of the Animadve?-sions. 



It seems not only due to Cosin, but also desirable 

 for Fuller's credit, that it should be better known 

 than I suppose it to be, that In a subsequent book 



