4(> 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 141. 



A fierce, nobl : lion, and his unicorn mate, 

 Prance, pioudly erect, and atter.d them in state. 

 A kind kiss liaviiig had (a siveet welcome to home !) 

 I forthwith begin to disorder the room. 

 I pull off my boots ; — hut not such as sly Trim, 

 To please uncle 'l'ol)y, in humorous whim. 

 Converted to mortars ; — but such as he might 

 Make field-pieces of, — full as dread in a fight. 

 Yet not such as Hudibras stufF'd bread and cheese' 



in 

 The rats and the mice with the scent so well 



pleasing, 

 That oft tiiey their noses attempted to squeeze in ; 

 But, not with comparisons longer to tire. 

 These boots, as they aie, I set up at the fire. 

 Quick, arch-looking John pops the dog into one, 

 As the dwarf tin-ust Gulliver into the bone; 

 And Charles, who is ever as keen at a joke, 

 With matter combustible makes t'other smoke. 

 Having, farther, my surtout thrown down on a chair, 

 And haui'd out my slippers from under the stair, 

 I'm clialleng'd by M idam to vva'k out and play 

 With the sweet little Cupids, while yet it is day. 

 Then out we all sally, with loud-shouting noise. 

 And joyful acclaim from the two elder boys ; 

 With her suckling Maria trips lightly along ; 

 L.eads. smiling, the van, as she hums us a song. 

 Next follows the kitten, pursu'd by the dog 

 (For teazing poor kitten there's ne er such a rogue), 

 She squalling and mewing, he barking before us. 

 Assist in our music, to fill up the chorus. 

 But how you wonld laugh, to behold in the rear. 

 The scene we exhibit (a scene the most queer !) 

 In Holland, I doubt not, with wonder you've seen, 

 Trail'd on by one nag. needy doctor's machine ; 

 A carriage have we, full as light to the feel. 

 That runs with')ut horse, and that has but one wheel ; 

 Witli pompous big phrase I e'er scorn to beguile, 

 A hariow 'tis call'd in plain, vulgar style; 

 In which having stowed my two shouting boys, 

 And filPd up the bottom witli hay and with toys, 

 I ])ut to my hand, and on wheeling the barrow. 

 Cry, 'Who'll buy my puddings? nice puddings of 



marrow ! ' 

 As the children then chuckle, T surely am pleas'd: 

 Thus see by how little from care I am eas'd ; 

 Hence learn to contain, in a space full as narrow, 

 And carry your wishes all -in a wheel-harrow." 

 The actors in this pleasant domestic sketch were 

 John Hope, our author, nephew of the Earl of 

 Hopetoun, and Marq. of Annamlale, being the 

 son of the Honourable Charles Hope ami Lady 

 Henrietta Johnstone, and born in 1739 ; a Lcmdon 

 merchant, and M.P. at one period for West Lo- 

 thian. The lady — his " iov'd Maria," — the daujjh- 

 ter of E. Breton, Esq., of Forty Hill, Enfield, who, 

 the same year this happy picture was drawn by 

 the fond husband and father, and then only twenty- 

 five, committed suicide ! — her deatli, on the 25tli of 

 June, 1767, is recorded on a marble slab in West- 

 minster Abbey. Tiie contents of the barrow., 

 Charles and Joiin Hoije, were the future Lord 

 President of the Court of Session, and General 



Sir John Hope ; and the third, the " suckling," 

 the last of tills distingui.shed group, the late Vice- 

 Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope, for many 

 years one of the Lords of the Admiralty. Tlie 

 obituary of 1785 records, under "Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne," the sudden deatli of our author, 

 John Hope, there at the early age of forty-six 



J.O. 



OPTICAL PHENOMENOW. 



(Vol. v., pp. 441. 523.) 



Your correspondent C. B. (Vol. v., p. 523.) In 

 reply to a question (Vol. v., p. 441.) relating to 

 an "optical phenomenon," gives a soluticm which 

 is partly satisfactory. The screen, used to inter- 

 cept a portion of the rays, doubtless assists vision 

 on that account, but not to the extent we have in 

 this instance. 



In the first place, the phenomenon in question 

 can happen only to a short-sighted person, whereas 

 intercepting the unnecessary rays by a diaphragm, 

 assists all varieties of vision equally, or nearly so. 



Tne cause of the phenomenon i believe to be 

 the following : 



Every spherical lens produces, as is well known, 

 a certain amount of " aberration," on its bringing 

 rays to a focus after passing through it, i.e. the 

 rays passing through, near its outside edges, are 

 brouglit to a shorter focus than those which pass 

 through nearer to the centre of the lens. The 

 interval between the two extreme foci, measured 

 on the axis of the lens, is the amount of aberration. 

 It will be obvious that the f irmatlon of so many 

 images at so many distinct foci must produce con- 

 fusion. 



Now it is well known also that the lens in a 

 short-sijihted eye, being too c<mvex, or having too 

 great refractive power, brings its rays to a focus 

 too so(m, i.e. before they reach the retina; it is 

 also (being a spherical lens) subject to the " aber- 

 ration" above mentioned; if then you cut off' the 

 outside rays, which are brought to the shorter 

 focus, an<i allow only tiie centre rays to j)ass, 

 which converge to the more distant focus, you 

 thereby destroy the imlistinct images; leaving only 

 that one which is ftu'ined nearest the retina, to 

 which the short-sighted eye can more readily ada{)t 

 itself, and, consequently, vision is rendered more 

 distinct 



Another instance of the very same phenomenon 

 is the practice of cutting off the (mtsiile rays from 

 the aperture of an astronomical telescope, by an 

 opaque ring placed before the object-glass; a 

 practice which is familiar to those accustomed to 

 use telescopes of large apertures on diflicult double 

 stars. 



If in a brass plate a ho'e be made of the dia- 

 meter of '033 in., a short-sighted person will, on 



