196 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 148. 



himself clown under a tree and commenced reading, 

 but soon fell asleep. During his slumber two females, 

 wlio were observed at a distance by two of his com- 

 panions, stopped on coming near to him : and one of 

 tliem wrote on a slip of paper the following lines, 

 wliich she laid upon his breast, and, with her companion, 

 immediately disappeared : 



" • Occhi, stelle mortali, 



jVlinistii de miei mail, 



Se chiusi m' uccedite 



Apperti che farete?' 



which may be translated : 



<" Beautiful eyes, mortal stars, authors of my misfor- 

 tunes ! if you wound me being closed, what would you 

 do if open ? ' 



" It is said Milton was so sensitive on the subject, 

 tl-.at he roamed over lialf of Europe in search of the 

 fair charmer, but in vain : and that this circumstance 

 induced him to write that sublime poem, and entitle 

 it Paradise Lost." 



This Query perhaps may merit a place amongst 

 the " Folk Lore" of " N. & Q." Jarltzbeeg. 



JOHN CI.AHE. 



Seeing in your list of " Books Wanted" mention 

 made of Clare's Poema, fcap, 8vo., last edit., in- 

 duces me to send the following Notes and Queries 

 respecting this gifted but unfortunate man. Of 

 liis writings I possess: Poems Descriplive of Bwal 

 Life and Scenery, 1820 ; T'he Village Minstrel, 

 and other Poems, 2 vols. 1821, (this work was 

 bound in 1 vol., and lettered Poetic Souvenir, 

 a few years since, to make it sell) ; The Rural 

 Muse, 1835. Have these been republished col- 

 lectively since 1835, with pieces composed by 

 Clare in lucid intervals during his abode at 

 Northampton ? 



Tu the Rural Muse there is a piece called the 

 " Vanities of Life ?" IIow far is this original? Li 

 Chambers' Journal for August, 1846, several 

 stanzas of it are printed as quotations from " The 

 Soul's Errand;" but neither the quotation, nor 

 the collection of ballads from which it is taken, 

 are in my possession. Are there any other in- 

 stances in which John Clare has adopted others' 

 productions as his own? 



Should other instances be discovered, judg- 

 ment must not be severe ; since, sometime ago, 

 one feature of Clare's affliction was that he be- 

 lieved himself to be the author of all the poems of 

 which he had heard, and bitterly complained that 

 his works shoulil be published in the names of 

 Milton, Shakspeare, Byron, &c. A. H. Cowpeb. 



SCHOKEr's account of the BRITISH ISLES. 



The f illowiiiG: account of the British islands is 

 f ^uud, and is all that is found, in the Opuscvlum 

 Ge;Kj}'aj)hicum of John Schoner of Carlstadt, pub- 



lished in 1 551. If any of your readers know of an 

 earlier edition, I should like to have the particu- 

 lars of it. 



" Hybernia, quae et Irlandia insula, ab hyberno tem- 

 pore appellata, maxime pabulosa, nullum animal noxium 

 gignit, multum fertilis, subest gradibus 100 . 54 . 0. 



" Anglia, quae et Albion, insula Britannica, olim 

 cam inhabitarunt gigantes, populus intrepidus in bello, 

 optimique sagittarii, lupos non gignit, nee illatos nutrit, 

 idcirco vagum pecus et sine custode securum. Ejus 

 pra;cipua civitas est Cantuaria, quae apud Ptole, ex 

 conjectura Davernum vocatur, subest giadibns '22 .30. 

 52. 10. Hue adnavigatur ex Callas civit. Flandriic. 



" Scotia, pars septentrionalior Albionis insula;, teinii 

 fieto sive fluvio ab Anglia dirempta. Natura invidi et 

 contemptores ca^terorum mortalium, plus nimio nobili- 

 tatem suam ostentantes, mendaces, nee pacem colunt ut 

 Angli, mendicantes circa divorum templa, lapides in 

 elemoshiam a pretereuntibus colligunt in usum ignis, 

 nam lignis caret, habet civitates prrecipuas S. Andreas 

 16 . 15 . 57 . 50. S. Joannes 15 . 40. 59 . 55." 



M. 



THE CETSTAL PALACE WHO DESIGNED IT ? 



In one of the earlier editions of Loudon's Ency- 

 clopa>dia of Gardening (that of 1822), at p. 926., 

 paragraph 1600, there occurs the following very 

 remarkable passage : 



" Indeed there is hardly any limit to the extent to 

 which this sort of light roof might not be carried: 

 several acres, even a whole country residence, migl-.t be 

 covered in this way, by the use of hollow cast-iron 

 columns as props, which might serve also as conduits 

 for the water which fell on the roof. . . . The plan 

 of such a roof might either be flat ridges, or octagon or 

 hexagon cones, with a supporting column at each angle, 

 raised to the height of a hundred or a hundred and fifty 

 feet from the ground, to admit of the tallest oriental 

 trees, &c. The great majority of readers will no doubt 

 consider these ideas as sufficiently extravagant ; but 

 there is no limit to human improvement ; and few 

 things afford a greater proof of it than the comforts and 

 luxuries man receives from the use of glass." 



In later editions of the work this passage was 

 suppressed, the author having probably deemed 

 his idea altogether too extravagant for realisation; 

 but if the originator of the Crystal Palace had 

 never met with the above-quoted suggestions 

 of a brother gardener, we must only consider 

 his happy idea as one of those startling "co-_ 

 incidences" so summarily disposed of by Mr. Pufi' 

 in 77;e Critic, and " all that can be said U, tliat two 

 people happened to hit on the same thought." 

 Such coincidences are not uncommon among poets. 

 Virgil, as every schoolboy knows, had reason to 

 complain of them, and some very remarkable in- 

 stances of them have at times appeared in your 

 pages. If Shakspeare had the start of Puff, we must 

 ac(;ord to Loudon precedency of Paxton ; though 

 surely, if Sir Joseph was aware of a prior claiui 



