Oct. 9. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



337 



the best judge he knows, examin'd them nicely, 

 and declared he saw no marks of spurlousnesse ; 

 that they are certainly struck, not cast ; and con- 

 cluded itt was not worth any one's labour to coun- 

 terfeit niedalls of that metall and value, for the 

 bare keeping them seven years would make the 

 author a looser. My lord said he agreed with me, 

 that the size might make it doubtful, hauing never 

 ■read of any so large. Whose they were he knows 

 not, the person who sold them being enjoy n'd 

 secresy ; but he guesseth they came out of some 

 ^a;reat cabinett. He bought at the same time aboue 

 forty more gold medalls (the finest and tlie best 

 preserved he ever saw) both ancient and modern, 

 as of Galba, Ptolomy, Augustus, Marcellus, Domi- 

 tian, Licinius, and many of the Greek emperours. 

 These are certainly a noble adition to my lord's 

 -collection, though I knew not yett what to think 

 ■of his Antoninus. Mucli is said for itt. My Lord 

 Pembrook understands them very well, as does my 

 Lord Weymouth ; yett itts bulk makes itt almost 

 incredible that itt should be ancient : for where can 

 itt have been so well preserued and conceal'd ? 

 Mr. Evelin, in his book of Medalls, reminds me of 

 a passage in Dr. Burnett's Letters of his Travels 

 in Germany^ who speaks of a prodigious piece of 

 forgery discover'd at the siege of Bonne, where he 

 "sais, clearing the ground to raise a battery, there 

 was found a cartload of gold imperiall medalls of 

 the finest ducat gold, and of so great a size that 

 some of them weighed two pounds ; and that by 

 the rude manner of their sculpture, at first sight 

 ■euery one concluded them to be false, and to have 

 been counterfeited about four or five hundred 

 years agoe ; and he wonders who could be at so 

 expensiue a piece of forgery, for they amounted to 

 the value of aboue one hundred thousand crowns 

 Tvhen found, and, he sais, must have been worth 

 •ten times as much when made, supposing them to 

 be but of tlie antiquity he mentions. If there is 

 any truth in the story, I should belieue these 

 ■onedalls to be ancient (tho' off ill workmanship), 

 and possibly coin'd by some prince in confederacy 

 ■■with, or tributary to, the Romans : and I should 

 be apt to think that my Lord Weymouth's was 

 ■one of these, if I did not find itt described to be 

 admirably engraved. I should not have troubled 

 you with my conjectures, which will but show my 

 ignorance ; yett I could not but giue you an 

 account of the medalls, for I think there is some- 

 thing curious even in the bare description of them, 

 from which I doubt not but you will be able to 

 judge {_especiaUy of the Antoninus *] whether the 

 Antoninus be true or false. I must, however, beg 

 your pardon for so tedious a letter, and shall neede 

 itt no lesse for oifering you a parcell of such trash, 

 as I fear is most of what I send with itt ! but they 

 SLve all the dupli[c]ates I haue mett with since I 



* These words are erased. 



saw you. I shall be pleas'd if there are any tol- 

 lerable amongst them, and desire you will throw 

 away what are not so. I wish they were more and 

 better. I have taken the liberty of describing 

 some of them which are the most defaced, they 

 being, I doubt, hardly worth your examination. 

 The best thing I can do now is to release you, 

 after having desired you will, with my wife's, 

 present my most humble seruices to your lady, ai^d 

 accept them yourself from her and from 

 " Sir, 

 " Your most obliged 



and most humble servant, 



J. FiNcn. 

 "Before my letter was done the carried [szcj 

 passed by and left itt, so that I must keep itt till 

 Monday." 



"epigram corner." 



May a constant reader offer you a suggestion 

 which will not, I hope, take from the interest of 

 your entertaining and instructive volumes? I 

 have in my Common-place Book a compartment 

 which I have entitled " Epigram Corner," to which 

 I have long been in the habit of committing (with 

 a version or paraphrase of my own) any epigram 

 which takes my fancy. I say "paraphrase," for 

 very often the exact point of the original is quite 

 untransfusible into our language, and the nearest; 

 you can come to it is by adapting the witticism to 

 some corresponding modern idea. 



My " Epigram Corner " is now tolerably full of 

 decent " Martialia; " of the pointed witticisms of 

 Sir Thomas More; of the oddities of Owen; and 

 of the terse sayings of Buchanan. With your per- 

 mission I would offer a few of these monthly or 

 weekly, in the hope that others might " do like- 

 wise:" and if I and other of your contributors 

 should happen occasionally to try our hands on the 

 same epigram, there might be amusement in com- 

 paring the differences with which the same thought 

 strikes on different fancies ; and I think it might 

 not be without its interest to discover in how 

 many cases the moderns have made a reputation 

 for "witty" or "smart" sayings, all the point; 

 for which has been stolen (gypsy-like) from old 

 Martial, or other ancients, and passed off, dis- 

 figured and unacknowledged, as their own off- 

 spring. As a commencement I send you half-a- 

 dozen, including that to which your correspondent 

 PuiLOBiBLON (Vol. V., p. 272.) traccd what has 

 been called " one of the happiest repartees of 

 Voltaire." If they are acceptable you shall hear 

 again from A. B. li. 



" Frustra ego te laudo ; frustra me ZoWc lajclas : 

 Nemo mihi credit, Zoile ; nemo tll)i." 



" You libel me ; I laud you ; all in vain : 

 Neither from others credence can obtain." 



