472 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 159. 



periodical, that the doubt of Professor HensloAve 

 on the long vitality of seeds had led " a com- 

 mittee appointed to make experiments on the 

 growth and vitality of seeds " to re-investigate the 

 case of the raspberry seeds. Dr. Lankester and 

 Dr. Royle both state that they saw no reason to 

 doubt the correctness of the conclusion tliat the 

 seeds which had been swallowed and buried in the 

 stomach of a human being, had germinated after 

 the lapse of centuries. {Athenceum, September 18. 

 Meeting of the British Association, section Zoology 

 and Botany.) H. W. G. 



Elgin. 



Pompcy the Little (Vol. vi., p. 483.). — I would 

 request that two misprints, arising probably more 

 from illegible writing than fraua the printer's over- 

 sight, may be corrected. 



1. Lady Sophister was Lady Orford, not Ox- 

 ford, viz. Margaret, the daughter and sole heir of 

 Samuel Rolle. She became Baroness Clinton in 

 1760, married, first, Robert, second Earl of Orford; 

 secondly, the Hon. Sewallis Shirley, from both of 

 whom she was separated, and died in 1781. 



Many scattered notices of this eccentric woman 

 will be found in H. Walpole's Letters. Lady M. 

 W. Montagu admits that she had " talents with an 

 engaging manner," but from her scepticism, and 

 for other good reasons, she would not associate 

 with her. 



Some remarks, signed " Lady O.," in Spence's 

 Anecdotes, are erroneously given to Lady Oxford 

 instead of Lady Orford ; one of them reflects upon 

 Lady Mary's love of romances and novels : being 

 deep in metaphysics, Lady O. regarded light 

 reading with contempt. Coventry's portrait of 

 her is said to be very correct ; and when we view 

 her life and opinions, we may, with Mr. Croker, 

 charitably attribute her eccentricities to insanity, — 

 a sad inheritance, which she may have bequeathed 

 to her insane son. 



2. For " the clear reason," read " the clever 

 woman," viz. Lady M. W. Montagu, to whom a 

 reference had just been made. Whether Mrs. 

 Qualmsick, in Coventry's work, was actually 

 painted from Lady Mary, or whether she only 

 considered that the character suited her, is not 

 clear. 



According to Lady Louisa Stuart, the amiable 

 pair. Lady Orford and Lady Townshend (the 

 latter the supposed original of Lady Bellaston, as 

 well as of Lady Tempest), were very intimate 

 friends. J. H. M. 



The Venerable Bede (Yo\.\\., p. 342.).— Mo- 

 reri, after noticing his Commentaries on St. PauVs 

 Epistles, mentions an edition of his works in eight 

 volumes, imprinted at Bale in 1563, and at Cologne 

 in 1612. The "Commentary on St. Paul's 

 JEpistles," in the sixth volume, after Mabillon he 



attributes to Florus, Deacon of Lyon, that by 

 Bede himself not having come down to us. He 

 mentions an edition of some other treatises of 

 Bede, and Letters imprinted at Dublin 1554. 

 The following is the epitaph given by the same 

 author : 



" Beda Del famulus, Monachorum nobile sidus, 



Finibus e terras profuit Ecclesiae; 

 Solers istc Patrum scrutando per omnia sensum, 



Eloquio vigiiit, plurima composuit. 

 Annos hac vita, ter duxit rite triginta. 



Presbyter officio, utilis ingenio. 

 Jam septenis viduatus came Calendis, 



Angligena Angelicam commeruit Patriam." 



Moreri gives the line quoted by your correspon- 

 dent Ceyrep ; but as he speaks of it as " beaucoup 

 plus concise," it appears that the epitaph is con- 

 tained in this one line. 



Ussher, Hist. Dogmatica, p. 356., edit. 1689, says : 



" Extat MS. in Bibliotheca Lambetliana Beda Ex- 

 positio Geneseos, ad Accam, libris iii. In ea expli- 

 cantur 21 priora Geneseos capita. Expositio capitis 

 primi duntaxat habetur inter Opera Beda, torn. iv. 

 titulo Commentarii in Hexameron. Reliqua nondum 

 prodierunt." 



He quotes in the next page " Exposit. super Can- 

 ticum Abacuc Prophetce, MS. ibid.," p. 358. ^^ Lib. 

 de Templo Solomonis." Epistola ad Egbertum 

 Archiepiscopum Eboracensem, cf. pp. 105 — 107. 



R. J. Allen. 



[Tlie article" Beda" in Kippis' Biographia Britan- 

 nica is worth consulting, especially for the notices of 

 Bede's works. The distinct titles of his various small 

 pieces, whether printed or in manuscript, may be seen 

 in Tanner's Bibliotheca Britarmico- Hihtrnica, pp. 86 — 

 92.— Ed.] 



Hermits, ornamental and experimental (Vol. v., 

 pp. 123. 207.). — In Blackwood's Magazine for April, 

 1830, it is stated by Christopher North in the 

 Nodes Ambrosiance, that the then editor of another 

 magazine had been — 



" For fourteen years Hermit to Lord Hill's father ; 

 and sate in a cave in that worthy baronet's grounds 

 with an hour-glass in his hand, and a beard once belong- 

 ing to an old goat, from sunrise to sunset ; with orders 

 to accept no half-crowns from visitors, but to behave 

 like Giordano Bruno." 



This is certainly strange training for a future 

 editor; and no wonder that, when he emerged 

 from his retirement, he found himself rather be- 

 hind his age in matters of taste, as well as of 

 general information ; but no doubt a Pythagorean 

 publisher was well matched with a hermit editor. 

 Perhaps some of your contributors can tell whether 

 Sir John Hill really kept such an ajjpendage at 

 Hawkestone, or if it be merely a ioke of old 

 Christopher's. J- S. Warden. 



