488 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 160. 



medal. It is a gold piece about the size of a half- 

 crown ; on one side is a head, the features of which 

 are rather masculine, surrounded by the in- 

 scription, " MARIA . D. G. ANG . SCO . FR . ET . HI . 



BEGiNA." On the other side is a female figure 

 seated on a rock, apparently either to represent 

 Britannia or Justice, and above it the motto 



" O . DBA . CERTB." A. W. H. 



[This is the coronation medal of Mary, Queen of 

 Jaraes II., and not rare.] 



" Youth at the Prow" — 



" Youth at the prow, and Pleasure at the helm." 

 Who is the author of the above, and in what 

 part of his works is it to be found ? S. Wmson. 



[From Gray's Bard: 

 " Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, 

 While proudly riding o'er the azure realm 

 In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes ; 



Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helna; 

 Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway. 

 That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his ev'ning 



prey." 

 Gray has been supposed to have caught the imagery 

 of this passage from Shakspeare : 

 " How like a younker, or a prodigal. 

 The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, 

 Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind ! 

 How like the prodigal doth she return ; 

 With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails. 

 Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the strumpet wind !" 

 Merch. of Yen., Act II. Sc. 6.] 



" Selections from Foreign Literary Journals." — 

 Can any one tell who is the author of the following 

 work, Selections from the most celebrated Foreign 

 Literary Journals, 8vo. : London, 1798 ? 



I think it likely to be by D'Israeli the elder, 

 and a step to his Varieties, Sfc. M. M. 



[This learned and amusing work is in two volumes, 

 and was compiled by the Ilev. William Tooke, F- R.S., 

 of whom a long biographical notice will be found in 

 Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ix. pp. 159 — 180.] 



BODY OP DECAPITATED MAN. 



(Vol. vl., pp. 386-7.) 



The interesting communication of your corre- 

 spondent L. M. M. R. will no doubt claim atten- 

 tion from many of your readers ; and although 

 totally unacquainted with the neighbourhood of 

 Nuneham Regis and its proprietors, I have a 

 strong suspicion that the decapitated body will 

 turn out to belong to no less a personage than the 

 Duke of Monmouth, who was beheaded on Tower 

 Hill in 1685 ; and although, according to Burnet, 



he was, soon after his execution, buried in the 

 chapel of the Tower, his body may have been after- 

 wards removed, and privately deposited in the 

 quiet chapel of Nuneliam Regis, at that time, as^ 

 now, the property of the Buccleugh family. Mon- 

 mouth married Ann, the daugliter and heir of 

 Francis Scott, Earl of Buccleugh, who, though in 

 some measure estranged from him by his improper 

 connexion with Lady Ann Wentworth, yet the 

 tender interview that is recorded between Mon- 

 mouth and his wife previous to his execution, 

 gives countenance to the idea that she may have- 

 procured his remains for deposit privately within 

 her own family receptacle ; and, under such cir- 

 cumstances, it may readily be conceived that such 

 secrecy would be used as not to leave any me- 

 mento along with the corpse, as to whom it might 

 belong, the very circumstance of decapitation- 

 being thought, probably, quite sufficient then, as 

 now, for designation. W. S. Hesledon. 



Barton-upon-Humber. 



HISTORICAL VALUE OF SODTH S SERMONS. 



(VoLvi., pp.25. 346.) 



Your readers could scarcely be expected to 

 take an active interest in the indefinite question^ 

 whether South's Sermons or Stirling's Poems 

 were the more profitable study ? but as Vindex 

 (Vol. vi., p. 346.) has openly denied a fact or two 

 which I briefly stated in a hurried summary of 

 South's career (Vol. vi., pp. 25, 26.), his assertions, 

 though vague in the extreme, require some notice. 

 The first sentence in his reply that assumes the. 

 form of a fact is this : 



" Even James II. objected to South as a controver- 

 sialist, saying that ' he had not temper to go through 

 a dispute, and that, instead of arguments, he would 

 bring railing accusations.' " 



ViNDEx is, I presume, quoting from the Bio- 

 graphia Britannica (sub voc. South), for I per- 

 ceive that he agrees with the said work in 

 reading temper instead of temperament, which is 

 the word used in the Memoirs, London, 1717, 

 8vo. I know that there is an " aut vlam in- 

 venlam aut findam" method of reading, and of 

 writing too (and do not profess to understand its 

 mysteries), but to me the reason given by Vindex 

 for King James's dislike to South appeal's to cut" 

 the ground from under his own feet, and to prove 

 the daring, outspoken integrity, which not evea 

 the presence of that headstrong and arbitrary 

 monarch could warp. 



As ViNDEx has given the sentiment, I am only 

 too happy to state the facts, which I extract from 

 the Memoirs of South ; but must at the same time- 

 remark, that ViNDEX might at least have informed 

 his readers that South was to have argued againsi. 



