Dec. 25. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



605 



of which table the date of old plate might be 

 determined. 



Has this very useful table ever been published, 

 or has nothing further been heard of it ? 



Henry Livett. 



Bristol. 



Minav ^ncvit^ tot'tlj ^uiStocrS. 



John Murray. — In the Baptists' Library at 

 Bristol is preserved a copy of The New Testament 

 by Tyndal, first edition, 1526. On the fly-leaf is 

 pasted an engraved portrait with " G. Vertue ad 

 vivum, delin. 1738, et sculpsit 1752." Underneath 

 the print is the following inscription : 



" Hoh Maister Murray of Sacomb, 

 The works of old Time to collect was his pride, 



Till Oblivion dreaded his care ; 

 Regardless of friends intestate he dy'd, 



So the Rooks and the Crows were his heir." 



Query : Who was this John Murray ? 



Edwakd F. Rimbaijlt. 



[John Murray is noticed in the Gentleman^s Maga- 

 zine, vol. Iv. pp. 887. 939., as "a very singular charac- 

 ter," an antiquary, and one of Hearne's correspondents. 

 In the print of him by G. Vertue he is leaning on 

 three books, inscribed " T. Hearne, V. III., Sessions' 

 Papers, and Tryals of Witches," and is holding a fourth 

 under his coat. The dates of his birth and death are, 

 January 24, 1670, and September 13, 1748 ; and the 

 drawing, which was in Dr. Rawlinson's possession at 

 the time of the engraving being made from it in 1752, 

 had been taken by Vertue from the life fourteen years 

 before. See also Nichols's JAterary Anecdotes, vol. v. 

 p. 458., where he is noticed as "a great antiquary and 

 collector of old books, chiefly English, which he bound 

 uniformly in a very neat manner. They have been 

 dispersed, and some are to be found in almost every 

 library of ancient English literature."] 



Tyning. — What is the etymology of the word 

 " tyning," found in the names of fields in this part 

 of the country ? H. G. T. 



Weston super Mare. 



[It is from the Anglo-Saxon Tynan, fo hedge in, to 

 inclose, &c. If we remember rightly, some curious 

 illustrations of this word will be found in Akerman's 

 Wiltshire Glossary,'] 



Judas-coloured Hair. — In Dryden's well-known 

 satirical description of Jacob Tonson, the pub- 

 lisher, occurs the phrase " Judas-colour'd hair." 

 What colour was this ? Is not Judas commonly 

 represented with black hair ? Cuthbert Bede. 



[Judas, as Nares tells us in his Glossary, was com- 

 monly believed to have had red hair and beard. The 

 passages which he quotes in proof of this are nume- 

 rous ; but the most striking is from Middleton's Chaste 

 Maid of Cheapside, 1620. "What has he given her? 



What is it, gossip ? A fair high standing cup, with two 

 great 'postle spoons, one of them gilt. Sure that was 

 Judas with the red heard ! "] 



33>.t^\it<i, 



IRISH RHYME — ENGLISH CRITICISM. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 431. 539.) 



I think I should have rested my vindication of 

 Irish poetry — from the imputation of any special 

 brogue — upon my last paper, if you had not ap- 

 pended to it some examples furnished by H. B. C. 

 from the United Service Club, to which he adds a 

 suggestion, that Pope's loose rhymes may be ac- 

 counted for by " his having caught the brogue from 

 Swift." This bit of banter has in it more of fun 

 than fair criticism, and induces me to examine the 

 question further, in order to see whether the in- 

 correct rhyming in question can be called Irish^ 

 with any more justice than the English language 

 is sometimes called American ! 



Leaving Pope, I turn to another master English 

 poet, relative of Swift's it is true, but on the 

 English side of the house ; and who, living a gene- 

 ration before him, and being " more than kin the 

 less than kind " to his young relative's poetic powers, 

 was not very likely to have caught any infection 

 from him. Now I take up a four-volume edition 

 of Dryden's works, and from about half of the first 

 I can produce the following : 



" But as the Devil owes his imps a shame, 

 He chose the apostate for his proper theme ! 

 But tho' heav'n made him poor, with reverence 



spahing ! 

 He never was a poet of God's making." 



These from Absalom and Ahithophel ! From the 

 Annus Mirabilis I select : 



" Nor was he like those stars which only shine ! 



He had his calmer influence, and his mien." 



" Some lazy ages lost in sleep and ease, 

 No actions leave to busy chronic/es." 



Besides these glaring examples, I find such in- 

 congruities as these tacked together for rhyme : 



restrain disperse flame strike please 



vein (not vain) stars epigram jlpostoKc ! dress 



And others " quos nunc rescribere longum est." 



It may be urged that Dryden, under the old 

 laureat system, was bound " to write to order," and 

 was therefore obliged to press into his couplets 

 words which, if not laid hold of for " the king's 

 service," might, as an Irish authority tells us, " sue 

 out their habeas corpus in any court in Christen- 

 dom." But what shall we say of Gray, that ele- 

 gant elaborator of finished poetry, who might be 

 supposed never to have allowed stanza or couplet 

 to go forth until it was " factus ad unguem." If, by 



