154 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'>dS. Ke 112., Feb. 20. '58. 



an air of reality in the journey, which, corrobo- 

 rated by his friend's statement that they went 

 over the cathedral at Upsala together, convinces 

 me that a real man was behind the mask of Sir 

 Simon League, and that he did visit some of the 

 places he has described. One he did not — the 

 Maelstrom, which sucked down before his eyes " a 

 weed-clothed whale " and a ship. I quote one 

 stanza as a fair specimen of the poem. After the 

 •ship has been gradually drawn into the vortex, 

 and is beyond help, — 



" A simple seabo_v fires a signal-gun — 



Through thedull booming of this briny hell 

 Its thunder breaks ; their day is well nigh done : 



That long reverberation was their knell ! 

 All human aid were vain ! their sand is run. 



Their latest breath is in their gurgling yell. 



A foam -shroud opens ! to their graves they go, 



Nor hear their gallant vessel grind below." 



Stanza 244. 



Tiiis looks real, but the existence of the Mael- 

 strom is denied in Household Words, No. 354. p. 

 57-, and Mr. Bayard Taylor, in a letter on the 

 Lofoden Isles, in the New York Daily Tribune, 

 October 6, 1857, says that he made diligent search, 

 and could not find it. 



I do not know who is the author of Sir Simon 

 League, and I would not tell if I did. I quite 

 agree with what you say (2"'* S. v. 76.) about the 

 sale and exposure of private letters, and tliink 

 a like forbearance is due to authors who do not 

 affix their names to their works, and who, if they 

 prefer obscurity, should be entitled to it for life. 

 Many have written what they do not think good 

 enough to be put with their later writing ; some 

 what they feel to be good for nothing at all. The 

 authors of the Enquiry and Sir Simon League, by 

 printing at Brussels and at Paris, without their 

 names, showed that they did not expect profit, and 

 waited for reputation. They may have become 

 superior writers ; they may have written no more. 

 Perliaps Sir Simon has married and returned to 

 his estate, where, surrounded by his family, and 

 winning prizes at the cattle shows, he hopes that 

 his lean poetry is forgotten. Perhaps the author 

 of the Enquiry, ^c. has risen to be a bishop 

 or a judge, or fallen to be usher in a classical 

 and commercial academy in the country. In 

 these, or in any other case, he would not like to 

 have his blunders, committed in 1834, raked up 

 and tied to his tail in 1858. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



SEBASTIAN CABOT. 

 (2°0 S. V. 1.) 



Having devoted much time to a critical examin- 

 ation and exposure of the errors of Barrett, Seyer, 

 Britton, and other writers on Bristol History and 

 Biography, I naturally read Me. Markland's 

 paper on Sebastian Cabot with peculiar interest, 



especially where that gentleman, speaking of Mr. 

 Seyer, observes that he " refers to a MS. Calen- 

 dar in confirmation of his statement." 



I have for a long time regarded these writings 

 (of which all our local historians have made ample 

 use) as exceedingly mischievous documents, so 

 far at least as they relate to Bristol, and deserv- 

 ing to be classed with the forgeries of Chatterton ; 

 who, in fact, I have no doubt, was the author of 

 many of them. By deaths and sales in conse- 

 quence, they had been dispersed, and, falling into 

 various hands, many of them were ultimately pur- 

 chased by Mr. Seyer ; who, believing in their 

 authenticity. Incorporated them in his Memoirs 

 (not History, as Mr. Markland says) of Bristol. 

 In my Fact versus Fiction, just published, I have 

 exposed the utter worthlessness of these MS. re- 

 cords, by quoting Mr. Seyer himself, whose testi- 

 mony as to their character will suffice to show that 

 little reliance can be placed upon their contents. 

 In the preface to his Memoirs of Bristol (vol. i. 

 p. X.) he says : — 



" Most of those in Bristol (the manuscripts in question), 

 but not all, were written within the last 200 years; but 

 they are evidently derived from more ancient copies, 

 transcribed by various hands, having generally a great 

 similarity, but many particular differences. The originals 

 of them were probably the Registers, kept by the Reli- 

 gious in their Convents," particularly that kept bj'- the 

 Kalendaries of Christ Church ; and they have been en- 

 larged, contracted, and altered according to the fancy of 

 each Copyist." 



It Is scarcely possible for any writer to have 

 used language more to the purpose, if he had him- 

 self wished to prove that the very document from 

 which he quoted could not be relied on. How 

 did Mr. Seyer know from whence these manu- 

 scripts were derived, or that they had nearly all 

 been written so recently ? or that they had been 

 " enlarged, contracted, and altered, according to 

 the fa7icy of each copyist?" And who is to de- 

 termine how much was added in enlarging these 

 writings ; or in contracting them, how much was 

 omitted; or in altering them, how far the '■'^ fancy 

 of each copyist" destroyed the meaning of the 

 originals ? Mr. Seyer states an absurdity ; for he 

 could have known no more about the matter than 

 ourselves, and had much better have taken no 

 notice of such manuscripts at all than to have 

 quoted them, if he was driven, after having done 

 so, to make such an admission. The value, too, of 

 the register " kept by the kalendaries of Christ 

 Church " is greatly diminished by our knowing 

 that the original was destroyed by an accidental 

 fire in 1466 ; and that its successor, designated the 

 Mayor's Calendar, was not commenced by Robert 

 Picaut, the town clerk, (himself a kalendary,) until 

 he was appointed to that office in 1479; when 

 such events as he and his brethren could re- 

 member to have been chronicled in the old record 

 were inserted in the new volume from memory 



