2nds, No 111., Feb. 13. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



13? 



Handel, being really Gallupi's. (See " N. & Q.," 

 2»<» S. iv. 498.). 



I know that these omissions have nothing to do 

 with the purpose for which M. Schcelcher quotes 

 in reply to Me. Husk ; but they have everything 

 to do with the question of Handel's exclusive pro- 

 perty in the close of " Rule Britannia." 



The case, it may be submitted, is this : that the 

 more the question is sifted, the more it will be 

 perceived that the right of property in a fine air 

 is not a question of parallel passages at all. It is 

 a question of improving the passages themselves, 

 and then of combining them into a more beautiful, 

 and consequently more enduring form, than they 

 had ever before received ; and on those grounds 

 Dr. Arne's property in " Rule Britannia" is fully 

 assured. An air merely made up of passages 

 from others by one who lacked these powei-s of 

 finishing the details, and combining the whole into 

 a beautiful form, would be simply -a thing " of 

 shreds and patches," while Arne's song is especially 

 remarkable for its unity and strength. 



Alfred Roffb. 



Music consists of spirit, matter, and form. The 

 spirit of a great composer has its distinct existence, 

 tiie rhythm flowing from the actual beat of the 

 man's heart, the peculiarity of his nervous and 

 mental constitution ; Rule Britannia, as a whole, is 

 not Handel's spirit. It lacks his strength — his fire 

 — the pulse of his thoughts. The matter of a tune 

 consists in its ideas — actual passages, which may 

 be new or old. A catena of parallel passages is of 

 slight value in testing the originality of a compo- 

 sition as a whole. The form with a great composer 

 may be taken as his adopted type or mode of ex- 

 pressing his thoughts, and is in a great measure the 

 result also of bodily temperament. Arne's form is 

 not Handel's form. It is always clear, often vul- 

 gar. Handel is often very indistinct, never vul- 

 gar. Arne's eyes were close together ; his features 

 large and prominent, but all huddled together, 

 and his body all angles. So is his music. Han- 

 del had lifrge, long eyes, apart from each other, a 

 great head, but delicate features ; so varying no 

 painter could catch them, and a body always in a 

 roll; and such is his music. Rule Britannia is 

 not the idiosyncrasy of Handel ; not the expres- 

 sion of his mental and corporeal constitutions. 



H.J. Gauntlett. 



aacjplt'ei t0 Minav ^ua-t£^. 



Nell Gwynne (2''« S. v. 106.) — Luttrell 

 vol. i. pp. 397. 420., Informs us that as 

 March, 1686-7, Mrs Ellen Gwyn was dan 

 ill, and her recovery much doubted, and 

 died Nov. 14, and was buried Nov. 17, 

 St. Martin's. The parish registers of St. 



s Diary, 

 early as 

 igerously 

 that she 

 1687, at 

 Martin's 



are very perfect, and it is singular they had not 

 been referred to, if there were any doubts of the 

 date of her death. Luttrell also notes, under 

 July, 1679, " About this time Mrs. Gwyn, mother 

 to Madam Ellen Gwyn, being in drink, was drowned 

 in a ditch near Westminster." 



With respect to portraits of pretty Nell caution 

 should be taken in ascertaining their authenticity, 

 for it has been too much the custom of attributing 

 to her the portrait of any beauty of that period. 

 I will give you an instance : there is a picture at 

 Burton Hall of a lovely girl with a particularly 

 innocent expression of face, painted by Sir Peter 

 Lely. It has always, within the recollection of 

 the family, been called Nell Gwyn, and the belief 

 was so strong that many years ago the Duke of 

 St. Albans offered to purchase it. I discovered 

 some time back a copy of this picture at Walder- 

 share, where it is called Lady Lewisham, who 

 afterwards married Francis Lord North, but the 

 anachronism of both the style and dress proves 

 this an error. Since this I have become aware 

 of two other duplicates, at Lees Court and at 

 Rockingham Castle, and have now ascertained 

 that it is a portrait of Lady Arabella Wentworth, 

 daughter of the celebrated Earl of Strafford, and 

 sister of Ann Lady Rockingham. The presence 

 of the portraits in all these mansions is easily ac- 

 counted for. The families of Lord Monson, Lord 

 Sondes, and Mr. Watson are all lineally descended 

 through the Rocklnghams from Lord Strafford, 

 and by an alliance with the same (Rockingham) fa- 

 mily, the Waldershare property came to the Guil- 

 fords. The loveliness of the original must have 

 been the inducement for so many portraits having 

 been taken of her. Monson. 



Ignez de Castro (2"* S. v. 97.) — As A Desul- 

 tory Reader retains his incog., will he be pleased 

 to accept through the friendly medium of " N. & 

 Q." my best thanks for his obliging courtesy in 

 not only allowing me the inspection of the play 

 to which he drew my attention, but sending it to 

 me with my own name inscribed upon the title* 

 page ? If I knew how it would reach him, it 

 would give me pleasure to forward him a copy of 

 the English translation from the Portuguese of 

 Nicola Luiz. E. H. A. 



Haxey Hood Throwing : Boggons (2"'' S. v. 94.) 

 — I am greatly indebted to W. H. Woolhouse 

 for his interesting account of the custom, its origin, 

 and ceremonies ; not the less satisfactory because 

 it tallies so closely with the oral Information given 

 me. W. H. W. would add to the obligation if he 

 could throw any light on the etymology of that 

 strange and uncouth designation, " Boggons," ap- 

 plied to the twelve officials. A. E. 



General Martina (1" S. xii. 453.) —The follow- 

 ing extract from Knighton's Private Life of an 



