452 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s, V. 127., June 5. '58. 



description in Keats has met with such universal 

 admiration as that of Madeline in the " Eve of 

 St. Agnes," and no part of that description more 

 than the two lines I shall now quote : — 



" She seemed a splendid angel newly drest. 

 Save wings for heaven." 



In Crashaw's poem entitled " On a Treatise of 

 Charity," we have the following description : — 



" Rise, then, immortal maid ! Religion, rise ! 

 Put on thyself in thine own looks : t' our eyes 

 Be what thy beauties, not our blots, have made thee ; 

 Such as, ere our dark sins to dust betray'd thee. 

 Heaven set thee down new dress'd." — P. 75. 



I trust no one will mistake my motive in point- 

 ing out these coincidences. My object is by sug- 

 gesfing, I trust on no weak evidence, the existence 

 of a certain kindred spirit between modern poets 

 whose fame is now established, and an elder one 

 whose fame is yet to be won, to draw attention to 

 the latter without doing any injury to the former. 

 This is my first object. I should hope, in the 

 second place, that the resemblances here pointed 

 out, and taken almost at random from the produc- 

 tions of poets severed by hundreds of years from 

 each other, may make discoverers of similar coin- 

 cidences in the writings of contemporary poets 

 pause before charges of plagiarism or of unac- 

 knowledged appropriation of another's thoughts 

 are made public. No writer is above, and none 

 seems below, these charges. Shakspeare was in his 

 lifetime called by one of his contemporaries " a 

 daw deck'd out in our feathers." Time is the 

 only test, and to time perhaps should be left the 

 fair distribution of the literary wealth to which 

 each author lays claim. D. F. M'Cabthy. 



Dalkey, co. Dublin. 



OBIGINAL LETTER FROM AN8TI8. 



This original letter from John Anstis to James 

 Anderson is now for the first time printed from 

 the original in the Library of the Faculty of Ad- 

 vocates : — 



" Arundell Street, 

 "11 Nov. 1710. 



« Dear Sir, 



" I have adventured without any ceremony to write 

 by the post to the Lord Lyon King of Arms touching the 

 omission of the name of the Lord Aston of Forfare out of 

 the List of the Peers of Scotland given into the House of 

 Lords upon the Union, and I believe a new one may be 

 expected this Parliament of the Scotch Nobility, as there 

 always is from Garter King of Armes here of the English. 

 Now the favour I desire from j'ou is to give him my Ser- 

 vices, and to desire his excuse for the rudenesse (if it be 

 am'), and that if be should have begun his journey for 

 this place before my letter reaches Edinburgh, you would 

 favour me with a line at what place I may wait on him 

 here in town on his arrival, before the beginning of the 

 Parliament, and that the letter which I have directed to 

 him, (which goes by the same post with this letter,) may 

 be sent after him. 



" There is another accident about this title of Forfare, 

 wherein I should be willing to be satisfied, which is that 

 Douglas is made Earl of that place. Now according to the 

 notions of granting honours in England, there cannot be 

 two Titles in severall men from the same place, that is, 

 one person cannot be an Earl and another a Baron with 

 the title of the same place. But possibly the rules of 

 Scotland may be otherwise, or there maybe a County and 

 Town of Forfare, and therefore the Style may be distinct. 

 I hope to kisse your hand here this winter, and shall be 

 glad of any opportunity at all times of serving you here, 

 being with all respect 



" Your most faithful 



" Humble Servant, 



" John Anstis. 

 "For 



" Mr. Anderson, 



" Writer to the Signet 

 " Frank. " at Edinburgh, 



" Ward." " Scotland." 



Anstis has fallen into error relative to the For- 

 far peerage, which was created Oct. 20, 1661, in 

 favour of Archibald, second Earl of Ormond, to 

 him and his heirs male, the individual who held 

 the earldom when the letter was written. The 

 baron was not of Forfar, but Aston of Forfar, and 

 was created by Charles I., Nov. 28, 1627, in 

 favour of Sir Walter Aston of Tixall, with remain- 

 der to his heirs male whatsoever. It is remarkable 

 that upon the failure of heirs male of the body, 

 the barony devolved, about the middle of last 

 century, upon the heir male, who was landless, 

 and who earned a livelihood as a cook. J. M. 



MAWUSCBIPT NOTICE OF PKEACHEES AND THEIB 

 TEXTS IN AN OLD BOOK. 



On the fly-leaf opposite the title-page of a copy 

 of Saint Augustine's Citie of God (the 2nd edit., 

 London, 1620), I have found the following manu- 

 script account, headed — 



"A list of the Bpps. that Preached when they were Prisoners 

 in y^ Tower of London, December 31«*, 1642. 



" The Bpp. of Peeterbrow. 

 "Jan. 9fl», 1642. The Text taken out of y« 1\&^ Psalme, 

 6 yerse. ' I was brought low, and hee helped mee.' 



" The Bpp. of Norwich. 

 "Jan. 16*, 1642. The Text taken out of y= 2d Epistle of 

 St. Paul to the Corinthians, y^ 4«> chapt. the 17"» 

 verse. ' For our light affliction, which is but for a 

 moment, worketh for vs a farr more exceeding and 

 eternall weight of Glory.' 



".The Bpp. of St. Asaph. 



"Jan. 23, 1642. The Text taken out of the 125 psalme 

 the 4* verse. ' Doe good, Lord, vnto tbose that bee 

 good, and vnto them that are vpright in their 

 hearts.' 



« The Bpp. of Bath and Wells. 



" Jan. 30th, 1642. The text taken out of the 2d Epistle of 

 St. Paul to the Corinth., the 12'h chapf the 8* verse 

 and part of the 9'^. ' For this thing I besought the 

 Lord thrice that it might depart from mee, and hee 

 said vnto mee, my Grace is suiBcient for thee, for my 

 strength is made perfect in weaknesse.' 



