2°d S. No 107., Jan. 16. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



53 



occasion, he stripped to his doublet, and danced 

 with " una brigata di bellissimi donne." He ended 

 the day with & pas seid. "Ballato ch' ebbe con 

 loro, fiiialinente da se solo fece una bella e gagli- 

 arda Moresca." 



The above particulars are by Petrarch's Floren- 

 tine friend Sennuccio, who was present at the 

 " coronazione," and relates all particulars, not 

 omitting the very ugly accident which befel the 

 poet while on his triumphal return from the Capi- 

 tol. The whole narrative is highly graphic, and 

 well worth reading. (^Leoni, Vita di Petrarca. 

 Padua, 1843.) 



With regard to the date of Petrarch's coronation, 

 it will be seen that in the two statements just 

 given there is a few days' difference. 



A particular kind of ivy was specially used fot 

 the crowning of poets, Hedera poetica (in Ger.Poe- 

 ten-Epheu). It is hardly necessary to remark that, 

 although Domitian may have instituted the formal 

 and public ceremonial at Rome, there are abun- 

 dant proofs that long before his days poets were 

 crowned. Thomas Bots. 



DONALD CAMPBELL OF BARBRECK, ESQ. 



(2"'^ S. iv. 251. 455.) 



I have been miich interested in perusing the 

 reply of M. on the subject of Captain Campbell's 

 Overland Journey to India, because from that book 

 the relatives of Mr. Thomas Hall, the companion 

 of Captain Campbell's shipwreck and imprison- 

 ment, have been accustomed to draw the only 

 minute information which they possess respecting 

 his sad fate. Till now I was not aware that there 

 were any suspicions entertained respecting the 

 truthfulness of the book. Much indeed may be said 

 in condemnation of the loose morality of many of 

 the incidents, but there is really nothing detailed in 

 the general narrative beyond the bounds of proba- 

 bility: we might as fairly call in question the nar- 

 ratives of every traveller, when they are not of a 

 common, orthodox, every- day character. I am 

 more particularly interested in that portion of the 

 book which contains the story of Mr. Hall, and 

 which I can to a certain extent corroborate by 

 private papers referring to him in my possession. 

 The edition I have is the l2rao. abridgement, 

 " printed for Vernon and Hood, Birchih Lane, 

 Cornhill. 1796." This volume was treasured by 

 me, with a sort of romantic veneration, as the re- 

 cord of the sufferings and last hours of one of 

 whom in my boyish days I heard much from the 

 lips of a near and very dear relative — the full 



cousin of Mr. Hall, in short the " Miss ," 



over the loss of whose portrait he uttered such 

 bitter lamentations, and to whom he sends his 

 dying message of attachment. I possess the finger- 

 ring containing his hair, which he left with the 



lady before he departed from England, besides 

 other relics belonging to his father, mother, and 

 aunts, one of the latter of whom was my great- 

 grandmother, and through her I now represent this 

 old family. Mr. Hall was the only child of Gabriel 

 Hall, Esq., of Monkridge Hall, in Northumber- 

 land. This Gabriel Hall, writes Hodgson in his 

 History of Northumberland, — 



" Is said to have built the mansion-house. He was 

 called familiarly • Tofty,' or ' Toft-House,' from a small 

 estate in Rochester ward, which he inherited from his 

 ancestors, and to distinguish him as one of the chiefs of 

 his clan. His own possessions, besides very extensive 

 concerns in stock farming, had enabled him to keep a 

 pack of hounds, and to live in comparative splendour ; but 

 the calamitous depression of the markets about the time 

 of the conclusion of the American War involved him and 

 other stock-owners in ruin. He had given his only son 

 a regular academical education, and bred him to the bar, 

 rather, as Campbell says, ' to invigorate and exercise his 

 talents, as a step to rank in the state, than for mere lucra- 

 tive purposes,' but had kept him ignorant of the state of 

 his affairs till they became embarrassed and desperate. 

 The 3'oung" man determined to go to India with the hope 

 of retrieving his father's losses." 



(Here follows the account of his shipwreck, 

 imprisonment, and death, according to the narra- 

 tive of Captain Campbell.) 



" After these misfortunes his father's estate in Redes- 

 dale * * * passed into the hands of Mr. Robert Lisle, an 

 opulent attorney in Morpeth." — Hodgson's History of 

 Northumberland, vol. i. p. 111. 



The personal history of Mr. Hall, said to be 

 narrated by himself to Captain Campbell, per- 

 fectly agrees with all the family traditions, and 

 with a number of documents relating to certain 

 attempts made by my relatives to recover the 

 estates of Gabriel Hall, and which papers were 

 given to me by the lady before alluded to, who 

 died only in 1848. Amongst them are two re- 

 ferring to Mr. Hall's Indian voyages. The first 

 is dated " 25th January, 1783," and is addressed 

 to the aunt of Mr. Hall. It is as follows : — 



" Mr. presents his most respectful compliments to 



Miss Hall, has the happiness to inform her that he has 

 just received a letter from his friend Mr. Hall dated 

 Bombay, 8th March, 1782, from whence he says he is 

 just about to embark on board a Portugese ship bound to 

 Bengal. He writes in good spirits, but complains of the 

 tedionsness of the voyage." 



Captain Campbell set out for India In May 

 1781 (page 2.), and this note agrees in the main 

 with his statement (page 157.) that he embarked 

 at Bombay for Madrass in a Portugese vessel, 

 which was first bound for Goa. There Is an ap- 

 parent discrepancy here ; but it Is evident that 

 though the ultimate destination of the ship was 

 Bengal, it might also be appointed to touch at 

 Madras as well as at Goa, and so favour the in- 

 tentions of both gentlemen. 



The next paper is an extract from a letter 

 written by a gentleman ih Bombay to his friends 



