44 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 107., Jan. 16. '58. 



and who no doubt carried on the business after 

 the death of her husband. It may, however, be 

 that of CoUins's younger sister, afterwards Mrs. 

 Durnford. Although Johnson and others tell us 

 that William Collins, the father, was a hatter, I 

 have always thought it doubtful whether all the 

 heads in Chichester in those frugal days could 

 have kept one tradesman in constant employment 

 as a hatter only ; but this fact seems to confirm 

 Johnson's statement. 



In the European Magazine for October, 1795, 

 is an amusing anecdote of Dr. Langhorne, the 

 earliest editor of CoUins's poems, as follows : — 



" Dr. Langhorne, hearing that Collins the poet was 

 buried at Chichester, travelled thither on purpose to 

 enjoy all the luxury of poetic sorrow, and to weep over 

 his grave. On enquiry he found that Mr. Collins was 

 interred in a sort of garden surrounded by the cloister of 

 the Cathedral which is called " the Paradise." He was 

 let into this place by the Sexton, and after an hour's 

 seclusion in it came forth with all the solemn dignity of 

 woe. On supping with an inhabitant of the town in the 

 evening, and describing to him the spot sacred to his sor- 

 rows, he was told that he had by no means been misap- 

 plying his tears; that he had been lamenting a very 

 honest man and a very useful member of society, Mr. 

 Collins the Tailor." 



This is, I confess, too much in Joe Miller style, 

 and too like stories of Johnson and Boswell and 

 others not to be suspicious. But the accounts 

 already quoted furnish something like a confirm- 

 ation that there really was in Chichester in the 

 time of the poet and his father a Collins who 

 was a tailor. I find one of his bills — 



" 1720. For making Breeches, &c. &c. 

 " Received y* contents by me, 



« Jo" Collins. 

 « 20 Jan. 172|.' 



"Was it honest " Jo" Collins," breeches maker, 

 &c., who received the tender tribute from the 

 gentle and sentimental Dr. Langhorne ? 



Again : among the papers referred to I fiind a 

 legal document, beginning, " Sussex to wit," and 

 which I read to be a warrant " from Edward 

 Madgwick, Esq., Sheriff, to Henry Randall and 

 John Randall, his Bailiffs," directing them to levy 

 on the goods of William Collins a debt of 266?., 

 dated August 10, 1737. At the bottom is the note, 

 " Levy 170?." 



I cannot help thinking that as this is among 

 Chichester papers it must have related to the 

 poet's family. William Collins, the poet's father, 

 however, appears to have died in 1734, al- 

 though all dates in CoUins's biographer are very 

 contradictory. Mr. Ragsdale, in his letter pub- 

 lished by Mr. Dyce, tells us that Alderman Col- 

 lins " left his affairs rather embarrassed." It- 

 could not refer to the poet, as he was not six- 

 teen years of age at the time. May it have 

 been against the estate of Alderman Collins ? 



S.P. 



CAMDEN 8, BKLLABMIN S, AND GALILEI S INSCRIP- 

 TIONS IN THE ALBUMS OF ERNEST BRINCK. 



In the N'ew Series of its Works *, the Society of 

 Dutch Literature at Leyden lately published a 

 " Review of a Collection Alba Amicorum of the 

 Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century." f The no- 

 tice is interwoven with the fac-similes of several 

 illustrious men, amongst others, of the botanist 

 Dodonaeus, Prince Maurice of Nassau, and of 

 Galilei. Its author, Jonkheer F. A. Knight van 

 Rappard, Secretary- General to the Netherlands 

 Ministry of War, in a pleasant Introduction, ex- 

 tending from p. 1 — 25., gives us a history of tha 

 genus Alburn^ which merits an attentive perusal. 



But what more especially should bring van 

 Rappard's Review under your notice, as a thing 

 worth to be remembered, is, that it contains an in- 

 scription by Camden, from one of the Albums of 

 Ernestus Brinck, in 1613, Secretary to Cornells 

 Haga, the first Dutch Ambassador to Constanti- 

 nople. Brinck afterwards became Burgomaster 

 of his native town, Harderwijk, where he died 

 in 1649. Mr. van Rappard is collecting the ma- 

 terials for his biography. 



Camden's inscription runs as follows : — 



" Pondero, non numero, 



Erudito, ingenuo et modesto 

 Viro Domino Ernesto 

 Brinck Britanniam 

 invisenti Anno cioiocvii 

 in amicitiae mnemosynon 

 GuiLiELMus Camdenus Clareu. 



libens lubensque posuit 

 Londinj xxii Mensis Julij." 



Overzigt, caet., p. 57. 



The abbreviation " Claren." is, as van Rappard 

 tells me, for Clarenceus. Camden was made Cla- 

 rencieux King-at-Arms in 1597. See Knight's 

 National Cydopcedia, in voce. 



Another Album of Brinck contains, almost side 

 by side, inscriptions of Bellarmin and of Galilei. 

 The Cardinal's, not yet Galilei's antagonist, is 

 dated November the 5th, 1614, whilst the great 

 astronomer wrote his memento on the 19th of the 

 same, and subjoined, with his own hand, the stars 

 of Medici. 



Bellarminus says : — 



" Deum time, et mandata 



eius obserua : hoc est enim 

 omnis homo. Eccles. 12. 

 Eobertus Card."' Bellar- 

 minus. die 5. Noub. 1614." 



* Nieuwe Reeks van Werken van de Maatschappij der 

 Nederla7idsche Letterkunde te Leiden, Zevende Deel (vol. 

 vii.), Tweede Stuk (Part II.). Te Leiden, bij E. J. Brill. 

 1866. 



f Overzigt eener Verzameling Alba Amicorum uit de 

 xvide en xviide Eeuw, door Jonkheer F. A. Ridden van 

 Rappard, Secretaris Generaal van het Ministerie van 

 Oorlog. L. c, p. 1—138. 



