NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



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LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



«• Vrben found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttlk. 



1^0. 178.] 



Saturday, March 26. 1853. 



{Price Fourpence. 

 Stamped Edition, 5(^* 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes:— I'age 



Napoleon a Poet, by Henry H. Breen - - - 301 



Smith's "Dictionary of Antiquities " and "Dictionary 

 of Biography and Mythology," by P. J. F. Gan- 



tillon, B. A. 302 



St Columba's Cross - - - - - 302 



Minor Notes: — The "Ball at Brussels," June, 1815: 

 Historical Parallel of April, 1605— Drawing an Infer- 

 ence —Edmund Spenser — The Mint, Southwark - 303 



Queries : — 



Tlie Spectre Horsemen of Southerfell - - - 304 



Minor Queries : — Passage in Bacon — Lamech killing 

 Cain— Lord Chief Justice Popham—" Her face was 

 like the milky way," &c.— Nelson Rings — Books 

 wanted— Mr. Cromlin— Dr. Fletcher and Lady Baker 

 — Jeremy Taylor and Christopher Lord Hatton — 

 " Pylades and Corinna "— The Left Hand : its Etymo- 

 logy — .The Parthenon ----- 305 



Beplies: — 



Mediaeval or Middle Ages - - . - • 306 



Consecrators of English Bishops . - - . 306 



" Grindle" 307 



Mummies of Ecclesiastics, by William Bates - - 308 



Vicars- Apostolic in England - - - - 308 



Banbury Zeal, &c. - - - - - - 310 



Dr. South versus Goldsmith, Talleyrand, &c., by Henry 



H. Breen 311 



Irish Rhymes, by Henry H. Breen and Cuthbert 



Bede, B.A. 312 



Count Gondomar - - - - - -313 



Door-head Inscriptions ----- 314 



Photographic Notes and Queries: — Photographic 

 Gun-Cotton — Sealing-wax for Baths — Developing 

 Chamber — The Black Tints on Photographic Posi- 

 tives - - - - - - - 314 



Eepies TO Minor Queriks: — Contested Elections — 

 Suicide at Marseilles— Acts xv. 23.— Serpent's Tongue 

 — Croxton or Crostin — Robert Dodsley — Lord Goring 

 — Chaplains to Noblemen — The Duke of Wellington 

 Mareclia! de France — Lord North — Media^v.il Parch- 

 ment—" I hear a lion,"&c. — Fercett— Old Satcliells— 

 Curtseys and Bows — The Rev. Joshua Marsden — 

 Sidney as a Christian Name — The Whetstone — Sur- 

 name of Allen — Belatucadrus — Pot-guns — Graves 

 Family — Portrait Painters — Plum Pudding — MufTs 

 worn by Gentlemen — The Burial Service by Heart — 

 Burrow — " Coming home to men's business " — 

 Heuristic — " Cob" and " Conners " — I^ady High 

 SherilT- Death of Nelson — Editions of the Prayer- 

 Book prior to 1002 — Passage in Juvenal — Tennyson 

 — Capital Punishment . - - . 



Miscellaneous : — 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertisements 



- 316 



322 

 322 

 322 



YoL.Vn. — No. 178. 



NAPOLEON A POET. 



In a work entitled Litterature Franqaise Con' 

 temporaine^ vol. ii. p. 268., there is a notice of the 

 Bonaparte family, in their connexion with litera- 

 ture, in which it is stated that Napoleon, at the 

 age of thirteen, wrote the following fable : — 



" Le Chien^ le Lapin, et le Chasseur. 



Cesar, chien d' arret renomme, 



Mais trop enfle de son merite, 



Tenait arrete dans son gite 

 Un malheureux lapin de peur inanime. 

 — Rends-toi, lui cria-t-il, d'une voix de tonnerre, 

 Qui fit au loin trembler les peuplades des bois: 



Je suis Cesar, connu par ses exploits, 



Et dont le nom remplit toute la terre. 



A ce grand nom, Jeannot lapin, 

 Recommandant "k Dieu son ame penitente, 



Demande, d'une voix tremblante : 



— Trcs serenissime matin, 



Si je me rends, quel sera mon destin ? 



— Tu mourras. — Je raourrai ! dit la bSte in- 

 nocente. 



Et si je fuis ? — Ton trcpas est certain. 

 — Quoi? dit Fanimal qui se nourrit de thym; 



Des deux cotes je dois perdre la vie ! 



Que votre auguste seigneurie 

 VeuIUe me pardonner, puisqu'il fiiut mourir, 



Si j'ose tenter de m'enfuir. 

 II dit, et fuit en heros de garenne. 

 Caton I'aurait blame : je dis qu'il n'eut pas tort : 



Car le chasseur le voit a peine, 

 Qu'il I'ajuste, le tire — et le chien tombe mort. 

 Que dirait de ceci notre bon La Fontaine ? 



Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera : 



J'approuve fort cette methode-la." 



The writer of the notice (M. Querard) says 

 this " Aible" was composed by Napoleon in 1782; 

 and he thus explains the circumstances under 

 which he obtained a knowledge of it : 



" Cette fable a ete imprimee dans un ouvrage dont 

 nous ne pouvons donner le titre, parceque nous n'avons 

 que le seul feuillet qui la contient. Nous ne savons 

 aux soins de quel editeur on doit de nous I'avoir fait 

 connaitre. Nous lisons au recto du feuillet en question, 

 que, ' sans lui (I'e'diteur), cette fable serait encore per- 



