April 30. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



427. 



we had no proof from the text of Shakspeare that 

 violent is the correct readin^r, I fimcy that any 

 reader's common sense wouhl tell him that it is 

 more an appropriate and trenchant term than 

 volant. "VVliat judgment would stoop from this 

 to this?" Volant^ moreover, is not English, but 

 French, and as such is used in Henry V. ; but 

 happily, in this case, we have most abundant evi- 

 dence from the text of Shakspeare that he wrote 

 violent in the above passage. In Henry VIII., 

 Act I. Sc. 1., we have the passage, 



" Wc may outrun, 

 By violent swiftness, that which we run at, 

 And lose by over-running." 



In Othello, Act III. Sc. 3., we have the passage, 



" Even so my bloody thoughts, witli violent pace, 

 Shall ne'er look back." 



These passages prove that violent is a true Shak- 

 spearian epithet for velocity. But how exquisitely 

 appropriate is the epithet when applied to the 

 velocity of a ball issuing from the mouth of a 

 cannon : and here we have full confirmation from 

 Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. 1., where we read : 



" As violently as hasty powder fir'd 

 Dotli hurry from the fatal cannon's womb." 



I trust that Me. Collier will not, in the teeth of 

 such evidence, substitute volant for violent in cor- 

 recting the text of his forthcoming edition. 



C. Mansfield Inglebt. 

 Birmingham. 



GENERAL MONK AND THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 CAMBRIDGE. 



A document has recently come into my posses- 

 sion which may perhaps be deemed worth pre- 

 serving in the pages of " N. & Q." It is a letter 

 from the University of Cambridge to General 

 Monk, and, from the various corrections which 

 occur in it, it has every appearance of being the 

 original draft. Unfortunately it is not dated ; 

 but there can, I presume, be little doubt of its 

 having been written shortly befoi-e the assembling 

 of the parliament in April, 1660, which led to the 

 Restoration, and in which Monk sat as member 

 for the county of Devon. The words erased in 

 the original are here placed between parentheses, 

 and those substituted are given in Italics : 

 My Lord, 



As it hath pleased God to make your Excell'^'* 

 eminently instrumental for the raising up of thi'ee 

 gasping and dying nations, into the faire hopes 

 and prospect of peace and settlement, so hath He 

 engraven you (r name) in characters of gratitude 

 upon the hearts of all (true) to whom (cordially 

 •wish) the welfare of this church and state (are) is 

 deare and pretious. (Out) From this principle it is 

 that our University of Cambridge hath, with great 



alacrity and unanimity, made choyse of your Ex- 

 cellency with whom to deposlte the(ire) managing 

 of theire concernments in the succeeding Pari', 

 w<^^ if your Excell'^y shall please to admitt into a 

 favourable (interpretation) acceptance, (you will 

 thereby) you will thereby (add) put a further 

 obligation of gratitude upon us all; vi"^ none 

 shalbe more ready to expresse than he who is 



Your Excell"" most humble serv*, 

 W. D. 

 [Endorsed] 

 To the 1/ General Monk. 



Who was " W. D." ? Was he the then Vice- 

 Chancellor ? Leicestriensis. 



Curiosities of Hailway Literature. — Has "Brad- 

 shaw " had any reviewers ? It' not, an example or 

 two from this neiglibourhood, of the absurdities 

 which reappear month after month in the time- 

 tables, may show the necessity of them. A Mid- 

 land train proposes to leave Gloucester at 12.40 

 p. m., and reacla Cheltenham at 1 p. m. The Great 

 Western Company advertise an express train, on 

 the very same line, to leave two minutes later and 

 arrive five minutes earlier. It is therefore ob- 

 vious, that if these trains were to keep their pro- 

 per time, the express must run into tiie slow coach' 

 in front. The Great Western Railway Company 

 have also, in a very unassuming manner, been ad- 

 vertising a feat hitherto unparalleled in the annals 

 of railway speed, — the mail from Cheltenham at 

 8.20 a. m. to leave Gloucester at 8.27 ; that is to 

 say, seven miles, including starting, slackening 

 speed at two or three " crossings," stopping, start- 

 ing again, all in seven minutes ! Let the narrow 

 gauge beat this If it can. H. H. 



Gloucester. 



Cromwell's Seal. — I am in possession of a fine 

 seal ; it is a beautiful engraving of the head of 

 Oliver Cromwell, and was once his property : he 

 presented it to a favourite officer, whose nephew, 

 to whom it was bequeathed, gave It to the father 

 of the lady from whom I received it a few years 

 ago. Thus I am in the singular position of being 

 the fifth holder of It from the Protector. Y. S. M. 



Dublin. 



Rhymes upon Places. — Buckinghamshire t 



" Brill upon the Hill, 

 Oakley in the Hole, 

 Sliabby little Ickford, 

 Dirty Worminghall." 



H.T. 



In^atestow. 



Tom TracJts Ghost. — The following piece of 

 metrical romance has dwelt In my memory as long 



