428 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 183. 



as I have been able to remember. I have never 

 seen it in print, nor heard it, at least for some 

 years, from any one else ; and have not been able 

 to discover who wrote it : 



" Tom Track he came from Buenos Ayres ; 

 And now, thought I, for him who cares : 

 But soon his coming wrought me woe ; 

 He misled Poll, — as you shall know. 

 All ill the togs that I had bought, 

 With that ere Tom she did consort, 

 "Which gave my feelings great concern. 

 And caused a row, — as you shall learn. 

 So then challenge Tom I did ; 

 We met, shook hands, and took a quid; 

 I shot poor Tom. — The worse for me; 

 It brought his ghost, — as you shall see. 

 Says he, • I'm Tom Track's ghost, that's flat.' 

 Says I, ' Now only think on that.' 

 Says he, ' I'm come to torment you now ;' 

 Which was hard lines, — as you'll allow. 

 * So, Master Ghost, belay your jaw ; 

 For if on me you claps a claw. 

 My locker yonder will reveal, 

 A tight rope's end, which you shall feel.' 

 Then oft' his winding-sheet he throwed. 

 And by his trowsers Tom I knowed ; 

 He wasn't dead ; but come to mess, 

 So here's an end, — as you may guess." 



The implicatio, the agnitio, and the peripetia are 

 so well worked out, that Aristotle would, I think, 

 be compelled to admit it as an almost perfect 

 specimen of that most ancient kind of drama 

 which was recited by one actor. I refer especially 

 to c. XXII. of the Poetics, which says, that that 

 agnitio is most beautiful which is joined with the 

 peripetia, of which here we have so striking an 

 example. These reasons embolden me to ask if 

 it be worth preserving in " N. & Q.," and who 

 was the author ? W. Fraser. 



Tor-Mohun. 



dBnievitS, 



JACOB BOBART AND HIS DRAGON, ETC. 



Dr. Zachary Grey, in his edition of Hudibras, 

 vol. i. p. 125., relates the following anecdote : 



" Mr. Jacob Bobart, Botany Professor of Oxford, 

 did, about forty years ago (in 1704), find a dead rat 

 in the Physic Garden, which he made to resemble the 

 common picture of dragons, by altering its head and 

 tail, and thrusting in taper sharp sticks, which dis- 

 tended the skin on each side till it mimicked wings. 

 He let it dry as hard as possible. The learned imme- 

 diately pronounced it a dragon, and one of them sent 

 an accurate description of it to Dr. Maliabechi, Li- 

 brarian to the Grand Duke of Tuscany : several fine 

 copies of verses were wrote upon so rare a subject, but 

 at last Mr. Bobart owned the cheat : however, it was 

 looked upon as a masterpiece of art, and as such de- 

 posited in the anatomy schools (at Oxford), where I 

 saw it some years after." 



Can any of the readei'S of " N. & Q." inform 

 me where I can procure the several fine copies of 

 verses, or where they are to be seen, and any 

 other particulars relating to Jacob Bobart ? 



Where can I procure copies of the following, 

 mentioned in "Wood's Athena Oxon., vol. iii. 

 p. 757. : 



" Poem upon Mr. Jacob Bobard's Yew-man of the 

 Guards to the Physic Garden, to the tune of the ' Coun- 

 ter-Scuffle.' Oxon. 1662." 

 On one side of a sheet of paper. 



Also : 



" A Ballad on the Gyants in the Physic Garden in 

 Oxon, who have been breeding Feet as long as Gara- 

 gantua was Teeth." 



On one side of a sheet of paper. H. T. Bobart. 



BISHOP Berkeley's portrait. 



The following letter may perhaps have some 

 Interest in itself; but I send It for insertion In the 

 pages of " N. & Q." In the hope of obtaining some 

 information about the pictures which it mentions. 

 It Is addressed on the back, " The Reverend the 

 Provost and Fellows, Dublin College ;" and in the 

 corner, "Pr. Favour of The Right Hon. Lord 

 Viscount Molesworth;" and does not appear to 

 have ever passed through the post. 

 Reverend Sir, and Gentlemen, 



My late dear Husband, the Rev. Dr. Berkeley, 

 Prebendary of Canterbury, son of the late Lord 

 Bishop of Cloyne, having most generously ap- 

 pointed me sole executrix of his will, and having 

 bequeathed to me all his fine collection of pic- 

 tures, &c., I trouble you with this to beg to know 

 whether a very remarkably fine, universally ad- 

 mired portrait of Bishop Berkeley, In his lawn 

 sleeves, &c., painted by that famous artist Vander- 

 bank, which, together with its frame (now much 

 broken by frequent removals), cost five hundred 

 pounds : the back-ground, the frontispiece to his 

 Lordship's Minute Philosopher, and the broken 

 cisterns from the Prophet Jeremiah : " They have 

 hewn them out broken cisterns." The late Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury was perpetually entreating 

 Dr. IBerkeley to present it to the Gallery of 

 Lambeth Palace, where there is already a very 

 good portrait of Bishop B. — But justice to my 

 dear excellent son, then living, as Dr. B. told his 

 Grace, precluded & possibility of his complying with 

 his request. 



If this picture will be an acceptable present to 

 the Rev. the Provost, and the Gentlemen Fellows 

 of the University of Dublin, it is now offered for 

 their acceptance, as a most grateful acknowledg- 

 ment for the very high honour"', they were pleased 



* This alludes to the honourable degree of LL. B. 

 conferred upon George M. Berkeley by the University 

 of Dublin, Nov. 8, 1788. 



