May 14. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



481 



by Pius IX. to receive this honour in the present in- 

 stance ; but this is mere conjecture. On a former oc- 

 casion, it is true, the Golden Rose was conferred by 

 him on another crowned head of the fairer sex — one 

 entitled to more than common regards from the Supreme 

 Pastor in adversity — the Queen of Naples." 



William J, Thoms. 



CAMPBELL S IMITATIONS. 



(Vol. vi., p. 505.) 



It is curious that two of the passages pointed 

 out by Mr. Breen, as containing borrowed ideas, 

 are those quoted by Alison in his recent volume 

 (Hist. Eur.^ vol. i. pp. 429, 430.) to support his 

 panegyric on Campbell, of whose " felicitous 

 images " he speaks with some enthusiasm. 



The propensity of Campbell to adapt or imitate 

 the thoughts and expressions of others has often 

 struck me. Let me then suggest the following 

 (taken at random) as further, and I believe hither- 

 to unnoticed, illustrations of that propensity : 



1. " When front to front the banner'd hosts combine, 



Halt ere they close, and form the dreadful line." 



Pleasures of Hope. 



" When front to front the marching armies shine, 



Halt ere they meet, and form the lengthening line." 



Pope, Battle of Frogs and Mice. 



2. " As sweep the shot stars down the troubled sky." 



Pleasures of Hope. 



" And rolls low thunder thro' the troubled shy." 



Pope, Frogs and Mice. 



3. " With meteor-standard to the winds unfurl'd." 



Pleasures of Hope. 



" The imperial standard which full high advanc'd, 

 Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind." 



Milton, Par. Lost, i. 535. 



4. " The dying man to Sweden turn'd his eye, 



Thought of his home, and clos'd it with a sigh." 

 Pleasures of Hope. 



" Sternitur infelix alieno vulnere, coslumque 

 Aspicit, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." 



Virgil, uEn., x. 782. 



5. ". . . Red meteors flash'd along the sky. 



And conscious Nature shudder'd at the cry." 



Pleasures of Hope. 



"... Ftdsere ignes, et conscius asther." 



Virgil, ^n., iv. 167. 



6. " In hollow winds he hears a spirit moan." 



Pleasures of Hope, 



Shakspeare has the hollow whistling of the southern 

 wind. 



7. " The strings of Nature crack'd with agony." 



Pleasures of Hope. 



" His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life 

 Began to crack." — Shakspeare, King Lear. 



8. " The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook." 



Gertrude of Wyoming, 

 "... And feel by turns the bitter change 

 Oi fierce extremes, extremes by change more^erce."' 

 Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 599. 



9. " His tassell'd horn beside him laid." 



O'Connor's Child. 

 "... Ere th' odorous breath of morn 

 Awakes the slumb'ring leaves, or tasseWd horn . 

 Shakes the high thicket." — Milton, Arcades. 



10. "The scented wild- weeds and enamell'd moss." 



Theodric, 

 Campbell thinks it necessary to explain this 

 latter epithet in a note : " The moss of Switzer- 

 land, as well as that of the Tyrol,^ is remarkable 

 for a bright smoothness approaching to the ap- 

 pearance of enamel." And yet was not one, or 

 both, of the following passages floating in his brain 

 when his pen traced the line ? 

 " O'er the smooth enamell'd green 

 Where no print of step hath been." 



Milton, Arcades. 



" Here blushing Flora paints th' enamell'd ground." 

 Pope, Windsor Forest. 



W. T. M. 



Hong Kong. 



" THE HANOVER RAT. 



(Vol. vii., p. 206.) 



An JUssay on Irish Bulls is said to have found 

 its way into a catalogue of works upon natural 

 history ; with which precedent in my favour, and 

 pending the inquiries of naturalists, ratcatchers, and 

 farmers into the history of the above-named for- 

 midable invader, I hope Mr. Hibberd will have 

 no objection to my intruding a bibliographical 

 curiosity under the convenient head he has opened 

 for it in "N. & Q." 



My book, then, bears the appropriate title. An 

 Attempt towards a Natural History of the Hanover 

 Rat, dedicated to P* * * m M'^** * * * r, M.D., 



and S y to the Royal Society, 8vo., pp. 24. : 



London, 1744. 



The writer of this curious piece takes his cue 

 from that remarkable production, An Attempt, 

 towards a Natural History of the Polype, 1743 ; in 

 which the learned Mr. Henry Baker, in a letter to 

 Martin Folkes, of 218 pages, Svo., illustrated by a 

 profusion of woodcuts, elaborately describes this 

 link between the animal and vegetable creation, 

 and the experiments he practised upon the same : 

 commencing with "cutting off a polype's head," 

 and so on through a series of scientific barbarities 

 upon his little creature, which ended only in " turn- 

 ing a polype inside out ! " 



Following the plan of Mr. Baker, the anony- 

 mous author of The Hanover Rat tells us, that, 

 after thirty years' laborious research, he had satis- 



