NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



" XCTtaen found, make a note of." — Caftaik Cuttlb. 



No. 195.] 



Saturday, July 23. 1853. 



{Price Fourpence. 

 Stamped Edition, 5^. 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes : _ Page 



Williain Blake 69 



A roem by Shelley, not in Iiis Works - - - 71 



The Impossibilities of History - - - - 72 



" Qiiem Deus vult perdere prius dementat," by T. J. 



Uuckton 73 



Shakspeare Correspondence, by J. Payne Collier, 



George Blink, &c. ----- 73 



" The Dance of Death," by Weld Taylor - - 76 



Minor Notes: — Old Lines newly revived — Inscrip- 

 tion near Cirencester — Wordsworth — "Magna est 

 Veritas et praevalebit " — " Putting your foot into it " 76 



Queries : — 



Fragments of MSS., by Philip Hale - - - 77 



The Electric Telegraph, by W. Matthews - - 78 



Minor Queries : — Sir Walter Raleigh — Ancient For- 

 tifications : Hertstone, Pale, Brecost — Newton and 

 Somers — Daventry, Duel at — Passage in Burial 

 Service — " They shot hira on the nine-stane rig" — 

 Wardhouse.and Fishermen's Custom there — "Adrian 

 tiirn'd the bull " — Cary's " Palaeologia Chronica " — 

 The Southwark Pudding Wonder — Roman Catholics 

 confined in Kens of Ely —White Bell Heather trans- 

 planted — Green's " Secret Plot " — "The full Moon 

 brings fine Weather" — Nash the Artist — Woodwork 

 of St. Andrew's Priory Ciiurch, Barnwell — "The 

 Mitre and the Crown"— Military Music - - 78 



Minor Queries with Answers : — Stoven Church — 

 The Statute of Kilkenny — Kenne of Kenne — Rents 



of Assize, &c Edifices of Ancient and Modern 



Tunes — Gorram — " Rock of Ages " - - - 80 



Replies: — 



Remuneration of Authors - - - - - 81 



On tlie Use of the Hour-glass in Pulpits - - - 82 



Ladies' Arms borne in a Lozenge - - - 83 



Photographic Corresfondence:— Multiplication of 

 Piiotogiaplis — Yelljw Bottles for Photographic 

 Chemicals - ... - . 85 



Replies to TNfiNOR Queries: — Donnybrook Fair — 

 Abigail — Honorary Degrees — Red Hair — Historical 

 Engraving — Proverbs quoted by Suetonius — "Sat 

 cito, si sat bene " — Council of Laodicea, Canon 35. — 

 Anna Lightfoot — Jack and Gill — Simile of the Soul 

 and tlie Magnetic Needle — Gibbon's Library — St. 

 Paul's Epistles to Seneca — " Hip, Hip, Hurrah !" — 

 Emblemata — Campvere, Privileges of — Slang Ex- 

 pressions: "Just the cheese " — The Honorable Miss 

 E. St. Leger — Queries from the Navorscher — " Pity 

 is akin to Love " - - - - - - 86 



Miscellaneous : 



Notes on Books, &c. - - - - - 89 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted - - • - 90 



Notices to Correspondents - - - - 90 



Advertisements - .... - GO 



Vol. VIII. — No. 195. 



WILLIAM BLAKE. 



My antiquarian tendencies bring me acquainted 

 with many neglected and obscure individuals con- 

 nected with our earlier English literature, who, 

 after " fretting their hour" upon life's stage, have 

 passed away ; leaving their names entombed upon 

 the title-page of some unappreciated or crotchetty 

 book, only to be found upon the shelves of the 

 curious. 



To look for these in Kippis, Chalmers, Gorton, 

 or Rose would be a waste of time ; and although 

 agreeing to some extent with the Utilitarians, that 

 we have all that was worth preserving of the Arite- 

 diluvians, there is, I think, here and there a name 

 worth resuscitating, possessing claims to a niche in 

 our "Antiquary's Newspaper;" and for that dis- 

 tinction, I would now put in a plea on behalf of 

 my present subject, William Blake. 



Although our author belongs to the eccentr-ic 

 category, he is a character not only deserving of 

 notice, but a model for imitation : the " bee in his 

 bonnet" having set his sympathies in the healthy 

 direction of a large philanthropy for tlie spiritual 

 and temporal interests of his fellow men. 



The congenial reader has already, I doubt not, 

 anticipated that I am about to introduce that non- 

 descript book bearing the running title — and it 

 never had any other — of Silver Drops, or Serious 

 Things ; purporting, in a kind of colophon, to be 

 " written by William Blake, housekeeper to the 

 Ladies' Charity School."* The curious in old 

 books knows too, that, apart from its subject, the 

 Silver Drops of W. B, has usually an attractive 

 exterior ; most of the exemplaires which have 

 come under my notice being sumptuously bound 

 in old morocco, profusely tooled ; with the name 

 of the party to whom it had apparently been pre- 

 sented, stamped in a compartment upon the cover. 

 Its value is farther enhanced by its pictorial and 

 emblematical accompaniments. These are four in 

 number : the first representing a heart, whereon 



* " Mr. Henry Cornish, merchant," was a coadjutor 

 of Blake's in this charitable undertaking ; and as that 

 Alderman was not executed until 1635, this publica- 

 tion may be assigned to about that date. 



