398 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 208. 



by Mr. Beard, in a pantomimic entertainment en- 

 titled Orpheus and Euridice, acted at the theatre 

 in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1740. The author of 

 the entertainment was Mr. Henry Sommer, but 

 the song in question was "translated from the 

 Spanish " by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Lisle, who died 

 Rector of Burclere, Hants, 1767. It was long 

 very popular, and is found in almost all the song- 

 books of the latter half of the last century. Mr. 

 Park, the editor of the last edition of Ritson's 

 English Songs (vol. ii. p. 153.), has the following 

 note upon this song : 



" An answer to this has been written in the way of 

 echo, and in defence of the fair sex, whom the Spanish 

 author treated with such libellous sarcasm." 



As this " echo song " is not given by Ritson or his 

 editor, I have transcribed it from a broadside in 

 my collection. It is said to have been written by 

 a lady. 



" When Orpheus went down to the regions below, 



To bring back the wife that he lov'd. 

 Old Pluto, confounded, as histories show, 



To find that his music so mov'd : 

 That a woman so good, so virtuous, and fair. 



Should be by a man thus trepann'd. 

 To give up her freedom for sorrow and care, 



He own'd she deserv'd to be damn'd. 



" For punishment he never study'd a whit, 

 The torments of hell had not pain 

 Sufficient to curse her ; so Pluto tliought fit 



Her husband should have her again. 

 But soon he compassion'd the woman's hard fate, 



And, knowing of mankind so well. 

 He recall'd her again, before 'twas too late, 

 And said, she'd be happier in hell." 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



Foreign Medical Education (Vol. viii., p. 341.). 

 — Your correspondent Mbdicus will find some 

 information respecting some of the foreign univer- 

 sities in the Lancet for 1849, and the Medical 

 Times and Gazette for 1852. For France he will 

 find all he wants in Dr. Roubaud's Annuaire Me- 

 dical et Pharmaceutique de la France, published 

 by Bailliere, 219. Regent Street. M. D. 



^^ Short red, good red" (Vol. viii., p. 182.). — 

 Sir Walter has probably borrowed this saying 

 from the story of Bishop Walchere, when he re- 

 lated the murder of Adam, Bishop of Caithness. 

 This tragical event is told in the Chronicle of 

 Mailros, under the year 1222 ; also in Forduni 

 Scotichronicon, and in Wyntoun's Chronicle, book 

 vii. c. ix. ; but the words " short red, good red," 

 do not appear in these accounts of the transaction. 



J. Mn. 



Collar of SS. (Vols. iv. — vii. passim). — At 

 the risk of frightening you and your correspon- 

 dents, I venture to resume this subject, in conse- 



quence of a circumstance to which my attention 

 has just been directed. 



In the parish church of Swarkestone in Derby- 

 shire there is a monument to Richard Harpur, one 

 of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas in 

 the reign of Elizabeth ; on which he is represented 

 in full judicial costume, with the collar of SS., 

 which I am told by the minister of the parish is 

 " distinctly delineated." It may be seen in Fair- 

 holt's Costumes of England, p. 278. 



As far as I am aware, this is the only instance, 

 either on monuments or in portraits, of a puisne 

 judge being ornamented with this decoration. 

 Can any of your correspondents produce another 

 example ? or can they account, from any other 

 cause, for Richard Harpur receiving such a dis- 

 tinction ? or may I not rather attribute it to the 

 blunder of the sculptor ? Edward Foss. 



Who first thought of Tahle-turning (Vol. viii., 

 p. 57.). — It is impossible to say who discovered 

 the table-turning experiment, but it undoubtedly 

 had its origin in the United States. It was prac- 

 tised here three years ago, and, although some- 

 times associated with spirit-rappings, has more 

 frequently served for amusement. On this con- 

 nexion it may be proper to say that Professor 

 Faraday's theory of unconscious muscular force 

 meets with no concurrence among those who know 

 anything about the subject in this coimtiy. It is 

 notorious that large tables have been moved fre- 

 quently by five or six persons, whose fingers 

 merely touched them, although upon each was 

 seated a stout man, weighing a hundi-ed and fifty 

 or sixty pounds : neither involuntary nor volun- 

 tary muscular force could have effected that phy- 

 sical movement, when there was no other purchase 

 on the table than that which could be gained by a 

 pressure of the tips of the fingers. Wi- 



Philadelphia. 



Passage of Thucydides on the Oreek Factions 

 (Vol. vii., p. 594.; Vol. viii., pp.44. 137.). — My 

 attempt to find the passage attributed by Sir A. 

 Alison to Thucydides in the real Thucydides was 

 unsuccessful for the best of reasons, viz. that it 

 does not exist there. He has probably borrowed 

 it from some modern author, who, as it appears 

 to me, has given a loose paraphrase of the words 

 which I cited from Thucyd. in. 82., and has ex- 

 panded the thought in a manner not uncommon 

 with some writers, by adding the expression about 

 the " sword and poniard." Some other misquo- 

 tations of Sir A. Alison from the classical writers 

 may be seen in the Edinburgh Review for April 

 last, No. CXCVIII. p. 275. L. 



Origin of ^^ Clipper" as applied to Vessels 

 (Vol. viii., p. 100.). — For many years the fieetest 

 sailing vessels built in the United States were 



