550 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 214. 



two of that date may fairly be inferred from the 

 announcement on Aug. 29 — Sept. 8, 1664, that 

 " Madame la Comtesse de Grammont accoucha 

 hier au soir d'un fils." Mr. Steinman's omission 

 was probably intentional ; I have supplied it in 

 the hope that the date and place of the marriage 

 may now be ascertained, and for the purpose of 

 expressinjj my hope that we shall soon be fa- 

 voured by Me. Steinman's return to this sub- 

 ject. Horace Walpole, Jun. 



Life (Vol. vii., p. 429.). — Let me give A. C. 

 the testimony of two poets and a philosopher in 

 support of the "general feeling" about the re- 

 newal of life, which will surely bear down the 

 authority of three writers mentioned by him. 



Cowper s notion may be gathered from the 

 couplet : 



" So numerous are the follies that annoy 



The mind and heart of every sprightly boy." 



Kirke White must have had a similar idea : 



" There are who think that childhood does not share 

 With age the cup, the bitter cup, of care ; 

 Alas ! they know not this unhappy truth. 

 That every age and rank is born to ruth." 



The next four lines may also be attentively 

 considered. I quote from his " Childhood," one 

 of his earliest productions by the way — but what 

 production of his was not early ? 



Still more decidedly, however, on the point 

 speaks Cicero {de Senectute) : 



" Si quis Deus mihi largiatur ut ea hac aatate re- 

 puerescam, et in cunis vagiam, valde recusem." 



The following passage is also at A. C.'s service, 

 provided you can find space for it, and there are 

 " no questions asked " as to its whereabouts : 



" I have heard them say that our childhood's hours 

 are the happiest time of our earthly race ; and they 

 speak with regret of their summer bowers, and the 

 mirth they knew in the butterfly chase ; and they 

 sorrow to think that those days are past, when their 

 young hearts bounded with lightsome glee, when, by 

 none of the clouds of care o'ercast, the sun of tlieir joy 

 shone clieerily. But, oh ! they surely forget that the 

 boy may have grief of his own that strikes deep in his 

 heart ; tliat an angry frown, or a broken toy, may 

 inflict for a time a cureless smart ; and that little pain 

 is as great to him as a weightier woe to an older mind. 

 Aye ! the harsh reproof, or unfavoured whim, may be 

 sharp as a pang of a graver kind. Then, how dim- 

 sighted and thoughtless are those, wlio would they 

 were frolicsome children and free ; they should rather 

 rejoice to have fled from the woes that hung o'er them 

 once so heavily. In misfortune's rude shocks the 

 practised art of Me ynan may perchance disclose relief; 

 but the child, in his innocence of heart, will bow 'neath 

 the stroke of a trifling grief." 



W. T. M. 

 Hong Kong. 



Mtisciptda (Vol.viii., p. 229.) — 2'he Name Lloyd. 

 — Besides the translation of this poem by Dr. 

 Hoadly, of which a note in Dodsley informs us 

 that the author, Holdsworth, said it was "exceed- 

 ingly well done," 1 have before me anotiier, 

 printed in London for li. Gosling, 1715, with an 

 engraved frontispiece, illustrative of the triumph- 

 ant reception of Tatfy's invention. The depreda- 

 tions of the mouse are illustrated in the various 

 figures around, as cheeses burrowed through, 

 even the invasion of a sleeping Welshman's very 

 epKos oSouTwu, &c. The title is, IVie Mouse-Trap, 

 a Poem done from the original Latin in Milton^ s 

 Stile : 



" Ludus animo debet aliquando dari. 

 Ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi." — Pheed. 



Both translations are in blank verse, but that 

 of the latter is very blank indeed, and possesses 

 little in common with Milton's style, except the 

 absence of rhyme. It thus begins : 



" The British mountaineer, who first uprear'd 

 A mouse-trap, and engoal'd the little thief, 

 The deadly wiles and fate inextricable. 

 Rehearse, my Muse, and, oh 1 thy presence deign, 

 Auxiliar Phoebus, mortal foe to mice: 

 Whence bards in ancient times thee Smintheus 

 term'd," &c. 



Muscipula must have made some sensation to 

 have been translated by two different persons. 

 Welsh rabbits, and their supposed general fondness 

 for cheese, have furnished many a joke at the 

 expense of the inhabitants of the pi'incipality. 

 Among others the following quiz may not be 

 out of place on the famous Cambro-Britannic 

 name of Lloyd : 



" Two gibbets dejected, L L 



A cheese in full view, O 



A toaster erected, Y 



And a cheese cut in two, D." 

 Ballard MSS. in the Bodleian, vol. xxix. p. 80. 



Ballioleksis. 



Berefellarii (Vol. viii., p. 420.). — M. Phila- 

 eete Chasles has misrepresented John Jebb's 

 Query and conjecture about berefellarii (Vol. vii., 

 p. 207.). He never spoke of these officers as 

 " half ecclesiastics (!), dirty, shabby, ill-washed 

 attendants." They were priests of an inferior 

 grade, answering to the minor canons of cathe- 

 drals, and superior to the vicars choral, who were 

 also called personce and rectores chori. He has 

 far too great a respect for collegiate founda- 

 tions to use such opprobrious terms when speaking 

 of any class of ministers of divine service. The 

 only conjecture J. Jebb made was, that the word 

 might possibly have been a corruption (arising 

 from incorrect writing) of beneficiarii, which is 

 continually used abroad for the inferior clergy of 

 collegiate churches, though not common in Eng- 



