Jan. 6. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



gentleman distinctly recollected to have often seen 

 and read it during his grandfather's life. May 

 not the family of the poet have been originally 

 from the north of Scotland, where a number of 

 Popes, clergymen, resided in the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries ? The grandfather of Pope 

 is said to have been a clergyman in Hampshire, 

 but no trace of him can be found in the registers 

 of incumbents. The above particulars I owe to 

 the courtesy of my friend, Mr. Robert Chambers, 

 and trust the subject will be taken up by some of 

 the able correspondents of " N, & Q.," who enjoy 

 facilities for prosecuting literary and antiquarian 

 researches. R. Caeeuthees. 



Inverness. 



James Moore Smyth. — To the Query of S. J. M. 

 in Vol. X., p. 459. of'K & Q.," it maybe an- 

 swered that the fact of James Moore Smyth, the 

 object of Pope's hatred and satire, being the son of 

 Arthur Moore, M.P., the distinguished Commis- 

 sioner for Trades and Plantations, &c., seems esta- 

 blished by the GentlemarCs Magazine, and by Man- 

 ning and Bray's History of Surrey. The former 

 announces his death (October 18, 1734) as " son 

 of the late Arthur Moore, of Fetcham, Esq.," &c. 

 The local history describes the estate of Fetcham 

 as having been purchased by Arthur Moore, Esq. ; 

 and an account is given of Arthur Moore and 

 his family, including his third son James, who, 

 according to the Gentleman's Magazine, took the 

 name of Smyth " to enjoy an estate left him by 

 Mr. Smyth of Gloucester Street." JST. B. 



Satirical Print of Pope (Vol. x., p. 458.). — 

 Geiffin will find all he inquires after in A Pop 

 upon Pope ; or more readily perhaps by turning 

 to Carruthers' Life of Pope, p. 200. S. P. P. 



lilBBAEIES IN CONSTAKTINOPLE. — THE LOST WOBKS 

 OF THE ANCIENTS. 



In the midst of the din of war, and the horrors 

 that are its inevitable attendants, it can scarcely 

 be demanded that much, if any, attention can be 

 given to the exploration of antiquities, or to the 

 research after lost manuscripts — the boast and 

 glory of ancient letters. Still, even when sur- 

 rounded by circumstances so unfavourable, enthu- 

 siastic scholars and antiquaries have been found, 

 in camps and battle-fields, profiting by the events 

 which led them into foreign countries, and seeking 

 to enrich their native land and the world at large 

 with spoils dearer than all the material conquests 

 of the victor. Would not, therefore, the present 

 campaign in the Crimea, and the friendly relations 

 subsisting between England and Turkey, seem to 

 present the long-desired opportunity for English- 



men to obtain access to places that have long been 

 shut up from them, and that are likely to contain 

 manuscripts and other spoils inherited by the con- 

 querors of the Byzantine empire ? The present 

 Sultan of Turkey is not a man likely to refuse a 

 request of this nature addressed to him on the part 

 of the British government. A firman might be 

 issued to all pachas and governors of cities .nnd 

 provinces requiring them to grant every facility 

 to properly authorised individuals of the British 

 nation for exploring and examining all old build- 

 ings and institutions likely to afford scope for re- 

 search and discovery. In this way, the evils of 

 war may be made eventually productive of good 

 to mankind, by the bringing to light again of some 

 of the long lost treasures oif Greece or Rome ; or, 

 more precious still, of some works of Christian 

 antiquity. The present Prime Minister, Lord 

 Aberdeen, early distinguished himself as an en- 

 lightened cultivator of the fine arts, and more 

 particularly of Grecian art. His countenance 

 would no doubt be given to measures calculated 

 to save from destruction before it is too late any 

 remains of antiquity in the classic lands of the 

 East. Antiquary. 



FOLK LOEE. 



Death-bed Superstition. — Whilst residing at 

 the village of Charlcombe, near Bath, in the year 

 1852, a village well known to the ecclesiologists 

 for its diminutive church, said to be the smallest 

 in England, a curious circumstance came to my 

 knowledge. The parish clerk made application to 

 the clergyman for the loan of the paten belonging 

 to the church. Being asked for what purpose, he 

 said he wanted it to put salt on, and to place it on 

 the breast of a dying person to make him " die 

 easier." 



Is not this a trace of some old use of " blessed 

 salt " in the mediasval Church ? W. N. T. 



Caius College, Cambridge. 



"As big as a parson's barn" is a Dorsetshire 

 measure of magnitude, which happily begins to 

 savour of antiquity, and ought, I think, to be re- 

 corded. C. W. B. 



Charm for a Wart. — Some fifty years ago, a 

 near relation of mine, then a little girl, was much 

 troubled with warts, of which she had thirty-two 

 on one hand, and two on the other. Accidentally 

 hearing one day from a visitor, of an acquaintance 

 who had been cured by cutting a nick or notch in 

 an elder stick for each wart, touching the wart 

 with the notch, and burying the stick without 

 telling any one of it, she tried the plan, and 

 utterly forgot the circumstance till some weeks 

 after, when an intimate friend of the family asked 

 her how the warts were going on. On looking at 



