Mae. 31. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



251 



" What shadows ive are" Sfc. (Vol. xi., p. 187.). 

 — The Wiltshire physician referred to by R. II. IJ. 

 Wiis probably familiar with Bucke's address on de- 

 clining the election at Bristol, Sept.. 9, 1780. Bis- 

 set has strangely confounded Burke's two Bristol 

 speeches, actually superseding the very celebrated 

 one delivered jarewwMS to the election (which occu- 

 pies seventy pages in Burke's Works)^ and placing 

 in its stead this, the second and closing one, which 

 fills only three p.nges. Short as it is, this latter 

 beautiful speech hiis rarely been surpassed. Years 

 ago, I remember giving it to tiie head master of 

 one of our public schools for his speech-day. 



Mr. Richard Coombe, or Combe, liere so afFect- 

 ingly alluded to (at one time M.P. for Aid- 

 borough), was a candidate for Bristol at this 

 election. After declining the election, being sa- 

 tis6ed that he should not succeed, Burke pro- 

 ceeds : 



" Tho melancholy event yesterday reads to ns an awful 

 lesson against being too much troubled about any of the 

 objects of ordinar}^ ambition. Tlie worthy gentleman 

 who h;js been snatched from us at the moment of tho 

 election, and in the middle of the contest, whilst his de- 

 sires were as warm, and his hopes as eager as ours, has 

 feelingly told us, what shadows ice are, and what shadows 

 wo pursue." — Works, vol. iii. p. 433. 



Burke may possibly have borrowed the thought 

 from a passage in Job. J. H. M. 



Symondson Family (Vol. xi., p. 187). — An 

 Inquirer may learn some information of the 

 Symondson family by application to Mr. Wm. 

 Symondson, of Lloyd's Coffee House, London. 



Quotation from St. Augustine (Vol. xi., p. 125.). 

 — Mr. Isaac Williams, in his volume on the Pas- 

 sion, refers the observation to the remark of 

 Quesnel : 



" One sinner is converted in the hour of death, that we 

 may hope ; and but one, that we may fear." — P. 325. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Sir T. Bodleys Life (Vol. xi., p. 12o.). — 

 Prince, in his Wo7-thies of Devon, ed. 1810, p. 92., 

 mentions a MS. autobiography of Sir T. Bodley, 

 as belonging to Walter Bogan, Esq., of Gatcombe, 

 in the county of Devon, which may perhaps be 

 that now the property of Abhba. The library of 

 the British Museum has two MS. lives of Sir T. 

 Bodley, viz. Harl. Coll. 852., and Sloane Coll. 

 1786. ; also some notes relating to his life from his 

 own autograph. Cotton Coll., Titus, c. vii. It is to 

 be regretted that a life of Sir T. Bodley has not 

 been published by some competent writer, highly 

 interesting as it would be in connexion with the 

 literature, and indeed in some degree with the 

 politics of his period, and as relates to his magni- 

 •ficent foundation at Oxford. Materials lor such 



a work, with particulars relating to his family, 

 exist to a considerable extent in the libraries of 

 the British Museum and of Oxford. J. D. S. 



'■'■ Improhus," Meaning of (Vol. xi., p. 163.). — 

 I think, if M. will turn to Facciolati's Lexicon, his 

 difficulties with respect to this word will in some 

 measure disappear. Virgil, I take it, uses the 

 word in its original legitimate sense. " Probus," 

 Facciolati tells us, " primo dicitur de homine quasi 

 prohihus, ut ait Festus." Thus it means denying, 

 restraining oneself; and, therefore, g-oo^Z, virtuous, 

 &c. Improhus labor is toil in which one does not 

 clieck oneself or spare any pains : unsparing, and 

 therefore, as Facciolati says, "unceasing" toil. 

 The former word, then, I conceive to be its exact 

 equivalent. R. J. A. 



The Irish Palatines (Vol. xi., p. 87.). — There 

 is a small bundle of papers in the Treasury, which 

 contains particulars of the numbers, arrivals, and 

 expenses of the Palatines. These I can give to 

 Abhba if he would wish them. In June, 1709, 

 there were 6600 in London : those lodged in barns 

 were to be removed at midsummer. The queen 

 had ordered them 1000 tents, but there was no 

 place to pitch them, &c. J. S. Burn. 



Old Pulpit Inscriptions (Vol. xi., p. 134.). — In 

 the church of Burlington St. Edmunds, or South 

 Burlingliam, in Norfolk, there remained a beau- 

 tiful pulpit of the fifteenth centui'y, painted red 

 and blue, relieved with gilding ; and having the 

 following verse in raised letters, gilt, running 

 round the upper portion : 



" Inter natos mulierum non surrexit major Johanne 

 Baptista." 



F. C. H. 



"■To rat" (Vol. xi., p. 107.). — As a farther 

 and (I think) satisfactory reply to the Query of 

 Abhba on this subject, I send the following e.x- 

 tract from Lord Mahon's History of England, 

 vol. vii. p. 315. : 



" It so chanced, that not long after the accession of 

 the House of Hanover, some of the brown, that is, 

 the German or Norway rats, were first brought over to 

 this country (in some timber, as is said) ; and being 

 much stronger than the black, or till then the common 

 rats, they in many places quite extirpated the latter. 

 The word (both the noun and the verb to rut) was first, 

 as we have seen, levelled at the converts to the govern- 

 ment of George the First, but has by degrees obtained a 

 wider meaning, and come to be applied to any sudden 

 and mercenary change in politics." 



Flos. 



Duration of a Visit (Vol. xi., p. 193.). — Destiny 

 was written by Miss Ferrier, who died only a 

 month or two ago ; and not by Miss Austin, who 

 I should think could not have had Scotch know- 

 ledge enough to do it. The observation is of Miss 

 Ferrier herself, as stated, and is in vol. i. p. 93. 



J. Sd. 



