Jan. 13. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



23 



Turcopolier had been given to England, which was 

 the third in rank in the convent. It is not im- 

 probable that, at the foundation of the Order, tlie 

 Grand Master selected tliose grand crosses to fill 

 the different offices according to the ability evinced 

 by them to perform their respective duties, and 

 this without the least reference to the country 

 from which they came. Among Englishmen at 

 the present time, the cavalry is a favourite service ; 

 and thus it may have been with their ancestors 

 when the taste could be gratified. In this way 

 perhaps the reason may be explained why the 

 command of the light horse was always conferred 

 on knights of the British tongue. 



William Winthkop. 

 Malta. 



LETTER FROM JOANNA BAILLIE. 



The following letter, addressed, by Joanna 

 Baillie, "To Mr. CoUett, Master of the Aca- 

 demy, Evesham, Worcestershire," may interest 

 some of the readers of " N. & Q." The original 

 is in my possession : 



"Hampstead, June 18th, 1801. 

 « Sir, 



" Tho' I am not altogether prepared to answer 

 the' questions you have put to me in the letter 

 I have had the honour of receiving from you, 

 there is something in that letter so very flattering 

 to the vanity which authors are not sutFered to be 

 without, that it will not permit me to be silent. 

 After the lenity and forbearance I have met with 

 from the public, I should hold myself bound in 

 gratitude, had I no other motive, to continue, in 

 the best manner I am able, the plan I have begun 

 in ' the Series of Plays.' When I shall have it in 

 my power to publish another volume, I am not 

 certain, but I hope it will be some time in the 

 next spring. It has given me great satisfaction 

 to learn that you have received any pleasure in 

 reading the first. Without being vain enough to 

 suppose that a work, with so many faults on its 

 head, has been honoured with your entire appro- 

 bation ; to have a voice of such respectable autho- 

 rity at all on my side, is highly gratifying to, 

 " Sir, 

 " Your obliged humble servt. 

 " J. Baillie." 



Mr. Collett, to whom this letter was addressed, 

 was a schoolmaster at Evesham, and afterwards 

 at Worcester. He published a volume of juvenile 

 poems, and also some Sacred Dramas. There is 

 a short notice of him in Chambers's Biographical 

 Illustrations of Worcestershire; but I have not 

 the work at hand to give particulars. He died in 

 1817. H. Martin. 



Halifax. 



SCRAPS FROM AN OLD COMMON-PLACE BOOK. 



I have before me a common-place book of the 

 reigns of James I. and Charles I., containing the 

 gatherings of a most discursive reader. It con- 

 sists of scraps of history, songs, bon-mots, 

 epigrams, " cabalisticall verses which by trans- 

 position of words, letters, and syllables, make ex- 

 cellent sense, otherwise none at all," &c. The 

 greater number of the pieces I am able to identify, 

 but there are others which, as they are new to 

 me, I transcribe, that your more erudite readers 

 may inform me whose they are. If too well known 

 to claim insertion, I shall be obliged by a brief 

 reply as to their authorship. 



« TTie Cryer. 



" Good folk, for gold or hyer, 

 Come help mee to a cryer, 

 For my poore heart is gone astray 

 After her heart that went this way. 

 Hoe yes ! hoe yes I 



" If there bee any man, 

 In towne or country, can 

 Help mee my heart againe, 

 I'll please him for his paine ; 

 And by these marks I will you show, 

 That only I the heart doe owe. 



" It was a true heart, and a deare, 

 And never us'd to rome ; 

 But having got this harme I feare, 

 Will hardly stay at home. 



" For God-sake, walking by the way, 

 If you my heart doe see, 

 Either impound it for a stray, 

 Or send it back to mee." 



That such language as the following should 

 have come from " a great papist," is explained by 

 remembering that, about the time of the present- 

 ation of this new year's gift, the negoclations re- 

 lative to the match between Charles and the In- 

 fanta of Spain, and the visit of the prince and 

 Buckingham to Madrid, had led to a somewhat 

 sudden relaxation of the harsh statutes against the 

 Catholics, who had great hopeg from this alliance. 



" Verses written on a rich cussion which was given to the 

 King by Lady Cannisby (?), a great Papist, for a Nevs 

 Yeeres gift. 1624. 



" The Solomon of peace, life's living bred 

 X' only is, and under him our heade, 

 His faithfull steward, James, Greate Brittain's king^ 

 Preserves and feedes his people, from him spring 

 Plenty and peace ; above all monarks blest ; 

 Of good the greatest, and of great the best." 



" ^n anagram made upon the Prince upon his assurance 

 with the lady of France. 



" Charles, Prince of Wales, 

 Will chose France's pearl." 



T. Q. C. 

 Polperro, Cornwall. 



