408 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 291. 



and kindness to his poor parishioners deserve par- 

 ticular mention, especially in the time of great 

 distress, when the quartern loaf of 4lb. 5^ oz. was 

 at the enormous price of Is. 10^^., at which it was 

 fixed by the assize on March 5, 1801. A. 



Tetbury. 



" O/m Votivay — Who wrote Otia Votiva, or 

 Poems upon several Occasions : London, printed 

 and sold by J. Nutt, near Stationers' Hall, 1703, 

 8vo. A copy, in my possession, has a curious MS. 

 memorandum addressed to Sir William Anstruther, 

 one of the judges of the Court of Session; pre- 

 senting him with it, on condition he should decide 

 a particular case to be heard before him in favour 

 of a tenant of the donor. As Sir William retained 

 possession of the book, the presumption is that, 

 after the approved Scottish fashion, the bribe pre- 

 vailed. The judge's arms are on the back of the 

 title of the book, which was sold when the An- 

 struther library, the finest private collection in 

 Scotland, was brought to the hammer in Edin- 

 burgh some few years since. J. M. 



Sir Richard Steele. — The Ladies' Library was 

 edited by Sir "Richard from materials furnished 

 by a lady whose name is not given. I have a 

 copy bound in old red morocco of the time, with 

 •the name of " Eliza Steele" on the title-pages. 

 It is printed moreover on thick paper. Uow I 

 am desirous of learning: — 1. Who the lady was 

 whose lucubrations were given to the world by the 

 knight ? 2. Who Eliza Steele was ? I suspect, 

 from the style of the binding, that the copy alluded 

 to was a presentation, and most likely that this 

 " Eliza" was a sister ; but I can procure no satis- 

 factory information relative to the Steele family. 

 3. There are frontispieces to each volume. To the 

 second is prefixed an engraving of a widow sitting 

 at a table, on which there is a skull ; while three 

 apparent adniirers are standing ai the door. Now, 

 as the dedication of this volume is to the "per- 

 verse widow," may it not be the vera effigies of 

 4his lady, who has again attracted such notice by 

 the contro^versy between Mr. Kerslake and the 

 editor of The Athenoeum ? Sir Richard was an 

 honour to his country ; and I should like some 

 persons to explain for what reason Macaulay has 

 thrown dirt at him. J. M. 



Sixtine Editions of the Bible. — Hotv many 

 copies of the Six^tine edition of the Bible are in 

 existence? There is one copy in the College 

 Library, Dublin, presented by the Duke of 

 Grafton. Clebiods (D.) 



" Never." — Lord Mahon, in the fifth volume of 

 his History (p. 54.), asks : 



" Was not that 8tate8nian in 'the right, who exclaimed 

 that there is no such word in ;party politics as never." 



Who was that statesman ? Inquikbb. 



Howard's Monument. — I have received a col- 

 lection of most interesting letters, written by our 

 great philanthropist John Howard during his 

 travels, and with them a letter, addressed by Cow- 

 per (the poet) to Bawn, respecting a monument 

 to Howard at Cherson, which is accompanied by 

 an appropriate inscription. I cannot find that 

 this monument was ever erected. Dr. Clarke 

 describes a small pyramid which he saw over 

 Howard's grave at Dauphigny, and which was also 

 visited by Bishop Heber ; but neither of them 

 mentions any epitaph or other monument. 



As the correspondence is now in the press, I 

 shall feel obliged if any of your readers will afford 

 information on the subject. J. Field. 



A Query for Naturalists. — Calling a few days 

 ago upon a lady in this place, on expressing my 

 admiration of a beautiful parrot in a cage on her 

 drawing-room table, she toLl me that the bird (a 

 female) evinced an unconquerable hostility to its 

 sex in the human species. "Would you believe 

 it,*' said my fair friend, " that it can at once dis- 

 tinguish between a girl and a boy when both are 

 dressed alike ? " Yet such is the fact : on pretending 

 to put her finger into the cage the bird darted 

 fiercely at it; but on my really doing so, it stretched 

 out its wings and its neck to be fondled, and 

 uttered a low cooing like that of a dove. I wish 

 to know if this antipathy in the female parrot ia 

 "eneral, and, if so, if it has been noticed by natu- 

 ralists. R. W. D-^p. 



Seaton Carew, co. Durham. 



Mr. Forster's Himyaric Views. — Althouofh I 

 have purchased Mr. Forster's books, The Geo- 

 graphy of Arabia, and The One Primitive Lan- 

 guage, and have been bewildered by his learned 

 speculations, it is certainly from no feeling of un- 

 kindness towards a writer whose ingenuity and 

 enthusiasm I cannot but admire, that I ask per- 

 mission to submit the following Query through 

 the medium of y(mr valuable periodical. 



Is the passage subjoined from Bunsen's last 

 work consistent with the real state of things ? 



« I have said nothing about Mr. Forster's former 

 Himyaric dreams, because I hope he hax abandoned them, 

 and because they are forgotten." — Christiunity and Man- 

 kind, vol. iii. p. 239. 



It seems superfluous to add, that an answer in 

 the affirmative may save some literary labour. 



W. S. 



Chamberlain's " Present State of Great Britain:" 

 The Red Boolis. — All who have had occasion to 

 search for particulars of individuals who have held 

 office under the Crown, if such office was not of 

 the first importance, must have experienced the 

 greatest difficulty — too often have altogether 

 failed — in their inquiries. 



