Feb. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



145 



Mastiffe Whelpe, " Imprinted amongst the Anti- 

 podes, and are to be sould Avhere they are to be 

 bought." Another, by the same author, is a Sa- 

 tirical Dialogue, " Imprinted in the Low Coun- 

 treyes for all such Gentlemen as are not altogether 

 idle, nor yet well occupyed." These were both, I 

 believe, libels upon the fair sex. John Stewart, 

 otherwise Walking Stewart, was in the habit of 

 dating his extraordinary publications " In the 

 year of Man's Retrospective Knowledge, by As- 

 tronomical Calculation, 5000 ; " " In the 7000 year 

 of Astronomical History in the Chinese Tables;" 

 and " In the Fifth Year of Intellectual Existence." 

 " Mulberry Hill, Printed at Crazy Castle," is an 

 imprint of J. II. Stevenson. The Button Makers' 

 Jests, by Geo. King of St. James', is " Printed for 

 Henry Frederick, near St. James' Square ; " a 

 coarse squib upon royalty. One Fisher entitled 

 his play Thou shalt not Steal; the School of Ingra- 

 titude. Thinking the managers of Drury Lane 

 had communicated his performance, under the 

 latter name, to Reynolds the dramatist, and then 

 rejected it, he published it thus : " Printed for the 

 curious and literary — shall we say ? Coincidence ! 

 refused by the Managers, and made use of in the 

 Farce of ' Good Living,' " published by Reynolds 

 in 1797. Harlequin Premier, as it is daily acted, 

 is a hit at the ministry of the period, " Printed at 

 Brentafordia, Capital of Barataria, and sold by all 

 the Booksellers in the Province, 1769." " Printed 

 Merrily, and may be read Unhappily, betwixt 

 Hawke and Buzzard, 1641," is the satisfactory 

 imprint of The Downefall of temporising Poets, 

 unlicensed Printers, upstart Booksellers, tooting 

 Mercuries, and bawling Hawkers. Books have 

 sometimes been published for behoof of particular 

 individuals ; old Daniel Rogers, in his Matrimo- 

 nial Honovr, announces " A Part of the Impression 

 to be vended for the use and benefit of Ed. Min- 

 sheu, Gent., 1650." How full of interest is the 

 following, " Printed at Sheffield by James Mont- 

 gomery, in the Hart's Head, 1795!" A poor 

 man, by name J. R. Adam, meeting with reverses, 

 enlisted, and after serving abroad for a period, 

 returned but to exchange the barrack-room for 

 the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum. Possessing a 

 poetical vein, he indulged it here in soothing his 

 own and his companions' misery, by circulating his 

 verses on detached scraps, printed by himself. 

 These on his enlargement he collected together, 

 and pave to the world in 1845, under the title of 

 the Gartnavel Minstrel, a neat little square vo- 

 lume of 104 pages, exceedingly well executed, and 

 bearing the imprint " Glasgow, composed, printed, 

 and published by J. R. Adam ;" under any circum- 

 stances a most creditable specimen, but under those 

 I have described "a rara avis in literature and art." 

 The list might be spun out, but I fear I have 

 exceeded limits already with my dry subject. 



J. O. 



LEGENDS OE THE CO. CLARE. 



In the west of Clare, for many miles the counti'y 

 seems to consist of nothing but iields of grey lime- 

 stone flags, which gives it an appearance of the 

 greatest desolation : Cromwell is reported to have 

 said of it, " that there was neither wood in it to 

 hang a man, nor water to drown him, nor earth 

 to bury him ! " The soil is not, however, by any 

 means as barren as it looks ; and the following 

 legend is related of the way in which an ancestor 

 of one of the most extensive landed proprietors in 

 the county obtained his estates. 



'Twas on a dismal evening in the depth of 

 winter, that one of Cromwell's officers was passing 

 through this part of the country ; his courage and 

 gallantry in the "good cause" had obtained for 

 him a large grant of land in Clare, and he was now 

 on his journey to it. Picturing to himself a land 

 flowing with milk and honey, his disappointment 

 may therefore be imagined when, at the close of a 

 weary day's journey, he found himself bewildered 

 amid such a scene of desolation. From the in- 

 quiries he had made at the last inhabited place 

 he had passed, he was led to conclude that he 

 could not be far distant from the "land of pro- 

 mise," where he might turn his swoi'd into a prun- 

 ing-hook, and rest from all his toils and dangers. 

 Could this be the place of which his imagination 

 had formed so fair a vision ? Hours had elapsed 

 since he had seen a human being ; and, as the soli- 

 tude added to the dismal appearance of the road, 

 bitterly did the veteran curse the folly that had 

 enticed him into the land of bogs and " Papistrie." 

 Troublous therefore as the times were, the tramp 

 of an approaching steed sent a thrill of pleasure 

 through the heart of the Puritan. The rider soon 

 joined him, and as he seemed peaceably disposed, 

 they entered into conversation ; and the stranger 

 soon became acquainted with the old soldier's 

 errand, and the disappointment he had experi- 

 enced. Artfully taking advantage of the occasion, 

 the stranger, who professed an acquaintance with 

 the country, used every means to aggravate the 

 disgust of his fellow-traveller, till the heart of the 

 Cromwellian, already half overcome by fatigue 

 and hunger, sank within him; and at last he 

 agreed that the land should be transferred to the 

 stranger for a butt of Claret and the horse on 

 which he rode. As soon as this important matter 

 was settled, the stranger conducted his new friend 

 to a house of entertainment in a neighbouring ham- 

 let, whose ruins are still called the Claret House 

 of K . A plentiful, though coarse, entertain- 

 ment soon smoked on the board ; and as the eye 

 of the Puritan wandered over the "creature com- 

 forts," his heart rose, and he forgot his disappoint- 

 ment and his fatigue. It is even said that he 

 dispensed with nearly ten of the twenty minutes 

 which he usually bestowed on the benediction ; 



