Oct. 5. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



293 



These words seem to have been spoke by one that had 

 been at Rome, and was forced into those Countries after 

 the troubles broke out here. But as for Chappell, he 

 never was at Rome, nor in any of those Countries. 



" As for Archbp. Stern, no Man will believe hira to 

 have any just Title to any of these Tracts. [The la^t 

 Passage, concerning Idolatry, will not agree with Mr. 

 Woodhead ; nor the rest with Lady Packington.] 



" In a letter from M»-. Hearne, dat. Oxon, Mar. 27. 

 173:5, said by Dr. Clavering, Up. of Petr. to be wrote 

 by one Mr. Basket, a Clergyman of Worcestershire. 

 See Dr. Hamond's Letters published by Mr. Peck, et 

 ultra Quaere." 



On SO disputed a point as the authorship of the 

 Whole Duty of Man, your readers will probably 

 welcome any discussion by one so competent to 

 form an opinion in such matters as Hearne. 



The letter above given was unknown to the 

 editor of jMr. Pickering's edition. 



J. E. B. LIayok. 



Marlborough College. 



MISTAKE ABOUT GEOKGB WITHER. 



In Campbell's Notices of the British Poets (edit. 

 1848, p. 234.) is the folUjwing passage from the 

 short memoir of George Wither : — 



" He was even afraid of being put to some mecha- 

 nical trade, when he contrived to get to London, and 

 with great simplicity had proposed to try his fortune 

 at court. To his astonishment, however, he found 

 that it was necessary to flatter in order to be a courtier. 

 To show his independence, he therefore wrote his 

 Abuses ]Vhij)t and Stript, and, instead of rising at court, 

 was committed for some months to the Marshalsea." 



The author adds a note to this passage, to which 

 Mr. Peter Cunningham (the editor of the edition 

 to which I refer) appends the remark inclosed be- 

 tween brackets : — 



" He was imprisoned for his Abuses Whipt and Stript ; 

 yet this could not have been his first offence, as an 

 allusion is made to a former accusation. [It was for 

 The Scouri/e (IG15) that his first known imprisonment 

 took place.] " 



I cannot discover upon any authority sufEcient 

 ground for ]\lr. Campbell's note respecting a. former 

 accusation against Wither. He was undoubtedly 

 im])ris()ne(l for his Abuses Whipt and Siript, which 

 first ap[)eareil in print in 1()13; but I do not 

 think an earlier olFeiice can be proved against him. 

 It liius been supposed, upon the authority of a jias- 

 Bagc in the U'urnliiff Piece to London, that the 

 first edilicm of this curious work api)ear(;d in IGI 1 ; 

 but 1 am inclined to think that the lines, — 

 " III sixteen hundred ten and one, 

 I notice took o( public crimes," 



refers to the pcn-iod at which the "Satirical Essays" 

 were composed. Mr. \Villniott, however {Lives 

 of the Sacred Poets, p. 72.), thinks that they point 



to an earlier publication. But it is not likely that 

 Wither would so soon again have committed him- 

 self by the publication of the Abuses in 1613, if 

 he had suffered for his "liberty of speech" so 

 shortly before. 



Mr. Cunningham's addition to Mr. Campbell's 

 note is incorrect. The Scourge is part of the 

 Abuses Whipt and Stript, printed in 1613 (a copy 

 of which is now before me), to which it forms a 

 postscript. Wood, who had never seen it, speaks 

 of it as a separate publication ; but INIr. Willmott 

 has corrected this error, although he had onlv the 

 means of referring to the edition of the Abuses 

 printed in 1615. Mr. Cunningham's note, that 

 Wither was iinprisone<l for the Scourge in 1615, 

 is a mistake ; made, probably, by a too hasty 

 perusal of jMr. Willmott's charming little volume 

 on our elder sacred poets. 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



tJSEFUI- VERSUS USELESS LEARNING. 



A simple and practical plan tor the formation of 

 a complete and usefid library and repository of 

 unioersal literary knowledge. 



The design winch I propose in the following few 

 lines, is one which I should imagine nearly all the 

 more learned and literary of your readers would 

 wish to see already in existence ; and when I show 

 that it might be effected ivith very little trouble and 

 expense (indeed 7io ^rouble but such as would be ■ 

 a, pleasure to those interested in the work), and that 

 the greatest advantage would follow from it, — I 

 hope that it may meet with favourable considera- 

 tion from some of the numerous, able, and influen- 

 tial readers and correspondents of your journal. 



I am the more induced to hope this from the 

 fact of such a wish having been partially expressed 

 by some of your contributors, and the excellent 

 leading articles of Nos. 1. and 2. 



What I propose is simply this : the systematic 

 arrangement of all the existing literary know- 

 ledge in the world that is considered of value by 

 those best qualified to judge, disposed in such a 

 manner as to answer these two purposes : 1st, to 



irive a jienerul connected and classified view of the 



... 

 literary treasures of the whole world, beginning 



from the most ancient in each language and de- 

 partment (including only what is valuable in 

 each) ; and, 2dly, to atlbrd the greatest possible_/«- 

 ciUty (by means of arrangement, references, and 

 indexes) to every iiupiirer for finding at once the 

 information he is in search of, if it is to be found 

 auywhere by looking for it. 



There are two ways in which this work might 

 be acromplislied, both of which were desirable, 

 though even one only would be much better tiian 

 none. 



The first and most complete is, to make a real 

 collection of all tiiosc works, arranged in the 



