18 
books which our worthy bibliopoles designate 
| as “standard works.” These are the books of 
competent workmen—books which are the 
result-of honest labour and research, and which 
from the moment of their publication assume 
| a permanent station in our national literature. 
Even in such books there are many things in- 
complete, many things erroneous. But it is 
the interest of every man that such books 
should be rendered as complete as possible ; 
and whatever tends to illustrate or correct 
works of that class will be sure of insertion 
in our columns. 
We would point to Macaulay’s England, 
and Hallam’s Introduction to the Literary 
History of the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries, 
his Middle Ages, and his Constitutional His- 
tory, and we may add, as illustrations of a 
different kind, The Annals of the Stage of our 
excellent friend Mr. Collier, and The Hand- 
book of London of our valued contributor 
Mr. Peter Cunningham, as examples of the 
sort of publications to which we allude. Such 
were the books we had in our mind, when we 
spoke in our Prospectus of the “ Notes AND 
Queries” becoming, through the inter-com- 
munication of our literary friends, “a most 
useful supplement to works already in exist- 
ence—a treasury towards enriching future 
editions of them.” 
Another correspondent—a bibliographical 
friend—suggests that, for various reasons, 
which bibliographers will appreciate, our 
Prospectus should have a place in the body 
of our work. We believe that many of our 
readers concur in a wish for its preservation, 
and it will therefore be found in the Number 
now before them. 
One suggestion again urges us to look care- 
fully to Foreign Literature, and another 
points out the propriety of our making our 
paper as British as possible, so that our topo- 
graphical facts should, as far as practicable, be 
restricted to the illustration of British counties, 
and our biographical ones to such as should 
contribute towards a Biographia Britannica. 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 2. 
All these, and many other expressions of 
sympathy and promises of support, poured in 
upon us within a few hours after our birth. 
No one of them shall be forgotten; and if for 
a time our pages seem to indicate that we 
have made a Query as to the adoption of any 
suggestion, let our kind contributors be as- 
sured that there is no hint which reaches us, 
whether at present practicable or not, that 
we do not seriously and thankfully “make a 
Nore of.” 
BISHOP AYLMER’S LETTER, AND THE POEM 
ON THE ARMADA, 
As I am in a condition to answer the 
inquiry of your “ Hearty Well-wisher,” on 
p- 12. of your last Number of “ Notes anp 
QueEriEs,” I proceed to give him the informa- 
tion he asks. I shall be happy if what 
follows is of any use to your correspondent, 
taking it for granted that he is as zealous for 
your success as his signature indicates. 
The “ foolish rhyme,” to which the at- 
tention of the Bishop of London had been 
directed by Lord Burghley, has the subse- 
quent doggrel title : — 
“ A Skeltonicall Salvtation, 
Or condigne gratvlation, 
And iust vexation 
Of the Spanishe nation, 
That in a bravado 
Spent many a ervsado, 
In setting forth an armado 
England to invado.” 
This is as the title stands in the Oxford 
impression (of which I never saw more than 
one copy, because, we may presume, it was 
suppressed by the authorities of the Uni- 
versity, and the following is the imprint at 
the bottom of it: —‘ Printed at Oxford by 
Ioseph Barnes, and are to bee sold in Paules 
Churchyard, at the signe of the Tygres head, 
1589.” 
There exist several exemplars of the London 
edition—‘“ Imprinted at London for Toby 
Cooke. 1589,”—the title-page of which, as 
well as the rest of the poem, differs only lite- 
rally from that of Oxford, excepting that to 
the later is appended a Latin version, also in 
rhyme, and in close imitation of the English. 
I subjoin a brief specimen of it : — 
