Jan. 25. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUEPJES. 



57 



Flemish Account. — T. B. M. (Vol. i., p. 8.) re- 

 quests references to early instances of the use of 

 this expression. In the History of Edtuai-d //., 

 by E. F., written a. d. 1627 (see "Notes and 

 Queries" Vol. i.,pp. 91. 220.), folio edition, p. 113., 

 I find " The Queen (Isabella) wbo had already a 

 French and an Italian trick, was jealous lest she 

 should here taste a Flemish one ; " because she 

 feared lest the Earl of Henault should abandon 

 her cause. This instance is, I think, earlier than 

 any yet referred to. S. G. 



Use of Monusjllahles. — The most remarkable 

 instance of the use of monosyllables that I remem- 

 ber to have met with in our poets, occurs in the 

 Fire-worshippers in Lalla Rookh. It is as follows : — 

 " I knew, I knew it could not last — 

 'Twas bright, 'twas heav'nly, but 'tis past ! 

 Oh ! ever thus, from cliildhoods hour, 



I've seen my fondest hopes decay; 

 I never lov'd a tiee or flow'r 



But 'twas the first to fade away. 

 I never nurs'd a dear gazelle 



To glad me with its soft black eye, 

 But when it came to know me widl. 



And love me, it was sure to die! 

 Now, too — tlie joy most like divine 



Of all I ever dreamt or knew. 

 To see thee, hear thee, call thee mine, — 



Oh misery ! must I lose tliat too? 

 Yet go ! On peril's brink we meet ; — • 



Those frightful rocks — that trcach'rous sea — 

 No, never come again — tbo' sweet, 



Tho' Heav'n, it may be death to thee !" 

 This passacre contains 126 words, 110 of which 

 are monosyllables, and the remainder words of 

 only two syllables. The sentiment embodied 

 throughout is that of violent mental emotion ; and 

 it affords a further illustration of the correctness 

 of Mr. C. Forbes's theory (Vol. i., p. 228.) that 

 " the language of passion is almost invariably 

 broken and abrupt." Henry H. Breen. 



St. Lucia, W. I., Nov. 1850. 

 Specimen of Foreign English. — 



" Restorative Hotel, Fixe Hoc. 

 Kept by Frank Prosperi, 

 Facing the Military Quarter 

 AT Pompeii. 



That hotel open since a very few days, is renowned for 

 the cleanness of the apaitments and linen ; for the 

 exactness of the service, and for the eccelence of the 

 true french cookery. Being situated at proximity of 

 that regeneration, it will be propitius to receive families, 

 whatever, which will desire to reside alternatively into 

 that town, to visit the monuments new found, and to 

 breathe thiiher the salubrity of the air. 



That establishment will avoid to all the travellers, 

 visitors, of that sepult city, and to the artists, (willing 

 draw the antiquities) a great disorder, occasioned by the 

 tardy and expensive contour of the iron-whay. People 

 will find equally thither, a complete sortnient of stran- 

 ger wines, and of the kingdom, hot and cold baths, 



stables and coach houses, the whole v.-ith very mode- 

 rated prices. Now, all the applications, and endeavours 

 of the hoste, will tend always to correspond to the 

 tastes and desires, of their customers, which will 

 acquire without doubt, to him, in to that town, the 

 reputation whome, he is ambitious." 



The above is a literal copy of a card in the 

 possession of a friend of mine, who visited Pompeii, 

 1847. W. L. 



Epitaph. — While engaged in some enquiries 

 after family documents in tha British INluseum 

 lately, I lighted on a little poem, which, though 

 not connected with my immediate object, I copied, 

 and here subjoin, hoping your readers will be as 

 much attracted as 1 was by the simplicity and 

 elegance of the lines and thoughts ; and that 

 some one of them, with leisure and opportunity, 

 will do what I had not time to do, namely, — 

 decypher in the MSS. the name of the " Worthie 

 Knight" on whom this epitaph was composed, 

 and give any particulars which can be ascertained 

 concerninfr him. 



EPITAPH ON 



{Harhian MSS., 7?. 25. b. Pluto 63 E.) 

 " Under this stone, thir ly'th at reste 



A Friendlie Manne — A Worthie Knight, 

 Whose herte and mynde was ever prest 

 To favour truthe — to furder righte. 

 "The poore's defense — hys neiglibors ayde, 

 Most kinde alwaies unto his Kyne, 

 That stynt alle striffes that might be stayed. 

 Whose gentil grace great love dyd wyune, 

 " A Man that was fuUe earneste sette 

 To serve hys prince at alle assayes, 

 No sicknesse coi.ld him from itt lette, 

 AVbich was the shortninge of hys dales. 

 " His lyf was good — he dyed fuUe welle, 

 Hys bodie here — the soule in blisse; 

 AVith leiigthe of wordes, why should I telle, 

 Or further shewe, that well knowne is, 

 Since that the teares of mor or lesse 

 Eight welle declare hvs worthynessc." 



A. B. R. 



THE TALE OF THE WARDSTAFF. 



Can any of your antiquarian correspondents 

 furnish further elucidation of the strange ceremony 

 of the gathering of the Wardstaff (which was in 

 old time one of the customs of the hundred of 

 Ongar, in Essex) than are to be found in Morant's 

 History of Essex, vol. i. p. 126. ? from whence it 

 was incorrectly copied in 131ount's Jocular Tenures 

 by Beckwith, '4to. cd. It lias been also more cor- 

 rectly given by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his Rise 

 and Progress of the English Commonwealth, 

 Part II. p. clvii., wlio justly styles it — 

 " a strange and imcoiilh finginent of the earliest 

 customs of the Teutons; in which we can still recog- 



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