284 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 102. 



AlthoTigh Campbell speaks with great contempt 

 of Flatman, and quotes Granger, who says that 

 " one of his heads (he painted portraits in minia- 

 ture) is worth a ream of his pindarics," I cannot 

 hut think he has been unduly depreciated ; there 

 being many passages in his poems (brief ones it is 

 true) possessed of considerable beauty, and which 

 1 would gladly extract in proof of my assertion, 

 were your pages available for such a purpose. 



jL . 0. o. 



Popes Translations or Imitations of Horace 

 (Vol. i., p. 230. ; Vol. iv., pp. 58. 122. 139. 239.). 

 — I am very much obliged to Mr. Ckossley for 

 his information and obliging offer ; but until he is 

 able to find the publication of the piece in ques- 

 tion by Curll, and with the date of 171G, he will 

 forgive my doubting whether his memory has not 

 failed him as to the date, as the fact is directly at 

 variance with Pope's own statement to Spencc. 

 Mk. Ckossley is certainly mistaken in thinking 

 that " The two quarto volumes are the only col- 

 lection of Pope's works that can be called his own, 

 and that Dodslcy's edition of 1738 was a mere 

 bookseller's collection." There is abundant evi- 

 dence that this edition was Pop.e's own just as much 

 as the quartos, as was also a prior ^edition of the 

 same small shape of 1736. C. 



Lord Mayor not a Privy Councillor (Vol. iv., 

 pp.9. 137. 180. 23G.). — The main question is, I 

 think, settled ; that there is no pretence whatso- 

 ever for the supposition that the Lord Mayor is a 

 Privy Councillor; but your last correspondent 

 Dn. has fallen into a slight error, which it may be 

 as well to correct. Ke confounds a summons to 

 the Privy Council with an invitation or notice 

 which is sent (as he truly states) from the Home 

 Office to such noblemen and gentlemen as are 

 known to be at hand to attend at the meeting for 

 proclaiming the sovereign ; but which meeting 

 any one may, and the majority do, attend without 

 any such notice. This is the notice that Dn. re- 

 ceived, and that I myself have received at two 

 accessions ; and which no doubt the Lord Mayor 

 and Alderman, and city officers, also receive ; but 

 this has nothing whatsoever to do with the Privy 

 Council. C. 



' Herschcl anticipated (Vol. iv., p. 233.). — Thomas 

 AVright suspected the motion of the sun iu 17-50; 

 but I never heard that he was thought mad. See 

 Phil. Mag., April, 1848, where an account of 

 Wright is given. M. 



Sanfoi'dCs Descensus (Vol. iv., p. 232.). — 

 JEgbotus will find the following in the Bodleian: 

 De descensu Domini nostri Jesu Christi ad Inferos, 

 lihri quatuor, ab Hugone Sanfordo inchoati, opei-a 

 Jtoh. Parkeri adt^umbilicum perducti, 4to. Amst. 

 1611. Saxonicus. 



Pope's " honest Factor" (Vol. iv., pp. 6. 244.) 



In the European Magazine for September, 1791, 

 under the head of " Anecdotes of the Pitt Family," 

 there is a memoir given of Governor Pitt, from 

 which I extract the following passages as illustra- 

 tive of the Queries of your correspondents J. Swan 

 and C. : — 



" The most extraordinary incident in this gentle- 

 man's life was, his obtaining and disposing of the cele- 

 brated diamond which is still called by his name. It 

 was purchased by him during the time he was Gover- 

 nor of Fort St. George, for 48,000 pagodas, i. e. 20,400/. 

 sterling, instead of 200,000, which the seller first asked 

 for it. It was consigned to Sir Stephen Evance, Knt., 

 in London, in the ship Bedford, Ca))tain John Hudson, 

 Commander, by a bill of lading dated March 8, 1701-2, 

 ;ind charged to the Captain at 6,500 pagodas only. It 

 was reckoned the largest jewel in Europe, and weighed 

 one hundred and twenty-seven carats. When polished 

 it was as big as a pullet's egg. The cuttings amounted 

 to eight or ten thousand pounds." 



" It appears, that the acquisition of this diamond 

 occ.nsioned many reflections injurious to the honour of 

 Governor Pitt; and Mr. Pope has been thought to 

 have had the insinuations, then floating in the world, in 

 his mind when he wrote the following lines: 

 ' Asleep and naked as an Indian lay, 



An honest factor stole a gem away : 



He pledg'd it to the Knight ; the Knight had wit ; 



So kept the di'mond, and the rogue was bit.' 



" These reports, however, never obtained much 

 credit; though they were loud enough to reach the 

 ears of the person against whom they were directed, 

 who condescended to vindicate himself against the as- 

 persions thrown out upon him." 



T. C. S. 



"^ little Bird told me'" (Vol. iv., p. 232.).— 

 C. W. might have discovered the origin of this 

 saying in an authority much older and much more 

 familiar to English readers than the Koran. In- 

 stead of going to Mahomet in search for legends 

 of King Solomon, if he had opened his Bible, and 

 turned to the Book of Ecclesiastes x. 20., he would 

 there have found the wise monarch of Israel 

 himself saying, 



" Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought; and 

 curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber : for a bird of 

 the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings 

 shall tell the matter." 



TrRo. 



Dublin. 



[R. G., Mackenzie Walcott, P. S. Q., Rovert, 

 H. T. E., A. H. B., J. A. Picton, and other friends, 

 have kindly forwarded similar replies.] 



TheWinchester Execution (Vol.iv., pp. 191. 243.). 

 — The story, of which a summary appears under this 

 title in a recent Number, resembles one I have 

 repeatedly heard told in the city of Durham by 

 those who had personal recollection of the facts 



