164 



NOTES AND QUERIES. t2-« S. VI. 139., Aug. 28. '58. 



stowed in anticipation of its imperial favour, the 

 ^e^fortification ? or was its prefix designed as a 

 verbal reproach to future ministers of finance 

 for their lavish expenditiu-e of the public money 

 in the construction of its gigantic works ? The 

 Cherbourg breakwater., one of the many concep- 

 tions of Vaiilaiis engineering genius, has required 

 for its completion since 1783, the year of its com- 

 mencement, a no less sum than 67,300,000 francs. 



F. Phillott. 



Butler and Waller : Howard's "British Princes.'" 

 — In Rev. G. Gilfillan's edition of Butler (Nichol, 

 Edinburgh, 1854, vol. ii. 167.), are inserted, 

 amongst the Genuine Remains of that poet, some 

 lines "To the Hon. Edward Howard, Esq., upon 

 his Incomparable Poem of ' The British Princes,' " 

 commencing : — 



" Sir, j'ou've obliged the British nation more, 

 Than all their bards could ever do before." 



In Edmund Waller's Poetical Works, under the 

 same editorship (1857, p. 152.), we have some 

 lines " To a Person of Honour, upon his incom- 

 parable, incomprehensible Poem, entitled ' The 

 British Princes.' " This latter poem is, with a 

 very few verbal alterations, or rather variations, 

 in the collocation of words identical with the 

 former ; to which we are referred by a foot-note, 

 " See our edition of ' Butler.' " Yet there is no 

 reference whatever to the discrepancy of state- 

 ment regarding the authorship. In Butler, the 

 lines are immediately followed (p. 169.) by "A 

 Palinodie to the Hon. Edw. Howard, Esq., upon 

 Lis incomparable Poem on ' The British Princes.' " 



Qu. 1. To which poet are the lines in question 

 to be ascribed ? 



2. What excuse can be offered for such culpa- 

 ble carelessness on the part of an editor ? The 

 good print and paper of this edition make it ac- 

 ceptable to one, like myself, of failing eyesight : 

 but as to the " explanatory notes" announced on 

 the title-page, why, the only comfort is, that they 

 are so few. Take a specimen, from the very first 

 page of the volume, above referred to. Butler 

 says : — 



" The learned write, an insect breeze 

 Is but a mongrel prince of bees, 

 That falls before a storm on cows," &c. w 



Hudibras, Part III. Cant. II. 1. 



On these plain words, which a plain body like 

 myself would take as an allusion to the breeze, or 

 brize, a kind of gadfly, the learned editor pro- 

 foundly remarks (ivithout Italics) : — 



" ' Prince of bees : ' breezes often bring along with them 

 great qiianlities of insects ; but our author makes them 

 proceed from a cow's dung, and afterwards become a 

 plague to that whence it recaiced its original." 



To say nothing of the grammar of this sentence, 

 think of the nonsense of it ! that Mr..Beirs 

 edition of the Poets were equally adapted to the 

 visual infirmities of Ache ! 



The French Tricolor. — Tiie tradition in 

 France as to the adoption of this flag, is, that it 

 originally was the field of the arras of the Orleans 

 family, which was made up in fact of the red of the 

 ancient oriflarume, which was, gules, semee of lys, 

 or; of the arms of Valois, azure, semee, in like 

 manner ; and of Bourbon, argent, semee of the 

 same. As the Orleans claimed to be descended of 

 all three branches, they took for the field of their 

 escutcheon their three tinctures, and blazoned 

 them " tierce in pale azure, argent, and gules, 

 semee of fleur-de-lys, or." The tradition is, when 

 Philip of Orleans threw himself into the arms of 

 the republicans and called himself L'Egalite, he 

 caused the fleur-de-lys to be erased from the 

 escutcheons which were stuck up in the Palais 

 Royal. The field, being left, it was identified with 

 his name, and by degrees became the Republican 

 flag. The time is surely not so far distant but 

 some person can be found who could inform us if 

 this story be correct ; and if not, what really is 

 the origin of the adoption of this flag by the 

 French nation. I doubt whether my informant 

 is correct as to the national drapeau being always 

 the arms of the reigning dynasty, and hope some 

 of our heraldic friends will throw light upon the 

 matter. A. A. 



" Pepys's Diari/" : De Foe. — I hope the editor 

 of the new edition of this charming work will give 

 us, in the fourth and last volume, which is still 

 due, the portrait of Pepys by Hales.* That by 

 Kneller, prefixed to the first volume, shows us 

 the writer when he was advanced in life, and as 

 he no doubt appeared on great occasions, when he 

 put on a solemn and stately aspect. But Hales's 

 portrait shows the Pepys we are so familiar with, 

 in all the full vigour of his roystering days. Mr. 

 Peter Cunningham, the owner of the original paint- 

 ing, has already published an engraving from it in 

 his Story of Nell Gicynne. 



Can any of your readers inform me what has 

 become of the original painting from which the 

 portrait of De Foe is engraved v,'hich illustrates 

 this new edition of Pepys ? And is it the same 

 head as that prefixed to De Foe's True Collection 

 of the Works of the Author of the True-born Eng- 

 lishman. Mk, Fokstee probably could answer 

 my query. Jaydee. 



Death of a Centenarian. — The following is an 

 extract from the Nottingham Journal of July 16 : 



"Newark. Death of a Centenarian. — Buried, by the 

 Rev. S. Rogers, on Sunday last, at the parish church, 



[* As the editor of the present edition retains Lord 

 Braybrooke's note (under date 11 April, 1666), in which 

 he stated " his impression that the picture is not Pepys's, 

 but the copy of the portrait of Mr. Hill the mercliant, 

 Pepys's musical friend," mentioned 16 May, 1666, Mr. 

 Bohn could scarcely be expected to go to the expense of 

 engraving it.— Ed. « N. & Q."] 



