26 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»i S. IX. Jan. 14. '60. 



who is the author of, and where I can find, the 



following lines : — 



« Can he who games have feeling ? Yes he may, 

 But better in my mind he had it not, 

 For I esteem him preferable far, 

 In rate of manhood, that has not a heart, 

 To him who has, and makes vile use of it : 

 The one is a traitor unto nature, which 

 The other can't be called." 



Wishing you and all your contributors a happy 

 New Year, A Constant Reader. 



Electric Telegraph half a Century ago.— 

 Turning over some old magazines to find a date, I 

 chanced to light on the following epigram, dated 

 Oct. 1813: — 



" On the Proposed Electrical Telegraph. 

 " When a victory we gain 

 (As we've oft done in Spain) 

 It is usual to load well with powder, 

 And discharge 'midst a crowd 

 All the park guns so loud, 

 And the guns of the Tower, which are louder. 



" But the guns of the Tower, 



And the Park guns want power 

 To proclaim as they ought what we pride in ; 



So when now we succeed 



It is wisely decreed 

 To announce it from the batteries of Leyden." 



To announce it from the latteries of Leyden. 

 Cavallo is stated to have been the first to suggest 

 the use of electricity in passing signals : and the 

 earliest attempts in England are said to have been 

 made by a gentleman at Hammersmith. Can any 

 reader furnish me with the date and particulars 

 of his experiments ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Landslips at Folkstone. — The cliff at Folk- 

 stone has been subject to a recurrence at distant 

 periods of sudden descents in vast and very ex- 

 tensive masses. 



The first we have particular mention of is in 

 the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxix. p. 469. 

 by the Rev. John Sackette, giving an account of a 

 very uncommon sinking of the earth near Folk- 

 stone in Kent ; and also of the Royal Society's 

 Transactions by the Rev. John Lyon, vol. lxxvi. 

 p. 200., giving an account of a subsidence of the 

 ground near Folkstone, on the coast of Kent. In 

 the present century we have to notice three such 

 occurrences. There was a descent on Sunday, 

 March 8, 1801, which for magnitude was the 

 largest and most extensive of any which have 

 taken place. Not to encroach upon your space 

 with details of this event, it will suffice to refer 

 your readers to the Annual Register for 1801 

 (Chronicle, pp. 7. and 8.). In enumerating the 

 second decline of surface of thecliffin May, 1806, 

 it will also be sufficient to point to a curious ac- 

 count of it in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 

 lxxvi. for June, 1806, p. 575. ; and for the last 



landslip we have to notice, it will be found in The 

 Times of Dec. 14, 1859, as having happened on 

 the 8th of that month. 



As to me there appears something very extraor- 

 dinary in these repeated events, I would appeal 

 to any of your geological readers to inform me of 

 their cause. 2. 2. 



Books of an Antipapal Tendency written 

 before the Reformation. — I shall be much ob- 

 liged to any of your readers who can furnish me 

 with the titles of any books printed before the 

 year 1516, containing, first, expressions of dissent 

 upon religious grounds from the Church of Rome; 

 secondly, objections to the temporal power of the 

 Church as then exercised ; and, thirdly, prophecies 

 of convulsions likely to disturb the Church about 

 the beginning of the sixteenth century. I am de- 

 sirous of obtaining as complete a list as I can, 

 and should also be glad to be furnished with the 

 names of any modern writers who have noticed 

 these early symptoms of reform. As an example 

 of the first class of books, I would mention Pierce 

 Plowman's Vision and Complaynte ; as an illustra- 

 tion of the second, Le Songe du Vergier, first 

 printed, Paris, 1491, in which the claims of the 

 spiritual and temporal powers are supported re- 

 spectively by the arguments of a priest and of a 

 knight ; and as instances of the third class, the 

 prophecies of Methodius and of Joseph Griinpeckh. 



West Derby. 



Metrical Version of the Psalms in Welsh. 

 — Are these set to the same tunes as the metrical 

 version in English, or have they tunes peculiar to 

 themselves r In particular I would ask whether 

 a tune called " Bangor" is suited to the Welsh 

 version (6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7,) ? It does not appear to 

 me to be applicable to English words, either of 

 the old or the new version ? Vryan Rheged. 



Lord Tracton. — I have tried, but in vain, 

 to trace this nobleman's ancestry. His family 

 name was Dennis. Is there anything known of 

 his family ? Y. S. M. 



Orlers's Account of Leyden. — I have in my 

 possession a small 4to. volume with the following 

 title : — 



" Beschrijvinge der Stad Leyden. Tot Leyden By 

 Henrick Haestens, Jan Oilers, ende Jan Maire. Anno 

 do.loc.xmi." 



On the fly-leaf is written (in the handwriting, 

 as I have been informed, of the late Wm. Ford 

 of Manchester) : — " Liber Perrarus et auctoritate 

 publica suppressus. v. Fresnoy." The work is 

 quite perfect, and contains, besides views of build- 

 ings and portraits, a series of curious large cop- 

 per-plate engravings illustrating the siege of 

 Leyden in 1574. I should be obliged if any of 

 your correspondents who may be acquainted with 



