into two sections. The second section contains some delicately elaborated description of outward nature. To the beauty of the passage, one can fancy, there is given an added charm from its having passed under the editorial consideration of Lamb.

The passage referred to begins: "I imagine you seized with a fine, romantic kind of a melancholy on the fading of the year," &c. For the complete letter the curious may consult the Aldine edition of Thomson's 'Works,'

1860, pp. xxvi-xxviii. Similar descriptive passages adorn Thomson's correspondence; but there is no better example among them of his real power of expressing himself in picturesque prose.

The history of the letter, so far as it has been ascertained, is briefly this. According to Mr. Peter Cunningham, who edited Sir Harris Nicolas's biography for the Aldine edition of Thomson, it was first printed in The London Magazine for November, 1824, headed with this note:

"The following very interesting letter has been recovered from oblivion, or at least from neglect, by our friend Elia, and the public will no doubt thank him for the deed. It is without date or superscription in the manuscript, which (as our contributor declares) was in so fragmentitious' a state as to perplex his transcribing faculties in the extreme."

Internal evidence altogether favours the authenticity of the letter. The noble excursus itself is characteristically Thomson's. But, apart from this matter, the conjunction thus evidenced of two geniuses of intrinsic qualities so different is peculiarly memorable.

Queries.

W. B.

in fiction who used the methods made most familiar to us by Sherlock Holmes? Is there any earlier one than Zadig?

RUDOLPH DE CORDOVA.

JOLIFFE FAMILY OF DORSET.-In Hutchins's

two.

History of Dorset' (i. 48) is a lengthy epitaph who died 12 November, 1730, aged seventyto Peter Joliffe, "a distinguished naval officer," His youngest son, William Joliffe, "alderman and merchant of Poole," was dying 7 August, 1762, aged sixty-four. mayor of that borough in 1754 and 1758, I should be glad to learn the parentage of Peter Joliffe. Early in the seventeenth century a family of the name was seated at Cannings Court, in Dorset, and entered their pedigree I can discover no later particulars of the in the Visitation of that county, 1623; but Poole in 1698, and would be, I suspect, of the descent. A William Joliffe was M.P. for There was, I believe, no connexion between same family, possibly the father of Peter. the Joliffes of Dorset and those of Staffordshire, represented now by Lord Hylton. W. D. PINK.

Lowton, Newton-le-Willows.

PRINCIPAL GILBERT GRAY.-Gilbert Gray was the second principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen. His 'Oratio de illustribus Scotia Scriptoribus' was reprinted in 1708 by Mackenzie ('Lives of Scots Writers,' I. xxi.). It is stated by Prof. William Knight (MS. Collections, circa 1840) to have been originally printed at Aberdeen by Raban in 1623, but no copy of that print has been traced. I should be glad to hear of the existence of a copy. It must not be confused with Gray's Oratio Funebris in memoriam Duncani Liddelii,' printed at Edinburgh by Andro Hart in 1614-not included, by the way, in Mr. H. G. Aldis's 'List of Books printed in Scotland before 1700.' P. J. ANDERSON.

CROMWELL DEATH.-Is anything known of the family of Cromwell Death, of Furnival's Inn, living in the early years of the reign of Charles II.? OXONIENSIS.

PRISONER SUCKLED BY HIS DAUGHTER.—I shall be glad to know the name of the artist, the title, and where the original is deposited, of the picture representing a prisoner (who, although deprived of food, to the astonishment of the authorities, continues to exist) drawing milk from the breast of his daughter, who visits him with her child. J. SMITH.

"PEARLS CANNOT EQUAL THE WHITENESS OF HIS TEETH."-What is the source of an apocryphal legend of Jesus which represents

Him as making this remark about the dead dog which every one else spurned? The moral, of course, is that we should strive to see the best, and not the worst of everything. WM. C. RICHARDSON.

"ROLLUPS."- "The breadth of his milkand-watered rollups," in a letter from Mason to Gray, 27 June, 1755, Tovey's edition. What are they? J. J. FREEMAN.

MACDONALD OF MOIDART. In Wood's 'Douglas's Peerage' (vol. ii. p. 8) Reginald is mentioned as second son of John de Yle, Lord of the Isles, but in such a way as to suggest that he was not the son of John's wife Margaret Stuart, and rather leading to the inference that he was illegitimate. Can any one give me further information? A. CALDER.

ber, 1764." There is a long quaint epitaph, which I did not copy, as it has, no doubt, already been published. Who was T. UnderL. L. K. wood?

WEDDING INVITATION-CARDS.-I have come across a printed invitation to the wedding of Johann Heinrich Hansing, of Hanover, and Sophie Magdalene, daughter of Ilsa Magdalene Starren, widow of Prehling, of Hayen. It is a single folio page, dated 1684. Are any earlier printed invitations known? LUDWIG ROSENTHAL.

Hildegardstrasse 16, Munich.

SANDERSON DANCE.-I shall be pleased to know when this dance was first introduced, and why it was so called. It was common in the North a hundred years ago. particulars will oblige.

CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

Mr.

CHARLES CHURCHILL: T. UNDERWOOD.According to the 'D.N.B.,' when Charles Churchill died at Boulogne, his body was brought over to Dover, and buried in the old churchyard of St. Martin, and a monument was also erected to him in the church. S. P. H. Statham also states ('History of Dover,' 1899) that the poet was buried in St. Martin's-le-Grand, but the local guidebooks tell us that this church was wholly dismantled in 1542. Has anybody seen recently the monument or the grave, whichso the 'D.N.B.' informs us-is marked by a slab and a line taken from the poet's Candidate' Byron visited it when leaving England for the last time, and has recorded his impressions in lines dated Diodati, 1816.

On a recent occasion I had a few minutes to spare at Dover, and went into St. Mary's Church in Cannon Street, where I saw a mural tablet erected "at the sole expense of T. Underwood, ye Impartialist," to the memory of the "late celebrated poet Charles Churchill who died at Boulogne in France ætatis 32 and was buried in ye town Novem

Gravenor appears to have been of a literary turn of mind-at any rate, a student of homiletic literature. In an old book of 66 silversermons preached by that celebrated tongued" Henry Smith, D.D., lecturer at St. Clement Danes, under her signature, by way of comment on a sermon by the learned divine on the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, are written the following lines:Laugh at no man's fall. Thy state is yet unsure. Thou knowest nothing at all How long thou may'st endure. Commenting on another sermon on Contentment are these lines:

Hell gapes, and that most readily, To swallow them up full greedily, Who liveth upon their usury, Which bringeth men to poverty. This lady was evidently living in the early part of the seventeenth century. The spell'Silvering is of the Jacobean period. J. W. B. tongued" Smith died circa 1601.

HONESTY ON A COMPETENCE.-I should be obliged if you could give me the reference for the subjoined quotation :

for without it a man cannot......[?] Nay, he can "Strive to have a competence, however modest, hardly even be honest."

I believe it is in a letter of Edmund Burke's, but I have not any copy of his letters, and in an edition of his speeches and writings to which I referred, I could not find it.

CARAVANSERAI TO PUBLIC-HOUSE.-Where may I find references and original matter

which would be helpful to me in working up the subject of the evolution of hostels, inns, and hotels? GREGORY GRUSELIER.

HEADLY ARMS.-I am anxious to find the coat of arms of the following crest: A martlet on a mound. Motto, "Spes somnium vigilantis." The seal was the property of my greatgrandfather, Robert Headly, of Cambridge, son of William Headly. If you or your correspondents can give me any information on this point, I shall be greatly obliged. C. B. HEADLY.

Alexandra Road, Leicester.

MUNGO.—A writer in The Monthly Magazine for March, 1798 (p. 184), observing that onefifth of the population of New York is supposed to consist of negroes and people of colour, deplores the vicious intercourse between whites and blacks, and suggests that encouragement be given to poor Irish and Scotch emigrants in order totally to "do away the mungo and tawney breeds," for the town and suburbs swarm with both." Was St. Kentigern's alias a common appellative of negroes? Or is this use of the term merely a reminiscence of Mungo, the black slave in Bickerstaff's 'Padlock' (1768) ?

66

J. DORMER.

EDWARD Vaughan. Can any of your readers put me in communication with a descendant or relative of the Rev. E. Vaughan, Archdeacon of Madras from 1819 to 1828? I shall be deeply grateful for the favour.

3, Park Hill, Ealing, W.

FRANK PENNY.

=

We

made the mistake of copying the above error, I have to confess that I have frequently and have frequently printed the English name as Vergil; but I have since perceived that it is wrong, and I beg leave to recant. Not only is Vergil "hyperpedantic," but it is formed on a wrong principle. should always go back to first principles, and when we do so we find that modern English spelling is mostly very antique, and was regulated by Anglo-French scribes upon Anglo-French principles. The modern English spelling is properly Virgil, because the Middle English spelling was Virgile, Virgyle, or Virgil. My 'Index of Proper Names' to Chaucer gives the following references, which see: 'House of Fame,' ll. 378, 449, 1483 Troilus,' v. 1792; 'Legend of Good Women, 924, 1002; Canterbury Tales,' Group D, 1519. Gawain Douglas and Phaer wrote Virgill; Stanyhurst and Dryden have Virgil. WALTER W. SKEAT.

As regards the Latin form of the name there is no question that the e is right. The best MSS. read Vergilium in the concluding lines of the fourth book of the Georgics, and this spelling is further attested by inscriptions in which the name occurs. But I think it would be pedantic, in spite of the inconsistency, to depart from the familiar English form Virgil in favour of Vergil, though this, I admit, may be a matter of individual taste. C. S. JERRAM.

H. H. B.

first centuries of the Christian era are in The inscriptions of the Republic and of the favour of Vergilius; so also the older MSS., almost invariably Bepyitos. This explanaas the Medicean, and the Greeks also link tion is taken from Teuffel, vol. i. p. 425, Warr's translation.

I fancy that the spelling Virgil arose from legend which represented the poet as born H. A. STRONG. from a Virgo.

If by "the more correct spelling" we mean that which, so far as can now be judged

to recommend moderation, continued to arouse, and "every expedient was resorted to which would tend to inflame sanguinary men to the commission of sanguinary deeds." The draft of the "Proclamation " in his handwriting and the printed copies were found in a desk used by him, with many other papers, in one of the depôts where he superintended the manufacture of gunpowder, rockets, cartridges, pikes, &c. Preconceived notions seem to have undue weight with some contributors, who appear to think letters must have been pathetic because of a tale that Major Sirr wept over them. But who first reported it? and what means had he of knowing the truth? FRANCESCA refers to Phillips's Curran and his Contemporaries,' 1818, but afterwards admits that she merely has later editions, which do not mention the matter. As Major Sirr died in 1841, Phillips, in 1818, could not have been the authority for the statement that Major Sirr burnt the correspondence "some years previous to his death."

was

As a clergyman, Dr. Sirr was quite right to note anything he could record favourable to O'Brien. Most probably the man much maligned, although he was convicted. Dr. Sirr does not condone his offence. Even as to Emmet, Madden has recorded everything possible in his favour, and, as MR. SIRR pertinently remarks, who can say Dr. Sirr would not have defended either him or Miss Curran from unfair comments?

FRANCESCA says that documents sometimes stated to be destroyed are nevertheless subsequently found, instancing the Wickham Papers. But as to the letters under discussion, they have been stated (by Madden and Daly) to have been destroyed, and Major Sirr's own son testifies to this; and they have not come to light. MR. MACDONAGH says they never existed; but his argument is unsound, and he can give no evidence. Madden should have raised the question when Dr. Sirr was alive and could have answered. It does not seem fair to quote a partisan work, such as 'The Sham Squire,' which misrepresents Major Sirr; but FRANCESCA relies upon it for a statement of Sir John Gray that Dr. Sirr had a fixed belief that all Irish malcontents were favourable to assassination, whereas probably Sir John Gray had the "fixed belief" himself that Dr. Sirr held the opinion. Sir John Gray was editor of The Freeman's Journal.

Surely, as a "student of Irish history," MR. MACDONAGH is not justified in assuming anything, and he seems "undeservedly to besmirch the reputation" of Dr. Sirr. Appa

rently he has not consulted Major Sirr's papers, and his book is based upon the Hardwicke Papers and some discovered in the Home Office.

So far as it is possible to judge, I should say Dr. Sirr bore a good character, and he had direct means of knowing the truth. ONLOOKER.

Hitherto much has appeared in print concerning Emmet and Miss Curran which sometimes couched in terms which help to borders on the imaginative. Notices are foster idolization. But as the 'D.N.B.' article on Emmet points out,

"the youth and ability of Emmet have cast a glamour of romance over his career, and that glamour has been enhanced by his affection for Sarah Curran, the daughter of the great lawyer, to whom Moore addressed his famous poem, 'She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps'; the lady afterwards (24 Nov., 1805) married a very distinguished officer, Major Sturgeon, of the Royal Staff Corps."

Clearly, therefore, there is room for misEmmet their hero and Miss Curran the apprehension on the part of those who make

heroine.

The Nineteenth Century for September well The following extract from an article in accounts for the preservation of the two unsigned letters of Miss Curran found on Emmet when he was arrested and of the letter he addressed to her from jail. It is essential to make this point clear :

"The insurrection, of course, was soon at an end. Emmet escaped, and was for a while in hiding in the country. He came back to be once more in the vicinity of Sarah Curran, from whom he received letters-unsigned, indeed, but, as was said by those who afterwards examined him, clearly containing high treason. They at once showed the writer's knowledge of her correspondent's aims and her own sympathies. Mr. MacDonagh remarks that she hardly seems to have realized the seriousness of the matter. She, however, had the prudence to urge that her letters should be destroyed. This Emmet could not bring himself to do, and they their being disclosed he was willing to admit everywere found upon him when arrested. To prevent thing as to himself, but would mention no other names, nor follow his brother's example in making general statements as to the plans of the conspiracy. Ignorant if the identity of the writer of the letters was discovered, he employed a turnkey, whom he imagined he had gained over, to take a letter openly addressed to Miss Curran at her father's house. This letter was carried to the authorities, the unknown writer identified, and the whole matter became public."

Although Emmet's intercepted letter makes mention of letters "found before," MR. MACDONAGH reiterates that these three letters were the only correspondence which fell into the hands of the authorities. So far from