Notes and Queries, Number 17, February 23, 1850

[Continued from No. 11. p. 163.]

"Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant; dans les autres elles aiment l'amour."—La Rouchefoucauld, Max. 494.

"In her first passions woman loves her lover,
In all the others all she loves is love,
Which grows a habit she can ne'er get over,
And fits her loosely—like an easy glove," etc.

Don Juan, canto iii. st. iii.

There is no note on this passage; but on the concluding lines of the very next stanza,

"Although, no doubt, her first of love affairs
Is that to which her heart is wholly granted;
Yet there are some, they say, who have had none,
But those who have ne'er end with only one,

we have the following editorial comment:—"These two lines are a versification of a saying of Montaigne." (!!!) The saying is not by Montaigne, but by La Rochefoucauld:—

"On peut trouver des femmes qui n'ont jamais eu de galanterie; mais il est rare d'en trouver qui n'en aient jamais eu qu'une."—Max. 73.

Byron borrows the same idea again:—

"Writing grows a habit, like a woman's gallantry. There are women who have had no intrigue, but few who have had but one only; so there are millions of men who have never written a book, but few who have written only one."—Observations upon an Article in Blackwood's Magazine; Byron's Works, vol. xv. p. 87, Moore's Edition, 17 vols duod. London, 1833.

Both the silence of the author, and the blunder of his editor, seem to me to prove that Les Maximes are not as generally known and studied as they deserve to be.

    MELANION.

ST. ANTHOLIN'S

Your correspondent MR. RIMBAULT (No. 12.) has made rather a grave charge against my predecessors in office as churchwardens and overseers of this parish; and although, I regret to say, such accusations of unjust stewardship and dereliction of duty are frequently and with justice imputed to some parish officers, yet I am happy to be able, in this instance, to remove the stigma which would otherwise attach to those of St. Antholin. The churchwardens' accounts are in good preservation, and present (in an unbroken series) the parish expenditure for nearly three centuries.

Mr. Rimbault has doubtless been misled by some error in the description of the MSS. in Mr. Thorpe's catalogue (as advertised by him for sale), which were probably merely extracts from the original records.

The first volume commences with the year 1574, and finishes in 1708; the accounts are all written at the time of their respective dates, and regularly signed by the auditors then and there present as correct.

I have made numerous extracts from these interesting documents, and notes thereon, which I shall at some future time be happy to lay before your readers, if you should consider them of sufficient importance.

As a voucher for what I have stated with regard to their existence, and to give some idea of their general character, I have selected (at random) a few items from the year 1580-1:—

"The Accompte of Henrie Jaye, Churchwarden of the Parishe of St. Antholyne, from the feaste of the Anunciacon of our Ladye in Anno 1580 unto the same feaste followinge in Anno 1581."

Among the "receaittes" we have—

"R

of Mr. Thorowgoode for an olde font stone,
by the consente of a vestrie v

iiij

"R

for the clothe of bodkine[11 - Brodekine. A richly-gilt stuff.] y

Ser Roger
Marten hade before in keppinge, and now
sold by the consente of a vestry and our
mynnister iij

vj

viij

"The Payments as followithe:—

"P

to the wife of John Bakone gwder of the
Lazer cotte at Myle End[12 - It appears from an entry in the preceding year, that this man was first sent to "Sentt Thomas Spittell in Soughwork," when it was discovered that he was afflicted with the leprosy, or some cutaneous disease, and immediately removed to the Lazar-house at Mile End, it being strictly forbidden that such cases should remain in the hospitals. These lazar-houses were built away from the town; one was the Lock Hospital, in Southwark; one at Kingsland, another at Knightsbridge, and that mentioned above between Mile End and Stratford. The laws were very strict in the expulsion of leprous people from the city; and if they attempted to force their way into the hospitals, they were bound fast to horses, and dragged away to the lazar-houses.] in full of her due
for keppinge of Evan Redde y

was Mr.
Hariots mane till his departtur and for his
Shete and Burialle as dothe apere xl

viij

"P

for makinge of the Longe pillowe & the
pulpit clothe ij

"P

for a yard and a nale of fustane for the same
pillowe xvj

"P

for silke to the same pillowe xvj

"P

for xj

of fethers for the same pillowe, at
v