Notes and Queries, Number 185, May 14, 1853

This has just now been brought to my mind by reading, in page 155. of the second volume of Moore's Journal, the following account of a conversation at Bowood:

"Talked of Malone—a dull man—his whitewashing the statue of Shakspeare, at Leamington or Stratford (?), and General Fitzpatrick's (Lord L.'s uncle) epigram on the subject—very good—

'And smears his statue as he mars his lays.'"

I cannot but observe that the doubt expressed in the Diary of Moore—whether Shakspeare's monument is "at Leamington or Stratford (?)"—is curious, and I conceive my version of the last line, besides being more correct, is also more pithy. It is incorrect, moreover, to call it a statue, as it is a three-quarters bust in a niche in the wall.

The extract from Moore's Diary, however, satisfactorily explains the initials "R. F.," which have hitherto puzzled me.

    Senex.

Archbishop Leighton and Pope: Curious Coincidence of Thought and Expression.—

"Were the true visage of sin seen at a full light, undressed and unpainted, it were impossible, while it so appeared, that any one soul could be in love with it, but would rather flee from it as hideous and abominable."—Leighton's Works, vol. i. p. 121.

Vice is a monster of such hideous mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen."—Pope.

    James Cornish.
Grant of Slaves.—I send you a copy of a grant of a slave with his children, by William, the Lion King of Scotland, to the monks of Dunfermline, taken from the Cart. de Dunfermline, fol. 13., printed by the Bannatyne Club from a MS. in the Advocates' Library here, which you may, perhaps, think curious enough to insert in "N. & Q."

"De Servis.

"Willielmus Dei gracia Rex Scottorum. Omnibus probis hominibus tocius terre me, clericis et laicis, salutem: Sciant presentis et futuri me dedisse et concessisse et hac carta mea confirmasse, Deo et ecclesie Sancte Trinitatis de Dunfermlene et Abbati et Monachis ibidem, Deo servientibus in liberam et perpetuam elemosinam, Gillandream Macsuthen et ejus liberos et illos eis quietos clamasse, de me, et heredibus meis, in perpetuum. Testibus Waltero de Bid, Cancellario; Willielmo filio Alani, Dapifero; Roberto Aveneli Gillexio Rennerio, Willielmo Thoraldo, apud Strivelin."

    G. H. S.

Edinburgh.

Sealing-wax.—The most careful persons will occasionally drop melting sealing-wax on their fingers. The first impulse of every one is to pull it off, which is followed by a blister. The proper course is to let the wax cool on the finger; the pain is much less, and there is no blister.

    Uneda.

Philadelphia.

Queries

WALMER CASTLE

In Hasted's History of Kent, vol. iv. p. 172., folio edition, we have as follows:

"Walmer, probably so called quasi vallum maris, i. e. the wall or fortification made against the sea, was expressed to have been a member of the port of Sandwich time out of mind," &c.

Again, p. 165., note m, we find:

"Before these three castles were built, there were, between Deal and Walmer Castle, two eminences of earth, called 'The Great and Little Bulwark;' and another, between the north end of Deal and Sandwich Castle (all of which are now remaining): and there was probably one about the middle of the town, and others on the spots where the castles were erected. They had embrasures for guns, and together formed a defensive line of batteries along that part of the coast," &c.

To the new building of these castles Leland alludes, in his Cygnea Cantio:

"Jactat Dela novas celebris arces
Notus Cæsareis locus trophæis."—Ver. 565.

There are clear remains of a Roman entrenchment close to Walmer Castle. (See Hasted, vol. iv. p. 162., notes.)

Any of your correspondents who could give me any information tending to show that an old fortification had existed on the site of Walmer Castle, previous to the erection of the present edifice—or even almost upon the same site—would do me a very great kindness if he would communicate it, through the columns of "N. & Q.," or by a private letter sent to the Editor.

    C. Waymor.

SCOTCHMEN IN POLAND

Can any of your readers throw any light on this passage in Dr. Johnson's Life of Sir John Denham?

"He [Sir John Denham] now resided in France, as one of the followers of the exiled king; and, to divert the melancholy of their condition, was sometimes enjoined by his master to write occasional verses; one of which amusements was probably his ode or song upon the Embassy to Poland, by which he and Lord Crofts procured a contribution of ten thousand pounds from the Scotch, that wandered over that kingdom. Poland was at that time very much frequented by itinerant traders, who, in a country of very little commerce and of great extent, where every man resided on his own estate, contributed very much to the accommodation of life, by bringing to every man's house those little necessaries which it was very inconvenient to want, and very troublesome to fetch. I have formerly read, without much reflection, of the multitude of Scotchmen that travelled with their wares in Poland; and that their numbers were not small, the success of this negociation gives sufficient evidence."

The title of Denham's poem is "On my Lord Crofts' and my journey into Poland, from whence we brought 10,000l. for his Majesty by the decimation of his Scottish subjects there."

    Peter Cunningham.

BISHOP JUXON AND WALTON'S POLYGLOTT BIBLE

In the library at this island, which formerly belonged to the Knights of Malta, there is an edition of Walton's Polyglott Bible, which was published in London in 1657. This work is in a most perfect state of preservation.

On the title-page of the first of the eleven volumes, there is written, in a bold and perfectly legible manner, the following words:

"Liber Coll. Di Joannis Bapt

Oxon Ex dono Reverendiss. in Xt

Patris Gvil

Jvxon Archiep. Cantvariensis. A

D

1663."

Just below, but on the right of the above, there is written in a clear hand as follows:

"Ex Libris domus Abbatialis S. Antonij Viennensis, Catalogo Inscript an. 1740. No. 11."

That the question which I shall ask at the end of this Note may be the more easily answered, it will perhaps be necessary for me to state, that in the year 1777, Rohan, the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, succeeded in annexing the property belonging to the Order of St. Antonio de Vienna to that of Malta. In accepting of these estates, which were situated in France and Savoy, Rohan bound himself to pay the many mortgages and debts with which they were encumbered; and so large an amount had to be thus defrayed, that for a hundred years the convent would not be reimbursed for its advances, and receive the 120,000 livres, at which sum their annual rental would then be valued. Of the foundation of this Order a recent writer (Thornton) thus remarks:

"In 1095 some nobles of Dauphiny united for the relief of sufferers from a kind of leprosy called St. Anthony's fire, which society, in 1218, was erected into a religious body of Hospitallers, having a grand master for chief. This order, after many changes in its constitution, having been left the option between extinction and secularisation, or union with another order, accepted the latter alternative, and selected that of St. John of Jerusalem."

Among the moveable effects which came to the Knights of Malta by this arrangement, was a small and well-selected library, and in it this edition of Walton's Bible.

Without, therefore, writing more at length on this subject, which might take up too much space in "N. & Q.," I would simply add, that my attention was called to this work by the Rev. Mr. Howe, chaplain of H.B.M. ship "Britannia," and for the purpose of asking, At what time, by whom, and in what manner, were these volumes removed from St. John's College at Oxford, and transferred to the library of the Order of St. Antonio de Vienna in France?