Notes and Queries, Number 47, September 21, 1850

Bekesbourne.

The first Woman formed from a Rib (Vol. ii., p. 213.).—As you have given insertion to an extract of a sermon on the subject of the creation of Eve, I trust you will allow me to refer your correspondent BALLIOLENSIS to Matthew Henry's commentary on the second chapter of Genesis, from which I extract the following beautiful explanation of the reason why the rib was selected as the material whereof the woman should be created:—

"Fourthly, that the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."

    IOTA.

Beau Brummel's Ancestry.—Mr. Jesse some years back did ample justice to the history of a "London celebrity," George Brummell; but, from what he there stated, the following "Note" will, I feel assured, be a novelty to him. At the time that Brummell was considered in everything the arbiter elegantiarum, the writer of this has frequently heard Lady Monson (the widow of the second lord, and an old lady who, living to the age of ninety-seven, had a wonderful fund of interesting recollections) say, that this ruler of fashion was the descendant of a very excellent servant in the family. Not long ago, some old papers of the family being turned over, proofs corroborative of this came to light. William Brummell, from the year 1734 to 1764, was the faithful and confidential servant of Charles Monson, brother of the first lord: the period would identify him with the grandfather of the Beau; the only doubt was, that as Mr. Jesse has ascertained that William Brummell, the grandfather, was, in the interval above given, married, had a son William, and owned a house in Bury Street, how far these facts were compatible with his remaining as a servant living with Charles Monson, both in town and country. Now, in 1757, Professor Henry Monson of Cambridge being dangerously ill, his brother Charles sent William Brummell down, as a trustworthy person, to attend to him; and in a letter from Brummell to his master, he, with many other requisitions, wishes that there may be sent down to him a certain glass vessel, very useful for invalids to drink out of, and which, if not in Spring Gardens, "may be found in Bury Street. It was used when Billy was ill." From the familiarity of the word "Billy," he must be speaking of his son. These facts are certainly corroborative of the old dowager's statement.

    M(2).

QUERIES

GRAY'S ELEGY AND DODSLEY POEMS

I have here, in the country, few editions of Gray's works by me, and those not the best; for instance, I have neither of those by the Rev. J. Mitford (excepting his Aldine edition, in one small volume), which, perhaps, would render my present Query needless. It relates to a line, or rather a word in the Elegy, which is of some importance. In the second stanza, as the poem is usually divided (though Mason does not give it in stanzas, because it was not so originally written), occurs,

"Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight."

And thus the line stands in all the copies (five) I am able at this moment to consult. But referring to Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. iv., where it comes first, the epithet applied to "flight" is not "droning," but drony—

"Save where the beetle wheels his drony flight."

Has anybody observed upon this difference, which surely is worthy of a Note? I cannot find that the circumstance has been remarked upon, but, as I said, I am here without the means of consulting the best authorities. The Elegy, I presume, must have been first separately printed, and from thence transferred to Dodsley's Collection; and I wish to be informed by some person who has the earliest impression, how the line is there given? I do not know any one to whom I can appeal on such a point with greater confidence than to MR. PETER CUNNINGHAM, who, I know, has a large assemblage of the first editions of our most celebrated poets from the reign of Anne downwards, and is so well able to make use of them. It would be extraordinary, if drony were the epithet first adopted by Gray, and subsequently altered by him to "droning," that no notice should have been taken of the substitution by any of the poet's editors. I presume, therefore, that it has been mentioned, and I wish to know where?

Now, a word or two on Dodsley's Collection of Poems, in the fourth volume of which, as I have stated, Gray's-Elegy comes first. Dodsley's is a popular and well-known work, and yet I cannot find that anybody has given the dates connected with it accurately. If Gray's Elegy appeared in it for the first time (which I do not suppose), it came out in 1755 which is the date of vol. iv. of Dodsley's Collection, and not in 1757, which is the date of the Strawberry Hill edition of Gray's Odes. The Rev. J. Mitford (Aldine edit. xxxiii.) informs us that "Dodsley published three volumes of this Collection in 1752; the fourth volume was published in 1755 and the fifth and sixth volumes, which completed the Collection, in 1758." I am writing with the title-pages of the work open before me, and I find that the first three volumes were published, not in 1752, but in 1748, and that even this was the second edition so that there must have been an edition of the first three volumes, either anterior to 1748, or earlier in that year. The sale of the work encouraged Dodsley to add a fourth volume in 1755, and two others in 1758 and the plate of Apollo and the Muses was re-engraved for vols. v. and vi., because the original copper, which had served for vols. i., ii., iii., and iv., was so much worn.

This matter will not seem of such trifling importance to those who bear in mind, that if Gray's Elegy did not originally come out in this Collection in 1755, various other poems of great merit and considerable popularity did then make their earliest appearance.

    THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.

Sept. 1850.

P.S. My attention has been directed to the subject of Gray's Poems, and particularly to his Elegy, by a recent pilgrimage I made to Stoke Poges, which is only five or six miles from this neighbourhood. The church and the poet's monument to his mother are worth a much longer walk; but the mausoleum to Gray, in the immediate vicinity, is a preposterous edifice. The residence of Lady Cobham has been lamentably modernised.

HUGH HOLLAND AND HIS WORKS

The name of Hugh Holland has been handed down to posterity in connexion with that of our immortal bard; but few know anything of him beyond his commendatory verses prefixed to the first folio of Shakspeare.

He was born at Denbigh in 1558, and educated at Westminster School while Camden taught there. In 1582 he matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford; and about 1590 he succeeded to a Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. Thence he travelled into Italy, and at Rome was guilty of several indiscretions by the freedom of his conversations. He next went to Jerusalem to pay his devotions at the Holy Sepulchre, and on his return touched at Constantinople, where he received a reprimand from the English ambassador for the former freedom of his tongue. At his return to England, he retired to Oxford, and, according to Wood, spent some years there for the sake of the public library. He died in July, 1633, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, "in the south crosse aisle, neere the dore of St. Benet's Chapell," but no inscription now remains to record the event.

Whalley, in Gifford's Jonson (1. cccxiv.), says, speaking of Hugh Holland—

"He wrote several things, amongst which is the life of Camden; but none of them, I believe, have been ever published."

Holland published two works, the titles of which are as follows, and perhaps others which I am not aware of:—

1. "Monumenta Sepulchralia Sancti Pauli. Lond. 1613. 4to."

2. "A Cypres Garland for the Sacred Forehead of our late Soveraigne King James. Lond. 1625. 4to."

The first is a catalogue of the monuments, inscriptions, and epitaphs in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, which Nicolson calls "a mean and dull performance." It was, at any rate, very popular, being printed again in the years 1616, 1618, and 1633.

The second is a poetical tract of twelve leaves, of the greatest possible rarity.

Holland also printed commendatory verses before a curious musical work, entitled Parthenia, or the Maydenhead of the First Musick for the Virginalls, 1611; and a copy of Latin verses before Dr. Alexander's Roxana, 1632.

In one of the Lansdowne MSS. are preserved the following verses written upon the death of Prince Henry, by "Hugh Hollande, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge:"—

"Loe, where he shineth yonder
A fixed Star in heaven,
Whose motion here came under
None of the planets seven.
If that the Moone should tender
The Sun her love, and marry,
They both could not engender
So sweet a star as HARRY."

Our author was evidently a man of some poetical fancy, and if not worthy to be classed "among the chief of English poets," he is at least entitled to a niche in the temple of fame.

My object in calling attention to this long forgotten author is, to gain some information respecting his manuscript works. According to Wood, they consist of—1. Verses in Description of the chief Cities of Europe; 2. Chronicle of Queen Elizabeth's reign; 3. Life of William Camden.

Can any of your readers say in whose possession, or in what library, any of the above mentioned MSS. are at the present time? I should also feel obliged for any communication respecting Hugh Holland or his works, more especially frown original sources, or books not easily accessible.

    EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

HARVEY'S CLAIM TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD

I have both a Note and a Query about Harvey and the circulation of the blood (Vol. ii., p. 187.). The Note refers to Philostratus (Life of Apollorius, p. 461., ed. 1809), Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, June, 1684, xi.; and Dutens pp. 157-341. 4to. ed. 1796. I extract the passage from Les Nouvelles:—

"On voit avec plaisir un passage d'André Cæsalpinus qui contient fort clairement la doctrine de la circrilation. Il est tiré de ses Questions sur la médecine imprimées l'an 1593. Jean Leonicenas ajoûte que le père Paul découvrit la circulation du sang, et les valvules des veines, mais qu'il n'osa pas en parler, de peur d'exciter contre luy quelque tempête. Il n'etois déjà que trop suspect, et il n'eut fallu que ce nouveau paradoxe pour le transformer en hérétique dans le pais d'inquisition. Si bien qu'il ne communiqua son secret qu'au seul Aquapendente, qui n'osant s'exposer à l'envie.... Il attendit à l'heure de sa mort pour mettre le livre qu'il avoit composé touchant les valvules des veines entre les mains de la république de Venise, et comme les moindres nouveautez font peur en cc pais-là, le livre fut caché dans le billiothèque de Saint Marc. Mais parcequ' Aquapendente ne fit pas difficulté de s'ouvrir à un jeune Anglois fort curieux nommé Harvée, qui étudioit sous lui a Padouë, et qu'en même temps le père Paul fit a même confidence à l'Ambassadeur d'Angleterre, ces deux Anglois de retour chez eux, et se voyant en pais de liberté, publièrent ce dogme, et l'ayant confirmé par plusieurs expériences, s'en attribuèrent toute la gloire."

The Query is, what share Harvey had in the discovery attributed to him?

    W.W.B.

Minor Queries

Bernardus Patricius.—Some writers mention Bernardus Patricius as a follower of Copernicus, about the time of Galileo. Who was he?

    M.

Meaning of Hanger.—Can any one of your readers inform me, what is the meaning of the word hanger, so frequently occurring in the names of places in Bedfordshire, such as Panshanger?

    W. Anderson

Cat and Bagpipes.—In studying some letters which passed between two distinguished philosophers of the last century, I have found in one epistle a request that the writer might be remembered "to his friends at the Crown and Anchor, and the Cat and Bagpipes." The letter was addressed to a party in London, where doubtless, both those places of entertainment were. The Crown and Anchor was the house where the Royal Society Club held its convivial meetings. Can you inform me where the Cat and Bagpipes was situated, and what literary and scientific club met there? The name seems to have been a favourite one for taverns, and, if mistake not, is common in Ireland. Is it a corruption of some foreign title, as so many such names are, or merely a grotesque and piquant specimen of sign-board literature?

    Quasimodo.