Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851

"Woman's Will.—The following lines (says a correspondent of the Brighton Herald) were copied from the pillar erected on the Mount in the Dane-John Field, formerly called the Dungeon Field, Canterbury:

'Where is the man who has the power and skill
To stem the torrents of a woman's will?
For if she will, she will, you may depend on't,
And if she won't, she won't so there's an end on't."'

    H. C.

Workington.

Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., p. 11.).—In Hubback on the Evidence of Succession, p. 253, after some remarks on the word "natural," not of itself in former times denoting illegitimacy, this passage occurs:

"But as early as the time of Elizabeth the word natural, standing alone, had acquired something of its present meaning. The Parliament, in debating upon the act establishing the title to the crown in the Queen's issue, thought it proper to alter the words 'issue lawfully begotten,' into 'natural-born issue,' conceiving the latter to be a more delicate phrase. But this created a suspicion among the people, that the Queen's favourite, Leicester, intended after her death to set up some bastard of his own, pretending it was born of her, and bred up privately."—Duke of Buckingham On Treasons, cited Amos's Fortescue, p. 154.

    J. H. L.

Coggeshall Job (Vol. iii., p. 167.).—Does J. C. allude to the tradition that the Coggeshall people placed hurdles in the stream to turn the river, and chained up the wheelbarrow when the mad dog bit it?

    J. H. L.

Whale caught at Greenwich before the Death of Cromwell (Vol. iii., p. 207.).—B. B. wishes a record of the capture of a whale at Greenwich, immediately previous to Cromwell's death. I take leave to inform him that, in a tract entitled A Catalogue of natural Rarities, with great Industry, Cost and thirty Years' Travel in foreign Countries collected, by Robert Hubert, alias Forges, Gent., and sworn Servant to his Majesty. And Dayly to be seen at the Place called the Musick House, at the Miter, near the West End of St. Paul's Church, 1664, there is the following item:—

"The vein of the tongue of that whale that was taken up at Greenwich, a little before Cromwell's death."

    W. Pinkerton.

Ham.

Fronte Capillatâ, &c. (Vol. iii., pp. 8. 43. 124.).—The following lines from Tasso's Amore Fuggitivo contain the same figure as the Latin quoted above:

"Crespe hà le chiome e d'oro,
E in quella guisa appunto,
Che Fortuna si pinge
Ha lunghi e folti in sulla fronte i crini;
Ma nuda hà poi la testa
Agli opposti confini."

    Robert Snow.
The lines quoted by your correspondent are from Peacock's "Headlong Hall," and are imitated from Machiavelli's "Capitolo dell' Occasione." The whole air stands thus; the second stanza differing slightly from the version given by Mr. Burt. The lines are very pretty, at least in my opinion.

"LOVE AND OPPORTUNITY

"Oh! who art thou, so swiftly flying?
My name is Love, the child replied;
Swifter I pass than south-winds sighing,
Or streams through summer vales that glide.
And who art thou, his flight pursuing?
'Tis cold Neglect whom now you see:
The little god you there are viewing,
Will die, if once he's touched by me.

"Oh! who art thou so fast proceeding,
Ne'er glancing back thine eyes of flame?
Mark'd but by few, through earth I'm speeding,
And Opportunity's my name.
What form is that which scowls beside thee?
Repentance is the form you see:
Learn then, the fate may yet betide thee.
She seizes them who seize not me."

    W. R. M.
John Sanderson, or the Cushion-dance (Vol. ii., p. 517.).—Though I am unable to answer your correspondent Mac's inquiry as to the antiquity of this dance, it may interest him as well as others of the readers of "Notes and Queries" to know, that when Walpole made up his mind to abandon his Excise bill (which met with a still fiercer opposition out of doors than in the House of Commons), he signified his intention to a party of his adherents at the supper-table, by quoting the first line of the accompanying song:—

"This dance it will no further go!"[7 - This occurred in the year 1733.]

This, at least, shows the popularity of this dance in the reign of George II.

    H. C.

Workington.

George Steevens and William Stevens (Vol. iii, p. 230.).—The late Sir J. A. Park wrote Memoirs of William Stevens, the Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty, and the biographer of Jones of Nayland. As little resemblance must have existed between this gentleman and "the Puck of commentators," George Steevens, as between the two Harveys:

"The one invented Sauce for Fish
The other Meditations."

    J. H. M.
Memoirs of Stevens by the late Sir James Allan Park have been published, and are well worth reading; but this Stevens was not George Steevens, the Shakespearian commentator, but William, Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty, one of the most meek and humble minded of men.

"He was inferior to none in profound knowledge, and steady practice of the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England; austere to himself alone, charitable and indulgent towards others, he attracted the young by the cheerfulness of his temper, and the old by the sanctity of his life."

Miss Bockett should not confound such a holy character with George Steevens.

    E. H.

Memoirs of George Steevens, Esq., F.R.S. and F.S.A. (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—In answer to A. Z. it may be stated that a brief memoir of Mr. Steevens was given in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. ii. p. 680.; further anecdotes, and some of his letters, in vol. v. of Nichols's Literary Illustrations; and further letters (his correspondence with Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore), in vol. vii. of the latter work; besides many incidental notices, which will be found by reference to the indexes. On the last occasion a copy of his portrait by Dance, was attached; and in vol. v. of the Literary Illustrations is an engraving of his monument by Flaxman, in Poplar Chapel.

    N.

Tradescant (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—At what period the elder Tradescant came into England is not with certainty known, but it is supposed to have been about the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or the beginning of that of James I. He obtained the title of Royal Gardener circa 1629.

It may not be superfluous to mention (on the authority of Allen's History of Lambeth, p. 142.) that formerly the three following lines were on the monument in Lambeth churchyard, until its reparation by public subscription in 1773, when they were left out:

"This monument was erected at the charge of Hester Tradescant, the relict of John Tradescant, late deceased, who was buried the 25th of April, 1662."

    Alfred W. H.

Kennington.