A FEW WORDS OF EXPLANATION

It was in no boastful or puffing spirit that, when thanking a correspondent in our last number for "his endeavour to enlarge our circulation," and requesting all our friends and correspondents "to follow PHILO'S example by bringing 'NOTES AND QUERIES' under the notice of such of their friends as take an interest in literary pursuits," we added "for it is obvious that they will extend the usefulness of our paper in proportion as they increase its circulation." We wished merely to state a plain obvious fact. Such must necessarily be the case, and our experience proves it to be so; for the number of Queries which have been solved in our columns, has gone on increasing in proportion to the gradual increase of our circulation;—a result which fully justifies that passage of our opening address which stated, "that we did not anticipate any holding back by those whose Notes were most worth having."

No sooner is information asked for through our medium, than a host of friendly pens are busied to supply it. From north, south, east, and west,—from quarters the most unlooked for, do we receive Notes and Illustrations of every subject which is mooted in our pages. Many of these replies, too, though subscribed only with an initial or a pseudonyme, we know to be furnished by scholars who have won the foremost rank in their respective branches of study. Such men manifest, by their willingness to afford information to those who need it, and their readiness to receive it from those who have it to bestow, the truthfulness of old Chaucer's portrait of the Scholar:—

 
"Ful gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."
 

Nor do our columns exhibit the total result of our labours. Besides the information communicated to ourselves, some of our friends who inserted Queries under their own names, have received answers to them without our intervention.

In addition to those friends who promised us their assistance, we receive communications from quarters altogether unexpected. Our present number furnishes a striking instance of this, in the answer to Mr. Bruce's inquiry respecting the "Monmouth Ash," kindly communicated by the Earl of Shaftesbury, its distinguished owner.

We trust that each successive paper shows improvement in our arrangements, and proves also that our means of procuring answers to the Queries addressed to us are likewise increasing. In the belief that such is the case, we feel justified in repeating, even at the risk of being accused of putting in two words for ourselves under the semblance of one of our readers, "that it is obvious that our friends will extend the usefulness of our paper in proportion as they increase its circulation."

MONMOUTH'S ASH

Letter from the Earl of Shaftesburg accompanying a short "History of Monmouth Close," formerly printed by his Lordship for the information of persons visiting that spot.

The whole of Woodlands now belongs to me. The greater part of it was bought by my late brother soon after he came of age.

I knew nothing of Monmouth Close till the year 1787, when I was shooting on Horton Heath; the gamekeeper advised me to try for game in the inclosures called Shag's Heath, and took me to see Monmouth Close and the famous ash tree there.

I then anxiously inquired of the inhabitants of the neighbouring houses respecting the traditions concerning Monmouth Close and the celebrated ash tree, and what I then learnt I have printed for the information of any person who may visit that spot.

What I have since learnt convinces me that the Duke was not going to Christchurch. He was on his way to Bournemouth, where he expected to find a vessel. Monmouth Close is in the direct line from Woodyates to Bournemouth.

About sixty years ago there was hardly a house there. It was the leading place of all the smugglers of this neighborhood.

SHAFTESBURY.

St. Giles's House, Nov. 27. 1849.

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH CLOSE

"The small inclosure which has been known by the name of MONMOUTH CLOSE ever since the capture of the Duke of Monmouth there, in July, 1685, is one of a cluster of small inclosures, five in number, which stood in the middle of Shag's Heath, and were called 'The Island.' They are in the parish of Woodlands.

"The tradition of the neighbourhood is this: viz. That after the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth at Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater, he rode, accompanied by Lord Grey, to Woodyates, where they quitted their horses; and the Duke having changed clothes with a peasant, endeavoured to make his way across the country to Christchurch. Being closely pursued, he made for the Island, and concealed himself in a ditch which was overgrown with fern and underwood. When his pursuers came up, an old woman gave information of his being in the Island, and of her having seen him filling his pocket with peas. The Island was immediately surrounded by soldiers, who passed the night there, and threatened to fire the neighbouring cotts. As they were going away, one of them espied the skirt of the Duke's coat, and seized him. The soldier no sooner knew him, than he burst into tears, and reproached himself for the unhappy discovery. The Duke when taken was quite exhausted with fatigue and hunger, having had no food since the battle but the peas which he had gathered in the field. The ash tree is still standing under which the Duke was apprehended, and is marked with the initials of many of his friends who afterwards visited the spot.

"The family of the woman who betrayed him were ever after holden in the greatest detestation, and are said to have fallen into decay, and to have never thriven afterwards. The house where she lived, which overlooked the spot, has since fallen down. It was with the greatest difficulty that any one could be made to inhabit it.

"The Duke was carried before Anthony Etterick, Esq., of Holt, a justice of the peace, who ordered him to London.

"His gold snuff box was afterwards found in the pea-field, full of gold pieces, and brought to Mrs. Uvedaile, of Horton. One of the finders had fifteen pounds for half the contents or value of it.

"Being asked what he would do if set at liberty,—the Duke answered, that if his horse and arms were restored, he only desired to ride through the army, and he defied them all to take him again."

DRAYTON'S POEMS

In addition to the notes on Drayton by Dr. Farmer, communicated in your 2nd number, the following occurs in a copy of Drayton's Poems, printed for Smithwicke, in 1610, 12mo.:—

"See the Return from Parnassus for a good character of Drayton.

"See an Epigram by Drayton, I suppose, prefixed to Morley's first Booke of Balletes.

"A Sonnet to John Davies, before his Holy Roode, or Christ's Crosse, 4to. (1610). A Poem in 6 line stanzas.

"Another to the old edit. of Wit's Commonwealth.

"Commendatory Verses before Chapman's Hesiod.

"Sonnet to Ant. Mundy's 2nd Book of Primation of Greece, 1619.

"His Heroical Epistles were newly enlarged and republished in 8vo. 1598; which is the most antient edition we have seen or read of.—[Bodl. Cat.]—Biographia his Art.

"Another edition, as we have heard, in 1610.—Ibid.

"See Merc's Wit's Treasury, p. 281. A modern edition was published by Oldmixon.—Cibber's Lives, 4. 204.

"See Warton's Essay on Pope, 296.

"Drayton's last Copy of Verses was prefixed to Sir John Beaumont's Poems, 1629."

So far Dr. Farmer, whose books are often valuable for the notes on the fly-leaves. Should any one act upon the suggestion of your correspondent, and think of a selection from Drayton, it would be necessary to collate the various editions of his poems, which, as they are numerous, evince his popularity with his contemporaries.

Malone asserted that the Baron's Wars was not published until 1610. I have before me a copy, probably the first edition, with the following title: "The Barrons Wars in the raigne of Edward the Second, with England's Heroical Epistles, by Michaell Drayton. At London, Printed by J.R. for N. Ling, 1603," 12mo.; and the poem had been printed under the title of Mortimerindos, in 4to., 1596.

I have an imperfect copy of an early edition (circa 1600) of "Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall. Odes, Eglogs, The Man in the Moon, by Michaell Drayton Esquier. At London, printed by R.B. for N.L. and J. Flaskett."

It is now thirty-five years since (eheu! fugaces labuntur anni!) the writer of this induced his friend Sir Egerton Brydges to print the Nymphidia at his private press; and it would give him pleasure, should your Notes be now instrumental to the production of a tasteful selection from the copious materials furnished by Drayton's prolific muse. Notwithstanding that selections are not generally approved, in this case it would be (if judiciously done) acceptable, and, it is to be presumed, successful.

The Nymphidia, full of lively fancy as it is, was probably produced in his old age, for it was not published, I believe, till 1627, when it formed part of a small folio volume, containing The Battaile of Agincourt and The Miseries of Queene Margarite. Prefixed to this volume was the noble but tardy panegyric of his friend Ben Jonson, entitled The Vision, and beginning:

 
"It hath been question'd, Michael, if I be
A friend at all; or, if at all, to thee."
 

S.W.S.

Mickleham, Nov. 10. 1849.

ON A PASSAGE IN GOLDSMITH

Sir,—I observe in the Athenæum of the 17th inst. a quotation from the Life of Goldsmith by Irving, in which the biographer seems to take credit for appropriating to Goldsmith the merit of originating the remark or maxim vulgarly ascribed to Talleyrand, that "the true end of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them."

This is certainly found in No. 3. of The Bee, by Goldsmith, and no doubt Talleyrand acted upon the principle of dissimulation there enunciated; but the idea is much older than either of those individuals, as we learn from a note in p. 113. of vol. lxvii. Quart. Rev. quoting two lines written by Young (nearly one hundred years before), in allusion to courts:—

 
"Where Nature's end of language is declined,
And men talk only to conceal their mind."
 

Voltaire has used the same expression so long ago as 1763, in his little satiric dialogue La Chapon et la Poularde, where the former, complaining of the treachery of men says, "Ils n'emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pénsees." (see xxix. tom. Oeuvres Complétes, pp. 83, 84. ed. Paris, 1822.)

The germ of the idea is also to be found in Lloyd's State Worthies, where speaking of Roger Ascham, he is characterised as "an honest man,—none being more able for, yet none more averse to, that circumlocution and contrivance wherewith some men shadow their main drift and purpose. Speech was made to open man to man, and not to hide him; to promote commerce, and not betray it."

Lloyd's book first appeared in 1665, but I use the ed. by Whitworth, vol. i. p. 503.

F.R.A.

Oak House, Nov. 21. 1849.

[The further communications proposed to us by F.R.A. will be very acceptable.]

ANCIENT LIBRARIES—LIBRARY OF THE AUGUSTINIAN EREMITES OF YORK

Mr. Editor,—I have been greatly interested by the two numbers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" which you have sent me. The work promises to be eminently useful, and if furnished with a good index at the end of each yearly volume, will become a book indispensable to all literary men, and especially to those who, like myself, are in charge of large public libraries.

To testify my good will to the work, and to follow up Mr. Burtt's remarks on ancient libraries published in your second number, I venture to send you the following account of a MS. Catalogue of the Library of the Monastery of the Friars Eremites of the Order of St. Augustine in the City of York.

This MS. is now preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, amongst the MSS. formerly belonging to the celebrated Archbishop Ussher. It is on vellum, written in the 14th century, and begins thus:—

"Inventarium omnium librorum pertinentium ad commune armariole domus Ebor. ordinis fratrum heremitarum Sancti Augustini, factum in presentia fratrum Johannis de Ergum, Johannis Ketilwell, Ricardi de Thorpe, Johannis de Appilby, Anno domini Mº. CCC lxxij in festo nativitatis virginis gloriose. Fratre Willelmo de Stayntoun tunc existente priore."

The volume consists of forty-five leaves, and contains the titles of a very large and most respectable collection of books in all departments of literature and learning arranged under the following heads:—

Biblie.

Hystorie scholastice.

Textus biblie glosati.

Postille.

Concordancie et interpretaciones nominum hebreorum.

Originalia. [Under this head are included the

works of the Fathers, and medieval writers.]

Historie geneium.

Summe doctorum. Scriptores super sententias.

quodlibet. et questiones.

Tabulæ. [This division contained Indexes to

various authors, the Scriptures, canon law,

&c.]

Logicalia et philosophia cum scriptis et commentis.

Prophecie et supersticiosa.

Astronomia et Astrologia.

Instrumenta astrologica magistri Johannis Erghome

[who appears to have been a great

benefactor to the Library].

Libri divini officii magistri Johannis Erghome.

Jura civilia.

Jura canonica et leges humane: magistri Johannis

Erghome.

Auctores et philosophi extranei. [Under this

head occurs the following entry, "Liber hebraice

scriptus."]

Gramatica.

Rethorica. [Two leaves of the MS. appear to

have been cut out here.]

Medicina.

Hystorie et cronice.

Sermones et materie sermonum.

Summe morales doctorum et sermones.

Arithmetica, Musica, Geometria, Perspectiva,

magistri Johannis Erghome.

Each volume is identified, according to the usual practice, by the words with which its second folio begins: and letters of tha alphabet are added, probably to indicate its place on the shelves of the Library. As a specimen, I shall give the division headed "Biblie":—

BIBLIE

A. Biblia. incipit in 2º. fo. Samuel in¹ heli.

B. Biblia. incipit in 2º. fo. Zechieli qui populo.

in duobus voluminibus.

C. Biblia. inc't. in 2º. fo. mea et in crane.

D. Biblia. inc't. in 2º. fo. ego disperdam.

¶ Libri magistri Johannis Erghome

Biblia. 2º. fol ravit quosdam. }

Interpretationes. }—A

E. Biblia incomplet. diversarum scripturarum.

quondam fratris R. Bossal. 2º. fo. me

occidet me etc.

HYSTORIE SCOLASTICE

A. Incipit in 2º. folio. secunda die.

B. inci't. in 2º. fo. emperio sane formatis. ligatus.

C. inci't. in 2º. fo. et celumque celi.

The words printed in Italics are added by a more recent hand. Under the head of "Hystorie Scolastice" are doubtless intended the copies which the Library possessed of the celebrated Historia Scholastica, or abridgement of Scripture history by Peter Comestor.

From the foregoing specimen, I think your readers will agree with me that a Catalogue of such antiquity and interest is well worthy of publication.

But we have another ancient Catalogue of a monastic library equally curious, and even more important from its magnitude, and the numerous works it contains on English history, early romances, &c. I remain, &c.

JAMES H. TODD.

Trin. Coll. Dublin, Nov. 27. 1849.

DEFENCE OF A BALD HEAD—THE STATIONERS' REGISTERS

I am about to supply a deficiency in my last volume of Extracts from the Register of the Stationers' Company (printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1849), and thereby set an example that I hope will be followed, in order that various works, regarding which I could give no, or only incomplete, information, may be duly illustrated. It is impossible to expect that any one individual could thoroughly accomplish such an undertaking; and, by means of your excellent periodical, it will be easy for literary men, who possess scarce or unique books, mentioned in the Registers and in my quotations from them, to furnish such brief descriptions as will be highly curious and very useful.

A tract of this description has just fallen in my way, and it relates to the subsequent entry on p. 97. of vol. ii. of my Extracts: the date is 22nd September, 1579.

"H. Denham. Lycensed unto him, &c. A Paradox, provinge by reason and example that baldnes is much better than bushie heare. vj'd"

When I wrote the comment on this registration I was only acquainted with the clever MS. ballad in Defence of a Bald Head, which I quoted; but I hardly supposed it to be the production intended. It turns out that it was not, for I have that production now before me. My belief is that it is entirely unique; and the only reason for a contrary opinion, that I am acquainted with, is that there is an incorrect mention of it in Warton, H.E.P. iv. 229.; but there is not a hint of its existence in Ritson, although it ought to have found a place in his Bibliographia Poetica; neither do I find it noticed in later authorities; if it be, they have escaped my researches. You will not blame me, then, for indulging my usual wish to quote the title-page at length, which exactly agrees with the terms of the entry in the books of the Stationers' Company. It runs literatim thus:—

"A Paradoxe, proving by reason and example, that baldnesse is much better than bushie haire, &c. Written by that excellent philosopher Synesius, Bishop of Thebes, or (as some say) Cyren. A prettie pamphlet to pervse, and relenished with recreation.—Englished by Abraham Fleming.—Herevnto is annexed the pleasant tale of Hemetes the Heremite, pronounced before the Queenes Maiestie. Newly recognised both in Latin and Englishe, by the said A.F.—[Greek: hae taes sophias phalakra saemeion.]—The badge of wisdome is baldnesse.—Printed by H. Denham, 1579." 8vo. B.L.

If I am not greatly mistaken, your readers will look in vain for a notice of the book in any collected list of the many productions of Abraham Fleming; if I am not greatly mistaken, also, some of them will be disapppointed if I do not subjoin a few sentences describing more particularly the contents of the small volume, which (speaking as a bibliographer) extends to sign. F. iiij in eights.

At the back of the title-page is "The life of Synesius drawen out of Suydas his gatherings," in Greek and in English. Then comes "The Epistle Apologeticall to the lettered Reader," signed "Thine for thy pleasure and profite—Abraham Fleming," which, in excuse for taking up so slight a subject, contains a very singular notice of the celebrated John Heywood, the dramatist of the reign of Henry VIII., and of his remarkable poem The Spider and the Fly. The Pretie Paradoxe, by Synesius, next commences, and extends as far as sign. D. v. b. This portion of the tract is, of course, merely a translation, but it includes a passage or two from Homer, cleverly rendered into English verse. Here we come to the word Finis, and here, I take it, it was originally intended that the tract should end; but as it was thought that it would hardly be of sufficient bulk for the money (4d., or 6d. at the utmost), a sort of appendix was added, which, on some accounts, is the most interesting part of the work.

It is headed "The tale of Hemetes the Heremite, pronounced before the Queene's Maiestie," which Warton, who clearly never saw the book, calls the "Fable of Hermes." In fact, it is, with a few verbal changes, the tale of Hemetes, which George Gascoigne presented, in Latin, Italian, French, and English, to Queen Elizabeth, and of which the MS., with the portraits of the Queen and the author is among the Royal MSS. in the British Museum. Fleming tells us that he had "newly recognised" (whatever may be meant by the words) this tale in Latin and English, but he does not say a syllable whence he procured it. Gascoigne died two years before the date of the publication of this Paradoxe, &c. so that Fleming was quite sure the property could never be challenged by the true owner of it.