116
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. VL Arc, 10, 1912.
11.
So they grew, and they grew, to the church
steeple tops,
And they couldn 't grow up any higher ; So they twin'd themselves into a true lover's knot For all lovers true to admire, For all lovers, &c.
WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.
[We thank COL. DURAND and MR. J. FOSTER PALMER for also kindly sending us the ballad. C'OL. DURAND gives it " as written on the fly-leaf of my ' Vergil ' some sixty years ago " ; MR. FOSTER PALMER is of opinion that the eighth stanza forms no part of the original. The versions present some slight verbal differences.]
MILTON POBTBAIT BY SAMUEL COOPER (11 S. vi. 30). See the tercentenary cata- logue of ' The Portraits, Prints, and Writings of John Milton exhibited at Christ's College, Cambridge,' 1908, pp. 15-17, where Dr. G. C. Williamson describes the miniature by Cooper referred to by M. L. A. as chief among " the large group of pretended portraits." With regard to its history after being sold to Reynolds, it is stated that
" the President bequeathed it to the Reverend
William Mason, who in his turn, by his will, in 1797, left it to William Burgh, Esq., LL.D., of York, and from him it passed into the possession of the Morritt family, and has been preserved at Bokeby for many years."
That Sir Joshua was satisfied of its authen- ticity seems clear, but that his defence of it in The Gentleman's Magazine was successful can hardly be maintained.
EDWARD BENSLY.
Of -this Leslie Stephen in the ' D.N.B.,' xxxviii. 37, says :
" A miniature by Samuel Cooper once belonged to Reynolds, who had a controversy about it with Lord Hailes in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1791 ; but it seems to be clearly not Milton (Masson, i. 66n., 308-lOn. ; vi. 754-7u; ; and Sotneby, Ramblings,' pp. xvii-xxv ; J. Fitchett Marsh m Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, 1855)."
There is a Cooper miniature of Milton in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch at Montagu House. A. R. BAYLEY.
WILLIAM PENN OR GEORGE PENNE (US. vi. 49). I cannot answer MR. BEVERIDGE'S question about Walden ; but perhaps I may mention that Macaulay was in error in mentioning William Penn's name in connexion with the ransom of the Taunton Maids. This was granted to the Maids of Honour at Court ; they appointed George Penne of Toller Whelme, co. Dorset, their agent for making the best terms he could with their parents and friends. At the same time George Penne received a grant
of 100 prisoners for himself, as a set-off
against his losses in the Royal cause. See
Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, vol. ix.
p. 353. FRANK PENNY.
WEATHER RIME (US. vi. 48). A string of such jingles, pieced together from Tusser's ' Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry/ will be found in Northall's ' English Folk- Rhymes " so the compiler spelt it pp. 450, 451. ST. S WITHIN,
Your correspondent is joining together two independent rimes. The first of them is quoted by Ray in an older form : April showers bring forth May flowers.
The other has many forms, but is supposed to be Scottish in origin in the form quoted by Thiselton Dyer :
A leaky May and a dry June Keeps the poor man's head abune.
Chambers (' The Book of Days ') has :
Mist in May, and heat in June, Make the harvest right soon. Dyer again has this, in a somewhat different sense :
A good leak in June
Sets all in tune.
C. C. B.
I have been interested in the subject of
weather rimes for many years, and have a
large collection of notes and cuttings dealing
with the subject. I have never before heard
that the two couplets mentioned by SILO
were in any way connected. I believe them
to be totally distinct effusions, and not
fragments of a larger effort.
JOHN T. PAGE.
Long Itchington, Warwickshire.
AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED (11 S. vi. 49). The verses are in Dryden's play ' Aureng-zebe, : Act IV. sc. i., in the scene between Aureng-zebe and Nourmahal, and deserve to be given correctly and in full :
Aur. When I consider Life, 'tis all a Cheat ; Yet, fool'd with Hope, men favour the Deceit ; Trust on, and think To-morrow will repay : To-morrow 's falser than the former day ; Lies worse ; and while it says, We shall be blest With some new Joys, cuts off what we possest. Strange Cozenage ! none would live past Year*
again,
Yet all hope Pleasure in what yet remain ; And, from the Dregs of Life, think to receive What the first sprightly Running could not give, I 'in tir'd with waiting for this Chymick Gold, Which fools us young, and beggars us when old. WM. E. BROWNING.
[MR. THOMAS BAYNE, MR. H. DAVEY, M. H- GOUDCHAUX, MR. JOHN MURRAY, MR. T. NICKLIN, and several other correspondents thanked for replies.]
