man, is living at the present date in very reduced circumstances at Great Oakley, co. Essex.
Lennard Family. — The following extracts from the earliest register of Sevenoaks parish, relative to this eminent family, may be acceptable to one of your readers: —
"Baptisms.
1577. May 23. Bapt. Thomas, son of Samson Lennard, Esq.
1578. Sept. 25. Margaret, dau. of S. L., Esq.
1580. June 8. Elizabeth, dau. of S. L., Esq.
1581. Nov. 26. Elizabeth, dau. of S. L., Esq.
1583. July 28. Frances, dau. of S. L., Esq.
1584. Oct. 11. John, son of S. L. Esq.
1594. Oct. 27. Margaret, dau. of Henry Lennard, Esq.
1597. Dec. 27. Ffynes, son of Henrv Lennard, Knt.
1598. Jan. 21. Philadelphia, dau. of Hen. L., Knt.
"Marriages.
1579. Dec. 27. Guildford Walsingham, Esq., to Mary Lennard.
1587. Aug. 23. Thomas Greshame, Esq., to Mary Walsingham, widow.
1589. Sep. 30. Frances Querst, Esq., to Eliz. Lennard.
1591. May 25. Herbert Morley, Esq., to Anne Lennard, Gen.
1592. May 24. Marmaduke Dorrell, Esq., to Anne Lennard, Gen.
1593. Sep. 6. Thomas Waller, Esq., to Margt Lennard, Gen.
1594. Apr. 2. Ralf Bosvile, Esq., to Mary Lennard.
1598. Jan. 3. Francis Barnam, Esq., to Elizabeth Lennard.
1601. May 12. Robert Moore, Esq., to Ffrances Lennard, Gen.
"Burials.
1575. Oct. 10. John, son of Sampson Lennard, Esq.
1581. Oct. 20. Eliaabeth, dau. of Sampson Lennard."
Besides the above are numerous entries relating to the Sydneys, Nevills, Walsinghams, Bosvilles, Wallers, and other important families.
.
Impromptu by O'Connell. — The impromptu of Daniel O'Connell, occasioned by the attack of the three Colonels, Sibthorp, Perceval, and Verner, is being given in an incorrect form in the public prints. The following is a copy, as it appears Nov. 10, 1859: —
"Three colonels in three different counties born,
Sligo, Armagh, and Lincoln did adorn;
The first of them in ignorance surpassed,
The next in impudence, in grace the last.
The force of nature could no farther go.
To beard the third, she shaved the other two."
The lines given below are in the author's own hand, dated August 6, 1838, and in my possession: —
"Three colonels in three distant counties born,
Lincoln, Sligo, and Armagh did adorn;
The first in gravity of face surpassed,
In sobriety the next, in grace the last.
The force of nature could no farther go,
To beard the first, she shaved the other two."
Paternoster Row.
Literary Tastes of Different Countries. I find the following in a late American newspaper. Can any of the readers of the "N. & Q." either corrobo rate or disprove the assertions there made?
Literary Tastes in this Country. — The people of the United States show a strong predilection for a lighht and fictitious literature. Of two thousand old and new volumes issued in this country in the year, it is said that about one-half were works of fiction or imagination. In France only about one-ninth are works of the same class, and in England works of fancy constitute one-seventh of the whole number published."
Stoke Newington.
Queries.
"Damask."
There are two meanings attached to the word damask in Johnson: —
1. Linen or silk woven, invented at Damascus, by which part, by various directions of the threads, exhibits flowers or other forms.
2. It is used for red colour in Fairfax, from the damask rose.
"And for some deals perplexed was her spirit,
Her damask late, now chang'd to purest white."
In this second sense it is used by many authors of celebrity, as in the hackneyed quotation from Shakspeare: — "But let concealment like a worm i' th' bud feed on her damask cheek." — Twelfth Night, Act II., Sc. 4.
And in Milton's Sonnet to Charles Diodati, where he uses the expression "Ne treccie d' oro, ne guancia vermiglia M' abbaglian sì," which Cowper thus renders: —
"Yet think me not thus dazzled by the flow
Of golden locks, or damtuk cheek."
And more recently Sir Lytton Bulwer in his great novel, What will he do with it? (vol. iii. p. 15.): —
"Lady Adela was an unconscious impostor; for owing to a mild softness of ere and a susceptibility to blushes, a victim ensnared by 'her beauty would be apt to give her credit for a nature far more accessible to the tender passion than happily for her own peace of mind she possessed; and might flatter himself that he bad produced a sensation which gave that softness to the eye and that damask to the blush."
I find, however, that there is another sense in which the word "damask" was used, i.e. to cancel or efface, or cover over, as in the Copyright Act of Queen Anne, the 8th Anne, c. 19., intituled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning by vesting the Copies of printed books in the Authors or Purchasers of such copies during the Terms therein mentioned," where after a long preamble showing how authors had been injured by piracy of various kinds, it proceeds to enact, "That the author of any book and his assigns should have the sole right and
