Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/346

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. OCT. 10,


" It be nether herre nor ther " is in a letter of 25 July, 1551 (p. 12), from John, Earl of Warwick to Lord Darcy, then Lord Cham- berlain.

" Right no we," which is commonly thought to be a modern Americanism, is employed in a communication of 10 Oct., 1589, from Thomas Bodley at the Hague to the High Treasurer, Lord Burghley (p. 33).

" Least you might charg me with breach of promis " appears in a letter of Sir Walter Ralegh, believed to have been written to Sir Robert Carre between 1604 and 1608 (p. 54).

In Buckingham's letters to his " Dere Dad and Gossope " James I. two of which are given emphasis is laid upon the writer's proverb-quoting propensity. In the first (each is conjecturally dated 1 622) the favourite says :

" I must contradict a generall reseved maxaime which says greate bodies have sloe motions, your favors are manie, greate, and speedie, but my acknowledgements are poure in number, slight in substance and make sloe motions, but I pray you favor the proverb and me thus far as to impute some part of it to my indisposition, which makes few steps in me more then manie in a stronger bodie." P. 70.

In the second he exclaims not only, " A full hart. must eyther vent itself or breake," but also " Full thoughts causes long paren- tises " (p. 71).

" Give me old Englande," ejaculates Sir Edward Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon) to his wife, when writing from St. Germains on 12 (2 O.S.) Aug., 1649, "for meate, drinke, and lodginge, and even for wyne too" (p. 82).

Cromwell, similarly addressing his wife from Dunbar on 4 Sept., 1650, the day after the famous battle, referred to his victory as an " exceeding mercy " (p. 92).

A notorious saying with an ominous mean- ing, attributed in " the fifties" of the nine- teenth century to Judge Keogh, was quaintly anticipated by T. Ross in a letter from Brussels to Col. Gervase Holies at Rotter- dam on 5 May (25 April, O.S.), 1658 :

" In the meane time our grand minister would have us to hope, that as spone as the Jong nights come (that is his expression) wee shall make an attempt." P. 122.

The favourite expression of Mr. Toots,

  • ' It 's of no consequence," was foreshadowed

in a letter of Henry S a vile from Whitehall to Lord Rochester at Woodstock on 6 Nov., 1677, saying :

" Wee doe not yet know whether H. Sidney's portion bee left soe large as to disturbe my Lore Leycester's philosophy ; but in the mean time hee sais ' tis all one.' " P. 159.


John Muddyman what connexion wasv of William Muddiman, earliest of news- tetter writers and London correspondents ? in a letter of September, 1671, to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, expressed his- sorrow that " you find your eyes can neither endure wine nor water " (p. 152) ; and a certain John Talman writing from Rome- to his father in London on 6 June (27 May, O.S.), 1711, began with the statement: " Last Monday I had an entertainment which is the talk of the town " (p. 179).

These examples should serve to stimulate? further research in like directions.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.


'DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY: EPITOME.'

(See ante, p. 183.)

I CONCLUDE my second century of omis- sions and additions :

Gerard (E.). Liverpool portrait painter. Author of ' Letters in Rhyme,' 1825.

Gordon (George Hamilton), fourth Earl of Aber- deen, 1784-1860. Add : Author of ' Inquiry into- the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture/ 1822.

Graham (Henry). Author of 'Annals of the Yeo- manry Cavalry of Wiltshire,' 1886.

Greenway or Grenewey (Richard). Translated ' The Annales of Tacitus,' 1604.

Harding (Edward), 1755-1840. Add: Commenced business as a book- and print-seller in conjunction with his brother Silvester in Pall Mall.

Hawkins (William), 1722-1801. Add : Author of ' Miscellanies in Prose and Verse,' 1775.

Hawkins (William Bentick), M.A., F.R.S., of Exeter Coll., Oxf. Edited, with bibliographical preface,. 'Whole Duty of Man,' 1842.

Hexham (Henry). Add : Author of ' A Tongue- Combat,' 1623.

Higgins (Rev. Henry H.), M.A., b. at Turvey Abbey, Beds, 1815 ; d. 3 July, 1893, at Liverpool. A voluminous writer, chiefly on natural history. Author of ' Sermons Broad and Short,' ' Notes- of a Field Naturalist,' 'Museum Talk about Animals which have no Bones,' &c. For over thirty years a co-opted member of the Liverpool Museum Committee, an institution to which he rendered many valuable services.

Hill (Aaron), 1685-1750. Add : Author of ' King. Henry V.,' 1723 a Shakespearian alteration.

Hiritoii (A. Horsley), d. 26 Feb., 1908. Editor of The Amateur Photographer from 1893. A prolific writer on photography in the magazines and daily journals.

Hodgson (Sir Arthur) of Clopton, K.C.M.G., d. 1902 (?). Author of ' Clopton and the Cloptons/ 1892 ; ' Shakespearian Jottings,' 1902.

Hodgson (Edmund). Book auctioneer. One of the founders of his firm in 1807. Sold Garrick's- library, also the entire copyrights and stock of Scott's works.