Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/422

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. m. MAY 6, 1905.


may be inferred by the Marquis Townshend, "" with his usual pleasantry," quoting the line on the kinship of sleep and death. As a hypnagogue, the reading seems to have held its own with that of the Articles of War in our own day. H. P. L.

[The poem is by T. J. Mathias.]

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND TYCHO'S STAR. In Mr. C. 11. L. Fletcher's very interesting account of the great King of Sweden, which iorms one of the " Heroes of the Nations " series, edited by E. Abbott, occurs the fol- lowing passage: " Nay, the old books are full of the ' marvellous discovery ' by Tycho Brahe, ten years before our Hero's birth, of a new star in the constellation of Cassiopeia." Although it is now known that others saw this Nova a few days before Tycho, it will always be known as his star, from the long series of careful observations he made of it. But it appeared in the year 1572, and Gus- tavus Adolphus was not born until 1594, twenty-two years afterwards.

W. T. LYNN.

MEDIEVAL CLOTHING. The following in- ventory of clothiery from an Exchequer Roll of 34 Hen. VI. (No. 146, nu 35) may be useful to compilers of glossaries :

" JDucentoa libros lane, quatuor bodices, quatuor luithiann'a, sex virgas de panno vocat Cresteclothe, unam camisiam, unu' sniok, unu' capio(m ?), quatuor

  • accos, undecim flannolas (or fiamiolas ?), duo bon-

nettes & duo lynueii capped, ad valenc' centum solidor."

ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

'CZECH LANGUAGE. The following remarks on the similarity of Slav languages may be of interest, or at least provoke interesting information. In the first place, Croat and Serb are the same language, written the one in the Latin, the other in the Cyrillic alphabet : and the same may be said of Slovak and Czech, of which the latter is the more modern form. As to mere similarity, Polish, Czech, and Slovak form one class, Croat, Serb, and Sloven another ; Lithuanian and Samogit are dialects of the same language, and some of the Slav dialects spoken in Prussia by the Wends closely resemble Polish.

Odysseus, in his interesting work on Mace- donia, notices the fact that it is impossible actually at any one point to say, " Here Servian begins, here Bulgarian ends," for the two meet and part over a trail of almost imperceptible changes, and doubtless to the philologist a journey in Slav countries would be as fascinating as a walking tour along the coast line from Leghorn to Valencia.

RUPERT WONTNER. [See MR. MARCHANT'S article, ante, p. 202.]


HENRY TRAVERS. In 1731 there came out a volume entitled "Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, by H. Travers [motto from Horace]. London : Printed for Benj. Motte at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleet-street. MDCCXXXI." The verse-dedication to Wrio- thesly, Duke of Bedford, eulogized the reclaiming by him of the fen- lands at Thorney. A long list of subscribers, many of them fellows of the colleges at Cambridge, followed, their assistance being obtained to relieve Travers of some pecuniary embarrass- ments (Nichols, 'Literary Anecdotes,' vi. 251). Among the poetical pieces were two of some local interest, viz., * An Epistle from the Fens to Mr. *** *** at Rome,' and ' An Ode to the Fair Unknown upon seeing her in the Music Booth at Stur- bridge Fair.' The author had some fame in the University as a poet. In some satiric lines headed 'Mr. [Edward] Prior's Lamentations for the Loss of Mrs. Joanna Bentley,' and mentioning the Cambridge gallants and wits of 1722, it is prophesied that Travers would "in good numbers ridicule bad tea" (Nichols, ib., i. 225). The volume was reissued with some additional pieces, as " Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, by H. Travers, M.A.,

Rector of Nun-Burnholme York, printed

by C. Ward and R. Chandler, booksellers in Coney-street. MDCCXL." It was now dedi- cated in prose to the nobility and gentry, and was heralded by a fresh list of subscribers, mostly of Yorkshire people. Thomas Hayter, then Archdeacon and Prebendary of York, afterwards Bishop successively of Norwich and London, subscribed for six copies. The motive of publication was no doubt the same as for its predecessor.

Travers, or Traverse, as he originally spelt his name, was a native of Devonshire, and was educated at the same school as Hayter, probably at BlundelFs School, Tiverton. In after years the bishop used to say that Travers had been of singular service to him in his youth by exciting his emulation and causing him to exert the utmost of his dili- gence and abilities to cope with him. For this unconscious service, Hayter, when Arch- deacon of York, very gratefully rewarded Mr. Travers (S. Pegge the elder, 'Anony- miana," 1818 ed., cent, vii., No. 78). Traverse became a sizar of Queen's College, Cam- bridge, in April, 1719, and graduated B.A. January, 1722/3; M.A. July, 1736. Pegge knew him at Cambridge, and corresponded with him for some years afterwards.

Travers took orders in the English Church, and served successively the curacies of West Walton and Upwell, near Wisbech. Through