io" s. v. JAN. is, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
29
OIL PAINTING, c. 1626. I have in my
possession an oil picture of some person
painted after death presumably on the
death-bed. The painting is on a panel, and
shows the head and shoulders only. The fact
of a crucifix being placed on the body and
a lighted candle at the bedside leads me to
think the person must have been a Roman
Catholic. The painting bears the words,
" Obit Anno 1626, 12 June."
I should be glad if I could learn if any person of note (English or otherwise) died on this date. N. S. RICHARDSON.
49, Altenburg Gardens, Clapham, S.W.
POST-MORTEM EXAMINATIONS. May I ask for your assistance in the matter of finding the earliest instance of medical evidence being taken by a coroner after a post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased ? STANLEY B. ATKINSON.
10, Adelphi Terrace, VV.C.
MISERERE CARVINGS. Does any archaeo- logical journal give afull account of the miseri- cords in (1) New College Chapel, Oxon, (2) Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon ? I have Miss Emma Phipson's * Choir Stalls and their Carvings ' (1896) and the Rev. J. Harvey Bloom's * Shakespeare's Church' (1902). A. R. BAYLEY.
St. Margaret's, Malvern.
BRIDEWELL: ITS HISTORY. In John Bo wy er
Nichols's catalogue of the Hoare Library there appears '"History of Bridewell Hospital,' by Thomas Bo wen, 4to, London, 1798." Does such a work exist? I have a copy of Bowen's
- Extracts from the Records and Court Books
of Bridewell Hospital ; together with other Historical Information respecting the Objects of the Charter,' &c., 1798, which was pub- lished in reply to William Waddington's address to the Governors, &c. Bowen was also the author of other pamphlets more or less relating to Bridewell and its prisoners, but I cannot trace any ' History ' from his pen. Neither Mr. Copeland, 'Bridewell Royal Hospital,' 1888, nor Timbs's 'Walks and Talks about London/ p. 31, refers to Bowen's contributions on the subject.
ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N. [Thomas Bowen published in 4to, 1783, an
- Account of the Origin, Progress, and Present
State of Bethlehem Hospital.' Has some confusion arisen ?]
NEWCHAPEL CHURCH. The village of New- chapel, Staffordshire, was known asThursfield prior to the church (a chapel of ease to Wolstanton) being erected. Can any one
supply me with the date of the erection of
the first church, and tell me where I can find
an illustration of the second, apart from that
which appears in Smiles's 'Lives of the
Engineers"? It may have been under the
name of Thursfield Church.
CIIAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. Baltimore House, Bradford.
JOHNSON'S ' VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES.' The opening couplet of this poem is well known :
Let observation, with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru.
Almost equally well known is the paraphrase: " Let observation, with extensive observa- tion, observe mankind extensively." But the authorship of the paraphrase is not certain. Dr. Birkbeck Hill (' Boswell,' i. 194), says that De Quincey (' Works,' Edinburgh, 1862, x. 72) quotes it from "some writer." Miss Caroline Spurgeon ('The Works of Dr. Johnson,' 1898) attributes it to Goldsmith, in the form :
Let observation with observant view, Observe mankind from China to Peru.
Locker- Lampson, in his recollections of a Swiss tour with Tennyson in June, 1869 (see the * Memoir ' of Tennyson, by his son, ii. 73), says :
"Tennyson admired Samuel Johnson's grave earnestness, and said that certain of his couplets, for these qualities and for ' their high moral tone,' were not surpassed in English satire. However, he ventured to make merry over [the first couplet]. ' Why did he not say, " Let observation, with ex- tended observation, observe extensively"?'"
Here the reader is led to suppose that Tennyson was the originator of the mot. It would be interesting to assign it to its right owner. Byron ('Diary,' 9 Jan , 1821) quotes Conversation " Sharp's remark that Johnson's first line was superfluous.
L R. M. STRACHAN. Heidelberg, Germany.
SELLING ONESELF TO THE DEVIL. What actually did this phrase signify to our fore- fathers 1 MEDICULUS.
"BRELAN." Lady No gent, in vol. ii. p. 105 of
her West Indian journal, says, "Try to learn to play at brelan." Can any reader say whether " brelan " was a game of cards ?
H. M. C.
[Beaujean's abridgment of Littre (Hachette, 1875) says, -s.r. 'Brelan': "Jeu qui se joue avec trois cartes donnees a trois ou quatre ou cinq joueure. Avoir brelan, avoir trois cartes de meme figure ou de meme point."]
