Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/195

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10 s. VIL FEB. 23, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


SONNETS BY ALFRED AND FREDERICK TENNYSON (10 S. vii. 89). Alfred Tenny- son's sonnet " Me my own Fate to lasting sorrow doometh," was reproduced in 'Alfred Lord Tennyson : a Memoir by his Son,' 1897, vol. i. p. 65. It is not included in any of the authorized editions of Tennyson's collected works. It was first privately reprinted by R. H. Shepherd in ' The New Timon and the Poets, with other Omitted Poems,' 1876, p. 9.

I am sorry that I cannot give any infor- mation about Frederick Tennyson's sonnet.

R. A. POTTS.

Alfred Tennyson's sonnet was repub- lished in ' Alfred, Lord Tennyson ' (vol. i. p. 67), under the title of ' Lasting Sorrow.' It may possibly also be found in the ' Sup- pressed Poems ' of Tennyson by Mr. J. C. Thomson, of Wimbledon, the editor of a

  • Bibliography of Tennyson,' as this gentle-

man claims to have included all the un- collected poems prior to 1862.

S. BUTTERWORTH.


NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Book of Quotation*, Proverbs, and House- hold Word*. By W. Gurney Benham. (Cassell &Co.)

A PORTLY volume of twelve hundred and odd pages has been issued by Messrs. Cassell under the above title. The plan of the work is somewhat ambitious, as it contains not only a large collection of general quotations, but also more than 200 pages of Latin proverbs, phrases, &c., besides extracts from Greek, German, French, and other languages. Then, as if this were not sufficient for one volume, there is given an extensive collection of proverbs and mis- cellaneous waifs and strays, the whole followed by a complete verbal index of nearly 400 pages. There is matter enough here for at least three volumes, and it is probable that the compiler's weakness lies in his undertaking too much. The quotations are naturally much the same as those in other collec- tions, but embody considerable additions which should be useful. Mr. Benham makes the mistake of assigning ' Britain's Ida ' to both Spenser and Phineas Fletcher ; the quotations also from Bailey's ' Festus ' need some definite reference to such a voluminous poem. It should be noted that the author acknowledges assistance from our own columns, which are full of the varied erudition of many scholars.

The portion devoted to proverbs is the least satis- factory part of the work. Although, of course, it is seldom possible to give the author of a proverb, Ave think that in a collection of this kind the earliest known instance ought to be furnished. Mr. Benham appears to have incorporated Heywood's collection of 1546 and that of Ray, with many parallel passages from foreign sources, but with few refer- ences to any earlier work in which the proverbs


j occur. Thus "A fool's bolt is soon shot" is givem I from Herbert ; but Heywood has the same words. A still earlier instance is "Sottes bolt is sone i-scohte" in the ' Proverbs of Alfred,' as published ooth by Wright and Halli well in 'Reliquiae An tiquse ind the Early English Text Society; while "Wim- mennes bolt is sone schote " appears in ' Sir Beues of Hamtoun,' also issued by the E.E.T.S. "A burnt child tire dredth " is given from Heywood,, with a reference to Chaucer ; but

Brend child fur dredth,

Quoth Hendyng, is among the proverbs of Hendyng printed in Wright and Halliwell. "If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the mountain," is assigned to Ray's collection ; but Bacon has it in Essay xii. on ' Boldness.' Many other instances could be given.

Among ' Household Words ' " The Republic of Letters " is given to Goldsmith ; but Fielding, in 'Tom Jones, bk. xiv. chap, i., had used it before him. "Bag and baggage is quoted from Richard Huloet's 'Abecedarium Anglico - Latinum pro- Tyrunculis,' 1552 ; but earlier instances may be found in Berners's translation of Froissart, published in 1525.

Still, if the work does not satisfy everybody, it will be much used, as the index is long and thorough.

Birmingham and Midland, Institute: Birmingham

Archaeological, Society Transaction*. No. 7. (Wai-

sall, printed for subscribers only.) MB. J. A. Cossixs gives an account of what must have been a very interesting excursion. The first place at which the party stopped was Wootton Warwen, but on the way they passed near Henley, a hill on which fornierly stood one of the Montfort castles, which it is thought was destroyed some time during the Wars of the Roses. It is, however, almost certain that the hill had been entrenched! and fortified in days long before castles, as we- understand the term, were built in this country. The little church on the lower part of the hill is of the twelfth century. It is suggested that it also- was a work of the Montforts. The streets of Henley are wide, perhaps for the sake of holding markets. The fourteenth - century cross must, so> late as the beginning of the last century, have been a noteworthy object. Since then it has been shame- fully mutilated. Now the head has entirely gone ; and had it not been for the intervention of the Birmingham Institute, the shaft also would have probably perished.

There is a fifteenth-century pulpit at Woottoa Warwen, which, as we see it in the engraving that is furnished, must have suffered little damage in the course of four centuries. Coughton Court was visited. The moat has been filled up, and much tasteless havoc was perpetrated about 1780; but the tower gateway yet remains, and is regarded as one of the noblest buildings of the kind in England.

'The Hundreds of Warwickshire,' by Mr. B. Walker, is an elaborate paper, the result of great labour. The courts of some of the hundreds held for the recovery of small debts existed till quite modern days. Though interesting as survivals from remote times, they had become so subject to abuse that very few persons were sorry to be rid of them.

Mr. John Humphreys has a paper on ' The Habingtons of Hindlip and The Gunpowder Plot/