Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/156

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. AUG. 17, 1007.


-took place on 4 Sept., 1739. This wife was buried 22 Oct., 1744. He married again, .and died on 10 Feb., 1782 (Lady Russell, ' Swallowfield,' pp. 226-44). Other poems by Sneyd Davies on Dodd are in Nichols's collection, vol. vi. Two interesting letters from Benjamin Stillingfleet on the offer of -the tutorship of Dodd's son are in Coxe's ' Literary Life of Stillingfleet,' i. 100-4. These five pieces are included in Whaley's 1745 collection as " by a friend." Whaley " was dissipated and in difficulties, and Davies gave him the poems by way of -charity " (' D.N.B.,' xiv. 156).

107-9. A winter thought by J. Earl. Chaplain to the Duke of Douglas (Dodsley,

  • ed. 1782).

110. Song.

In the 1758 and later editions this song is erroneously entered as "by the same," i.e., J. Earl. On the authority of a letter from Deane Swift, Esq. (' Suppl. to Swift's Works,' 1779, p. 612), the authorship is

given to Mrs. Pilkington, though it is con-

stantly printed as by Mrs. Barber. Horace Walpole was of opinion that it was too good for Mrs. Pilkington. In the 1782 ed. of this collection it is definitely assigned to Mrs. Pilkington.

111-17. Verses spoken [by the king's scholars] at Westminster at their annual feast, Queen Eliza- beth's birthday, 1729-30.

By Marius D'Assigny, one of the ushers of Westminster School, says the 1782 ed., with Ihe further statement that the lines have sometimes been attributed to Dr. Robert Freind. The first part is spoken as by J. F. ; the second part by Lord C. (presumably Lord Carteret).

117-18. Letter to Sir Robert Walpole by the late Henry Fielding, Esq. (' D.N.B.').

119-30. Epistle from the Elector of Bavaria to the French King, after Ramillies.

130-32. To the Duke of Marlborough.

132-3. Ode on Miss Harriet Hanbury [his niece] six years old. By Sir C. Hanbury Williams (' D.N.B.').

134-5. Song upon Miss Harriet Hanbury addressed to the Rev. Mr. Birt. By the same.

.Several lively letters, written between 1748 and 1756, by Sir Charles to Birt are in the former's works, vol. iii. (1822 ed.) pp. 73-6 and 85-109. Birt was married, and then living at Newland.

136-8. To Mr. Gamier and Mr. Pearce of Bath, a grateful ode in return for the extraordinary kind- ness and humanity they shewed to me and my eldest daughter, now Lady Essex, 1753. By the .same.

In the second stanza he prays " Gamier, jny friend, accept this verse." George


Gamier, of Rookesbury, Hampshire, enjoyed for many years the lucrative sinecure of " apothecary-general to the army," and sold to the army the produce of his salt mine. He also married a rich heiress. This income enabled him to entertain in luxury the chief wits of the day and to form a great collection of valuable china (' The Garniers of Hampshire ').

William Pearce, a medical man of Bath, was an intimate friend of Gainsborough, who painted his portrait, and presented it to him as a wedding gift. It was on view at the Grosvenor Gallery Exhibition, 1885, when it was the property of J. Rubens Powell, and at the old Masters' Exhibition, 1907. It was then lent by F. C. K. Fleisch- mann. F. G. Stephens says in his notes to the first exhibition that Pearce lived until he was more than ninety years old. At his death the picture passed to his only daughter, Mrs. Luck, and when she died her husband sold it to Powell. Two letters from Gains- borough to Pearce are in Fulcher's life of Gainsborough, 2nd ed., pp. 128-9, 147-8. The first was written in 1783, when Gains- borough was going to see the Lakes ; the other in 1788, just before his death.

W. P. COURTNEY.

(To be continued.)


LORD BYRON'S ANTIDOTE AGAINST MISAN- THROPY. I have read little of Byron for the last sixty years, and do not know whether his editors have recorded words preserved to us by Silvio Pellico (' Dei Doveri degli Uomini,DiscorsoadunGiovane,' Capo Settimo, ' Stima dell' Uomo.' ' Prose di Silvio Pellico,' Firenze, Felice Le Monnier, 1851, pp. 316-17) :

" Quando siamo tentati di disprezzare 1' umanita vedendo co' nostri, p leggendo nella storia molte sue turpitudini, poniamo mente a quei yenerandi mortal! che pur nella storia splendono. L' iracondo, ma generoso Byron mi diceva essere questo 1' uuico modo con cui potesse salvarsi dalla misantropia. 1 II primo grand' uomo che mi ricorre alia mente,' dicevami egli, ' e sempre Mos6 : Mos6 che rialza mi popolo avvilitissimo ; che lo salva dall' obbrobrio dell' idolatria e de la schiavitu ; che gli detta una legge piena di sapienza, vincolo mirabile tra la reBgione de' patriarch! e la religione de' tempi inciviliti, ch' e il vangelo. Le virtu e le istitutioni di Mos6 sono il mezzo con cui la Provyidenza produce in quel popolo valenti uomini di stato, valenti guerrieri, egregi cittadini, santi zelatori dell' equita, chiamati a profetare la caduta de' superb! e degli ipocriti, e la futura civilti di tutte le nazioni.

" ' Considerando alcuni grand' uomini, e princi- palmente il mio Mose,' soggiungeva Byron, f ripeto sempre con entusiasmo quel sublime verso di Dante Che di vederli, in me stesso m' esalto !