ii s.x. OCT. si, 1911] NOTES AND QUERIES.
353
" SPAKROWGRASS " (11 S. x. 227, 278, 291).
Before correspondence under this heading
is closed, perhaps space may be found for
the following conundrum, which has been
attributed to Lord Melbourne :
My first is a bird that hops,
My second gives us hay crops,
My whole we eat with mutton chops.
But this does not afford positive proof of
the pronunciation of the word in political
circles in the earlier half of last century.
R. L. MORETON.
OLD CHARING CROSS (US. vii. 288, 357). " They say Charing-Cross is fallen down since I
went to Rochelle, but that 's no wonder ; 'twas
old, and stood awry."
At the first reference a request was made for information bearing upon the above quotation from Dekker and Webster's ' Westward Hoe,' II. i. To this MR. ALECK ABRAHAMS replied, " The passage quoted is misleading. There is no evidence that the cross stood awry," basing this assertion upon 'The Last Will and Testament of Charing Crosse,' dated 1646. But there is evidence of a most circumstantial kind, not only that the cross " stood awry " about the time that ' Westward Hoe ' (printed in 1607) was written, but that it had, at least partially, " fallen down." Dekker was much concerned at its dilapidated condition, as may be seen from the " Short Encomiasticke speech in praise of Charing -crosse " at the beginning of 'The Dead Term' (1608). [ quote from ' Westminster's Speech to London ' :
"But to keepe thee....from tormenting thy selfe with thinking on the causes of this my
grieuing ; let me tell thee that I doe not pine
to see that Auncient and oldest Sonne* of mine with his Limbes broken to peeces (as if he were a Male-factor and hadde been tortured on the Germaine wheele :) his Reuerend Head cut off by the cruelty of Time, the Ribbes of his body bruized ; his Armes lop't away ; His backe (that euen grew crookr.d icith age) almost cleft in sunder, yea and the ground (on which he hath dwelt for so many hundreds of years) ready to be pulled from under his feete, so that with greefe his very heart seemes to be broken." Dekker's ' Non-Dramatic Works,' Grosart, vol. iv. p. 11.
London in her ' Aunswere to West- minster' comments upon this part of the speech as follows (Grosart, iv. 39-40) :
" Well did it become the greatnes of thy place, thy state and calling, not to be throwne downe into a womanish sof toes for that aged and reverend (but icry-nccked) sonne of thine, whose woorthi- thou hast sufficiently proclaimed .... His downfall, though it seeme great, yet is it not to be lamented, but to be borne, because he fell not
- " Charing-Crosse."
upon a dishonorable Grave : but into such a one
as by the frailety of Time, Nature and destiny,
was preordayned for him. His end was no like the
end of Traytors, who are cut off in the pride of
their bloud and youth.... but he threw himself e
vppon the earth, seeing the hand of extreame age
(which must pull down at last the whole frame of
this Worlde) lay so hardly, and so heauily vppon.
H. DUGDALE SYKES. Enfleld.
POEM WANTED : ' THE REVEILLE ' (11 S. x. 230, 276). To the best of my belief this poem originally made its appearance in book-form in the first volume* published by Bret Harte, which bore the following title :
" The | Lost Galleon | and | other Tales. | By | FT. Bret Harte. | San Francisco : | Towne &: Bacon, Printers. | 1807."
This volume contained twenty-five poems, including, " besides the titular poem, various, patriotic contributions to the lyrics of the Civil War, and certain better-known humor- ous pieces."
The poem was afterwards reprinted in " Poems. | By | Bret Harte. | Boston : | James B. Osgood and Company, | Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co. | 1871." 8vo, pp. vi+152.
'The Reveille' will be found on p. 131. In all probability it originally appeared in some newspaper or magazine, and MR. ROBERT PIERPOINT is doubtless right in ascribing it to the year 1864.
My old acquaintance John Camden Hotten had a wonderful flair for the " popular " and the " catching," and knew to a nicety how to hit the public taste. He- had already appropriated some of Mark Twain's early works, and had given them titles of his own. Consequently, when, in his semi - piratical fashion, he annexed Bret Harte's volume of ' Poems,' he gave his English edition the title of 'That Heathen Chinee,' after what he considered was the most popular poem in it. In the- original American edition the title of tho poem is " Plain Language from Truthful James. Table Mountain, 1870."
W. F. PRIDEATTX.
- In 1866 Bret Harte was employed by a
bookseller of San Francisco to pass through the press a little volume of verse by California^ writers, and, although he contributed nothing but a short preface, he gives a humorous descrip- tion of the whole transaction and of the manner in which the book was received by the critics in ' My First Book,' 1884, pp. 257-67. He does not give the name of the book, which was " Out- croppings : being Selections of California Verse. San Francisco : A. Roman & Company. New York : W. J. Widdleton. 1866."
