Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/18

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12


NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. JULY i, 1911.


The last volume contains Nos. 67-68, July-Oct., 1843. The above collation shows that 42 + 23 + 3 + 34, or 102 volumes in all, were published. What is MR. HIGHAM'S authority for the statement that The British Critic continued to appear " until the end of 1852 " ? If it was continued so long, how many volumes were published from 1844 to 1852, and where are they to be found ? They are not in the British Museum.

ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.

ROYAL JUBILEES (11 S. iii. 467). The state of the King's health was probably responsible for the celebration of George III.'s Jubilee being fixed as early as possible. He was, indeed, sane during 1809, and his bodily health was good ; but he was almost, if not entirely, blind, and merely enjoying a lucid interval between two attacks of madness. Similar considerations regarding the mental capacity of the monarch were happily unnecessary in the case of the 1887 Jubilee of his granddaughter, Queen Victoria. A. R. BAYLEY.

Probably the reason why the Jubilee of George III. was celebrated at the com- mencement of his fiftieth regnal year (25 ^October, 1809) was because he had attained his seventieth birthday a few months previously, having been born at Xorfolk House, St. James's Square, 4 June, 1738. T. SHEPHERD.

QUEEX VICTORIA'S MATERNAL GREAT- GRANDMOTHER (US. iii. 387, 438, 471). There seems to be no cause for perplexity in the replies given at the second reference, if it is remembered that Queen Victoria had four great-grandmothers two on the paternal, and two on the maternal, side. MR. BULLOCK'S query merely related to the Reuss great-grandmother. Francis Fre- derick Antony. Duke of Saxe-Coburg- Saalfeld, the father of the Duchess of Kent, married Augusta Caroline Sophia, daughter of Henry XXIV. of Reuss and Caroline Ernestine of Erbach-Sclumberg. He was himself, as stated by W. S. S., the son of Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg- Saalfeld, and his wife Sophia Antoinette, Duchess of Brunswick and Liineburg, who was therefore the other maternal great- grandmother of Queen Victoria. The Queen's paternal great - grandmothers were (1) Augusta, Princess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, wife of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and (2) Albertina Elizabeth, Princess of


Saxe-Hildburghausen, the wife of Charles Louis Frederick, Duke of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, and mother of Queen Charlotte.

Henry XXIV. of Reuss belonged to what is known as the younger branch of the family of Reuss, now represented by Henry XIV. of Reuss-Schleiz, born in 1832. Henry XXII. of Reuss-Greiz, born in 1846, represents the elder branch of the family. Owing, however, to the incapacity of Henry XXII., Henry XXVII., eldest son of Henry XIV., enjoys the position of regent of the Reuss principality, and as Henry XXII. has no sons, he will eventually represent the family on the extinction of the elder line. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

"ENVY, ELDEST-BORN OF HELL" (11 S.

iii. 468).

Envy ! eldest-born of hell ! Cease in human breast to dwell : Ever at all good repining, Still the happy undermining. God and man by thee infested, Thou by God and man detested : Most thyself thou dost torment, At once the crime and punishment : Hide thee in the blackest night, Virtue sickens at thy sight : Hence ! hence ! eldest born of hell ! Cease in human breast to dwell.

These lines are set as a chorus in Handel's oratorio ' Saul,' composed by him in 1738, and performed at the King's Theatre on the 16th of January, 1739. The libretto has been ascribed to Charles Jennens of Gopsall, and also to Newburgh Hamilton, but was probably the work of the first-named author. WILLIAM H. CTJMMINGS.

"ORGEAT" (11 S. iii. 388, 435). In the replies there are some slight mistakes the corrections to which may be interesting. " Orgeat," as has been shown, was originally barley-water, and then a milk of almonds (not fresh ones, but the usual dry kernels), pleasantly flavoured. Almonds, crushed and pressed, yield their oil ; but when they are crushed and mixed with hot water so as to form an emulsion, milk of almonds can be squeezed out. This is how coco-nut milk is made in the Indian kitchen, with scraped coco-nut and hot water, for the preparation of curry. But what is drunk in India for refreshment is not coco-nut milk, but coco- nut water, the sweet, almost clear fluid filling the fresh unripe nut, and so grateful to the thirsty man out shooting in a pleasant land of coco-palms.

Also, lait d'amelles is not a mistranscrip- tion for lait d'amandes ; it is a direct render-