226
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. MAR. 21, 1914.
A centenary edition of ' Original Poems '
appeared in 1904, in which the editor,
Mr. E. V. Lucas, corrects incidentally various
similar mistakes.
If Kate Greenaway had studied at all carefully the numerous illustrations drawn for the first editions of ' Rural Scenes ' and "City Scenes' by Isaac (1787-1865), the brother of the authors (see 'D.N.B.'), she
would not have made so many mistakes as to dates in costume in her designs for the poems. Kate Greenaway 's anatomy, more- over, is generally slipshod ; whereas, even at the age of 18, the young Isaac was an accomplished anatomist so much so that his drawings were once the subject of a
lecture at the Royal Academy.
HENRY TAYLOR, F.S.A. Birklands, Birkdale, Lancashire.
GILBERT WHITE AND THE POET THOMSON. I should like to inquire whether any one has recorded the dependence of White in the matter of verse on Thomson. ' The Cambridge History of English Literature ' treats both writers in the same volume {x., 1913), and points out Thomson's influence on the younger generation of poets, but does not mention White among them. In his letters White praises the diction of Horace, Dryden, and Pope, and criticizes Thomson's.
"As to Thomson (not Thompson) [he writes to Samuel Barker, 30 March, 1775], his 'Seasons' are sweet poems, full of just description and fine moral reflections. But this Scotch bard, through a, desire of elevating his language above prose, falls into fustian sometimes ; and though he thinks much like a poet, is often faulty in his diction."
White, on his part, was academically careful of his diction, but thought little like a poet. " His attitude toward Nature was one of ' admiring observation rather than of intimate worship,' " says Henry C Shelley in 'Gilbert White and Selborne. " A little turn for English poetry is no doubl a pretty accomplishment for a young gentle- man," White told his nephew.
" Even the best of his verses [continues Mr Shelley] remind one of the poet who went oui with pencil and note -book, and having jottec down the items which appealed most to his fancy, went home and wrote a poem."
In spite of White's admiration for eigh- teenth-century precision, the poems printed in Harting's edition of ' Selborne,' 1891
- The Invitation to Selborne,' K ' Selborne
Hanger,' ' On the Rainbow,' ' A Harvest Scene,' f On the Dark, Still, Dry, Warm
leather ' are so obviously influenced by
["homson that one notes with satisfaction
hat among a list of books in White's posses-
sion at 18 (see Rashleigh Holt -White, ' The
Life and Letters of Gilbert White,' i. 32)
Thomson's ' Seasons ' is included.
White, in a word, was a transition writer, and he falls, like Gray, Thomson, and Young, under the " beginnings of Romanti- cism." WM. CHISLETT, JUN. Stanford University.
CASANOVA AND HENRIETTE. Perhaps the 'ollowing reference has not been noticed. Under date 1828 Lord Malmesbury mentions the Hotel des Balances as the best at eneva, " but a very old-fashioned one." He says :
"It is the same in which Casanova's romance with his Henriette took place, and they showed
- he pane of glass, which he mentions, on which he
tiad cut her name with his ring." 'Memoirs of an Ex-Minister,' by the Earl of Malmesbury, second edition, 1884, i. 20.
This story does not agree with that given in the ' Memoires de Jacques Casanova,' Rozez edition, ii. 149 ; Gamier edition, ii. 245. These two accounts are word for word the same. After Henriette' s departure Casanova writes :
' I saw on one of the window-panes these words which she had written there with the point of a diamond that I had given her : ' Thou wilt forget also Henriette.'"
This was in 1749, according to a date given a few pages further on.
On 20 Aug., 1760, Casanova found himself again at the Balances, where again he read on the window-pane, " Tu oublieras Hen- riette." The word " aussi " is here omitted (Rozez, iv. 201 ; Gamier, iv. 441). Lord Malmesbury was only twenty -one years old when he was at the Balances, and his ' Memoirs ' did not appear until he was seventy- seven. Probably he had forgotten the details.
It may be that this pane of glass still exists. In ' Manuel du Voyageur en Suisse,' by Richard no date, but about 1832 mention is made, p. 22, of the Hotel de la Balanec (sic), probably de la Balance. In Murray's ' Handbook for Switzerland,' 1904, among the second-class hotels is the Balance, Rue du Rhone; and in Baedeker's of last year I find " Touring Hotel & Balance, Place de Longemalle." Very probably these ad- dresses indicate the same hotel, as the Place opens into the Rue. It may be that this hotel represents les Balances of Casanova and Malmesbury, though, perhaps, in another house. Will some correspondent who is
