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NOTES AND QUEKIES.
[ 2^ s. NO 24, JUNE 14. '56.
Tantarra. The abbey gateway at Kenilworth,
in Ireland's time, appears to have gone by the
name of Tantarra. Whence its derivation, and
why attached to this particular gateway ?
J. B. WHITBOBNE.
Theocritus and Virgil. In what modern work, besides Leigh Hunt's Jar, $<?., can I find a full discussion of the relative merits of Theocritus and Virgil as pastoral poets ? P. J. F. GANTILLON.
Biographical Queries. Any particulars re- specting the undermentioned will be very accep- table. Especially as regards their university and college, degrees, and any books they may have written :
Joseph Trapp, D.D., born at Cherington, co. Gloucester. Professor of Poetry, Oxford ; and formerly minister of Christ Church, London.
Dr. Bisse, Bishop of St. David's ; afterwards translated to Hereford.
Thos. Gore, of Alderston, Wilts, and of Mag- dalen College, Oxford ; celebrated for his know- ledge of heraldry : he published, I believe, several works.
Also any information respecting the following vicars of Tetbury :
1279. Gregory de Karwent.
Edward Griffith ") , . ,, . . Richard Hathway luring the s.xteenth
Edmund Barton J centu T'
1583. Henry Walmsley.
1614. William Edwards.
1660. Daniel Norris.
1681. John Bliss.
1712. William Scammel.
1725. Ralph Willet.
1726. Miles Eastrel. 1739. John Turner. 1742. John Wight.
1777. Thomas Croome Wicker, D.D. 1786. John Riehardes. 1792. Richard Davies.
ALFRED T. LEE. Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
" Little things on little wings" Can any of the readers of " N. & Q." tell me where these lines,
" Little things on little wings, Bear little souls to heaven,"
are originally found ? I know that in Alice Grey they are quoted from the Heir of Redclyffe. Did they first appear there ? B. N. T.
Comic Song on the Income Tax. In what dramatic performance was the income tax made a subject for a joke ? At present every one seems to consider it a very serious matter. I only re- collect one fragment of the song; the first "of which consisted in supposing that the tax was to be paid in hind, The doctor, among others, was
to pay thus. He was to contribute drugs ; but
who would take them ? Then came the lines :
" I tell you who we'll give them to ; 'twill save us all our clinkuin,
To the man that comes round for the tax upon income."
E. H. D. D.
" Hot Trodd." In a truce agreed to by the Kings of England and Scotland in 1424, liberty was granted to the subjects of either kingdom to pursue a malefactor within the marches of the other ; this pursuit of the malefactor was called the " Hot Trodd."
The etymology and origin of the use of these words are desired ; and is the hot in " hot haste," " hot chase," with high in " high way," &c., re- ferable to the root of hot in " Hot Trodd."
Berwick. JOHN HUSBAND.
William Spencer. These lines are said to have been addressed by the late William Spencer to Lady Anne Hamilton. Was it so, or did the lines ever before appear in print ?
" Too late I staid ! forgive the crime!
Unheeded flew the hours ; How noiseless falls the foot of Time,
That only treads on flowers ! " What eye with clear account remarks
The ebbings of his glass ; When all its sands are diamond sparks,
That dazzle as the} 7 pass ? " Oh ! who to sober measurement
Time's happy swiftness brings,
When Birds of Paradise have lent
Their plumage for his wings ? "
S.
" Hobsoris Choice"
" That such a person as old Hobson existed, and that he was a letter out of horses for hire, is beyond all question. But what I want to know is this, can any rea- sonable proof be produced of the truth of that story, which, as is generally believed, has given rise to the pro- verb of ' Hobson's Choice,' and which ascribes to him the practice of compelling each of his customers to take either the horse that stood in the stall next to the stable- door, or none at all ' That or none ? ' I am induced to ask this question, because I find that Mr. Bellenden Ker, in his curious work on The Archaeology of our Popular Phrases, states ' plump and plain ' that the story is no- thing else but a ' Cambridge hoax,' and that the proverb is the same, both in sound and sense, as the Low Saxon popular phrase of ' Op soens schie ho eysche,' meaning, ' When he had a kiss, he soon made higher demands upon me,' implying encroaching pretensions.
" HENRY KENSINGTON."
As the matter refers principally to Cambridge, the above letter will be inserted in one of the local papers, but I should like it to appear in " N. & Q." also. E. T. K.
Cambridge.
Black Letter. If your correspondent LX. will have the goodness to state in your columns what kind of pen he uses for writing black letter, he will much oblige A. L. B.
