Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/436

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NOTES AND QUERIES.


. t MAY *


Is there any local history or tradition of the Society of Friends that might bear on George junior, who is believed to have emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1682 ?

ETHEL LEGA-WEBKES. Leafy Nook, 4, Caroline Terrace, Brook Green, W.

GOETHE'S ' MASON - LODGE.' Will a reader kindly favour me with the original words of (or tell me where to find) the * Mason- Lodge,' by Goethe? The last stanza Carlyle, in 1 Past and Present,' translates as follows :

Here eyes do regard you,

In eternity's stillness ;

Here is all fulness,

Ye brave, to reward you

Work and despair not.

I have Goethe's ' Werke ' in fifty -five volumes, but cannot find it. J. C. BURLEIGH.

"JASPER CLEITONUS CIVITATI LONDINI PR^EPECTUS CELEBERRIMUS." In Prof. Ker's

  • Frasereides,' 1731, being a biographical

e'loge of Dr. James Fraser, of Aberdeen, who was a kind of " second founder " of that seat of learning in virtue of his munificent gifts for restoring the buildings (vide ' N. & Q.,' 6 th S. vi. Ill), and was the first secretary of Chelsea Hospital, Fraser's wife is described as "Maria Narsia, cujus pater annuum cen- sum tenebat septingentarum librarum in provincia Oxoniensi, cui avus erat celeberri- mus ille Jasper Cleitonus civitati Londini praefectus." Who was this " very celebrated " Jasper Cleiton, thus described, apparently, as (Lord) Mayor of London? Mr. Welch, the Librarian of the Guildhall Library, who has kindly made a search there, informs me that the only Lord Mayor whose name bears any resemblance to Cleiton is Sir Robert Clayton, who served the office in 1679. This Jasper Cleiton's time (reckoning the generations upwards from Mary Narsey) would be some- where about 1550-1600. If he was " celeber- rimus," something must surely be known about him. And what office could be signified by " civitati Londini prsefectus " ?

R. B. LITCHFIELD.

31, Kensington Square, W.

A CHURCH TRADITION. Marie Corelli, in a foot-note in her book 'The Mighty Atom,' states that the following description of Combrnartin Church is reported by her nearly verbatim from the verger James Norman :

"Folks 'as bin 'ere an' said quite wise-like '0 that roof 's quite modern,' but 'tain't nuthin' o' th' sort. See them oak mouldings ? not one o' them 's straight, not a line. They couldn't get 'em exact in them days they wosn't clever. So they 're all crooked an' bout as old as th' altar screen, mebbe


older, for if yo stand 'ere jest where I be, ye '11 see" they all bend more one Way than t'other, mak in' the whole roof look lop-sided like, an' why 's that d'ye think ? Yo can't tell ? Well, they 'd a reason for what they did in them there old times, an' a sentiment too an' they made the churches lean a bit to the side on which our Lord's head bent on the cross when he said ' It is finished ! ' Ye '11 find nearly all th' old churches lean a bit that way, it's a sign of age, as well as a sign of faith." P. 96.

Is this tradition current elsewhere 1 If so, where are there other evidences ?

W. A. HENDERSON. Dublin.

EPITAPH ON CROMWELL. I find the follow- ing in an old collection of French poetry, 'Elite de Poesies Fugitives,' 1770 :

Epitaphe de Cromwell. Ci git 1'usurpateur d'un pouvoir Idgitime, Jusqu'& son dernier jour favorise" des cieux,

Dont les vertus meritoient mieux

Que le trone acquis par un crime. Par quel destin faut-il, par quelle etrange loi, Qu'a tous ceux qui sont nes pour porter la couronne

Ce soit 1'usurpateur qui donne L'exemple des vertus que doit avoir un roi ?

I should be obliged for any information con- cerning the author and his writings, as his name is not known to me. All I can learn of him is from this brief notice :

" Etienne Pavilion, Avocat general au Parlemeut de Metz, de 1' Academic Francoise, et de celle des Inscriptions et Belles - Lettres, mort & Paris en 1705."

I do not remember ever having seen this theory about " usurpers " so boldly expressed, and it is also a testimony of the respect in which the Protector was held abroad. Such sentiments, I should think, were not likely to facilitate the author's advancement.

G. T. SHERBORN.

Twickenham.

[Full particulars will be found in D'Alembert's ' Histoire de 1' Academic des Belles-Lettres,' Titon du Tillet's ' Le Parnasse Francois/ the ' Nouvelle Biographic Generate,' and the ' Eloge de M. Pavilion ' prefixed to his ' (Euvres,' La Haye, 1715, 12mo. See also Auger's ' Biog. Univ.' and Querard's ' Dic- tionnaire Bibliographique.' Voltaire calls him "le doux mais faible Pavilion."]

' READING MERCURY.' (See ante, p. 195.) Will Miss THOYTS kindly tell me where I can obtain a copy of the old Reading Mercunj she mentions? John Goldwyer, surgeon, of Reading, was uncle to my great-grandfather, William Henry Goldwyer, the eminent surgeon and Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons of Bristol.

HENRY G. B. GOLDWYER.

Kimberley, South Africa.

NATHAN TODD. In the churchyard of the old parish church of Chesterton, near Cain-