9 th S. II. OCT. 8, '98.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
289
nunciation. In which of these two ways did
the great statesman himself sound his name 1
JAMES PLATT, Jun.
SHEEPFOLD. In the church of St. Osyth, Chick, county of Essex, there are two hand- some monuments in alabaster, erected to the memory of the first two Lords D'Arcy and their wives. The chancel is narrow, and the monuments being large, the space left for the communion rails is contracted. To afford accommodation for communicants, there has been erected in the chancel what the attendant termed a "sheepfold." It is in the form of the Greek letter omega. The communicants are arranged inside the structure, and the clergy administer the elements from the outside. Does a similar arrangement exist elsewhere 1
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
WYATT FAMILY. I should be grateful to any of your readers who could give me dates or inscriptions from monuments in Allington Church, Maidstone, connected with
the Wyatt family, or anything which would
help me in tracing their pedigree. I am
anxious to trace their origin, whether the
name is Gascon or Norman. I have a few
dates, but not connected "or consecutive, and
as in the fifteenth century one was executed
as a rebel, and his estates confiscated, the
matter is more difficult. Our crest is a boar's
head couchant. BERTHA WYATT.
REV. GEORGE ELTONHEAD. He was vicar of Preston next Wingham, 1578, until his death in 1593. He married, in 1579, Joan Nevinson, widow. Further information wanted. ARTHUR HUSSEY.
Wingham, Kent.
THE DIXONS OP RAINHAM, co. DURHAM. Pray who is, and where to be found, the representative of the family who bore Gules, on a bend or between six plates three torteaux, a chief erminois, as described in Burke's ' Armory,' p. 288 1 DE ST.
AUTHORS OP QUOTATIONS WANTED. The curse of a granted prayer.
" From such a rough and waspish word as ' No' to pluck the sting." W. B.
Then old age and experience, hand in hand, Lead him to death, and make him understand, After a search so painful and so long, That all his life he has been in the wrong.
CHAS. K. BOWER.
"A preacher without orders, a parson in a tie- wig." Query, Swift or Sterne ? G. L. A.
WHAT IS STYLE?
(9 th S. ii. 208.)
ADDISON is perfect in style ; and there can be no good style without matter as well as manner. His allegories and false Orientalism may be sometimes a little tedious ; but a man who is bound to write a certain amount every day cannot be always equally good, though he may write the more easily from practice. Swift and Johnson are perhaps inferior to Addison as essayists, though not so otherwise. Of Washington Irving it may be said that in his burlesque history he seems to be under the influence of Fielding ; in his essays, principally of Goldsmith ; in his biographies and histories he is simply bookmaking ; but in his stories he is entirely himself and pecu- liarly charming, whether he write of Rip van Winkle or Wolfert Webber, or of Aben Habuz or the Adelantado of the seven cities. Lamb's humour seems to me to be slender. His knowledge is next to nothing. He affected
an archaic style, and half his success is in
that affectation. Jeffrey asked Macaulay
whence he got his style, which is animated
and correct enough, though wanting in repose
and dignity. The answer is not difficult.
Macaulay got it from Cicero ; and the style
is far more suited to an orator than to a
writer. Macaulay speaks of saturating him-
self with Cicero, and I think it clear that he
founded his style upon that of the Roman
orator. Men may never rise above imitation,
or they may achieve a style of their own. But
every man in the beginning must have a
master or masters whom he follows. A man
does not necessarily write well because he
tries to do so. Nor is mere correctness every-
thing. A grammarian may write correctly,
yet may have an intolerable style. An author
may have a charming style, yet may be
occasionally indefensible in his grammar.
One can pick solecisms and faults of grammar
by the score from Shakspeare. Yet who can
write like Shakspeare? Most of the great
masters of style in prose have served an
apprenticeship in poetry, and many of them
are entitled to be called poets. Not that all
poets are good in prose, nor all great prose
writers good in poetry. Indeed, it sometimes
happens that those who have produced great
works in prose, and are poets in substance
though not in form, are very feeble when
they attempt to write in verse. Bunyan is
very fond of interlarding his work with
rhymes, which are about as weak and clumsy
