Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/406

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. n. NOV. 12,


of Music,' v. 315, 316). Tonson's saying that he ever thought him a priest in his heart is referred to Spence, p. 200. See ' Addison' in ' D.N.B.'

KILLIGREW. (9 th S. ii. 309.) Carnage is God's daughter. Carnage (so Wordsworth tells us) is God's

daughter. ' Don Juan,' c. viii. s. ix. Byron quotes in a foot-note :

But thy most dreadful instrument In working out a pure intent Is man arrayed for mutual slaughter : Yea, Carnage is thy daughter.

Wordsworth's ' Thanksgiving Ode.' The lines are not in the poem now called the 'Thanksgiving Ode '('Ode on the Morning of the Day appointed for a General Thanksgiving, January 18, 1816'), but the 'Ode,' 1815 ('Poems of the Imagination '), contains these lines : But man is thy most awful instrument In working out a pure intent ; Thou cloth' st the wicked in their dazzling mail, And for thy righteous purpose they prevail. Here the last lines differ froni the version quoted by Byron, and I think the omission of the reference to Carnage was due to Byron's use, or misuse, of the passage. J. A. J. HOUSDEN.

Alas ! that I so lately knew thee. I should think that the line T. S. is in search of would be the following ;

Ah, why did I so late Thee know ? This is the first line of the second stanza of a hymn written by Scheffler, and translated from the German by John Wesley. The whole hymn, which begins

Thee will I love, my strength, my tower, will be found in the ' New Wesleyan Hymn-Book ' (No. 210). R. CLAKK.


NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Wit, Character, Folk-fore.and Customs of the. North Riding of Yorkshire. By Richard Blakeborough. (Frowde.)

EXCEPT a little squeamishness pardonable in one who announces himself as a " Society Humourist," whatever that may be we have no fault to find with Mr. Blakeborough, who has given us some apt illustrations of North Riding character, speecn, and folk-lore. That he should not, in a book in- tended to be, to some extent, popular, insert coarse, Rabelaisian, or Burns-like songs is pardonable. That in a folk-poem he inserts "bust" a word o: which, presumably, the poet never heard for, as we presume from the context, " dugs," the use of wnich is sanctioned by Shakspeare, Goldsmith and Stanley, or some similar word from the utter ance of which Queen Elizabeth would not have shrunk, is showing himself a trifle too scrupulous He is, however, complete master of his subject, am has accumulated a vast amount of matter, on th value of which we are fully entitled to speak. H tells, p. 64, a story of two "Yorkshire tykes" bar gaining concerning horses, and does not seem aware that it is in the dialect of the West Riding the best-known Yorkshire poem in existence, anc


is such is inserted in Halliwell'-s 'Yorkshire An- hology.' His observations upon Yorkshire methods >f thought and procedure are shrewd and accurate, and he has collected some scores of characteristic tories and locutions, which may be read with imusement and delight. We personally found the ask difficult of laying down a work every page of vhich has interest or value. We will give him a tory, illustrative in its way, which he does not seem to know. A " tyke," heading a deputation, called on the "great" Lord Derby, with whom an appointment had been made. When at the noble- man's house, in St. James's Square, the door was opened, our Yorkshireman, undismayed at the splendour around him, and scorning superfluous speech, simply said, "Young man, is a [he] in?" The "a" was quite sufficient to designate the Earl. tVe can personally testify to the justice of most of Mr. Blakeborough's comments. Such things as refusing to ask explanations of unfamiliar words, and consequent accidents resulting from mis- .nternretation, are familiar, and arise from the mingled cannyness and independence of Yorkshire character. There is not much in the stories given bhat we should characterize as wit, but there is abundance of readiness, sharpness, and comic out- spokenness of retort. Concerning proceedings and mock errands on April Fool Day, Mr. Blake- borough has something to say. He tells of a victim being sent for "a bucket of steam." Did he ever hear of a woman being sent for "a long stand," and being kept waiting for hours on her feet ? We have known this done. Our author omits a chapter on the sequence of children's games, materials for which he has. We wish he would send them us. Information on the subject is much wanted. It seems that the stang was ridden in Wensleydale so recently as October, 1896. Among the public enter- tainments at Gisborough Races in 1784 we find "smocking." In the sweet dales watered by the Ure, the Swale, and other " umbered" streams much quaint folk-lore and many curious superstitions even now linger. These things Mr. Blakeborough has diligently collected, so far as possible, at first hand. His work has philological value, and he has compiled a copious and useful glossary and written a valuable chapter on " The Grammar of the Folk-speech." Mr. Blakeborough, who writes from 24, Trent Street, Stockton -on -Tees, is anxious to form a North Riding folk-lore and dialectical, or dialectal, society. Some of our readers may care to communicate with him. We have, meanwhile, to thank him for a useful, well-written, and enter- taining book.

Memoirs of John A. Heraud. By Edith Heraud.

(Red way.)

ABOUT the middle of the present century John A. Heraud was a man of note and importance. We have heard Westland Marston say that an intio- duction to the author of ' The Descent into Hell,' with which he was supplied, constituted an event in his life. To some extent Heraud was responsible for the growth in England of a knowledge of German philosophy. He wrote epic poems, which were more praised than read, and dramas, one or two of which found their way on to the stage ; he was an acute, honest, and capable critic ; a friend of the Carlyles ; a correspondent of Southey, Wordsworth, and other celebrities of a previous age ; and the author of a work on Shakspeare which has won the commendations of the most advanced critics and