250
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s,m. APRIL i,
Kow, London. 1792." The dedication is to
Edward James Eliot, one of the Lords Com-
missioners of the Treasury and member for
Liskeard in Cornwall. I had already Jeremy
Collier's and Long's translations, and this one
by Graves seems to compare very favourably
with them, both in respect of English style
and of the learning displayed in the notes,
&c. Is there any other copy in existence?
If so, in what esteem is this translation held
by classical scholars ? ST. AUSTELL.
[It is unmentioned by Lowndes.]
THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS.
(8 th S. i. 512 ; ii. 57, 218, 393, 485 ; iii. 49, 111,
189, 331 ; 9 fcb S. ii. 155, 169, 329.) ABSENCE from home and illness have delayed my attention to MESSRS. MOORE and PEASF, As already said, a letter to *N. & Q.' from Dresden (stating that William Pitt and Lady Grenville, n4e Pitt, had each ignored Sir Philip Francis) induced me to submit to 'N. & Q.' those conjectures which I discarded on seeing two letters from Junius himself to Lord Chatham. Concluding at once that the packet in question must have come from the Grenvilles, I cast about and struck the trail of Earl Temple.
I am willing to affirm, if need be, that about the year 1855 the steward of Boconnoc and Dropmore informed me that, on his installation, Lady Grenville told him, at Dropmore, that a sealed packet, which she then produced, contained the real name of Junius, and instructed him that in a certain year, I forget which, the packet was to be opened and the real name revealed. 1 can imagine that the steward's fervour reflected that of her ladyship, who declared, when her end was near, that Lord Grenville certainly knew who Junius was. My assailants, how- ever, pit opinions against facts.
MR. PEASE says he "cannot find words to express his indignation at what" I have written of his father and the Hon. George Fortescue, and that he writes "simply to vindicate the honour of the dead," which has not been called in question. Still, he must not expect death to change the sombre hue of all reputations to couleur de rose, nor that the inquisitive will find nil nisi bonum ad- hering to them in Cornwall. To the faithfu] hound his master may be a god, but I can concede no monopoly of "integrity and honour " to the idol MR. PEASE worships. 1 am competent to say, for the nonce, that my quarterings would eclipse his ; and from my
teener perception of the duties of land-
lolding, I should have suspected that the
rapid augmentation of a rent-roll boded no
^ood to the tenantry, and perhaps learnt that
- he aggrieved did find words to express their
"ndignation in printed rhymes.
My object in citing the characteristics of my informant was, by way of antithesis, to nspire confidence, for no mind bent on money-making would turn aside to invent
- he tale which MR. MOORE helps to confirm.
[ merely repeat Mrs. Grote, relict of the earned historian, who, in writing about the Burnham Beeches (* Collected Papers '), de- scribes at some length how Lady Grenville, of Dropmore, incurred odium latterly through
- he overbearance of her official :
0, why has man the will and power
To make his fellow mourn ?
A.nd, to my knowledge, something similar ighted on Mr. Fortescue, of Boconnoc, for his subservience. MR. PEASE says he " never heard ris father speak of the sealed packet, nor has le mentioned it in his diary, ' which proves nothing, though his father made a significant entry in his copy of Junius, which means something. He pretends that what I have said about the Burnham Beeches "cannot possibly be true " that his father " was strongly opposed to the sale, which was never contemplated in Mr. Fortescue's lifetime." To this MR. MOORE adds that "it did not take place till some years after his death." The death was in 1877 and the sale in 1879. As to contemplation both may be at fault. I took peculiar interest in Boconnoc, Dropmore, and Burnham, since an Elizabethan monument proves heraldically that former owners were my forefathers, whom I represent. Years before the sale the steward mentioned the great demand for building sites near Drop- more, and the scheme for selling required time to mature. As Mr. Forbes, twenty-five years keeper of the Beeches, wrote (Times, 21 July, 1879) that Lady Grenville, the Hon. G. Fortescue, and Capt. Fortescue "always took great interest in their preservation," we may conclude that none of them had invited builders to destroy a thing of beauty; but the steward was masterful, the Beeches were sold, and who but he could have promoted the sale 1 Moreover, is it probable that a " faith- ful steward " would have opposed a bargain so profitable to his employer ?
Mr. F. G. Heath, in his ' History of Burn- ham Beeches,' explains that rumours, followed by newspaper paragraphs, prepared the way for the sale, which came off at the Mart, 24 June, 1879, when the Beeches were with- drawn. The scare took effect. It stirred the
