514
NOTES AND QUERIES, c^s.vn. JUNE 29,1901.
of the house indicated, although it may be
inferred that its site was the same as the
D.D. Cellars. The tavern is undoubtedly
named after Nathaniel Bentley, who it is
assumed resided there, and " about seventy
years ago was " (according to the pamphlet]
" one of the best-known characters in the City
of London. " JOHN T. PAGE.
West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
ENGLISH HEXAMETERS AND ELEGIACS (9 th S. vii. 321). The contemptuous way in which authorities such as Bentley and poets such as Tennyson have treated the question of English hexameters and elegiacs has always astonished me. Elegiacs are much more difficult to write in English than hexameters, the pentameter line seldom avoiding a sing-song effect, have sometimes thought this could be best escaped by inserting an extra syllable after the caesura in the middle of the verse. But, as a matter of fact, elegiacs after the classical model are not required in our language. The couplet of Pope exactly reproduces the effect of the Ovidian couplet. With hexameters it is different ; they are required, and, so far from being an artificial product in English, they are natural to it. Is any casual reader aware of the number of hexameters there are in the Bible alone ? The book of Job contains more than a dozen. Here are some :
Small and great are there, and the servant is free
from his master. Looseth the bond of kings, and bindeth their loins
with a girdle. Breasts are full of milk, and his bones are
moistened with marrow.
Canst thou With Him spread out the sky, which is strong as
a molten mirror?
The book of Psalms contains even more examples than Job :
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the
princes. At Thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath
of Thy nostrils.
Another series may be found in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In the passage about the ant there are two hexameter lines in close proximity, separated only by a dactylic line of four and a half feet. Then take these scattered examples :
Mischief shall be upon mischief, and rumour shall
be upon rumour. He shall come up as a cloud, and his chariot shall
be as a whirlwind. We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. He whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom
thou cursest is cursed. Art thou He that should come, or do we look for
another ?
In Jeremiah iv. 23 are two hexameters run-
ning, and also in Isaiah xii. 12 ; and who
can fail to feel the exquisite cadence of
John xx. 13 ?
Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them,
Because they have Taken away my Lord, and I know not where they
have laid Him.
The above will be sufficient to prove my main contention. Those who wish to pursue the subject will, of course, read Matthew Arnold's lectures on Homer ; and they may find other information in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1821 ; the Atlantic Monthly for July and October, 1890 ; the Athenaeum for 13 June, 1885 ; and in a pamphlet by the late C. B. Cay ley on English hexameters, privately printed ; and there are attempts at English hexameters to be found in Coleridge's ' Mahomet,' Southey's ' Vision of Judgment,' and in Hookhatn Frere.
REGINALD HAINES.
Uppingham.
BOTTLED ALE : ITS INVENTION (9 th S. vii. 287, 412). Very nearly the same story which is told of the invention of bottled beer is attributed to one of the early bishops of Bamberg, in Bavaria. The bishop while fish- ing was surprised by an enemy, and fled, leaving behind him a bottle of new beer. A year after, on revisiting the spot, he found his ale, to his great astonishment, much im- proved. Both legends are very unlikely. CHARLES GODFREY LELAND.
The story from Fuller was given twenty years earlier in 'Who in vented Bottled Beer?' Once a Week, 7 Aug., 1869, Third Series, No. 84, vol. iv. pp. 20-1. Nos. 81-3, vol. iv. of that journal are paged 1-66, and not indexed, the continuous paging and indexing commencing only with No. 84. THOMAS J. JEAKES.
GEORGE WALLACE (9 th S. vii. 408). George Wallace was a son of the Rev. Dr. Robert Wallace, minister of the New North Parish of Edinburgh, Moderator of the General Assembly of 1743, Dean of the Chapel Royal, and a prominent ecclesiastic in his day. Dr. Wallace died in 1771, aged seventy-five. He was a son of the Rev. Matthew Wallace, who in 1695 was ordained minister of Kincardine, in Menteith, and died in 1727, aged fifty-five. George was called to the Scottish Bar in 1754, and was the author of ' The Origin of Feudal Tenures.' His mother was Helen, daughter of the Rev. George Turnbull, of Tyningham. Se had a brother Matthew, LL.D., vicar of Tenterden, in Kent, who died in 1771, and
sister named Elizabeth. George, as well as his brother and sister, died unmarried. He
