52
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. JULY 15, 1911.
the " home " of this prized collection'
" The Dilke Bequest of Keats' Relics "
is admirably concise and indicative. The
present writer, when recently inspecting the
treasures, was sorry to note the paucity of
visitors ; but that is a neglect which cannot
certainly long prevail. The Hampstead and
Highgate Express gives the following as
a list of the items :
" Letters written by Keats ; letters received by him from Leigh Hunt ; a trinket containing a lock of his hair ; his notebook when a medical student ; books owned by him (some with mar- ginal notes) ; love-letters to Fanny Brawn e ; various sketches and portraits of Keats, a plaster mask, and a bust of the poet."
The latter two are not as yet, apparently, in position. CECIL CLABKE.
Junior AthenaBum Club.
MISTRESS KATHEBINE ASHLEY OB ASTLEY (11 S. iii. 447; iv. 13). MB. BAYLEY'S reply will not, I fear, help in elucidating the identity of this lady. My query was, How could Katherine Champernowne have married Sir John Astley when at the time referred to she was the wife of another ? Sir John's second wife, Margaret, called " daughter of Thomas, Lord Grey, brother of Henry, Lord Grey," is certainly inac- curately described. There was neither a Thomas nor a Henry Lord Grey at that period who could have held this relationship to her. The lady intended is Margaret, daughter of Lord Thomas Grey, second son of the second Marquis of Dorset, and brother to the unfortunate Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. Lord Thomas was beheaded 27 April, 1555, for being concerned in the Wyatt insurrection. His wife's name seems to be unknown, and it was probably this circumstance that led Sir Egerton Brydges in his ' Peerage ' (sub Earl of Stamford) to express a doubt of Lord Thomas leaving a daughter. Her epitaph at Maidstone where she died in 1601 styles her "daughter of Thomas Grey, branched out of the right honourable house of the Greys, Dukes of Suffolk, Marquises of Dorset, &c."
Margaret Astley was executrix to her husband, and proved his will in 1596.
W. D. PINK.
BUBNS AND ' THE WEE WEE GEBMAN LAIBDIE ' (11 S. iii. 286, 354, 430; iv. 14). A few final words may, perhaps, be per- mitted on this topic. In the first place, Ma-ginn is a very slender authority on any- thing connected with Scotland, which he once banned as a " beggarly " region in- habited by " loons with bottomless b reeks."
As; however, his statement regarding Hogg
and Cunningham has been accorded the
value of substantial evidence, it should have
consideration. Maginn was avowedly
familiar with all the lyrics in the ' Remains
of Nithsdale and Galloway Song,' and also
with a body of " Jacobite relics," which he
says Cunningham gave or lent to Hogg
before the time of the Cromek venture. The
second products, he avers, are superior to
the first : " they are," in his own words,.
" simply chefs d'ceuvre, and are almost, but
not entirely, equalled by the Jacobite
relics." He thus distinguishes and dis-
criminates, making it clear that the two
sets of lyrics are separate and unrelated.
Were .it not so, we should be entitled to
charge the critic with comparing and con-
trasting certain poetical compositions with
themselves. Therefore we are justified in
concluding that there is nothing in the one
group which is repeated in the other. This
postulates the exclusion of ' The Wee Wee
German Lairdie ' from the " relics " given
or lent to Hogg, and disposes of the argument
from Maginn 's statement for Cunningham's
authorship of that song.
Secondly, it is the case that, when a lad of eighteen, Cunningham had an interview with Hogg on Queensberry Hill, and read or recited to him some of his experiments in verse. Hogg reports the incident, and adds that the friendship thus begun was diligently fostered by himself. " From that day forward," he observes, " I failed not to improve my acquaintance with the Cun- ninghams. I visited them several times at Dalswinton, and never missed an opportunity of meeting with Allan." There is no allusion in this or other authentic reports to such literary deception as that given from tradi- tion at the last reference. At the same time, this floating story of Cunningham's trickery receives colour from what isdefinitely known regarding his actual proceedings. Even if the legend, however, is to be assumed as chronicling a fact, it remains to be proved that ' The Wee Wee German Lairdie ' was the lyric with which the eclectic aspirant abused the good nature of his friend. Yet this is now called " Cunningham's song, which imposed upon Hogg." Wherein is the warrant for the large assumption ?
Finally, there is still Hogg's " older collection," which included ' The Wee Wee German Lairdie,' and which, it is now evident, was not the cluster of " Jacobite relics " mentioned by Maginn. Though tin's an- thology may never be seen again, there is no reason to doubt that it once existed.
