Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/110

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84 NOTES AND QUERIES. ri2S.ix. JULY 30. 1921.

Bequia, removed to Trinidad. He married a sister of Major Board, and died 1878. She died . . . . and is burried in St. Vincent. Issue: 2 children.

2. Elizabeth, born March 17, 1811, died Jan. 9, 1839.

3. Charles, born March 1, 1813, died at Jersey, Mar. 12 1846. He married and had:

(1) Charles Deyman Baillie, Born 1837, Lt.-Col. 2nd. Foot, d. 1916.

4. Frederick, born Feb. 25, 1816. M.R.C.S., Army Medical Staff, d.s.p. 1846 at Corfu.

5. Adelaide, born Jan. 30, 1817, married May 14, 1839, at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, Edward Horncastle Smith, Surgeon, born July 28, 1813. He died 1842 aged 29 and she died 1868, and is buried at Shooter's Hill.

6. Louisa, born Oct. 14, 1818, died young.

7. Thomas, born April 8, 1820, died unmarried.

8. Mary, born Oct. 13, 1821.

The Times of Mar. 23, 1838, states:

'On 20th. inst., at Sloane Street, aged 67 years, Dr. George Robertson Baillie, deputy Inspector-General of Army Hospitals.'

Dr. Baillie in his will mentions an indenture of 5,000 relating to his marriage with Jane Ann Warner, eldest dau. of Charles John Warner, Esq., of Bequia. His said wife died in 1823. He mentions children: Adelaide, Elizabeth, Louisa, Charles and Thomas Baillie. Dated 1836. Proved 1838. James Seton-Anderson.

39, Carlisle Road, Hove, Sussex.

(To be continued.)




THE IVORY GATE OF VIRGIL:
ENGLISH MISCONCEPTION.

In the closing lines of the Sixth Aeneid two gates of sleep (i.e., dreams) are described "the one, as story tells, of horn, supplying a ready exit for true spirits; the other gleaming with the polish of dazzling ivory, but through it the powers below send false dreams to the world above" (Conington). The last two lines in Latin' are:

Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephant o,
"Sed falsa ad coelum mittumt insomnia manes."

Compare Tibullus, Book II., 6, 37. " Ne tibi neglecti mittant mala sonmia manes." " Insomnia " appears to include bad dreams and a restless obsession like that of Dido at the beginning of the Fourth Aeneid. Virgil obviously founded his account of the gates on Odyssey xix. 562, even in the rhythm of " nitens elephant o." The word <j>as in the Odyssey is associated with the verb rXc^cupeo-lcu, " deceive," as Kepas, " horn," is with upatvciv, " accomplish." The elephant was unknown to Homer, and Herodotus does not associate it with tricky behaviour. Perhaps the suggested deriva- tion of the two materials is a mere pun, or may it be due to the reputation of the Phoenicians as tricky traders in ivory ? An- chises dismisses Aeneas and the Sibyl by the Ivory Gate. Why this is chosen is not clear, unless because he was no " true ghost." But the preference for this gate seems to have fixed it in the mind of some English writers as that of true vision. Perhaps they have not troubled to examine the references in Virgil and Homer, or have forgotten them, and have naturally supposed that, ivory being a much more valuable material than horn, the Ivory Gate was associated with truth and fair dreams. Perhaps also they may have been influenced by such passages as " out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad." (Psalm 45, 8.) What- ever be the reason, the Ivory Gate stands in passages where the other would seem more correct unless, indeed, the writers regard fiction as " unfulfilled " and " false dreams." William Morris, in the charming poem intro- ducing ' The Earthly Paradise,' writes : Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time, Why should I strive to set the crooked straight ? Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme Beats with light wing against the ivory gate, Telling a tale not too importunate To those who in the sleepy region stay, Lulled by the singer of an empty day. I do not quite gather what the situation is as envisaged by Morris ; but he surely would not care to compare his visions to " falsa insomnia." They are not deceitful : rather they make their appeal as true to life and art. It was not till some years later, I note, that Morris translated the Aeneid. A clear case of error occurs in ' The Dozy Hours and Other Papers,' by an accom- plished essayist, Dr. Agnes Repplier. For in the first of her essaj^s, which gives the title to her book, she speaks of letter-writers " sure to put us into a good and amiable frame of mind, fit for fair slumber and the ivory gates." Later in the same para- graph, I read that, " unless we go cheerfully to bed the portals of horn open for us with sullen murmur, and fretful dreams, more