12 s. ix. OCT. 22, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 327 which had been sung by some choirs troubled by modernity, thus said : wronging the ancientry," who So glad I am of the presence Of her, that I all offence Forgete. (Gower's ' Confessio Amantis,' lit. 103.) To perfume, Shakespeare inclines ; but Ford's ' Tis Pity ' (1633) has : For jewels,. eyes : for sweet perfumes, her breath. Pope's 'Iliad' (1720), xvi. 829 pretty poem ; even though we may not call it Homer : And. with perfumes of sweet ambrosial dews Restores his freshness. (' Apollo and Sarpedon.') It is the only accenting in Johnson . And so, after a century, in Patmore's ' Victories of Love, t ' xii. : Remembered their perfumes and showers. . . . And Tennyson's ' Bridal ' : The chapel's vaulted gloom Was misted with perfume. Yet Tennyson (' Gardener's Daughter ') also has And one warm gust full-fed with perfume blew. And Swinburne's ' Triumph of Time ' : Life sweet as perfume and pure as prayer. With splendid summer and perfume and pride. In Swift's bitterer verses on the death of Swift : That old vertigo in his head Will never leave him till he's dead. Which sound is heard still in the 1798 ' Loves of the Triangles ' of the Anti-Jacobin : - Thus some fair spinster grieves in wild affright, Vex'd with dull megrim or vertigo light. As Shakespeare's ' Troilus and Cressida ' (IV. v. 128) : My mother's blood Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister Bounds in my sire's. So Dryden's (1682) ' Macflecknoe ' (I. iii.)i has In his sinister hand instead of ball He placed a mighty mug of potent ale. And so, Pope. Though Johnson allows only j sinister. That century had its special terror : Oh ! if to dance all night, and dress all day. Charm' d the small-pox, or chas'd old age away. (' Rape of the Lock,' v. 660.) And if Pope's day (1688-1744) wished for " more Essays on Man," so Seattle's
- Minstrel ' (c. 1770) patronized Homer : -
though rude his first essays. As late as Moore's (1823) ' Rhymes on the Road,' ' Mary Magdalene ' : But Mary 'mong the best essays Of Genius and of Art . . . No one hath equall'd, hath come nigh Canova's fancy. W. F. P. STOCKLEY. (To be continued.) THE REV. JOSEPH BENSON AND THE ' D.N.B.' In the account of Joseph Benson, the Wesleyan preacher and commentator, in the ' D.N.B.' it is stated that he married Miss Thompson and had no issue. It is remarkable that none of his many descendants has taken the trouble to correct this error. As Professor Margaret Benson states in a letter there are quite a hundred descendants living. Joseph Benson was born at Melmerly, Feb. 21, 1747/8, being the son of John Benson and grandson of Miles Benson, who was buried Sept. 6,1732, aged 59, at Melmerly. He received his early education under Mr. Dean, a Presbyterian Minister, and later entered himself at St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, 1769-1771, with a view to entering the Church. He was presented to a living near West Bromwich, but the Bishop of Worcester refused to ordain him, owing to his intimacy with the Methodists. He alleged the excuse of an Academic degree. Benson therefore joined Wesley's Society and became a great preacher throughout the land. He was President of the Wesleyan Conference 1798-1810 and editor of Wesley's ' Works.' He married Jan. 28, 1780, at Leeds, Sarah, daughter of Thos. Thompson, corn factor, of Knottingley, near Pontefract, whose will was proved at York 1761, a son of John Thompson, Gent., of Knottingley. The family appear to have been seated at Knottingley for some generations. In the Hearth Tax Rolls, 26 Charles II. (West Riding of Yorks, P.R.O.), appears: "Richard Thompson responsible for four Hearths and Samuel for one, and John for four Hearths, all of Knottingley." The children of Joseph Benson and Sarah Thompson were : Joseph, born Dec. 13, 1780 ; a surgeon in the City Road; died 1853. John, born July 26, 1783 ; M.A., St. John's
