142
NOTES 'AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. AUG. 17, 1901.
the reign of James II. the name of Floyd
stands immutably upon its own ground.
The adoption of this name as interchange-
able with Lloyd appears to have grown into
fashion at the very end of the eighteenth
century. Thus, for instance, Charnock in
his naval biography, Dal ton in his army lists,
and Meyrick in his history of Cardiganshire
in 1810, all call families and men named
Floyd by the name Lloyd. The main writers
invariably speak of Floyd, so named in the
Stuart Papers one hundred years before,
as Lloyd. The Stuart Papers, which lay
buried for the last two hundred years at
Windsor Castle, give the lie in the plainest
way to that free-and-easy interchange of the
two names. Neither, as observed already,
can one understand any ground for such
nonsense.
The Roxburghe Papers deal with the name of Floyd in the same way, and there are some who now seem to hold the same views. It may be possible through your columns to get to the bottom of this matter. One name is quite as good as the other, but such is the force of custom that it is very doubtful whether the present Lloyds of Mabus of Cardigan would allow that their surname had ever been Floyd.
The Stuart Papers, by-the-by, now being edited by the Historical MSS. Commission, will prove the force of what is said more than any other sets of MSS. It would have been better if they had been made public before, but the house of Hanover kept them under lock and key. The writer knows of only one instance in which Floyd is converted into Fludd, and that in the person of Sir Thomas Fludd, paymaster of Queen Eliza- beth's army. G. D.
RAILWAY FROM RUSSIA TO INDIA. May I place on record a curious instance of anticipa- tion of an event which, when it does happen, will be of far-reaching importance ?
In the atlas issued by the Times last year, and published at their office, is shown in map 81 as actually existing the much-debated extension of the Merv-Khushk railway to Herat, and thence, vid Farah, Girishk,'and Kandahar, to our frontier at Chaman.
I wrote to the manager of the Times on the subject, and he replied acknowledging the error, which had already been brought to his notice, and stated that it would not be allowed to appear in future editions
C. S. HARRIS.
POEM BY JOSEPH BEAUMONT, DD. Mi- Bertram Dobell bookseller, of 54, Charing Cross Road, m his catalogue of books for
July has printed what he asserts to be a
hitherto unpublished poem by Dr. Beaumont,
the author of ' Psyche ; or, Love's Mystery,'
from a manuscript volume of 325 quarto
pages in his possession. The poem, in Mr.
Dobell's opinion, is worthy to be set beside
the best religious verse in the English lan-
guage. Without endorsing Mr. Dobell's
opinion, I think the poem, if unpublished,
is worthy of a more extensive appreciation
than it is likely to obtain through a book-
seller's catalogue, and with a view to ascer-
taining whether it has been printed before,
I venture to ask its insertion in your pages.
The poem is entitled
LOVE'S MYSTERIE. (For a Basse and two Trebles. ) The bright inamoured youth above I asked, What kind of thing is Love ? I ask'd the Saints, They could not tell, Though in their bosoms it doth dwell. I ask'd the lower Angels : They Lived in its flames but could not say. I ask'd the Seraphs : These at last confes'd We cannot tell how God should be expres'd.
Can you not tell, whose amorous eyes
Flanie in Love's sweetest ecstasies ?
Can you not tell whose pure thoughts move
On wings all feathered with Love ?
Can you not tell who breathe and live
No life but what great Love doth give ?
Grant Love a God : Sweet Seraphs who should know
The nature of this Dei tie but you ?
And who, bold Mortall, more than wee Should know that Love 's a Mysterie ? Hid under his owne flaming wing Lies Love, a secret open thing, And there lie wee, all hid in light Which gives us, and denies all sight. We see what dazells and inflames our eyes, And makes them mighty Love's Burnt Sacrifice.
Dr. Beaumont (1616 - 99) was Master of Peterhouse, and perpetrated an inordinate quantity of verse in youth, his ' Psyche,' even when abridged, containing 30,000 lines. The 'Diet. Nat. Biog' states that the complete poems of Beaumont, in English and Latin, were first edited in two quarto volumes, privately printed by the Rev. A. B. Grosart, with a memoir ; and if this is the case Mr. Dobell may be mistaken in supposing that the poem printed by him is printed for the first time. JOHN HEBB.
"As WARM AS A BAT." While talking with a Lancashire man sixty -five years old I heard him use this expression. He said when he was young his feet were "as warm as a bat," but now, if he warmed them at the fire before he went to bed, they were "as cold as a dog's nose" when he got upstairs. He did not know why " bat" was used to express the idea, but he
