Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/500

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490


NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. XL JUNE 26, 1915.


VANISHING CITY LANDMARKS : RECTOBY HOUSE OF ST. MICHAEL COBNHILL. (See 11 S. vii. 247 ; viii. 446 ; x. 26, 407, 426.) Apropos of the disappearance of this old house it will be of interest to mention that the little churchyard adjoining, which has been so long disfigured by a builder's shed, is now cleared. With its grass plot fringecl with a dozen or so of trees, it furnishes another pleasant oasis amid the bustle of city life. One is glad, also, to note that the displaced tombstones are in process of reinstatement.

CECIL CLABKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

THE " BELL " BIBLE. This extra-illus- trated copy of Macklin's folio Bible, 1791, has been lodged for nearly thirty-five years in the Bishop Phillpotts Library at Truro, where I have recently examined it. The copious interleavings increased it to the unprecedented number of sixty - three volumes, which were bound in half -morocco by Clegg & Son of Manchester, whose bill, dated 17 June, 1866, came to 62Z. 17s., and cannot be called excessive. Mr. John Gray TBell was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, being the son of Thomas Bell, a book-collector =and a friend of Thomas Bewick. He beca/ne a bookseller, and conducted a business in Covent Garden ; but in his later years he resided at Manchester, where he died 16 Feb., 1866, at the age of 43.

After some auction-room vicissitudes the " Bell " Bible came into the hands of the Hev. Frank Parker, Rector of Luffincott, near Launceston. He in 1883 bequeathed it, as a part of his valuable collection of books, to the Bishopric of Cornwall. It contains about 10,000 engravings and about 1,000 original drawings, with specimen leaves of many early editions of the Bible. As an example of " Grangerizing " it has perhaps never been equalled. Yet it might have been enlarged if the misguided collector had possessed copies of the illustrations of Picart and Demarne.

RICHARD H. THOBNTON. 8, Moruingtori Crescent, N.W.

EPITAPHIANA : LONGNOB CHUBCHYABD.

1. In Memory of William Billinge, who was born in a Comfield at the Fawfieldhead, in this Parish, in the year 1679. At the age of 23 years he enlisted into His Majesty's Service under Sir George Rooke, and was at the taking of the Fortress of Gibraltar, in 1704. He afterwards served under the Duke of Marlborough at the ever Memorable Battle of Ramillies, fought on the 23rd of May, 1706, where he was wounded by a musket shot in the thigh. He afterwards 're- turned to his native country, and with manly


courage defended his Sovereign's rights at the Rebellion in 1715 and 1745. He died within the space of 150 yards of where he was born, and was interred here the 30th of January, 1791, aged 112 years.

Billited by Death, I quartered here remain, When the trumpet sounds, I'll rise and march

again. 2. In

Memory of Samuel Bagshaw late of Har- clingsbooth who depar- ted this life June the 5th 1787 aged 71 years.

Beneath lie moxild'ring into Dust

A Carpenter's Remains

A Man laborknis, honest, just ; his Character

sustains.

In seventy-one revolving years, He sow'd no Seeds of Strife ; With Ax and Saw, Line Rule & Square, Employ 'd

his careful life.

But Death, who view'd his peaceful Lot, His Tree of Life assail'd : His Grave was made upon this spot, & his last

Branch he nail'd.

C. L. CTJMMINGS.

Sunderland.

MATCH-GIBL'S SONG. I have found the following song in an old note-book ; it dates from the time when tinder-boxes and brim- stone matches were in regular use, which I can just remember, as also a somewhat different version of the song :

There was an old woman in Rosemary Lane, She cuts 'em and dips 'em, an' I do the same. Come buy my fine matches, come buy 'em of me, They are the best matches 'most ever you see ; For lighting your candles and kindling your fire They are the best matches as you can desire.

As I remember it, the second line \vas : He [or she] cuts them, she [or he] dips them, and I do the same,

so that the first line must have been different, probably referring to the girl's father and mother." J. T. F.

Durham.

GLADSTONE ON GEBMANY'S GBEED. In an anonymous article contributed by Gladstone to The Edinburgh Review in 1870, that statesman warned Germany against the consequences of wresting Alsace and Lorraine from France, and he uttered this prophecy :

"A new law is coming to sway the practice of the world ; a law which recognizes independence, which frowns on aggression, which favours pacific, not the bloody settlement of disputes ; which recognizes as a tribunal of paramount authority the general judgment of civilized mankind. It has censured the aggression of France ; it will censure, if need arise, the greed of Germany."

M. B. L. BBESLAR.