Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/240

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234


NOTES AND QUERIES. rn s. in. MAR. 25, 1011.


appeared together in this country in 1826. During the same year Prof. Norton repub- lished the works of Mrs. Hemans in America. Itfis possible that ' Casabianca ' made its appearance for the first time in some English magazine ; but if the statement in the

  • D.N.B.' is correct, it did not appear in the

first edition of * The Forest Sanctuary.' It will follow that the poem was printed among the works of Mrs. Hemans for the first time in the Boston edition of 1826, to which MB. ALBERT MATTHEWS has called attention. W. SCOTT.

" DIE IN BEAUTY " (US. iii. 7, 74, 112). The source of this phrase is a song of Charles Doyne Sillery (1807-36), born in Athlone, but reared in Edinburgh, and from his personal charm and poetic enthusiasm a much-liked figure in Scotch literary circles for a number of years. His most pre- tentious compositions were ' Vallery ' (1829, subscription) and ' Eldred of Erin.' The little poem, with some variants, was long one of the American favorites, published in various anthologies and quoted from in novels. It is as follows :

She died in beauty like a rose blown from its

parent stem ; She died in beauty like a pearl dropped from

some diadem.

She died in beauty like a lay along a moonlit

lake ; She died in beauty like the song of birds among

the brake. She died in beauty like the snow on flowers

dissolved away ; She died in beauty like a star lost on the brow

of day. She lives in glory like night's gems set round

the silver moon ; She lives in glory like the sun amid the blue

of June !

Verse 3, line 1, is sometimes printed " like the dew from flowers exhaled away." The original is punctuated largely with notes of exclamation. FORREST MORGAN.

Hartford, Conn.

SCARBOROUGH SPA (US. iii. 129, 157). A minor poet, George Tonstall by name, "wrote ' Scarborough Spaw spagyrically anatomized by Geo. Tonstall, Doctor of Physick,' London, 1670. Three years earlier appeared " Scarbrough-Spaw, or a Descrip- tion of the Nature and Vertues of the Spaw at Scarbrough, Yorkshire, &c., by Robert Wittie, Dr. in Physick, Lond." Tonstall replied in ' A New year's-Gift for Dr. Rob. Wittie.' In 1670 Dr. William Simpson of Wakefield answered Tonstall in * Hydro- logical Essays,' &c., and in 1672 Wittie


replied to Tonstall in ' Scarbrough' s Spagyri- cal Anatomizer Dissected.' See Anthony Wood's 'Athenae Oxonienses ' (ed. Bliss, 1817), iii. 985. A. R. BAYLEY.

[MB. A. H. ARKLE and MR. FRANK CURRY also thanked for replies.]

"WHEN SHE WAS GOOD," &c. (11 S. iii. 128). Carolyn Wells' s ' Nonsense Antho- logy,' Granger's ' Index,' and other books attribute these lines to Longfellow. Under date of 27 Feb., 1911, Miss Wells writes :

" I have many times seen it stated that Long- fellow wrote the lines. I like to think that he did write them, but I cannot offer proof."

In this connexion the following extract from Longfellow's ' Table-Talk ' might be quoted :

" When I recall my juvenile poems and prose sketches, I wish that they were forgotten entirely. They however cling to one's skirts with a terrible grasp. They remind me of the ' plusieurs enfants ' in ' M. de Pourceaugnac,' clinging to him in the street and crying, ' Ah ! mon papa ! mon papa ! mon papa ' ! "

T. F.

Brooklyn, N.Y.

BEATRIX GORDON = ROBERT ARBUTHNOT (11 S. iii. 69). Was not Beatrix Gordon the daughter of Robert Gordon of Straloch, a celebrated antiquary and geographer ? He was a second son, but succeeded to the estate of Pitlurg on the death of his elder brother. His family consisted of eleven sons and six daughters. SUTOCS.

MONTAGU G. DRAKE (11 S. iii. 29, 72, 132). Montague Garrard Drake, men- tioned by COL. FYNMORE at the last reference, who was M.P. for Amersham in 1713, 1715, and 1727, cannot be the person for whom G. F. R. B. is inquiring, as he was born in 1693, and would not have been at school in 1725. He is buried in the Drake Chapel at Amersham Church, where a handsome monument by B. Scheemaker was erected to his memory by his sorrowing wife. He died 26 April, 1728, in the 35th year of his age.

I have searched the Amersham registers, and have found an entry in the burials for 1725 of a Montague Drake, who is un- doubtedly the person of whom particulars are desired. The entry is as follows : " Aug. 14. Montague Drake (Minor), son of Wm. Drake, Esq., of Adderbury, was buried in woollen. Affid. made by Tho : Le: Gros."

The pedigree of Drake of Amersham in Lipscomb's ' History of Bucks ' does not mention a William Drake who could have been the father of this lad.