Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/352

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346


NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ix. MAY 2, 191*.


tmt none that appeared calculated for our numbers, .and where the Stores and Provisions could be landed without a great loss of time. When I considered the Bay's being so Very open, and the probability of the swamps rendering the most eligible situation unhealthy, I judged it advisable to examine Port Jackson. But that no time might toe lost, if I did not succeed in finding a better Harbour, and a proper situation for the Settle- ment, the ground near point Sutherland was in the meantime to be cleared, and preparations made for landing, under the direction of the Lieu* Governor ....

I went round with three Boats, taking with me Captain Hunter, and several Officers, that by -examining different parts of the Port at the same time, less time might be lost. We got into Port Jackson early in the Afternoon, and had the satisfaction of finding the finest Harbour in the World, in which a thousand sail of the line may Tide in the most perfect security. . . .

The different Coves were examined with all possible expedition : I fixed upon the one that had the best Spring of Water, and in which the Ships can Anchor so close to shore, that at a very small expence Quays may be made at which the largest Ships may load.

This Cove, which I honoured with the Name of Sydney, is about a quarter of a Mile across at the entrance, and half a mile in length. We re- turned to Botany Bay the third day, where I received a very unfavourable account of the ground that was clearing. The Ships immediately "prepared to go round, and the 25th, seven days sifter I arrived in the Supply, I sailed in her for Port Jackson, leaving Captain Hunter to follow Tvith the Transports, it then blowing too strong for them to work out of the Bay ; they joined me the next Evening, and all the Transports were imoored in the Cove ....

(Signed) A. PHILLIP.

The Lord Sydney.

The reference for the letter is Colonial Office, 201/3, p. 1. E. H. FAIRBROTHER.

THE " THBEE HOURS " DEVOTION. Pro- bably the following letter, which appeared an The Evening Standard of 9 April, is of sufficient general interest to be reprinted in ' N. & Q.' :

SIR, In your ' Church Notes ' of yesterday, I

find the statement : " The widespread adoption

of this devotion (the three hours) is a striking fact.

....Its observance was started at St. Alban's,

Holborn, just half a century ago."

Will you allow me to point out that the devotion in the form now most popular Avas begun by a Peruvian Jesuit, Father Mesia, in the early part of the eighteenth century ? Perhaps for my present purpose no further evidence will be needed than to copy the title-page of a little book published in English as far back as 1806, whbh runs as follows :

  • ' The Devotion of the three hours of the agony

of Jesus Christ Our Redeemer, as practised every year on Good Friday in the Church del Giesu (sic) at Rome, from the eighteenth to the twenty-first hour, viz., from 12 to 3 o'clock, with a plenary indulgence to all who assist thereat in the above- tnentioned church, granted by his Holiness Pius VI., anno 1789.


c Originally composed at Lima, in Peru, in the Spanish language, by the Rev. F. Alphonsa (sic) Messia (sic), S.J. Printed by Keating, Brown & Co., No. 37, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, 1806.

I may add the fact, well known to musicians, that Haydn composed an orchestral suite known as ' The Seven Words,' to be performed when the service was introduced at the Cathedral of Cadiz in 1785. See Pohl's ' Biographie Joseph Haydn (vol. i. p. 214). In a letter quoted by Ponl, Haydn gives details of the service, which leave no doubt that it is absolutely identical in every feature with what is commonly carried out in Anglican cathedrals to-day.

HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.

31, Farm Street, W.

For the indulgences granted by Pius VII., 14 Feb., 1815, see ' The New Raccolta ' (Phil- adelphia, 1892), at pp. 148-9.

D. C. O. o.

"REMITTANCE MEN." This term has long been familiar to me as the designation of a ne'er-do-well class of emigrants to the Colonies who rely for subsistence on periodi- cal drafts from relatives or friends at home ; but I never met with it or heard it used in reference to a similar class within the borders of the United Kingdom till I chanced to read Maurice Drake's novel ' WO 2 .' The author's description of the type is so terse and pointed that it deserves to be placed on record in illustration of the term :

" There 's a class of man common on the south coast of England, and especially in Devonshire, who is no manner of use to himself or anybody else. The natives call them remittance men, and that exactly describes them. They re idlers, mostly sons of busy professional men or manufacturers in London, the Midlands or the North. When a fellow is such a hopeless waster that he 's a nuisance in the old man's office or factory, he gets pensioned off with perhaps a hundred or a hundred and fifty a year, paid at regular intervals on condition that he keeps away from his native place. No occupation and regular remittances produce a well-marked type. They idle more or less gracefully ; they go fishing and sail in small boats, or get drunk and sleep in the sun. They 're very little use to anybody, as I 've said already, and I wouldn't mention them if I hadn't lived with them been one of them, if you like."

The above-quoted passage occurs in the first chapter of the story.

JOHN T. KEMP.

WOMEN'S PARTS ACTED BY MEN. The names of four of these actors are preserved in Massinger's ' The Picture,' 1630 :

Honoria the Queene. John Tomson. Acanthe a maid of honor. Alexander Goffe. Sophia wife to Mathias. John Hunmeman. Cornea, Sophias woman. William Trigge. RICHARD H. THORNTON.