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THE LATE J. M. W. TURNER, R.A.

IN March last, Mr. Ruskin referring to the sketch of Mr. Turner, so well represented in your woodcut in January, 1852, wishes to have any further reminiscences which I may be able to communicate respecting him. I regret that my treacherous memory does not retain any traces of this distinguished artist, beyond the simple notice that accompanied my rude sketch of his person.

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Here there are no details to substantiate a fact, that in itself is not devoid of interest. Archdeacon Todd obThe following anecdote trifling as it may at first serves, Milton at the Restoration, withdrew from the sight appear, may possibly not be altogether unde-garden-house in Petty-France, Westminster, which opened into St. James's Park, and in which he had reserving Mr. Ruskin's attention, as bearing upon the sided as Latin Secretary, from 1652; to a friend's house modus operandi occasionally resorted to by our late in Bartholomew Close. By this precaution he probably eminent painter, and which may furnish "a hint worth escaped the particular prosecution, that was at first knowing" to those who may be anxious to tread in his directed against him. He adds, Tyers from good authopath, and to give to their productions every possible ad-rity had told Warton, that when Milton was with Good

vantage and effect.

The circumstance was related to me by a gentleman who resided in the house immediately adjoining that of Mr. Turner, one of the windows of which presented a full view of the back yard of the artist's premises. This gentleman informed me, he was occasionally much amused at the earnestness with which the little man was for a considerable time busily engaged in pumping upon some of his paintings, and was unable to imagine what particular result was intended to be produced by these persevering exertions of the artist, but I have little doubt that Mr. Ruskin will be able to estimate the true effect of this application of the Cold Water Cure" to Mr. Turner's paintings.

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At all events, it seems desirable that a good pump should be henceforth considered a required adjunct to every artist's studio.

Stradbrooke, May 11.

J. T. A.

FROISSART.—A statue commemorative of this celebrated historian, is about to be raised at Valenciennes.

MILTON'S MOCK FUNERAL.

a mock funeral for him; and that when matters were win under prosecution, his friends to gain time, made settled in his favour, and the affair was known, the king laughed heartily at the trick. Tyers' authority was doubtless Cunningham, who says that Milton pretended to be dead, and had a public funeral procession; and that the king applauded his policy in escaping the punishment of death, by a seasonable show of dying.‡ The Journals of the House of Commons show that on June 16, 1660, it was resolved, that his Majesty should be humbly moved to call in Milton's Eiconoclastes, and his Defensio pro Populo Anglicani; as also Goodwin's Obstructors of Justice, and order them to be burned by the common hangman. The proclamation for apprehending Milton and Goodwin, intimate that they were so far fled, or so obscured themselves, that no endeavours used for their apprehension had taken effect, whereby they might be brought to legal trial, and deand offences. On August 27, several copies of these servedly receive condign punishment for their treasons proscribed books were burned by the hangman, but the Act of Indemnity passed within three days after, and Milton was unconditionally relieved from the neces

EXAMINING recently some papers, I found the follow-sity ing "Anecdote of Milton, not generally known."

The freedom and asperity of his various attacks on the character and prerogative of Charles I. rendered him peculiarly obnoxious when the Restoration was accomplished. To save himself, therefore, from the fury of a court which he had so highly incensed, and the vigilance of which, from the emissaries employed, it was become so difficult to elude, he connived with his friends in effecting the following innocent imposture. The report of his death was industriously circulated, and the credulity of the people swallowed the bait prepared for them. The coffin, the mourners, and other apparatus of his burial, were exhibited at his house, with the same formality as if he had been really dead. figure of him, as large and as heavy as the life, was actually formed, laid out, and put in a lead coffin, and the whole funeral solemnly acted in all its parts. It is said, when the truth was known, and he was found to be alive, notwithstanding the most incontestable evidence that he had been thus openly interred, the wits about the court of King Charles II. made themselves exceedingly merry with the

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of further concealment. The supposititious funeral of the Author of Paradise Lost, must therefore have taken place between June 16, and August 30, 1660; can any reader of Current Notes, produce any coeval notices in illustration of the fact of Milton's Mock Funeral?

U. U. C. May 7.

M.

Milton was certainly blind in 1653, if not before, but Paradise Lost was not written in 1660. Aubrey says Milton began the work about two years before the Restoration in May 1660. All that we know with any certainty is that the Manuscript was finished and placed in Ellwood's hands for perusal, at Chalfont, during the time of the sickness, in 1665; and that Milton sold the copyright to Samuel Simmons, on April 27, 1667, for an immediate payment of five pounds.

+ Milton's Minor Poems, edited by Warton, 1791, 8vo. p. 358.

History of Great Britain, translated by William Thomson, 1787, 4to. vol. i. p. 14.

BURNEY'S HANDEL COMMEMORATION.

Dr. BURNEY's Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster Abbey, in Commemoration of Handel, in 1784, was published in quarto, in the following year, in aid of the Musical Fund. Some years after, he promised his friend, the Rev. Dr. Du Val, a copy of the book, but either from not having one at hand, or unwilling to part with his own, on LARGE THICK PAPER, the promise appears to have escaped his recollection. Circumstances however brought it again to mind, and the author's copy is now before the writer, with the following lines:

·

TO THE REV. DR. DU VAL,

ON THE TREACHERY OF MEMORY.

O Memory! ever trait'ress to old Age,
When neither truth nor zeal thy aid engage-
Now for the produce of my worn out brains
Nor glue, nor paste, nor peg, nor hook remains:
Although in Youth each trivial thought and thing,
With fond tenacity were wont to cling.

Is it alone when birch attention wakes,
That Mem'ry true and faithful record makes?
And at the nether end Ideas get in
When out the blood begins to spin?

If so, it proves to giddy, thoughtless youth,
The hopeful and exhilarating truth,
That second Childhood like the first should feel,
The rod's inspiring pow'r from head to heel.
March 12, 1801.

CHARLES BURNEY.

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CLEVER. Besides the provincial uses to which this word is applied, as noticed in Current Notes, p. 23, in some parts of the north of Ireland it is used in reference to persons, or acts of great kindness, benevolence, or philanthropy; particularly in such cases as when there has been a large pecuniary disbursement. For instance if an individual has contributed a sum greater than what might have been expected from him, or disproportionate to his supposed means, he is thereby called ““ Clever fellow;" and the act is designated as "a Clever act." This is a very common application of the word in different parts of Ulster; at least I have so heard it made use of unsparingly in many parts of the counties of Down and Londonderry, and, occasionally in Monaghan and Tyrone. J. A. P.

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MALESPINI NOVELLE.

THE following notes are memoranda by the late ROGER WILBRAHAM on the fly-leaves of a copy of the Ducento Novelle, printed at Venice, in 1609, and were made by him on a perusal of that work.

The title of the fifty-fifth novel, of the first part is entitled, Viaggio ridicoloso di un Segretario, che andò con suo amico a Liuorno. In this novel the name of the secretary appears to have been Malespini, and was most probably the author himself.

A singular picture of manners at Bologna is presented in the third novel, part 1. In Carnival time, all the scholars went armed with swords, and even those who were in no way dressed or prepared for a ball carried daggers with them. The ball is described as being in the house of a courtesan, where young women of character and fashion were present, and through the whole novel, the spirit of revenge in privately murdering those from whom an injury was supposed to have been received is mentioned as a custom commonly in practice and highly meritorious.

The custom of carrying a knife in a sheath which formed part of the scabbard of the sword, is mentioned in the seventeenth novel, p. 51, però io vi priego, che voi mi prestiate il vostro coltello, c'hauete nella spada; and again in the thirteenth novel, part II. p. 95, in tergo-raccolto ch'ella hebbe un sodero di spada di quei mariuoli, e cano il coltello che ni un dentro.

In the thirteenth novel, part I., are two decisions of Il General Zalebotto' in France, one of which is against a soldier who had stolen il Tabernacolo in una chiesa.

This is possibly allusive to the soldier who stole the Pix, as related by Hall and Holinshed, which theft Shakespeare has affixed upon Pistol. Talbot's sentence in Malespini is infinitely milder than that of K. Henry V., who orders the soldier to be strangled, whereas Talbot only obliges the soldier to take a solemn oath that he will never in the course of his life again enter a church.

First Part, p. 234 in tergo-uscirono fuori dal Castello per giuocare al palla maglio.

In the seventy-eighth novel, of the second part, is a curious account of an English bloodhound, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

The story of an attorney in London and his clerk, related in the fifth novel, part the first, is evidently the ground plot of Wycherley's Horner in his Country Wife.

WAY-SIDE CROSSES -By the way-side, near to Whitehaven, stands a stone cross, about three feet high, and from the name of the place, "Cross-Lacon," and from many other places in the neighbourhood being 66 a called Cross," I suppose such erections were numerous; tradition saith that the attendants of funerals were accustomed to stop for rest and devotion.

Can any information be afforded as to the origin of the services used at way-side crosses, and whether many are now standing? Whitehaven, May 15. JOHN DIXON.

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REFLECTIVE MOMENTS.

THOUGHT oft obtrudes, each tott'ring form
Seen ling'ring on in life's decline;
Had once a heart as fond, as warm,
As full of idle thoughts as mine!
That each hath had its dream of joy,

Its own unequall'd pure romance;
Commencing when the blushing boy
First thrills at lovely woman's glance.
That each could tell his tale of love,

And think the scenes described evince More passion, and more guileless truth Than hath been told before or since. That they could tell of tender lays

At midnight penn'd in classic shades; Of days more bright than modern days, And maids more fair than modern maids.

Of whispers breath'd in list'ning ear;

Of kisses bland on blushing cheek— Each kiss, each whisper, far too dear For modern lips to give or speak. Of promised hopes untimely cross'd, Of friendships slighted or betray'd; Of kindred spirits early lost,

Like buds that blossom'd but to fade.

Of beaming eyes, and tresses gay;

Of face divine and noble brow, And forms which have all pass'd away, And left them what we see them now! Then is it thus-is human love

So very light, so frail a thing, That all youth's brightest visions move Unheeded on Time's restless wing? Must all the eyes which still are bright, And all the lips that talk of bliss, All that which now seems fair to sight, Hereafter only come to this? What then are all these pleasures worth, If we ere long must lose them thus ? If all we value most on earth,

Flit like shadows from among us?

ANGELO'S REMINISCENCES AND PIC NIC.

THE following letter addressed to the late well known Paul Pry,' Thomas Hill, will doubtless interest many readers of Current Notes, as a species of solicitation to which even persons of some notoriety are frequently impelled to obtain a favourable reception for their literary emanations. Angelo's Reminiscences contain many amusing and interesting traits, while his Pic Nic, presented an olla podrida all the worse from having so many cooks busied in its preparation.

JOHN BOND.

Hastings, February 1, 1822.

DEAR SIR,-I should not have presumed to trouble

have ever conferred on me. Permit me to request, after the flattering notice you took of the Septuagenarian at St. Leonard's, to mention my name again towards promoting my intended publication.

As the many "Reminiscences," since Kelly's have become quite a drogue, mine included, though still I am writing on the remainder of my recollections of characters, and the various scenes I have experienced these last fifty years and above, yet the same title may disgust the many who have already had patience to read my two lengthened volumes, that I could almost fancy I hear them say, "What! more of Angelo's Reminiscences, pooh! I have had quite enough of them."

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Now as there is so much humbug and puffing that has great weight, and as variety is charming," I mean to give this second attempt of my goosequill, a new appellation-" Angelo's Pic Nic;" and having been as a professional man so well known, my name may still excite notice to induce the sale, and by way of a booktrap, a pleasing snare, I have already procured some of the first literary authors of the present day, who have contributed their pen towards my undertaking, Colman, Horace Smith, etc. etc. Theodore Hook, Bulwer, and several others whose promises I shall remind, at my return to town. Already, I have in addition to my scraps, nearly three hundred; about seventy Anecdotes, Poetry and Fragments; some from my acquaintance, though not authors, yet, clever at telling their stories. Any effusions of yours, as a man of the world, I can only say in duty bound, you will much oblige. Such additional Plats recherche must be a zest to any Pic Nic, whilst mine are the mere Entremets, side dishes, potatos, etc. etc. etc.

Now, my dear Sir, my motive for making this request is, knowing your general acquaintance and influence with the press, and men of letters, at this moment you could be of infinite service to me, fearful as I am, some one may anticipate my Title- "Pic Nic" for themselves. Permit me, therefore, to request, as my intended work is speedily forthcoming, Such a Bouquet, the first Literary Characters (no names mentioned at present) they must be a zest to the Book Epicure-something like this which is merely the matter that runs from my numskull; leaving it to your superior judgment what to write. Should it meet with your approbation, and as the paper may not be at the Library here, your sending it to me directed 'Post Office," will oblige. When in town, I hope to thank you for your kindness to the Septuagenarian. "Oh! the days when I was young," alas! the curtain's dropt, yet hath my night of life some memory. May I ever remember your kindness to

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Your obliged and old acquaintance,

Of Angelo. 97

P.S. Should you see Mr. Colburn, pray mention to you with this scrawl, but having the pleasure of being him, I shall first depend on his approval of my "Pic known to you so many years, and that cordiality you | Nic," previous to my future intentions.

LEGAL BREVITY IN THE OLDEN TIME.

LEGAL documents were formerly a simple narration of contract and fact, of which the following old Scottish Tack, or Lease, proffers a good illustration. The original is still in the possession of a descendant of the John and James Low herein mentioned.

J david Lyndesay of Edzell Binds and oblidges me my airs exrs and successors qthomeuer that John Low and James Low in mickl Tullo shall peacablie possess and Bruick ther possession then for the space of five years nixt to com they alvayes paying ther yearlie duties oyers as formerlie used and wontd in witt wherof J have subscrived this my obligatione at Edzell the sixt day of Junn jm. vie. nyntie six years. D. Lyndesay.

Notta that within ther taks jtt on of them are to pay a wedder sheep.

This lease is in the handwriting of the penultimate Lindsey of Edzell. The extensive lordship of Glenesk, of which Edzell forms a part, became part of the possessions of the ancient family of Lindsay, by the marriage of Catherine Stirling, co-heiress of Sir John Stirling, to Sir Alexander, third son of Sir David Lindsey of Crawford, in or about 1357. The Lindseys held these lands till 1715, when James, fourth Earl of Panmure, purchased them from David Lindsey, the only son of the grantor of the above lease, for 192,502 pounds Scots, or in sterling money 16,0421. Soon after this purchase, through Panmure aiding the Chevalier de St. George, these lands were forfeited, but were repurchased by his nephew William, ultimately the fifth Earl of Panmure, in 1764, for 11,9511. 8s. 9d. sterling, and now constitute a part of the extensive possessions of Lord Panmure, now Minister of War, whose united properties in Forfarshire are calculated to exceed one hundred thousand acres. Brechin, May 15. A. J.

THE magnificent State Coach of Russia, was built in Long Acre, London, 1762, by order of the imbecile Emperor, Peter the Third, but his deposition and death occurred before it was finished. Its grandeur was at the time the general theme of admiration; the harness with gilded buckles, cost thirteen hundred pounds, then considered a large sum, and the whole was finished with sumptuous elegance. The Empress Catherine first used it at her coronation in Moscow, on Nov. 3, in that year.

THE riband and badge of the Order of the Garter which so recently adorned the person of the late Emperor Nicholas, is the same now worn by the Emperor Napoleon. One day mine, to-morrow thine. Sic transit

Gloria Mundi!

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATIONS.

G. F., of Liverpool, who complains of the difficulty he has in determining what are the particular purposes of certain Associations, the names of which he comes in contact with in various publications, is referred to Hume's Learned Societies and Printing-Clubs in Great Britain, 1853, 8vo., which supplies all the required information, and should find a place in all libraries, public or private.

HENRY THE FIFTH, in 1415, embarked for France, from Southampton, but from what part had become matter of doubt; recently an old pier or jetty has been discovered while digging, and appears to solve the difficulty.

FRANKLIN'S MANUSCRIPTS.-In Current Notes, p. 25, reference is made to the letters "of the great Franklin, now in course of publication." Temple Franklin, the possessor of Dr. Franklin's letter-books, was for some time a lodger in the house of Mr. Pulsford, King Street, St. James's Square, and were left there by him. Some years after Mr. Pulsford parted with them to a friend, to whom the agent of the Smithsonian Institution, at Philadelphia, on application respecting these manuscripts was referred; they were purchased by that gentleman at a very handsome sum. Mr. Pulsford had also for some time the missing maps of the Oregon territory, about which a few years since there was so much talk. As he attached no value to them, they were suffered to decay, and at length were destroyed.

Can any correspondent state whether Franklin's Correspondence is published, and how it can be obtained?

S.

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HOYLE.-Your Correspondent who enquires, p. 31, after the family and arms of HOYLE, should direct his attention to the West Riding of Yorkshire, where that name is of frequent occurrence, and especially I would refer him to Watson's History of Halifax,* 1775, 4to., where there are notices of many individuals of that name. At p. 304 he gives the arms of Hoill or HoyleErmine, a mullet or. For crest, on a wreath, an helmet, above all, a Griffin's Head erased. Stradbrooke, May 11.

J. T. A.

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No. LIV.]

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

"Takes note of what is done

By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

[JUNE, 1855

DID SPENSER THE POET DIE IN DUBLIN ? SOME time since it was announced in a now extinct

Dublin periodical, that Spenser, the author of the Fairy Queen, died in that city; the assertion was made on the authority of the late John Bernard Trotter, formerly private secretary to Charles James Fox; supported by documents in the Irish Record Office. The impression on my mind was, that after Spenser was burned out at Kilcolman Castle he fled to London, and died about three months afterwards at Westminster. Ben Jonson says that he died from want of bread. Can there be any doubt on the subject?

John Bernard Trotter was born here, and received his elementary education in this town. He was a man of considerable literary acquirements and taste. He was the author of the Memoirs of the distinguished Statesman, which pass under his name, and contributed to several of the leading periodicals of his day. He died in 1818, at Cork, in very depressed circumstances. Downpatrick, June 1. JAMES A. PILSON.

Trotter's assertion is entitled to no consideration, as the facts resolve themselves to but few particulars. George Chalmers, in reference to Tyrone's rebellion, states correctly" The Irish of Munster rising universally in October, 1598, laid waste the country and expelled the English. Neither Kilcolman nor Spenser were spared. He was thus constrained to return, with his wife and family, to England, but in ruined circumstances." Camden says that being plundered of his fortune in Ireland, the poet in 1598 was obliged to return to England, where he died in the same or the next year, and was buried in St. Peter's Church, Westminster, next to the monument of Geoffrey Chaucer. There is, however, coeval evidence that at an inn or lodging

house in King Street, Westminster, in which doubtless he and his family were domiciled immediately upon their arrival in London, Spenser died on January 16, 1598-9, the expenses of his burial being defrayed by the Earl of Essex, and the pall at the funeral being held up by several distinguished poetical contemporaries.

Ben Jonson's statement, that Spenser died by absolute want of bread, and that while living he spurned the relief offered to him by the Earl, was a conversational averment made to Drummond of Hawthornden, in 1619; but the latter has recorded of his friend Ben, that he was guilty of interpreting the best sayings and deeds often to the worst! Spenser had his pension, which he doubtless as a servant of the Queen duly received; his situation, though in ruined circumstances, was not that of abject want, and the expenses of his burial, though borne by the Earl, are rather to be considered as an honorary distinction rendered to the remains of one whom that nobleman looked upon as entitled to his generosity, being both poetically and politically known to him.-ED.

VOL. V.

NOTES ON THE FAMILY OF HOYLE.

My attention having been drawn to some enquiries in recent numbers of Current Notes, in reference to the family of Hoyle, I forward the following :

The origin of this family was from Flanders or Brabant, whence they came and settled some centuries since in the Yorkshire dales.

A branch of the family of some pretension, located in the parish of Ripponden, in the West Riding, not far from Halifax, where they acquired considerable possessions, and allied themselves with several of the ancient Yorkshire gentry. The lands of Light Hazels, Hoyle Royd, Swift Place, and the Hollings, all belonged to the family, whose crest and armorial ensigns may still be seen in the several now deserted nanor houses.

About the year 1618, John Hoyle of Swift Place, married Agnes, daughter of John Hanson of Woodhouse, by his wife Agnes, the daughter of Sir John Savile. In the grave yard of Ripponden chapel are many monumental stones erected over members of the family of Hoyle; and over a John Hoyle there is the following epitaph,

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Deo, ac Conjugi pius, justus

Ac propositi tenax, Amicis Certus, Omnibus Affabilis, ac Si quid ultra est, sit tota Vita pro Epitaphio. Vade

Et tu fac similiter.

On one of the bells is an inscription, purporting it to have been presented in 1715, by Elkanah Hoyle, Gentleman. The same Elkanah Hoyle, by his will made in 1717, gave forty shillings yearly out of his estate called the Hollins" to the poor people of Soyland, and sixty shillings yearly to the incumbent of Ripponden, for preaching a sermon in Ripponden chapel on Ascensionday yearly, with a proviso that if the owner of Swift Place had not a good liking to the incumbent, this money should also be given to the poor of the parish, to whom it has been paid for many years past.

Some of the descendants of this family are, I believe, now settled in or about Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in Northumberland.

The arms borne by the Hoyle family-on a field ermine, a Mullett or. For Crest, on a helmet, a Griffin's head erased.

ROGER HANSON.

THE Hoyles of the chapelry of Ripponden, in the parish of Halifax, came from Flanders several centuries since, and bear for arms, on a field erm., a Mullet or.;

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