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MISAPPLICATION OF NATURAL INTELLECT.

Personal, political, and other causes have induced in parents and superiors, a frequent appropriation of persons to appointments and callings to which their minds were in no way disposed, and the glories arising from the conceptions and labours of the brightest intellects have been thus in many instances lost to the world. Dante, in his Paradiso, Canto viii, al fine, thus expatiates

Sempre natura se fortuna trova

Discorde a sè, come ogni altra semente,
Fuori di sua region, fa mala prova ;
E, se il mondo quaggiù ponesse mente
Al fondamento, che natura pone,
Seguendo lui, avria buona la gente.
Ma voi torcete alla religione

Tal che fu nato a cingersi la spada,
E fate Re di tal ch'è da sermone:*
Onde la traccia vostra è fuor di strada.

Cary has admirably translated these lines-
Nature ever,

Finding discordant fortune, like all other seed
Out of its proper climate, thrives but ill;
And were the world below content to mark,
And work on the foundation Nature lays,
It would not lack supply of excellence.
But ye perversely to religion strain

Him, who was born to gird on him the sword;

And of the fluent phraseman you make your king: Therefore your steps have wander'd from the paths. The quotation of these full of meaning verses of Dante, is not intended as a contrast to Bacon's wise precept offered to the readers of Current Notes, p. 88; but rather as a corollary to his words, if the affection, or the aptness of the child be extraordinary, it would be wrong to cross it. Bristol, Dec. 1.

F. S. DONATO.

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EARLY MERCHANTS MARKS. Merchants marks are fanciful rebuses assumed in past ages by traders as distinctive marks on their bales destined for exportation, and proffer in many instances elaborate and very complex combinations of letters and characteristic forms. Mr. W. C. Ewing has ably described above three hundred of the merchants marks of Norwich; and Mr. Harrod in his Notes on the Records of the Corporation of Great Yarmouth, has incidentally noticed about thirty belonging to that place.

Possibly by noticing the enclosed devices on rubbings from the original brasses of merchants marks, on their monumental mementoes in the several churches in Ipswich, it may induce others to observe them elsewhere, and some information respecting others might be elicited in Current Notes.

In the north aisle of the church of St. Mary Tower, on the brass of Thomas Drayle, Portman; who died in 1500; is the following

On another brass in the south aisle of the same Church, is an inscription to Alys late wyfe of Thomas Baldry, merchant; sometyme the wyfe of Mas

HA

ter Robert Wymbyll,Notary, which Alys deceased 21 day of August, 1506.

Thomas Baldry was thus evidently the second husband

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of Madame Alice, and his mark impaling firstly the mercer's arms was thus ostensibly placed on her consignment to Hades. In the chancel of the church of St. Mary Key, is the brass of Thomas Pownder, Merchant and Bailiff, who died November 7, 1525. Shaw has described this brass, bearing on the dexter side the arms of Ipswich; and on the sinister side, those of the Company of Merchants Adventurers.

In the same church is another

brass to Augustin
Parker, who died
March 12, 1590,
aged 63.

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A clear instance where the husband and the wife's initials are embodied in the same device, occurs in the church of St. Nicholas, on the brass to Susanna Parker, wife of Augustin Parker, who died August 13, 1664, aged 24. This brass

bears also the arms of the Merchants Ad

venturers and the Grocers' Company.
The Parkers were apparently of the same
family.

Lee Road, Blackheath, Dec. 5.

J. J. H.

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PRESENTMENT OF AN INCORRIGIBLE SCOLD.

To the Worshipful Thomas Parker of Browsholme, Esq. Wee whose names are subscribed doe humbly certifye that Margarett, the wife of Edward Hancocke, hath since her coming to have residence in Bradford, been noted and knowne to be a common disturber of her neighbours, in the way of Scoldinge, for which she was in Slaideburne Court presented for a common scold, and continuing that unneighbourly practice was Ducked, and for all that, shee hath hitherto practised the like way of Scoldinge, soe that scarce a familye in the said Towne is free from her; and this wee make bold to certifye unto your Worship, as a certaine Truth.

Witnesse our hands the 6th day of March, Año Dom. 1673.

HENRY KNOWLES, WILLIAM CALVERLEY, STEPHEN ANDERTON.

Browseholme, is in the parish of Waddington, in he West Riding of Yorkshire.

PLEASE THE PIGS! a common colloquial phrase is a verbal corruption of "please the pyx," that is, the vessel containing the Eucharist, which by believers in Transubstantiation was superstitiously regarded as Divinity.

WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND.

NEMO's desire in reference to some account of this somewhat accomplished man,' would, were the truth told, afford him but little gratification. NEMO is in error in supposing him to have been "the Author of the Shakespeare Forgeries." His father, Samuel Ireland was the original deviser of the whole affair. He had succeeded so well in befooling professed judges' of the original designs by Hogarth; that prompted by his needy circumstances, he let fly at a higher game, and befouled the shrine of England's dramatic bard! It was Samuel Ireland's eldest daughter who wrote the imitations of the dramatist; the younger one assisted, and the redoubtable William Henry was merely a copier. It was Samuel Ireland who began by collecting books of Shakespeare's time, fabricated manuscript notes and inserted them in the books as if written by the immortal bard, when finding them greatly admired, he persisted

till their frequency might have divulged the nefariousness of the transaction, to all but those who were stupidly blind. In one of his freaks, Samuel Ireland desirous of accommodating the world with a portrait of the irritable Shakespearian Critic John Dennis, and not aware there was really one extant, engraved by Vandergucht-ventured on one copied from an original drawing by Hogarth, in the second volume of his Graphic Illustrations of that celebrated painter. It is almost nugatory to observe Hogarth never troubled himself about John Dennis of theatrical thunder notoriety, and the portrait there presented, is a fiction by Samuel Ireland, though received as genuine by many respected Hogarthian Collectors.

Should NEMO's desire be still unsatiated, the writer to whom William Henry Ireland was long personally known, may possibly communicate some particulars, hitherto but very imperfectly known. Let this be generally understood, the Confessions' published by him, were a tissue of lies from beginning to end, and the original idea of the volume, was caused by an irresistible impulse at the moment, that of raising the wind, as he himself assured the writer

When needs must, the devil drives!

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Belly vengeance.

Very weak beer.

Bin. To be. Examples. How bin you? They bin bad uns they bin!

Blow, pronounced blow. Blossom.

Brummack. A hook to cut broom.

Brummill. A hill covered with broom,
Bullirag and bullrag. To scold vehemently.
Bullragging. A good scolding.
Butty. A companion labourer.
By-blow. An illegitimate child.

By Gosh! By Gum! Two oaths, the first "by God's house;" the second referring to the Trinity. Ceout. To bark as a cur, generally called a ceouting

dog.

Very small potatoes. To tell false tales of another.

To starve.

Chats.
Clat.
Clem.
Clout. A blow.

Ex. I am welly clemmed.

Colly West. Awry, or crooked.
Cornell. A corner.

Cow. To frighten. Ex. Dunna be cowed by him!
Cowt. A colt.

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2. A horse rack.
Ex. Ye schulen fynde a yonge child wlappd in
clothes and leyd in a cracche.-Wicklif's Translation.
Crib. A rack for fodder.

Cricker. A man who attends the market to buy
butter, fruit, etc. to sell elsewhere.

Croodle. To crouch down, as over a fire.
Dayd. An oath. Er. I'am dayd if I do it.

Dither. To shake as from cold. Ex. I'm all of a

dither.

Duck. To stoop the head.

Dout. To extinguish. Ex. Dout the candle.
Dunny. Deaf.

Dych (pronounced long). To cut or clean out a ditch.
Eddish.

Aftergrass.

Elrake. A heel rake,

Ess.

Ashes.

Ess hole. The space under a kitchen grate for ashes.
Sometimes also called a Purgatory.

Evil. A dung fork called also a dungevil, and a

sharevil.

Fasten. To seize. Ex. The dog fastened him by

the leg.

Fauce. False.

Feg. Fog grass.

Fettle, s. Order, condition.

Fettle, v. To put in order. Ex. I soon fettled it.
Forecast. Forethought.

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Oss. To try or endeavour sometimes to promise well.
Ex. You dunna oss to do it. The cowt osses well.
Peart. Lively. Also a similar state to fresh.
Plash. Water in large quantities. A plash of rain.
Potch. To pierce, or puncture. He potched his fin-
ger in my eye.

Purgy. Proud, conceited.

Rack. A pathway in a wood.

Racklin. The smallest of a litter, as pigs, dogs, etc.
Runt. Small and deformed.

Sapy. Moist, denoting the first stage of putrefaction
in meat.
Scutch. The roots of the dog grass.

Shut. A narrow outlet from one street to another.
Shut. To get rid of. Ex. You bin well shut of it.
Slang. A narrow strip of land.

Soak. The place where a spring bursts out.
Spaul. A term used in cutting timber; after the
first cut with the axe has been made, a second made a
few inches from it causes the intermediate wood to fly
gaup-out; this piece is said to spaul.

Fresh. Denotes a state not quite drunk, but decidedly not sober.

Gaup. To stare foolishly. Ex. What bin'e ing at?

Girder. A violent blow.

Glat. An opening where a fence has been broken.
Grig. Heather. In Welsh, gryg.

Grin. A gin, or snare for rabbits and hares.

Growte. To work in. A dirty hand is said to be growted with dirt.

Haggle. To dispute while buying.

Handy. Expert, ready; a handy fellow; things be handy.

Heft. An exceedingly hard lift or draught. When a cart is so fast as not to be stirred, the horses are said to draw at a dead heft.

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Stodge. To satiate.

Stoul. The stump of a tree cut down.
Sup, v. To drink.

Sup, s. A draught.

Tade perfect of To take. Ex. I tade him home.
Tallent. A hay loft.

Teart. Sharp, acute.
Trig. A small gutter.

Unshut. To ungear horses.

Uvver. Upper. The hill country by those in the plains is called the uvver country. Wap. To beat.

Wapping. Large.

Welly. Nearly, almost.
Werrit. To tease.

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Lats. Laths.

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Linty. Lazy.

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Lug. To pull, or draw. Ex. To lug the hair, corn,

I couldna.

I hanna.

I could not.
I have not.

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etc.

Lissom, Pliant, supple.

I shanna. I shall not.

I shudna. I should not.

HONEST DICK LEVERIDGE.

Among the many attempts to enforce their claims on the public patronage, none pursue that course with a greater chance of effect than the player or the singer. The General Advertiser, March 14, 1743-4, has the following which may possibly afford some amusement. Advertisement, by Mr. LEVERIDGE, to be sung to the Tune of

A Cobler there was, that liv'd in a stall.
Observing the Papers for several days,
Fill'd up with a number of Benefit plays
My Muse smiling said, Dick! it will not be wrong,
To sound an Advertisement in Merry Song.
Derry down, down Derry down.

And thus now I raise my voice to the Town,
To move your kind thoughts against my day comes;
And then with your favour, my Play to promote,
That Leveridge may sing when he offers his note-
Derry down, down Derry down.

Some advertisements in the papers of that year, show that Leveridge then resided in lodgings, "in Hanover Street, the third door on the right hand from LongAcre." That side of the street has vanished in the recent widening of the thoroughfare. Subsequently, Leveridge kept the Constitution Tavern, corner of Tavistock Court in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, and here Thomas Frye painted his portrait in an admirable manner, it is now in the possession of Edmund Calvert, Esq.

December 8.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

DECISION OF A PRUSSIAN MONARCH. FREDERICK THE GREAT, in 1755, sometime before the impending war, travelled incognito, attended by one or two servants into Germany, At an inn in one of the towns through which he passed, being alone, he enquired what company there was in the house, and being told there were four gentlemen, he sent a polite message, with his compliments, and desired he might spend the evening with them: his request was refused. The king asked the innkeeper, if there was any gentleman in the neighbourhood, whom he might for the evening obtain as a companion. An officer who lived close by was sent for, when the association was wholly to Frederick's gratification, and he learned from him, the character of several of his officers, and other matters. Not long after the king sent him a letter, made himself known, and proffered his former evening companion a considerable post in his army. The officer replied, that though very sensible of the honour, he could not accept it, as he was actually engaged for two years, after which he should be at his Majesty's service. This, the king failed not to remember, the two years expired but a day or two before the important battle of Rosbach, when Frederick, in a letter, written wholly in his autograph, wrote to remind him of his promise-the honour of both was maintained.

The Emperor Napoleon the First, in his last will dic

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SAMUEL ROGERS the poet, and the associate of poets, threw off this mortal coil early on the morning of Tuesday, the 18th inst., about half an hour after midnight— the last of the stars that shone in his orbit. In the unpublished autograph Journal and Confessions of the once celebrated Lady Caroline Lamb, is the following allusion to names and parties who are now all passed to that bourne from which no traveller returns. The lines here stated to have been written by the author of "The Pleasures of Memory," are not in any edition of his writings.

The first time Lord Byron called at Melbourne House he came with Moore and Rogers; my child, a beautiful boy of three years old, fell asleep on his knee, and he sat for two hours, fearful of awakening him. In the very spirit of prophecy, Rogers wrote on that occasion the following lines:

TO AN INFANT SLEEPING IN A POET'S ARMS.
Oh! wake thee, Cherub! sleep not there,
Where passion's throes the soul deform;
rests the seraph of the air

Upon the cloud that veils the storm.
Oh! wake thee, dearest! for the heave
Of that proud heart is fraught with care;
Those arms that fold thee-to deceive,
For there's a slumb'ring serpent there:
A Serpent that will shortly wake,

And o'er each flow'r of bliss be twined;
From hope her dream of rapture take,

And blight the Eden of the mind.
Then, wake thee, boy! for even now,
The poison works with subtle art;
Prepared with many a traitor vow,

To break thy doating mother's heart. THE notice of Samuel Rogers, in Cadell's Contemporary Portraits, was communicated by himself, and there the date of his birth at Newington Green is stated July 30, 1763; he therefore died in his ninety-third year, at No. 22, St. James's Place.

TALBOIS. Having obtained the pedigree of the Lincolnshire branch of the ancient family of Talbois, I am desirous of knowing if there are any records of them in the county of Bedford, and possibly some of your correspondents can give me some information? The name is spelt in various ways-Ivo Tailbois, William Tallebose, Taillegebosch, or Taillegebosc. Ralph Taillgebosch, or Tailebosc, Sheriff of Bedfordshire. Taylebois, Tailboys, Talboys, Tayleby, and Tailby. J. H. H. Cranoe Rectory, Dec. 20.

WILLIS'S

CURRENT NOTES:

A SERIES OF ARTICLES

ON

Antiquities, Biography, Beraldry, Bistory, Languages, Literature, Curious Customs, Kc.,

SELECTED FROM

ORIGINAL LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

ADDRESSED DURING THE YEAR

1856,

TO THE PUBLISHERS.

WILLIS AND SOTHERAN,

No. 136, STRAND, LONDON.

MDCCCLVII.

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