Search we the Records of an ancient Date, That laid the Storm, and cool'd the raging Heat.† Yet in some Lands such Ignorance abounds, *He that runs may read is an old adage. The prophet Habakkuk, who is said to have lived six hundred years before Christ, writes that he was bidden to write the vision, and make it plain upon Tables, that he may run that readeth it.-Chap. ii. 2. So Cowper adopts the same phrase, But Truth on which depends our main concern, Tyrocinium, v. 80. These Lines describe the advice given to Augustus, by Athenodorus the Stoick Philosopher, who desired the Emperor neither to say nor do any Thing, till he had first said over the Alphabet, or Letters of the Horn-Book; the strict Observance of this Rule would be the Means to make his Passion fall, and prevent any rash Words or Actions. See the Chapter "Of the Cow," in the Coran. From thy vast root all Learning's branches grow, In the recent sale of Mr. Horner's library was a copy of the PRYMER, printed in black letter, 16mo., but without denotation of place, printer's name, or date. The volume was without a general title, but commenced with the Catechism, to which as a head was a sort of half title: no other copy is known, and it is very doubtful whether any general title was printed. Unquestionably, it was the first edition, of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and was therefore printed in 1558. On comparing this with the quarto edition 1559, they differ in various particulars, though both contain the prayers for the Dead. The edition of 1559 does not contain the Catechism, but has amendments of the errors discernible in the smaller copy, which follows more closely the Prymer of 1545, than does that of 1559. Had any one a few years since stated that the Primer of the reign of Elizabeth contained Prayers for the Dead, the assertion would most unequivocally have been denied. sold for seventy pounds. NEWSPAPERS. I possess some odd numbers of a small quarto periodical entitled the Weekly Packet of Advice from Rome, or the History of Popery,' may I ask if it is known how long this was continued? Nottingham, April 4. F. H. Henry Care was the author or editor of the Weekly Packet.' It commenced December the 10th, 1678, and ended July 13, 1683. In volumes it is thus divided: Vol. I., Dec. 10th, 1678, to July 4th, 1679, in 31 Nos.-Vol. II., July 11th, 1679, to May 28th, 1680, in 47 Nos.-Vol. III., June 4th, 1680, to Dec. 16, 1681, in 80 Nos.-Vol. IV., Dec. 23rd, 1681, to August 18, 1682, in 35 Nos.-Vol. V., August 25, 1682, to July 13, 1683, in 47 Nos. This last was Printed by A. Maxwell and J. Attwood for the Author, H. Care.' The author and his publisher, Langley Curtis, appear to have had some dispute on the termination of the fourth volume, Care changed his printer, and Curtis continued and published a fifth volume on his own account, beginning August 25th, 1682, to April 27, 1683, in 36 Nos. The fact of there being two fifth volumes has not been noticed by any bibliographer. 6 The Weekly Packet from Germany,' another periodical began Sept. 3, 1679, and continued till Feb. 4, 1680; another under the title of Weekly Memorials for the Ingeni ous,' began on Monday, March 20, 1681-2, and No. 50 ended the series, on Monday, January 15, 1683. *Votiva Tabula.-Hor. SIR JAMES WARE, THE IRISH HISTORIAN. From a manuscript volume of arms and pedigrees of the seventeenth century, I made the following extract in reference to the armorial bearings of Sir James Ware, of whom, as a noted literary character, I think it ought to be introduced into Current Notes. Sir James Ware, son of Sir James Ware, Knt., Auditor-General of Ireland, and M.P. for Mallow, co. Cork, by Mary, daughter of Ambrose Bryden, of Bury St. Edmunds; was born Nov. 26, 1594, and knighted in 1629. He succeeded, upon the death of his father in 1632, to the office of Auditor-General; and upon the arrival of the Lord Deputy Wentworth in Ireland, Sir James was made a Privy Councillor. He married, firstly, Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Newman, by whom he had seven sons and four daughters; secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Lord Windsor, and widow of her cousin Andrew Windsor, Esq, by whom there was no issue. The extract refers to and follows the emblasoned coat. The acheivement above depinct, viz., Two Lions passant azure, armed and langued gules; a bordure of the second charged with escallops of the first; his Crest, On a wreath of his colours, befitting his dignity, a Dragon's head pierced through with a shiver of a lance, proper, mantled gules, doubled argent; his Motto-SOLA SALUS SERVIRE DEO; doth properly belong to the Honourable Sir James Ware, Knt., one of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Councillors, and Auditor-General of Ireland; his being descended from an honourable, noble, and ancient family of the Wares in England, which flourished in great honour in the time of Roger de Ware, Lord of Isefield, a Baron of Parlement, in the reign of King Edward the First, which said achievement appears to belong to him by divers registers of the year 1632, in which year the certificate of the death of Sir James Ware, Knt., late Auditor-General of this kingdom, father to the above. said Sir James Ware, is recorded, which I certifie under my Hand, and Seal of my Office, the eighteenth day of March, Anno Domini 1645. charm:: Dec. 31, 1643.-Compeired Janet Broune, and being posed if scho vsed charmes, scho confessed that sho did charme tuo severall persones, viz., James Hullock and Janet Scot, but no mo. The words of the charme ar thes -Our lord furth raid, his foalis foot staid-Our lord doune lighted, his foalis foot righted, saying flesh to flesh, blood to blood, and bone to bone, in our lord is name. Being posed quho learned hir the forsaid charme ? ansred, ane man in the paroche of Strathmiglo. Brechin, April 4. A. J. NATIONAL GALLERY.-The fine large painting by Paul Veronese, known as La Tenda di Dario,' the property of Signor Pisani of Venice; in which Alexsaid to be portraits of members of the Pisani family; ander, Darius, and the other personages represented are has long been under negociation of purchase for the Recently it was obtained for 14,000l.; but no sooner National Gallery, but 15,000l. was the price demanded. vernment, than the ire of the Venetians and the officials was greatly excited. A letter from Venice, of the 9th Civil Lieutenant, 700,000 livres, double the price of the inst., states that Signor Pisani has been fined by the painting, the sale it is alleged having been made without the consent of the Venetian Government. Venetians affect to be by no means displeased at this act of severity, or at the pecuniary loss imposed upon Signor Pisani, because he had without necessity, but merely through cupidity, deprived Venice and his own family of a well known master-piece. These assertions are open to much doubt. was it known that it had been sold to the British Go The The painting will occupy one entire side of the Rubens' room in the National Gallery. LINES TO THE BUDDING ROSE, Translated from the Latin of JOHN CASIMIR, KING OF POLAND, 1648-69. Child of the vernal sky, fair flow'r! No longer hide thy charming face; Awake to hope! awake to pow'r! And emulate the morn-star's grace! Pale Winter's fled on airy feet, And all his chilling frosts are o'er ; Haste, then, thy dew distilling sweet Haste to unfold thy balmy store. Warm Zephyr's gales, with am'rous haste, Wait to attend thee on thy way; The honied florists long to taste Thy balmy kisses, as they play. MONTHS OF THE ROMAN LUNAR YEAR. Macrobius, Saturnalia I, 13, states that Numa through a superstitious reverence for odd numbers, made the lunar year of the Romans to consist of 355 days; and for the same reason made each of the months, except February, to consist of an odd number of days. Numa in honorem imparis numeri secretum hoc et ante Pythagoram parturiente natura unum adjecit diem quem Januario dedit, ut tam in anno quam in mensibus singulis præter unum Februarium impar numerus servaretur. He then gives the number of days in each month in March, May, July, October, thirty-one each, in February, twenty-eight, and in each of the rest twenty-nine. From this, it appears to me that by investigating the number of days in each month of the old Roman year, we may arrive at the explanation of the division of the months by Calends, Nones, and Ides, which seems at first sight so arbitrary and puzzling. That the four months named above had always thirtyone days, and so two days more than the other months of the year, appears from the circumstance that their Nones and Ides were placed two days later than the Nones and Ides of the other months. Their Nones were 13th. on the 7th day, their Ides on the 15th. In the remaining months, the Nones were on the 5th, the Ides on the Even in the other months, to which thirty-one days were assigned in the Julian Calendar, January, August, and December, the Nones continued to be on the 5th; the Ides on the 13th, doubtless, because they used to be so before. Therefore, in the lunar year, or in Numa's Calendar, as it was called, there was in every month an interval of eight days from the Nones to the Ides; and a complete period of sixteen days from the Ides to the end of the month, except that in February this last period wanted one day. The religious year, which the early Romans borrowed from the Etruscans, and which is called the year of Romulus, consisted of 304 days, and was divided into thirty-eight periods of eight days each: and the last days of these periods were marked as public days of peculiar solemnity, see Niebuhr, vol. I. p. 273. The division of the months by Nones, Ides, and Calends, appears to have arisen from the attempt to preserve this ancient division in combination with lunar months and a lunar Each month was supposed to contain four periods of eight days; but as this would have made the months too long, the first of the four periods, from the Calends to the Nones was arbitrarily shortened; in March, May, July, and October, by one day, in the rest of the months by three days. Nevertheless, the last day of the first period retained its significant name None, the ninth day; that is, according to the Latin idiom, by which both extremes of any period are counted in. This curtailment affords the reason of the solemnity, the account of which is preserved by Macrobius, Saturn I. 15; that the pontiffs, after observing the new Moon, (Jana Novella) gave notice to the people on what day the Nones were to be reckoned. They knew the length of the other constant periods without notice. year. With respect to the Romulian year which is said to have been divided into ten months, I would utterly reject, as Niebuhr, Vol. 1. p. 273, seems to do; the acout the 304 days by assigning thirty-one days to the count of Macrobius and Solinus, by which they make four months already named, and thirty days to each of the others. This allotment is inconsistent with a division into eight-day periods. If the religious year were really divided into months, they probably consisted in general of thirty-two days; and then, there must either have been one of not more than sixteen days, or two of that some months consisted of fewer than twenty days, twenty-four days each. Plutarch (Numa, c. 18,) says while some were extended to thirty-five, and others even to more. James the First's reign, printed for Robert Barker, The first Prayer Book, with the Psalter, of King 1604, and the Psalmes in Meeter, by Sternhold, Hopkins and others, with apt Notes, Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1604, both bound in one volume folio, library. The known copies of this excessively rare were recently sold on the dispersion of Mr. Horner's edition, are in the Bodleian and Lambeth Palace libraries, and there is a third at Cambridge. Two others are known in private collections; one being in the library of the late Mr. Mendham, who stated that he than in acquiring any work of the reigns of Edward the had experienced more difficulty in procuring this book, the public sales since attention has been directed to Sixth or Elizabeth. No copy has occurred at any of books of this character. Mr. Horner's copy produced one hundred and thirty pounds. Henry Richter, historical painter, and member of the Old Society of Painters in Water Colours; whose illustrations of Milton, and other works, entitle his memory to the highest respect, died on the 8th inst., at his residence, 104, Lisson Grove North, Marylebone, aged 85. Flaxman's fine friezes in the front of Covent Garden Theatre, his statue of Comedy, and Rossi's statue of Tragedy, are now being carefully moved by Mr. Burstall, builder, of Castle Street, Long Acre, in order to be replaced in the new building. L. A. W. is requested to communicate with the Editor. Errata.-P. 20, col. 1, 1. 22, for Newgate, read Newtyle. P. 24, col. 1, 1. 10 from bottom, for Notices read Tokens; and in 1. 9, for Loneberdale, read Lomberdale. No. LXXVII.] "Takes note of what is doneBy note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE. This was related to the author by the late — Wheble, a member of the Society of Jesus, and a distinguished preacher, who received his information from Mr. Pigot, a member of the same Society, at whose desire the verses were made;' followed by the request of a copy of Pope's translation. In reply to that enquiry I send you a transcript from the 7th volume of the American Museum, a periodical published in Philadelphia in 1790, with the letter which accompanied it, as it contained some personal history of Pope. New York, March 27. K. Mr. Carey, The perusal of a small book lately printed by you has revived an intention, which I have often formed, of communicating to the public an original composition of the celebrated Mr. Pope, with which I became acquainted near forty years ago. I was a student at that time in a foreign college, and had the happiness of often conversing with a most respectable clergyman of the name of Brown, who died some time after, aged about ninety. This venerable man, who had lived in England, as domestic chaplain in the family of the Mr. Caryl, to whom Pope inscribed the Rape of the Lock, in the beginning of that poem, and at whose house he spent much of his time in the early and gay part of his life. I was informed by Mr. Brown, that, seeing the poet often amuse the family with verses of gallantry, he took the liberty one day of requesting him to change the subject of his compositions, and to devote his talents to the translation of the Latin Hymn or Rythmus which I find in the 227th page of the Collection of Prayers and Hymns lately printed by you. The Hymn begins with these words, O Deus ego amo te,' etc., and was composed by the famous missionary Francis Xavier, whose apostolical and successful labours in the East, united with his eminent sanctity of life, procured him the title of the Apostle of the In dies.' Mr. Pope appeared to receive this proposition with indifference, but the next morning, when he came down to breakfast, he handed Mr. Brown a paper with the following lines, of which I took a copy, and have since retained them in my memory. Many other students in the same college have long been in possession of them, as well as myself, and I have VOL. VII. [MAY, 1857. often been surprised to find that they had never found a place in any collection of that great poet's works. Baltimore, January 16, 1790. SENEX. TRANSLATION. Thou art my God, sole object of my love, Traveller! where ere on life's dark sea, Uumindful of the troubled wave; Since He vouchsafes to be thy guide, Whose power alone can help or save. Oh! then in ev'ry hour of need, Of trial, or of deep despair; His sacred word of mercy read, And learn his holy love to share. Soon, here below thy life shall cease, And earth behold thy form decay; Oh! seek then for that lasting peace, Nor earth, nor hell can take away. It was thus that I copied this line. The construction is inaccurate, but such inaccuracies frequently occurred in the best authors before the publishing of Lowth's Grammar, as may be seen in the Grammar itself. F NOTES RELATIVE TO THE HEBER FAMILY. Your Correspondent, R. T., p. 27, has fallen into some inaccuracies. He states that Reginald Heber 'well known for his fondness for field sports and the turf, and described as 'living in Cold Bath Square, Clerkenwell, in 1751,' was the brother of Richard Heber, Esq., of Marton and Hodnet, who died in 1766. It is true, that Richard had a brother named Reginald, but he was certainly not a book and print-seller, and we may believe that he spent his life far more usefully than in publishing a Racing Calendar, or devoting himself to the Turf. He was Rector of Chelsea, afterward Co-Rector of Malpas, Cheshire, and succeeded on the death of his elder brother Richard, to the family estates. He was the father of Richard Heber, the Member for Oxford, and by a second wife of Reginald, Bishop of Calcutta ; Thomas Cuthbert Heber, and a daughter, Mary, who married the Rev. Charles Cholmondeley. Another member of the family, also named Reginald, Rector of Marton, died in February, 1799, In an earlier generation we find a Reginald Heber, who died aged 12, the son of Reginald Heber, of Marton, who died in 1715. No one of these could have been the Reginald of sporting notoriety, but the pedigree contains a collateral branch, giving Reginald, the son of Thomas Heber, of Gargrave; the latter of whom was born, 1695. The son is merely recorded as having died unmarried. Was this last-named Reginald, the book and print-seller in question? Some of your readers may remember an allusion to Heber's Racing Calendar, in Thomas Warton's Newmarket, published in 1751. The poet there addresses the Mimic Patriots,' who Neglect the counsels of a sinking land, And know no rostrum, but Newmarket's stand. An Irishman, named Murphy, born in Down county, of gigantic stature, measuring seven feet, ten and a half inches high in his stockings, is now producing in Vienna probably the same effect on the persons who visit him as the Patagonians did on Magellan's sailors when they first saw them. A middle-sized man can stand with his hat on under the Irish Giant's extended arm. On the day their Imperial Majestics proceeded to Pesth, an hour or two before they went on board the steamer, Murphy had the honour of being admitted to their presence. The Empress conversed with Murphy in English, and served as interpreter for the Emperor, who, it seems, understands but little of the language. On the outside of a pew door in Madron Church, Cornwall, painted on a dark board in white letters, is the following quaint epitaph. Others somewhat similar will be found in Current Notes, Vol. VI. pp. 55 and 68. Here lieth the body of Mary the daughter of Thomas Harvey, of this parish, died the 3rd of Feb. 1772. Aged 29. Weep not for me my parents dear, I am not dead but sleeping here; Some time apart we must remain, In future bliss to meet again. Penzance. DR. JORTIN'S EPITAPH ON HIS CAT. Fessa annis morboque gravi, mitissima Felis Inferno tandem cogor adire lacus: Et mihi subridens Proserpina dixit, Habeto Elysios soles, Elysiumque nemus: Sed bene si merui, facilis Regina silentum, W. Da mihi saltem unâ nocte redire domum, Nocte redire domum, dominoque hæc discere in aurem, Te tua fida etiam trans Styga Felis umat. Decessit Felis anno 1756: Vixit annos 14, menses 11, dies 4. IMITATED. A Victim to the gradual lapse of age, Tho' thy attentive hand was ever nigh, Each want to help, and every pang assuage, At length without an agony I die. Believe that ev'n in death a wish remains, Nor do I rest without a fond desire, To tell thee, gentle soother of my paius, All which true love and gratitude inspire. Oh! let me as a dream at least appear, 'Revisiting the glimpses of the moon,' And whisper grateful in my master's ear This wish obtain'd I ask no further boon. BEWICK'S PORTRAIT BY NICHOLSON. In one of the notes appended to the interesting letter of Bewick's published in last month's Current Notes, you have made Mr. Isaac Nicholson, Bewick's pupil, the painter of the portrait alluded to in the letter, p. 28. This is a mistake, the painter was Mr. William Nicholson, R.S.A., of Edinburgh. In addition to the portrait engraved by Ranson, Mr. Nicholson subsequently did one in water colours for Mr. Charnley of Newcastle, that has not been engraved; and also the portrait which forms the frontispiece to the volume of Select Fables, published in 1820. This latter was drawn on the wood by Mr. Nicholson, and engraved by Charlton Nesbit; both of these portraits are much better likenesses of Bewick than Ranson's engraving. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, May 7. WILLIAM Dodd. Bewick in his letter states-While we were at Chillingham, Mr. Nicholson painted another likeness of me, in water colours, of a smaller size, but for what purpose I know not.' This seems to be the portrait painted for Mr. Charnley, alluded to by our correspondent, and if so was executed in July, 1815.—ED. |