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Under the Plough, very common in the same Shire

God speed the Plough,

Likewise the Harrow; Ready money to-day,

And Trust to-morrow!

Over the fire-place in a Public House at Chichester, I remember reading five-and-twenty years ago, and it may be there now,

Since Man to Man is so unjust,

No Man can tell what Man to trust;
I've trusted many to my sorrow,

Pay to-day, take Trust to-morrow!

The Old Parr's Head, in Aldersgate Street, I well recollect, had in the window an ill painted figure of the ancient gentleman, under which were the following halfborrowed, half-original lines

Your head cool,

Your feet warm,

But a glass of good gin,

Would do you no harm!

NOTES ON LONG HAIR.

THE exuberance of the full flowing wig in the time of Charles the Second, had possibly a political cause. The fanatics, who during the usurpation, affected to regulate all their actions by Scripture, found in one of the Epistles, 1 Corinthians, chap. xi. ver. 14, the text which

says:

If a man have long hair it is a shame unto him.

This they considered as relative to all modes, places and times, and therefore with great devotion and zeal clapped a bowl-dish upon their heads and clipped their hair to the brim. The appearance this shorn character gave them, obtained for the Puritans the appellation of Round-heads. After the Restoration, it was natural the Courtiers should assume a fashion wholly dissimilar to these subverters of Monarchy, and in opposition to the short hair of the Round-heads, they lengthened the periwig to the waist. It is easy to suppose, that among military men, to appear in the field, some expedient would be adopted to confine the hair, that had thus in

At Seven Oaks, in Kent, was a sign, with these lines, the drawing-room loosely flowed over the shoulders, but the production of the landlord's own brain

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which on horse-back, must in the highest degree, be both inconvenient and troublesome. Hence full wigs tied back with a riband, were designated by names, which are still retained. A full wig tied back in one curl, was called a Major; in two curls, a Brigadier. In Marlborough's time, at the beginning of the last century, wigs with deep curls, and not more than eighteen inches in length from back to front were adopted under the designation of Campaign wigs. Other professions

ON a sign board at Oundle about forty years since, sought similar conveniences in a different mode, and was the following inscription

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ST. PETER'S, CORNHILL. The parish authorities have recently acquired by purchase a volume of great local interest-a large folio manuscript of the Bible and the Apocrypha, with St. Jerome's Preface, written upon vellum, with upwards of one hundred and fifty miniature paintings of Historical Events, Portraits of the Patriarchs, Evangelists, etc. and valuable as presenting highly important examples of English Costume. The manuscript, comprising 586 leaves of fine white vellum, appears to have been the work of an English illuminator or illuminators, and executed in London, early in the fourteenth century, and having at the end a rubricated Colophon-Iste liber pertinet perpetue cantarie duorum capellanorum celebrancium ad altare Sanctæ Trinitatis in Ecclesia Sancti Petri super Cornhill in London.

This highly valuable acquisition was purchased of Mr. Willis during the past month.

thus physicians and lawyers became possessed of the Tye. W. M.

CA IRA. It is a circumstance little known that this song, so pre-eminent in all proceedings of the direful French revolution, had its origin in a saying of Dr. Franklin while he was ambassador in France. When informed of any disaster that occurred to the Americans then struggling for independence; his general reply was, "I expected it, but nevertheless Ca Ira." As he became popular, the words became remarkable, and at length, when a song was required for revolutionary purword, presented itself, and was adopted for the burden. his saying that had almost become a household

poses,

E. C.

DR. KITCHENER, of musical notoriety, held frequent evening conversaziones, and, with a view to decorum, placed a small placard over the parlour chimney-piece, inscribed—

Come at seven, go at eleven!

but George Colman, to whom such early hours were an abomination, one evening took occasion, by inserting a small pronoun, to materially alter the reading

Come at seven, go it at eleven!

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

No. XLVI.]

"Takes note of what is done-
By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

PARTICULARS OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

From Family Papers.

THE truth of the following particulars, which are in the hand-writing of my mother, whose grandfather was brother to Sir Isaac Newton's mother, may be depended on. She wrote these memorandums for the information of her children; her words are these :

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[OCTOBER, 1854.

She had by this Smith, one son and two daughters; these married and had descendants, to all or many of whom Sir Isaac, when his fortune increased, was kind and munificent: giving to one 500., to another an estate of the value of 40001. or thereabouts, to make up them, and to prevent a law-suit among themselves. a loss, occasioned by the imprudent marriage of one of This was done many years before his death.

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He had a half-sister, who had a daughter, to whom Barton, who married Mr. Conduit, of the Mint. He gave the best of education, the famous witty Miss succeeded Sir Isaac in the Mint, and is buried at the West door of Westminster Abbey, leaving only one Sir Isaac bought an estate of about seventy or eighty daughter, married to the eldest son of Lord Lymington.* pounds a year, and gave it Miss Conduit, (then very young), before he died.

"Hannah Ascough, was younger sister of the Rev. Ascough, my father's father. She married a Mr. Newton, of Colsterworth, not far from Grantham, in Lincolnshire, who had an estate of about 1207. per ann. which he kept in his own hands and occupied himself. She had by him, one son called Isaac, [born Dec. 25, 1642, O.S.] ; after the death of Mr. Newton, her brother, my grandfather, who lived near her, directed her in all affairs, and put her son to school to a very good master, Mr. Stokes, at Grantham. When he had finished his school learning, his mother took him home, intending, as she had no other child, to have the pleasure of his company, and that he, as his father had done, should occupy his own estate; but his mind was so bent upon his improving in learning, that my grandfather pre-into vailed upon her to send him to Trinity College* in Cambridge, where her brother, having himself been a member of it, had still many friends.

"Isaac was soon taken notice of by Dr. Isaac Barrow, who, observing his bright genius, contracted a great friendship for him: indeed, he became so eminent for his learning, joined with his singular modesty, that he was courted to accept the honours afterwards conferred upon him, on the calling in of the coin, and the necessity of a new coinage.

"He was unwillingly brought from the university into the busy part of the world-his great aversion; but by his great judgment and strict integrity on that occasion, he saved the nation at that time, as I have heard it related by those who well knew the affair, and also from himself, 80,0002.

"Isaac's mother, after her son went to Cambridge, was courted by a rich old bachelor, who had a good estate and living near her, the Rev. Benjamin Smith, but she settled some land upon Isaac before marriage.

It does not appear that what has been asserted of Sir Isaac having been sent to the university by the pecuniary aid of some neighbouring gentlemen is at all true: it certainly was not necessary, his mother had sufficient; so had his uncle. I therefore suspect there must have been some misinformation as to this point: a point, however, of no importance.

VOL. IV.

"He was kind to all the Ascoughs, and generous and munificent to such of them whose imprudence had made his assistance necessary; to one of them he gave 8007., to another 2007., to another 100, and many other sums; and other engagements did he also enter for them. He was the ready assistant of all who were any way related to him, to their children and grandchildren. He made no will; his paternal estate father Newton;t he had no relations on that side, his of 1201. a-year went to a distant relation of his grandfather nor himself had no brother nor sister.

[* John Wallop, first Viscount Lymington, was created Earl of Portsmouth, April 11, 1743. John Wallop, the The eldest son, who married Miss Conduit, died v. p. Earl died in 1762; and was succeeded, by his grandson, the second Earl, who died in 1797.]

[t There would appear to be some difference in the supposed value of this property; a conditional gift of that land, is here printed from the original for the first time :In consideration of the affection I beare to Isaac Warner, my godson, the son of John Warner, of Salsy Forest, I doe hereby give and grant to the said Isaac Warner, all the rents and profits of that part of my Estate at Woolstrop, in Lincolnshire, which descended to me from my ancestors, and which is of the yearly value of twentyfive pounds, or thereabouts, until such time as the said Isaac Warner shall have received thereout One hundred pounds, and no more. And, I hereby give and grant to the said Isaac Warner, full power to distreyne for and recover the said rents, as the same shall grow due, and do hereby authorise John Warner to receive such rents for the use of his said son, and to give receipts for the same. Witness my hand, the 25 day of March, Anno Dni, 1725.

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"He is said never to have sold the copies of any of his books, published in his life-time, but gave them freely to the bookseller. He was generous to his servants, and had no love of riches, though he died worth 30,000l., which fell to three of his half-brother Smith's children, three of his half-sister Pilkington's, and his half-sister Barton's two daughters: all these survived Sir Isaac.

"He was a person of very little expense upon himself; kept a handsome, genteel, constant table, never above three men and three women servants; towards his latter end, when he could not use a chariot, only a chair, he kept but two men servants; he was exceedingly bountiful and charitable, not only to relations, but to acquaintance, or persons well recommended, and also to ingenious persons, in any useful art or science."

Thus far the extracts from the family papers.

It does not appear that he ever became imbecile, he did not, or would not recollect the solution of many of his problems of former years; and perhaps the illtreatment he had met with from some foreigners, made him rather shy towards the last, of entering into the discussion of any matters about which a dispute might arise; but I know that he conversed with my aunt, in whose arms he died, and with others, like any other reasonable man, to the day of his death, and on that day, read the newspaper: but I lately met with a letter of the late Dr. Pearce, Bishop of Rochester, wrote in 1754, to Dr. Hunt, Hebrew Professor at Oxford; and published in 1770, in Cadell's edition of Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology, p. 10, which puts this imputation of Sir Isaac Newton's imbecility to shame. It appears that Dr. Pearce was with Sir Isaac Newton a few days before his death, when he was writing without spectacles, by but an indifferent light. That he was then preparing his Chronology for the press, and had written for that purpose the greatest part of it over again. He read to the Doctor some part of the work, on occasion of some points in chronology which had been mentioned in the conversation. Before the dinner was brought up, he continued near an hour reading to him, and talking about what he had read: and what was particular, speaking of some fact, he could not recollect the name of the King in whose reign it had happened,

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and therefore complained of his memory beginning to fail him; but he added immediately, that it was in such a year of such an Olympiad, naming them both very exactly. The ready mention of such chronological dates seemed, says the Doctor, a greater proof of his memory not failing him, than the naming of the King would have been.

What coxcomb therefore was it that first published to the world the silly story of the decay of Sir Isaac Newton's faculties before his death? This has been several times repeated. His faculties may, indeed, in some degree, have been impaired, as he had employed them intensely for, perhaps, seventy years: but if any ruins there were in this great man's powers, there remained still too much strength of mind to be called imbecility. A persisting application, and such a mastery over his imagination, as to keep it up to the point he had in view for a very long time, without snapping, was his peculiar talent: and the instrument with which he did such great things, and which, his temperance and constitution singularly formed for such purposes, enabled him to practise through a long life. His candour and modesty, even to bashfulness, were the graces which made such superior knowledge not disgusting to his inferiors.

He was not only the Mathematician, but the Historian, the Chronologist, the Chemist, and the Critic: I have never met with any of his chemical manuscripts, but they certainly exist somewhere. I remember to have heard from the late learned Dr. Kidby, a gentleman well known to many learned men, perhaps still alive, that Sir Isaac Newton was as great in chemistry, as in any other science. It might therefore be an acquisition if those chemical papers of his could be found. Mr. William Jones, if I remember right, was supposed to have had several manuscripts of Sir Isaac Newton's in his possession; how he came by them, or why he kept them to himself, if he had such, I could never rightly learn: I remember to have heard him blamed on that account forty years ago; this is perhaps a groundless charge. I only mention it, that inquiry may be made of Mr. Jones's heirs, or the persons into whose hands his papers came after his decease, whether any manuscripts of Sir Isaac Newton's worth notice exist? and surely if any exist, they must have their worth!

J. H.

[These notes were written in November, 1774, and elicited from the son of the author of the Synopsis Matheseos, the assurance that no such papers had been found in his father's

Buck-library, and that the story of his having made an improper use of any papers belonging to Sir Isaac Newton, was wholly groundless.]

It would seem that here is particularised the land settled upon him, by his mother before her marriage.]

[ Sir Isaac Newton, on Saturday morning, March 18, 1726-7, read the newspapers, and discoursed a long time, with his physician, Dr. Mead, in the full possession of his intellectual powers, but at night, he was deprived of his senses, and being struck with death, did not recover them; he died on Monday, March 20, in his eighty-fifth year.]

SCHILLER.-The house at Weimar in which Schiller lived, though small and considerably dilapidated, was purchased at public auction, June 29, 1847, for 5025 dollars, (10057. sterling,) by the Corporation of that town, being nearly double the amount of its value.

MICHAELMAS GOOSE.

WHAT is the origin of the custom of eating goose on Michaelmas-day? In a large party yesterday, at dinner, not one person was able to advance a satisfactory | elucidation of the question. Salisbury, Sept. 30.

W. P. N.

Probably no better reason can be rendered than that Michaelmas-day was a great festival, and that geese are then in their prime season, the custom being peculiar to England. In 1470, John de la Hay, as a tenure, was bound to render to William Barnaby, Lord of Lastres, in the county of Hereford, for a parcel of the demesne lands, one Goose fit for the Lord's dinner on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel; it was then, as it would appear, a custom.

Tradition however refers to another incident, by which the custom would seem to have had an additional incentive

to a more general observance. "On the 29th of September 1588, Queen Elizabeth dined at the ancient mansion of Sir Neville Umfreville, near Tilbury Fort, and as Her Majesty preferred dining of a high seasoned and substantial dish than of a flimsy fricassee, or rascally ragout, the Knight thought proper to provide a brace of fine geese to suit the palate of his royal guest. The Queen having dined heartily, in a bumper of Burgundy, drank Destruction to the Spanish Armada!' and had but that moment returned the goblet to the knight, who had done the honours of the table, than intimation was brought that the Spanish fleet had been destroyed by a storm. Exhilarated by the incident, and delighted with the good news, the Queen drank another bumper, and every year after on that day had the abovementioned dish at her table. The Court made it a custom, and the people have followed the fashion to this day."

But the days have changed, and unobserved by most people. Michaelmas-day, or the 29th of the month described by Churchill, as,

September, when by custom, right divine;
Geese are ordain'd to bleed at Michael's shrine,

is now by the alteration in the style, eleven days earlier than the days of Elizabeth; geese are much finer in condition on old Michaelmas-day; those eaten according to the modern observance, being for the most part unfed or stubble geese.

THE phrases "My goose is cook'd," spoken by one, on whom misfortune has operated most unkindly; or said in a threatening tone, of another "To cook his goose," i.e. to do him an ill turn; have their origin from a source but little known. The Swedish army under Gustavus Adolphus, had in it many English and Scottish officers, men on whose loyalty and skill the King placed the utmost confidence. Having with a small force invested a large town, the King, with the counsel of his officers, summoned it to surrender, but the besieged in derision, hung out on a pole a goose, as a mark for his artillery. The batteries commenced, many buildings were soon in flames, and breaches sufficiently widened for the assault, when the town drums beat a parley, to learn the King's purpose, the reply was simply, "Only to cook your goose!"

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The parish registries of Ruthven are of recent date, and wholly silent as to whom of the good folks now sleeping soundly in their last tenement the this grave, honorary coronet was awarded as an unenviable distinction, either as story-tellers or as waverers from the paths of virtue, for doubtless this has been of a similarly corrective use with the brank.

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Though somewhat rusty, this instrument of parochial inquisition in an intolerant age is in good preservation; across the circle it measures about 51 inches; and in front, from the verge to the top-point of the fleur-de-lis, is 4 inches; that ornament rising nearly two inches above the upper hoop. Attached to the lower hoop, are three ears or pendants having holes pierced for cords to pass through them, in the attaching or fastening the coronet to the head of the delinquent, or, for tying under

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ON the place called "the Barbican," at Plymouth, fifty or sixty years since, I remember seeing one of these stools swinging over, or on the edge of Plymouthpool. The chair was made of iron, suspended by a chain running over the end of the beam. I understood it was then in frequent use, and well recollect the being threatened by my uncle, with a dip, if I did not behave well. Some old inhabitant of Plymouth may possibly be able to supply a drawing, and some further particulars.

J. M.

EPITAPH ON WILLIAM PRYNNE.

THE author of the History of King-killers; or the Fanatick Martyrology, 1720, vol. ii. October, p. 65, relates some very extraordinary particulars of William Prynne, born in 1600, to which the attention of any future biographer is particularly directed.

He was a right sturdy doughty champion for the Cause, a Puritan boutefeu, an inveterate enemy to his Sovereign, and no less to Bishops, especially after his imprisonment and punishment for his Histriomastix, a busy pragmatical and meddling man without end.

This profligate scribbler, and general reviler of all honest men, who had long before deserved to make his exit at Tyburn, undeserved had his life protracted till 1669, when he died on the 24th of October, at his chambers in Lincoln's Inn, and was buried under the chapel there, no epitaph over his grave, but had this then made by an ingenious person: Here lies the corpse of William Prynne, A bencher late of Lincoln's Inn, Who restless ran through thick and thin. This grand Scripturient paper-spiller, This endless, heedless margin-filler, Was strongly tost from post to pillar. His brain's career was never stopping, But pen with rheum of gall still dropping, Till hand o'er head brought ears to lopping. Nor would he yet surcease such theams, But prostitute new virgin reams, To types of his Fanatick dreams.

But whilst he thus hot humour hugs,
And more for length of tether tugs,
Death fang'd the remnant of his lugs.

The only known copy of Prynne's Introduction to his great work on the Public Records, designated "Book the First," no distinct title, and terminating abruptly at p. 400, was at the sale of the Stowe Library, purchased by the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, for 3351. It is now in their splendid Library, further details will be found in Spilsbury's account of that Library, or in the Law Review, for August, 1849.

SEBASTOPOL AN ENGLISH FORTIFICATION.

SEBASTOPOL is a word of world-wide speculation: it engrosses the imaginative faculties of millions; and is heard who was the engineer and director of that respoken of every where, but, comparatively no one has doubtable fortification. He was an Englishman. When the main road from London to Holyhead, was made a subject of enquiry, and the improvement determined; John Upton of Charleton, was at Midsummer 1818, appointed Surveyor of the western part, about fourteen miles, of the Old Stratford and Dunchurch Trusts, at a yearly salary of 1051. Many of the improvements on the above line were effected under his superintendence, so much to the satisfaction of Mr. Telford, the chief Engineer, that he highly commended him to the Commissioners for his ability, and recommended that the whole of the Old Stratford and Dunchurch trust should be placed in his hands, and the salary of the other, the eastern surveyor, should be added to his own. His labours appear to have elicited considerable praise, and his name frequently occurs with honour in the Parliamentary Reports of the Commissioners of the Holyhead road, onward to the year 1826. During this time he resided at Daventry, in Northamptonshire, and adopted a style of living far beyond his means-not only had he contrived to obtain from his wife's relations, upwards of three thousand pounds, of which he wholly swindled them, but he also held the post-office for one year at Daventry, and was even there a defaulter of nearly three hundred pounds, which one of his sureties had to pay. Deemed and spoken of by those who knew him as a sad scamp,' in the month of April 1826, it was discovered he had committed many gross frauds on the Trustees of the Road. An enquiry by a competent person was instantly instituted, and it was found he had misappropriated the funds belonging to the Trustees to more than 20007. He was charged with this misdemeanour, and evidence taken as to the facts, but he was liberated on bail to appear at the ensuing July Assizes. He appeared in due course at the Assizes, and answered when called on to plead. The trial however did not come on, on the first day, and then contrary to what his solicitor had told him, that he would be merely indicted for a fraud, he learned from information that could not be doubted that he would be indicted for forgery, and as no doubt of his guilt was entertained, that he would probably be hanged. That night he slept at Northampton, and on the next morning rose about

An attempt has been made to ascertain precisely Prynne's chambers in Lincoln's Inn, and the result has been thus far successful. At the time of his decease, he occupied chambers in Garden Court, Garden Row, and what was then Garden Court, comprises now the three houses, Nos. 7, 8, and 9 of Old Square, but in which of these three, lodged so distinguished an oc-7 cupant, no record now known serves to particularise.

o'clock, said, he was going for a walk, and would

return to breakfast. He however made the best of his way to London, and having applied by recommendation to the Russian authorities in the metropolis, received an immediate appointment as Engineer, and in a few days was secretly on his road to the Crimea. The

COUNTRY Book-Club, published anonymously, 1788, 4to. Who was the author of this amusing and well-means he adopted to obtain that recommendation are written Poem?

Norwich, Oct. 7.

R. F.

The author resident at Colchester, was named Shillitoe.

known, but to mention names would be invidious, it would implicate persons whose characters are unimpeached and unimpeachable. Persons of his talent are

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