Brown attests his veracity as an eye-witness. I have had nine pages of criticism on the "Bard" sent me in an anonymous letter,' directed to the Reverend Mr. G. at Strawberry Hill; and if I have a mind to hear as much more on the other Ode, I am told where I may direct. He seems a good sensible man, and I dare say a clergyman. He is very frank, and indeed much ruder than he means to be. Adieu, dear Mason, and believe me that I am too. 1 See Mitford's note on letter of December 8th, 1757. ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. P. xv, 1. 13. I must in fairness quote from Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World," Letter LVI.: "The French are imperceptibly vindicating themselves into freedom. When I consider that these parliaments (the members of which are all created by the court, the president of which can act only by immediate direction) presume even to mention privileges and freedom, who, till of late, received directions from the throne with implicit humility; when this is considered, I cannot help thinking that the genius of freedom has entered that kingdom in disguise. If they have but three weak monarchs more successively on the throne, the mask will be laid aside, and the country will certainly once more be free." (Date probably 1760.) But this seems to anticipate a gentle and almost insensible transition rather than a great social and political convulsion. P. 7, n. 2. Cole the antiquary, who was rector of Burnham, mentions that Rogers was an attorney, lived at Britwell, in the parish, and is buried in the church-where indeed the tablet to him is still to be seen. In another MS. memorandum he says that Mr. Rogers lived at Cant's Hall, a small house not far from the common. He probably removed to West-end in Stoke-Poges before his death; at least on his tomb-stone in the church he is called "Jonathan Rogers of Stoke Poges, Gentleman, Dyed ye 21 Octo: 1742 aged 64"-as Mr. H. E. Davis, to whom I owe many of these details, informs me. Gray's first letter from Stoke is that to Ashton upon the death of West, dated June 17, 1742 (p. 111). P. 8, 1. 4. Cf. the " Elegy," 11. 105-109; "As You Like It," Act II., Sc. 1, 31, 32; "Il Penseroso," 139, and Dryden, "All for Love," Act I., Sc. 1: "Stretched at my length beneath some blasted oak And look just of a piece as I grew from it." P. 8, n. 1. The idiom is rustic. In Congreve's "Æsop," ii. 1, Rogers says, "I'se get my wife Joan to be the queen's chambermaid and then crack! says me I and forget all our acquaintance.' P. 8, n. 3. In 1749 Oroonoko" at Covent Garden was witnessed by an African prince and his companion, both of whom had been kidnapped, and redeemed by the British government. They were powerfully affected by a story which was so like their own; and their distress moved the audience more than the simulated passion on the stage (see "Walpole's Letters," vol. ii., p. 149 and note, ed. Cunningham). I know nothing parallel to this, except the possibility that Clavigo may have witnessed his own story, with the improvement of his death, as told by Goethe (Lewes' "Life of Goethe," p. 162). P. 9, 1. 26, hogan. I cannot say for certain what "hogan" is. But Boswell tells us ("Life of Johnson," A.D. 1781) of a Cornish drink, called by the fisherman mahogany, two parts gin and one part treacle well beaten together. Johnson observed, "Mahogany must be a modern name: for it is not long since the wood called mahogany was known in this country. "I hazard a suggestion, which may be altogether futile, that this drink was "hogan turned into "mahogany" by Bacchanalian wit. I find (if that is any help) in Butler's "Hudibras," Pt. III., Canto 3, 1. 300: "And made 'em stoutly overcome With Backrack, Hoccamore and Mum.” P. 12, n. 2. Thomas Linacre was physician to Henry VIII., and first president of the college of physicians; he also held preferments in the church. He taught Sir Thomas More and Erasmus Greek, and the Princess Mary (afterwards Queen) Latin. He wrote the "Rudiments of [Latin] Grammar." Died 1524. P. 16 (n. 2 of p. 15, ad fin.). The lady, I conjecture, was Miss Chute, the maiden sister of John Chute; and I think it is she who is the bearer of Letter LVI. (p. 105), May 13th, 1742. P. 21, n. 2. Cf. also “La Nouvelle Héloïse," Pt. II., Lettre 23: "Ce dont vous ne sauriez avoir l'idée, ce sont les cris affreux, les longs mugissements dont retentit le théatre durant la répresentation. On voit les actrices, presque en convulsion, arracher avec violence ces glapissements de leurs poumons, les poings fermés contre la poitrine, la tête en arrière, le visage enflammé, les vaisseaux gonflés, l'estomac pantelant. Pour les diables, passe encore; cette musique a quelque chose d'infernal qui ne leur messied pas." 66 P. 22 (n. 4 of p. 21, ad fin.). Lessing certainly says Colley," but she was really the wife of Colley's son, Theophilus Cibber. Her maiden name was Arne, and she was the sister of the composer who wrote the music for "Rule Britannia." 66 P. 29, n. 2. Gibbon found the Dumesnil too passionate. In his 'Memoirs," writing of the year 1763, he says: For my own part I preferred the consummate art of the Clairon to the intemperate sallies of the Dumesnil, which were extolled by her admirers as the genuine voice of nature and passion.' P. 41, n. 1. Walpole wrote to Cole, December 10th, 1775: "Who is the author, E. B. G." [it was Edward Burnaby Greene] "of an Elegy on my wolf-devoured dog, poor Tory? a name you will wonder at in a dog of mine; but his godmother was the widow of Alderman Parsons, who gave him at Paris to Lord Conway, and he to me. P. 59, note on Senesino. Gay writes to Swift (Feb. 3. 1722-3) "People here now forget Homer and Virgil and Caesar for in London and Westminster in all polite conversations, Senesino is daily voted to be the greatest man that ever lived." P. 71, 1. 31. Gibbon ("Memoirs ") is contented to call Naples "the most populous of cities relative to its size." P. 78, n. 2. See Johnson's remarks on these Imitations of Spenser in his Life of Gilbert West. P. 90 (n. 2 of p. 89, ad fin.). Mr. Churton Collins kindly referred me to "N. and Q.," ser. 1, vol. ii., p. 31, for the right story; it comes from "Mrs. Bigg's (anonymous) Residence in France (edited by Gifford). She had a copy of Gray when she was arrested in the Reign of Terror. The Jacobins who searched her goods lighted on the line: "O Tu severi relligio loci ", and said "Apparemment ce livre est quelque chose de fanatique." P. 108, n. 4. As early as December 19th, 1741, Mann writes to Horace Walpole: "About 3 weeks ago 6 medals were sent from England to Rome, vastly satirical. Sir Robert Walpole with a cord round his neck, led by the devil; on the other side, Sir Robert leads the king by the nose. P. 109, n. 1, ad fin. In 1716, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote from Cologne: "I own that I had wickedness enough to covet St. Ursula's pearl necklaces; though perhaps it was no wickedness at all, an image not being certainly one's neighbour; but I went yet farther, and wished even she herself converted into dressing-plate, and a great St. Christopher I imagined would have looked very well in a cistern." May we infer from this context that the "cistern was sometimes used for the toilette? On Pepys of Mar. 14, 1667-8, Lord Braybrooke notes: "A pewter cistern was formerly part of a well-appointed dining-room; the plates were rinsed in it, when necessary, during the meal. A magnificent silver cistern is still preserved in the dining-room at Burghley House, the seat of the Marquis of Exeter. It is said to be the largest piece of plate in England, and was once the subject of a curious wager." Percy relates of Shenstone that on his sideboard at the Leasowes he had a neat marble cistern which, by turning a cock, was fed by living water. These instances of course establish the use of the cistern for rinsing purposes. Writing to Mr. Henry E. Davis (who has sent the communication to me), Mr. Wilfred Cripps says: "I should have little doubt that the Great Cistern was the immense Cistern which it was proposed to place in a Government Lottery for building Westminster Bridge in 1735. A drawing of it was presented by G. Vertue to the Society of Antiquaries in 1740, and it was a vessel of great notoriety at that period. It was won in the Lottery by a Mr. Batten (of Sussex); I found it myself at the Winter Palace when I had the opportunity of examining the Imperial treasures a few years ago. In Mr. Cripps' "Old English_Plate" (Murray, 1899), under Wine Cisterns and Fountains, we find the conjecture that the cisterns were used for washing up the forks as required on the sideboard. It is further stated that the cistern now in the Winter Palace was made by Charles Kandler, a silversmith in London, in 1734, from a design by Henry Jernegan. But the first design seems to have been made by G. Vertue; and in a note (in his own |
