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"THE OWL IS ABROAD."

(Vol. ii., p. 393.)

A.R. asks, "On what ground is the base song, 'The Owl is abroad' attributed to Henry Purcell?" To which I reply, the mistake—for mistake it is—originated with Dr. Clarke (afterwards Clarke Whitfield), who inserted it in his Beauties of Purcell. How little this musician knew of the "beauties" of Purcell is exhibited in his work; and how little he knew of the style and peculiarities of the music of the period, is shown by his insertion of the song in question. Dr. Clarke's mistake is noticed in the late William Linley's elegant work entitled Shakspeare's Dramatic Songs, vol. i. p. 6. His words are these:

"In regard to the Tempest music of Mr. Smith, it has been put to a strange medley of words; some of them are, however by Shakspeare; but they do not appear to come the brighter from the polish it was his design to give them; here and there we have a flash or two, but they must ever be vainly opposed to Purcell's pure and steady light. The song of 'No More Dams,' is however an excellent one, and it has been selected accordingly. The other song, 'The Owl is abroad,' is also characteristic, but the words are not Shakspeare's. The last air has been inserted in Dr. Clarke's Beauties of Purcell, as Purcell's. This is a mistake, which, in justice to Smith, should be rectified."

Your correspondent also refers to Mr. G. Hogarth's Memoirs of the Musical Drama, as an authority for attributing the song in question to Purcell. Mr. Hogarth's work, I am sorry to say, can never be depended upon as to facts. It is almost entirely made up from second-hand authorities; consequently blunders of the greatest magnitude occur in every chapter. It has the merit of being a well-written and an entertaining book; but here any praise must end.

A.R. speaks of having referred to Purcell's Tempest. I must beg to correct him in this statement, as no complete copy of that work (my own excepted) is known to exist. Goodeson's (printed at the end of the last century) is the only copy approaching to anything like completeness, and that is very unlike Purcell's Tempest. Did A.R. find in Purcell's Tempest the music of the beautiful lyric, "Where the Bee sucks?" No. Yet Purcell composed music to it. The absence, then, of "The Owl is abroad," is no proof that Purcell did not write music for that song also.

But, in the present case, A.R. may rest assured that the song about which he inquires is the veritable composition of John Christopher Smith.

Edward F. Rimbault.

OLD ST. PANCRAS CHURCH

Your correspondent Stephen (Vol. ii., p. 407.) asks for information respecting the "Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town." Permit me to connect with it another Query relative to the foundation of the old St. Pancras Church, as the period of its erection has hitherto baffled research. From the subjoined extracts, it appears to be of considerable antiquity. The first extract is from a MS. volume which I purchased at the sale of the library of the Rev. H.F. Lyte (Lot 2578.), entitled,—

"Spicilegium: or A Brief Account of Matters relating to the ecclesiastical Politie of the British Church, compiled from Histories, Councils, Canons, and Acts of Parliament," A.D. 1674.

It was apparently written for publication, but is without name or initials. At p. 21. the writer, after giving an account of the foundation of the cathedral church of Canterbury, goes on to say,—

"Without the walls, betwixt the Cathedral and St. Martin's Church, stood an idol temple, which, with the leave and goodwill of King Ethelbert, St. Augustine purged, and then consecrated it to the memory of St. Pancras the martyr, and after prevailed with the king to found a monastery there for the monks, in honour of the two prime apostles, St. Peter and Paul, appointing it to be the burial-place of the Kentish Kings, as also for his successors in that see. The like to this was Pancras Church, near London, otherwise called Kentish Church, which some ignorantly imagine was the mother of St. Paul's Church in London. I rather think it might be the burying-place belonging to the church of St. Paul, before Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, obtained leave of the Pope to bury in cities. And in imitation of that at Canterbury, this near London was dedicated to St. Pancras and called Kentish Church."

Connected with the Query of Stephen, it is worthy of notice that St. Augustine held a conference with the Cambrian bishops at a place called by Bede, Augustine's Ac, or Oak, on the borders of the Weccii and West Saxons, probably near Austcliffe, in Gloucestershire (Bede's Eccles. Hist. lib. ii. c. 2.).

Norden, who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth, in his Speculum Britainniæ, says that—

"The church of St. Pancras standeth all alone, as utterly forsaken, old and weather-beaten, which, for the antiquitie thereof, is thought not to yield to Paule's of London."

which idea is repeated by Weever. And in the year 1749, some unknown poet, soliloquising upon the top of Primrose Hill, bursts out into the following rapturous musing at the sight of "the old weather-beaten church" in the distance.—

 
"The rev'rend spire of ancient Pancras view,
To ancient Pancras pay the rev'rence due;
Christ's sacred altar there, first Britain saw,
And gaz'd, and worshipp'd, with an holy awe,
Whilst pitying heav'n diffus'd a saving ray,
And heathen darkness changed to Christian day."
 

Gentleman's Mag., xiv. 276.

Perhaps some of the gentlemen now engaged in compiling historical notices of the parish of St. Pancras will be able to dispel the Cimmerian darkness which at present envelopes the consecration of the old church.

The late Mr. Smith, author of Nollekins and his Times, made some collections towards a History of St. Pancras. Query, What has become of them?

J. Yeowell.

Hoxton.

Old St. Pancras Church (Vol. ii., p. 464.)—In a note in Croker's edition of Boswell's Johnson (8vo. 1848, p. 840.), Mr. Markland says, that the reason assigned by your correspondent, and in the text of Boswell, for the preference given by the Roman Catholics to this place of burial, rests, as he had learned from unquestionable authority, upon no foundation; "that mere prejudice exists amongst the Roman Catholics in favour of this church, as is the case with respect to other places of burial in various parts of the kingdom." Mr. Markland derived his information from the late Dr. Bramston, Mr. Charles Butler, and Mr. Gage Rokewoode.

S.D.

Replies to Minor Queries

Cardinal Allen's Admonition (Vol. ii., p. 463.).—In the Grenville Library, at the British Museum, there is a copy of this work, which I happen to have seen only a few hours before I read Mr. Bliss's Query. Mr. Mendham's reprint of the Admonition, published by Duncan in 1842, appeared to me to be remarkably accurate, from a hasty collation which I made of some parts of it with the original. The Grenville copy was formerly Herbert's, and may possible be the same which was sold for 35s. in Mr. Caldecott's sale in 1832. Connected with this Admonition of Cardinal Allen, there is another question of some interest. In Bohn's Guinea Catalogue, No. 16,568., was a broadside, there said to be unknown and unique, and entitled A Declaration of the Sentence and Deposition of Elizabeth, the Usurper and pretended Queen of England. This was drawn up by Cardinal Allen, and printed at Antwerp; and copies were intended to be distributed in England upon the landing of the Spanish Armada. Can any of your readers inform me who is the present possessor of the document referred to, or whether it has ever been reprinted, or referred to by any writer? Antony Wood, I am aware, refers to the document, but it is plain that he never saw it.

H.P.

Bolton's Ace (Vol. ii., p. 413.).—Ray's anecdote concerning the proverb, "Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton," is perhaps more correctly told in the Witty Aunsweres and Saiengs of Englishmen (Cotton MS. Jul. F. x.):

"William Paulett, Marques of Wynchester and Highe Treasurer of Engelande, being presented by John Heywoode with a booke, asked hym what yt conteyned? and when Heywoode told him 'all the proverbs in Englishe.' 'What all?' quoth my Lorde; 'No, Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton, is that in youre booke?' 'No, by my faith, my Lorde, I thinke not,' annswered Heywoode."

The "booke" presented by Heywoode to the Marquis of Winchester was A Dialogue contayning in Effect the Number of all the Proverbes in the English Tongue compact in a Matter concerning two Marriages; first printed by Berthelet in 1546. In 1556 it was "Newly overseen and somewhat augmented." A copy of the latter is in the British Museum.

John Bolton, from whom the proverb derives its origin, was one of Henry VIII.'s "diverting vagabonds." He is several times mentioned as winning money from the king at cards and dice in one of the Royal Household Books.

It is but right that I should give this information to your correspondent "T. Cr.", as I have omitted to "note it" in my reprint of Hutton's curious tract.

Edward F. Rimbault.

Cardinal Beaton (Vol. ii., p. 433.).—In Smith's Iconographia Scotica is a portrait of Beaton said to be painted by Vandyke, and evidently the one engraved in Lodge. It is accompanied by a memoir, which would probably be of use to Scotus, as it contains references to a great number of authorities used in its compilation. If Scotus has not met with this, and will send me his address I will forward to him the leaves containing the life.

John I. Dredge.

Pateley Bridge.

Portrait of Cardinal Beaton (Vol. ii., p. 433.).—In No. 57. allusion is made to the portrait of Cardinal Beaton, now at Blairs College, near Aberdeen. In Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire, where one of the copies of this portrait, from the easel of James Giles, Esq., R.S.A., now is, there are some manuscripts of Abbé Macpherson (who sent the Blairs picture to this country), purchased at the sale of the late Mr. Chalmers, author of Caledonia. Among them there might possibly be some which might tend to confirm the authenticity of the original painting.

S.P.

"He that runs may read" (Vol. ii., pp. 374. 439.).—It is idle to prolong this controversy. I think it is no interpretation of part of ver. 2., chap. ii, Habakkuk. Nor do I believe that it has any reference to it. But it is obviously a favourite poetic quotation, and your readers will find it at line 80, in Cowper's Tirocinium, or A Review of Schools.

J.G.H.

Pimlico.

Sir George Downing (Vol. ii., p. 464.).—Particulars respecting the first Sir George Downing may be found in Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, ii. 27. 758, 759.; Wotton's English Baronetage, iv. 415.; Parliamentary History of England, xix. 411. 465. 499.; Continuation of the Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, royal 8vo. edit., 1116, 1117. 1165-1170, Burnet's History of his own Time, ed. 1838, 136.; Heath's Chronicle, 2nd edit., 448. 528, 529, 530. 582.; Personal History of Charles II. (at end of Bohn's edition of Grammont), 431.; Lister's Life of Clarendon, ii. 231-255. 268-271. 311-315. (Mr. Lister's third volume contains numerous letters to and from Sir George Downing); Vaughan's Protectorate of Cromwell, i. 227. 255, 256. 264. 266. 268., ii. 299. 317. 433.; Courtenay's Memoirs of Sir W. Temple, i. 117. 264. 269.; Pepys's Diary; and Evelyn's Diary.

Wotton was not acquainted with the fact stated by your correspondent, that "the family is of most ancient origin in Devonshire." Wotton states, and apparently on good authority, that the first of the family of whom he had found mention, was Godfrey Downing, of the county of the city of Norwich, who had a son, Arthur Downing, of the county of Norfolk, whose son, Calybut (the grandfather of the first Sir George), was of Shennington, in Gloucestershire.

Mr. Sims, in his Index to the Heralds' Visitations, refers to pedigrees and arms of the family of Downing under Buckinghamshire, Essex, and Norfolk.

C.H. Cooper.

Cambridge, December 9. 1850.

Burning to Death, or Burning of the Hill (Vol. ii., p. 441.).—The following extract from Collinson's Somerset, vol. iii. p. 374., where it is quoted from the Laws of the Miners of Mendip, 1687, may throw some light upon the incidents referred to by J.W.H.:—

"Among certain laws by which the miners were anciently regulated is the following, viz.:

"'That if any man of that occupation do pick or steal any lead or ore to the value of thirteen pence halfpenny, the lord or his officer may arrest all his lead and ore, house and hearth, with all his goods, grooves, and works, and keep them as forfeit to his own use; and shall take the person that hath so offended, and bring him where his house and work, and all his tools and instruments belonging to the same occupation, are; and put him into his house or work, and set every thing on fire about him, and banish him from that occupation before all the miners for ever.'—Laws of the Miners of Mendip, 1687.

"This is called Burning of the Hill."

It is to be hoped that any of the readers of "Notes and Queries" resident among this mining population (who are said to retain many other ancient and remarkable customs), and possessing any information in illustration of it, will record it in your columns.

William J. Thoms.

The Roscommon Peerage (Vol. ii., p. 469.).—My attention has been called to an article in No. 58. respecting the descendants of the first Earl of Roscommon.

As I am very interested in the subject, I beg An Hiberian, should this meet his eye, to allow me to correspond with him.

He is quite right as to the old tombstone. When I was a boy, some five or six and forty years ago, my father, one day as we were passing by the churchyard, mentioned that stone to me; but as I had then several cousins living whose claims were prior to mine, the matter made but little impression upon my mind.

My father was Thomas, the second son of Garrett, who was the son of Thomas, down to whom the genealogy from the first Earl was traced upon the stone.

That stone and another, as I learn, were removed and destroyed, or concealed, many years ago, doubtless through some interested motive; and, unfortunately, no copies of the inscriptions have, that I can discover, been preserved by any branch of the family.

When the late Earl became a claimant, it was not known whether the descendants of Patrick, my father's elder brother, who had all emigrated, were living or dead; which circumstance, it was considered, would be an impediment to my claim.