Various

“ Hakluyt's not mentioning that he was in the vessel, would of itself be convincing to my mind, knowing the extent of his information on all subjects connected with Raleigh, and his minute and painstaking accuracy. Knowing, however, that this was the voyage in which Raleigh was stated to have visited Virginia, I have thought it worth while to search for more positive evidence. How far I have succeeded may be seen, but it is open to others to fix the fact of Raleigh's having been in England within the time I have limited. ”

“ Sure I am no cost was spared by their owner, Master Raleigh, in setting them forth." So writes worthy Master Hayes, who commanded the Golden Hinde, the "Rear-admirall" of the expedition. It may be easily believed that Raleigh was not on board of the vessel which belonged to him. Sir H. Gilbert, who was ignorant of the cause of desertion, wrote thus to Sir George Peckham, after his arrival in Newfoundland:—"On the 13th the bark Raleigh ran from me, in fair and clear weather, having a large wind. I pray you solicit my brother Raleigh to make them an example to all knaves." ”

“ WAS RALEIGH IN VIRGINIA?
(Vol. iv., pp. 190. 241.)
Raleigh never visited Virginia. The numerous expeditions thither, set on foot by him, and in which he had so large a concern as to cause them to be called his voyages, no doubt gave rise to the popular error.
We first find Raleigh's name, in connexion with discovery in North America, in 1579. In that year Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his stepbrother, prevailed upon him to join in a projected voyage. The accounts of this voyage are very scanty: all, I believe, that is known on the subject is to be found in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. ”

“ A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (Vol. iv., p. 412.) has answered my Query respecting this Bible in a manner not very satisfactory. He says "no committee was ever appointed by the Society of Friends" to publish such a Bible, and that the Society adopt the English authorised version only. The authority from which I quoted did not say that the committee had been appointed by the Society of Friends, or that the object of the proposed publication was to supersede the version authorised by the Church, which (as is well known) is adopted, as your correspondent states, by the Society. ”

“ In these encounters, however, the Caribs were not always victorious. If the Indians were less robust and warlike than their invaders, they were also far more numerous; and it sometimes happened that the Caribs were driven back to their canoes with much slaughter. In all hand-to-hand conflicts the conch shells would easily get detached, or, becoming an incumbrance, would be thrown aside; and the Indians, finding them on the field of battle, may be supposed to have piled them up as so many trophies. ”

“ Nay more, the only authority for Mr. Lodge's statement, that the vessel was commanded by Sir Walter, rests upon the words which I have put in Italics; his name is not mentioned in the subsequent account of the expedition, although, on the 7th of February, 1587, it was found necessary to hold a council of war, at which no less than eighteen officers assisted, all of whom, beginning with the admiral, are named. Raleigh's name does not occur; and is it conceivable that he, if present in the fleet, would have been absent on such an occasion? ”

“ On the ground, at the foot of the cross, is a skull and some bones; and at one side of the picture is a monster, somewhat like a gigantic toad, with his foot on a book; and at the other side lies a bell, with a twisted cord attached to it: the monster and the skull might be symbolical of sin and death, but what can the bell mean? It is a singular object for an artist to have introduced without some particular meaning ”

“ Raleigh's having concerned himself sometime in July or August in fitting out a vessel for Cumberland's expedition, undoubtedly forms part of that chain of evidence alluded to by Schomburgk, tending to prove his continued residence in England in 1586. I feel inclined, however, to search for positive evidence on the point. In the very valuable collection of letters entitled the Leicester Correspondence, published for the Camden Society in 1844, I find his name occurring several times. ”

“ It is singular that there is room for a similar doubt about the Bergomi edition of this work. Of that, too, I have what purports to be a copy; but am led by Clement's description of the Altorff edition to have misgivings that it may have been made as studiously a counterfeit of the Bergomi edition, as its predecessor of Ratisbon had been of that of Rome. ”

“ As the Caribs were incited to these incursions by the prospect of plunder among a race of people their superiors in the arts of civilisation, but chiefly from their inveterate hatred to the Indians, so the moment they had accomplished their object, they lost no time in retreating from a country where a longer sojourn would only have afforded their enemies an opportunity of risings en masse, and exterminating them by the superiority of their numbers. ”

“ I am induced, while preparing for the press a new edition of my opusculum on the violin, to seek your kind mediatorial aid in behalf of an object which some one or other of your correspondents, acquainted with Irish matters of the last century, may possibly enable me to attain. ”

“ General Wolfe's executor was General Warde, of the family of Squerries, near Westerham, by whom the epitaph was written, which is now over the south door of Westerham church. General Warde's nephew and executor was General George Warde, who by that means became possessed of several very interesting objects, viz., an original portrait of Wolfe, representing him with his natural red hair. After some time the natural red was converted, by water colours, into a powdered wig; consequently a sponge and clean water would restore it to its original state. ”

“ The fact is, that the Caribs were the mortal enemies of the Indians. They were engaged with them in the fiercest warfare, and made frequent depredatory incursions into Santo Domingo and the other large islands. ”

“ I am enabled to mention that her surname was Thompson, and that her brother Edward was member of parliament for Plymouth, prior to 1759. Does this give you any clue to Wolfe's mother's family; and particularly whether his maternal grandfather was a military man?
May I further inquire—
1. Whether Wolfe's father was a native of Westerham; or merely quartered there when his illustrious son was born?
2. You allude to two houses at Westerham. Were these General Edward Wolfe's property; or if not, what had led to the family residing there so long, as they seem, from your remarks, to have done? ”

“ It is not wonderful that the remarkable instincts and intelligence of the honey-bee, its domesticity, and the strong affinity of its social habits to human institutions, should make it the object of many superstitious observances, and I think it probable that if enquiry be made of that class of people amongst whom such branches of folk-lore are most frequently found lingering, other prejudices respecting bees than those lately noticed by some of your correspondents might be discovered. ”

“ I leave to more learned antiquaries the task of tracing this Celtic habit, "in superiore Germaniâ," into the Scottish Highlands. For myself I have little doubt that from the earliest division of the community into septs or clans, the chiefs assumed the pattern of this "tegmen versicolor" which best pleased them, and in course of time the pattern distinguished the wearers as belonging to such and such chiefs. As to the kilt, in all probability it was the apology for nudity. ”

“ The nature of the country in which they settled has, no doubt, proved favourable to them in this respect, as the soil is barren and rocky, with thinly scattered villages inhabited by a hardy race of fishermen. ”

“ Engraved Portrait.
—Will some of your correspondents who are conversant with the [444] history of engraved English heads, oblige me by naming the original of a copper-plate print in my possession, and also with the conclusion of the verses beneath, the lower part of the plate being mutilated. The verses, as far as I have them, run thus:
"Here you may see an honest face,
Arm'd against envy and disgrace;
Who lives respected still in spite
— — — — — — — — — —"
The addition of the names of the painter and engraver will increase the obligation. ”