Various

“ No one can live single, no one take a wife,
Without interfering with me.
"My brethren are many; and of my whole race
Not one is more slender and tall:
And, though not the oldest, I hold the first place;
And ev'n in dishonour, despair, and disgrace,
I boldly appear 'midst them all.
"Though disease may possess me, and sickness, and pain,
I am never in sorrow or gloom:
Though in wit and in wisdom I equally reign,
I'm the heart of all sin, and have long lived in vain,
And ne'er shall be found in the tomb.
" (I.) "
How came Miss Fanshawe's enigmas to be attributed to Lord Byron? ”

“ I believe I am correct in stating that there never was, nor is there now (out of London) , such a thing as a warrant for the execution of a criminal. At the close of each Assize, a fair copy of the Calendar, with the sentences in the margin, is signed by the Judges, and left with the sheriff; this is the only authority he has given him; and in the event of a sentence of death, he has no alternative but carrying it into effect; unless he receives from the Crown a pardon, a reprieve, or a warrant commuting the sentence. ”

“ The whole of the drapery is in the most finished style, and the ease and softness of the folds are an admirable proof of the delicate chiselling of the artist. He has shown his natural and pure taste in the manner in which he has placed the feet. The entire position of the figure is faultless; and it represents, with refined fidelity to nature, the female infant form, patiently and slowly perishing beneath the steady undermining progress of irresistible decay. ”

“ Without describing the successive stages of the existence of this centre, it may be enough here to state, that a part of Newton's world-wide renown arises from his having cashiered this immovable point from the solar system, and sent it on its travels in search of the real centre of gravity of the whole universe. Newton substituted, for the old law of gravitation towards a centre, his law of universal gravitation, namely, that every particle gravitates towards every other. ”

“ From our imperfect acquaintance with the early history of the Goths, it is not easy to decide upon the reasons why they adopted their mode of reckoning from thirty-eight years before the Christian epoch; but if we accept the signification which we know it was not unusual to affix to the word Era, namely, that of year, time, or period, the solution is easy as to its origin. It was only the engrafting of their own vernacular word into the barbarous Latin of the time, from whence also it was adopted into the Romance, Castilian, or Spanish. ”

“ The act, after reciting that "our said Lord the King, considering how Almighty God of his great grace had placed him in the honorable Estate of King, and nevertheless he cannot yet for certain cause bear the name of Duke of Lancaster," then ordains that "Henry his eldest son should have and bear the name of Duke of Lancaster, and that he be named Prince of Wales, Duke of Aquitaine, of Lancaster, and of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester." The fact is, that the King or Queen of England cannot be Duke or Duchess in the realm of England. ”

“ Sir Isaac Newton's discovery was the law of universal gravitation, viz. that the solar system is kept together by the gravity of the heavenly bodies towards the sun. This was founded on terrestrial gravitation, of which the falling apple put him in mind, applied first to the moon, and then universally to the universe. (See Penny Cyclopædia, art. "Gravitation;" Biot, "Life of Newton," in the Biographie Universelle; or the translation of it in the "Life of Newton" in the Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 5.) ”

“ Our kings have held inferior titles drawn from other kingdoms, as Duke of Normandy and Earl of Anjou; but Lord Coke says the sovereign cannot be rex and dux in the same realm. The Queen, as queen, holds her palatinate of Lancaster, and the other duchy lands and franchises; but she holds them jure ducatus, so distinguished from those estates which she holds jure coronæ. She cannot however properly be styled Duchess of Lancaster. ”

“ Whether the soke or suck end of it be from sucan, and the whole name equivalent to the modern Chawbacon, is a matter which I leave for the investigation of MR. LOWER. At all events, the old form will be a warning to the etymologist not to search for the origin of the name in any legend like that which ascribes the nutrition of the infant founders of Rome to a she-wolf.
I have met with many modern instances of the mutability of surnames among labouring people, and even in a class above them. In 1841 a person named Duke was on the list of voters for Penryn, in Cornwall. ”

“ Cicero would have been startled to know that, when a body falls towards the earth, the earth rises towards it, medius locus and all: not quite so fast, it is true, nor so far. But it must not be supposed that we could move our earth any distance in course of time by continually dropping heavy weights upon it; for the truth is, that when the weight is raised the earth is a little lowered, or at least made to move the other way. Archimedes said that, with a place to stand on, he could move the earth ”

“ Instead of availing themselves of the recent opinions of some great lawyers, that a surname may be changed at will, this family rather pride themselves on a name that can boast an antiquity probably not surpassed by that of any family in England. ”

“ It is needless to remark, that the superstition would no doubt have been confirmed, and the flickering lamp of life might have been extinguished a few hours sooner, had they carried into effect their proposal to drag him from one bed to another, or to lay him upon the floor. The woman who helped to lay out the corpse came to see me, and I took the occasion to ask if she knew the belief, that a person could not die whilst lying upon game-feathers. ”

“ King William and King Charles had shown so little wisdom and discrimination in their knighting and pensioning of worthless poets, that they must be supposed to have been anointed, at their coronation, with bear's grease, instead of the holy ointment commonly used for such purposes, and which is considered to possess the power of conferring on the kingly office those very virtues in which William and Charles had shown themselves so deficient. ”

“ May I ask your correspondent S. E. B. where he has discovered that the world-wide reputation of Newton was founded upon a notion of his being the first person who pointed out that bodies are attracted, or seem to be attracted, towards the centre of the earth? ”

“ When the Duke takes up the commission, he addresses Escalus to the following effect:
"It would be affectation in me to lecture you upon the art of government, since I must needs know that your own science exceeds, in that, the limits of all I could teach you. Therefore, since your worth is able, no more remains to your sufficiency, but—that, and let them work." ”

“ Blackstone observes upon this:
"It may afford matter of speculation, that in civil causes there should be such a variety of writs of execution to recover a trifling debt, issued in the king's name, and under the seal of the court, without which the sheriff cannot legally stir one step; and yet that the execution of a man, the most important and terrible task of any, should depend upon a marginal note."
J. B. COLMAN.
Eye.
DUCHESS OF LANCASTER.
(Vol. v., p. 320.) ”

“ The steady progress which sound Archæology is making in this country is shown, and the benefits which will accrue from such progress to those who are desirous of investigating the early history of this island and its inhabitants is rendered evident, by the fact, that discoverers of primæval remains no longer endeavour to build upon those remains some strange theories which have no foundation beyond the fancy of those who pen them. ”

“ A noble lord distinguished for a total neglect of religion, and who, boasting the superior excellence of some water works which he had invented and constructed, added, that after having been so useful to mankind, he expected to be very comfortable in the next world, notwithstanding his ridicule and disbelief of religion. ”

“ I remember once hearing a gentleman refer to some author as giving a description of a similar figure, and speaking of such representations as of great antiquity. Unfortunately I took no note of it at the time, and I now hope to recover the reference by a query; and shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who may be able to furnish me with an answer: "Who was the author referred to?"
M. Y. R. W.
Anecdote.
—Can you tell me the names of the clergyman and noble lord referred to in the following anecdote? ”

“ SURNAMES.
(Vol. v., pp. 290. 326.)
Variations of surnames occur much later than the close of the fourteenth century, the period cited by your correspondent COWGILL. I have seen a document of the date of Charles I., which names one Agnes Wilson, otherwise Randalson, widow of John, son of Randal Wilson; thus showing that the patronymic was liable to vary in every generation, even in the seventeenth century.
This is still the practice in the hill country of Lancashire, bordering upon Yorkshire, where people are seldom known by a family name. ”

“ My strength can give you: Then, no more remains:
But that, to your sufficiency as your worth, is able;
And let them work. The nature of our people,
Our city's institutions, and the terms
For common justice, you are as pregnant in,
As art and practice hath enriched any
That we remember: There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp."
Opening of Measure for Measure.
In Mr. Knight's edition, from which the foregoing passage is printed and pointed, the following note is appended to it:
"We encounter at the onset one of the obscure passages for which this play is remarkable. ”

“ The shape of it has, however, deviated from the ancient form, so as to become more significant, but certainly less graceful than it was; and the change is probably an illustration of a familiar fact: viz. that we are not generally the authors of our own surnames, but receive them from our neighbours, and that, to a certain extent, they continue to have the same character of instability which they originally possessed. The earliest form of it known to me is Sokespic,—a word which seems to indicate a Saxon origin. ”

“ The individual is distinguished by the addition of the father's or mother's Christian name, and sometimes by the further addition of those of forefathers for a generation or two, as in the designation of Welshmen in times past. The abode sometimes varies the style.
As an example, I may mention that a few years ago I sought an heir-at-law in a town on the borders. ”

“ Hamilton Paul, one of Burns' warmest admirers and editors, when, lumping all these envious spirits together, he says,—
"Some weak attempts have been made by narrow-minded men to expose to ridicule this 'Burnomania,' as they term it; but like self-love converted by the plastic power of the poet into social affection, it is spreading wider and wider every day."
"Friends' kindred, neighbour, first it doth embrace; Our country next, and next all human race." J. O.
Cagots (Vol. iv., pp. 190. 331. 387.) ”

“ The majority derive their origin from places or districts of limited dimensions, and to enumerate them would be an interminable and very thankless task. MR. L. has therefore judiciously determined to exercise his discretion on this class of cases. Nor are the names derived from Christian names generally worth insertion, for every Christian name has, in some form, been converted into a surname, either with or without alteration. ”

“ Carleton's tragic tale, The Black Prophet, will remember that, in Ireland, the seventh son of the seventh son is supposed to be—
"Endued
With gifts and knowledge, per'lous shrewd!"
And in Keightley's Fairy Mythology (p. 411. note, ed. 1850) are given some tradition of that gifted [413] Welsh family, the "Jones' of Muddfi," whose forefather had married the "Spirit of the Van Pool." ”

“ H. F.
"Up, Guards, and at them!" (Vol. v., p. 396.) .
—I know not what your correspondent A. A. D. may mean by asking "whether the battle of Waterloo was not a myth!" but I am glad to be able to state, from the very best authority, the circumstance of the celebrated order to the Guards on that day. It was at all times the Duke of Wellington's habit to cover as much as possible troops exposed to the fire of cannon, by taking advantage of any irregularity of ground, and making them [426] sit or lie down, the better to cover them from fire till the moment of attack ”

“ C. E. D.
"History is Philosophy teaching by Examples" (Vol. v., p. 153.) .
—If your correspondent T., who cannot find this passage in any of Lord Bolingbroke's writings, will turn to the second letter of that nobleman, "On the Study and Use of History," he will perceive that the sentence is there quoted from Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The writer in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana evidently takes it at second-hand from this work; and there can be no doubt that the currency of the quotation is entirely attributable to Lord Bolingbroke's use of it. ”

“ The next morning a man called upon the farmer's wife, and related how on the previous night, as he lay in bed, quite awake, her husband's ghost had appeared to him, and after showing him several stabs on his body, had told him that he was murdered by a certain person, and his corpse thrown into a certain marl-pit. ”

“ Elle n'est pas beaucoup riche, car la Reyne deffunte prenant jalousie de tout le monde, et principalement de ceux qui avoient quelque pretention à la couronne, luy osta sous divers pretextes, la plus grand part de ses revenus; c'est pourquoy la pauvre Dame ne peut pas vivre dans la splendeur, et n'a pas le moyen de faire du bien à ceux qui la servent, comme elle voudroit. ”