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County of Huntington, did, with joint consent, submit themselves to the arbitration of Sr William Armyn, Knight, High Sheriff of the County of Huntington, and Ralph Brownridg, Doctr in Divinity, John Layer of Shepred in the County of Cambridge, Esq., and M Palmer, Councellor at Law, for the ending of divers Controversys."

And now that the inflexible will of the Dowager Countess was not there to oppose him, Mr. Salmon gained the day; and it was agreed by the arbitrators that an annuity of 251. should be paid to the Vicar of Stanground.

THE RED BOOK OF THORNEY.-In connection with the foregoing subject, I may mention that an ancient register book of the Monastery of Thorney, known as "The Red Book of Thorney," was in the possession of John Earl of Westmorland, at Apthorpe, 1778. It contained various charters by different monarchs relating to the abbey rights at Stanground, Farcet, Yaxley, and elsewhere, as well as the rights of pasturage and common, and of fisheries in Whittlesea-mere. A closely-written manuscript book of extracts from this Red Book of Thorney, containing the various particulars relating to Stanground, Farcet, and their adjacent fens, has been left by some careful successor of Mr. Salmon in the past century, and is still possessed by the present vicar, the Rev. R. Cory, who has kindly allowed me to make a copy of it. The particulars, however, would be interesting but to a very few readers, and could only be given in an extended history of the parishes mentioned. Meanwhile, I here designate the book's existence for the use of anyone who might be in search of the information that it CUTHBERT Bede.

contains.

LADY KILSYTH.

This lady, Jean Cochran, was daughter of William Lord Cochran, first Earl of Dundonald. Her mother was Lady Catherine Kennedy, second daughter of John, sixth Earl of Cassilis, and she was the widow of Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee. She lost her life in Holland by the falling in of her lodgings, and her child was killed at the same time, together with a con

siderable number of noble exiles then assembled in the same room. Her marriage ring was found some years ago, I believe, at Kilsythe with this motto, "Yours ever and allways.' During Claverhouse's life she resided at Dudhope Castle.

"The wound which Lady Kilsyth [Livingstone was the family name] received was on the right temple. The child seems simply to have been smothered in her arms. Their bodies, after being embalmed, were deposited in a leaden coffin, enclosed within a wooden one, and transported to Scotland, where they were interred with great splendour in the family vault beneath the parish church

the last of the Kilsyths ever destined to repose there. This was in 1717."*

The bodies remained undisturbed until the year 1795, when the decay of the wooden coffin exposed the leaden one to view. Some young men, students at the Glasgow University, went to visit the vault, and observing the mouldering state of the coffin, thoughtlessly removed the leaden covering. Underneath was a board of fir; this falling off, disclosed to view the bodies of Lady Kilsyth and her infant son, as entire as on the day they were placed in their tomb. An eye-witness thus describes them:

"Every limb and every feature were perfect; the shroud as pure, and the ribbons adorning her splendid attire as bright as when they were consigned to their sepulchre. The body of her son and only child, the natural heir of the title and estate of Kilsyth, lay at her feet, his features as composed as though he were asleep; his colour as fresh, and his flesh as full as if he were in the glow of perfect health. The body of the lady was equally well preserved, and it would not be easy for a stranger to distinguish whether she were dead or asleep. The wound which occasioned her death was plainly visible on her right temple."

In the vault was found a ring with the initials J. C.-Jean Cochran- the last Lady Kilsyth. Letters relative to this melancholy occurrence have been lately found among papers relating to Kilsyth in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. Would some one communicate these to "N. & Q."? In the Letters of Viscount Dundee is given a portrait of this noble lady.

"There was not yet an end to the curious circumstances connected with Dundee's widow. The year after the discovery of the embalmed corpses in Kilsyth church, a tenant of Colzium garden, digging potatoes, found a small glittering object in a clod of earth. He soon discovered it to be a ring, but at first concluded it was a bauble of little value. Remembering, however, the story of Lady Dundee's ring, lost upwards of a century before, he began to think it might be that once dear pledge of affection, and soon ascertained that in all probability it was so, as within its plain hoop was inscribed a posy exactly such as the circumstances would have called for "Zovrs onnly and Euer.' The lover and his family and name were gone-his chosen lay silent in the funeral vault; but here was the voice of affection still crying from the ground, and claiming from another generation of men the sympathy which we all feel in each other's purer emotions."

In the Letters of John Graham of Claverhouse, Bannatyne Club, 1826, is given a representation Viscount of Dundee, 1678-1689, printed for the of a ring given to Viscount Dundee by King James II. with this inscription round the collet of the ring: "Great Dundee for God and me."

There is a curious account of an apparition of Dundee appearing in Edinburgh Castle:

"The Earl of Balcarres, having failed to satisfy the government about his peaceable intentions, was put under

* In a work called Curiosities for the Ingenious, 1824 about, is given a somewhat different account of the discovery of the bodies. Would some one give this?

restraint in Edinburgh Castle [July 4, 1689]. There he must have waited with great anxiety for news of his friend Lord Dundee. After the battle of Killiecrankie, where fell the last hope of James in the Viscount Dundee, the ghost of that hero is said to have appeared to his confidential friend, Lord Balcarres, then confined to Edin. burgh Castle. The spectre, drawing aside the curtain of the bed, looked very steadfastly upon the earl, after which it moved towards the mantle-piece, remained there for some time in a leaning posture, and then walked out of the chamber without uttering one word. Lord Balcarres, in great surprise, though not suspecting that which he saw to be an apparition, called out repeatedly to his friend to stop, but received no answer, and subsequently learned that at the very moment this shadow stood before him, Dundee had breathed his last near the field of Killiecrankie."

This account is from the Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil, p. 254. Another Jacobite apparition may be cited:

"A year before the insurrection of 1745, in which Lord Kilmarnock was engaged, the family were one day startled by a violent scream, and on rushing out to inquire what had occurred, they found the servants all assembled in amazement, with the exception of one maid, who they said had gone up to the garrets to hang some linen on the lines to dry. On ascending thither, they found the girl on the floor, in a state of insensibility; and they had no sooner revived her, than on seeing Lord Kilmarnock bending over her, she screamed and fainted again. When ultimately recovered, she told them that, whilst hanging up her linen and singing, the door had burst open, and his lordship's bloody head had rolled in. I think it came twice. This event was so well known at the time that at the first rumours of the insurrection, Lord Saltoun said, 'Kilmarnock will lose his head.' It was answered, That Kilmarnock had not joined the rebels.' 'He will, and will be beheaded,' returned Lord Saltoun."

Of William Livingstone it may be mentioned that he survived his wife nearly forty years. In the Caledonian Mercury for February 6, 1733, is this paragraph:

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"To repress the encroachments of piratical booksellers, who were selling imperfect copies of his lectures, he determined to issue them himself."

I do not know upon what authority this assertion is made. I have never myself seen any pirated editions of the lectures.

I. 1st edition, 1765-9, 21. 28.

The first four editions are in quarto. They are all in four volumes or books, and the paging of every edition nearly corresponds. A supplement to the first edition

was issued containing the most material corrections and additions which he had made in the second. The copy in the British Museum has numerous MS. notes by Mr. Hargrave.

II. 2nd edition, 1766-9. III. 3rd, 1768-9.

IV. 4th, 1770.

V. An American reprint, Philadelphia, 1771-72.
VI. 5th edition, 1773, 1st roy. 8vo edition.
VII. 6th edition, Lond. (?), 1774 (?), 8vo.

I have not seen this edition, but I believe the Table of Precedence, which is in all subsequent editions, first occurs in it; and that it is the first edition also with the portrait by Hall, after Gainsborough. (See "N. & Q." 2nd S. viii. 454.)

VIII. A very inferior French translation by D. G *** [De Gomicourt]. Londres et Paris, 1774-6, 6 vols. in 8vo.

IX. 7th edition, Oxford, 1775. This and every subsequent edition is in royal 8vo.

X. 8th edition, Oxford, 1778. Portrait. XI. 9th edition, Lond. 1783, with the last corrections of the author continued by R. Burn. XII. 10th edition, 1787, with, &c., additions [in notes] by R. Burn, and continued." notes] by J. Williams.

XIII. 11th edition, 1791, by the same.
XIV. 12th edition, 1793-5.

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With the last corrections, &c., and notes and additions by Edward Christian [who intended that this edition originally should form five volumes]. This edition was published in parts, and contains the following portraitsLord Somers, Sir John Fortescue; vol. ii. Sir Thomas Littleton, Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice Holt; vol. iii. Earl Mansfield, Lord Chief Baron Gilbert, Sir J. Comyns, Philip Earl Hardwicke; vol. iv. Sir M. Hale, Sir M. Forster, Lord Chief Justice Raymond. With regard to these portraits, the following quotations may be interesting:

"As to the fury for prints and engravings, I would observe that the folly and rapacity for gain, in some booksellers, have degraded many works of established fame, and subjected some learned editors to unmerited ridicule. I feel for the injury and injustice which a gentleman-I mean Mr. Christian, Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge, and editor of Blackstone's Commentaries with valuable notes and illustrations, and who has well deserved from his profession-suffered on this occasion. It was a transaction shameful and unjustifiable."-Pursuits of Literature, 1812, 4to, p. 85.

"The late Professor Christian (than whom no one was better acquainted with the science of book-making) was aware of the public appetite for this species of decoration by portraits."-Fraser's Mag. vi. 220.

I may observe that the editor himself expressly disclaims any hand in the portraits.

XV. An American edition. Boston, 1799. XVI. 13th edition, 1800. The same as XIV. XVII. 14th edition, 1803. The same as XIV. XVIII. An American edition by George Tucker, 1803, 5 vols.

XIX. An edition after Christian.

(U.S.), 1807.

Portland

XX. 15th edition, 1809. The same as XIV. XXI. A new edition, 1811. Also containing analyses and epitome of the whole work, with [xxvi. charts and] notes [and some account of the life and writings], by J. F. Archbold [no portrait].

XXII. Reprinted. Philadelphia, 1826.

XXIII. *A new edition with notes and additions, and a copious index digested upon an entirely new plan [with Life by J. Clitherow]. Lond. 1813, very small 8vo. This is simply a reprint, and not upon any new plan.

XXIV. An American edition. Boston, 1818.
XXV. By J. Williams. I have not seen this

edition. It is in Lowndes.

XXVI. A French translation of the 15th edition, after Christian, by N. M. Chompré. Paris, 1823, 6 vols. 8vo. 48 fr.

XXVII. 16th edition, 1825, with the last, &c., and with notes by J. T. Coleridge.

XXVIII. A new edition [17th].

Notes by J. Chitty [who claims great superiority over former editions, and acknowledges the obligations he is under to Mr. Steer and Messrs. H. & T. Chitty, his sons]. This edition has a marginal analysis, and the portrait is after Reynolds.

XXIX. 18th edition, 1829, with the [author's own] analysis of the work. The last corrections [and a life] of the author, and copious notes by Thomas Lee [to vols. i. and iii. only]. The halftitle bears the names also of J. E. Hovenden [vol. ii. only] and A. Ryland [vol. iv. only]. Portrait is after Gainsborough, but engraved by Phillips.

XXX. 17th edition, 1830, with the last, &c. By Christian, enlarged and continued by the editor of Warton's History of English Poetry [Richard Price]. No portraits. This editor's poetical head seems to have become confused by the numerous editions, and he has left a memento on the titlepage of the way this edition is edited.

The Pennsylvania Blackstone, by J. Reed, 3 vols. Carlisle [U. S.], 1831. See Marvin, to whom I am indebted for some American editions.

XXXI. An American edition, stereotyped. New York, 1832, 2 vols. 8vo.

XXXII. 19th edition, 1836. 63s.

The same as 29th, but solely edited by J. E. Hovenden; and the Lawyer's farewell to his muse is reprinted

in the life.

XXXIII. 20th edition, 1841, incorporating the alterations down to the present time, by James Stewart.

Each part has a separate title-page. The first edition of the 1st vol. was in 1839. That part of the 2nd vol. which relates to real property was first published in 1837; 2nd edition including the law relating to personal property, 1840; 3rd edition, 1841. The 3rd vol. was first published in 1840, 2nd edition 1841. The 4th vol. first published in 1841, 2nd edition 1844. No portrait.

XXXIV. (No edit. ment.), 1844, 2nd edit. By J. Stewart, with an analysis of the work by Sir W. B. For 23rd edition by same, see No. XXXIX.

XXXV. 21st edit. (sic) 1844, with last, &c. [and life of the author by G. Sweet after Clitherow]: vol. i. by J. F. Hargrave; vol. ii. by G. Sweet; vol. iii. by R. Couch; vol. iv. by W. N. Welsby. Portrait after Gainsborough by Phillips.

XXXVI. Edition, New York, 1847. Edited by J. L. Wendell from the 21st edition (No. XXXIV.) XXXVII. 22nd edition, 1849 ?

XXXVIII. The Rights of Persons, being the first book of Blackstone's Commentaries incorporating the alterations to the present time, 2nd edition. By J. Stewart, 1849. No more published? XXXIX. 23rd edition, 1854 [1853], Stewart's 3rd edition.

XL. A new edition, adapted to the present state of the law, by R. M. Kerr, 1857 [original pagination indicated, marginal analysis. Each vol. has a separate index], 2nd edition, 185-; 3rd edition, 1862.

In 1853 Mr. Serjeant Stephen first published his "New Commentaries (partly founded on Blackstone)," which have since been quietly but certainly usurping the place of Blackstone.

1, Powis Place, W.C.

SOILED HORSE.

RALPH THOMAS.

This expression occurs in Lear (Act IV. Sc. 6), and nowhere else to my knowledge. The context would appear to make its meaning quite plain; yet, as all the critics seem to acquiesce in Steevens' explanation of it, which is undoubtedly erroneous, I

think I am justified in inferring that it has not been as yet explained or perhaps understood. For myself, I must say that I saw at once that it could mean only one kind of horse, namely, the entire horse or stallion. But why term him soiled? Reflecting on it, my memory went back to the days of my boyhood which were spent in the country (near Punchestown, in the county of Kildare), and I recollected that my father had a horse of this kind who was kept in a separate stable; and that in the last spring and early summer months, when the other horses were put to grass, or still fed on hay, his rack was every morning filled with what was called soil, that is, the fresh growing meadow-grass, which was cut for the purpose. The same would seem to have been the practice in Warwickshire in the time of Shakespeare, and hence he says "the soiled horse."

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ὡς δ ̓ ὅτε τις στατὸς ἵππος, ἀκοστήσας ἐπὶ φάτνῃ,
δεσμὸν ἀπορρήξας θείει πεδίοιο κροαίνων,

εἰωθὼς λούεσθαι ἐϋῤῥεῖος ποταμοίο, κ.τ.λ.

The soil undoubtedly is not mentioned here; but we may fairly suppose it, for the horse was hardly fed on barley alone. The last line, by the way, is not true to nature, as the horse never goes into deep water for mere pleasure.

With regard to "Whose face between her forks," &c., in a preceding line, it gives me pleasure to be able to say that, without having had any knowledge of what had been written on it, I had understood it exactly as Edwards did. Mr. Dyce's excellent note on the subject is most satisfactory. I would only add that the poet has, perhaps designedly, expressed himself somewhat incorrectly. We should perhaps read fork in the singular, and a different preposition, within for instance, or upon, as in the passage from Timon quoted by Edwards, THOS. KEIGHTLEY.

SPERONI, TASSO, AND GUARINI. Tasso (1544-1595) was seven years the junior of Guarini (1537-1612), both intimate friends, and said to have been in love with, and writing sonnets to, Eleanora, sister of the Duke of Ferrara of the house of Este-that from which our Queen is descended. The Aminta of Tasso was one of his minor works, and in the opinion of Speroni and Guarini inferior to his other poems." * The Pastor fido was Guarini's chief work, and elaborately finished. Both Tasso, in his Aminta, and Guarini, in his Pastor fido, imitated the Canace of Speroni; which is founded on Ovid (Heroides, Canace Macareo, epist. xi.). Comparing the two works we find the chorus, which is always understood to speak the opinion of the writer, or such as he thinks the audience ought to have, is found for sixty-eight lines in succession to terminate with the same words in both writers, as if they had been originally bouts rimés. Both these choruses

Aminta, con Annot. d' Egidio Menagio, xvii. 202, Venezia, 1736.

are from the fourth eclogue of Virgil. I select nineteen lines as a specimen :

AMINTA OF TASSO (end of first act). "La verginella ignude

Scopria sue fresche rose,

C'hor tien nel uelo ascose,

E le poma del seno acerbe, e crude;

E

spesso in fronte, ò in lago

Scherzar si uide con l'amata il uago.

Tu prima, Honor, uelasti,

La fonte de i diletti,

Negando l'onde à l'amorosa sete.
Tu à begli occhi insegnasti

Di starne in se ristretti,

E tener lor bellezze altrui secrete.
Tu raccogliesti in rete

Le chiome à l'aura sparte.
Tu i dolci atti lasciui
Festi ritrosi, a schiui.

A i detti il fren ponesti, à i passi l'arte.
Opra è tua sola, ò Honore,

Che furto sia quel, che fù don d' Amore."
Translation by Wm. Ayre,

"Virgins to the sight revealed,
Charms of late in veils concealed,
Eyes unwilling to deceive,

And breasts unblown, that scarcely heave,
By the lake or fountain side
Softly as the waters glide,
Mimick forms of love and play,
Kissing, toying, just like they,
Court young lovers there to stay
And kiss and toy again like they.
Honour, thou hast stopt the spring,
Whence these pleasures once did flow,
Heat and thirst, though lovers bring,
Mocked and unrelieved they go.
Thou to eyes first taught'st the art
To restrain their lovely rays,
To belie and pain the heart,
And turn aside from welcome gaze.
Hair that loosely to the wind
Wantonly did flow and play,
Bound and plaited now we find,
Neither natural nor gay.
Amorous actions, love's sweet food,
Changed to shyness, coy disdain,
Words restrained, half understood,
Steps have art, and own thy chain."

IL PASTOR FIDO (end of fourth act). "Vn sol godeva ignude

D'amor le vive rose:
Furtivo amante ascose

Le trovò sempre, ed aspre voglie, e crude,
O in antro, ò in selva, ò in lago,
Ed era un nome sol, marite e vago.

Secol rio, che velusti

Co' tuoi sozzi diletti

Il bel de l' alma, ed a nudir la sete
De i desiri insegnasti

Co' sembianti ristretti,
Sfrenando poi l'impurità secrete,
Cosi qual te sa rete

Trà fiori, è fronde sparte,
Celi pensier lascivi

Con atti santi, e schivi,

Bontà stimi il parer, la vita un' arte:
Nè curi (e parti honore)

Che furto sia, pur che s' asconda amore."

Translation by W. Grove.

"To one alone, in all their bloom arrayed,
Of love, the living roses are displayed;
The furtive lover found them always closed,
Himself to sour and stern rebuffs exposed,
Whether in cave or lake, or in the grove,
And wedlock was as certain as to love.
Thou guilty age! that with thy joys impure
Dost thus the soul's bright faculties obscure;
That teachest to indulge desires so foul,

Yet with fair show the features to control;
And as the guiletul net extends,

With flowers bedecked, with spreading leaves
bestrewn,

Thou, for thy base lascivious ends,

The solemn mask assumest, and canting tone:
To feign with thee is virtue's part,

Who lookest on all in life as art.

Nor carest thou-nay, thou dost applaud Love's theft, if well concealed the fraud." Tasso's short pastoral, Aminta, was performed eleven years before Guarini's much longer one, Pastor fido. The Canace is a tragedy, the Aminta a comedy, and the Pastor fido a tragi-comedy.

The high tone and pure morality of Guarinia man of high honour for the age in which he lived-is contrasted in these extracts with the sensual and impure tone of Tasso, and the somewhat dishonourable character which he bore, but which is in part palliated by the condition of his nervous system. Montaigne (ii. 12, p. 306)

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"J'eus plus de despit encores que de compassion, de le veoir [in Nov. 1580] à Ferrare en si piteux estat, survivant à soy mesme, mescognoissant et soy et ses ouvrages, lesquels, sans son sceu, et toutesfois à sa veue, on a mis en lumiere incorrigez et informes."

Hallam (Lit. of Europe, ii. 151) seems to have regarded Guarini with the eyes of others, and not his own; as I proved in the case of Peter Lombard ("N. & Q.," 1 S. viii. 294). The English translation of Montaigne assumes that the above passage refers to Ariosto (by Cotton, ii. 182); but Ariosto died in 1533, the year when Montaigne was born, nearly half a century before this interview took place. From the above statement it will be seen that the Biographie Universelle (xviii. 596) is correct, in stating that the "Pastor fido a été composé à l'instar de l'Aminta," that is, under like circumstances; but is not aware of the important fact (xliii. 292) confirmed by the letters of Speroni and Guarini, that the Canace was the model for both. Speroni and the Canace are not even named by Hallam. Speroni lived 1500-1588. His statue, in the grand council-chamber at Rome, was placed next to Livy's. His Canace escaped the Inquisition, but his "Dialogues" did not. Guarini's Pastor fido, in respect to the passage commencing

The line-"Pianti, sospiri, e dimandar mercede,"in the Aminta (Act I. Sc. 1), is the same in the Canace (Act IV. Sc. 2).

"Se 'l peccar è sì dolce,

E'l non peccar sì necessario," (Act III. Sc. 4)— was put in the Index, the pope's bibliographical purgatory. T. J. BUCKTON. Wiltshire Road, Stockwell, S.W.

TALBOT, EARL OF SHREWSBURY.-The Times of June 6, in its historical sketch of the ancestry of the late Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, quotes the titles of the valiant John Talbot, created Earl of Shrewsbury for his successes in France, as given by Shakespeare in Henry VI. Part the First, Act IV. Sc. 7.:

"Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury;

Created for his rare success in arms,

Great Earl of Washford, Waterford and Valence;
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,

Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice victorious Lord of Faulconbridge;
Knight of the noble Order of Saint George,
Worthy Saint Michael, and the golden fleece;
Great Mareshal to Henry the Sixth,

Of all his wars within the realm of France."

It may be worth noting that Shakespeare is mistaken here. Talbot, though probably a Knight of St. Michael, was not a Knight of the Golden Fleece; at least his name is not included in Chifflet, Insignia Gentilitia Equitum Ordinis Velleris Aurei. Antverpiæ, 1632. JOHN WOODWARD.

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