Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
Few things can be more mortifying to a biographer, or an antiquary, than
the perpetuation of an error which he has successfully laboured to
correct. It is an evil, however, to which he is often subjected, and
which your valuable publication will go far to remedy. In the present
case it is, doubtless, to be ascribed to the peculiar nature of my
_Memoir of Aubrey_, of which but a limited number of copies were printed
for the _Wiltshire Topographical Society_. The time and labour which I
bestowed upon the work, the interesting character of its contents, and
the approbation of able and impartial public critics, justify me in
saying that it deserves a far more extensive circulation.
After this allusion to John Aubrey, I think I cannot better evince my
sympathy with your exertions than by requesting the insertion of a Query
respecting one of his manuscripts. I allude to his _Monumenta
Brittanica_, in four folio volumes--a dissertation on Avebury,
Stonehenge, and other stone circles, barrows, and similar Druidical
monuments--which has disappeared within the last thirty years.
Fortunately a large portion of its contents has been preserved, in
extracts made by Mr. Hutchins, the historian of Dorsetshire, and by the
late Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart.; but the manuscript certainly
contained much more of great local interest, and some matters which were
worthy of publication. In the Memoir already mentioned, p. 87, the
history of the manuscript down to the time of its disappearance is
fully traced. Referring such of your readers as may feel interested in
the subject to that volume, and reserving for the future numbers a long
list of other interesting Queries which are now before me, it will
gratify me to obtain, through your medium, any information respecting
the MS. referred to. I remain, Sir, yours truly,
JOHN BRITTON.
[Our modesty has compelled us to omit from this letter a warm eulogium
on our undertaking, well as we know the value of Mr. Britton's testimony
to our usefulness, and much as we esteem it.]
* * * * *
INEDITED SONG BY SIR JOHN SUCKLING.
I do not remember to have seen the following verses in print or even in
MS. before I accidentally met with them in a small quarto MS. Collection
of English Poetry, in the hand-writing of the time of Charles I. They
are much in Suckling's manner; and in the MS. are described as--
_Sir John Suckling's Verses_.
I am confirm'd a woman can
Love this, or that, or any other man:
This day she's melting hot,
To-morrow swears she knows you not;
If she but a new object find,
Then straight she's of another mind;
Then hang me, Ladies, at your door,
If e'er I doat upon you more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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