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7

No. LXIII.]

"Takes note of what is done

By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

EARLY MERCHANTS' MARKS.

The following two examples of Merchants' marks are from rubbings of Sepulchral memorials in the London Churches.

*

[MARCH, 1856.

INEDITED LETTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

I forward you another letter* addressed by Sir Walter Scott to "James Ellis, Esq., Otterbourne, by Hexham, Northumberland," perhaps not so interesting as the last, but still worth preserving. The volume, edited by Ellis, and dedicated to Scott, has the following title

Poetry, Fugitive and Original, by the late Thomas Bedingfield, Esq., and Mr. George Pickering, with Notes and some Additional Pieces, by a Friend, [i.e. Ellis.] Collecta revirescent. Newcastle, 1815, 8vo.

Is from the Flemish brass of Andrew Evyngar and family 1536, in the Church of All-hallows, Barking. On this brass are two other shields, the dexter charged with the arms of the Merchant Adventurers Company, barry nebulé of Many kind thanks, my dear Sir, for Pickering and six, arg. and azure; a chief quar- Bedingfield's poems, which I think greatly more valuable terly gules and or; the first and from being mingled with your own, which are comfourth quarters, a lion passant-pletely fitted to rank with them, and you know they guardant of the fourth. On the stand high in my estimation. I think you have made second and third, two roses of the a very acceptable present to the literary world, and third, barbed vert. The sinister shield bears the arms feel myself much flattered in standing godfather to the of the Salters Company, per chevron az. and gules, volume. It is executed in a manner creditable to the three sprinkling salts argent. Newcastle press, and without errors, which is equally honourable to the editor and printer. The literary anecdotes are very interesting, and will be the means of preserving to posterity the memory of these two ingenious men, which must otherwise have perished with the generation in which they flourished. You were fortunate in the opportunity of knowing them, and they not less so, in being known to one whose kindred talents have enabled him to preserve their fame.

The inscription in old English raised characters; the words within brackets being erased.

[Off your charite pray for the sowls] of Andrew Evyngar cyteze and salter of London; and Ellyn hys [wyff on whoos soulys ihesu haue m'cy ame.]

In the church of St. Olave, Hart
Street, on a mural brass, the de-
vice marked on the representation
of a bale of wool; with the follow-
ing inscription.

John Orgone and Ellyne his wife.
As I was so be ye.
As I am, you shall be.
That I gaue that I haue.
That I spent, that I had.
Thus I end all my coste
That I leffte, that I loste, 1584.
J. J. H.

Lee Road, Blackheath, March 8.

The Border Antiquities must be given up, for I don't think the publishers have taken the thing by the right

In reference to the letter printed in Current Notes, pp. 4-5, Mr. White, it appears to me, is under a mistake, Current Notes, p. 14, in supposing that Sir Walter made a slip respecting the lines on the North Tyne. The lines to which allusion is made are now before me, having been printed in 1850, by Mr. Fenwick, from the manuscript in Mr. Ellis's autograph. The tract is entitled-Dialogue between the North and South Tyne Rivers. This Dialogue is the joint production of the late Dr. Shepherd, Preacher at Gray's Inn, and the late Miss Davidson, who in 1817 TOMB OF HOMER.-The Sieur de Grun, a Dutchman had a friendly controversy on the respective merits, in in the Russian service, employed in searching for anti-point of beauty and association of the two streams. quities in the islands of the Archipelago, wrote to a friend early in 1772, that he had discovered in that of Nio, the tomb of Homer, who was always supposed to have died there. That he found a Greek inscription on the sepulchre which contained the skeleton of that poet, the most celebrated of all antiquity, but that it immediately crumbled to dust on being exposed to the air. He had also made many other discoveries of tombs and coins in the islands of Ñaxio and Milo, as in that of Nio. Wisbeach, March 7.

VOL. VI.

M. S. F.

The Editor observes-the

As far as I know, the other poem, edited by Mr. Adamson, and entitled-The Marriage of the Coquet and the Alwine, is still anonymous. author of this poem is not positively known, but report attributes it to two different gentlemen, of whom each is equally well known in the county of Northumberland. The names of these two individuals I do not feel myself at liberty to mention here, as by assigning it to any one

without certain information on the subject, I might, unintentionally, subtract from the merit of the real composer. E. H. A.

eruption.

handle, making the numbers far too large and miscel-, only a violent chicken-pox, and not the real variolous laneous. I have got a work for your acceptance-The Lord of the Isles-but I wait for the royal 8vo., which will appear in a fortnight.

I have just got from Mr. Bell the inaugural speeches at the opening of the Society of Antiquaries, which shew much taste and spirit. I have thoughts of going south this spring; perhaps, if I do not come down by sea, a mode of travelling to which I am rather partial, I may have an opportunity of being present at a meeting. I have often thought that if Antiquarian Societies would bestow some expense and time in causing fair copies to be transcribed from curious old papers and records, they would render their associations of most material use to history. About fifty years ago, an old Scotch gentleman, the Laird of Macfarlane, who chanced to be a keen genealogist and antiquary, employed an amanuensis in making a collection of this kind. The volumes thus compiled were afterwards purchased by our Faculty of Advocates, and are in their fine library; and what points out the extreme value of such a collection, many of the originals from which they were copied have even in the comparative short space of time, fallen aside, or been destroyed; so that these copies are now the only source to which we can resort for the curious information which they contained. Perhaps, the Antiquarian Society of the North may be induced at one time or other to take the matter under consideration?

Sometime since, I wrote you a long letter, which I hope came safe to hand. Mrs. Scott sends her kind compliments to Mrs. Ellis. Our eldest boy, Walter,+ whom you remember at Otterbourne, has had the small pox, or something very like it, and thereby made himself the town-talk, for he was in infancy both vaccinated and inoculated. He has now got them well over, but the alarm prevented me writing this letter. The circumstance of the small-pox, if such the disease be, reviving like one of Ariosto's Enchanted Champions after it was supposed fairly slain, is a little startling. But as vaccination was then only new, it is possible the boy may not have had the right kind, and that the subsequent inoculation may not have taken effect, which Sometimes happens; or, the disorder may have been

Scott was elected an Honorary Member of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Society of Antiquaries on April 7, 1813, several unpublished letters of Scott's in reference to his joining this Society, and the Border Minstrelsy, in the Editor's possession, will appear in Current Notes.

Scott's only son, born Oct. 28, 1801. He adopted the military profession, and was a Major in the 15th Hussars, when Sir Walter died Sept. 21, 1832, whom he succeeded in the Baronetcy. He became the Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment, May 31, 1839, and served some years in India; on his return homeward he died at sea, off the Cape of Good Hope, Feb. 8, 1847. Dying without issue, the baronetcy became extinct.

Once more, my dear Sir, my grateful thanks and best wishes attend you, and

I am very much,

Your much obliged and faithful servant, Edinb. January 19, 1815. WALTER SCOTT.

SCOTT'S WAVERLEY NOVELS QUESTIONED. In Notes and Queries, there appeared recently certain letters in which an attempt was made to discredit Sir Walter Scott's right to be considered Author of what are usually denominated, the Waverley Novels. This would be amusing enough were there not involved in it an imputation on the memory of the truly great and good man of the most serious description. In assuming Scott to be the author of Moredun, the concoctor of that eccentric and unequal production did not People might say, and touch his moral character. say with truth, that it was unworthy of his pen-but | that was all whereas, the story now told just comes to this, that Scott appropriated for his own benefit the works of others.

What is said? Why, that Thomas Scott wrote the whole or best part of the novels prior to Rob Roy; and that in particular he was the author of The Antiquary. What is the proof of this wondrous statement? An alleged letter in the Quebec Herald, of July, 1820. It has the date of December-but no year. It has neither signature nor address. The party who was the recipient is represented as dead; who sent it is not disclosed; and where it was found-whether in New York or In this precious production, Quebec-is concealed. Thomas Scott is made to declare that he was the author of The Antiquary. It is asserted that the writer had seen the original manuscript in full in Thomas Scott's hand-writing.

Ex

An anonymous communication of this sort affords no evidence whatever. A court of law would dismiss it at once, and common sense rejects it as worthless. amine the matter, and see how the thing stands. Firstly, Was ever such a letter in existence, and if so, where is it now? Secondly, Who was the writer, and to whom was it addressed? Thirdly, What was the date that is to say, the year in which it was written? Fourthly, Where is the alleged manuscript of The Antiquary in Thomas Scott's autograph? In the next place, assume that Thomas Scott made such a statement, was it done seriously or in jest-was it over his cups, or was any body else present? The paymaster, as Thomas Scott is styled, was a fellow of infinite humour-full of frolic and fun.

Like the late excellent Peter Robertson (Eheu !!) he could not resist a joke; and to mystify a Yankeecould there be a greater treat? Sir Walter, at the dinner at which the secret of his authorship was made public, desired Robertson to announce himself as the murderer of Begbie. Even very grave personages con