Chapter C: E. F

_The Georgiad._--About 1814, at Cambridge, some lines under this title were commonly attributed to the late Rev. E. Smedley (Seaton prizeman). Can any reader supply a copy? Two stanzas run thus:

"George B----[1] has turn'd a saint, they say:
But who believes the tale?
George D---- [2] might as soon turn gay!
George C----'s[3] flirting fail!

"George D----[4] set the Thames on fire!
George R---- his reign renew!
George R---- imitate his sire,
And to his friends be true!"

AITCH.

[Footnote 1: "G. A. B.," Fellow of Trinity, a lively companion.]

[Footnote 2: Editor of the Bible.]

[Footnote 3: Lay Fellow and Tutor of Jes. Coll.; used to read Theocritus _Græcè_ in the stage-coach.]

[Footnote 4: Author of _History of London_, or some topographical quarto. The next may be guessed.]

_R. S. Townshend of Manchester._--I know that you have several intelligent correspondents in the neighbourhood of Manchester, and it is probable that they may be able to give me some information respecting a Mr. R. S. Townshend, a person of literary taste and pursuits, who resided in that town about the year 1730. His Common-place Book, or Diary, which has fallen into my hands, contains numerous allusions to the leading gentry and clergy of the neighbourhood; and more than once it mentions the well-known Dr. Byrom, under the title of "Il Gran Maestro de Tachigraphia." Dr. Deacon, a distinguished person among the Nonjurors, is also mentioned. The acting of Cato by the scholars of the grammar-school on Dec. 20, 1732, is also mentioned, with some critiques upon the performers. The elections at the collegiate church are constantly referred to as subjects of all-absorbing interest; there being a strong party, {180} as well in the town as in the church, of Jacobites, and these elections being regarded as a trial of party strength.

O. G.

"_Mala malæ malo._"--Will any of your correspondents be good enough to complete the distich of which the following is the first line?--

"Mala malæ malo mala pertulit omnia in orbem,"

or something like it. And, as a further favour, finish the hexameter in this epigram?

"Roma amor è retro perlecto nomine....
Tendit enim retro Roma in amore Dei."

This is in the style of Audoenus. The former I have heard attributed to Porson.

BALLIOLENSIS.

"_Dimidium Scientiæ._"--I should be glad if some one of your Baconian annotators would direct me to that famous maxim which Coleridge ascribes to the great philosopher, "Dimidium scientiæ, prudens quæstio," in the original.

B. B. WOODWARD.

_Portrait Painters._--I am in possession of some good paintings, portraits, &c., which were taken at the end of the last, and early in the present century. Some were painted at Bath, and others at Derby: and I should feel obliged if, in your Notes, I could obtain information as to what artists of celebrity were known in those places from fifty to seventy years ago. I have heard that White of Derby was an artist of high repute.

J. KNIGHT.

Aylestone.

_"An Impartial Inquiry," &c._--Who was author of--

"An Impartial Inquiry into the true Nature of the Faith which is
required in the Gospel as necessary to Salvation. In which is briefly
shown upon how righteous Terms Unbelievers may become true Christians:
and the case of the Deists is reduced to a short Issue, by Philalethes
Cestriensis. 8vo., Lond. 1746."

Y. B. N. J.

"_As poor as Job's Turkey._"--This proverbial expression is used in the United States, sometimes with an addition showing how poor he was, thus: "As poor as Job's turkey, that had but one feather in his tail;" "As poor as Job's turkey, that had to lean against a fence to gobble."

UNEDA.

_Fuss._--Perhaps some of your correspondents can favour the public with the etymology and date of the word _fuss_.

W. W.

_Suicide encouraged in Marseilles._--In the _Lancet_ of Nov. 30, 1839, it is stated by De Stone that anciently, in Marseilles, persons having satisfactory reasons for committing suicide were supplied with poison at the public expense. What authority is there for this? I should also like to be informed what was the occasion on which a suicidal propensity in the Milesian ladies was corrected by an appeal to their posthumous modesty?

ELSNO.

_Fabulous Bird._--Among the many quaint and beautiful conceits in Fuller, there is one preeminently fine: in which he likens the life-long remorse of a man who has slain another in a duel to the condition of "a bird I have read of, which hath a face like, and yet will prey upon, a man; who, coming to the water to drink, and finding there, by reflection, that he had killed one like himself, pineth away by degrees, and never afterwards enjoyeth itself."

Where did Fuller read this story? I do not recollect it in Pliny.