Chapter C: G. Y

_Lord North_ (Vol. vii., p. 207.).--MR. FORSTER has, it seems, blundered a piece of old scandal into an insinuation at once absurd and treasonable. The scandal was _not_ of Lord Guilford and the Princess Dowager, but of Frederick Prince of Wales and Lady Guilford. On this I will say no more than that the supposed resemblance between King George III. and Lord North is very inaccurately described by MR. FORSTER in almost every point except the _fair complexion_. The king's figure was not clumsy--quite the reverse, nor his face homely, nor his lips thick, nor his eyebrows bushy, nor his eyes protruding like Lord North's; but there was certainly something of a general look which might be called resemblance, and there was above all (which is not alluded to) the curious coincidence of the _failure of sight_ in the latter years of both. Lord North was the only son of Lord Guilford's _first_ marriage: I know not whether the children of the _second_ bed inherited defective sight; if they did, it would remove one of the strongest grounds of the old suspicion.

C.

_Mediæval Parchment_ (Vol. vii., p. 155.).--The method of preparing parchment for illumination will be found in the _Birch and Sloane MSS._, under "Painting and Drawing," &c., where are a number of curious MS. instructions on the subject, written chiefly in the sixteenth century, in English, French, and Italian.

Sir Frederic Madden, in the Introduction to _Illuminated Ornaments_, fol. 1833, and Mr. Ottley, in _Archæologia_, vol. xxiv. art. 1., have both written very minutely on the subject of illuminating, but their observations are too long for quotation.

E. G. B.

I remember reading in an old French work the process used in illuminating parchments, and remember that the gilding was laid upon garlic juice; it might very possibly be diluted with proof spirits of wine; at all events, no parchments can bear water at whatever time they may have been prepared: the process of making them wear out with water would turn them into leather. The work I allude to was brought out, I recollect, under the auspices of the French Academy.

W. T.

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_"I hear a lion," &c._ (Vol. vii., p. 205.).--These lines (corrupted by your correspondent SAGITTA into _five_) are two couplets in Bramstone's lively poem of the _Art of Politics_. They are a versification of a shrewd question put by Colonel Titus in the debate on the celebrated bill for _excluding_ James Duke of York.

C.

The _Art of Politics_, by the Rev. Mr. Bramston, contains the following lines, which will, I apprehend, give your correspondent the required information:

"With art and modesty your part maintain;
And talk like Col'nel Titus, not like Lane.
The trading knight with rants his speech begins,
Sun, moon, and stars, and dragons, saints, and kings:
But Titus said, with his uncommon sense,
When the exclusion-bill was in suspense,
I hear a lion in the lobby roar;
Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door
And keep him there, or shall we let him in
To try if we can turn him out again?"

Mr. Bramston's poem is in the first volume of Dodsley's _Collection_.

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to refer to a cotemporary account of Colonel Titus's speech on the Exclusion Bill.