Chapter I: H. M

_The Soul's Dark Cottage._--Being called on to reply to matters as plain as those to which I replied last week, I am less reluctant to acknowledge my own ignorance or obliviousness, respecting a couplet of which, I doubt not, hundreds of your readers know the original _habitat_, but which cannot be recalled to my own memory, nor to that of several friends to whom I have referred. The couplet is--

"The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made."

EFFARESS.

London, Jan. 4, 1851.

"_Small by degrees and beautifully less._"--This is a very common quotation, but, although I have made frequent inquiries, I have never yet been able to find out the author of it. Perhaps some of your readers can inform me.

W. H. B.

_Musical Plagiarism._--I think I remember to have heard, two or three years ago, of an action for damages brought against an eminent composer, on account of plagiarism in a musical composition; and that the defendant's argument was founded on the fact, that there exist very few really "original compositions," if originality excludes every form of plagiarism. And he adduced as examples the "See the conquering hero," of Handel; and the "Zitti Zitti," of Rossini. Can any of your readers refer me to the minutes of this trial; and tell me if any book has been published in criticism of the originality of composers?

R. M.

_Simon Bache._--In the parish church of Knebworth, Herts, is the brass of a priest, with the following inscription:--

"Hic jacet Dominus Simo Bache, Clericus, quondam _Thesaurarius
Hospitii_ illustrissimi Principis Domini Henrici Quinti Regis Angliae,
ac Canonic. Ecclesiae Cathedralis Sancti Paulli, London; qui obiit xix.
die Maii. Anno Dom. nostr. 1414."

Can any of your readers inform me what this office of _Thesaurarius Hospitii_ was; also, who Simon Bache was that held it; and how it happens that he is buried at Knebworth?

A. W. H.

_Sir Walter Raleigh._--In speaking of the difficulty which exists in obtaining a perfect knowledge of any event, reference is often made to Sir Walter Raleigh having witnessed an occurrence, while confined in the Tower, and that two witnesses gave such a different account from each other as well as from himself, that he threw his MS. history into the fire. In what contemporary work is this recorded?

A similar discrepancy in evidence is mentioned with reference to the celebrated tourney at Tiani, in 1502, in Prescott's _Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. iii. p. 45.

H. J.

_Harrison's Chronology._--William Harrison, a native of London, chaplain to Sir William Brooke, Baron Cobham, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, composed a _Description of Britain and of England_; and likewise translated Hector Boethius's _Description of Scotland_, from the Scottish version of John Bellenden. Both these pieces are printed in Holinshed's _Chronicles_, 2 vols. fol. 1587. In the prefaces Harrison speaks of a work on _Chronology_, "which I have yet in hand." Has that work ever been printed? I discovered the manuscript of it last year, in the Diocesan Library of Derry, in Ireland; but did not ascertain _who_ was its author (though it bears the name of Harrison), until a few days ago.

H. COTTON.

Thurles, Ireland, Dec. 21. 1850.

_Aristophanes on the Modern Stage._--Can any of your valuable correspondents inform me whether any of the plays of Aristophanes have been produced upon the stage in a modern version; and if so, when, and by whom?

I am inclined to think that some at least of the comedies in the hands of a skilful author might be made entertaining and popular.

The _Acharnians_ and _Peace_, or perhaps even the _Birds_, might form the groundwork of an amusing piece. Should you be able to spare a corner in your valuable periodical for this Query, you would greatly oblige