Chapter C: W. G

_Middleton's Epigrams and Satyres, 1608_ (Vol. iv., p. 272.).--These Epigrams, about which QUAESO inquires, are not the production of Thomas Middleton the dramatist, but of "_Richard_ Middleton of Yorke, gentleman." The only copy known to exist is among the curious collection of books presented by the poet Drummond to the University of Edinburgh. A careful reprint, limited to forty copies, was published at Edinburgh in 1840. It is said to have been done under the superintendance of James Maidment, Esq.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Lord Edward Fitzgerald_ (Vol. iv., p. 173.).--Your correspondent R. H. was misinformed as to the house of Lord Edward Fitzgerald at Harold's Cross, from the fact of his friend confounding that nobleman with another of the United Irishmen leaders; namely, Robert Emmett, who was arrested in the house alluded to. Lord Edward never lived at Harold's Cross, either in avowed residence or concealment.

R. H.'s note above referred to, provoked the communication of L. M. M. at Vol. iv., p. 230., who seems to cast a slur upon the Leinster family for neglecting the decent burial of their chivalric relative. This is not merited. The family was kept in complete ignorance as to how the body was disposed of, it being the wish of the government of the day to conceal the place of its sepulture; as is evident from their not interring it at St. Michan's, where they interred Oliver Bond and all the others whom they put to death at Newgate; and from the notoriety of their having five years later adopted a similar course with regard to the remains of Robert Emmett. (See Madden's _Life of Emmett_.) But is he buried at St. Werburgh's? Several, and among others his daughter, Lady Campbell, as appears from L. M. M.'s note, think that he is. I doubt it. Some years since I conversed with an old man named Hammet, the superannuated gravedigger of St. Catherine's, Dublin, and he told me that he officiated at Lord Edward's obsequies in St. Catherine's church, and that they were performed at night in silence, secrecy, and mystery.

E. J. W.

_Earwig_ (Vol. iv., p. 274.).--I do not know what the derivations of this word may be, which are referred to by [Greek: AXON] as being in vogue. It is a curious fact that Johnson, Richardson, and Webster do not notice the word at all; although I am not aware that it is of limited or provincial use. In Bailey's _Scottish Dictionary_, and in Skinner's _Etymologicon_, it is traced to the Anglo-Saxon _ear-wicga_, i.e. ear-beetle. In Bosworth's _Dictionary_ we find _wicga_, a kind of insect, a shorn-bug, a beetle.