Notes and Queries, Number 186, May 21, 1853. Various
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nearly cotemporary with the Reformer, possessing many excellent qualities, was some time since shown me. It is in the possession of Mr. Horne, of Morton in Marsh, Gloucestershire: it was received by him from an elderly gentleman still living in London, who purchased it many years since at a sale of pictures. The picture is very dark, on canvass, with a black frame having a narrow gilt moulding. As the existence of this portrait is perhaps not known, mention of the fact might interest some of your readers. The picture, including frame, is perhaps in size thirty inches by twenty-four; and the age of the sitter, whose features are delineated with remarkable effects is probably under fifty years.
Randle Wilbraham.—Randle Wilbraham, Esq., the grandfather of Lord Skelmersdale, who died upon the 3rd of April last, was a lawyer of great eminence, and held the office of treasurer of Lincoln's Inn. The university of Oxford conferred, by diploma, the degree of D.C.L. upon him in these notable terms:
"Placuit nobis in Convocatione die 14 mensis Aprilis 1761, solenniter convocatis spectatissimum Ranulphum Wilbraham, Arm. Coll. Ænæi Nasi quondam commensalem, in agendis causis pro diversis Tribunalibus per multos retro annos hodieque versatissimum, Subsenescallum nostrum et Consiliarium fidissimum, Gradu Doctoris in Jure Civili insignire. Cujus quidem hæc præcipua ac prope singularis et est, et semper fuit, quod propriis ingenii et industriæ suæ viribus innixus Aulici favoris nec appetens, nec particeps, sine ullo magnatum patrocinio, sine turpi Adulantium aucupio, ad summam tamen in Foro, in Academia, in Senatu, tum gloriam, tum etiam authoritatem facilem sibi et stabilem munivit viam, Fortunæ suæ si quis alius Deo Favente vere Faber", &c.
The above is copied from the original diploma, which Mr. Randle Wilbraham gave to his nephew, the late Dr. William Falconer of Bath. On the death of Mr. R. Wilbraham, Chief Justice Wilmot wrote "I have lost my old friend Mr. Wilbraham: he died in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and has not left a better lawyer, or an honester man behind him."
Unpublished Epigram by Sir W. Scott.—
"Earth walks on Earth,
Glittering in gold:
Earth goes to Earth,
Sooner than it wold:
Earth builds on Earth,
Palaces and towers:
Earth says to Earth:
Soon, all shall be ours."
The above, by Sir W. Scott, I believe, has never appeared in print to my knowledge. It was recited to me by a friend of Sir W. Scott.
Crassus' Saying.—I find in the Diary of the poet Moore (in Lord John Russell's edition), vol. ii. p. 148., a conversation recorded with Dr. Parr, in which the Doctor quotes "the witticism that made Crassus laugh (the only time in his life): 'Similes habent labra lactucas.'"
It appears (see the quotations in Facciolati) that this sage and laughter-moving remark of Crassus was made on seeing an ass eating a thistle; whereon he exclaimed, "Similes habent labra lactucas."
In Bailey's edition of Facciolati it is said, "Proverbium habet locum ubi similia similibus contingunt,… quo sensu Angli dicimus, 'Like lips like lettuce: like priest like people.'"
Out of this explanation it is difficult to elicit any sense, much less any "witticism."
I suggest that Crassus' saying meant, "His (the ass's) lips hold thistles and lettuces to be both alike;" wanting the discrimination to distinguish between them. Or, if I may put it into a doggerel rhyme:
"About a donkeys taste why need we fret us?
To lips like his a thistle is a lettuce."
University Club.
Queries
BEES AND THE SPHYNX ATROPOS
Huber, in his Observations on the Natural History of Bees, avers that the moth called the Sphynx atropos invades and plunders with impunity a hive containing thousands of bees, notwithstanding the watchfulness, pugnacity, and formidable weapons of those insects. To account for this phenomenon, he states that the queen bee has the faculty of emitting a certain sound which instantly strikes the bees motionless; and he conjectures that this burglarious moth, being endowed with the same property, uses it to produce a similar effect, first on the sentinels at the entrance of the hive, and then on the bees within.
In another part of his book (2nd edit. 1808, p. 202.) he relates what he himself witnessed on introducing a strange queen into a hive. The bees, greatly irritated, pulled her, bit her, and chased her away; but on her emitting the sound and assuming an extraordinary attitude, "the bees all hung down their heads and remained motionless." On the following day he repeated the experiment, and the intrusive queen was similarly maltreated; but when she emitted her sound, and assumed the attitude, from that moment the bees again became motionless.
Have more modern observers verified this curious fact? Is it not a case of mesmerism?
"THE CRAFTSMAN'S APOLOGY."
When Bolingbroke published his Final Answer to the Remarks on the Craftsman's Vindication, and to all the Libels which have come, or may come from the same quarter against the Person last mentioned in the Craftsman of the 22nd May, 1731, he was answered in five Poetical Letters to the King, which in keenness of wit, polished satire, and flowing ease of versification, have not been since surpassed. The title of the tract in which they are contained is The Craftsman's Apology, being a Vindication of his Conduct and Writings in several Letters to the King, printed for T. Cooper, 1732, 8vo. pages 32. By whom were these very clever and amusing letters written? Lord Hervey or Sir Charles Hanbury Williams are the parties one would think most likely to have written them; but they do not appear in the list of Lord Hervey's works given by Walpole, or amongst those noticed by Mr. Croker, or in Sir C. H. Williams's Collected Works, in three volumes. Independently of which, I question whether the versification is not, in point of harmony, too equal for either of them. If they be included in the collected works of any other writer of the time, which I have no immediate recollection of, some of your correspondents will no doubt be able to point him out. Should it appear that they have not been reprinted, I shall be disposed to recur again to the subject, and to give an extract from them, as, of all the attacks ever made upon Bolingbroke, they seem to me the most pleasant, witty, and effective.
PALISSY AND CARDINAL WISEMAN
On April 28, Cardinal Wiseman, at the Manchester Corn Exchange, delivered a lecture "On the Relation of the Arts of Design to the Arts of Production." It occupies thirteen columns of The Tablet of May 7, which professes to give it "from The Manchester Examiner, with corrections and additions." I have read it with pleasure, and shall preserve it as one of the best discourses on Art ever delivered; but there is a matter of fact, on which I am not so well satisfied. In noticing Bernard Palissy, the cardinal is reported to have said:
"For sixteen years he persevered in this way; and then was crowned with success, and produced the first specimens of coloured and beautiful pottery, such as are to this day sought by the curious; and he received a situation in the king's household, and ended his days in comfort and respectability."
In the review of "Morley's Life of Palissy the Potter," Spectator, Oct. 9, 1852, it is said:
"The period of the great potter's birth is uncertain. Mr. Morley fixes it, on probable data, at 1509; but with a latitude of six years on either side. Palissy died in 1589 in the Bastile, where he had been confined four years as a Hugenot; the king and his other friends could defer his trial, but dared not grant him liberty.
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