III.
“Cupid angling?—what
the deuce! he
Must not fish in Lucy’s eye!
Cupid leave alone my Lucy—
You have other fish to fry!!!
IV.
“But with patience unavailing—
Angling dangling late and soon—
Weeping, still I go a wailing,
And harp on without harpoon.
V.
“Kerchief, towel, duster, rubber,
Cannot wipe my weeping dry—
Whaling still I lose my blubber,
Catching wails from Lucy’s eye.
VI.
“Blubber—wax and
spermaceti—
Swealing taper—trickling tear!
Writing of a mournful ditty
To my lovely Lucy dear.
VII.
“Pouring tears from eyelids
sluicy,
While the waning flamelet fades,
All for Lucy—lovely Lucy,
Loveliest of lady’s maids.
“C.H. WILLIAMS.”
[The foregoing ballad does not appear in the edition of the works of Sir C. Hanbury Williams (3 vols. 8vo. 1822), from the preface to which it appears that he was born in 1709, installed a Knight of the Bath in 1746, and died on the 2nd November, 1759.]
* * * * *
MINOR QUERIES.
Book called Tartuare.—William Wallace in London.—1. Is there any one of your correspondents, learned or unlearned, who can oblige me with any account of a printed book called Tartuare? Its date would be early in the sixteenth century, if not before this.
2. After William Wallace had been surprised and taken, he was brought to London, and lodged, it is said, in a part of what is now known as Fenchurch Street. There is a reader and correspondent of yours, who, I am assured, can point out the site of this house, or whatever it was. Will he kindly assist archaeological inquirers, by informing us whereabouts it stood?
W.(I.)
Obeism.—Can any of your readers give me some information about obeism? I am anxious to know whether it is in itself a religion, or merely a rite practised in some religion in Africa, and imported thence to the West Indies (where, I am told, it is rapidly gaining ground again); and whether the obeist obtains the immense power he is said to possess over his brother negroes by any acquired art, or simply by working upon the more superstitious {60} minds of his companions. Any information, however, on the subject will be acceptable.
T.H.
Mincing Lane, Jan. 10. 1851.
Aged Monks.—Ingulphus (apud Wharton, Anglia Sacra, 613.) speaks of five monks of Croyland Abbey, who lived in the tenth century, the oldest of whom, he says, attained the age of one hundred and sixty-eight years: his name was Clarembaldus. The youngest, named Thurgar, died at the premature age of one hundred and fifteen. Can any of your correspondents inform me of any similar instance of longevity being recorded in monkish chronicles? I remember reading of some old English monks who died at a greater age than brother Thurgar, but omitted to “make a note of it” at the time, and should now be glad to find it.