Notes and Queries, Number 185, May 14, 1853 | Page 7

her
predecessor, the ancient occupier of the tenement, who certainly was a
protégé of the said parties.
Mrs. Hornby then goes on to relate how that during her gestation she
invoked Apollo, Thalia, and Erato:
"Soon they arrived, with Hermes at their side, By Jove commission'd,
as their friend and guide. But when the mirth-inspiring dames stepp'd
o'er The sacred threshold of great Shakspeare's door, The heav'nly
guests, who came to laugh with me, Oppress'd with grief, wept with
Melpomene; Bow'd pensive o'er the Bard of Nature's tomb, Dropt a sad
tear, then left me to my doom!"
I leave the reader to judge for himself whether the Muses really "came
to laugh" with Mary Hornby, or whether, under the belief of the
immortality of our Bard, they did not rather expect a pleasant soirée
with Gentle Will, and naturally enough went off in a huff when they
found themselves inveigled into a tea-party at Mrs. Hornby's.
Mr. Wilson, in the work above quoted, does condescend to notice Mrs.
Hornby,--
"Who rented the butcher's shop under the chamber in which the poet
was born, and kept the Shaksperian Album, an interesting record of the
visitors to that shrine. Some of the subscribers having given vent to
original stanzas suggested by the scene, those effusions," continues the
lofty bookseller, "the female in question caused to be inscribed and
printed in a small pamphlet, which she sells to strangers."

Not a word, you will see, about the poet's mantle having descended
upon the shoulders of our Mary,--which was unpolite of him, seeing
that both the tragedy and comedy had the precedence of his book by
some years. Not having before me the later history of Shakspeare's
house, I am unable to say whether our subject deserved more
consideration and gallant treatment at the hands of MR. COLLIER,
when he and his colleagues came into possession.
J. O.
{475}
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
Shakspeare's Monument.--When I was a young man, some thirty or
forty years ago, I visited the monument of Shakspeare, in the beautiful
church of Stratford-upon-Avon, and there copied, from the Album
which is kept for the names of visitors, the following lines:
"Stranger! to whom this monument is shown, Invoke the poet's curse
upon Malone! Whose meddling zeal his barbarous taste displays, And
smears his tombstone, as he marr'd his plays. R. F. Oct. 2, 1810."
This has just now been brought to my mind by reading, in page 155. of
the second volume of Moore's Journal, the following account of a
conversation at Bowood:
"Talked of Malone--a dull man--his whitewashing the statue of
Shakspeare, at Leamington or Stratford (?), and General Fitzpatrick's
(Lord L.'s uncle) epigram on the subject--very good--
'And smears his statue as he mars his lays.'"
I cannot but observe that the doubt expressed in the Diary of
Moore--whether Shakspeare's monument is "at Leamington or Stratford
(?)"--is curious, and I conceive my version of the last line, besides

being more correct, is also more pithy. It is incorrect, moreover, to call
it a statue, as it is a three-quarters bust in a niche in the wall.
The extract from Moore's Diary, however, satisfactorily explains the
initials "R. F.," which have hitherto puzzled me.
SENEX.
Archbishop Leighton and Pope: Curious Coincidence of Thought and
Expression.--
"Were the true visage of sin seen at a full light, undressed and
unpainted, it were impossible, while it so appeared, that any one soul
could be in love with it, but would rather flee from it as hideous and
abominable."--Leighton's Works, vol. i. p. 121.
Vice is a monster of such hideous mien, As to be hated, needs but to be
seen."--Pope.
JAMES CORNISH.
Grant of Slaves.--I send you a copy of a grant of a slave with his
children, by William, the Lion King of Scotland, to the monks of
Dunfermline, taken from the Cart. de Dunfermline, fol. 13., printed by
the Bannatyne Club from a MS. in the Advocates' Library here, which
you may, perhaps, think curious enough to insert in "N. & Q."
"De Servis.
"Willielmus Dei gracia Rex Scottorum. Omnibus probis hominibus
tocius terre me, clericis et laicis, salutem: Sciant presentis et futuri me
dedisse et concessisse et hac carta mea confirmasse, Deo et ecclesie
Sancte Trinitatis de Dunfermlene et Abbati et Monachis ibidem, Deo
servientibus in liberam et perpetuam elemosinam, Gillandream
Macsuthen et ejus liberos et illos eis quietos clamasse, de me, et
heredibus meis, in perpetuum. Testibus Waltero de Bid, Cancellario;
Willielmo filio Alani, Dapifero; Roberto Aveneli Gillexio Rennerio,
Willielmo Thoraldo, apud Strivelin."

G. H. S.
Edinburgh.
Sealing-wax.--The most careful persons will occasionally drop melting
sealing-wax on their fingers. The first impulse of every one is to pull it
off, which is followed by a blister. The proper course is to let the wax
cool