Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850 | Page 8

correspondents decide? I know that a year or
two ago, Messrs. Whittaker announced that a translation would form
part of their _Popular Library_; but for some reason (probably
insufficient support) it never appeared. Query, Might not Mr. Bohn
with advantage include this work in his _Standard Library_?
IOTA.

* * * * *
REPLIES.
CAVE'S HISTORIA LITERARIA.
I do not know whether the notices respecting Cave's Historia Literaria
(Vol. ii., pp. 230. 255.) hold out any prospect of a new edition. It is
much to be desired; and as it may be done at some time or other, you
will perhaps allow me to make a Note of a circumstance which
accidentally came to my knowledge, and should be known to any future
editor. It is simply this: in the second volume of the Oxford edition of
1740, after the three dissertations, &c., there are fifteen pages, with a
fresh pagination of their own, entitled, "Notæ MSS. et Accessiones
Anonymi ad Cavei Historiam Literariam, Codicis Margini adscriptæ, in
Bibliotheca Lambethana. Manus est plane Reverendiss. _Thomæ
Tenison_, Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi." Not to occupy more of your
valuable space than is necessary, I will merely observe that the
"Anonymus" was not Archbishop Tenison, but Henry Wharton. There
can be no doubt in the mind of any person acquainted with the
handwriting of the parties; and to those to whom such a notice is likely
to be of any use at all, it is unnecessary to say that the difference is
important. I need scarcely add, that if ever a new edition is undertaken,
Wharton's books and papers, and other things in the Lambeth collection
of MSS., should be examined.
S.R. MAITLAND.
_Cave's Historia Literaria_ (Vol ii., p. 230.).--
1. London, 1688-1698, 2 vols. folio. This was the first edition. A
curious letter from Cave to Abp. Tenison respecting the assistance
which H. Wharton furnished to this work is printed in Chalmers' _Biog.
Dict._, vol. xxxi. p. 343.
2. Geneva, 1693, folio.
3. ------, 1694, folio.
4. ------, 1705, folio.
5. Coloniæ Allobrogum, 1720, folio.
6. Oxon. 1740-43, 2 vols. folio. Dr. Waterland rendered important aid
in bringing out this edition, which Bp. Marsh pronounces "the best." It
seems from some letters of Waterland's to John Loveday, Esq. (works
by Van Mildert, 1843, vol. vi. p. 423-436.), that Chapman, a petty
canon of Windsor, was the editor.

7. Basil, 1741-5, 2 vols. folio. This is said to be an exact reprint from
the Oxford edition.
Watt and Dr. Clarke mention an edition, 1749, 2 vols. folio; but I
cannot trace any copy of such edition.
JOHN I. DREDGE.
* * * * * {280}
SIR GAMMER VANS.
In reply to C.'s inquiry (Vol. ii., p. 89.) as to a comic story about one
_Sir Gammer Vans_, I have pleasure in communicating what little
information I have on the subject. Some years ago, when I was quite a
boy, the story was told me by an Irish clergyman, since deceased. He
spoke of it as an old Irish tradition, but did not give his authority for
saying so. The story, as he gave it, contained no allusion to an "aunt" or
"mother." I do not know whether it will be worthy of publication: but
here it is, and you can make what use of it you like:--
"Last Sunday morning at six o'clock in the evening, as I was sailing
over the tops of the mountains in my little boat, I met two men on
horseback riding on one mare: so I asked them 'Could they tell me
whether the little old woman was dead yet, who was hanged last
Saturday week for drowning herself in a shower of feathers?' They said
they could not positively inform me, but if I went to Sir Gammar Vans
he could tell me all about it. 'But how am I to know the house?' said I.
'Ho, 'tis easy enough,' said they, 'for it's a brick house, built entirely of
flints, standing alone by itself in the middle of sixty or seventy others
just like it.' 'Oh, nothing in the world is easier,' said I. 'Nothing can be
easier,' said they: so I went on my way. Now this Sir G. Vans was a
giant, and bottlemaker. And as all giants, who are bottlemakers, usually
pop out of a little thumb bottle from behind the door, so did Sir G.
Vans. 'How d'ye do?' says he. 'Very well, thank you,' says I. 'Have
some breakfast with me?' 'With all my heart,' says I. So he gave me a
slice of beer, and a cup of cold veal; and there was a little dog under the
table that picked up all the crumbs. 'Hang him,' says I. 'No, don't hang
him,' says he; 'for he killed a hare yesterday. And if