Notes and Queries, Number 50, October 12, 1850 | Page 7

vain, To wash the murderer from blood-guilty stain?"
D.
Rotherfield
_Latin Epigram._--Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the author of the following epigram:--
IN MEMORIAM G.B.M.D.
"Te tandem tuus Oreus habet, quo civibus Orei Gratius haud unquam misit Apollo caput; Quippe tuo jussu terras liquere, putantque Tartara se jussu linquere posse tuo."
The person alluded to was Sir W. Browne, M.D., the founder of the Browne medals in the University of Cambridge. Some old fellow of King's College may be able to inform me.
The medals were first given about the year 1780, and in the first year, I presume, out of respect to the memory of the donor, no subject was given for Epigrams. It has occurred to me, that perhaps some wag on that occasion sent the lines as a quiz.
W.S.
Richmond, Surrey
_Couplet in De Foe_--
"Restraint from ill is freedom to the wise, And good men wicked liberties despise."
This couplet is at the end of the second letter in De Foe's _Great Law of Subordination_, p. 42. Is it his own? If not, where did he get it?
N.B.
Books wanted to refer to.--
"Hollard's Travels (1715), by a French Protestant Minister, afterwards suppressed by the author."
"Thomas Bonnell, Mayor of Norwich, Life of."
"Canterbury, Letters and Memoirs on the Excommunication of two Heretics, 1698."
"The Book of Seventy-seven French Protestant Ministers, presented to Will'm III."
If any of your readers can refer me to the above works I shall be glad. They may be in the British Museum, although I have searched there in vain for them.
J.S.B.
_Water-marks in Writing-paper._--Can any of your correspondents indicate any guide to the dating of {311} paper by the water-mark. I think I have read of some work on that subject, but have no precise recollection about it. I have now before me several undated MSS. written on paper of which it would be very desirable to fix the exact date. They evidently belonged to Pope, Swift, and Lady M.W. Montague, as they contain their autographs. They are all of that size called _Pro Patria_, and two of them have as water-mark a figure of Britannia with a lion brandishing a sword within a paling, and the motto Pro Patria over the sword. Of one of these the opposite page has the initials GR, and the other has IX; but the paper has been cut off in the middle of the water-mark and only exhibits half the figure IV. Another sheet has the royal arms (1. England and Scotland impaled, 2. France, 3. Ireland, 4. the white horse of Hanover,) within the garter, and surmounted by the crown, and on the opposite page GR. within a crowned wreath. There is no doubt that they were all manufactured between 1715 and 1740; but is there any means of arriving at a more precise date?
C.
_Puzzling Epitaph._--The following curious epitaph was found in a foreign cathedral:--
EPITAPHIUM.
"O quid tu? be est bi?; ra ra ra es et in ram ram ram ii."
The following is plainly the solution of the last four lines:--
_ra, ra, ra_, is thrice _ra_, i.e. _ter-ra=terra_. _ram, ram, ram_, is thrice _ram_, i.e. _ter-ram=terram_. ii is i twice, _i.e. i-bis=ibis_.
Thus the last four lines are,--
"Terra es et in terram ibis."
Can any one furnish a solution of the two first lines?
J. BDN.
[We would suggest that the first two lines are to be read "O super be, quid super est, tu? super bi?," and the epitaph will then be--
"O superbe quid superest tu? superbi? Terra es, et in terram ibis."--ED.]
_MSS. of Cornish Language._--Are there any ancient MSS. of the Cornish language, or are there any works remaining in that language, besides the Calvary and Christmas Carol published by the late Davies Gilbert?
J.A. GILES.
_Bilderdijk the Poet._--Banished from his native country, disowned by his own countrymen, the Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk pitched his tent for a while on the hospitable soil of Old England. Prince William V. residing in 1795 at Hampton Court, he resolved to stay there; but, possessing no income at all, and, like the sage of antiquity, having saved nothing from the shipwreck but his genius, he shifted his dwelling-place to London, where he gave lessons in drawing, languages, and various, even medical, sciences. He was married in England to Katharine Wilhelmina Schweickhardt, on the 18th of May, 1797. His residence in the birthplace of "NOTES AND QUERIES" makes me ask, if there be still persons living, who remember him as teacher, friend, or poet? A presentation-copy of Mrs. Bilderdijk's translation of _Rodrick, the Last of the Goths_, was offered to Southey, accompanied by a Latin letter from her spouse. The poet-laureate visiting Leyden in the summer of 1825, Bilderdijk would not suffer him to remain lodged in the inn, where an injury to his leg urged him to favour the landlord with a protracted stay. Southey was transported accordingly to the Dutch poet's house; and