Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 | Page 5

in 1648. He mentions in this work several paintings which were in Della Nave's collection, and which it may be interesting to refer to here, in case they are still to be traced in England. In vol. i. p. 107. (I quote the Padua edition of 1835) is noticed a painting by Vincenzio Catena, representing Judith carrying the head of Holofernes in one hand, and a sword in the other. In the same volume, p. 182., a portrait of Zattina by Palma il Vecchio, holding in her hand "una zampina dorata;" and at p. 263. several sacred subjects by Titian among which is specified one of the Virgin surrounded by Saints, and another of the woman taken in adultery, with "multi ritratti" by the same. Again, at p. 288., a head of a lady, supposed to be the mother of the artist Nadelino da Murano, one of the most talented pupils of Titian; and at p. 328. a painting by Andrea Schiavone, and some designs of Parmigiano. In vol. ii. p. 123. are mentioned two paintings by Battista Zelotti from Ovid's Fables; and at p. 141. a picture of the good Samaritan, by Jacopo da Ponte of Bassano. For these references to Bottari and Ridolfi, I own myself indebted to Mr. William Carpenter, the keeper of the department of engravings in the British Museum; and, probably, some of your readers may contribute further illustrations of Bartolomeo della Nave's collection of pictures, and of the purchase of them by Charles I. I do not find this purchase noticed in Vanderdort's list of Charles's pictures, published by Walpole in 1757.
F. MADDEN.
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Minor Notes.
Nonsuch Palace.--Our antiquarian friends may not be aware that traces of this old residence of Elizabeth are still to be seen near Ewell. Traditions of it exist in the neighbourhood and Hansetown, and Elizabethan coins are frequently dug up near the foundations of the "Banquetting House," now inclosed in a cherry orchard not far from the avenue that joins Ewell to Cheam. In a field at some distance is an old elm, which the villagers say once stood in the court-yard of the kitchen. Near this is a deep trench, now filled with water, and hedged by bushes, which is called "Diana's Dyke," now in the midst of a broad ploughed field, but formerly the site of a statue of the Grecian goddess, which served as a fountain in an age when water-works were found in every palace-garden, evincing in their subjects proofs of the revival of classical learning. The elm above-mentioned measures thirty feet in the girth, immediately below the parting of the branches. Its age is "frosty but kindly;" some two or three hundred summers have passed over its old head, which, as yet, is unscathed by heavens fire, and unriven by its bolt. The ground here swells unequally and artificially, and in an adjoining field, long called, no one knew why, "the Conduit Field," pipes that brought the water to the palace have lately been found, and may be seen intersected by the embankments of the Epsom railway.
The avenue itself is one of the old approaches to the palace, and was the scene of a skirmish during the civil wars. {237}
Your readers may, perhaps, forget that this palace was the scene of the fatal disgrace of young Essex.
GEORGE W. THORNBURY.
Ferrar and Benlowes.--The preface to that very singular poem, Theophila: Love's Sacrifice. Lond. 1652, by Edw. Benlowes, contains a passage so closely resembling the inscription "in the great parlour" at Little Gidding (Peckard's Life of Nic. Ferrar, p. 234), that the coincidence cannot have been accidental, and, if it has not been elsewhere pointed out, may be worth record. As the inscription, thought not dated, was set up during the life of Ferrar, who died in 1637, the imitation was evidently not his. Only so much of the inscription is here given as is requisite to show the parallel.
"He who (by reproof of our errors, and remonstrance of that which is more perfect) seeks to make us better, is welcome as an Angel of God: and he who (by a cheerful participation of that which is good) confirms us in the same, is welcome as a Christian friend. But he who faults us in absence, for that which in presence he made show to approve of, doth by a double guilt of flattery and slander violate the bands both of friendship and charity."
Thus writes Benlowes:
"He who shall contribute to the improvement of the author, either by a prudent detection of an errour, or a sober communication of an irrefragable truth, deserves the venerable esteem and welcome of a good Angel. And he who by a candid adherence unto, and a fruitful participation of, what is good and pious, confirms him therein, merits the honourable entertainment