the copyrights of Burke's Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, and his Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, on his secession from Fox's party, three hundred pounds. The writer, at the time, made a note (see Owen's preface to Burke's Thoughts on a Regicide Peace, 1796, 8vo.); it has doubtless some reference, but the Thoughts are not now at hand. LAURENCE STERNE received from Dodsley, May 19, 1760, for the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy, and for the first two volumes of the Sermons of Mr. Yorick, four hundred and fifty pounds! an astounding sum, when it is recollected that Sterne in all gaiety of heart proffered the first volume of Shandy to Dodsley for fifty pounds, and it was then by him rejected. Further, Dodsley on the same day contracted to pay Sterne for the third and fourth volumes of Shandy 3807. six months after the work was completed at press. These two documents at the sale produced seven guineas. Among these papers was also an interesting letter to Dodsley, from Sterne's Eugenius, John Hall Stevenson, the vivacious author of Crazy Tales, proffering the manuscript of the second part of his Fables, on the same terms he had formerly given the first, namelygratis! his Miscellaneous Pieces relating to the Chinese, in two volumes, duodecimo. He received June 10, 1761, fifty pounds in full, for his Chinese history, entitled HanKiou Choaan; on the same day, ten guineas for his Chinese Proverbs, Chinese Poetry, and Argument of the Chinese Play; and ten more guineas on account of the first edition of his version of Solomon's Song. March 25, 1763, he received ten guineas, as a first payment for his Runic Poetry, and on the same day, twenty guineas on account of his Miscellaneous Pieces, contracted for in May, 1761. A third edition of Percy's Reliques was required in 1775, and on March 7, in that year, Dodsley agreed to pay him forty pounds, at the end of five years from the time Percy should complete the work at press; the edition was one of a thousand copies, but in consideration of Dodsley being permitted to print 1500 copies, he relinquished to Percy, as his property in future, the copper-plates employed in that edition. Percy not to republish the work till all the 1500 copies were sold; Dodsley at the same time waived the original restriction, that Percy was not to compile or print a fourth volume. March 31, 1763, OLIVER GOLDSMITH contracted with Dodsley to write a Chronological History of the Lives of The contracts with the Rev. THOMAS PERCY, after- Eminent Persons in Great Britain and Ireland, in wards Bishop of Dromore, in reference to his Reliques octavo volumes to range with the Universal History, of Ancient English Poetry, were highly interesting. each volume to comprise thirty-five sheets, at three The original agreement, dated May 22, 1761, stated guineas per sheet. The work from some cause, probably the sum of one hundred guineas as the remuneration the inadequacy of the remuneration, was abandoned. for three volumes in duodecimo, "to contain all I shall | Goldsmith in the summer of this year resided in ever print of this work." It appears, however, that no lodgings, possibly for seclusion, in Canonbury Tower, more than the first two volumes were then ready, for Islington, but if with intent to the compilation of these these he was to have seventy pounds, and if a third Lives, the distance from all book depositories must soon volume was afterwards completed, the purchase-money have convinced him of its absurdity. Goldsmith's agreefor that volume was to be thirty-five pounds; "and in ment sold for seven pounds ten shillings. case any accident should prevent my compleating the said work, after I have received any part of the aforesaid sum, I hereby declare that my folio manuscript, from which most of the said ballads are extracted, does in that case become the property of the said James Dodsley, or of his executors, to indemnify him for such disbursement." Percy received March 25, 1763, 100l. 3s. 10d. in part of the one hundred guineas for the copyright of the Ancient Songs and Ballads; and the residue, 41. 16s. 14d, was on March 26, 1765, paid in completion of the above contract. Allusion is here made solely to Percy's editorial remuneration, another contract, which the writer has seen, but not with these papers, was to this effect: Dodsley was to pay Percy for the Collections he had made for the work, the folio manuscript excepted, the sum of one hundred pounds; this will explain why under certain contingencies, that excepted manuscript was to become the property of Dodsley, the deficiency of the materials therein contained would under any other editor render the whole imperfect, to the injury of the publisher, and the exigency was provided for in the agreement of May 22, 1761. The Reliques were published in 1765. Percy, on May 23, 1761, contracted with Dodsley for Goldsmith, described as then residing in chambers on the Library Staircase, in the Inner Temple, Oct. 31, 1764, assigned to Dodsley and Newbery, for ten guineas, his Oratorio of the Captivity. This drama remained unpublished, till a rough draft in manuscript being found in Heber's library he forwarded it to Washington Irving, for his Paris edition of Goldsmith's works. Here was a clear transcript, but showing in almost every line the sedulous care of the poet's amendments. manuscript was purchased by Mr. Murray for 257. 10s. The One of Goldsmith's earliest literary labours was his Essay on Polite Learning, printed in 1759; of this there was a second edition in 1774; for revising the former one for the press, and prefixing his name, Dodsley paid him five guineas. The receipt for that sum, three lines, in Goldsmith's writing, sold for three pounds five shillings. JOHN COLLET, an artist of considerable power, and whose works are frequently ascribed to Hogarth, assigned his Chit Chat, Nov. 6, 1764, for twenty guineas. CHRISTOPHER, or as more familiarly known by his contemporaries, KIT SMART, received August 4, 1764, ten guineas, for his translation of Phædrus. THOMAS SHERIDAN, father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, forty guineas, on Nov. 7, 1766, for his Lectures on Elocution. HORACE WALPOLE, afterwards Lord Orford, received January 23, 1768, one hundred pounds, for his Historic Doubts respecting King Richard the Third; and the Rev. JOSEPH SPENCE, whom Walpole designated" a neat silver penny in literature," was paid for his celebrated Polymetis, two hundred pounds. Mrs. CHARLOTTE LENNOX, received on Feb. 17, 1774, for her translation of Madame La Valliere's Meditations, twenty-five pounds. JOHN BERKEN HOUT, M.D. for the first volume of his Biographia Literaria, in quarto, a work now of no consideration, received September 26, 1776, 2007.; and in the following year, SOAME JENYNS, was paid the enormous sum of 2501. for his puerile emanation entitled, Evidences of Christianity. Shenstone's friend and biographer, the Rev. RICHARD GRAVES, of Claverton, was paid January 2, 1779, twenty pounds for his translation of Columella; and on June 20, 1780, for the Sorrows of Werter, he received forty pounds. Dodsley's note states that although this sum was in full, yet Mr. Graves was afterwards paid as much more as made it two hundred pounds! The name of the translator of this once highly popular work, was until this discovery unknown. ISAAC REED was paid April 1, 1780, the residue of one hundred pounds, due to him for editing the edition in that year of Dodsley's Old Plays, in twelve volumes; originally printed in 1744, under the editorial care of of Thomas Coxeter. Reed was the anonymous collector of the four volumes known as Pearch's Collection of Poems, Pearch being the publisher. The copyright was subsequently assigned to Dodsley, who on November 13, 1781, paid Reed fifty pounds for his notes on Robert Dodsley's collection of Poems, then republished; and a further sum of twenty pounds, Sept. 8, 1782, for reediting Pearch's Collection, reprinted as an appendix to Dodsley's. JOSEPH GILBERT COOPER, received for his Letters concerning Taste; in books, etc., twenty-four pounds. THOMAS BLACKWELL, for the first two volumes of his Court of Augustus, printed in quarto, now utterly neglected, 500. The continuation, or Third Volume was written by John Mills. Professor DUNCAN agreed for a translation of Plutarch's Lives, for 6007. CHRISTOPHER ANSTEY, for his very popular and humourous poem, the New Bath Guide, 2501.; and C. HOME, for his Chronological Abridgement of the History of England, a single octavo volume, a compilation now in no estimation, 150l. B. SCHILLER. The house at Weimar in which Schiller lived, though small and considerably dilapidated, was purchased at public auction, June 29, 1847, for 5025 dollars, (10057. sterling,) by the Corporation of that town, being nearly double the amount of its value. PLAY OF THE PASSION OF OUr lord. THE Issue Roll, Easter 1391, 14 Rich. II. shows that by Writ of Privy Seal among the mandates of this term, ten pounds were paid to the Clerks of the parish churches and to divers other Clerks in the City of London, which the King commanded to be paid them of his gift, on account of the play of the Passion of our Lord, and the Creation of the World, by them performed at Skynnerwell after the feast of St. Bartholomew last past. VARIETIES OF LITERATURE. IN the advertisement to a very excellent work, entitled Varieties of Literature from Foreign Literary Journals and Original Manuscripts, now just published, printed for J. Debrett, Piccadilly, 1795, 2 vols. 8vo. we are told, "With regard to this particular collection, it has been made, and will be carried on, at no small expense of labour and time." I have seen in Catalogues the work ascribed to D'Israeli, but this cannot be correct, for the subjects of various articles, and the style of them, are the very reverse of any thing he ever produced. Permit me to enquire who was the editor or compiler of these volumes, and whether he carried out his promise of continuing them, and if so, when and under what title? F. R. A. There is nothing to militate against the late Mr. Isaac D'Israeli being the editor of the volumes under notice; he was then a literary projector, and of his early literary career, little or nothing is known to the public. The writer believes the appropriation to be correct, but as the work wholly failed of public notice, it was not continued. A small portion, or possibly but one or two articles, were all that was contributed by Mr. D'Israeli, the others were contributed by Pratt, Mavor, and other literary friends. BARCLAY OF URY. Captain Barclay Allardice, who died on May 1st last, was claimant and representative of the Earldom of Airth and Menteith, being descended from Lady Mary Graham, wife of Sir John Allardice of that Ilk, in the Mearns, granddaughter of the last Earl of Airth and Menteith, and was thus the seventeenth in lineal succession from Robert the Second, King of Scotland; his ancestor being David, Earl of Strathern, eldest son of that monarch, by Euphemia Ross. The Allardices are a very old family in the north of Scotland. The name of "Allardus clericus" appearing in charters relating to that district so early as 1170.* The family terminated in an only daughter, who married Robert Barclay, of Ury, in 1776, by which marriage he succeeded to her patrimony, and in consequence assumed the additional patronymic of Allardice. She was mother of the late Capt. Barclay Allardice, who was born on August 25, 1779. Ury, where the following inscription denotes the place of sepulture of the Apologist and his wife: THE GRAVE OF ROBERT BARCLAY OF URIE, AUTHOR OF THE APOLOGIE FOR THE QUAKERS; COLONEL DAVID BARCLAY OF URIE, AND KATHERIN DAUGHTER OF THE FIRST CHRISTIAN, Daughter OF GILBERT MOLLISON, SHE WAS BORN ANNO 1647, AND DIED FEBRUARY 14, 1723. in August last, to Alexander Baird, Esq. of Gartsberrie, POLYANTHEA.-H. Martin, a Correspondent in The Barclays of Scotland were a branch of the great family of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, of which, one son, Walter, had the grant of the barony of INVERKEILLOR, in Angus, from William the Lion; and another son, Humphrey, was settled by the same king, among the Gaelic people of the Mearns. Berkeley of Red-Notes and Queries, vol. 10, p. 326, asks, by whom was castle, or Inver-Keillor, was the first lay-chamberlain the " Polyanthea: a Collection of Interesting Fragments, of Scotland, and leaving a daughter, his sole heiress, etc." compiled? The compiler was Charles Henry she married Ingleram de Baliol, Lord of Harcourt, Wilson, a native of Ireland, characterised as a man of whence the introduction of the Baliols into Scotland, inexhaustible wit and humour, as well as that of being and the grandson of Berkeley's heiress, by his wife well versed in Antiquities, and the Literature of the Doruagilla, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Allan, Gothic, Scandinavian, and Celtic Nations. The WanLord of Galloway, was father of John Baliol, King of other works proceeded from his pen, such as, dering Islander, Brookiana, etc. all anonymously, as he would not suffer his name to appear upon any of them. He died May 12, 1808. See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxviii. p. 469. Scotland. Although the castle and a portion of the lands of Allardice are still held by Captain Barclay's heirs, the original Barclay estates in Mearnshire have long since passed to other owners. That of Ury was acquired so recently as 1648, when it was purchased by Colonel David Barclay, father of Robert Barclay, author of the celebrated Apology for the Quakers. Those gentlemen and many of their descendants, including the late Capt. Robert Barclay Allardice, were interred in the family vault, at a short distance from the mansion-house of • Registrum de Aberbrothoc, p. 38. The Memorials of the Ancient Barons, Magnates, etc. of Angus and Mearns, now preparing for publication, will contain an account of the Allardices of that llk. + Crawfurd's Officers of State, p. 253. In the Appendix to Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. ii. pp. 245-251, is embodied a long account of the Barclays of Ury. A Genealogical Account of the Barclays of Urie, by Robert Barclay, son of the Apologist, was printed at Aberdeen, in 1740, in 8vo. for private distribution among the relatives and friends of the family. It was reprinted in 1821, 8vo. different titles. Several The Polyanthea is a most amusing work, and has not been sufficiently appreciated, and what is somewhat remarkable, the same book has appeared under two My copy is, Anecdotes of Eminent Persons, comprising also many interesting Literary Fragments, Biographical Sketches, etc. London, 1804, 8vo. 2 vols. Oak House, Pendleton. F. R. A. * Katherine, the wife of Colonel David Barclay, was the second daughter of the Hon. Robert Gordon, of Gordonstoun, second son of Alexander, fifteenth Earl of Sutherland. He was one of the gentlemen of the Bed Chamber to Kings James the First and Charles the First, ViceChamberlain, one of the Lords of the Privy Council, and Premier Baronet of Nova Scotia, created May 28, 1625; and author of the Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland. The curious library formed by him, between 1610 and 1650, was sold by auction in London, by the late John Geo. Cochrane, in March 1816. CHANGES IN BARRISTERS' COSTUME. HABITS were formerly appropriated to denote the various callings and professions, and were originally intended and considered as honourable distinctions. All trades and occupations were in the same manner known from each other; the merchant had one sort of habit, the soldier another, the artificer a third, and the husbandman a fourth, each so differently disposed from the others as sufficiently to point out the rank of the persons who wore it. The graduates and the students in the universities were not only distinguished from the rest of the world, but from each other, by the dissimilarity of their habits. The doctors in physic, music and divinity, and also doctors of the civil law, though equal in degree, used to wear habits peculiarly designed to the several faculties of which they were respectively. The costume of those who practised in the law was in all the grades particularly defined. That pertaining to the judges appears to be continued with but little variation, while the distinctive dress of the barristers has undergone a thorough change. Formerly the gown worn by them was of cloth, faced with black velvet, having tufts of silk down the facings, and on the fronts of the arms. The engraved title to the Compleat Clerk, a handbook of the law, frequently printed in the reign of Charles the Second, has in a compartment a representation of a barrister in that costume, seated in a pew-framed desk. So Butler, in Hudibras, makes his hero refer to a dispenser of the law, an old dull sot, one Who us'd two equal ways of gaining, The barrister's dress here described was that constantly worn by the advocate till the death of Queen Mary in 1694, when from the generally expressed grief on the occurrence of that event, the gown as now worn by them was introduced as mourning, and being found infinitely more convenient, than those formerly worn, has been since continued. CLOSING OF CHURCHYARDS. The late measures were not concurred in, till they were imperatively required; in some instances, however, the subject was absolutely forced on the parish authorities. Some years since the following notice was not only read in Ludford Church, Hertfordshire, but affixed on the church door. This is to give Notice, that no person is to be buried in this Churchyard, but what lives in the parish; and those who wish to be buried, are desired to apply to me, EPHRAIM GRUBB, Parish Clerk. * thankfull acknowledgment of all your loveing respects maniHonored Sir,-After our due respect premised, with a fested to vs and our Corporacion, We take leave to acquaint you that vpon our enquirie after the booke entituled a Fiery Court of Parliament to containe in it much blasphemy, and Flying Roll, composed by one Topp, resolved by the high therefore by them ordered to be burnt; a booke sold by Nathanyel Brookesbie, entituled the Light and Dark sides of God, came to our viewe, being composed, as we are informed by one Jacob Bathamley, sometyme a shoemaker, in our borough of Leicester, which booke vpon perusall, in our apprehensions, wee finde to be of a very dangerous consequence, and lets open a very wide dore to atheisme and profaneness. Wee therefore make bold, by this bearer, Mr. Alderman Cradock, to present one of the said bookes to your view, intreating your assistance and discrecion what wee may best doe in it. For which, as allso for all your loveing favours towards vs, wee shall for ever stand obliged to be, Your humble Servants, Leicester, Feb. 18, 1649 [-50.] To the Right Worshipfull Peter Temple, Esq. WILL. SPEECHLEY, Maior, Watt, in his Bibliotheca Britannica, is wholly silent in respect to Topp, or his Fiery Flaming Roll; but he notices the Light and Darke sides of God set forth, by Jacob Bathumley, printed at London, 1650, 8vo. ; as also a later work by the same writer, a Selection of the Material Passages and Persecutions of the Church of Christ, London, 1676, 8vo. A CREMONA violin having been thrown down by a lady, with a frisk of her mantua, Dean Swift, then present, made the happy quotation: Mantua væ miseræ nimium vicina Cremona ! Hardly, if at all inferior, was Thomas Warton's exclamation, on snuffing out a candle: Brevis esse laboro: Pray whence are these quotations derived? M. S. M. These words are in the original erased by a pen. WARTON'S HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY. THE following inedited letter, addressed to the Rev. Thomas Percy, subsequently bishop of Dromore; is printed from the autograph in the possession of the Editor. Sir-I am infinitely obliged to you for the favour of your Letter. Your plan for the History of English Poetry is admirably constructed and much improved from an idea of Pope's, which Mr. Mason obligingly sent me, by application from our friend Dr. Hurd. I regret that a writer of your consummate taste should not have executed it. Although I have not followed this plan, yet it is of great service to me, and throws much light on many of my periods, by giving connected views and details. I began with such an Introduction, or general Dissertation, as you had intended: viz. on the Northern Poetry with its Introduction into England by the Danes and Saxons, and its duration. I then begin my History at the Conquest, which I write chronologically in sections; and continue, as matter successively offers itself in a series of regular annals, down to and beyond the Restoration. I think with you, that Dramatic Poetry is detached from the idea of my work, that it requires a separate consideration, and will swell the size of my book beyond all bounds. One of my sections, a very large one, is entirely on Chaucer, and exactly fills your title of Part Second. In the course of my Annals I consider collaterally the Poets of different nations as influencing our own. What I have at present finished, ends with the section on Chaucer, and will almost make my first volume; for I design two volumes in quarto. This first volume will soon be in the press. I should have said before, that, although I proceed chronologically, yet I often stand still, to give some general view, as perhaps of a particu. lar species of poetry, etc., and even anticipate sometimes for this purpose. These views often form one section; yet are interwoven into the tenor of the work without interrupting my historical series. In this respect, some of my sections have the effect of your parts, or divisions. I return to Oxford in a few days. I cannot take my leave without declaring that my strongest incitement to prosecute the History of English Poetry is the pleasing hope of being approved by you; whose true genius Ï so justly venerate, and whose genuine poetry has ever given me such sincere pleasure. I am, Sir, with the greatest esteem, Winchester College, April 20, 1770. POETICAL SIGN-BOARDS. YOUR Correspondent, J. M., Current Notes, p. 86, enquires for the locality of a certain sign-board? It is very long since I have passed by the road between Frome and Wells, by the side of which it was to be seen; but twenty years ago the inscription was as follows: Good people call and pray walk in, Hollands, Brandy, Rum and Gin, Cyder, Ale and Beer that's good, Are all sold here by JOHN ATTWOOD. Arle-Bury, Nov. 9. A. M. S. M. Good people stop, and pray walk in! Here's Foreign Brandy, Rum and Gin, With Cyder, Ale and Beer that's good, All selling here by JOHN ATTWOOD. Living in the ancient (formerly) vale of Blakemore, or Forest of White Hart, a royal forest as proved by the names of places near this, such as Buckland, Buckshaw, Hartgrove, though further off; King Stagbridge, etc.; some curious specimens of poetry have fallen under my notice, which I transmit. On a sign-post at Hartleigh, in Mintern parish, near the bridge last-named, are the following— When Julius Cæsar reigned here, Oh! spare my life for Caesar's sake! From the History of Dorset, it should have been the White Hart, but the animal is now transformed into a Fallow Deer. There are similar verses, as occurring at Rodwell Hake, near Leeds, noticed in Ray's Itineraries, p. 153. When Julius Cæsar here was King, Let me go, for Cæsar's sake! Recollections of days long past by will at times steal upon our memory, and create feelings of pleasurable import. At East Orchard, in the afore-named forest (my native place) was formerly a school, much noted in the History of Dorset, kept by a Mr. Willis, an excellent writing-master, who produced specimens of singularly minute calligraphy. I once saw at Cambridge, at Old Ives's, a barber, who dressed in the style of a century or two ago, the Twelve Commandments, so written, and afterwards saw at East Orchard, the origi |