126
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vm. AUG. ie, 1913.
will not be more than two thirds as thick as my Life so that foulding [and] sowing will only be in proportion.
A note is added under the address, "Mind to send the letter with the percel."
The book referred to is 'The Confessions of J. Lackington, late Bookseller at the Temple of the Muses, in a Series of Letters to a Friend,' crown 8vo, London. 1804. Two editions were issued in that year, and those familiar with the book will understand the application of the remark in the letter "it is very much wanted among the Methodists, and indeed by others." A less common Work is 'Lackington's Confessions, Rendered into Narrative, to which are added Observations on the Bad Consequences of Educating Daughters at Boarding-Schools,' by Allan Macleod, Esq., London, printed for B. Crosby & Co., 1804, post 8vo. This rendering of the Confessions is, as its editor claims, "less prolix and far less egoistic."
"The common damn'd shun his society."—The source of this quotation, cited by Lamb in his essay 'On the Custom of Hissing at the Theatres,' has eluded the search of his editors and commentators. Mr. Lucas admitted that he had not succeeded in tracing the "quotation or adaptation"; and in a notice of the first volume of that gentleman's edition of 'The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb,' an Athenæum reviewer declared that it was "clearly adapted from 'while foulest fiends shun thy society' (Nathaniel Lee's 'The Rival Queens,' Act V. i. 86)." The author was an eighteenth-century poet, Robert Blair, in whose work 'The Grave' the line is to be found. The passage in which it occurs runs as follows:—
But, if there's an hereafter—
And that there is, conscience, uninfluenc'd
And suffer'd to speak out, tells every man—
Then must it be an awful thing to die;
More horrid yet to die by one's own hand!
·······
Unheard-of tortures
Must be reserv'd for such: these herd together;
The common damn'd shun their society,
And look upon themselves as fiends less foul.
ST. KILDA AND INFLUENZA. Boswellians
must have noted a strange incident recorded
in The Times a few weeks ago, namely, that
all the inhabitants of the isle of St. Kilda,
save three or so, were simultaneously attacked
by the influenza. This seems to support
what the historian of St. Kilda states that
when a vessel arrived nearly the whole
community was seized with colds. John-
son and his friend discussed the matter
gravely or sarcastically : in the former mood
making suggestion that the wind which
brought the vessel might also have brought
the malady ; in the latter, that when the
agent arrived to collect rents, this pretext
of illness was put forward by the natives.
Still, the coincidence of the modern and
ancient occurrence is very remarkable, and
scientists and others should apply themselves
to the explaining of the prodigy.
PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A. Athenaeum Club.
[St. Kilda colds are commented on at 9 S. i. 85 and 10 S. vii. 307.]
THE SMALLEST SQUARE IN LONDON. The replies in ' N. & Q.' as to the largest square in London suggest an inquiry as to the smallest. I should think that among these are Golden Square, Hampstead, and Audley Square, South Audley Street. The smallest enclosed space in London is at the north corner of Upper Grosvenor Street and Park Lane, where a tiny garden is completely enclosed with railings, and sur- rounded by the public footway. Knights- bridge Green, facing Tattersall's at Albert Gate, which was one of the old burying - places during the Plague, is very limited in extent. J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.
Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.
GRACE BEFORE MEAT. A writer of mid- sixteenth century has decorated the lower margin of fo. 55 b of MS. Harl. 614 with the following :
Who so euer setteth downe for to eate forgettinge to geue god thankes for his meat And riseth againe lettinge grace ouer passe Sitteth downe like an oxe, and riseth as an asse
Q. V.
A HATFIELD CHARTER. (See 1 1 S. vii. 505. ) Since my note on the above was pub- lished, I have read an article in vol. vii. of the Proceedings of the Sussex Arche- ological Society (1854), without reference to which my note is incomplete. On p. 216 mention is made of this charter, which still remains in the possession of Trinity College.
F. LAMBARDE.
' i ASK ' ' = TART. A Lincolnshire man remarked recently that certain strawberries were ask. They were ripe enough, but belonged to a tart kind. I do not find the word in the dictionaries.
RICHARD H. THORNTON.
36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C.
