style="font-size:15px;"> "A HAPLESS HUNTER" will find, in the Statute of Kilkenny (edited by James Hardiman, Esq., M.R.I.A. for the Irish Archaeological Society in 1843), pp. 28, 29, note, two incidental notices of Eva, daughter of Dermot McMorrough; the first, her witnessing a grant made by Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, during his lifetime; and the second, a grant made by her to John Comyn, Archbishop of Dublin, in the reign of Richard I. (at least sixteen years after her husband's death), "pro salute anime mee et domini comitis Ricardi," &c. Should he not have an opportunity of consulting the work, I shall have much pleasure in furnishing the entire extract, on receiving a line from him.
10. Dorchester Place, Blandford Square.
Giraldus Cambrensis mentions, that MacMurrough, having, in the year 1167, procured letters patent from Henry II., repaired to England, and there induced Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke and Strighul, to engage to aid him, on condition of receiving, in return, the hand of his eldest daughter, Eva, and the heirship of his dominions.—Girald. Camb. p. 761. And further, that Strongbow did not arrive in Ireland until the eve of St. Bartholomew's day, September, 1170; he was joined at Waterford by Eva and her father, and the marriage took place a few days after, and during the sacking of that place.—Ibid. p. 773.
"Strongbow left, by his second wife Eva, one daughter, named Isabella, an infant. * * * Richard the First gave Isabella in marriage to William de la Grace, who thus became Earl of Pembroke, and was created First Earl Marshal of England," &c.—Fenton's Hist. Pembrokeshire.
PLAGIARISMS, OR PARALLEL PASSAGES
I have placed this title in my note-books, more than one instance of similarity of thought, incident, or expression that I have met with during a somewhat desultory course of reading. These instances I shall take the liberty of laying before you from time to time, leaving you and your readers to decide whether such similarity be the effect of accident or design; but I flatter myself that they may be accepted as parallel passages and illustrations, even by those who may differ from me in the opinion I have formed on the relation which my "loci inter se comparandi" bear to each other.
In Lady Blessington's Conversations with Lord Byron, pages 176, 177., the poet is represented as stating that the lines—
"While Memory, with more than Egypt's art,
Embalming all the sorrows of the heart,
Sits at the altar which she raised to woe,
And feeds the source whence tears eternal flow!"
suggested to his mind, "by an unaccountable and incomprehensible power of association," the thought—
"Memory, the mirror which affliction dashes to the earth, and, looking down upon the fragments, only beholds the reflection multiplied."
afterwards apparently embodied in Childe Harold, iii. 33.
"Even as a broken mirror, which the glass
In every fragment multiplies; and makes
A thousand images of one that was,
The same, and still the more, the more it breaks."
Now, Byron was, by his own showing, an ardent admirer of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. See Moore's Life of Byron, vol. i. page 144. Notices of the year 1807.
Turn to Burton, and you will find the following passage:—
"And, as Praxiteles did by his glass, when he saw a scurvy face in it, brake it to pieces, but for that one, he saw many more as bad in a moment."—Part 2. sect. 3. mem. 7.
I am uncharitable enough to believe that Childe Harold owes far more to Burton, than to "the unaccountable and incomprehensible power of association."
BILLINGSGATE
I think your correspondent in No. 6. p. 93., starts on wrong premises; he seems to take for granted that such a structure as Belin's Gate really existed. Now the story entirely rests on the assertion of Geoffrey of Monmouth. What amount of credit may be placed on that veracious and most unromantic historian, your correspondent doubtless knows better than myself. Geoffrey says, in the 10th chap. of the 3rd book, that Belin, among other great works, made a wonderful gate on the bank of the Thames, and built over it a large tower, and under it a wharf for ships; and when he died his body was burned, and his ashes put into a golden urn on the top of the tower. Stow seems to doubt it. In Strype's edition, 1720, he says, concerning this gate, "Leaving out the fable thereof faming it to be builded by King Belin, a Briton, long before the incarnation of Christ." Burton, writing 1722, mentions the legend, but adds, "But whether of that antiquity is doubted." and John Brydall, in 1676, mentions it only as a wharf or quay for ships. Now, as Geoffrey of Monmouth's Chronicle is generally allowed by critics to be but a mass of romance and monkish legends, built on a slight foundation of truth, we may suppose this account to partake of the general character of the rest of the work. That some circumstance gave rise to the name is not doubted. "Haply," says Stow, "some person of that name lived near." I look on the name as only a corruption or romantic alteration of the word Baal or Bel; and, as we have every reason to suppose he was worshipped by part of the aborigines of this country, I deem it not improbable that on or near this spot might once have existed a temple for his worship, which afterwards gave a name to the place. It is true Baal generally had his temples placed on the summit of lofty mountains or other eminences. But supposing a number of his votaries to have settled near London, and on the banks of the Thames, nothing would be more likely than, to obviate the natural lowness of the ground, they would raise a tower for the better celebration of the ceremonies attendant on his worship. This might have been the foundation upon which Geoffrey built his story. However, I only suggest this. The real origin of the name I am afraid is too far sunk in oblivion to hold out any hopes of its being rescued at the present day.
If "WILLIAM WILLIAMS" will examine the map of London in 1543, lately engraved from a drawing in the Bodleian Library, he will perceive the "Water Gate,", about which he inquires, defended on the west side by a lofty hexagonal machicolated tower.
NOTES FROM FLY-LEAVES, NO. 4
In order to forward your views as regards the valuable department of "Notes from Fly-Leaves" I have spent some leisure hours in beating the covers of a portion of my library. I send you the produce of my first day's sport, which, you will observe, has been in the fields of poetry. Make what use of it you think fit, selecting such notes only as you think of sufficient interest for publication.
I. Note in the handwriting of Richard Farmer, in a copy of "Canidia, or the Witches; a Rhapsody in five parts, by R.D." 4to. London, printed by S. Roycroft for Robert Clavell, 1683.
"In Mr. Hutton's Catale P. 65. N. 1552. this strange composition is ascribed to one Dixon. There was a Robert Dixon, an author about the time, and D.D. (Woods's Fasti, v. ii. p. 103.), but it surely must not be given to him! Qu.? This is the only copy I have seen, 1785."
[Lowndes has the work under the name of Robert Dixon, D.D.]
II. Note in the handwriting of James Bindley, in a copy of an English translation of Milton's "Defensio pro Populo Anglicano," printed in the year 1692.
"Translated into English by Richard Washington, Esq., of the Middle Temple."
On another page, however,
