Notes and Queries, Number 35, June 29, 1850 | Page 9

R. C. B.
Our World.--I once heard a lady repeat the following pithy lines, and
shall be glad if any of your readers can tell me who is the author, and
where they first appeared,

"'Tis a very good world to live in-- To lend, and to spend, and to give in;
But to beg, or to borrow, or ask for one's own, 'Tis the very worst world
that ever was known."
D. V. S.
Home, April 29.
Porson's Imposition.--When Porson was at Cambridge, his tutor lent
him a pound to buy books, which he spent in getting drunk at a {72}
tavern. The tutor set him an imposition, which he made to consist in a
dog-Greek poem, giving an account of the affair. These were the three
first lines,--
[Greek: "Tutor emoi men poundon elendeto; ôs mala simplos] [Greek:
Ton men egô spendon kata dômata redlionoio,] [Greek: Drinkomenos
kai rhôromenos dia nukta bebaiôs."]
Then part of another,--
[Greek: "--autar egô megalois klubboisin ebanchthên."]
I cannot but think that some Cambridge men know the whole, which
would be invaluable to retrieve. There is nothing about it in Kidd.
C. B.
Alice Rolle.--Can any of your readers conversant with Irish pedigrees,
if they remember to have met with this lady's name, kindly inform me
where it may be found?
S. S. S.
The Meaning of "Race" in Ship-building.--In Hawkin's Voyages
("Hakluyt Society, 1847"), p. 199., he says, "Here is offerred to speak
of a point much canvassed amongst carpenters and sea-captains,
diversely maintained but yet undetermined, that is, whether the race, or
loftie built shippe, bee best for the merchant;" and again, p. 219.: "A
third and last cause of the losse of sundry of our men, most worthy of

note for all captains, owners, and carpenters, was the race building of
our ship, the onely fault she had," &c. Can any of your correspondents
explain what is meant by "race"; the editor of the Voyages, Captain C.
R. D. Bethune, R.N., confesses himself unable to explain it.
E. N. W.
Southwark, May 27. 1850.
The Battle of Death.--I possess a curious old print entitled "The Battle
of Death against all Creatures, and the Desolation wrought by Time." It
bears the engraver's name, "Robert Smith," but no date. The figures,
however, which are numerous, and comprise all ranks, seem to present
the costume of the latter end of the 16th century. There is a long
inscription in verse, and another in prose: query, who was the author of
the verses, and what is the date of the engraving? As I am on the
subject of prints, perhaps some person learned in such matters will also
be kind enough to inform me what number constitutes a complete
series of the engravings after Claude by Francis Vivares; and who was
"Jean Rocque, Chirographaire du Roi," who executed several maps of
portions of London, also a map of Kilkenny?
X. Y. A.
Kilkenny, June 8. 1850.
Execution of Charles I.--Is the name of the executioner known who
beheaded King Charles I.? Is there any truth in the report that it was an
Earl Stair?
P. S. W. E.
Morganitic Marriage.--In Ducange, &c., the adjective morganitic is
connected with the morgangab (morning gift), which was usual from a
husband to his wife the day after their marriage. How comes this
adjective to be applied to marriages in which the wife does not take her
husband's rank?

M.
Lord Bacon's Palace and Gardens.--Will any of your architectural or
landscape gardening readers inform me whether any attempts were ever
made by any of our English sovereigns or nobility, or by any of our
rich men of science and taste, to carry out, in practice, Lord Bacon's
plans of a princely palace, or a prince-like garden, as so graphically
and so beautifully described in his Essays, xlv. and xlvi., "Of Building"
and "Of Gardens"?
I cannot but think that if such an attempt was never made, the failure is
discreditable to us as a nation; and that this work ought yet to be
executed, as well for its own intrinsic beauty and excellence, as in
honour of the name and fame of its great proposer.
EFFARESS.
June 24. 1850.
"Dies Iræ, Dies Illa."--Will any of your correspondents oblige me by
answering the following Queries. Who was the author of the extremely
beautiful hymn, commencing--
"Dies iræ, dies illa, Solvet soeclum in favilla Teste David cum Sibylla."
And in what book was it first printed?
A copy of it is contained in a small tract in our library, entitled Lyrica
Sacra, excerpta ex Hymnis Ecclesiæ Antiquis. Privatim excusa Romæ,
1818. At the end of the preface is subscribed "T. M. Anglus." And on
the title page in MS., "For the Rev. Dr. Milner, Dean of Carlisle,
Master of Queen's College, in the