Willis's Current Notes Part 3

_G. W. begs to add, that it is unnecessary for him to engrave the beautiful drawing forwarded to him of this Chair, as he perceives an engraving has already appeared in the Lady's Newspaper for the 24th January, and he has returned the drawing as requested._

KATY-DID.--G. W.'s _New York Special Reporter writes him as follows, in reference to the paragraph, p. 90 of "Current Notes" for December last._

SIR,--Please inform "_An Entomologist_" that it will afford your Special Reporter much pleasure to send him a live specimen of the KATY-DID next _fall_. We have no _Autumn_ in America! It is then they begin to sing, or rather to say: at present they are, to use the words of Davie Gellatley, "A' dead an' gane--a' dead an' gane." I first heard them one evening in August among the elms on the battery, and so loud was the noise, I fancied it was made by porters landing bars of iron on the adjoining quays.

The jingle of the song your Entomological correspondent enquires after was something like this; but I will send him a copy when I can procure one.

"The dear little Katy-did sat on a tree, And surly and sulky and savage was he, His supper was stolen away by a bee, But he thought his own deary had hidd'n it, And while he kept calling 'twas you, Katy-did, She merrily cried--'Katy-did-n't,'

[_Chorus of Boys and Girls._]

Katy-did--Katy-didn't--Katy-did--Katy-didn't."

The moral of the song is, that a lady will always have the last word, be she insect or woman.

Mr. Willis.

Sc.r.a.pS FROM THE UNITED STATES

The s.p.a.ce at G. W.'s command will only permit him to notice generally, and most gratefully to acknowledge, the number, variety, and interest of C. F. D.'s communications, and sincerely to thank him for the kind manner in which they have been forwarded.

1. The existence of Hebrew relics among the Pottawatomie Indians is extremely curious. That procured by Dr. Lykins is described as consisting of

"Four small rolls or strips of parchment, closely packed in the small compartments of a little box or locket, of about an inch cubical content. On these parchments are written, in a style of unsurpa.s.sed excellence, and far more beautiful than print, portions of the Pentateuch, to be worn as frontlets, and intended as stimulants to the memory and moral sense."

2. A notice of Professor Stuart's death has been recorded in G. W.'s Literary and Scientific Obituary.

"He published at least twenty-four volumes, and in addition to them many single sermons and newspaper essays, and contributed more than two thousand octavo pages to American periodicals. His commentaries are those on the Hebrews, Romans, Revelation, Daniel, Ecclesiastes, and the Proverbs. He printed his first Hebrew Grammar without points, and _set up about half the paradigms of verbs with his own hands_.--This grammar went through three editions, each one being more full than the preceding."

3. The intelligence of the Spanish Press is highly amusing.

4. The charge made against the Editor of the Oxford Edition of Milton requires proof or explanation.

"Mr. Whittier states in the National Era, that the carefully prepared Oxford edition of Milton's Works, contains a poem by Elizabeth Lloyd, of Philadelphia, purporting to have been written by the poet in his old age and blindness, and which is so well executed, as to have deceived the English editor of his works. This poem is now going the rounds of the American press, as the production of Milton."

5. The appearance of the fifth and sixth volumes of Lord Mahon's History of England has thus brought forth the indignation of the editor of the Boston (U. S.) "Transcript."

"They commence at the year 1763, and close with the year 1779, and comprise, of course, as the princ.i.p.al theme, the American Revolution--the rise and progress of the War of Independence.

'One point in the American War,' says the Spectator, 'Lord Mahon brings out quietly and impressively--the personal falsehood of Franklin, and often the brutality of the Americans at large.'

Here will be a chance for our American reviewers and critics.

'The personal falsehood of Franklin!' It will take the affidavit of more than one Lord to make that credible."

6. The old American bookseller, whose career was so graphically described by Dr. Francis at the celebration of the hundred and forty-sixth anniversary of Franklin's birth-day, by the New York Typographical Society, was the father of the present Editor of the Literary World, an American periodical, extremely well conducted, and of considerable circulation.

"There are many booksellers and publishers," observed Dr.

Francis, "whose character and influence might justly command detailed account. Spence himself would find among them anecdotes of consideration in the world of letters, I must, however, write within circ.u.mscribed limits. The first in immediate recollection is Evert Duyckinck. He was a middle-aged man when I was a boy occasionally at his store, an ample and old-fas.h.i.+oned edifice, at the corner of Pearl Street and Old Slip. He was grave in his demeanor, and somewhat taciturn; of great simplicity in dress, accommodating and courteous. He must have been rich in literary occurrences. He for a long while occupied this excellent stand for business, and was quite extensively engaged as a publisher and seller. He was a sort of Mr. Newbury, so precious to juvenile memory in the olden times. He largely dealt with that order of books, for elementary instruction, which were popular abroad, just about the close of our revolutionary war and the adoption of our Const.i.tution, Old Dyche and his pupil Dilworth, Perry, and Sheridan. As education and literature advanced, he brought forward, by reprints, Johnson and Chesterfield, and Vicesimus Knox, and a host of others. His store was the nucleus of the Connecticut teachers' intellectual products, and Barlow and Webster, and Morse and Riggs, found him a patron of their works in poetry and school books. Bunyan, and Young, and Watts, Doddridge and Baxter, must have been issued by his enterprise in innumerable thousands throughout the whole thirteen States; and the old English Primer, now improved into the American Primer, with its captivating emendations, as

The royal oak, it was the tree That saved his Royal Majesty;

improved by the more simple diction,

Oak's not as good As hickory wood;

and the lines,

Whales in the sea G.o.d's voice obey;

now modified, without loss of its poetic fire,

Great deeds were done-- By Was.h.i.+ngton--

led captivity captive, and were circulated without limits for the better diffusion of knowledge and patriotism throughout the land. As our city grew apace, and both instructors and their functions enlarged, he engaged in the Latin Cla.s.sics. Having a little Latin about me, it became my duty to set up at the printing-office of Lewis Nicols, Duyckinck's reprint, De Bello Gallico. The edition was edited by a Mr. Rudd. He was the first editor I ever saw; I looked at him with school-boy admiration when I took him the proofs. What alterations or improvements he ever made in the text of Oudendorp, I never ascertained. This, however, must have been among the beginnings of that American practice, still so common among us, of deeming it necessary that the reprints of even the most important works from abroad should have, for better circulation, some name as editor inserted on the t.i.tle-page. Mr. Duyckinck was gifted with great business talents, and estimated as a man of great punctuality and rigid integrity in fiscal matters. He was the first who had the entire Bible, in 12mo. preserved--set up in forms--the better to supply, at all times, his patrons. This was before stereotype plates were adopted. He gave to the Harpers the first job of printing they ever executed--whether 'Tom Thumb' or 'Wesley's Primitive Physic,' I know not. The acorn has become the pride of the forest--the Cliff Street Tree, whose roots and branches now ramify over the land. Duyckinck faithfully carried out the proverbs of Franklin, and the sayings of Noah Webster's Prompter. He was by birth and by action a genuine Knickerbocker."

OF WHITGIFT'S HOSPITAL AT CROYDON.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

At p. 77 of your "Current Notes" for October last, there is an engraved representation of the Corporate Seal of Dulwich College; as a companion to it, I have procured a drawing of the Seal of Archbishop Whitgift's Hospital at Croydon, which was founded towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, by that benevolent but superst.i.tious prelate, who appears to have been a devout believer in the Black Art, as among the crimes enumerated to be punished by expulsion are "obstinate heresye, sorcerye, and any kind of charming or witchcrafte."

There were some interesting relics preserved in this establishment, particularly three wooden goblets or drinking vessels, the largest of which could hold about three pints, and bore the following inscription:

"=What, Sirrah! hold thy peace, Thirst satisfied--cease.="

But I am told they have disappeared--no one can tell how or when exactly. I mention the circ.u.mstance, as there was a singular legend connected with this inscription, which I once heard, but do not now remember the particulars--perhaps some of your correspondents may.

C. R.

MONUMENTAL BRa.s.sES.

St. Margaret, Rochester, Feb. 11th, 1852.