appellation of Vulture, and a Fop the Title of Monkey.

There

is also among the various Anomalies of Character, which a Survey of the World exhibits, a Species of Beings in human Form, which may be properly marked out as the Screech-Owls of Mankind.

These Screech-Owls seem to be settled in an Opinion that the great Business of Life is to complain, and that they were born for no other Purpose than to disturb the Happiness of others, to lessen the little Comforts, and shorten the short Pleasures of our Condition, by painful Remembrances of the Past, or melancholy Prognostics of the Future, and their only Care is to crush the rising Hope, to damp the kindling Transport, and allay the golden Hours of Gayety with the hateful Dross of Grief and Suspicion.

To those, whose Weakness of Spirits, or Timidity of Temper, subjects them to Impressions from others, and who are apt to suffer by Fascination, and catch the Contagion of Misery, it is extremely unhappy to live within the Compass of a Screech-Owl's Voice; for it will often fill their Ears in the Hour of Dejection, and terrify them with Apprehensions which their own Thoughts would never have produced, and sadden, by intruded Sorrows, the Day which might have been passed in Amusements, or in Business; it will fill the heart with unnecessary Discontents, and weaken for a time that Love of Life which is necessary to the vigorous Prosecution of any Undertaking.

Though I have, like the Rest of Mankind, many Failings and Weaknesses, I have never yet, by either Friends or Enemies, been charged with Superstition; I never count the Company which I enter, and I look at the New Moon indifferently over either Shoulder. I have, like most other Philosophers, often heard the Cuckoo without Money in my Pocket, and have been sometimes reproached for foolhardy for not turning down my Eyes when a Raven flew over my head. I never go home abruptly, because a Snake crosses my Way, nor have any particular dread of a climaterical Year, but confess that, with all my Scorn of old Women, and their Tales, I always consider it as an unhappy Day when I happen to be greeted in the Morning by Suspirius the Screech-Owl.

NOTE 6.-WHITEFIELD'S TABERNACLE. Page 20.

It may be of interest to append the following quotation from the Westminster Gazette. The use of the term 'tabernacle' by Goldsmith and others at this period must have been greatly influenced by the success of George Whitefield, as shown in the new building erected for his preaching a few years before in the Tottenham Court Road:

6

One of the historic landmarks of London Nonconformity seems destined to disappear by the coming sale of Whitefield's Tabernacle, not the one in Tottenham Court Road, but the less known original preaching-place of Whitefield in Finsbury. This was at first a huge wooden shed, with a sugar-cask for pulpit, erected by Calvinistic admirers for Whitefield after his separation from Wesley. They called their temporary structure a tabernacle from the movable place of worship of the Israelites; and the name became a designation for all chapels of the Calvinistic Methodists. The permanent edifice was rebuilt forty years ago.'— Westminster Gazette, May 3, 1907.

See also Wheatley, London, Past and Present, iii. 503 seq.

Note 7.—LAND-CARRIAGE FISHERY. Page 30.

Amongst the notable persons who interested themselves in the carriage of fish must be reckoned Sir Richard Steele, who published, in 1718, in conjunction with Mr. Joseph Gillmore, mathematician, a pamphlet bearing the title, 'An Account of the Fishpool: consisting of a Description of the Vessel so called, lately invented and built for the Importation of Fish alive, and in good health, from parts however distant. A Proof of the Imperfection of the Well-Boat hitherto used in the Fishing Trade. The true Reasons why Ships become stiff or crank in sailing; with other Improvements, very useful to all Persons concerned in Trade and Navigation. Likewise, a Description of the Carriage intended for the Conveyance of Fish by land, in the same good Condition as in the Fish-Pool by Sea.' Annexed to this pamphlet is the patent which his Majesty, King George I, gave for the use of this invention.

Matthew Bramble, the irascible but good-natured squire in Smollett's Humphry Clinker, saw little that was good in this

mode of conveyance. 'Of the fish, I need say nothing in this hot weather, but that it comes sixty, seventy, fourscore, and a hundred miles by land carriage; a circumstance sufficient, without any comment, to turn a Dutchman's stomach, even if his nose was not saluted in every alley with the sweet flavour of 'fresh mackerel, selling by retail.'-Humphry Clinker (1771) 149, ed. 1905.

66

NOTE 8.-SCOTCH MARRIAGES. Pages 20, 37, 50, 55, 67.

A useful little companion to Goldsmith's allusions to Scotch marriages will be found in Gretna Green and its Traditions, by 'Claverhouse', with twenty-two illustrations, facsimiles of handwriting, &c. It contains as much information as most readers are likely to require on Scottish runaway marriages. A word must be spoken also in favour of a highly interesting article on the subject which appeared in the Strand Magazine of December, 1908. When this article was first published a footnote was appended, stating that at that time the Gretna Green registers (1825-57 and 'relative certificates ') were for sale privately. It is understood that they have since passed into official or semi-official hands.

NOTE 9.-THE HOUSE OF LORETTO. Page 63.

An interesting account of Loretto from the point of view of a Roman Catholic traveller in the seventeenth century is to be found in The Voyage of Italy, by Richard Lassels, Gent. (London, 1686), from which the following extract is quoted :

'From hence we went to see the Cellar of the Holy House, which furnished with Wine not only the Governour's House, the Canons and the Churchmen, the College of the Penitentiaries, the Convent of the Capucins, the Seminarists, the Hospital, and all those belonging to the Church any way; but also furnished all Pilgrims, yea, even all Princes, Cardinals, Bishops, Embassadors, and great Men of known quality, with Wine, as long as they stay here upon Devotion. For this reason there belong large revenues to this Church; and this Cellar is absolutely the best I saw in Italy. The Vessels are hugely great, and not to be removed from hence. They have a way to take out a piece of their broad sides, and so make them clean. They are all hooped