[NARES tells us, that Ray, on the authority of Fuller, states
that this saying took its origin from "Thomas Stafford, who, in
the reign of Mary, A.D. 1557, with a small company, seized on
Scarborough Castle (utterly destitute of provision for
resistance), before the townsmen had the least notice of their
approach;" but shows that it was probably much older, as, in a
ballad written by J. Heywood on the taking of that place by
Stafford, the following more probable origin is given to the
proverb:--
"This term _Scarborow warning_ grew (some say),
By hasty hanging for rank robbery theare.
Who that was met, but suspect in that way,
Straight he was trust up, whatever he were."
This implies that Scarborough imitated the Halifax gibbet law.
Is any thing known of such a privilege being claimed or
exercised by the men of Scarborough? We should be glad to hear
from any local antiquary upon this point.]
_Gray's Elegy._--In answer to your correspondent, J.F.M. (p. 101.), who
asks for information respecting the competition for the best translation
of Gray's _Elegy_, in which Dr. Sparke was a candidate, I would beg to
refer him to the satirical poem attributed to Mr. T.J. Matthias,
formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, entitled _The Pursuits of
Literature_, in which a ludicrous account is given of the affair. It
does not appear who offered the prize, but Mr. Nares, the editor of _The
British Critic_, was the judge, and the place of meeting "The Musical
Room in {139} Hanover Square," which was decorated for the occasion with
appropriate scenery--at least so says _The Critic_. He thus describes
the solemnity (p. 174 8th edit. 1798):--
"Lo, learned clerks in sable stole,
Graceful in years, pant eager for the goal.
Old Norbury starts, and, with the _seventh-form_ boys,
In weeds of Greek the church-yard's peace annoys,
With classic Weston, Charley Coote and Tew,
In dismal dance about the mournful yew.
But first in notes Sicilian placed on high,
Bates sounds the soft precluding symphony;
And in sad cadence, as the bands condense,
The curfew tolls the knell of _parting sense_."
The distribution of prizes is thus recorded, Dr. Norbury being
apparently the "conqueror:"--
"Nares rising paused; then gave, the contest done,
To Weston, Taylor's Hymns and Alciphron,
And Rochester's Address to lemans loose;
To Tew, Parr's Sermon and the game of goose;
To Coote the foolscap, as the best relief
A dean could hope; last to the hoary chief
He filled a cup; then placed on Norbury's back
The Sunday suit of customary black.
The gabbling ceased; with fixed and serious look
Gray glanced from high, and owned his rival, COOK."
W.
Lincoln's Inn, Dec. 17.
_Coffee, the Lacedæmonian Black Broth._--Your correspondent "R.O."
inquires what modern author suggests the probability of coffee being the
black broth of the Lacedæmonians? The suggestion, I think, originated
with George Sandys, the translator of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_. Sandys
travelled in the Turkish empire in 1610. He first published his _Notes_
in 1615. The following is from the 6th edit. 1652, p. 52.:--
"Although they be destitute of taverns, yet have they their
coffa-houses, which something resemble them. Their sit they,
chatting most of the day, and sip of a drink called coffa (of
the berry that it is made of), in little _China_ dishes, as hot
as they can suffer it; black as soot, and tasting not much
unlike it (why not that black broth which was in use among the
Lacedæmonians?) which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and
procureth alacrity," &c.
Burton also (_Anatomy of Melancholy_) describes it as "like that black
drink which was in use among the Lacedæmonians, and perhaps the same."