(Vol. iii., p. 427.)
MR. BOLTON CORNEY having favoured your readers with "a notice of some of
the statements" contained in my article above-named, I deem it a duty
incumbent upon myself to make a few remarks upon these "notices," which
I shall do in the briefest manner possible.
The object of my paper was to call attention to a forgotten poet, and to
endeavour to obtain some information regarding the locality of his
manuscripts. Had I been writing the life of Hugh Holland, I should, of
course, have investigated the dates of his biography and works more
fully than it was necessary to do for a trifling article like that in
question. But, as it is, the facts and dates which I have given are all
derived from creditable and well-known sources and all the facts and
dates in question are the _facts and dates_ of older writers than
myself, as will appear by the following.
1. "He was born at Denbigh in 1558." He was born at Denbigh, but not in
1558. In 1625 he thus expressed himself:
"Why was the fatall spinster so vnthrifty?
To draw my third four yeares to tell and fifty!"
_Answer._ Where are these lines taken from, and what do they mean? What
is the proof that they relate to _Hugh Holland_? "Hugh Holland, an
esquire's son of Denbighshire," was matriculated at Baliol College,
Oxford, anno 1582, aged twenty-four. My authority is Wood's _Athenæ_,
edit. Bliss, vol. ii. p. 560.
2. He did not quit Westminster school till 1589. If ever he pursued his
studies at Baliol College, it was some ten years afterwards.
_Answer._ Who says he did not quit Westminster school till 1589?--Joseph
Welch, or MR. BOLTON CORNEY? Allowing it to be the former, are all
Welch's dates correct? I have Wood's authority that Hugh Holland
matriculated at Baliol in 1582.
3. "About 1590 he succeeded to a fellowship at Trinity College,
Cambridge." In 1589 he was elected from Westminster to a _scholarship_
in Trinity College, Cambridge--not to a _fellowship_. At a later period
of life he may have succeeded to a fellowship.
_Answer._ My words are, "_about_ 1590 he succeeded to a fellowship." MR.
CORNEY adds, "In 1589" he was elected to a _scholarship_. I must again
refer to honest old Wood, who expressly says that he was a _fellow_ of
Trinity College.
4. "Holland published two works: 1. _Monumenta Sepulchralia Sancti
Pauli_, Lond. 1613, 4to. 2. _A Cypress Garland_, &c., Lond. 1625, 4to."
Hugh Holland was not the compiler of the first-named work: the initials
H. H. admit of another interpretation.
_Answer._ Why does not MR. CORNEY give your readers his interpretation
of the mysterious "H. H.?" One Henry Holland was the author of _A Booke
of Kings, being the true Effigies of our English Kings_, &c.: Lond.
1618, 4to. Is this the interpretation? If so, I ask for the proof.
5. The dates assigned to the _Monumenta Sancti Pauli_ are "1613, 1616,
1618, and 1633." Here are three errors in as many lines. The _first_
edition is dated in 1614. The edition of 1633, which is entitled
_Ecclesia Sancti Pauli illustrata_, is the _second_. No other editions
exist.
_Answer._ The edition of 1614 was certainly the first, and that of 1633
_certainly_ the second. In the preface to the latter the author says,
"My first collection of these Monumentall Epitaphs I published anno
1614, full nineteen yeeres sithence." My authority, however, for the
"three errors in as many lines" is Cole's Collections for an _Athenæ
Cantabrigenses_. (See Brydges _Restituta_, vol. iii p. 215.)
6. "Holland also printed a copy of Latin verses before Alexander's
_Roxana_, 1632." No such work exists. He may have printed verses before
the _Roxana_ of W. Alabaster, who was his brother-collegian.
_Answer._ My authority again is Cole's Collections in _Restituta_, vol.
iii. p. 215, where, under the head of "Hugh Holland, fellow of Trinity
College," is this line: "Has a copy of Latin verses before Dr.
Alexander's _Roxana_, 1632." I shall therefore leave the shade of Cole
and MR. BOLTON CORNEY to settle the question as to whether any such work
exists.
I have now disposed of the six statements, and have only to add, that
the authorities which I have consulted are those which I have named.