Complete works of samuel.., p.371
Complete Works of Samuel Butler, page 371
“On one side of the ship, immediately under the deck, are three lions and fleurs-de-lis in a single line, interchangeably. I say three lions; for though only two are very distinct, there are traces of the third, and this is the only blemish in this remarkably well-preserved coin. The inscription is, HENRIC’. DI’. GRA. REX. ANGLI..Z. FRANC’. DNS. HYB., i e. Henricus Dei Gratia Rex Anglia et Francia Dotninus Hibernia.
“The reverse has a cross fleury, voided, in a double tressure of eight arches, with very small trefoils in the outward angles. Over each limb of the cross is a fleur-de-lis, and in the quarters between these a crown, with a lion passant, gardant, beneath. In the square void of the cross is the letter H. The inscription is, IHS. AUT’. TRANSIENS. PER. MEDIUM. ILLORU’. IBAT., i e, Jesus autem transiens per medium illorvm ibat. This is followed by a single fleur-de-lis. The separating points between the words on the obverse are made by small fleurs-de-lis; on the reverse by annulets. The weight is 106 grains.— “S. BUTLER,”
TO DR. BUTLER’S SON, WHO HAD BEEN SITTING FOR THE BELL SCHOLARSHIP.
(Original in possession of Mrs. G. L. Bridges and Miss Butler.)
“March 9th, 1826.
“MY DEAR TOM, — Before you receive this you will know your fate. The two lines about Priam and the horse no scholar has ever yet understood, nor the double ‘et.’ Some read ‘tutet,’ a strange word for ‘tutetur,’ instead of the second ‘vivat.’
‘Vivat’ has probably crept in instead of some other verb, if Ovid did not write carelessly.
“Your verses are fair — not surpassingly good — not bad; the fourth stanza is the worst.
“Your Latin prose is but moderate; it is too verbose, and the right phrase is often missed, though sometimes caught.
“Your Xenophon in the last sentence is very wrong.
“But then you must recollect that others were liable to make faults as well as you. I hear that you have done yourself credit, and from what I see I am convinced of it.
“G. Johnson was second for the University Scholarship at Oxford, and declared to be very near and all but first.
“God bless you.
“S. B.”
POSTSCRIPT BY MISS BUTLER, AFTERWARDS MRS. BATHER.
“MY DEAREST TOM, — We have this morning received your parcel, for which we all thank you. I hope you will be quite reconciled to your fate against you receive this letter, and now it is over pray think as little about it as possible. Papa seems quite satisfied with you, and therefore you may be easy on that score. We have been laughing at Mrs. Bromfield for a dream she had a night or two ago. She fancied you and Marindin, and a fairhaired young man, who I tell her is Bland, were all sitting in a large college room with clumsy tables and chairs. You had two of your fingers bound up, and were about to lose the nail of one of them either from a cut or some other cause. Poor Mrs. Bromfield was in great distress to think how you could bear to have your nail taken off, when Marindin came up and knocked it off in a minute. But her greatest distress was that you had your hat notched all round; however, she was relieved from that misery by seeing another man come in with his hat notched also. She was so anxious for an interpretation of this wonderful dream that she consulted her dream-book, but in vain. Papa inquired whether the wreath round your head might not signify laurel, especially as you had a companion crowned also — an explanation mighty satisfactory to Mrs. Bromfield. I told her I should tell you her dream, and she particularly begs I will ask you whether any accident has happened to your fingers. Papa has just been playing at patience, to see whether you will get a good place, but unless you have better luck than he you will have none at all. Mrs. Bromfield bears your account of yourself better than I expected, but when you sit for anything again I think we had better not let her into the secret.... We had a party of boys on Tuesday night, consisting of Cameron, Payne, James Hildyard, and Bonett. The last since his battle with Shilleto has gone on very comfortably with the boys. Cameron was in the highest spirits, and we had altogether a very pleasant evening. Mrs. Bromfield desires me to tell you she is happy to say Wakefield [a new under master] is beginning to be a beast. He has kept order with considerable success for the last day or two, owing, I believe, to a talking to he got from papa lately, and Mrs. Bromfield really hopes he will soon be as great ‘a beast’ as herself.... We have got some very nice plants in our windows now, such as Persian lilacs, geraniums, tulips, narcissus’s, and a beautiful Camelia japonica. You have never told me whether you would like any drawings. I have begun one of a ship scene for you. There is the famous Captain Murray Johnson here now, with his condemned goods from the custom-house — some of them are beautiful. Papa bought a beautiful French workbox, fitted up with gold and mother-of-pearl, as a present for Miss Maltby, who is delighted with it. Mrs. Carless, with the Suttons, is here to-night playing a pool. Mr. Blakeway has been dangerously ill nearly all the week with an abscess on his side, and is still, I believe, in a very alarming state. The children are all well. Harriet made me laugh yesterday with an account of Lizzie and Lucy conversing together in bed on the subject of their prayers. Lizzie said she wondered what was meant by the ‘power and the glory.’
‘Why, don’t you know?’ said Lucy; ‘it is the same as to pour down rain and to pour out tea.’ A most satisfactory explanation truly. Why did you not send Kennedy’s song in the parcel? Papa was very glad to have the Bell papers, and also the law papers Dr. Cory was so good as to send. What a wretchedly dull magazine the last Metropolitan was! We had it ‘n our reading society, but papa has countermanded it for the future. Papa desires me to request you to purchase for him four pounds of mangel-wurzel seed, which you can get at the place where Dr. Cory used to purchase it. Also please to buy at Deighton’s two new Cambridge calendars for this year, unless you should be in the habit of taking it in yourself, in which case papa only wants one; at all events let them both be put down in Deighton’s bill, and send one in a parcel with the mangel-wurzel, and keep the other till you can come down to Shrewsbury. I rather think it is not published till the 21st. Remember, by the way, when you send a parcel that the Birmingham coach only leaves Cambridge on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays....
“P.S. — Pay for the seed if you can afford it; it will only be a few shillings. By the way, how goes on the money?”
I have elsewhere said, if but would repeat here, that Mrs. Bromfield, who had been my father’s nurse, and was then matron of one of the schoolhouses, coined perhaps the most thunderclap word that was ever struck out of the English language. She came into the hall one night when the boys were noisy, and, singling out an offender, told him he was the rampingest-scampingest-rackety-tackety-tow-row-roaringest boy in the whole house. Then, after a moment’s lull, she looked round the hall in triumph. “Young gentlemen,” said she, “prayers are excused,” and left them. I had this from my aunt, the writer of the letter just given.
FROM THE REV. T. S. HUGHES.
[About March 9th, 1826.]
* * * * *
“What a triumphant year this is for you!
* * * *
“I hear that Tom has done himself credit in his examination whether he succeeds or not. He is very unfortunate in having the strongest competitors that were ever known for these scholarships. He is a very good youth, and everybody speaks well of him. So that crafty old fox Watty t has nearly got his tail into the trap at last. Well, I think we shall all give our consent nan con to the match; — but ‘be burst!’ as old Barnes says, I wonder how he let you run off with the damsel that evening in the hackney coach, or how he endured old Till’s incomparable flirtation.”
FROM THE REV. S. TILLBROOK.
“March 10th 1826.
“Mv DEAR ARCHDEACON, — Salop schools and Dr. Butler for ever! You have carried off the Bell [Scholarship]. Horatio Hildyard is ‘primus inter omnes’! Tom was next to him, but the injunctions of the founder compelled the examiners to give the second scholarship to Scott of Queens’, his circumstances being very narrow. Nevertheless your son Tom was, I believe, the second best among forty competitors, and a good token of your approbation does he deserve, and I know he will have it. He must be named as highly distinguished. What a proud fellow all these honours will make you, and make you IN YOUR OWN RIGHT, which is everything to an independent soul!
“I have had the pleasure of congratulating Hildyard’s father, and I have done it most cordially: perhaps he will think me an extravagant eulogist — I do not care twopence if he does. I have drunk bumpers to Horatio and to Tom, and I hope they may live to return the compliment to me.
“I am in haste. Ten thousand thanks for the immortal spotted lampern — never was anything so good; if I can I will send you dotterel in return.
“I spent two days with Watky, who introduced me to Miss Harvey. What a sly fellow! Thank God I did not go back in the coach with her; I might have talked more nonsense than might have been agreeable to the lady elect of one of my dearest friends — and I was in the vein for it, as Falstaff said, which is right now.
“I am buying books piscatorial from the Hawoith collection now selling in London. I shall be caught, I fear — never mind.
“Kind regards to all, and I may add sincere congratulations, for Tom’s name is up now, and the ‘Sirenum Voces’ will sound sweeter than ever. Farewell.
“Ever yours faithfully, “OLD TILL.
“P.S. — Send me a letter and the fishing book by coach, and I shall be eternally grateful.”
TO THE HON. GEORGE GRENVILLE.
“March 10th, 1826.
“DEAR SIR, — Understanding from Mr. Dayrell, who called here two days since, that you are at Hawarden, I direct my letter there instead of to Cambridge. Mr. Blakeway and I duly received your letter, with the College notice of the 15th of December, and before the expiration of the time allowed by the decree (six months) I shall send you two candidates for exhibitions. One of them is a boy of first-rate talents, the other is not remarkable for more than ordinary attainments, but is a well-behaved and respectable boy, and great-nephew to that most distinguished ornament of your College, Dr Waring. The decree says that the candidates thus sent to the College are to be elected after two months’ residence. Now before I proceed to acknowledge the communications from the College officially, I wish to consult you by this, which you will be pleased to consider a private letter, respecting these boys. * * * * *
“I had heard of Massie’s removal, but was exceedingly surprised at finding, when I was at Cambridge at Christmas, that Smith had either not put his name on the boards or had taken it off.
“Both he at Cambridge and Massie at Oxford were candidates for University Scholarships this year, the latter I know with much credit to himself. I am shocked to tell you that since I began this letter Mr. Blakeway is dead. The moment new incumbents are appointed to St. Mary’s and St. Chad’s I shall proceed to have a new deed of trust drawn out, in which your name must be inserted.”
* * * * *
DR. BUTLER’S ELDER DAUGHTER, AFTERWARDS MRS. BATHER, TO HER BROTHER.
“March 15th, 1826.
“MY DEAREST BOY, — We were all delighted beyond measure at the receipt of Mr. Tillbrook’s letter yesterday, which contains the good news of the credit you and Hildyard have gained for the Shrewsbury men. You should have heard the huzzas of the boys, and have seen the capers and frolics and delight of us all. I confess your representations had brought us almost all down from expecting you would get the Bell, and we little thought you really would be second, which in point of credit is just the same as if you had the scholarship, and gratifies us as much. Mrs. Bromfield said to the very last you would have it, and I believe papa had his hopes, but I own I had none, and I do not think mamma or anybody else had. Mrs. B. is very anxious to know whether Scott or Chatfield have light hair. Vide my account of her miraculous dream. And now we can talk of nothing but the delight of seeing you, which will be worth all the rest. I think we shall scarcely sleep til! Monday next. Old Till says your name is up now, and the Sirenian voices will sing sweeter than ever. I have been laughing at the idea of your receiving my letter of condolence on Sunday morning, when in fact I should have sent you one of congratulation. Mamma says every minute she wants to see you. If she eats an egg, it is ‘in honour of Tom.’ If she takes wine, it is to drink your health, and almost whenever she opens her mouth it is to talk of you. Mrs. Bromfield too is crazy to see you; so is papa, and so are John and Harriet. The last has just been here to inquire about you. and begs her best love and congratulations.... I believe papa has told you of poor Mr. Blakeway’s death. The town is full of candidates for his vacancy at St. Mary’s.”
* * * * *
TO THE HON. GEORGE GRENVILLE, MASTER OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
“SHREWSBURY, March 15th, 1826.
“DEAR SIR, — I never ask favours for myself, and am sorry to have troubled you with a petition on behalf of two parents who can ill afford the expense of a term which will tell for nothing towards their sons’ degrees. I shall send the two candidates to Magdalene College immediately at the opening of next term.
“B — is going on fairly. He is a well-behaved boy, but not possessed of first-rate talents.
“I have the honour to be, dear Sir, “Your obedient, humble servant, “S. BUTLER.”
FROM BARON MERIAN.
“March, 1826.
“DEAR SIR, — If you wish to read a very good book connected with the history of England, take Depping, Les Normends (1825), 2 vols., 8vo, price 12 francs at Paris. It would be a much more laudable attempt for your translating steam-engines to translate such works than all this miserable French and German stuff, which is laughed at in the countries where it pullulates, but, by means of fine plates, milk-white paper, and hot press, necnon elegant binding, are sold, read, and admired in Old England. It grieves an honest heart to see the proceedings of most of your eminent booksellers, how they are so astonishingly ignorant, not only of what is good or bad abroad, but even at home, and how in their foolish speculations, never considering the intrinsic value of a performance, they exclusively ask, ‘Will it sell well?’ ruining by this Armenian principle not only the taste of the bulk of their readers, but also frequently themselves and their families, since at the least difficulty or stop ensuing (ecce hodic) here sits Master Bookseller on the top of a heap of nonsense, which none but idle extravagance would ever have purchased, and which now, where bread is more in request than smooth paper, nobody calls for; whereas, if the books had true lasting merit, were moderately printed, and on reasonable terms, they would sell successfully for ever. Ecca Constable at Edinburgh and his bombast of novels. F or, in spite of the genius of Walter Scott, his works will pass, and not remain, because the genius is false, and a mingle-mangle of history and fiction in prose narration can never become classic, even if it was written by Gabriel himself.
“Here’s a philippic. All for the good of the United Kingdom, to whom I am an old and most sincere well-wisher, though I perpetually attack, not its great and glorious parts, but its amazing prepossessions, errors, and want of information. Look, by Jupiter, at Arrowsmith’s maps!!! Look at your geography, your philosophy, your poor Lockes and poorer Dugald Stewarts; look at your own national English dictionaries (proh pudor); look at your whole extra classic (for as to classic I bow in respect) philology. Fifty years en arriere, my dear friend, pour le moins. Let me quote here ad confirmandam rent a certain writing of a certain Dr. Butler, who, they say, is one of the solid and zealous and enlightened friends of his country, a vir bonus in the highest degree, a most eminent scholar, concerning the lacuna of university instruction; read that small writing attentively, and you will soon discover unde mea lacrymue. Latin and mathematics! there’s the magic circle! Would it not be worth your while, and a benefit to British youth, to write an amplification of that sheet of yours?
“One of my friends said the English furrow deep. Very sensible and very true. But, replied I, I could wish they would, at the same time, look somewhat far and wide also. Pray read, in order to understand what I mean, the annexed Un homme,’ etc. It is in these idles universelles (which we must not confound with idles superficielles) that I believe the English at large to be deficient.
“One instance of typographical folly. The Laws of Menu have lately been edited, intended for schools, for boys to learn. They form two magnificent vols., most beautiful paper, and cost I know not how many guineas. There’s a book for schoolboys to try their pens on, and knock at each other’s heads. Let now booksellers complain; they cannot sell.
“Jam satis est.
“(Enters Zephyrus, breathing sweetly.)
“Two of your letters, February 8th, 25th, are before me, pro more, full of interesting information, good-humour, and marks of that inalterable friendship which has now filled a space of thirty years. The petit paquet blanc contained some little manuscripts and prints for your collection. I do not think it has been lost by inadvertence. It has rather been classified, perhaps in France. I find you have made truly brilliant acquisitions. Is it your intention to make, or get made, any public use of those MSS. — for instance, Suidas and Lucanus? Are any new editions preparing? I have lately been told that it was no longer fashionable in England to employ such active participles in a passive sense as ‘preparing’ for being ‘in preparation’; therefore pardon my solecism, for, in fact, it is one, though very common. Klaproth is, as you know, one of your devoted clients, and is ever glad to hear that you remember him. It is true his criticism on Arrowsmith (Journal Asiat., XLIII., XLIV.) is ‘ very severe.’ But is it not a ‘just and necessary war’? Is it lawful to cheat people, not only of their money, but also of their time and knowledge, by selling for £4 (?) a map, and under royal patronage, which map is not worth fourpence? — for surely it is much better to have no map at all of a country than to have one which is completely false and most ridiculously stupid. You will not, dear sir, think these terms too severe when you shall have read the said Journal Asiat., Cahier XLIII., XLIV. Is it lawful to print lies, but not lawful to discover and expose them? Is it right for a man to lie in ambush and rob, but not right for another man to warn a traveller and tell him, ‘If you walk that way you will be robbed’? How? to do wrong is not severe, but to say (with perfect truth) that it is wrong is very severe?
