UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN.---` "A grace proposed on Friday last, for returning thanks to the king, for his present of the Parliamentary History, in an English Letter, with a seal of the University, enclosed in a gold box, was rejected in full senate."-From the Bath Chronicle, under "Irish News" April 2, 1772. Why and wherefore rejected? R. W. F. WHITE HATS At Oxford.-A writer in The Times of June 9th, describing the Commemoration, after stating that the undergraduates assailed with especial violence the individual who ventured inside the doors wearing a white hat, proceeds: "The white hat seems to act on the undergraduate as the red rag upon the Spanish bull; it absolutely infuriates him, and, till it is removed from sight, he yells and raves as if he were downright mad." Can any reader of "N. & Q." explain the origin of this feeling? Queries with Answers. W. H. STONE AND WOODEN ALTARS IN ENGLAND.-In William of Malmesbury's Life of S. Wulstan (Ang. Sac., vol. ii. p. 264), he tells us, that "in his [Wulstan's] time (circa 1090) there were wooden altars in England from the primitive days. He having demolished them throughout his diocese [Worcester] made new ones of stone." What was the reason of the change, and why did the bishop preach (so to speak) such a crusade against what is confessed to have been an established custom? A. A. Poets' Corner. [Our correspondent's query has been anticipated in a paper read before the Cambridge Camden Society, on Nov. 28, 1844, On the History of Christian Altars [by Mr. Collison], and since published as a tract, 12mo, 1845. We there read, that "In 1976 the council of Winchester, under Lanfranc and the papal legates, orders the altars to be made of stone: unfortunately nothing but the heads of the canons is preserved. (Spelman, Conc., ii. 12.) But here I shall give you a passage from the life of S. Wulstan, bishop of Worcester, in which William of Malmesbury (who lived in the reign of Stephen, A.D. 1141,) says, 'at that time the altars had been of wood (or, there had been wooden altars), even from ancient times in England. These he demolished throughout his diocese, and constructed others of stone. So that sometimes in one day he would consecrate two altars in one town, and as many more on the second and third day, in other places that he had gone to.' (Vit. S. Wulst., pt. ii. c. 14, in Angl. Sac., ii. 264.) This passage seems of some importance, for Wulstan was a sturdy Saxon prelate, almost the only one who kept his ground under the Conqueror, and indeed was very near being deprived on a charge brought against him by Lanfranc himself: and though he was afterwards much respected and consulted by the archbishop, it is to be remembered that Lanfranc, though himself an Italian by birth, and a great and good man, is said to have kept studiously aloof from the party of S. Gregory VII. So that I conceive this canon of the Winchester council, and the consequent activity of S. Wulstan, must have been regarded by Churchmen then, and should be regarded by us now, as the re-enactment of the old law of the Council of Epaune, and the Excerpt of Abp. Egbert, called for by their respect for antiquity, and their regard for order and decency." This valuable tract ought to be in the library of every ecclesiastical antiquary.] BASING HOUSE, HAMPSHIRE.—I am desirous of finding as full an account as possible of the sieges which this strongly fortified residence of the Marquis of Winchester underwent during the great rebellion. In particular that in 1644, at which the witty Dr. Fuller is said to have so vigorously incited the garrison against the parliamentary leader, Sir W. Waller. The references I have hitherto seen are too scanty for my purpose-that of compiling a biography of Dr. Thos. Fuller. J. E. B. [Particulars of this memorable siege were published at the time in what are now called "The Civil War Tracts." Among others the following may be consulted: 1. “A Description of the Siege of Basing Castle, kept by the Lord Marquisse of Winchester for the service of His Ma jesty against the Forces of the Rebels under command of Col. Norton. Lond. 4to, 1644." 2. "The Journal of the Siege of Basing House by the Marquisse of Winchester, Oxford, 4to, 1644." 3. Hugh Peter's "Full and Last Relation concerning Basing House, London, 4to, 1645." The name of Dr. Fuller, however, does not occur in either of these tracts. Burke, in The Patrician, v. 473-479, has given an interesting account of Basing House; but has neglected to give his authority for the following notice of our witty historian: "Dr. Thomas Fuller, author of The Church History of Britain, and other works, being a chaplain in the royal army under Lord Hopton, was for some time shut up in Basing House while it was besieged. Even here, as if sitting in the study of a quiet parsonage far removed from the din of war, he prosecuted his favourite work, entitled The Worthies of England; discovering no signs of fear, but only complaining that the noise of the cannon, which was continually thundering from the lines of the besiegers, interrupted him in digesting his notes. Dr. Fuller, however, animated the gar rison to so vigorous a defence, that Sir William Waller was obliged to raise the siege with considerable loss, by which the fate of Basing House was for a considerable time suspended. When it was besieged a second time and fell, Lord Hopton's army took shelter in the city of Exeter, whither Fuller accompanied it."] ATHENRY, OR ATHUNRY.-Among a number of old "franks," I have some directed by Thomas Birmingham, nineteenth Lord Athenry (the premier barony of Ireland), who, in 1730, was created Earl of Louth. One of these is now before me; it is a letter from Denis Daly, Esq, of Raford, co. Galway, and is dated April 23, 1737. Curiously enough it is franked by the Earl, not "Louth " but "Athunry," and indeed all his signatures are similar, even in the spelling. Observe, the title is spelt with a u instead of an e. Query, which is correct? H. LOFTUS TOTTENHAM. [The word is spelt in five different ways in Lodge's Peerage; viz., Athnery, Aghnary (as anciently written), Athunree, Athunry, and Athenry.] Replies. "ROBIN ADAIR:" "JOHNNY ADAIR:""THE KILRUDDERY HUNT." (3rd S. iv. 130; v. 404, 442) E. K. J. is most decidedly in error, both as regards the hero, nature, and date of "Robin Adair," which in no sense of the phrase can be called "a drinking song," or one showing the "warmth of that friendship which subsisted between that gentleman (what gentleman ?) and his friends;" but is merely a sentimental sorrowful lament of a lady for the absence of her lover. Robert Adair, the hero of the song, was well known in the London fashionable circles of the last century by the sobriquet of the "Fortunate Irishman;" but his parentage, and the exact place of his birth are unknown. He was brought up as a surgeon, but his "detection in an early amour drove him precipitately from Dublin," to push his fortunes in England. Scarcely had he crossed the Channel when the chain of lucky events, that ultimately led him to fame and fortune, commenced. Near Holyhead, perceiving a carriage overturned, he ran to render assistance. The sole occupant of this vehicle was a lady of fashion well known in polite circles," who received Adair's attentions with thanks; and, being slightly hurt, and hearing that he was a surgeon, requested him to travel with her in her carriage to London. On their arrival in the metropolis, she presented him with a fee of one hundred guineas, and gave him a general invitation to her house. In after life, Adair used to say that it was not so much the amount of this fee, but the time it was given that was of service to him, as he was then almost destitute. But the invitation to her house was a still greater service, for there he met the person who decided his fate in life. This was Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of the second Earl of Albemarle, and of Lady Anne Lenox, daughter of the first Duke of Richmond. Forgetting her high lineage, Lady Caroline, at the first sight of the Irish surgeon, fell desperately in love with him; and her emotions were so sudden and so violent as to attract the general attention of the company. Adair, perceiving his advantage, lost no time in pursuing it; while the Albemarle and Richmond families were dismayed at the prospect of such a terrible mésalliance. Every means were tried to induce the young lady to alter her mind, but without effect. Adair's biographer* tells us that "Amusements, a long journey, an advantageous offer, and other common modes of shaking off what was considered by the family as an improper match were alternately tried, but in vain; the health of Lady Caroline was evidently impaired, and the family at last confessed, with a good sense that reflects honour on their understandings as well as their hearts, that it was possible to prevent, but never to dissolve an attachment; and that marriage was the honourable, and indeed the only alternative that could secure her happiness and life." When Lady Caroline was taken by her friends from London to Bath, that she might be separated from her lover, she wrote, it is said, the song of "Robin Adair," and set it to a plaintive Irish tune that she had heard him sing. Whether written by Lady Caroline or not, the song is simply expressive of her feelings at the time, and as it completely corroborates the circumstances just related, which were the town-talk of the period, though now little more than family tradition, there can be no doubt that they were the origin of the song, the words of which as originally written are the following: "ROBIN ADAIR. He whom I wish to see, Wish for to hear. "What made the assembly shine? Robin was there! Robin Adair! But now I never see Robin Adair! Yet he I love so well Memoirs of the Life of Robert Adair, Esq., Omnia Vincit Amor. London: Kearsley, MDCCXC. There is also a biographical notice of Adair in that curious collection of valuable and interesting information, The Lounger's Common Pluce-Book. The author of this work was J. W. Newman, a surgeon, and I believe an Irishman. And I strongly suspect, from a similarity of style, that he too was the author of the above Memoirs. Immediately after his marriage with Lady Caroline, Adair was appointed Inspector-General of Military Hospitals, and subsequently, becoming a favourite of George III., he was made SurgeonGeneral, King's Sergeant-Surgeon, and Surgeon of Chelsea Hospital. Very fortunate men have seldom many friends, but Adair, by declining a baronetcy that was offered to him by the king for surgical attendance on the Duke of Gloucester, actually acquired considerable popularity before his death, which took place when he was nearly fourscore years of age in 1790. In the Gentleman's Magazine of that year there are verses "On the Death of Robert Adair, Esq., late SurgeonGeneral, by J. Crane, M.D.," who it is to be hoped was a much better physician than a poet. On Lady Caroline Adair's married life was short but happy; she died of consumption after giving birth to three children, one of them a son. her deathbed, she requested Adair to wear mourning for her as long as he lived; which he scrupulously did, save on the king's and queen's birthdays, when his duty to his sovereign required him to appear at court in full dress. If this injunction respecting mourning were to prevent Adair marrying again, it had the desired effect; he did not marry a second time, though he had many offers. But I am trenching on the scandalous chronicles of the last century, and must stop. Suffice it to say, Adair seems to have been a universal favourite among both women and men; even Pope Ganganelli conceived a strong friendship for him when he visited Rome. Adair's only son, by Lady Keppel, served his country with distinction as a diplomatist, and died in 1855, aged ninety-two years, then being the Right Honourable Sir Robert Adair, G.C.B., the last surviving political and private friend of his distinguished relative Charles James Fox. His memory, though not generally known, has been also enshrined in a popular piece of poetry, for, being expressly educated for the diplomatic service at the University of Gottingen, Canning satirised him in The Rovers as Rogero, the unfortunate student-lover of "Sweet Matilda Pottingen." The reader will be surprised to find that any one could term "Robin Adair " a drinking song; but the manner of the mistake is pretty clear to me, who, from my knowledge of Irish lyrical literature, may be said to be behind the scenes in this matter. E. K. J. evidently confounds the original, plaintive song of "Robin Adair," with a wretched parody on it, probably never yet printed, called "Johnny Adair." He also confounds a John Adair of Kilternan, the subject of "Johnny Adair," who lived in the present century, with In The Grand Magazine of Universal Intelligence for 1758, the marriage is thus announced:-" February 22nd, Robert Adair, Esq., to the Right Honourable the Lady Caroline Keppel." Squire John Adair of the same place, one of the Kilruddery hunters in 1744. Beginning thus, E. K. J. further complicates the simple question by other glaring errors; and then MR. REDMOND puts his foot into the imbroglio by adding what he terms "collateral evidence," namely, that a John Adair is mentioned in the "Kilruddery Hunt," which is just as germane to the song of "Robin Adair" as the river at Monmouth is to the river at Macedon. In the first place, then, let us turn our attention to "Johnny Adair." Among the MS. collections of the late Thomas Crofton Croker, in the British Museum, I find the following memorandum : "In a quizzical paper published in the Sentimental and Masonic Magazine for Jan. 1794, mention is made of a whimsical ceremony called Bonnybrock. Apropos of this singular ceremony of the Bonnybrock. It was in great request among a club of wits and jovial fellows, who sprung up in Dublin, and flourished in the succeeding generation. At the head of this brilliant and sportive association of all that was then gay and spirited in this capital, we find the memorable names of Alderman Macarroll, Will. Aldridge, Johnny Adair of Kilternan. Some of these worthies are commemorated in a lyric piece, which, for pathos or sentiment, and harmony of versification, has few equals: "JOHNNY ADAIR OF KILTERNAN: HIS WELCOME TO PUCKSTOWN. "You're welcome to Puckstown, Johnny Adair. O, you're welcome to Puckstown, How does Will Aldridge do? O, why came they not along with you? "I could drink wine with you, O, I could drink wine with you, I could drink beer with you, O, I could get drunk with you, This wretched doggrel is certainly unworthy of a place here; still it has to be put in as evidence, for it is, doubtless, the "drinking song" alluded to by E. K. J. Now, what is the date of it? The memorandum introducing it states, that Johnny Adair "flourished in the succeeding generation to 1794. So we may place this parody about, say 1814, for these reasons. The original song of "Robin Adair" had been many years almost forgotten, when it was revived by Braham singing it about 1811. Braham sang it for his benefit, at the Lyceum, on the 17th of December in that year. The song had then created a perfect furore. Its simplicity of words and air led to many versions and imitations of it; and in The Times of R 66 Dec. 19, 1811, there is an advertisement issued by one William Reeve, stating that he had arranged the words and music of "Robin Adair as sang by Braham, and that his was the only correct and copyright edition. There were many parodies written upon it for several years after, as I well recollect; having received a severe caning for one on Taffy" Telfair, an eccentric teacher of writing in Belfast, who, though he had but one finger and a thumb, and these but on his left-hand, could, as he used to boast, write and flog as well as any man in Ireland. We may then conclude that "Johnny Adair" - the "drinking song"-was written in the present century, and is merely a parody on "Robin Adair." Whitelaw, in the eighteenth century, ere the great huntsman of mankind had run to earth the last of the Kilruddery Nimrods. Mr. Whitelaw was peculiarly fitted to give an opinion on this subject: for, having resided at Kilruddery House as tutor to an Earl of Meath, he knew every inch of the ground celebrated in the song; and actually constructed a map of the devious run, from where the fox first broke cover, at Killeager, till it was killed on Dalkey-hill. The tradition of the country in Mr. Whitelaw's time was, that the song was the joint production of Mr. Mozeen and one Owen Bray-of whom more hereafter. And as Mozeen was not a sportsman, and Bray was a keen one-and as "the soul of the sportsman, indeed, seems transferred into the song"-it was the general opinion that the song was the composition of Bray, and that the sole claim of Mozeen consisted in having set it to music. To this, however, it must be answered, that Mozeen was a song writer, while Bray was not; and the With respect to Squire Adair of Kilternan, in song never was set to music, as it was written to the county of Dublin, and the song generally a well-known ancient Irish air, termed "Shelah known as "The Kilruddery Hunt," I am for- na Guiragh." Moreover, in 1762, Mozeen pubtunately able to give E. K. J. and MR. RED-lished the song as his own in A Miscellaneous MOND some information also. In an obituary notice of Anthony Brabazon, eighth Earl of Meath, in the Gentleman's Magazine (vol. lx. p. 88), it is I must apologise to the readers of " N. & Q." for occupying so much space with this subject, but it is not altogether an uninteresting one; and as it has been most absurdly complicated, less space than I now propose to occupy will not suffice to unravel the tangled skein. Kilruddery's plentiful board, Where dwells hospitality, truth, and my Lord,'were Johnny's words on a former possessor of the title." But this assertion is corrected at p. 368 of the same volume, where we are told that "The song was not a production of the convivial Johnny Adair (who is himself celebrated in it), but of the no less jovial John St. Ledger, the son of Sir John St. Ledger, formerly one of the Barons of the Court of Exchequer, and who sported many other jeux d'esprit now mostly lost. Johnny Adair drank no water, not even of Aganippe or Hippocrene." Neither of these assertions are correct. The rattling rollicking Irish song, "The Kilruddery Hunt,' was really written by an Englishman; one Thomas Mozeen, a popular comedian and singer,-"a fellow of infinite jest," whose amusing powers made him a welcome guest at the too hospitable houses of the Irish squires and squireens in his day. This was clearly shown by two eminent Irish antiquaries, Joseph Cooper Walker, Esq. (see Ritson's Letters, edited by Sir Harris Nicolas, vol. i. p. 179, note), and the Rev. James Member of the Royal Irish Academy, author of Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, Historical Essays on the Irish Stage, and other well-known works of a similar description. Collection of Essays in Verse. This work was published by subscription, the names of many Irish gentleman appear in the list of subscribers, and it was dedicated to "the Honourable Richard Mountney, Esq., one of His Majesty's Barons of the Exchequer in the Kingdom of Ireland." All this Mozeen-then a respectable actor at Drury Lane and the Dublin theatres, patronised particularly by the Irish gentry, and dependent for his bread on public favour-would scarcely have dared to do, if the work contained a song not only not written by himself, but written by John St. Ledger, the son of another Baron of the Irish Exchequer. Two years later, in 1764, Mozeen again published the song as his own, in a work entitled The Lyrick Pacquet. The part of a verse, quoted by MR. REDMOND, is incorrectly given, the whole verse being as follows:· "In seventeen hundred and forty and four, The fifth of December-I think 'twas no more- • Member of the Royal Irish Academy, author of His- carried on the grosser debaucheries, that even they were ashamed to perpetrate in their own dwellings. For, as the Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, well and truly observes of the period: "The habits of the Irish gentry grew beyond measure brutal and reckless, and the coarseness of their debauche ries would have disgusted the crew of Comus.+ Their drunkenness, their blasphemy, their ferocious duelling, left even the squires of England far behind. Fortunately their recklessness was sure, in the end, to work its own cure; and in the background of their swinish and uproarious drinking bouts, the Encumbered Estates Act rises to our view." Owen Bray's name occurs in another verse of the song, which, as a specimen of what was, at the least supposed to be, the after-dinner conversation at the Earl of Meath's table, may be quoted here: "We returned to Kilruddery's plentiful board, Where dwells hospitality, truth, and my Lord; We talked o'er the chase, and we toasted the health Of the man who ne'er varied for places or wealth. "Owen Bray baulked a leap,' said Hall Preston, "'twas odd.' 'Twas shameful!' cried Jack, 'by the great living -.' Said Preston, I hallooed, Get on, though you fall, Or I'll leap over you, your blind gelding and all! ' " Owen must have been a great favourite of Mozeen, for he wrote another Irish song in commemoration of the facetious Loughlinstown landlord and his house, of which I give a few sample verses. It is entitled: — "AN INVITATION TO OWEN BRAY'S AT LOUGHLINSTOWN. "Are ye landed from England, and sick of the seas, Ballen a Mona, Ora, "Fling leg over garron, ye lovers of sport; "The days in December are dirty and raw, We bury the trades of religion and law, Ballen a Mona, Ora, The quick-moving bottle for me." Mozeen wrote yet another Irish song in honour of Squire Adair of Kilternan. No where could there be a better illustration of a man's character and household than in its lines, a few of which I transcribe. It is entitled "TIME TOOK BY THE FORELOCK AT KILTERNAN, THE SEAT OF JOHN ADAIR, ESQ., IN THE COUNTY OF DUBLIN. "Tune-Derry down. "With Ruin fatigued, and grown quite melancholic, I'll sing you how old daddy Time took a frolic, By the help of good claret to dissipate cares, The spot was Kilternan, the house was Adair's. "Not used to the sight of the soberer race, With the door in her hand, the maid laughed in his face; For she thought by his figure he might be at best Some plodding mechanic, or prig of a priest. "But soon as he said that he came for a glass, Without further reserve, she replied he might pass; Yet mocked his bald pate as he tottered along, And despised him as moderns despise an old song. "Jack Adair was at table with six of his friends, Who, for making him drunk, he was making amends; Time hoped at his presence none there were affronted : 'Sit down, boy,' says Jack,' and prepare to be hunted.' "They drank hand to fist for six bottles and more, Till down tumbled Time and began for to snore; Five gallons of claret they poured on his head, And were going to take the old soaker to bed. "But Jack, who's possessed of a pretty estateAnd would to the Lord it was ten times as great!Thought, aptly enough, that if Time did not wake, He might lose all he had by the world's turning back. "So twitching his forelock, Time opened his eyes, And, staggering, stared with a deal of surprise; Quoth he, I must mow down ten millions of men; But, e'er you drink thrice, I'll be with you again!'" The first two lines of the last verse are unpresentable, but the song concludes with Time shaking his host by the hand, and saying:"Go on with your bumpers, your beef, and good cheer, And the darling of Time shall be Johnny Adair!" The three songs from which I have given these extracts are all in Mozeen's Collection of Miscel laneous Essays, and there are other poems in the same collection showing that the author was well acquainted with the neighbourhood, and could readily suit the character of his verses to the cha |