  Your correspondent T. K. seems to think that Scotchmen, and Scotch subjects, have an undue prominence in "N. & Q.:" let me therefore introduce to your readers a neglected Irishman, in the person of Peter Brett, the "parish clerk and schoolmaster of Castle-Knock." This worthy seems to have been a great author, and the literary oracle of the district over which he presided, and exercised the above-named important functions. His magnum opus appears to have been his Miscellany; a farrago of prose and verse, which, to distinguish it from the herd of books bearing that title, is yclept, par excellence, Brett's Miscellany. When Mr. Brett commenced to enlighten the world, and when his candle was snuffed out, I know not. My volume of the above work purports to be the fifth:
The parish clerk's bill of fares is of the most seductive kind. Under all the above heads he has something spicy to say, either in prose or verse; but the marrow of the book lies in the Preface. To say that a man, holding the important offices of parish clerk and schoolmaster, could be charged with conceit, would be somewhat rash; if, therefore, in remarking upon the rare instance of a parish clerk becoming an author, he lets out that "whatever cavillers may say about his performance, they must admit his extensive reading, and the great labour and application the concoction of these books has cost him," he is but indulging in a feeling natural to a man of genius, and a pardonable ebullition of the amour propre. Mr. Brett seems to have been twitted with the charge of taking up authorship as a commercial spec; he sullenly admits that his book-making leaves him something, but nothing like a recompense, and draws an invidious comparison between one Counsellor Harris and himself; the Peter farther boasts that these his volumes
A plan for which, I think, the learned would award him the birch. Mrs. Brett is no less a genius than her husband; and she takes advantage of the publication of the Miscellany, to stick the following little bill upon the back of the title:
RICHARD'S "GUIDE THROUGH FRANCE."(Translated from the French on the 12th edition. Paris: Audin, 25. Quai des Augustins.) As we are not supposed to be sensible of our own failings, I should much wish to know whether any English-French exists equal to some French-English I know of, and inclose a specimen. Mr. P. Chasles has played the critic so well with the English tongue, that perhaps he can find us a few specimens. Without doubt, it will be a wholesome correction to the Malaprop spirit if she is shown up a little; and I regret extremely that Mr. P. Chasles was not invited to correct the proofs of the ItinÉraire de France. Here we are posting with M. Richard:
Here we are in a steamer, p. 52.:
He tells us Soissons (p. 102.) "has a college, a pretty theatre, and a bishoprick-sec, from the Cradle of Christianity into the Gauls." At CoulommiÈres (Seine et Marne), "the sciences are not cultivated, but the inhabitants know pretty well how to play at nine pins." At Fontaines les Cornues, "the inhabitants of Paris with a small expense can procure to himself a scenery scarecely to be found in the other quarter of the globe!" At Chatillion-sur-Seine, "the streets are neat and well aired." At Arles, p. 361., a head of a goddess carved in marble:
How the ladies bathe at Mont d'Or, p. 218.:
The work consists of 446 mortal pages though I am bound to say a portion here and there is respectably written. WOMEN AND TORTOISES.I had intended sending you a paper on Bishop Taylor's Similes, with Illustrative Notes on some Passages in his Works; but I soon found that your utmost indulgence could not afford me a tithe of
The last passage reminds us of the fine lines of Donne (addressed to both sexes): "Be then thine own home, and in thyself dwell; Inn anywhere; And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam, Carrying his own home still, still is at home, Follow (for he is easy-paced) this snail: Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail." WEATHER RULES.(Vol. vii., pp. 373. 522. 599. 627.) J. A., Jun., being desirous of forming a list of weather rules, I send the following, in the hope that they may be acceptable to him, and interesting to those of your readers who have never met with the old collection from which they are taken. English. In April, Dove's-flood is worth a king's good. Winter thunder, a summer's wonder. March dust is worth a king's ransom. A cold May and a windy, makes a fat barn and findy. Spanish. April and May, the keys of the year. A cold April, much bread and little wine. A year of snow, a year of plenty. A red morning, wind or rain. The moon with a circle brings water in her beak. Bearded frost, forerunner of snow. Neither give credit to a clear winter nor cloudy spring. Clouds above, water below. When the moon is in the wane do not sow anything. A red sun has water in his eye. Red clouds in the east, rain the next day. An eastern wind carrieth water in his hand. A March sun sticks like a lock of wool. When there is a spring in winter, and a winter in spring, the year is never good. When it rains in August, it rains wine or honey. The circle of the moon never filled a pond, but the circle of the sun wets a shepherd. Italian. Like a March sun, which heats but doth not melt. Dearth under water, bread under snow. Young and old must go warm at Martlemas. When the cock drinks in summer, it will rain a little after. As Mars hasteneth all the humours feel it. In August, neither ask for olives, chesnuts, nor acorns. January commits the fault, and May bears the blame. A year of snow, a year of plenty. French. When it thunders in March, we may cry Alas! A dry year never beggars the master. An evening red, and a morning grey, makes a pilgrim sing. January or February do fill or empty the granary. A dry March, a snowy February, a moist April, and a dry May, presage a good year. To St. Valentine the spring is a neighbour. At St. Martin's winter is in his way. A cold January, a feverish February, a dusty March, a weeping April, a windy May, presage a good year and gay. Malta. OCCASIONAL FORMS OF PRAYER.I now send you a list of Occasional Forms of Prayer in my own possession, in the hope that the example may be followed by other individuals.
This was the first published occasional form of the reign of Elizabeth.
There is no date; but it is ascertained that this form was put forth in the year 1566.
This was put forth in consequence of an earthquake.
They consist of "A Prayer for all Kings," &c., "A Prayer for the Queene," &c., and "A Prayer in the Parliament onely." They are appended to Treasons of Pary, forming part of the volume.
The original edition.
The "Prayer for the Parliament" appears for the first time in this form.
This is the form which was attacked by Burton and Prynne, and on which a charge was raised against Laud.
This is the form authorised by Charles I. to be used at the commencement of the war. It is frequently alluded to by the Parliamentary writers of the period. The House of Commons had ordered a monthly fast, and Charles commanded that the second Friday in every month should be set apart for the same purpose. This form was to be used on such occasions.
The same as the preceding, but a different edition, one being in black-letter, the other in Roman. Both were printed in Oxford, and in the same year.
This was reprinted at York in 1644.
This is a reprint of the preceding form, with a scurrilous preface and observations. The prayers are given as they stand in the Royal form, but with parenthetical sentences of a most abusive character after almost every paragraph. Thus, after the clause, "Pity a despised Church," the authors add, "You mean the prelates and their hierarchy." After the next clause, "and a distracted State," they add, "made so by your wicked party." In one of the thanksgivings, after "Glory be to God," we have, "Your mock prayers defraud Him of His glory." Then, after the words "We praise thee, we bless thee," &c., from the Communion Office, we have, "Softly, lest you want breath, and thank the old Common Prayer Book for that."
This remarkable form has no date, but it was put forth by Williams, then Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of Westminster, in the year 1641. The House of Commons had ordered a day of Thanksgiving; but they were greatly offended with Williams, on account of this form, and, instead of going to St. Margaret's Church as usual, where it was ordered to be read, they attended divine service, after their own fashion, in the chapel of Lincoln's Inn.
A Presbyterian form, and the only one ever published by men who decried all forms. It was put forth, as the preface admits, because the sailors clung to the Book of Common Prayer.
This form differs materially from that subsequently put forth by Convocation, with the revised Prayer Book of 1662. There was also another form still earlier, in the year 1661, in which some singular and obnoxious petitions relative to Charles I. were found.
The original edition. It differs from that which was sanctioned by Convocation and published in 1662.
First edition of this reign. It was altered by the authority of the Crown.
First edition of this reign.
The accession service of James II.
This form was the occasion of much comment at the time.
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