Various - Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851

The following extremely interesting, and, we need scarcely add, to us most gratifying, communication reached us at too late a period last week to admit of our then laying it before our friends, readers, and contributors. They will one and all participate in our gratification at the proof which it affords, not merely of that success which they have all combined to secure, but of the good working, and consequent wide extension, of that great principle of literary brotherhood which it has been the great object of "Notes and Queries" to establish.

To the Editor of "Notes and Queries."

Mr. Editor,

We have the pleasure of sending you the prospectus of "De Navorscher," a new Dutch periodical, grounded upon the same principle as its valuable and valiant predecessor "Notes and Queries." The title, when translated into English, would be—" The Searcher; a medium of intellectual exchange and literary intercourse between all who know something, have to ask something, or can solve something. " If it be glorious for you to have proposed a good example, we think it honourable for us to follow it.

Though we do not wish to be our own trumpets, we can say that never a Dutch newspaper was greeted, before its appearance, by such favourable prognostics. Your idea, Mr. Editor, was received with universal applause; and Mr. Frederik Muller, by whom "De Navorscher" will be published, is not only a celebrated bookseller, but also one of our most learned bookmen .

Ready to promote by every means in our power the friendly intercourse between your country and our fatherland, we desire of you to lay the following plan before the many readers of "Notes and Queries."

1. Every Query, which, promulgated by our English sister, would perhaps find a solution when meeting the eyes of Dutch readers, will be TRANSLATED for them by her foreign brother. We promise to send you a version of the eventual answers.

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With a fervent wish that in such a manner, two neighbourly nations, connected by religion, commerce, and literary pursuits, may be more and more united by the mail-bearing sea which divides them, we have the honour to remain,

Mr. Editor,

Your respectful servants,

The Directors of "De Navorscher."

Amsterdam, the 16th of December, 1850.

When by the publication of "Notes and Queries" we laid down those telegraphic lines of literary communication which we hoped should one day find their way into every library and book-room in the United Kingdom, we little thought that, ere fifteen months had passed, we should be called upon, not to lay down a sub marine telegraph, but to establish a super marine communication with our brethren in the Low Countries. We do so most gladly, for we owe them much. From them it was that Caxton learned the art, but for which "Notes and Queries" would never have existed; and of which the unconstrained practice has, under Providence, served to create our literature, to maintain our liberties, and to win for England its exalted position among the nations of the earth.

Heartily, therefore, do we bid God speed to "De Navorscher;" and earnestly will we do all we can to realize the kindly wish of our Amsterdam brethren, that the "two neighbourly nations of Holland and England, connected by religion, commerce, and literary pursuits, may be more and more united by the mail-bearing sea which divides them."

Sir John Davies, the "sweet poet" and "grave lawyer"—rather odd combinations by the bye,—according to Wood, was "born at Chisgrove, in the parish of Tysbury in Wiltshire, being the son of a wealthy tanner of that place!" This statement is repeated in Cooper's Muses' Library , p. 331.; Nichols's Select Poems , vol. i., p. 276.; Sir E. Brydges's edition of Philips's Theatrum Poetarum , 1800, p. 272.; Sir Harris Nicolas's edition of Davison's Poetical Rhapsody , vol. i. p. cii., &c. And Headley, in his Select Beauties of Poetry , ed. 1787, vol. i. p. xli., adds, "he was a man of low extraction!" Wood's assertion concerning Davies's parentage, was made, I believe, upon the authority of Fuller; but it is undoubtedly an error, as the books which record the admission of the younger Davies into the Society of the Middle Temple, say the father was "late of New Inn, gentleman ."

Mr. Robert R. Pearce, in a recent work, entitled A History of the Inns of Court and Chancery , 8vo. 1848, p. 293., gives the following sketch of the leading facts in the life of our "poetical lawyer:"—

"Sir John Davis, the author of Reports , and several other legal works, and a poet of considerable repute, was of this Society [ i.e. the Middle Temple]. His father was a member of New Inn, and a practitioner of the law in Wiltshire. At the Middle Temple, young Davis became rather notorious for his irregularities, and having beaten Mr. Richard Martin (also a poet, and afterwards Recorder of London) in the hall, he was expelled the house. Afterwards, through the influence of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, he was restored to his position in the Middle Temple; and, in 1601, was elected a Member of the House of Commons. In 1603, he was appointed by King James Solicitor-General in Ireland. In 1606, he was called to the degree of Serjeant-at-Law; and, in the following year, was knighted by the King at Whitehall. In 1612, he published a book on the state of Ireland, which is often referred to; and soon afterwards he was appointed King's Serjeant, and Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland. On his return to England he published his reports of cases adjudged in the King's Court in Ireland,—the first reports of Irish cases made public. The preface to these reports is very highly esteemed. It has been said to vie with Coke in solidity and learning, and equal Blackstone in classical illustration and elegant language. Sir John Davis died 7th of December, 1626."

It is amusing to see how erroneous statements creep into ordinary biography. Headley, as we have just seen, calls Davies "a man of low extraction;" and now we find a more recent biographer adding (without the shadow of an authority), "at the Middle Temple, young Davies became rather notorious for his irregularities !"

Davies's quarrel with Richard Martin is alluded to by Wood. After speaking of his admission into the Middle Temple, and of his being made a barrister (July, 1595), that writer adds:—

"But so it was that he [Sir John Davies] being a high-spirited young man, did, upon some little provocation or punctilio, bastinado Rich. Martin (afterwards Recorder of London) in the Common Hall of the Middle Temple, while he was at dinner. For which act being forthwith [February, 1597-8] expell'd, he retired for a time in private, lived in Oxon in the condition of a sojourner, and follow'd his studies, tho' he wore a cloak. However, among his serious thoughts, making reflections upon his own condition, which sometimes was an affliction to him, he composed that excellent philosophical and divine poem called Nosce Teipsum ."