George Bell

Notes on Midland County Minstrelsy. It has often occurred to me that the old country folk-songs are as worthy of a niche in your mausoleum as the more prosy lore to which you allot a separate division. Why does not some one write a Minstrelsy of the Midland Counties? There is ample material to work upon, and not yet spoiled by dry-as-dust-ism. It would be vain, perhaps, to emulate the achievements of... more...

A PROPHET. What a curious book would be "Our Prophets and Enthusiasts!" The literary and biographical records of the vaticinators, and the heated spirits who, after working upon the fears of the timid, and exciting the imaginations of the weak, have flitted into oblivion! As a specimen of the odd characters such a work would embrace, allow me to introduce to your readers Thomas Newans, a... more...

NOTES ON NEWSPAPERS: "THE TIMES," DAILY PRESS, ETC. A newspaper, rightly conducted, is a potent power in promoting the well-being of universal man. It is also a highly moral power—for it quickens mind everywhere, and puts in force those principles which tend to lessen human woe, and to exalt and dignify our common humanity. The daily press, for the most part, aims to correct error—whether... more...

THE STATE PRISON IN THE TOWER. A paragraph has lately gone the round of the newspapers, in which, after mentioning the alterations recently made in the Beauchamp Tower and the opening of its "written walls" to public inspection, it is stated that this Tower was formerly the place of confinement for state prisoners, and that "Sir William Wallace and Queen Anne Boleyn" were amongst its... more...

JACK. I wish to note, and to suggest to students in ethnology, the Query, how it comes to pass that John Bull has a peculiar propensity to call things by his own name, his familiar appellative of Jack? Of all the long list of abbreviations and familiar names with which times past and present have supplied us, that which honest Falstaff found most pleasing to his ears, "Jack with my familiars!"... more...

LORD BACON'S "ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING." Considering the large number of quotations from previous writers which occur in Lord Bacon's works, and especially in his most popular and generally read works—his Essays and his Advancement of Learning—it is remarkable how little his editors have done for the illustration of his text in this respect. The French editors of Montaigne's... more...

Notes. POETICAL EPITHETS OF THE NIGHTINGALE. Having lately been making some research among our British poets, as to the character of the nightingale's song, I was much struck with the great quantity and diversity of epithets that I found applied to the bird. The difference of opinion that has existed with regard to the quality of its song, has of course led the poetical adherents of either side to... more...

WITCHCRAFT IN SOMERSETSHIRE. Perhaps the following account of superstitions now entertained in some parts of Somersetshire, will be interesting to the inquirers into the history of witchcraft. I was lately informed by a member of my congregation that two children living near his house were bewitched. I made inquiries into the matter, and found that witchcraft is by far less uncommon than I had... more...

NOTE UPON A PASSAGE IN "MEASURE FOR MEASURE." The Third Act of Measure for Measure opens with Isabella's visit to her brother (Claudio) in the dungeon, where he lies under sentence of death. In accordance with Claudio's earnest entreaty, she has sued for mercy to Angelo, the sanctimonious deputy, and in the course of her allusion to the only terms upon which Angelo is willing to remit... more...

LORD HALIFAX AND MRS. CATHERINE BARTON. Those who have written on the life of Newton have touched with the utmost reserve upon the connexion which existed between his half-niece Catherine Barton, and his friend Charles Montague, who died Earl of Halifax. They seem as if they were afraid that, by going fairly into the matter, they should find something they would rather not tell. The consequence is,... more...