W.H.  GUNNER.

    “Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus relicto:—­

“Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit, exceptis paucissimis (ut mea fert sententia) omnimodo excusandum.  Caeterum diverticulis abundans, hic pater Historicorum, filum narrationis ad taedium abrumpit; unde oritur (ut par est) legentibus confusio, et exinde oblivio.  Quin et forsan ipsae narrationes circumstantiis nimium pro re scatent.  Quod ad caetera, hunc scriptorem inter apprime laudandos censeo, neque Graecis, neque barbaris plus aequo faventem, aut iniquum:  in orationibus fere brevem, simplicem, nec nimis frequentem:  Neque absunt dogmata, e quibus eruditus lector prudentiam, tam moralem, quam civilem, haurire poterit.

    “Julii 6:  1720.  J. SWIFT”

    “I do hereby certify that the above is the handwriting of the
    late Dr. Jonathan Swift, D.S.P.D., from whom I have had many
    letters and printed several pieces from his original MS.

    “Dublin, Aug. 21. 1762.  GEORGE FAULKNER.”

* * * * *

HERRICK’S HESPERIDES.

There can be few among your subscribers who are unacquainted with the sweet lyric effusion of Herrick “to the Virgins, to make much of Time,” beginning—­

  “Gather you rose-buds while ye may,
    Old Time is still a-flying;
  And this same flower, that smiles to-day,
    To-morrow will be dying.”

The following “Answer” appeared in a publication not so well known as the Hesperides.  I have therefore made a note of it from Cantos, Songs, and Stanzas, &c., 3rd ed. printed in Aberdeen, by John Forbes, 1682.

  “I gather, where I hope to gain,
    I know swift Time doth fly;
  Those fading buds methinks are vain,
    To-morrow that may die.

  “The higher Phoebus goes on high,
    The lower is his fall;
  But length of days gives me more light,
    Freedom to know my thrall.

  “Then why do ye think I lose my time,
    Because I do not marrie;
  Vain fantasies make not my prime,
    Nor can make me miscarrie.”

J.M.  GUTCH.

Worcester.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

REV.  DR. TOMLINSON.

Mr. G. Bouchier Richardson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who is at present engaged in compiling the life and correspondence of Robert Thomlinson, D.D., Rector of Whickham, co.  Dur.; Lecturer of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and founder of the Thomlinson Library there; Prebendary of St. Paul’s; and Vice-Principal of Edmund Hall, Oxon., is very anxious for the communication of any matter illustrative of the life of the Doctor, his family and ancestry; which, it is presumed, is derivable from the family of that name long seated at Howden, in Yorkshire.

* * * * *