Conduitt, Fontenelle, Birch, Philip Nichols, Thomas Thomson, Biot,
{196} Brewster--and I have ever since believed that such materials _did
exist_.

We are assured by Mr. Edmund Turnor, in the preface to his _History of
Grantham_, printed in 1806, which work is quoted in the prospectus, that
the manuscripts at Hurstbourne Park then chiefly consisted of some
pocket-books and memorandums of sir Isaac Newton, and "the information
obtained by Mr. Conduitt for the purpose of writing his life." Moreover,
the collections of Mr. Conduitt are repeatedly quoted in that work as
distinct from the memoirs which were sent to M. de Fontenelle.

I shall give another anecdote in refutation of the statement made in the
prospectus, albeit a superfluity. In 1730 the author of _The Seasons_
republished his _Poem to the memory of sir Isaac Newton_, with the addition
of the lines which follow, and which prove that he was aware of the task on
which Mr. Conduitt was then occupied. The lines, it should be observed,
have been omitted in all the editions printed since 1738.

"This, CONDUITT, from thy rural hours we hope;
As through the pleasing shade, where nature pours
Her every sweet, in studious ease you walk;
The social passions smiling at thy heart,
That glows with all the recollected sage."

The _pleasing shade_ indicates the grounds of Cranbury-lodge, in Hampshire,
the seat of Mr. Conduitt--whose guest the poet seems previously to have
been.

Some inedited particulars of the life of Mr. Conduitt, drawn from various
sources, I reserve for another occasion.

BOLTON CORNEY.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_The Music in Middleton's Tragi-Comedy of the "Witch."_--Joseph Ritson, in
a letter addressed to J. C. Walker (July, 1797), printed in Pickering's
edition of Ritson's _Letters_ (vol. ii. p. 156.) has the following
passage:--

"It may be to your purpose, at the same time, to know that the songs in
Middleton's _Witch_, which appear also to have been introduced in
_Macbeth_, beginning, 'Hecate, Hecate, come away,' and 'Black spirits
and white,' have (as I am informed) been lately discovered in MS. with
the complete harmony, as performed at the original representation of
these plays. You will find the words in a note to the late editions of
Shakspeare; and I shall, probably, one of these days, obtain a sight of
the musick."

The MS. here mentioned was in the collec