correspondents inform me who
is the author of the well-known saying--
"Poeta nascitur, non fit"?
I have more than once seen it quoted as from Horace, but I have never been
able to find it in any classical author whose works I have examined. Cicero
expresses a similar sentiment in his oration for the poet Archias, cap.
viii.:
"Atqui sic a summis hominibus eruditissimisque accepimus, ceterarum
rerum studia, et doctrina, et praeceptis, et arte constare: poetam
natura ipsa valere, et mentis viribus excitari, et quasi divino quodam
spiritu inflari."
J. P.
Boston, U.S.A.
{399}
_John Wesley and the Duke of Wellington._--It has always been understood
that the property bequeathed to the Colleys, who in consequence took the
surname of Wesley, afterwards altered to Wellesley, was offered to and
declined by the father of John Wesley, who would not allow his son to
accept the condition, a residence in Ireland, and the being adopted by the
legatee. Has there been a relationship ever proved between the founder of
the Methodists and the victor of Waterloo?
PRESTONIENSIS.
_Haviland_--Can any of your Plymouth correspondents give any information,
as tombs, in memory of persons of the name of Haviland, Havilland, or De
Havilland, existing in the churches of that place, of a date prior to A.D.
1688? Mention is made of such tombs as existing in a letter of that date in
my possession. Also, in what chronicle or history of the Conquest of
England, mention is made of a Sieur de Havilland, as having accompanied
Duke William from Normandy on that occasion?
D. F. T.
_Byron._--Will you kindly inform me, through the medium of your "N. & Q.,"
whence the line "All went merry as a marriage bell" (in Byron's _Childe
Harold_) is derived?
C. B.
"_Rutabaga._"--What is the etymology of the word _rutabaga_? I have heard
one solution of it, but wish to ascertain whether there is any other. The
word is extensively used in the United States for Swedish turnips or
"Swedes."
LUCCUS.
_A Medal._--A family in this city possesses a silver medal granted to
Joseph Swift, a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, by the University of
Oxford or of Cambridge, of which the following is a description. It is
about two inches in diameter; on the face are the head and bust of Queen
Anne in profile, with an inscription setting forth her royal title, and on
the reverse a full-length figure of Britannia, with ships sailing a
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