red Tennyson), and was divorced from
him. Lord Exeter sold or carried away the fine library, family plate,
and nearly everything curious or valuable that was not an heirloom in
the Vernon family. He laid waste the extensive gardens, and sold the
elaborate iron gates, which now adorn the avenue to Mere Hall in the
immediate neighbourhood. The divorcee married a Mr. Phillips, and dying
without surviving issue, the estates passed to a distant branch of her
family. About ten years ago I made a careful search (by permission) at
Hanbury Hall for the supposed Monmouth MSS., but found none; and I
ascertained by inquiry that there were none at Enstone Hall, the seat of
Mr. Phillips's second wife and widow. The MSS. might have been carried
to Burleigh, and a friend obtained for me a promise from the Marquis of
Exeter that search should be made for them there, but I have reason to
believe that the matter was forgotten. Perhaps some of your
correspondents may have the means of ascertaining whether there are such
MSS. in Lord Exeter's library. I confess my doubt whether so cautious a
man as Thomas Vernon would have retained in his possession a mass of
correspondence that might have been fraught with danger to himself
personally; and, had it been in the Burleigh library, whether it could
have escaped notice. This, however, is to be noted. After Vernon's death
there was a dispute whether his MSS. were to pass to his heir-at-law or
to his personal representatives, and the court ordered the MSS.
(Reports) to be printed. This was done very incorrectly, and Lord Kenyon
seems to have hinted that private reasons have been assigned for that,
but these could hardly have related to the Monmouth MSS.

SCOTUS.

* * * * *

PARNELL.

The following verses by Parnell are not included in any edition of his
poems that I have seen. {428} They are printed in Steele's _Miscellany_
(12mo. 1714), p. 63., and in the second edition of the same _Miscellany_
(12mo. 1727), p. 51., with Parnell's name, and, what is more, on both
occasions among other poems by the same author.

TO A YOUNG LADY

_On her Translation of the Story of Phoebus and Daphne, from Ovid._

In Phoebus, Wit (as Ovid said)
Enchanting Beauty woo'd;
In Daphne beauty coily fled,
While vainly Wit pursu'd.

But when you trace what Ovid writ,
A diff'rent turn we view;
Beauty no longer flies from Wit,
Since both are join'd in you.