345. _Bacon a Poet._--In Boswell's Journal of his _Tour to the Hebrides_ he quotes the subjoined couplet, premising, "As Bacon says--
"Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns the water, or but writes in dust."
Is not _Bacon_ here a slip of the pen or press? Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Bacon, and Bacon the sculptor, are the only conspicuous men of the name, and none of them that I know wrote verses.
346. _Tregonwell Frampton._--Where can I obtain any particulars of the life of Tregonwell Frampton, Esq., commonly called the "Father of the Turf," who died at an advanced age about 1727-8. Reference is made to him in the _Rambler_.
347. _Weever and Fuller--their Autographs wanted._--Can any of your readers direct the etcher of a portrait of Weever, where to find his autograph, from which to make a copy to illustrate it? It is not to be found in the British Museum. The extreme paucity of information respecting this worthy is somewhat strange, considering the value of his contributions to literature. In our leading biographies and cyclopædias his name does not occur. By-the-bye, where was he buried, and what inscription is there on his "funeral monument?"
An etched portrait is about to be published in the next part of the _Antiquarian Etching Club_, of Fuller, the author of _Worthies_, _Church History_, &c., without a copy of his signature for the same reason, unless one should be discovered.
It has been suggested that search made in the library of Queen's College, Cambridge, might prove successful in both cases, from the fact of their having both belonged to that college. Perhaps some member of the university would kindly undertake the inquiry.
348. _Is the Badger Amphibious?_--Turner (_Sacred History of the World_, Letter XV. vol. i. p. 428. 4th edit. 1833) says:
"The beaver, otter, and _badger_ are _amphibious_ creatures, but not oviparous."
Surely this is a mistake, and worthy of a Note? I cannot find the badger mentioned as an _amphibious_ animal in any modern zoology. I certainly have not by me Kerr's _Linnæus_ to refer to, as a verification of Sharon Turner's note on this passage.
_Royal Registers._--I have nine volumes of a work published by Bew, Paternoster Row, and which appeared from 1778 to 1784, pretending to give sketches of the characters of public men by his Majesty. Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the writer, and what number of volumes were published?