Notes on Books.

A History of the Royal Society of Arts. By Sir Henry Trueman Wood. (John Murray, 158. net.) LORD SANDERSON, who writes the Preface, states: "It is perhaps at first sight rather remarkable that the Royal Society of Arts should have been approaching the 160th year of its existence before any attempt was made to write its history." But, he truly says, this fact indicates the youth of the institution: it has been too busy over its current work to indulge in reflections on the past.

The Society is happy in having such an historian as Sir Henry Trueman Wood, who, to our own knowledge, has loved the Society from his youth, has edited its Journal for forty years, and has been its Secretary since 1879.

The originator of the Society was a drawingmaster, William Shipley, who enlisted the sympathies of Lord Folkestone and Lord Romney, and the meeting at which it was formed was held at Rauthmell's Coffee House, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, on the 22nd of March, 1754. In January of the following year the first prizes were given at a meeting held at Peele's CoffeeHouse; these were for drawings, and Cosway took the first prize.

"The one idea of the founders was to encourage arts and industry by the offer of prizes. It appeared possible to them that a committee of gentlemen, sitting in London, would be able to ascertain what the pressing needs of the public were, to foresee the course which industrial development could most easily take, to select those inventions which could most usefully be encouraged, and generally to direct, by the judicious apportionment of medals and money prizes, the development of industry and the progress of art.'

In 1760 the Society established itself in a house opposite Beaufort Buildings in the Strand. Ten years later, the accommodation not being sufficient, advertisements for another were inserted in the daily papers, and the result was that the brothers Adam, who were then constructing the Adelphi, offered to include in their scheme a suitable house for the Society, which they agreed to build for a premium of 1,7001. and a rental of 2001. The Society entered into possession in 1774; the lease was for 91 years from Midsummer, 1775, ending at Christmas, 1866, when it was renewed.

The first use of gas by the Society was about 1815, when a gas light was placed over the entrance, but the gas of that period was not considered sufficiently pure to be introduced into the house. In 1847 some parts of the building were provided with it, but it was not until 1853 that the chandeliers in the large room were adapted for burning gas. In 1882 the electric light was installed, the installation being one of the earliest in London.

In the large room are portraits of the first two Presidents, Lord Folkestone by Gainsborough, and Lord Romney by Reynolds. In 1777 Barry undertook to paint the series of pictures which now adorn the room. He was impressed with the degraded condition of English art, and believed that the production of some great work of his torical painting would refute the assertions of foreign critics, who declared English painters to

be incapable of any permanent work. His six pictures are intended to illustrate the maxim that the obtaining of happiness depends on cultivating the human faculties. One shows the distribution of rewards by the Society. In this portraits of Lord Romney, the Prince of Wales (George IV.), Mrs. Montagu, Dr. Johnson, Burke, Shipley, and many others are included. Four of the pictures are 15 ft. 2 in. long; the other two are 42 ft. long. The height of all is the same-11 ft. 10 in. They are still in the frames designed by Barry. Barry died on the 22nd of February, 1806, and his body lay in the great room for a day before it was carried to St. Paul's to rest beside that of Reynolds.

The Society is fortunate in possessing the original autograph list of members. These afford remarkable evidence of its popularity. A large proportion of the peerage supported it, and men of distinction in every class of life subscribed. "As Dryden, Waller, Evelyn, and the literary coterie of the Restoration period largely supported the Royal Society, so the circle that surrounded Dr. Johnson took a lively interest in the success of the Society of Arts." Sir Trueman Wood gives a list of selected names. From the first ladies have been eligible for membership.

From its inception the Society had its eye on the Colonies, and it was in America before the Declaration of Independence, during the first twenty years of the Society's existence, that the most important of its Colonial work was done. In April, 1755, Lord Romney informed the members that 300 lb. of raw silk had lately been brought to England from Georgia, equal in quality to the best Piedmont, and he suggested that the Society should offer a prize for planting mulberry trees. These premiums were continued until 1763, by which time over 1,1007. had been expended. Franklin acted as one of the referees. Efforts were also made to start wine-making in some of the Colonies.

The increasing demand for alkali for use in glass-making, soap-making, and dyeing induced the Society to offer a gold medal for the production of "Fixt Alkaline Salts from common salt. The efforts of the Society to establish the manufacture of potash in North America were so successful that in 1766 Robert Dossie, the editor of the first series of the Society's Transactions, received the gold medal for his efforts in bringing this about. The Society also expended money in an attempt to organize a supply of pickled sturgeon from America, the premium being first offered in 1760.

In addition, medals and premiums were offered by the Society for introducing the mango into the West Indies, and cinnamon trees, as well as the revival of the culture of indigo, in Jamaica. Useful service was further rendered by the

transmission of seeds.

India was not forgotten, and a gold medal was offered for the most authentic account of the culture of the tea plant in China, with a view to its introduction into India. The first 'reference to Australia in the Transactions is in 1820, when two gold medals were offered for samples of fine wool.

For fifty years the Society devoted much of its energy to the progress of agriculture, and followed up each section until success was secured. Crops, roots, forage, grass seeds, were all dealt with, as well as implements. The timber supply

also received attention, and it is interesting to know that the author of Vathek' received in 1769 a gold medal for planting 61,800 Scotch firs at Fonthill. Col. Johnes of Hafod, Cardiganshire, between 1795 and 1801, planted 2,065,000 trees; besides these, he devoted 55 acres to the sowing of acorns or to planting with young oaks, receiving six gold medals from the Society.

From 1755 to 1849, 3,000 awards were made for the advancement of the fine arts, and a chapter is devoted to a selection from 450 of the prize-winners. The names show the discernment of the jurors, for among the successful competitors we find Millais, Eastlake, Lawrence, Bewick, Bonomi, Hook, Coventry Patmore, and Romney. Between 1755 and 1851 awards were offered for artists' instruments and materials. In 1764 a premium of thirty guineas was given to Thomas Keyse for a method of fixing crayon drawings; he was a still-life painter of some repute, and the Keeper of Bermondsey Spa.

One of the most popular things the Society ever did was, at Henry Cole's suggestion, to offer a prize for the best shilling box of water-colours. The competition was very keen, and the jurors had hard work in coming to a decision, but on the 14th of January, 1852, J. Rogers of Bunhill Row was declared the successful competitor. By 1870 eleven millions of these boxes had been sold. Another popular act was the offer of a prize for a cheap set of drawing instruments, and this was awarded to J. & H. Cronmire.

Another service rendered by the Society was the establishment of periodical exhibitions of the works of contemporary artists. These were the precursor of the Royal Academy, and the original source from which that great institution was developed.

Of the Society's work in relation to the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862 full details are given. We have noticed only one slight mistake: that is in reference to Wentworth Dilke, who was made a baronet before (not after) the Exhibition of 1862. Queen Victoria conferred this honour in December, 1861, not many days after the death of the Prince Consort, to show the friendship which the Prince had felt for him. It was not officially announced, however, until the 22nd of January, 1862.

Sir Trueman Wood brings the history up to the date of his becoming Secretary in 1879. The volume is beautifully illustrated, and there is an excellent Index. No public library should

be without it.

Fifteenth-Century Books: a Guide to their Identification. By R. A. Peddie. (Grafton & Co., 58. net.)

MR. PEDDIE'S name is already familiar to

readers of N. & Q.' as that of one who has done much good bibliographical work. Besides smaller books, he has published two volumes of a great undertaking, a 'Conspectus Incunabulorum,' covering A to G of an index by authors of all known fifteenth-century books. The present is a much less ambitious attempt, but not the less useful on that account.

Mr. Peddie states that about thirty thousand works printed by the close of the year 1500 have been identified and registered. Of these Hain included over 16,000 in his Repertorium' Copinger added nearly 7,000 in his Supplement'; and Reichling contributed about 2,000 more.

6

Fresh finds are constantly being made, and Mr. Peddie tells the beginner where he may obtain the information to aid him in his task of identification. Works covering the whole subject are first described, then those relating to particular countries, followed by others devoted to special classes of books. Mr. Peddie then shows how many facilities are afforded by facsimiles for identifying the types used by various printers. Nothing has been forgotten. There are sections on woodcuts, initials, printers' devices, colophons, title-pages, signatures, and watermarks.

In addition, there are three Appendixes, perhaps the most valuable being that giving alphabetically the Latin names of towns where books were produced in the early days of the art, with their vernacular equivalents. Without a key of this kind, how is the budding bibliographer to know that "Cæsaraugusta" represents Zaragoza, or that Klein Troya stands for Kirchheim ? It is to be regretted that there are sundry misprints that will detract from the reputation of English bibliography. On one page (84) occur "dr" for du, Elude bibliographique," and premier unprimeur 'belge." On p. 29, 66 Elrass appears for Elsass; on p. 31, "zweiten (letzten) Duttel," for Drittel; and on p. 32, 66 Jahrhundundens." We hope that a second edition may soon enable such blemishes on a piece of good work to be removed.

le

Records of the Smythies Family. Compiled by Major R. H. Raymond Smythies. (Mitchell Hughes & Clarke,)

THIS is a nicely turned-out volume of a little over one hundred pages, with forty illustrations. The author, who produced some time ago a good volume of records of the 40th Regiment, has for more than thirty years collected information relative to his name and family, and has now taken the laudable step of enshrining the results in print, without waiting for that completeness in all details which is so rarely, if ever, attained. He deems it necessary, however, to meet the objector, who is supposed to lie in wait for those who produce family histories, in his Foreword, making amongst other sound observations the one that "few would venture to assert that good family traditions have not helped to keep many a man straight on the road of life."

The pedigree commences with "Will'us Smythes de Wryngton in Com. Som'set de familia eodem no'ie in Com. Lancaster." In the line connecting him with the present family there is a weak or missing link in the early seventeenth century. The form of a chart pedigree is used, which is here not so difficult to follow clearly as it often is when the lines are run from page to page, as the family was not very widely spread.

The later Smythies, those following the "missing link," were located chiefly in East Anglia, and the majority of them were in Holy Orders-in fact, they afford an example of a family of hereditary clergy. In our own time one of them was the late eminent Bishop of Zanzibar.

Following the pedigree proper are a number of useful and interesting genealogical notes and extracts from wills, deeds, and other records-also several female ascents, &c., giving pedigrees of Mangles, Raymond, Travers, and Gordon, and a table of the Royal descents of the Smythies from Edward III. through the Mortimers and Percies

The supplementary data will be found useful and suggestive by other investigators, and the Index is a good one.

The author is certainly to be congratulated on the illustrations. In addition to some really beautiful old portraits, he has introduced several from nineteenth-century photographs. These, though of family interest, are usually a blot upon a book from the artistic point of view; but here the treatment of the reproductions is so soft as to render them remarkably satisfactory.

Holborn and London Citizens. Edited by J. C.

Whitebrook. (A. W. Cannon & Co.) KNOWING how difficult it is to trace eighteenthcentury pedigrees, the editor has put forth this booklet in the hope that he has afforded a number of clues to future searchers, and contributed somewhat to the neglected history of London boroughs and schools. It is a record of the entries and apprenticeships of pupils, and of the names of the managers and masters, of St. Andrew's School, Holborn, and of the Navigation School of Mr. Joseph Neale, and gives Trades, Streets, and Places from 1725 to 1736. Mr. Whitebrook has the good practice of enlisting sympathy from others in his work: the indexes of names, places, and trades, and notes upon the Navigation School, are due to his wife, while the boys and girls of St. Andrew's School have helped in arranging and classifying.

MR. CECIL CLARKE writes: "In continuation of my remarks at 11. S. viii. 446, it may be of interest to mention that I have recently been privileged to inspect a rough plan of the proposed scheme of changes to be effected in the large area now cleared from portions of Upper Brook, Park, and Green Streets, Park Lane. When completed these alterations should certainly form a great, if not unique, attraction to this fashionable locality; for a large part of the space available is being laid out by the Duke of Westminster as gardens, to be surrounded by the many fine mansions in course of building. These grounds are to be of the Old-English style as adopted in Kensington Gardens. I have heard, also, they are to be for the public use. If so, it would be a very generous act on the part of his Grace, and one likely to be highly appreciated."

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.-FEBRUARY. MR. P. M. BARNARD of Tunbridge Wells sends his Catalogue 84 of tracts, broadsides, ballads, &c. (709 items), arranged chronologically and covering the years 1557-1888. It includes a large number of tracts on the Civil War, trade (Mun's Discourse of Trade,' 1621, 8/. 15s.), America, and other matters; Crashaw's Fatall Vesper,' 1623, 31. 158.; Goad's 'Dolefull Even-Song.' 1623, 31. 58.; tracts on the Cavaliers and Roundheads, the Popish Plot, the Standing Army controversy, 1698, and Smugglers and Robbers; a copy of Owen's Weekly Chronicle for 13-20 Oct., 1759, with an account of the capture of Quebec and the death of Wolfe; chapbooks, &c. A number of broadsides and ballads of various dates cover a variety of subjects. Many of the tracts are offered at a low price.

WE have received from Mr. B. T. Batsford a very interesting and well-illustrated catalogue of rints of views in Rome and Pæstum by Piranesi,

which is preceded by an Introduction on the engraver's life and work. It is not definitely mentioned what is the state of the prints offered, though the writer of the Introduction very properly points out the worthlessness of many of the prints, from outworn plates, with which the market has been glutted. The list, which runs to 119 items, may be taken to include the best known and finest of Piranesi's engravings.

MESSRS. MAGGS's Catalogue 319 contains no fewer than 1,879 items, and of these-first editions, "Association" books, books with coloured plates, and works on sports and pastimes-a large propor tion are of first-rate value. Most of the great names of the nineteenth century are represented among them. The pages devoted to Thackeray are specially interesting. They describe a collection of original drawings for The Book of Snobs-being the jotting down of his preliminary ideas, which in their published form had been modified by Punch2107.; and the following from Lady Ritchie's collection: a series of ten drawings in water-colour, pen, ink, and pencil-miscellaneous subjects-1107. a pencil drawing of Miss Raby, Dr. Birch's Niece,' 201.; eight of the drawings for Mrs. Perkins' Ball' (pen and ink and pencil), 2107.; six water-colour drawings for the Paris Sketchbook,' 210.; and ten drawings, in water-colour, pen-and-ink, and pencil, for Punch, 185. These are all in sunk mounts and bound in morocco by Riviere. The Browning items, again, are very attractive, and they include Browning's own copy of Bells and Pomegranates '-eight numbers, first editions, in one volume, 1841-with a note in his hand explaining the occasion of certain alterations made in MS. in this copy of Colombe's Birthday,' 105. There are corrections of the authors', too, in the copy of "Men and Women" presented to his wife-"Good Friday, 1856, Paris"-651. Messrs. Maggs have also Mrs. Browning's Greek Bible, 1828, 251., and the Comte de Ripert Monclar's drawing of Browning, 1837, 151. 158. Under Scott there are some twenty-four items, of which the most important is a complete set of first editions of the Waverley Novels, 1814-32, 550. Under Shelley there is a good first edition of St. Irvyne, or the Rosicrucian' (527. 108.), and a first edition of 'Hellas' (51. 58.); but the best item is an uncut copy of the first edition of Queen Mab,' bearing title-page, dedication to "Harriet," and printer's imprint, 1607. The 'Sports and Pastimes' section comprises a good representative series of works, from among which we may mention an uncut set of The Annals of Sporting and Fancy Gazette, 1822-28, 1107.; and John Bol's Venationis, Piscationis, et Avicupii Typi,' 1582, 427.

[Notices of other Catalogues held over.]

Notices to Correspondents.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

EDITORIAL Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries'"-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publishers" at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1914.

CONTENTS.-No. 217.

NOTES:-Lady Capulet, 141-Bishop Maurice of Ossory and Hudson, the Portrait Painter, 142-Wilkes and the Essay on Woman, 143-Wood-Paving Seventy Years Ago-Peter the Wild Boy-"Over end"-Straight up Freeman: Day: Parry: Pyke, 146-Quotations in Abra

ham Fraunce's 'Victoria'-"Costrel" - Roads round London Seventy Years Ago-Milton and Fairfax, 147.

QUERIES:-"To_pill"-Motto to a Sonnet of Words

worth's-First Barmaid- Henry James ChippindallBarbers and Yellow, 148"Mothering Sunday" Medieval Bell-"Sydney Carton" at Old Shrewsbury School-Biographical Information Wanted-Colonels of the 24th Regiment, 149-Canopic Vase-Shuddering and Burial-David Burges-Red Bull Theatre-W. Langham, H. 1716-Harvard College: Portraits Wanted-Milton Queries-W. Cartwright, Nonjuror, 150-"C'est progrès en spirale"-Domestic Iron and Other Metal WorkForms of "James"- Charles I. -"Startups End," Tring, 151.

REPLIES:-Fire-Walking, 151-The Wild Huntsman, 152De Glamorgan, 153-W. R. Hicks and R. S. Donnall's Trial-Dr. W. Quartermain, 154 Memoirs of Sir John Langham Bishop Edward Wetenhall – King John's Grave, 155-Author of Play Wanted-Curious PlaceNames-Swinburne as Polyglot Author, 156-Groom of the Stole-T. & G. Seddon-Fee Farm Rents-Roads round London: Rhubarb-Will-o'-the-wisp-Human Fat as a Medicine, 157-The Great Eastern-Authors Wanted -Tarring-" Marriage" as Surname-"Trod," "Trode" -Upright Stones in Churchyards, 158.

compatible with twenty-eight under English conditions. She must have married a man of another generation than her own, for, by the aid of the memory of a kinsman (I. v.), he elicits the fact that it was thirty years since he had worn a mask, and his wife brutally recommends him to take a crutch when in a moment of excitement he clamours for his sword. I conjecture that he may have reached the decrepitude of between fifty and sixty. We must not forget that he too had ripened under a Southern sun, and that there was a time, even in our own country, when half a century of life was wont to make The picture of age given by a man senile. Richard Rolle of Hampole in 'The Pricke of Conscience' is enough to make one shudder in one's shoes, and it is introduced by the assertion :

Fone man may now fourty yhere pas And foner fifty als in somtym was. Lady Capulet's nurse, if a little older than She must she, would not be very far ahead. have slighted her own babe to devote herself to Juliet, and perhaps we need not be surprised that Susan was "with God." She was a coarse-minded woman, as many valued servants have been, and are-beneath the veneering of the Council school.

Chertsey Abbey''The Antiquary.'

Notices to Correspondents.

Notes.

LADY CAPULET.

Romance Tiles of

WHEN people bid their imagination call up Lady Capulet, I wonder what is the vision that is generally evoked. I am apt to see a tall, upright woman of middle age, with an air of command, and a hard, clever face. Some of these attributes the original may have had, but it is important to remember that she was in all probability not more than from eight-and-twenty to thirty years old, for she tells her daughter, not yet fourteen, that it was at much the same age that she gave birth to her. Not far away, in Milan, Francis, the duke who died in fifteen hundred and something, left behind him, in Christina of Sweden, a widow who was but thirteen. The more rapid maturity induced by a Southern clime would in Lady Capulet's case no doubt detract from the juvenility

The

unimportant woman"; whereas in that of "An Actress," who, in reckless English and with keen perception, has put forth True Ophelia and Other Studies of Shakespeare's Women,' the dramatist has intentionally made Lady Capulet the strongest character in the play. The significance of the part, "An Actress " considers, has been strangely overlooked :

"Inquiry amongst ladies of the dramatic profession itself fails to elicit any memory of a fine Lady Capulet. It is, on the contrary, a part that no successful actress would dream of playing in its present form, and it is usually allotted to inexperience. To such insignificance has the character been reduced that her first big scene is cut out, or, on the rare occasions when it is played, her lines are given to her husband to speak."

I feel that "An Actress is quite right as to the importance of Lady Capulet in the drama; she is, I should say, cardinal-the Her rancour against plot hinges on her. the Montagues seems to be more malignant than that of Capulet himself, who, when told of Romeo's presence among his guests, sweetly observes :

66

And so forth. Perhaps Lady Capulet may have looked upon it as being her duty to keep up the family quarrel now that her lord showed the tolerance which is apt to come with years; and perhaps, as An Actress " suggests, her bitterness was intensified by the fact that the rival house had its heir in Romeo, while their own direct descent must merge in Juliet. It is she alone who clamours for Romeo's death for killing one who had slain Mercutio, and we find her planning to have poison administered to the young object of her hate,

That he shall soon keep Tybalt company. As a mother Lady Capulet was ambitious and unscrupulous; she was stern and unsympathetic; quite other than the "Mummy of the present day, who lovingly submits to the guidance of her child, and is easily got over." But surely for a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century parent Lady Capulet was not exceptionally hard; she was only like the rest. Let us remind ourselves of what little Lady Jane Grey, well-nigh Juliet's contemporary, revealed to Roger Ascham when he found her reading Greek, instead of hunting with her people in Bradgate Park, and asked her the reason of her preference.

"I will tell you, quoth she, and tell you a troth which perchance ye will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me is that He sent me to sharpe and severe Parentes and so gentle a scholemaster. For when I am in presence of either father or mother, whether I speake, kepe silence, sit, stand, cr go, eate, drinke, be merie, or sad, be sowyng, playing, dauncing or doing anie thing els, I must do it as it were, in such weight, mesure and number, even so perfitlie, as God made the world, or else I am so sharplie taunted, so cruellie threatened, yea presentlie some tymes, with pinches, nippes and bobbes and other waies which I will not name, for the honor I beare them, so without mesure misordered, that I think my selfe in hell till tyme cum that I must go to M. Elmer, who teacheth me so gentlie, with soch faire allurementes to learning, that I thinke all the tyme nothing, whiles I am with him. And when I am called from him I fall on weeping because whatsoever I do els but learning is ful of grief, trouble, feare and whole misliking unto me.'

more

Poor little Jane! and she was great-niece of that mighty monarch Henry VIII.! I do not think her mother was kinder or approachable than Lady Capulet herself, and the two fathers were not out of keeping. I am convinced that the epithets which Juliet's hurled at her were familiar to her from his mouth as household words, and not the unparalleled result of a moment of extraordinary excitement.

It is hardly necessary to say that there was nothing exceptionally arbitrary in the

66

66

mode in which a marriage was arranged between Juliet and the County Paris. Lady Jane Grey again, for instance, was given, against her will, to Lord Guildford Dudley before she had turned sixteen. For ages and ages, as Mr. Gairdner says of the fourteenth century in one of his introductions to 'The Paston Letters' (iii. lxiv.), marriage was quite understood to be a thing which depended entirely upon arrangements made by parents." So it must be admitted that the Capulets merely observed the rigour of the game " when they played Juliet to take County Paris. Their conduct was at least as conventionally justifiable as that of their daughter, who contracted herself in a brace of shakes to a youth whom she had barely seen, reminding one of the girl of whom Biondello told: " married in an afternoon, as she went in the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit" ('Shrew,' IV. iv.).

66

ST. SWITHIN.

BISHOP MAURICE OF OSSORY AND HUDSON, THE PORTRAIT PAINTER. I SEND (with permission of the possessor of the original MS., Miss C. C. Ogle, of Budleigh Salterton) a copy of a very interesting letter from Edward Maurice, who was consecrated Bishop of Ossory in 1754, and died in 1756. The letter, which is only signed with the initials E. M., was probably written about 1749-50, but the year-date is partly obliterated, and a strangely wrong endorsement was consequently made about a hundred years ago that it was a letter of the Bishop of Ossory in 1709. A copy of the engraved portrait is in the Hope Collection of portraits at Oxford, and the senior Assistant Keeper, Mr. R. W. Bridgewater, has kindly furnished me with the following description. It is a three-quarters mezzotint (without name), standing, towards the right, but facing to front, wig, coat buttoned, right hand hanging down, left with hat, gloves and cane, the corner of a building to the left, and a hill in distance to the right; under, "Thomas Hudson Pinxt. J. McArdell Fecit." The engraver died in 1765. quotation from Virgil (in the second form as given in the letter) is underneath. Bridgewater adds a reference to J. C. Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits' for identification.

The

Mr.

Bishop Mant gives a notice of Maurice in vol. ii. of his History of the Church in Ireland,' with extracts from his blank-verse translation of Homer, of which the MS. is