CONTENTS No, 249.. NOTES:-Robert de Meulan and Waleran of Meulan, 43-Samuel Richardson and his Family Circle, 44–Dalton of Leatherhead, 47-The Milton Ovid Script, 49-Letter of John Newton of Olney, 1781-Chinese Witnesses, 50 Court Leet, 51. QUERIES:-Graffiti of Ships in Old ChurchesDr. Johnson: verses on "S. S."-The Third Form in Public Schools-Mrs. Orger-Fool's or Dunce's Cap-Suburbs of the City of London The North Sea, 52-Archbishop Howley: "I sit on а rock"-Panton Betew-Gilbert White's 'Selborne '-The Atlas Newspaper-James Johnson-Adgate Family-Renton of LamertonOwen Jones's Lithographic Press, 53. REPLIES:-Execution of a Nonconformist Minis

ter,

53- Thomas Bowsfield - Robert Lowth's

of

Hampshire Parish-The Peak, Derbyshire, 55 "Cole" and "Cold " Place-Names-Death General Talmash-Mrs. Beeton, 56-Paper Marks -Dickens' 'Old Clothes Shop': Boys' Dress Lord Balvaird-Congreves-Suckling Family-Sir Alan le Buxhull, 57-Letters of George Ham mond-Nursery Rhyme: Origin Wanted-Julian Hibbert-Folk-lore: Cauls-The Monkey Tree

"" Hunger in Place-Names, 58-Web FamilyW. H. Harvey, Botanist-Authors WantedReference Wanted.

NOTES ON BOOKS:- The Gold-headed Cane 'Eight Chapters in English Medieval Art.' Notices to Correspondents.

Notes.

AND

ROBERT DE NEUBOURG WALERAN, COUNT OF MEULAN. In his account of the Norman rebellion of 1118, Orderic states that the king attacked and burnt Neubourg, Robert de Neubourg having rebelled; for Robert was engaged in legal proceedings against his cousin Waleran, Count of Meulan, the son of his paternal uncle Count Robert, but owing to the protection of his cousin by the king, he was unable to pursue his plea as he wished: Contra Rodbertum, qui rebellaverat, Novum Burgum expetiit, impugnavit penitusque concremavit. Praefatus enim Rodbertus Henrici comitis et Margaritae filius erat, et contra Gualerannum, comitem de Mellento, filium Rodberti comitis, patrui scilicet sui, calumnias faciebat. Sed virtute regia consobrinum suum protegente, concionari ad voluntatem suam non poterat. Illectus ergo a publicis hostibus contra regem insurrexit; sed multis opibus depopulatione seu combustione amissis nihil recuperavit.-Ord. Vit. (ed. Le Prévost) iv. pp. 327-8.

Robert de Neubourg's uncle and namesake, the great Count of Meulan, was of course the son, not of a Count Robert,' but of Roger de Beaumont, who was not a count; and he had died on June 5, 1118 (Ord. Vit., iv. p. 313).

་

is

Robert de Neubourg succeeded to his father's Norman barony, whilst the Earldom of Warwick and the English estates passed to his elder brother Roger ('Guil. de Jum.,' ed. Marx, p. 333). As Robert is found in posession of Neubourg when he rebelled, the presumption is that his father was dead; and this raises the question of the date of the Earl's death. This usually given as June 20, 1123 (Dugdale, Baronage;' Doyle, Official Baronage;" G.E.C. Complete Peerage;' and 'D.N.B.'); but Dr. Round pointed out long ago that his eldest son, Roger, attests as Earl of Warwick a charter which was almost certainly issued at Easter 1123, and that therefore Earl Henry was dead at that date (Feudal Mr. Farrer assigns England,' pp. 483-5). his death to June 20, 1119, citing the 'Annals of Winchester for the year and Dugdale's Baronage' for the day and month (op cit., p. 85); although it seems rather inconsistent to retain this part of Dugdale's date if we reject his year.. If 1119 is correct, Robert must have obtained Neubourg before his father's death; but the suggests passage which we are discussing the possibility that the Earl died not later that the summer of 1118.

We first hear of her on 20 Aug., 1750, when she would be just thirteen. You are very good in enquiring after my little girl," her father writes to Miss Sutton. She is much as she was "" ('Richardson's Correspondence,' Vol. iv. p. 123). And on 24 Mar., 1751, he writes most dismally to Lady Bradshaigh:

Poor Nancy is in a poor way, still. We are apprehensive of the worst. We indulge her in all her wishes, and even humours, as a valetudinarian. She is excessively fond of North End (ibid vi., 88).

She was a great favourite with Philip Skelton, the Irish divine, who is informed by Richardson on 25 Mar. 1751, that my wife, my girls, particularly my Nancy, desire their kindest and gratefullest respects to you (ibid. v., 206). Skelton responds on 10 May, with his respects, "particularly to my dear little Nancy" (ibid. v., 211); and gets further news of his young friend on 19 Feb., 1752:

My poor girl remains much as she was by my last. She desires her most thankful compliments to you for your ever paternal kindness to her, in your affectionate remembrances and prayers for her (ibid., v. 212).

Miss Sutton enquires after the family on 26 Oct., 1751, and hopes them all well, particularly the sweet Miss Nancy, my first acquaintance of them " (ibid., iv, 132), and a week or two later gets news of her :Nancy made a voluntary curtsey, as if were present, when I mentioned your kind remembrance of her; she says she loves you dearly. She is much as she was when you saw her last (ibid., iv., 135).

you

On 24 July, 1752, Miss Sutton is told of poor Nancy's increasing disorders, (who is now at Southampton, fruitlessly!) (ibid., iv, 137). We hear no more of her till 31 May, 1755 when Mrs. Dewes writes to Richardson:

I can know the just and ingenious sentiments of the young recluse, without offending her too great modesty and reserve. I own I wish to be better, acquainted with Miss Nancy, for never did eyes discover more sensibility and sweetness than her's do (ibid., iv., 97).

A few days later, on 4 June, Richardson acknowledges Mrs. Dewes' interest in his daughter :

You do my Nancy great honour, in wishing to have been better acquainted with her; she is, indeed, a good girl, and I hope not entirely unworthy of the distinction wherewith you and Dr. Delany favoured her: he had the goodness to be pleased with her. She has more ear than tongue, I wish she would be a little less reserved, when she finds herself

Towards the close of 1755, on 29 Nov., she is still to Mrs. Dewes "the sweetly modest, and engaging Miss Nancy (ibid., iv., 107-8). Next year, when Nancy was nineteen, there appears on the scene a lady who stood to play an important part in her life. An undated letter of the novelist's Susannah Highmore, written from Parsons Green, quotes a letter from my adopted sister, my dear Mrs. Watts," dated 22 July at Bath, "in her way to Wycombe" and proceeds: -

to

I believe, if Mr. Watts and the dear ladyoh, how I love her! will submit to some few her. What a happy girl will Nancy_be! (The conditions, we shall part with our Nancy to Gentleman's Magazine, 1816, part I., p. 507).

He speaks of Mrs. Watts having resided with him for a few days, and rhapsodizes over their sweet conversations " (ibid., loc. cit., p. 508). On 30 Aug., 1756, he writes to Miss Mulso:

.

:

Most heartily do I regret that you saw not Mrs. Wattes: I give her the first place among the women I have the honour to be acquainted with. I rejoice that I lost not one hour allowed to enjoy of it. My wife is in love of her company in the four or five days I was with her. Now, said she, that I have seen Mrs. Wattes I can part with my Nancy to her!

Nancy is accordingly gone from us. Her only concern was her mamma's illness when she set out (Richardson's Correspondence,' iii., 231).

We have already seen how Mrs. Delany, on 27 Sept., 1756, found all the Richardsons "at home except Nanny, who has been at Bath with her uncle Leake, and is now in Wiltshire with a friend" (v. 12 S. xi. 225)-the friend, no doubt, being Mrs. Watts, who, however, lived in Somersetshire. In a letter to Mrs. Dewes, on 15 Dec., 1756, Richardson carries the tale a little further:

Our Nancy, of whose health you so kindly enquire, has been for some months with a most excellent lady, and I think one of the most perfect women, as a Christian, an economist, a wife, mother, mistress, friend, and neighbour, that I know or have heard of, a Mrs. Watts, of Westhamber, in Somersetshire, who is very fond of the good girl; she will winter with her; and I bless God, she is better in health than she has been for some years

past: we are delighted with the advantages she will most probably reap from such an exemplary lady (ibid., iv., 113).

year.

But this pleasant arrangement was tragically terminated early in the next Writing to Mrs. Sheridan, on 11 May, 1757, Richardson adds to deaths of friends that of

several recent

excellent Mrs. Watts, at her house in Somersetshire our poor Nancy was with her. What a loss has that good girl had! We were obliged to hurry her back to us (ibid., iv., 157). Mrs. Sheridan was duly sympathetic in her reply of 24 July:

I thank you heartily for the epitaph intended for poor Mrs. Watts; I think it an admirable one, if not rather a little too diffuse for the purpose; but the hand of friendship cannot easily check itself when engaged in the praises of an object warmly and deservedly loved. I condole with Miss Nancy on the loss she had of that truly estimable woman. O, Sir, how very few will she find (if she looks out of her own family) fit to supply her place (ibid., iv., 160).

Soon after her return home, Nancy was sent to stay with Edward Young at Welwyn, where she was voted such a very agreeable and sensible companion "that her host, who said she was as welcome to me as if she was my own," sought to have her stay prolonged :

Besides, dear Sir, consider, either Miss Richardson flatters us, or her health is rather bettered by this air, which is good, and I persuade her to take it on horseback as often as it is agreeable to her (ibid., ii.,38).

That was on 21 July, and on 2 Aug., 1757, Richardson writes to Miss Mulso:

Poor Nancy! She does love you; she is still with Dr. Young: he is kindly fond of her. A seasonable fondness, after what she suffered in the losing of the truly excellent Mrs. Wattes; and, let me say, from the apprehended indifference (lovers you know are always appre hensive) of the worthy object of her love. Poor thing! she knew not that what she attributed to coyness was the effect of prudence in that beloved object; discouraging the aspirations of a young passion, which, at a certain age, intoxicates all the sweet romancers. The old leaven, Miss Mulso (ibid. iii., 238).

At the end of the year we find Mrs.. Sheridan asking how does this (to me). uncommonly severe weather agree with you and with my good Miss Richardson? I consider you two as the only invalids of the family" (ibid., iv., 166).

It was, be it noted, just about this time, in his will to his "Dear Daughter on 13 Nov., 1757, that Richardson alluded "Anne “not having high Health and Spirits from Delicacy of Frame and Constitution," and recommended her to her mother's financial favour on that account (v. 12 S. xi. 343). When Richardson had his fatal seizure in June, 1761, "Miss Nancy was the only daughter in the house (The Gentleman's Magazine, 1816, part I., p. 578).

to.

After her father's death she naturally lived on with her mother at Parsons Green, and after her sister Sarah's marriage Richard Crowther, in May, 1763, she was the only daughter left at home. A little later than this, one at least of her friends was deceived into thinking she had followed her sister's example, for Miss Talbot thus wrote to Elizabeth Carter on 1 Nov., 1763. (Letters between Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and Miss Catherine Talbot,' ed. Montagu Pennington, Vol. iii., p. 76):

,

How comes Nancy Richardson to be married' at last, and Mr. Rivington never to tell me a word about But I foretold it last spring,. she looked so spruce, and so fair, and so smiling.

But it was not so, and Miss Talbot disabused her correspondent's mind on the 28th of the same month (ibid., iii, 81):

Nancy Richardson is not married nor likely to some other Miss Richardson. to be. The paragraph in the news belonged.

Mrs. Richardson's consideration for her unmarried daughter took the common form of leaving her the household goods and furniture in addition to her fourth share of the residuary estate (v. 12 S. xi. 427). How

soon Anne closed down at Parsons Green after her mother's death in 1773, we do not know, but the will of her brother-in-law Philip Ditcher will in due course inform us that in 1778 she was of "Stratford, near Colchester," which was to be her home until her own death twenty-five years later. What took her to a district with which, so far as we know, she had not the slightest family association, remains a puzzle. It is curious, however, if a mere coincidence, that her first cousin, James Leake, the Bath bookseller, retired to the little Suffolk village of Ded

90

Ham, only a mile from Stratford St. Mary, some time after 1783*.

When Edward Bridgen made his will in 1787 he also described Anne Richardson as of Stratford (see ante, p. 6). We have no further record of her existence until she, too, came to make her last testament.

ALEYN LYELL READE.

Treleaven House, Blundellsands,
Nr. Liverpool.

(To be continued).

DALTON OF LEATHERHEAD, 1616-1821.

(See ante pp. 1, 23).

Richard Dalton (the Fourth) was probably born in London, but we have no information as to the date or place of baptism. He was twice married; first, at St. Albans, on May 13, 1724, to Mary, daughter of George Wright and grand-daughter of Sir Nathan Wright, Kt., Keeper of the Great Seal (1700-1705); secondly, to Alicia, whose parentage is unknown.

By his first wife he had five children :1. William Dalton, of the Inner Temple, who was killed by Horatio Paul in a duel on May 24, 1751, at the age of 25 years. He was buried at Leatherhead. Administration | granted Oct. 7, 1751, to his father Richard Dalton. Further administration of goods left unadministered, granted Sept. 13, 1825, to Thomas Robert Malthus, Clerk.

2. Thomas, d. May, 1751, aged 16. 3. Charles, d. Jan. 4, 1755, aged 17. 4. Sophia, m. Edward Probyn, Esq. 5. Elizabeth, m. John Wyndham, Esq. The death of the three sons is recorded on a white marble mural tablet on the wall of the South aisle in Leatherhead Church.

To the memory of William Dalton of the Inner Temple Esq, Grandson to Richard Dalton Esq. buried in the Chancel and son to Richard Dalton now living | to lament his loss. Deprived of Life in the Vigour of

* See 12 S. xi. 263. 1783 was the year in which James Leake was Mayor of Bath (Collinson's Somerset,' vol. i., Bath,' p. 27). But he was an alderman of Bath 1790-1' (ibid., p. 27), so perhaps he did not settle at Dedham till just before his death in August, 1791.

The only information we have of Richard Dalton's private life is contained in 'N. & Q. 10 S. iii. 221 (1905), where correspondent states that Christopher Smart, the poet, on his recovery from madness, was visited by Hawkesworth. Smart was then about "to dine with Mr. Richard Dalton, who had an appointment in the King's Library." The date of this would appear to be about 1763. In his will he is described as of Ryegate in the County of Surrey, but he possessed considerable property Lincolnshire. He mentions freehold lands in Northorpe and Althorpe, freehold manors, lands and hereditaments in Walesby, Normanby, Binbrook and Otby, the Manor of Knaith and "lands and hereditaments lately bought by him from the representatives of the late Earl of Abingdon." He was buried at Leatherhead, July 6, 1772, as directed in his will, "but not within the walls of the Church." The Register describes him as "of the Parish of Sunninghill, Co. Berks." His will is dated Apr. 28, 1767, with three codicils dated respectively Feb. 1, 1770, Dec. 29, 1770, and July 23, 1771. He left his estates to his son Henry and desired that he should also purchase "that small estate at Shelton left to my wife by her late brother which she is desirous he should have. "" To his son "except also all his pictures and books such English and Italian my

works as

These are described in the Register as daughters of Richard Dalton and Jane his wife, but in Richard Dalton's will they are stated to be children " by my present wife," i.e., Alicia Dalton, who survived him.