and I still anxiously await information as to whether earlier, or even as early, examples exist elsewhere. The first correspondent to reply claimed familiarity with all the churchyards in the Potteries, yet had never seen any earthenware memorial sufficiently large to be described as a tombstone or headstone. Moreover, no correspondent definitely cites early examples of any type. On the other hand, Church, in his work on 'English Earthenware,'" states that earthenware headstones exist in several churchyards in the Potteries (Burslem and Wolstanton being mentioned) bearing inscriptions dated from 1718 to 1767-an odd one being as late as 1828. As Church's 'Handbook 2 was published but a quarter of a century ago (in 1884, to be exact), it is inconceivable that none of them survives to-day. A. STAPLETON. 39, Burford Road, Nottingham. A monument to Edward Wortley Montagu, made of Coade's Lithodipyra, is in the west walk of the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey. A. H. S. 72 "LITERARY GOSSIP " (11 S. i. 208, 333).MR. WALTER SCOTT's contention that this description of newspaper article existed in substance, if not in name, 66 well back into the eighteenth century might, I think easily be made to read "to the beginning of the eighteenth century." Speaking of Cave's founding of The Gentleman's Magazine in 1730-1, the 'D.N.B.' says: "The periodical was to comprise varieties of all kinds......Some of the early numbers were said to be printed by Edward Cave, jun.,' an imaginary nephew, others printed for R. Newton, and, sometimes, he falsely described himself as 'Sylvanus Urban, of Aldermanbury, Gent.' His magazine was a vast improvement upon the gossiping and abusive papers of the time." New York. N. W. HILL. The term "Literary Gossip 22 is surely sufficiently elastic to include "The State of Learning, a page of announcements and personal paragraphs contained in 'The History of the Works of the Learned or an Impartial Account of Books Lately Printed in all Parts of Europe. With a particular relation of the State of Learning in each country. The volume before me contains the twelve monthly parts of 1700, but it was first published January, 1699. Are not the following extracts "literary gossip " ?"The Abbot Fontanini, Library keeper to the Imperial Cardinal, is upon finishing his History of Aquileia,' which will contain a collection of 22 the inscriptions of that city and of the adjacent parts, most of which were never before printed; History of Aquileia and all Friuli, in folio." together with the Profane and Ecclesiastical the Press, and will be published within two "All Mr. Dryden's Plays much corected, are in months in two volumes in folio." If it is not already familiar to them, "Claudius Clear,22 or the contributors who have discussed this matter, are welcome to the sight of this volume. ALECK ABRAHAMS.. There is abundant evidence to support Mr. W. SCOTT's contention that 66 not have been in use until the second half of the Although as a heading Literary Gossip' may nineteenth century, it is clear that the information denoted by that title was common long before the century began." A very striking example can be afforded from a single issue of Mist's Weekly Journal, or Saturday's Post, which, at the time, was under the editorial control of Defoe. On 18 November, 1721, after opening its budget of London news and gossip with the lament, "The Town was never known to be so thin within the Memory of Man; not half of the Members are come up, and we see a Bill upon almost every Door," it gave inter alia the following items of literary intelligence : "Ambrose Philips, Esq., a Westminster Justice, has a new Tragedy upon the Stocks, to be launched this Winter. 'Twas this Gentleman who obliged Andromache, by Laurie, and we are in hopes he the Town with the beautiful Translation of the has chosen another piece by the same author. "Sir Richard Steele proposes to represent a Character upon the Stage this season, that was never seen there yet: This Gentleman has been two Years a dressing, and we wish he may make a good Appearance at last. 66 The celebrated Mr. Pope is preparing a correct Edition of Shakespear's Works; that of the late Mr. Rowe being very faulty. "Our Muscovite Merchants have Advice' that M. Servani, who some years ago had his Education in this City, and made very great Improvement in all polite Literature, is coming over hither with a Commission from his Czarish Majesty." There was also a literary flavour about these accompanying pieces of theatrical gossip : The "We hear that the Theatre in the Hay-Market where lately the French Strolers us'd to perform, will be opened in a little time. for the Diversion Actors, as well as the Plays, they say, will be of the City and Liberty of Westminster. entirely new, and the whole to be under the Management and Direction of that noted Proprietor, Aaron Hill, Esq. "The Company at Drury-Lane have reviv'd four plays this Season, and design to raise up the incomparable Tragedy of Phædra and Hippolytus." ALFRED F. ROBBINS. STRETTELL-UTTERSON (11 S. i. 448, 477).From a list of auction-sale catalogues ranging from 1637 to 1841 it appears that three important book-sales took place in London in 1832. Two of these were conducted by Sotheby & Son, and the third by Evans. The library disposed of by Evans was that of the Rev. Dr. Valpy, a distinguished educationist, and head master for many years of Reading Grammar School. The sale continued, or was advertised to continue, for ten days. Dr. Valpy's library was sold in his lifetime. Having retired from the mastership of Reading School owing to age and infirmity, he went to reside with a son in London, and in consequence of this change got rid of his library. Does this catalogue render any assistance to MR. CLEMENTS ? It does not quite tally with the one he mentions, but comes pretty near it. Dr. Valpy, it should be stated, was a great admirer of Shakespeare. On the other hand, it must be remembered that E. V. Utterson possessed a First Folio ShakeW. SCOTT. speare. ' 2 in 1538 the still larger sum of 31. Os. 10d. These were munificent gifts for ecclesiasticall purposes in those days. They probably indicate that the players and those who hearkened to them were adherents of the ancient faith with no ideas of change, but they could not be in any sense a guild attached to the church. Robin Hood, though a highly popular character, not only in England, but, as we have been informed, in the Lowlands of Scotland also, was by no means a saintly person, and neither he nor his followers were calculated to make a religious impression on their neighbours. The body of young men referred to were probably light-hearted fellows who devoted themselves, when time was not pressing, to the amusement of their fellow-townspeople. Times were, however, rapidly approaching when the entertainment of others became regarded as something in itself unholy, for we find that so early as 1543 Martha Rose and Margaret Martin paid three shillings for thewode of Robyn Hode is howse." It is impossible to say whether it had been pulled down by some local authority, or whether the owner had demolished because the sports he had organized in former years had ceased to give pleasure. N. M. & A. it GEORGE COLMAN'S MAN OF THE PEOPLE,' ABERDEEN, 1782 (11 S. i. 467). In vol. ii. of Public Characters, published in 1801, 27 pages are devoted to the early life and writings of George Colman the younger, who was then living. No reference is made to "BROCHE 22 (11 S. i. 389, 475).-From a the poem on Fox mentioned in 'Random case reported in a Year-Book of 6 Edward II.,. Records,' quoted by MR. P. J. ANDERSON; upon which I am at present working, one but mention is made of young Colman's gathers that a broche was a sword of some writing some doggerel verses in an album, kind, and not a lance. It is said of a man in a post-house at Lawrencekirk. The lines, accused of murder that he struck his victim 20 in number, are given, but some of them on the head "dune espeie qest appelle would now be hardly considered fit for Broch et lui fist une playe del longur de publication. They commence :— iiij pouz." Objection is taken that the inI once was a student at Old Aberdeen ; dictment does not specifically state whether Little knowledge I got, but a great deal of spleen."le laminal [v.l., in another report, le These album lines are said to have been Colman's first attempt; and as in 'Random Records he says he wrote the poem on Fox immediately after returning from Lawrencekirk, that must have been his second attempt. Dover. JOHN BAVINGTON JONES. aumail] feust ou de feer ou dasser," &c. Lincoln's Inn. W. C. BOLLAND. HAMPDEN AND SHIP MONEY (11 S. i. 426, 492).-Concerning the actual amount of the ship money attempted to be levied upon Hampden, "Junius had a pregnant word to say in his Letter to the Printer of The Public Advertiser of 28 May, 1770:understandings measure the violation of law by the "There is a set of men in this country, whose magnitude of the instance, not by the important consequences which flow directly from the principle Had Mr. Hampden reasoned and acted like the moderate men of these days, instead of hazarding his whole future in a law-suit with the crown, demanded of him, the Stuart family would he would have quietly paid the twenty shillings probably have continued upon the throne, and, at this moment, the imposition of ship-money 1373. "Humphry de Bohun, Earl of Herewould have been an acknowledged prerogative of the crown." ICOLERIDGE ON FIREGRATE FOLK-LORE (11 S. i. 349, 415). The passage in Frost at Midnight can be illustrated from Cowper ('The Task,' iv. 291-5): Nor less amused, have I quiescent watched Heidelberg. [MRS. B. SMITH also thanked for reply.] THE RAVENSBOURNE (11 S. i. 468). The earliest reference I have to this river, although not by name, is 1346. Philipott, in his Villare Cantianum,' 1659, says of Deptford that it was so called from the deep Channel of Ravens-purg'd, the River that here slydeth into the Thames." He further says that the bridge over this river was repaired in the twentieth year of Edward III., as appears by a record in the Tower : 66 "Quod reparatio Pontis de Depeford, pertinet ad homines Hundredi de Blackheath, and non ad homines Villarum de Eltham, Moding-ham, and Wolwich." 2 66 Kilburne in his 'Survey, 1659, p. 73, describes Deptford as lying at the northwest side of the County by the River Ravensborne and Thames." In December, 1700, there was granted a patent by King William III. "to supply the Inhabitants of the Royal Manors of East Greenwich and Sayes Court with good and wholesome Fresh Water from the River Ravensbourne, which runs between the said Manors, during the term of 500 years." Hasted says that the Romans were well supplied with water from the Ravensbourne at their camp on Keston Common, where the river takes its rise. It was in the mouth of this river that the Golden Hind (in which Drake circumnavigated the earth) was laid up by command of Queen Elizabeth, and on board of this ship her Majesty visited Drake and knighted him. Plumstead. WM. NORMAN. The earliest references to the Ravensbourne I have noted are as under : A.D. 1208. Through an inundation of the Thames, the whole of the lands on the banks of the Ravensbourne were flooded."-Dunkin's' History of Deptford,' p. 207. ford, Essex, and Northampton, dying 16 Jan., 1570. "There was lately re-edefied a fayre Bridge also, over the Brooke called Ravensbourne, whiche ryseth not farre of in the Heath above Bromley."-Lambarde's 'Perambulation,' 1st Ed., 1576, p. 335. In the 1826 edition of Lambarde the same reference is slightly varied :— 66 . Over the Brooke called Ravensbourne, which riseth not farre off at Hollowoods hill, in the parish of Kestane, and setting on worke some corne milles, and one for the glasing of armour, slippeth by this towne into the Thamyse, carying continuall matter of a great shelfe with it." CHAS. WM. F. Goss. City of London Club, E.C. [MR. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL also thanked for reply.] DOOR-KNOCKER ETIQUETTE (11 S. i. 487). The summary of the etiquette of doorknocking in the Spanish periodical of 1836 does not seem very wide of the mark, according to my recollections of thirty years later than that date. Everybody (in London) had a door-knocker, and there was certainly a more or less generally understood code of knocks. I remember that an old lady, who was born at the very beginning of the last century, always said, on engaging a new Let me hear how you knock " footman: and according to his proficiency in the art "" of rat-tat-tatting, so was he appraised. A British travellers, by order of Bonaparte sonorous and insistent reverberation on the on the outbreak of hostilities. He wrote front door was in those days considered a several works, and contributed to The sign of social importance. Pamphleteer, xxiii. 159, an article entitled 'On the Nobility of the British Gentry; or, The Political Ranks and Dignities of the British Empire, compared with those of the Continent; for the Use of Foreigners in Great Britain, and of Britons abroad.* This was published separately, London, Nickisson, 1840, 12mo, 58., and is evidently the "work on heraldry 21 mentioned by MR. FORREST MORGAN. In 'The Footman's Directory and Butler's Remembrancer; or, The Advice of Onesimus to his Young Friends,' London, printed for the Author, and sold by J. Hatchard & Son, 1823, the following instructions are set forth :— t "In knocking at a gentleman's door, you should not ring the bell, unless you see it written on a brass plate to do so, except it should be at a relation's of the family which you live with, then you always should ring, as well as knock; and also at your own door, as this is a mark of respect, and a hint to the family and servants that some of the family are come home. Knock loud enough to be heard, as some of the halls and kitchens are a great way from the front door." FRANK SCHLOESSER. COMETS AND PRINCES: JULIUS CÆSAR 66 The 'THE FORTUNE OF WAR 22 (11 S. i. 223, 274). In what is now named York Road, opposite the Maiden Lane Railway Station, is a small inn or public-house called Fortune of War." I remember when this portion of York Road used to be called Maiden Lane. Beginning at King's Cross, it crossed Battle Bridge, and passed Maiden Lane Station and The Fortune of War," Barnsbury Square being more north on the right, and the Roman Road crossing Maiden Lane diagonally. The name of this little inn, whatever its (11 S. i. 448).—The comet which appeared origin, seems peculiarly appropriate to its at the time of Cæsar's death has been identified. It is believed to have been the same as that seen in the time of Justinian in 531 A.D., again in the reign of Henry II. ' James C. D. James Henry Lawrence, Knight of Malta, known as the Chevalier de Laurence, was the eldest son of Richard James Lawrence, of Fairfield, Jamaica. He studied at Eton, but completed his education in Germany. On his way home to England, in 1803, he was detained in France, with many other situation; for, as Thornbury says, London As Boadicea's object was to attack Roman the situation near the stream at King's from which he can learn reading and composition. Cross was exactly suitable for her purpose; this applies to the vigorous adventure of Scott as Good story-books which he will enjoy later-and and in George III.'s reign, when this cross-well as the delicate art of Jane Austen-should way was laid out, it was proposed to call surely not be spoilt by their employment as the it Boadicea. lesson-books of an earlier age. A writer in N. & Q.' has pointed out that Suetonius encamped on the high ground overlooking London, now called Barnsbury Square, and that the ditch of his square camp may still be seen at the back of at least one side of the square- -a fact which I have verified by personal observation. Wheatley says that old records refer to this road as Maiden Lane ('London Past and Present,' 1891, ii. 455); and Smyth says that the Maiden Way began on the Roman Road (Archæologia, 1846, xxxi. 280). This cluster of place-names and corresponding topographical features, all agreeing with the idea that this district was the scene of the last great attempt of Britain to throw off the yoke of Rome, makes the local inn name of The Fortune of War a very appropriate one. Out of what was formerly Maiden Lane proceeds a smaller turning called Forum Street. L. M. R. Notes on Books, &c. The Cornish Coast (South) and the Isles of Scilly. By Charles G. Harper. (Chapman & Hall.) MR. HARPER has a long row of books about England to his credit, largely illustrated by himself; he is an indefatigable searcher after legend and architecture. and his latest travels have produced a book which will be of real use to the visitor and tourist. We cannot say that we can always endorse his ideas of taste and humour, and he indulges in some sweeping condemnations, e.g., of golfers which we do not regard as justified. However, these are matters on which individual opinion doubtless differs, and most people can profit by the author's keenness to see and hear notable things. The book is excellently printed in good type, and the illustrations, though somewhat sketchy, are generally effective. Mr. Harper's equipment as a traveller is pretty good, but he makes a gross mistake in Latin on p. 86. "Malo quam does not mean "rather than," and a schoolboy would not need to reach Macaulay's standard to correct the two later lines. They should be concerned with 8 wicked man in the ablative case, and also "in adversity.' Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. 66 Abridged and edited by Mrs. Frederick Boas. (Cambridge University Press.) The Cambridge Review has given utterance to a protest by one of our younger literary hands against this book. He represents a feeling which we certainly share. The young schoolboy or schoolgirl has an ample selection of books already Mrs. Boas has reduced the book to "about half its original size,' " and added a few notes. The cannot view the result with equanimity, and hopes present reviewer, a great lover of Jane Austen, that the Cambridge Press will cease truncating classics. He very much doubts if Jane Austen's works are suitable for the young at all; in fact, many grown-up persons find them unutterably dull. If this is so, they might be left as they are. If it is not so, the negative needs proof in order to excuse a volume like this. A Collection of Eastern Stories and Legends for Selected Narration or Later Reading in Schools. and adapted by Marie L. Shedlock, with a Foreword by Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, and a Frontispiece by Wolfram Onslow Ford. (Routledge & Sons.) THIS lengthy title is rather a mouthful, and we should have been just as well pleased if the Foreword' had been omitted, and the frontispiece which figures opposite the title-page also left to speak for itself. The chief point about the stories is not whether they are veracious, but whether they are suitable for telling to children. As Miss Shedlock has already tried them in that way with success, their publication is clearly justified. We have read them with pleasure, and are glad to think that, just as Western art is being revivified by Oriental influences-if all that we read is true-so the tales of the East are being added to our store of legend. Mr. Marmaduke Pickthall and other close students of the East have pointed out the delightful humour of Oriental tale-telling, which wins some of the Miss Shedapplause here devoted to the novel. lock's selections, which represent the essence of Buddhism and the earnestness of that creed, have also the charm of humour, and of that power of children know, make-believe which modern perhaps, best through Mr. Kipling's JungleBooks.' at Miss Shedlock's 'Notes on the Stories the end show their value, and are much to the point. All the stories except the last are told of the Buddha (To Be), or the Bodhisatta, and the first, we learn, has often been told in connexion with a story of Hans Andersen's. Thus East and West meet in a realm in which they have, after all, much in common. The achievement of the simplicity which is needed for effective telling is not easy, as we are often reminded by the Christmas flood of new fairy-tales, and we congratulate Miss Shedlock on her success in an art which has become more difficult since it took on itself the dignity of a science. WE Confess that we are somewhat tired of anthologies which are produced by competing publishers in reckless profusion. We make an exception, however, of The Time of the Singing of Birds, which Mr. Frowde publishes, and which is the result of the joint labours of M. A. P., M. S., and G. M. F. Without any knowledge of the persons these initials represent, we may congratulate the selectors both on excellent taste |