Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/244

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NOTES AND QUERIES, tio* s. i. MARCH 5, 1904.

was granted the first patent relating to the invention of English porcelain. On his tomb Frye is described as the inventor and first manufacturer of porcelain in England. In 1758 the manufacture seems to have been at its height, and by 1763 to ihave grievously declined. No other porcelain manufactory has been so productive as was Chelsea between 1750 and 1764. In the recent sale of Lord H. Thynne 3,2551. was paid for one pair of Chelsea vases, and 5,4CKtf. for a set of four representing the seasons. We may not be tempted, however, by Mr. Solon's fascinating book to enter upon what might easily become a long history. Longton Hall, Derby, Swansea, Worcester, Coalport, Plymouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Lowestoft, are a few among the seats of the craft which are described, and these are places in which all sign of the industry is now lost. Spode, Minton, Davenport, and Wedgwood are all duly noticed. The Rockingham works at Swinton, at which vases of exceptional size and gorgeous decoration were produced, come last. They were opened in 1820, and closed as a failure in 1842. Much that is narrated concerning designers, painters, &c., is infinitely sad, and the oook, with all its splendid specimens of ware, inspires an occasional sigh. It is none the less a delightful possession and a work de luxe, to which it is difficult to accord full justice. It is, moreover, issued in a limited edition.

An Introduction to Breton Grammar. By J. Percy

Treasure. (Carmarthen, Spurrell & Son.) THE author of this little volume reminds us that it is not yet quite a year ago that the French Minister of Spiritual Affairs issued an arbitrary and autocratic edict, which virtually deprived over one million Breton people of all effective religious instruction by insisting that it should only be given through the medium of French. To arrest this threatened extinction of an ancient tongue, near akin to the Cornish and Welsh, and to bespeak attention to it among Bretons generally, Mr. Trea- sure has compiled this grammar. He holds that the Breton speech bears almost as close a resem- blance to the old Cornish as Portuguese does to (Spanish, though it may be doubted whether a Cornishman could ever have held intelligible con- verse with a Breton. His work is concise, but probably sufficient for those who essay a general literary acquaintance with the language of "their Armorican relatives in Little Britain."

(lerrard Street and its Neighbourhood. By H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A. Illustrated. (Kegan Paul & Co.)

THIS interesting little pamphlet has been issued to x'.ommemorate the removal of its publishers to Gerrard Street, to the house where Dryden lived after his leaving Long Acre, and where he died on the 1st of May, 1700. The parish books of St. Anne's, Hoho, show, under the heading of "Gerrard Street South," the amount paid by him for the poll tax in 1690 to be as follows :

Mr. Draydon : his lady 1 2

Jane Mason, servant maid 1

Mary Mason, servant maid 1

Dryden's house was No. 43, and Macclesfield House (Nos. 34 and 35) was immediately opposite Maccles- field Street. Lord Macclesfield died there on Novem- ber 4th, 1701, when his son Lord Mohun went to reside there. The "wicked" Lord Lyttelton was one of its inhabitants, and, much later, Charles

Kemble. Mrs. Fanny Kemble refers to it in her 'Old Woman's Gossip' in the Atlantic Monthly, 1875. The house was destroyed by fire in 1888. No. 9, the "Turk's Head," "gained fame as the home of the Literary Club founded by Johnson and Reynolds in 1764." Gibbon also stayed there, and one of the foremost of its members, Edmund Burke, lived at No. 37 during the time of the trial of Warren Hastings. It was on the table here that Burke's old friend Dr. Brqcklesby left the letter of 2 July, 1788, requesting him to accept " an instant present of one thousand pounds which for years past by will I had destined, as a testimony of my regard, on my decease." At No. 36 "David Williams, the founder of the Royal Literary Club, died. This was originally the office of the Fund." The pamphlet contains a portrait of the poet Dryden's house as it was, also the present build- ing, and a view of the district from Faithorne's plan of London, 1658, Gerrard Street and neigh- bourhood from Stow, and a plan of the district at the present time.

We cannot close this notice without congratulat- ing Mr. Spencer C. Blackett, the managing director of Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., on having induced Mr. Wheatley to write this valuable contribution to the history of Soho. We heartily wish the firm many years of prosperity in its new home.

MR. GEORGE C. PEACHEY has issued through Messrs. Keliher & Co. a Life of William Savory of Brightivalton, with historical notes. It contains extracts from his commonplace books in 1778-9, and will be of high value to all interested in surgical and medical biography.

ia

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A. M. BRYMER (" Who plucked this flower?").- Said at 6 th S. xi. 399 to be on a gravestone in Lutter- worth Churchyard. See also 7 th S. i. 79 ; iii. 494.

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