Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/33

 io* s. L JAN. 9, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATL'llDAY, JANL'AllY 0, 190,',.

CONTENTS.-No. 2.

NOTES : Capfc G. W. Manby, 21 Carpenter's ' Geography Delineated,' 22 St. Margaret's Churchyard, Westminster, 23 Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper ' Japanese New Year's Day, 25 Berlioz and Sweden borg Leonardo da Vinci in Milan Caul Curious Christian Names, 26 " Acerbative " " Tunnelist " : " Tunnelism," 27.

QUERIES : St. Bridget's Bower' Memoirs of a Stomach,' 27 ' Worke for Cutlers ' Earliest Playbill Sir John Vaughan Obiit Sunday Chaucer's Tomb in Westminster Abbey Statue by Joha of Bologna " Collectioner " Mary Stuart, 28 " Heardlome " : "Heech "Picture of Knight in Armour H. F. and W. Lockhart Holt Persian Paintings Penrith Queen Helena Setting of Precious Stones Japanese Cards, 29.

BEPLIES : Grenadier Guards, 30 Mundy, 31 "A gallant captain "Long Lease Kobin a Bobbin Medical Bar- risters Richard Nash " The Consul of God," 32 41 Constantine Pebble" Marriage House Shakespeare's Scholarship, 33 Beyle: Stendhal "A flea in the ear" Historical Rime : Rhyme, 34" Mais on revient toujours " The Oak, the Asb, and the Ivy Dorothy Nutt Riding the Black Ram, 35 Mary, Queen of Scots "Top Spit " ' ' As merry as Grigga "Candlemas Gills' Edwin Drood ' Continued Modern Forms of Animal Baiting, 37 Crowns in Church Tower Lancashire and Cheshire Wills Economy Weather, 33.

NOTES ON BOOKS: Mrs. Toynbee's Edition of Walpole's Letters Burke's ' Peerage' Magazines and Reviews.

Notices to Correspondents.

CAPT. GEORGE WILLIAM MANBY, 1765-1851. THE following two letters have recently come into my possession. Their writer, Dawson Turner, a man of great taste and intense enthusiasm as a collector of auto-

Sraphs, is a familiar name to most. Capt. lanby, the addressee, deserves greater posthumous honours than have hitherto been accorded him. The inventor of apparatus for saving life from shipwreck, and author of a number of treatises on this and allied sub- jects, he had printed at Yarmouth in 1839 an octavo volume of very interesting reminiscences. This was not published. The author presented a copy to the British Museum, and his friend Dawson Turner, in addition to a unique copy on vellum, acquired the manuscript. It is this evidently that had been inquired after when the first letter wa: written ; but about the same time, with a view to his biography being written, Capt Manby had lent Turner a number of manu- scripts and printed documents, letters, copies of correspondence, &c., collectively referred to as " Manoeiana." The only use made of thi material was a naenaok privately printec about 1851. For some reason this was suppressed. A copy inclmded in the sale ol

Dawson Turner's library (1853) was with- drawn, although printed in italics in the atalogue. In 1854 Capt. Manby died, and nothing more is heard of the "Manbeiana" until sold in 1859 as lot 292 in the sale of the manuscript library of Dawson Turner, fetch- ing seventeen shillings only. The present possessor I cannot trace.

Athenaeum, 15 Nov., 1851.

MY DEAR CAPTAIN MANBY, In giving up to my son-in-law, Mr. T. Brightwen, the manage- ment of the Yarmouth Bank, I also relinquished to him the house, from which it was consequently necessary to remove my books and papers. These, therefore, have been carried to an empty house in Chapel Street, where they are under lock and key, and must remain so till I can come down and get a new house for myself and place them in it. This, I am sorry to say, is at present out of my power ; for the severe illness with which I was attacked at Edinburgh so hangs upon me that I am forced to remain in London under medical advice, and nobody can find anything in my absence.

Still, though 1 cannot just now do what you wish, I feel that I can serve you more effectively. Tell the person who has been applying to you to call upon me at this home, and send me the name of the eminent publisher he proposes to employ, and I will see them both, and shall soon know if they propose what is likely to be honourable and profitable to you. If they do, I will gladly co-operate with them to the utmost extent of my power, but I too well know the state of the book-trade at the present time to have much hopes, and I far more fear that you are likely to be made a dupe of by some design- ing persons, just as has been already attempted in three or four previous cases from which I had the satisfaction of saving you.

I am, dear sir, very truly yours,

DAWSON TURNER.

The second letter is as follows :

MY DEAR CAPTAIN MANBY, Very glad indeed was 1 to find by your letter that you are now not only in the land of the living, but, apparently, in the enjoyment of good health, with the exception of your eyesight, which is always one of a man's first railings. Have no fear, I pray you, for the safety of anything relating to yourself that may be in my possession. What I am about to dispose of is only such of my printed books as I cannot store in this house.

Whatever concerns you, and whatever is private, is, as I informed you, safe nailed down and corded in boxes, but not at present here within my reach. I hope it may shortly be so ; as soon as it is, the volumes of Manbeiana shall be taken to pieces, and what I have received from you shall be returned to you if you desire it. But you are very wrong to do so ; for my wish is to place them intact in the British Museum, where they will be ready for any future biographers, and can never be sold or turned to any unworthy purpose, but will be a lasting monument to your honour, as long as England remains a nation.

1 am, my dear sir, very truly yours,

DAWSON TURNER.

No. 26, Castelnau Villas, Barnes, Surrey, 30 March, 1852.