Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/88

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JAX. 23, ww.

SHELLEY'S MOTHER. I am anxious to know the exact date of the death of Shelley's mother. The peerages and lives of the poet are silent on this point. W. ROBERTS.

BRITISH EMBASSY HOUSE IN PARIS. Can any of your readers help me to the names of books, such as Lady Granville's ' Memoirs,' which would be of use in the compilation of a history of the present British Embassy in Paris and its occupants 1 DIPLOMATIST.

ROBERT MORRIS. I am making an effort to locate the early life and history of the Robert Morris family who came to America about 1734. Can you give me any light on this subject 1 or can you direct me to some genealogist who can look it up for me ?

R. H. SEARS.

428, Neil Street, Columbus, Ohio.

FLESH AND SHAMBLE MEATS. In an authentic copy of a licence to eat meat on fish days (which were formerly 153 days in the year), dated 13 February, 1618, per- mission is given to eat flesh, whilst never- theless the eating of shamble meats is prohibited. In the English dictionaries to hand I am unable to find any reference to the term "shamble meats." I shall be grateful for early information, as I do not understand the difference between flesh and shamble meats in reference to fish days.

J. LAWRENCE-HAMILTON, M.R.C.S.

30, Sussex Square, Brighton.

JAMES WILLIAM DORNFORD, son of James Dornford, of London, was admitted on the foundation at Westminster School in 1798, aged fourteen. I should bo glad to learn any particulars of his career. G. F. R. B.

THE MIMES OF HERONDAS. Would some classical reader of ' N. & Q ,' who knows the subject, kindly furnish the full evidence I am sure it can be put into a few lines that there ever was a pre-Christian poet called Herondas or Herodas? If the evidence is absolutely clear, and not due to misreadings, cadit quaestio. But if it is not absolutely clear, I should like to adduce some special reasons to show that Herodes Atticus is the author of the mimes found in Egypt.

R. J. WALKER.

St. Paul's School, West Kensington, W.

PEPYS'S 'DIARY': A REFERENCE. I find in Samuel Pepys's ' Diary ' the following entry under the date of 19 May, 1660 :

" By waggon to Lansdune, where the 365 children were born. We saw the hill where they say the house stood wherein the children were born. The basins wherein the male and female children were baptized do stand over a large table that hangs

upon a wall, with the whole story of the thing in Dutch and Latin, beginning ' Margarita Herman Comitissa,' &c. The thing was done about 200 years ago."

What are the incidents to which Pepys refers ? MIRANDA.

[Full explanation is given in a long editorial note at2""S. vii. 260.]

MADAME DU DEFFAND'S LETTERS. (9 th S. xii. 366, 438 ; 10 th S. i. 14.)

THE Begum of Bhopal who was seen by MR. GEORGE ANGUS in 1862, perched in a howdah on the top of an elephant at Delhi, was the celebrated Nawab Sikandar Begum, whose conspicuous loyalty during the con- vulsions of 1857 was rewarded by Govern- ment in various ways, amongst others by her appointment to a Grand Commandership of the Star of India on the institution of that Order. It was probably on the occasion of her investiture that she was seen by MR. ANGUS. 1 had the pleasure of making her acquaintance two or three years later, when she passed through Aden on her way to Mecca on pilgrimage. She was succeeded by her daughter, the Nawab Shah Jehan Begum, who emulated her mother in her devotion to the British Government, and was also rewarded by the Grand Com- mandership of the Star of India. This lady I knew intimately, as I had the honour of serving as Political Agent at her Court for nearly two years in 1879-80. She died a few years ago, and was succeeded by her daughter, the Nawab Sultan Jehan Begum, who is the present ruler of Bhopal, and with whom I was also well acquainted in her early womanhood.

To persons unacquainted with India one Begum is probably the same as another Begum, but there really does seem a small spice of. profanity to those behind the scenes in confusing these loyal and noble ladies with the ex-dancing girl who for a time shared the destiny of the scoundrelly Walter Reinhard. Even from a social point of view, the position of &jagirdar like the Begum of Sirdhana is as different from that of a ruling chief of India as the position of Lady A, the wife of a long-descended marquis, is from that of Lady B, the wife of a provincial mayor.

That the Begum Sumroo, after she became a Catholic, endeavoured to atone for the sins of an orageuse youth, cannot be disputed, and her charitable benefactions, if not always well considered, were very numerous ; but