Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/177

 10 s. XL FEB. so, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

141

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY M, 1900.

CONTENT S. No. 269.

NOTES : Thackeray : Roundabout Paper ' On Ribbons," 141 Seals: their Early Use, 142 Dodsley's Collection of Poetry, 143 William Morris and a Scotch Verger Rev. T. Patten" Seraskier "Foreigners in Tottenham, 144 Groom's Coffee-House Flying Machine in 1751 Bench- End at Throcking Birkenhead Place-Rime "Imman- 8uable," 145 The London Library St. Michael's, Sutton ourt Ancient Cranes Sea-Roamers, 146.

QUERIES : Jan Starter Casanoviana-;-Tuesday Night's Club Queen Elizabeth's Thanksgiving Gray : Two References Bishops of St. Asaph, 147 Authors Wanted " Angel of iMeridian "Haggard "Artahshashte," 148 Gainsborough at Richmond Polhill Family "Lappas- sit" T. Dover S. Hayes R. Bligh Dr. R. Gurney General Russell Manners Licences to Travel, 149.

REPLIES : Ewen Maclachlan, 150 St. Anthony of Vienne, 152 Army and Militia Lists Carmarthen Families: Paddington House, 153 Essex's Irish Campaign Molifere on Opium Date of Plate Seven Kings 'Millennial Star' Arabic Numerals, 154 Horse Hill Ernisius, 155 Owen, the Epigrammatist Nym and "Humour," 156 Sir Walter Scott on the Scotch Snakes drinking Milk, 157 Shakespeare in French Never Never Land " Knights without noses " Greystoke Family, 158.

NOTES ON BOOKS: The Oxford Thomson ' Animal Romances.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

THACKERAY: ROUNDABOUT PAPER 'ON RIBBONS.'

SPEAKING of an Order of Minerva for literary men, and asking who deserves it, Thackeray gives the following initials {vol. xvii. p. 380, "Oxford Edition"):

" Of the historians A, say, and C, and F, and G, and S, and T, which shall be Companion, and

which Grand Owl ? Of the novelists, there is A,

and B, and CD ; and E (star of the first magnitude, newly discovered), and F (a magazine of wit), and fair G, and H, and I, and brave old J, and charming K, and L, and M, and N, and (fair twinklers), and I am puzzled between three P's Peacock, Miss Pardoe, and Paul Pry and Queechy, and R, and R, and T, mere et JUs, and very likely U, gentle reader, for who has not written his novels nowadays ? "

Prof. Saintsbury says in his Introduction to this volume (p. xx) :

" ' On Ribbons ' is almost wholly occupied with literature, and the tracing of the initials is amusing (there are one or two about which I am still not wholly certain)."

The passage of Thackeray quoted appeared originally in The Cornhill of May, 1860, and refers, we gather, to living authors, for he introduces it thus : " Had the Star of Minerva lasted to our present time ."

We now give our solutions of these initial

letters, and ask for information, in the way of corroboration or correction, from the wiser, such as Prof. Saintsbury. For the historians we select Alison, Carlyle, Finlay, Grote, Stanhope, and Thirlwall.

The novelists seem more difficult. It is clear from the examples given of P, one of which is a play, and ' Queechy,' which is a novel by an author who ranks under W, that Thackeray may have allowed himself a certain latitude in his list. Authors in whom Thackeray is known to have taken an interest by reviewing or otherwise noticing them should obviously have the preference. No one will, we think, dispute the claim of the Trollopes to " T, mere et fils," or of Dickens to CD. We follow through the alphabet, with a few comments.

The names we suggest, then, are Ains- worth ; Bulwer ; George Eliot, who pub- lished ' Amos Barton ' in The Cornhill in 1857, and 'Adam Bede' in 1859, the "star of the first magnitude, newly discovered " ; J. A. Froude, editor of Fraxer, a " magazine of wit " ; the beautiful Mrs. Gaskell as " fair G " ; James Hannay, Thackeray's friend, a frequent contributor to The Corn- hill, and author of the naval stories ' Single- ton Fontenoy ' and ' Eustace Conyers ' ; I, egomet, Thackeray himself ; G. P. R. James, " brave old J," who died abroad on 9 May, 1860 ; Charles Kingsley, who published both ' Yeast ' and ' Hypatia ' in Fra-ser ; Lever, a friend of Thackeray ; George MacDonald of whose novel ' The Portent ' this same number of The Cornhill contains the first instalment ; Mrs. Norton and Mrs. Oliphant, " fair twinklers " ; Charles Reade ; and Mrs. H. B. Stowe.

We note, as possible other choices which do not seem so likely, George Borrow ; Thomas Hughes (' Tom Brown's Schooldays,' 1857) ; O. W. Holmes, whose ' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table ' also appeared in 1857 ; G. A. Lawrence, the author of ' Guy Livingstone ' ; Robert Surtees, the creator of Jorrocks ; and Frank E. Smedley (' Frank Fairlegh,' ' Lewis Arundel,' and ' Harry Coverdale's Courtship ').

Bulwer, Lever, and G. P. R. James supply Thackeray, it may be recalled, with themes for parody in the ' Novels by Eminent Hands' (vol. viii., "Oxford Edition"). So, too, does Disraeli, who does not figure here. There does not seem to be any promi- nent I except the essayist himself. Washing- ton Irving died in 1859, and, as we have stated, all our selections were living in 1860. It would be pleasant to think that ' The Ordeal of Richard Feverel ' (1859) entitled