Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/427

 10 s. XL MAY i, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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by the late Mr. Gladstone, in which he says :

" From the appearance of the photograph you have kindly sent me, I think it is the one done upon a payment by the official hand at my leaving : as was the usual custom. There has evidently been assistance of some kind in doing it.

" There is at Eton on the short elbow of the Long" Walk wall at the end nearest Barnes-pool my name with the initials [ ? initial] cut large in the stone, and this was done entirely by myself ; but I do not know whether it can be photographed."

The writer of the article, who does not give his name, says : " Mr. Gladstone speaks of initials in his letter, but beyond the ' G ' no initial letters are now visible." The writing, according to the facsimile, is not distinct, and it appears to be quite possible that the slight stroke after the I was not meant for s. The initial letter " G," ac- cording to the photograph given, is very large.

I am not sure what one paid on leaving Eton for having one's name cut somewhere or other. My impression is that the fee was ten shillings. When I left Eton in 1864 the panels of Upper School had been for a long time filled with names. If I remember rightly, mine and those of my contemporaries were relegated to the panels of the staircase leading to Upper School.

Apart from the names carved on the walls, the lists of Etonians are Stapylton's published by the Old Etonian Association. ROBERT PIERPOINT.
 * Eton School Lists ' and those recently

Probably Messrs. Spottiswoode & Co. of Eton could inform D. K. T. whether the act of piety he inquires about has been accom- plished or not. Much information concern- ing the names carved in Lower School and other places will be found in Mr. R. A. Austen Leigh's 'Eton Guide' (1904), which gives a picture of a servitor's desk in Hall on which are cut several well-known names. The noble Hall (1450), together with the pantry and kitchen, is the only building that occupies the position finally determined upon by King Henry's will. So at Christ Church, Oxon, the great Hall and kitchen are Wolsey's work ; and the later royal foundation can re-echo the Eton distich :

Henricus Oetavus _ Took away more than he gave us.^

At my own school the names cut on the panels, &c., of the Fourth Form Room (the original schoolroom) were carefully transcribed and edited for The Harrovian (July, 1895- July, 1899). A. R. BAYLEY.

LIZARDS AND Music : ' THE Swiss FAMILY ROBINSON' (10 S. xi. 167, 277). There is, as the editorial note at the second reference states, a conflict of opinion as to the author- ship of this book, but there need not be, for the facts are very plain, and, I believe, stated perfectly accurately in the school edition of this book prepared by me in 1886, and published by John Heywood. Briefly recapitulated, they are as follows.

The plan of ' The Swiss Family Robinson ' was conceived by Johann David Wyss, a Swiss, and military chaplain to the troops stationed at Berne. The outlines of the story were written out for the use of his four children, but never printed. One of his sons, Johann Rudolf Wyss (1781-1830), Professor of Philosophy at the Academy of Berne, placed the manuscript (with neces- sary alterations) in the hands of a printer, and the first edition was issued in German, at Zurich, in 1813.

In 1824 the Baroness Isabelle de Montolieu translated the tale into French, with the permission of Herr Wyss, and wrote a con- tinuation of the story. Originally it was very short, the arrival of a ship from Europe enabling the family to return to their own country after only about twelve years' stay in the island. This translation is the one upon which all the English versions of the tale are based. I have this French version before me as I write.

With regard to Joachim Heinrich Kampe (or Campe), Halkett and Laing and W. Davenport Adams are both wrong. Campe (1746-1818) published a children's book at Hamburg in 1779 in two volumes, called ' Robinson Krusoe der Jiingere.' This is not a mere translation, but a book " based upon the widespread book by Defoe.'" A large number of books were afterwards written on similar lines, but of all these translations, imitations, and adaptations based upon Defoe Canape's still remains the most important amongst these books pre- pared for German - speaking children. I have a copy of one of the chief editions now on sale, entitled ' Campes Robinson,' and have compared it with ' Robinson Crusoe ' and ' The Swiss Family Robinson ' : it has nothing in common with the latter book.

I went fully into the matter of authorship many years since, and those who care to verify the above will find the details in ' Nouveau Larousse ' and its Supplement, Meyer's ' Grosses Konversations-Lexikon.' ' Chambers's Encyclopaedia,' and many