Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/519

 10 S. XL MAY 29, 1909.J NOTES AND QUERIES.

427

what we call seedy, or crop-sick) have bilked the public-house and barbarously left me in pawn for the reckoning." Savage, ' An Author to be Let ' (1729), ' Works,' vol. ii. p. 272.

In the above passage the writer speaks not as Richard Savage (which he might probably have done without mutilating the text), but as Iscariot Hackney of Grub Street more precisely (at the time of writing) Hockley in the Hole. W. M.

JOHN WALKER, THE INVENTOR OF THE LUCIFER MATCH. The 1st of May was the fiftieth anniversary of the death of John Walker, the inventor of the lucifer match. It was while he was in business as a chemist at Stockton-on-Tees that he discovered, more or less accidentally, that sulphide of antimony and chlorate of potash formed a mixture which ignited under friction. This was in 1825, and a correspondent of ' N. & Q.' remembers buying a box of fifty matches from him for one shilling and fourpence in 1826. They were known as " friction- lights," and a box of them, containing a folded piece of sandpaper for the purpose of ignition, is still in existence.

Walker did not think his invention important enough to patent it. In 1832 Isaac Holden, who had also discovered the lucifer match several years after Walker, drew public attention to it, and the manu- facture of lucifer matches was commercially begun in 1832 or 1833. Several years since it was proposed to erect a memorial to John Walker in the town of his birth, but I do not know whether the proposal was ever carried out. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

[See the numerous communications at 10 S. vii. 269, 329, 348, 351, 377, 396, 397, 418, 451, on

and so it came about that all round the world, whenever Portsmouth is mentioned, it is invari- ably referred to as ' Pompey.' But it was the crew of H.M.S. Sultan who first gave that name

sulphur matches, steel.]

" Congreves," and flint and

to Portsmouth."

Fair Park, Exeter.

HARRY HEMS.

ALEXANDER THOM. A portrait of Staff- Surgeon Alexander Thorn, President of the Meteorological Society in 18524, is hanging in the computing room of the Royal Albert Observatory, Pamplemousses, Mauritius.

L. L. K.

" POMPEY "= PORTSMOUTH. For at least a couple of decades throughout our Fleet, in the football world, as well as in other walks of life Portsmouth has been widely known by the pet name of " Pompey." A writer in The Evening News (Portsmouth) for 27 Nov., 1908, gave the following as an explanation of this :

" The sobriquet of ' Pompey ' came about in this way. In 1873 H.M.S. Sultan was at Ports- mouth refitting. One day a lady interested in temperance matters obtained the commander's permission to come on board and deliver a lecture. In it she deplored the condition of certain classes in Portsmouth, who, she asserted, were fully as bad as, if not worse than, were many in the days of Pompeii. At the conclusion of the discourse a Jack Tar dryly called out, ' Poor old Pompey.' This remark ' took on,' not only in that ship but in the companies of others,

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation o_n family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

THE KING'S BODYGUARD. Are the records of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at- Arms in existence for King Charles I.'s time ? If so, where ? and can they be seen ?

M. L. SANDERS.

Parkholme, Elm Park Gardens, S.W.

MR. WOODS AS VELASQUEZ. ' Mr. Woods, of the Theatre Royal at Edinburgh, in the Character of Velasquez,' a portrait by the Swedish artist Von Breda, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1788. Who wrote the play, and where was it performed by Woods ? Does any one know the where- abouts of the portrait ? E. H.

Stockholm.

SOCIETY OF ARTISTS, 1772. Who was the author of " Candid Observations on the Performances now exhibiting at the New Room of the Society of Artists, near Exeter Change. Intended as a Vade-Mecum to that Exhibition, London, 1772 " ? E. H.

' THE ROYAL PLAISTER ACADEMY.' The painter Elias Martin exhibited a picture with the above title at the Royal Academy in 1770. I should like to know something about this Plaister Academy. Was it the Duke of Richmond's private academy ?

E. H.

WESTMINSTER LATIN PLAY. The ' Phor- mio ' of Terence was performed in 1843, 1848, 1855, 1858, 1864, 1868, and 1873. I shall be glad to know in which of these years the date of one of the three perform- ances fell on 10 December. So far my search has been unsuccessful.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

Westminster.