Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/598

 494

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xi. JUNE 19, im

It is absurd to contend that a grave Lord Chancellor was shocked by the naked picture of a child of three or four years of age. Thus one of Mr. Dilke's conjectures must fall to the ground.

The story upon which the conjecture was based itself rests upon a dubious authority. George Harris, indeed, in his " Life of Lord Hardwicke,' iii. 159, relates that the great lawyer, while living at Wimpole, saw the nude portraits at the house of his neighbour Mr. Montagu ; but the biographer quotes from Richard Cooksey's ' Essay on the Life and Character of Philip, Earl of Hardwicke,' pp. 102-3, which he states in another portion of his work is not a reliable history.

Again, Mr. Dilke declares that Fanny Murray " must have been in her glory from before or about 1735 to 1745," and he goes on to say that " the last mention of her that I have stumbled on is in 1746, in one of Horace Walpole's letters." What earlier references he saw I cannot tell, but this one of 1746 is the first that I have been able to discover. It is certainly not the last. In October, 1748, Walpole told the famous story of the bank-note sandwich (see ante, p. 447) apropos of Miss Murray. In the same year Lady Jane Coke talks about her projected marriage with Sir Richard Atkins. In July, 1752, Richard Rigby mentions her in the course of a letter to the Duke of Bedford. In 1753 Dr. John Hill in 'The Inspector ' speaks of her as " a fine, gay girl, a blooming, laughing, dimpled beauty," and the following year a writer in The Connoisseur says that she is still leading the fashion.

These facts do not appear to corroborate Mr. Dilke's statement that " this lady had reached the culminating point as a celebrity in 1745-1746." Indeed, it was as late as December, 1758, when the 'Memoirs of the Celebrated Miss Fanny Murray ' were at length published. When she died in April 1778 (not 1770, as Mr. Dilke tells us), the newspapers informed their readers that her age was inscribed on her coffin as forty-nine ; and as this statement fits in with all the circumstances we know of her, I believe it is approximately correct. It is probable that she was born about 1729, and according to her Memoirs ' she was about twelve years old when she was seduced by Jack Spencer.

From these facts it will be seen that the story of Fanny Murray does not help us to decide the precise date at which the ' Essay on Woman ' was composed. We can only be sure that it was not written before 1741, and, in all probability, not later than 175s! HORACE BLEACKLEY.

EPISCOPAL SCARF OR TIPPET (10 S. xi. 130, 295). I beg to thank all those who answered my query, including MR. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL, whose answer was kindly forwarded by the Editor. It must be ad- mitted that the origin of the scarf is still wrapt in some obscurity. It would appear too that there were two scarves, one worn by bishops, and the other, if not by the clergy generally, by canons, and private and other chaplains. What is the difference ? Does it lie in the shape or in the material, or in both ? There seems to be some con- fusion, too, as regards the scarf and the stole. Are they interchangeable ? When and where alone is it proper to wear the scarf ? With regard to the stole I remember when on pilgrimage to the Byzantine Virgin and Child in the church of (I think) St. Luke, on the hill-top, at the end of that long arcade going up from Bologna, the priest who showed the picture put on a short surplice and over that his embroidered coloured eucharistic stole, in order to say the usual short prayers before the shrine. CHARLES SWYNNERTON.

LLANGOLLEN (10 S. xi. 348). " Llandys- silio Hall," says Dr. James Dugdale in -his ' British Traveller,' 1819, was the residence of Thomas Jones, Esq., and the vestiges of Sychaint, once the habitation of a being " not in the roll of common men " of one " who had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a heart to execute any mischief " of Owen Glyndwr (vol. iv.

p. 642). J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

DR. JOHNSON'S WATCH (10 S. xi. 281). I see that the Greek words on Dr. Johnson's watch are given slightly different by Boswell and Forster. Boswell says :

" At this time I observed upon the dial -plate of his watch a short Greek inscription, taken from the New Testament, Nu yap epxerai, being the first words of our Saviour's solemn admonition to the improvement of that time which is allowed us to prepare for eternity : ' The night cometh when no man can work.' He some time after- wards laid aside this dial-plate ; and when I asked him the reason, he said, ' It might do very well upon a clock which a man keeps in his closet ; but to have it upon his watch, which he carries about with him, and which is often looked at by others, might be censured as osten- tatious.' Mr. Steevens is now possessed of the dial-plate inscribed as above."

Note by Editor :

" Sir John Hawkins says that this watch was the first Johnson ever possessed. It was made for him by Mudge and Dutton in 1768. They were celebrated watchmakers of the last century, and their shop, situate at the left corner of Hind