Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/41

 10 s. XIL JULY io, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

L. EL, ABTIST, 1793. I have two sepia drawings of little boys, nude figures, signec L. H., 1793 (the initials forming a mono graph), and I shall esteem it a favour i some correspondent of ' N. & Q.' can tel me of any artist of that period signing his works as above. One drawing represent four figures playing about a winepress ; the other shows three of the boys playing with a large vase, from the top of which issues a jet of water, while the fourth is asleep. The technique and figure-drawing are so gooc that I believe the drawings are by an artist of some repute. W. MILES.

Caversham Park Gardens, Reading.

SQUIRE DRAPER, AND HIS DAUGHTER. Will any reader of ' N. & Q.' kindly volunteer information anent an ancient Yorkshire hunting squire named Draper and his renowned daughter Di Draper ? In her ardour for the chase she twice swam the river Ouse, opposite Cawood Castle, after the hounds. We in our family possess a large oil painting of her, and it is always said that Sir W. Scott took Di Vernon (in ' Rob Roy ') from her. The painter's name is not on the likeness, but an engraving (an exact copy) has been met with in some magazine of the eighteenth century. I shall be grateful for any information.

(Mrs.) E. A. HILLWELL. Wiatow, Dewey Avenue, Aintree, Liverpool.

CAPT. R. J. GORDON AND THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. Capt. Robert James Gordon, of the Royal Navy, left Cairo in May or June, 1822, on behalf of the African Associa- tion, for the purpose of ascertaining the sources of the Bahr el-Abiad, or White Nile, then an unknown mystery (The Quarterly Review, October, 1822, p. 93 ; J. J. Halls, 'Life of Henry Salt,' 1834, ii. 205, 211). On 20 June the French traveller Frederic Cailliaud met him between Assouan and Dongola (Cailliaud, * Voyage a Meroe,' 1826, iii. 267). He visited several of the mountain regions of Kordofan, and, to use the expres- sion of the Arabs, "had written down all the country " (G. A. Hoskins, ' Travels in

1823, which would be only six years before Lord Prudhoe's visit, it does not allow sufficient time for Gordon's journeys in Kordofan. Is anything more known of Capt. Gordon's travels ? His name does not appear in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.'

FREDK. A. EDWARDS. 39, Agate Road, Hammersmith, W.

COL. PESTALL. I have a song entitled 'Pestall,' published by B. Williams, 30 (Fountain Court), Cheapside, with accom- paniment for the pianoforte. It bears no date, but must have been published at least sixty years ago. On the frontispiece is an illustration of a British officer in uniform, in a prison cell, with a chain connecting the wrists. Beneath the illustration is printed : " The melody of this song was marked on the wall by Col. Pestall (a victim to Russian Tyranny) the night before his Execution."

Who was Col. Pestall, and what were the circumstances which led to his execution ? T. MURRAY WIGHT.

THOMAS RIPLEY AND RICHARD HOLT. On 31 May, 1722, Thomas Ripley, Esq., and Richard Holt, gent., obtained a patent (No. 447) for making statues, architectural decorations, garden ornaments, &c., of arti- ficial stone. I shall be much obliged to any reader of ' N. & Q.' who can assist me n identifying the first-named patentee with the well-known architect of the same name. The notice of Ripley in the ' D.N.B.' does not give me the information I want, and I

lave consulted the General N. & Q.' without result.

Indexes to R. B. P.

Ethiopia,' 1835, p. 180). Kordofan, but managed

He fell ill in _ to reach Wad

Medina, on the Bahr el-Azrek, or Blue Nile, a little north of Sennar, where he died and was buried. Lord Prudhoe, who visited Sennar in 1829, says Gordon arrived at Welled Medina about eight years before, in the month of June, and died in ten days of a violent tertian fever (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1835, p. 47). But, unless we are to understand this as June,

GOD OF ARCHITECTURE. I have read omewhere that the Chinese have a special god whom they worship when a new building s erected. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' ive the name of this god, or particulars of ny similar deity ? Is there a patron god f architecture or buildings in any system of mythology ? N. BOOTHROYD.

Holmleigh, Batley.

SOTBY AND BLEASBY MANORS, LINGS. The Inq. p. m. of John Clayton of Crooke, Lanes, who died in 1625, shows that he was the owner of the above manors and a large quantity of other property in that county. These Lincolnshire estates seem to have passed, with his Lancashire property, to his daughter Dorothy, and so to the descendants of George Leycester of Toft, co. Chester, her husband.

How did he acquire them ? It does not appear that his father (or his uncle, whose heir he was) owned them. Did they come