Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/609

 10 s. xii. DEO. 25, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

501

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1909.

CONTENTS. No. 313.

NOTES : 'The Cornhill Magazine,' 501 Bubb Dodington and his Circle, 504 Bibliography of Christmas Epitaphiana, 506 Christmas in Wales in 1774 "The Christmas In," 507 Christmas Quarrel Fifty Years Ago Jack-knives given to Ugly Men, 508.

QUERIES : Goethe's ' Edelknabe und Wahrsagerin ' Cowper Bibliography ' Vortigern and Rowena,' 508 4 Gin a Bogie meet a Bogie 'Thomas de Coningsby " He will either make a spoon," &c. Acres in Yorkshire Authors Wanted -The Portsmouth Road, 509 Dun Y Aristotle and the Golden Rule" Blue Idle "Meeting- HouseGreat Fosters, 510 James O'Brien, 511.

KEPLIES : " Vegetarian "Watson's 'History of Print- ing,' 511 Cotton's Waterloo Museum Beeswing Club Elizabeth of Bohemia, 512 Burial of Notable Actresses High Stewards Sloan Surname Marie Antoinette Spanish Wine Day, 513 Cabriolet : Mr. Pickwick" Scarpine " Hocktide, 514 Nicknames and Sobriquets, 515 Richard Cceur-de-Lion " Never too late to mend " Cowper's Name, 516 Authors Wanted 'Sailor's Consolation ' Lord Mayor's Show British Army in 1763 Bell-ringing at Weddings Marriage like u Devonshire Lane, 517 Pin and Needle Rimes Moon Superstitions Feet of Fines ' Camelario " The Douglas Cause, 518.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Horace Walpole's Last Journals ' History of the Oxford Museum ' ' The English Parnassus.'

Notices to Correspondents.

4 THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE, 1

1860-1910. (Concluded from p. 483.)

THE immediate success of The Cornhill far exceeded anticipation. The sale of the first number amounted to 120,000, a circula- tion then without precedent in serial lite- rature. Fields in his ' Yesterdays with Authors l amusingly describes the exhila- rating effect this success had on its editor :

" Delirious with joy, he ran away to Paris to be and of the excitement for a few days. I met him by appointment at his hotel in the Rue de la Paix, and found him wild with excitement, and full of enthusiasm for excellent George Smith his publisher."

Smith, ever ready to reward where reward was due, at once told Thackeray that he must allow him to double his editorial pay- one rit, at which Thackeray was much touched. Smith's payments to contributors were anost liberal. Upon one number alone that for August, 1862 1,1 83L was expended, and for the first four years the expenditure under this head amounted to 32,280Z. This did hot include the illustrations, which cost 4,378. in addition. Among large sums paid

was 7,OOOZ. to George Eliot for ' Romola. 1 The largest payment for short articles was 121. 12s. a page to Thackeray for his ' Round- about Papers. 1 ' Little Scholars ' was the Eirst article Thackeray's daughter wrote tor the magazine. He sent it to Smith, asking him to decide if it should appear, as papas are bad judges. "

Turning over the pages of the early numbers of The Cornhill, one is reminded of the enthusiasm with which it was received. At that time the daily newspaper did not form such a large part of the family reading as in the present day. Paterfamilias would glance at it over the breakfast- table, reading out such portions as might be of general interest, then retire with it either to his library or office. The evening paper was confined to but a few. Women in those days took little or no interest in politics, so that a monthly periodical suitable for evening reading had every chance of suc- cess, especially when literature so good and attractive as that in The Cornhill presented itself.

The first number opened with a tale by Anthony Trollope, * Framley Parsonage,' Thackeray courteously giving it the place of honour, " as a host would invite a guest to walk into a room before himself." The host, Thackeray, took the second place with his ' Lovel the Widower. l Then we are favoured with a bit of science, ' Studies in Animal Life,' followed by an ' Inaugurative Ode * by Father Prout. Next we get a glance at the Volunteer Movement, and we are told that " the French nation has indis- putably the most warlike propensities of any in the world," and that " England is the nation which, perhaps sooner than any other, may be called upon to check her in the indulgence of this propensity." A contrast to the present position of Arctic discovery is an account of the search for Sir John Franklin, from the private journal of an officer of the Fox. It will be remem- bered that this was the fourth and last expedition that Lady Franklin at her own expense sent out in search of her husband, as she persisted in the idea that he was still living. This expedition found that he had died on the llth of June, 1847.

The second number began with tributes to Washington Irving and Macaulay by the Editor. Irving is described as

" one of the most charming masters of our lighter language, the constant friend to us and our nation ; to men of letters doubly dear, not for his wit and genius merely, but as an exemplar of goodness, probity, and pure life."