Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/47

 s. ii. JULY 9,i9N.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Office. Some years later, on relating my adventure, I was informed of the curious coincidence that a Col. Anderson was in partnership with Sir William Armstrong.

On 12 October, 1857, my father wrote thus in the Mechanics' Magazine :

"Prejudiced and opposed to breech-loading cannon as Col. Chalmers, the President of the Committee of 1854, was when we met, I am bound to say, from the five experienced senior officers who composed that committee both Dr. Drake and myself received the most marked attention ; and the discussion on the various plans we placed before them detained them one hour and a half beyond the usual time of sitting."

A plan and elevation of a 32-pounder cast-iron gun converted into a breech-loader follows his letter.

The Standard and the Morning Herald (13 April, 18(58), in their editorial articles on 4 Inventors and their Rewards,' placed my father's name first in a list of remarkable men, and, not knowing my claim, wrote : " Sir William Armstrong, a great inventor and pioneer of no small value, notwithstanding al the millions his experiments may have cos the country," &c. My experiments wouk not have cost half a million.

H. H. DRAKE. 43, St. George's Avenue, Tufnell Park.

AST WICK : AUSTWICK (10 th S. i. 466). Ha YORKSHIREMAN ever examined any oh Austwick deeds or documents'? If so, think he would find that Austwick was very frequently spelt without the w. He say that in his grandfather's time the name wa pronounced Asstick, though spelt "Awstwick now." If YORKSHIRKMAN will refer to

p. 452, vol. i. of Edward Baines's 'History Directory, and Gazetteer of the County o: York,' published in 1822, he will find no w in the word, as it is spelt as still pronounced, "Austick." CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. Bradford.

KICHARD STEVENS (9 th S. xi. 468). He is probably the Dr. Stephens who was one of Father Parsons's secretaries in 1601, and is described as " a great scholar, but so choleric that lie is very poor "('S. P. Dom. Add. Eliz.,' xxxiv. 40, 41). JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" A PAST " (10 th S. i. 327, 396). See ' Woman with a Past,' 8 th S. viii. 88. H. J. B.

WAS EDMUND KEAN A JEW? (10 th S. i. 449.) In Maoaulay's 'History of England/ viii. ch. xxi., the parentage of Edmund Kean is given as follows :

"He [(Jeorge Savile, Marquess of Halifax] left a natural son, Henry Carey, whose dramas once drew crowded audiences to the theatres, and some of

whose gay and spirited verses still live in the memory of hundreds of thousands. From Henry Carey descended that Edmund Kean who in our own time transformed himself so marvellously into Shylock, lago, and Othello."

The Editor of ' X. & Q.,' in November, 1856, gave the following reply to a query which appeared in 2 nd S. ii. 413 :

" Henry Carey, musical composer and poet, was an illegitimate son of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (his mother's name still remains a query), and left a son George Savile Carey, also a lyrist, whose daughter married Edmund Kean, an architect. The issue of this marriage was Edmund Kean, the late celebrated actor."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

MAGNA CHARTA (10 th S. i. 469). The sale catalogue of Richard Clark's library is neither in the Corporation Library, Guildhall, nor in the London Institution ; but the following particulars of him were given in an article by the Rev. Alfred Bevan, entitled 'Chamber- lains of the City,' which appeared in the City Press of 15 November, 1902 :

" At the election of 1798 (poll closed 2 January), Richard Clark, Alderman of Broad Street, was chosen by 558 votes to 50 for Sir Watkin Lewes, Alderman of Lime Street. He had been Sheriff in 1777-8, and Lord Mayor in 1784-5. He held office for thirty-three years, dying 16 January, 1881."

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

MOON AND THE WEATHER (10 th S. i. 347, 441).

There seems to be no doubt that the lines were written by Dr. Edward Jenner, of vaccination fame. In its correct form the poem is printed in Baron's ' Life of Jenner,' 1827, pp. 22-4, and is there entitled 'Signs of Ram. An Excuse for not accepting the Invitation of a Friend to make a Country Excursion.' Dr. Erasmus Darwin was a correspondent of Jenner's, arid it is not mprobable that the latter had sent him a copy of the poem, which in turn he had sent on to another friend as suited to the occasion.

E. G. B.

In Nasmyth and Carpenter's elaborate work 'The Moon' (1874) are the following emarks concerning the supposed influence

of this luminary on the weather : " The second of the specified abuses to which the loon is subject refers to its supposed influence on lie weather : and in the extent to which it goes his is one of the most deeply rooted of popular rrors. That there is an infinitesimal influence xerted by the moon on our atmosphere will be een from the evidence we have to offer, but it is F a character and extent vastly different from

what is commonly believed. The popular error is mwn in its most absurd form when the mere

aspect of the moon, the mere transition from one