Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/255

 10*8. III. MARCH 18, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

207

As Fleet Market was removed during October and November, 1829, the house must have been at the entrance of Farringdon Market. I cannot trace any reference to it in Noble or other local historians.

ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road.

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

DICKENS OR WILKIE COLLINS? Is 'The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices' the single-handed work of Dickens ? or was the story written by Dickens in collaboration with Wilkie Collins? An incident given at considerable length in this tale appears also as an unconnected story the fifth story of the series in Wilkie Collins's ' Queen of Hearts,' under the title of 'The Dead Hand.' The incident is briefly this : Arthur Holliday is anxious to secure a bedroom at Doncaster for a night during the race-week. The place is full. No room is to bo had except at a tavern in a suburban part of the town, i After he has made his bargain with the land- j lord he finds that he is sharing a double- : bedded room with what was supposed to be a corpse. Too proud to draw back from a rash boast he had made to the landlord, he retains the room, and makes the best of an unpleasant situation. Shortly after midnight ] the body shows signs of life. Medical assist- ! ance is called in. The patient is completely i recovered, and leaves the inn a few hours afterwards.

In the Gadshill edition of Dickens's works the editor, Mr. Andrew Lang, in his general introduction to the two volumes of 'Christ- mas Stories,' reminds us that the novelist was in the habit of receiving contributions from other writers, and that he embodied their work in several of his stories as they appeared in the Christmas numbers of Household Words and All the Year Sound. It seems to have been the intention of Mr. Lang to repro- duce in these two volumes only what Dickens actually wrote. For this reason he has omitted one chapter in ' The Perils of Cer- tain English Prisoners,' six chapters in 'The Haunted House,' two chapters in ' A Message from the Sea,' and four chapters in "Tom Tiddler's Ground.'

In a prefatory note to ' No Thoroughfare,' Mr. Lang states what portions were respec- tively written by Dickens and Wilkie Collins ;

but he gives this "melodramatic piece "in its entirety. The reason, of course, is obvious why he has done so. Now, when we come to 'The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices,' he gives no hint of any kind to suggest that this story is not the single-handed work of Dickens. In his general introduction he merely states the origin of the tale, and says that " the little romance of the man who shared a double-bedded room with a corpse may be founded on a similar incident in the early days of Sir Walter Scott." This " little romance" occupies one- fifth of the whole story. Had Dickens not written that portion of ' The Lazy Tour,' I should have thought that Mr. Lang would have mentioned the fact.

I do not know for certain when ' The Queen of Hearts ' was published. My copy of the novel is a late edition, but it contains a letter of dedication to Emile Forgues, dated October, 1859. That probably is the date of publication. 'The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices' first appeared in Household Words in October, 1857.

FREDERICK B. FIRMAN, M.A.

Castleacre, SwafFham, Norfolk.

['The Queen of Hearts,' published in 1859 in three volumes, was briefly noticed in TheAthenceum of 22 October, 1859, as " reprinted from the pages of Household Words." In the Athenwum for the next week appeared a letter from Wilkie Collins, who stated that rather less than one-fourth of the work was reprinted from Household Words, and that ' The Black Cottage,' ' The Biter Bit,' and 'A Plot in Private Life' had not appeared before "in Household Words, or in any other English periodical whatever " ; but no reference was made to ' The Dead Hand.']

THE PAWNBROKER'S SIGN AND THE MEDICI ARMS. What is the correct origin of the pawnbroker's sign ? Were not the three golden purses, or balls, originally the em- blematic device of the charitable St. Nicholas (patron of Venice, also of merchants and others), and used by the Lombard merchants who settled in England as a sign that they were ready to help people in distress by lend- ing money, but not without security ?

It is sometimes said that the same sign also represents the arms of the Medici family of Florence ; but is not the correct armorial coat of this family as follows : Six red balls on a field of gold ? Also, is there any positive proof that the Medici family ever dabbled in medicine before they commenced banking ?

JOHN OATES.

[At 7 th S. i. 469 PROF. J. D. BUTLER, of Wis- consin, mentioned that the pawnbroker's three balls were noticed in the first number of ' N. & Q.,' and that the discussion which followed showed that opinions were divided as to the origin of the sign,