Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/35

 10* s. iir. JAX. 14, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

23

misprints abound, and, to give only one example, the name of the " great George " is consistently misspelt "Cruickshank." Some notice of the collected editions should also j have been given, as the prefaces which | Dickens specially wrote for some of the | volumes are of value. These, however, are | minor blots, which can easily be removed if I a second edition is called for. To say that the book is not perfect is merely equivalent to saying that it is a bibliography.

A great dramatic critic of my acquaintance once told me that he considered the " thirties " of the last century the barrenest period in theatrical history. This remark cannot be applied to literature, for that decade wit- nessed the blossoming into fruit of the greatest writers of the Victorian era. But it also created several problems in literary history, some of which still remain unsolved, and are likely to elude the acumen of the most skilful bibliographer.

I have in my possession a small quarto volume, the contents of which consist of plays extracted from The Carlton Chronicle, and pasted down by the writer of the plays and the former owner of the book. This was the late Mr. W. H. Logan, the author of 'A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs,' and co-editor with James Maidment of 'The Dramatists of the Restoration.' The plaj 7 s are really burlesques, of the ' Bombastes Furioso' order, and are all in print, with the exception of the last, which was copied in manuscript by Mr. Logan, who prefaced the collection with the following note :

" The following absurdities appeared in the pages of Th>; Carlton Chronicle & clever Conservative journal of the time which was edited by Percival Weldon Banks, Esquire, Barrister-at-Law, the 'Morgan Rattler' of Fraser's Magazine. In The Carlton Chronicle appeared for the first time some of Boz's 'Sketches.' W. Harrison Ainsworth, James Maidment, Theodore Martin. W. B. D. D. Turnbull, and the writer of these pages, were con- tributors. It is supposed that at this date December, 1856 there are not above four complete sets of The Carlton Chronicle in existence. W. H. L."

The plays Avritten by Mr. Logan are dated 1836 and 1837, when Dickens was contributing his ' Sketches ' to The Evening Chronicle I have never seen a copy of The Carlton Chro- nicle, and the only one that I can trace was that formerly belonging to James Maidment, which realized the sum of six shillings and sixpence at the sale of that gentleman's library on 17 May, 1880 (lot 5018). Mr. Maidment's copy was purchased by the late Mr. John Mansfield Mackenzie, of Edinburgh, at whose sale on 11 March, 1889, it fetched only three shillings (lot 245). The book

world was evidently unaware of the value' of the compilation, owing, doubtless, to the fact that Dickens's contributions had never come within the cognizance of bibliographers In one of Mr. Logan's productions, a Christmas pantomime called 'The Loves of Hookey Walker and Sally Roy ; or, Harlequin. Humbug,' a note occurs at the bottom of bhe page: "See Thwacka way's 'Mountain Sylph,' in which Eolia most ingeniously transforms herself into a butterfly." There are other references to the ' Mountain Sylph,' which is styled an opera ; but, so far as I know, its existence has been ignored by all writers on Thackeray, although it is known that about the date of The Carlton Chronicle he occasionally occupied himself in composing trifles for the lyric stage Of the contributors to The Carlton Chronicle who are named by Mr. Logan, the venerable and respected, figure of Sir Theodore Martin alone survives.

W. F. PfilDEAUX.

EPITAPHIANA.

THE following epitaph in the churchyard of Lydd, Kent, may be of interest. I have a>, photograph of the tombstone.

In

Memory of

Lieu* Tho s Edgar of the Royal Navy who departed this life Oct r 17 th 1801

Aged 56 years

He came into the Navy at 10 Years of age- was in that memorable Engagement with Adm 1 Hawk and sail'd round the World, in company with the unfortunate Captain Cook of the Resolution in his last Voyage when he was killed by the Indians at the Island of O whie in the south Seas the 14 th Feb>, 1778. Tom Edgar at last has sail d out of this World His shroud is put on & his top sails are furl'd He lies snug in deaths boat without any Concern' And is moor'd for a full due ahead & a Stern O'er the Compass of Life he has merrily run His Voyage is Completed his reckoning is done.

JOHN G. ADAMS. Hollis, Long Island, New York.

Aubrey records an epitaph on a tomb of. 1398 ('Wilts,' part ii. p. 104) as follows :

Tu qui transieris, videas, sta, perlege, plora ;

Es quod eram,eteris quod sum : pro me, precor, ora..

This distich had considerable vitality, for in 1580 a brass put up to Edmund Hodson, formerly Fellow of Winchester College, in. the cloisters there, runs :

Whoso thow art, wyth lovinge harte, Stonde, reade, and thincke on me ; For as I was, so nowe thow arte, And as I am, so shalte thow be

Finally, on a tombstone dated 1810, in-