Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/393

 in. APRIL 29, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

321

LONDON, SATL'EDAY, APRIL 99, 1905.

CONTENTS.-No. 70.

i/OTES : ' Private History of the Court of England,' 321 "England," "English": their Pronunciation, 322 Patrick Gordon: Peter Gordon, 324 Mary, Queen of Scots : Letter of 1582 United States of America : their Dates Surrey Marriage Licences Cholsey, Berks Thomas Amory English Literature in the Far East, 326 " Though lost to sight," &c. "Huguenot," 327.

QUERIES : King Edward VII. Fanshawe Family Marchesa Spinola William Hutchinson W. V. Richard- son and the Russian Church, 327 Apothecaries' Act of 1815 John Crowe Scottish Proclamation "He sat beside the lowly door " " The heart has many a dwelling- place "Addition to Christian Name Irish Soil Exported Goethe and Book-keeping Nicholas, Bishop of Coventry Miller of Hide Hall. 328 Theatre in Rawstorne Street, Clerkenwell Navy Office Seal Ancient London Houses James II. Medal Sir T. Crompton Kenmure Peerage Maiden L<ne, Maiden Southwold Church, 329 Rev. E. W. Grinfield. 330.

REPLIES : The Pawnbroker's Sign, 330 -Small Parishes- Pancake Day " Pompelmous " Langley Meynell : Sir Robert Francis, 331 Masons' Marks Tickling Trout- Date of the Creation, 332 American Place - names "February fill dyke "All Fools' Day Anchorites' Dens House of Anjou, 333 'The Lass of Richmond Hill' The Egyptian Hall 'My Cousin's Tale of a Cock and JBull 'Portraits which led to Marriages Weathercock Saxton Family, 334 Ainsty Warlow, German Place- name Con- Contraction " Kavison " Authors of Quo- tations Wanted Sorrow's ' Turkish Jester ' Verschoyle : Tolden, 335 Cosas de Espafia Cromer Street Names of letters Louis XIV.'s Heart "Ledig": "Leisure" Bigg, the Dinton Hermit, 336 Curetou's Mnltanis Sir Harry Bath : Shotover Local Government Records Mrs. Humby, Actress Shorter : Walpole Bibliographical Notes on Dickens and Thackeray, 337 Bridger's Hill Pillion : Flails, 338.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Coryat's Crudities' Bleackley's ' Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold ' " New Universal Library " ' Worcestershire Place-names ' ' Charities of Braintree 'Trench on Words.

PRIVATE HISTORY OF THE COURT OF

ENGLAND.' (See 5 th S. ii. 208, 277, 318.)

No one ever has responded to the request of a reader of 'N. & Q.' who more than thirty years ago (5 th S. ii. 277) desired a key to the two little volumes by Mrs. S. Green, published by B. Crosby & Co. in 1808 under the above title. This negligence appears strange, for of all the chroniques scandaleuses belonging to the dawn of the nineteenth century this book is the least disreputable and the most ingenious. Ostensibly a de- scription of " the private life of Edward IV. and his Court before the death of Henry VI.," it gives, in cryptic form, a bold sketch of the times in which it was written.

Naturally, the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.) appears with his proper title of " The Heir Apparent," and the authoress takes little trouble to conceal his identity under the guise of "Edward." His brother, the "Duke of Gloucester," is intended un- mistakably for the Duke of York, whom the writer describes as "warlike" and addicted to the "vice of drunkenness." On pp. 101-2

of vol. i. his mistress is mentioned, "a pretty little woman," whose "scanty suppers, and empty purse, became the jest of those youth- ful libertines who wished to pay homage to her for the sake of military preferment." Of course, the reference is to Mrs. Mary Anne Clark.

In chap. ii. of the same volume we seem to be introduced to Perdita (Mrs. Piobinson) under the sobriquet of " Maria de Rosen- vault." The prince, we are told, " found she was married," and " her husband worthless," while previously she had been persecuted by the attentions of "a nobleman of most licen- tious character " (vol. i. p. 25), doubtless " the wicked " Lord Lyttelton. After a short time the prince deserts Maria :

"Her sufferings became keen and poignant ; the sorrows of her heart were of the most corroding kind, and threatened a state of health, naturally delicate, and which was hastening rapidly to its decline."

Before her death she was "deprived of the use of her sylph-like limbs." Her connexion with General Tarleton is perhaps suggested (vol. i. p. 167).

The picture of Mrs. Fitzherbert, who appears in chap, vi., which is entitled ' A Crafty Widow,' is still more clear. "Lady Elizabeth Grey" was "some years older than Edward " (i.e., George) :

"Her embonpoint added lustre to the most deli- cate and transparent complexion she was a firm

adherent of the Church of Rome nothing indeed

would satisfy her but a marriage [p. 70] and a

marriage without witnesses, hurried over by an itinerant priest, was, however, the tie that bound this lady, who was then in her wane, to a young

and accomplished prince who built her a

sumptuous pavilion."

A " Baron de Somerville " (i.e., Lord Hugh Seymour), who " died of a malignant fever but a few months before his wife," left his only daughter (i.e., Horatia Seymour) to the care of " Lady Elizabeth Grey." A lawsuit followed concerning the custody of the child, which makes the interpretation obvious.

Other mistresses of "Edward" (George!) are mentioned :

" He seemed possessed of a kind of mania for the

charms of elderly ladies he formed a connection

with Lady Conyers [i.e., Frances Twysden, Lady Jersey], who expected every day to become a grand- mother so lost were the Prince and his venerable

chert, amie to every sense of decency, that we are credibly assured he sent this lady to escort the Princess Bona of Savoy [i.e., Princess Caroline of Brunswick] to England."

Another siren, " Mrs. Anne Muncaster," also

"captivated Edward a lady who could

take a stoop of wine with any hard-drinking lord " Other scandalous suggestions seem