Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/499

 io s. in. MAY 27, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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private records of the house of Orange, a well-known historian and a personal and intimate friend of such men as Rauke and Motley. He unfortunately died at an early age, but in his lifetime he owned a consider- able number of MSS. which were not sold by his father in 1825, and also a most glorious and extensive collection of family portraits, some of them by great masters, going back as far as the sixteenth century. All this is religiously kept by the descendant and head of the family till this day. If M. Falck, which to me seems unlikely, ever expressed himself on this subject as Mr. Turner asserts, it can only be attributed to his want of knowledge of the facts.

After all, although an excellent statesman, M. Falck was of foreign extraction, a new man in the Netherlands, and most likely knew little about the private history of the old patrician families, except the few with whom he might have been in daily contact. It strikes me, however, that the quotation is as vaporous as the title of baron with which Mr. Turner adorns his informant.

All this may be of only very secondary interest to the majority of your readers, but as this matter has been touched upon in your columns in a manner to give annoyance to the descendants of the late M. van Sype- steyn, I have no doubt that you will insert my letter in full as early as possible.

W. DEL COURT DE KRIMPEN.

3, Grenville Street, W.C.

THE EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCADILLY (10 th S. iii. 163, 236, 297, 334). I feel nothing but gra- titude to MESSRS. ABRAHAMS and CROMPTON for their remarks, especially to the latter gentleman (of whom I think I have some little knowledge), as my sole object is to be accurate and to give trustworthy information for the use of those who come after us. I would state that while the names of the automata first exhibited by Mr. Maskelyne Psycho and Zoe have always been firmly fixed in my memory, that of the third one, Fanfare, had entirely vanished ; and even with MR. CROMPTON'S courteous reply and my searches through a file of The Times, although there is no doubt that the name is as stated, it still only hazily returns to my recollection. In order to make these remarks as useful as possible, I would add that The Times of Saturday, 27 April, 1878, states that "Fan- fare, Mr. Maskelyne's first musical automaton, will be introduced for the first time on Mon- day evening next, the 29th inst.," and a notice concerning it appeared in the issue of the same journal for 30 April. The music played

by the automaton was "1 know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows," from 'Mid- summer Night's Dream,' and it took part in the duet 'Hearts and Homes,' and in the trio "Hark the merry elves" with Mr. Maskelyne and Mr. Cooke. There appears to have been some doubt as to the production of this figure, as the 'Era Almanack' for 1879 gives the date as 2 September in the previous year. Before its appearance there were many speculations (unofficial, of course) as to what its name would be, some perhaps suitable, and others the reverse ; and I feel pretty certain that Mephisto was among the number; hence, I suppose, my confusion on the point.

With reference to the first appearance of Messrs. Maskelyne & Cooke at the Egyptian Hall, I gave the date as about 1874, and colour was lent to that having been the year by the advertisement in The Daily Telegraph quoted by me at the first reference, which stated that the entertainment had been "estab- lished 31 years"; but I am glad to find that this matter has now been settled by MR. ABRAHAMS, who fixes the date as 26 May, 1873, thus proving MR. CROMPTON to be right.

With reference to the dates given for some of the earlier shows, I can only state that some were furnished to me, many years ago, by the late "Johnny" Gideon, who had a considerable reputation as a chronicler of theatrical and kindred events ; and the late Thomas B. Cleasby, who also noted such events, and was a relative or old personal acquaintance of Mr. Kenny, who was for some years with Col. Stodare, both at the Egyptian Hall and before his appearance there. I should also like to point out that Mr. H. B. Wheatley, in 'Round about Picca- dilly and Pall Mall,' gives the year 1846 as that in which General Tom Thumb was at this place, and also records the date for Catlin's show as 1841, the years being the same as those supplied by Mr. Gideon. It was Mr. Cleasby who gave me the particulars of the exhibition of Seurat, the Living Skele- ton, at the Egyptian Hall ; but as I have no means of verifying these, I can only say, in view of MR. CROMPTON'S very precise par- ticulars, that probably an error was made by my informant, as well as by Mr. Walford in ' Old and New London,' to which work I did not refer. I must take the sole blame for giving the date 1846 as that of the open- ing of Banvard's panorama, as I intended to write 1848, that being the date given to me. I am glad that MR. ABRAHAMS agrees with me as to the date of Albert Smith's ' To China and Back ' being 1859. It may be of