Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/547

 io- s. m. JUNE io, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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with a contemporary impression of this seal, and by this means the owner might be traced.

WM. NORMAN. 6, St. James's Place, Plumstead.

SIR R, FANSHAWE. I am very anxious to trace the copy of ' II Pastor Fido,' by Sir R. Fanshawe, presented by him to Charles L, who has written in it "Dura spiro spero." It was sold some years ago by auction. I seek also a portrait of Sir R. Fanshawe as a young man, and the companion one of Lady Fan- sha%ve ; also letters written by Sir R. Fan- shawe from Spain and Portugal.

E. FANSHAWE.

132, Ebury Street, S.W.

g/plies,

THE EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCADILLY. (10 th S. iii. 163, 236, 297, 334, 411.)

IN reply to MR. HARLAND-OXLEY'S appeal for further information regarding this place and its occupants, I venture to add a few items from a large collection of bills, &c., issued from various centres of metropolitan entertainment, which I have in ray posses- sion. Unfortunately, it is difficult to fix an exact date for these exhibitions, as the year is generally omitted on the bills a defect which they share with the sheet playbills of the period. The following shows belong to the early "forties," when, as a youngster of tender years, I was initiated into the mysteries of London life.

First, as regards the date of Tom Thumb's advent. An undated bill states that " General Tom Thumb was born 11 January, 1832, and is consequently now twelve years of age." This fixes the date as 1844, and confirms the statement of MR. ALECK ABRAHAMS at p. 237, ante. The exhibition took place in " Catlin's Indian Gallery." Whether I attended it or not I do not remember; but a picture of the general, in the costume and conventional attitude of Napoleon, which was brought away from the exhibition, was a familiar object in the nursery.

The North American redskin was popular in the days when Fenimore Cooper was our favourite author. The "14 loway Indians" were exhibited by Mr. Catlin in his Indian Gallery, and the "Nine Ojibbeway Indians" were also presented under the guidance of Mr. Rankin. Nor were Transatlantic relics of earlier date wanting. " The Missouri Leviathan, with the largest and most interesting Collection of North American

Antediluvian Animal Remains in the World," opened our juvenile eyes many years before Master Tommy was frightened by a similar show in the grounds of the Crystal Palace. These remains were exhibited in the Upper Saloon, with a lecture at three o'clock daily by their discoverer, Mr. A. Koch.

" The Devonshire Giant Ox, bred by G. Newton, Esq., and weighing 3,750 Ibs.," was another attraction. It was advertised as such a mild and inoffensive animal that a child might play with it. Of a different description was Prof. Faber's speaking automaton, or "Euphonia," otherwise "The Only Universal Linguist." This wonderful creature could carry on a conversation with you in any language you liked to name.

We might finish up the evening with a " Model of the City of Venice, with brilliant effects of sunshine produced by a new arrangement of the Oxy-hydrpgen Light," and thereby presenting an object-lesson in the combined sciences of chemistry and topography. It must be remembered that we were brought up under Miss Edgeworth and "Harry and Lucy," and studied our political economy under Miss Martineau, which perhaps resulted in our taking our youthful pleasures a little more sadly than the children of the present day. But perhaps we were none the worse for that.

I cannot find a record of the " Living Skeleton " being exhibited at the Egyptian Hall. As stated by MR. CROMPTON, Claude Ambroise Seurat was " on show " at the Chinese Saloon in Pall Mall, where Mr. Hone visited him, and drew up an excellent description of him. But I think he must have been first exhibited at a rather later date than August, 1825. Hone's description is given in 'The Every-Day Book,' vol. i. col. 1017, the date of the number being 26 July, 1826, nearly a year later than the date given by MR. CROMPTON. Hone refers to a walk which the "Skeleton" took from the Gothic Hall in the Haymarket to the Chinese Saloon. This Gothic Hall seems to have faded out of public recollection. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

MR. CROMPTON may himself be glad of a minute correction to his reply on Seurat, the "Living Skeleton." There is in this library the original descriptive pamphlet issued by the exhibitors, with the title

"Interesting Account and Anatomical Descrip- tion of Claude Ambroise Seurat, called rAnatomie Vivante, or the Living Skeleton, now exhibiting at the Chinese Saloon, No. 94, Pall Mall, London. With three plates. Printed by \V. Glindon, Rupert Street, Haymarket. Price One Shilling."