Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/572

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ifl* 8. HI. JUNE 17, i*

They got on very well, and at dessert they ate a Philopcena together that is to say shared a double almond. But the Prince forgot to say Philopcena, and lost the bet. He asked the artist what present he should give her, and she laughingly replied, 'Any pretty little animal that will do to paint.' The Prince smiled and departed. Nothing more was heard of him, and the lady had forgotten the whole affair, when quite lately the Royal forfeit arrived to wit, three enormous Polar bears."

EVEEARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

BENSON EARLE HILL (10 th S. iii. 162). In his 'Recollections of an Artillery Officer' the above author relates that on one of his visits to the forts and Martello towers, he was politely invited to shelter himself from a heavy shower by the master-gunner:

"This office is usually held by a civilian. On entering his room I was struck by the air of com- fort and elegance it presented. 1 could not resist congratulating him on his snug quarters. ' Ah ! sir,' he said, with a sigh, 'I endeavour to make myself as happy as I can under my present circum- stances ; but if I possessed my rights, I should now have a coronet on my brow.' I concealed my mirth at the figure presented to my imagination the master-gunner blowing his fire with a coronet on his brow. Some years afterwards, however, I learnt that his statement was true, and ascertained that he was father of Lord whose restoration to the Peerage was effected by the zeal and ability of a barrister celebrated for his genealogical re- search. My acquaintance, I am sorry to say, did not live to wear the wished-for coronet. He died whilst measures were in progress that gave his son the rank."

May I inquire to what peerage case this refers ? date probably 1810-22.

R. J. FYNMORE.

__ MADAME VIOLANTE IN EDINBURGH (10 th S. iii. 408). The following passages are to be found in the 'Autobiography' of Carlyle of Inveresk, pp. 46-8 :

"The next session of the College, beginning in November, 1737, I lodged in the same house, and had the same companions as I had the two pre- ceding years My acquaintance with Dr. Robert- son began about this time I became also

acquainted with John Home this year, though he was one year behind me at College, and eight months younger. He was gay and talkative, and a great favourite with his companions. I was very fond of dancing, in which I was a great proficient, having been taught at two different periods in the country, though the manners were then so strict that I was not allowed to exercise my talent at penny -weddings, or any balls but those of the dancing-school. Even this would have been denied me, as it was to Robertson and Witherspoon, and other clergymen's sons, at that time, had it not been for the persuasion of those aunts of mine who had been bred in England, and for some papers in the Spectator which were pointed out to my father, which seemed to convince him that dancing would make me a more accomplished preacher, if ever I had the honour to mount the pulpit. My mother,

too, who generally was right, used her sway in this article of education. But I had not the means of using this talent, of which I was not a little vain, till luckily I was introduced to Madame Violante, an Italian stage-dancer, who kept a much-frequented school for young ladies, but admitted of no boys above seven or eight years of age, so that she wished very much for senior lads to dunce with her grown- tip misses weekly at her practisings. I became a favourite of this dancing-mistress, and attended her very faithfully with two or three of my companions, and had my choice of partners on all occasions, insomuch that I became a great proficient in this branch at little or no expense."

W. S.

GUINEA BALANCES (10 th S. iii. 347, 413). I have one of these which belonged to my great - grandfather ; therefore about the latter half of the eighteenth century. It is enclosed in a small pear-shaped shagreen case, and consists of a scale and beam, with a small sliding counterpoise with a screw fine adjustment.

The beam is marked for quarter, half, and one guinea, while the screw adjustment of the counterpoise can be adjusted for from two to twelve grains. LAUNCELOT ARCHER.

A guinea weigher was figured and described in The Antiquary for July, 1899, vol. xxxv. pp. 216-17. G. L. APPERSON.

Wimbledon.

PRISONERS' CLOTHES AS PERQUISITES (10 tb S. iii. 369). Perhaps it may interest some of your readers to recollect the scene when Gil Bias suffered a similar treatment, being stripped of his own clothes and being made to put on some of a distinctly inferior quality (' Gil Bias,' ch. xiii.). H. T. S.

SIXTEENTH - CENTURY ECONOMIST (10 th S. iii. 369). Though I cannot give a precise answer to Q. V.'s query, my studies in the industrial history of this country have ren- dered me very familiar with the sentiments expressed by his unknown author. They appear constantly in petitions for patent privileges. In 1663 George, Duke of Buck- ingham, and others, presented petitions to the king on the subject of glass manufacture, and on 25 July, 1664, a royal proclamation was issued, prohibiting the importation of certain glass manufactures on the ground that the Venetians were flooding the markets with their wares at unremunerative prices, with the object of ruining " a manufac- ture lately found and brought to perfection." This measure of protection appears to have satisfied Buckingham, and to have exerted a favourable influence on the development of the native flint-glass industry. I have taken this from one of a series of papers on the