Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/511

 IO*B. iv. NOV. 25.1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 421 LONDON. SATUKDAY, NOVEUBRR K. 1905. CONTENTS.-No. 100. NOTES :— Nelson Memorial Rings. 421— The Jubilee of • The Saturday Review,' 422 — 'The Living Lihrarle,' 425 — Richard Bowes— Protestant— High Peak Words— Piuks's •History ol Clerkenwell,' «T. ' ji; K It ! KS :— Directory of Foreign Peers— Thomas Hood and I J. 1 1 1 u Us Jerrold— Population ot a Country Parish—" God's Blessing Farm " — King's Money — Steer Family— John Bowie, D.D.— Geoffrey Grin, Gent.— K.B.— Admiral Grey and the Relief of Derry — Tale of Russian Life, 428— W. Cole, Cambridge Antiquary— Hebrew Traditions — Slavery— Final e In Chaucer— Sir P. Jennings Clerke— Basil Montagu — Westland Marston — Shingle Berries- Samuel Whltchurch, Poet—' Hugh Trevor '— Bscutcheon ot Pretence, 429— Open-air Pulpits — Parker's Consecration and •' Suffragan " Bishops, 430. BEPLIES :— Scotch Communion Tokens, 430 — Trafalgar— Amateur Dramatic Clubs, 431— Prisoner suckled by his Daughter, 432 — " Catamaran " — Wakerley — Kingswav and Aldwych, 433 — " Beside" — Roderigo Lopez— "Famous" Chelsea — Louis XIV.'s Heart — Archbishop " . Catalogues of MSS.— " Undertaker "— Lynde or Delalynde Family— Anthony Bee, 438— Burns and the "Palace of Traqitair" — 'Jenetta Norweli,' a Lost Book — William Miller's Engravings— Cromwell House, Highgate— John Danister, Wykehamist, 487 — Tufnel Family— Ithamar— Mulberry and Quince, 438. DOTES OH BOOKS:— 'The Political History of Bngland, 1066-1216' — ' Gulliver's Travels'— Heine's Works— 'The Magazine of Fine Arts'— 'The Edinburgh Review'— ' A Quick Calculator '—Lamb and Wagner. Obituary :— Mr. James Sykes. Notices ti> Correspondents. goto, NELSON MEMORIAL RINGS. IN 5th S. v. 486 appeared from MR. MAURICE LENIHAN, of Limerick, the following query, which apparently received no reply :— " I have a memorial ring of the hero of Trafalgar, which, I think, deserves a note in ' N. & Q." It is of gold, the front black enamel, with the letter Jt under a baron's coronet, and the letter JtTunder a ducal coronet, and in the exergue, TRAFALGAR The letters are in gold on the black ground, and the coronet one heraldically displayed. On the back is the legend, ' Lost to his country, 21 Octr., 1805. Aged 47.' On the rim, in capitals, is the legend, PALMAM. QUI. MERCTIT. FERAT. Am I to suppose that rings of this description were generally worn after the death of Nelson ? or were they confined to a few mourners ? " The rings in question, of which I have seen several (one being my own property, inherited from my grandfather), were made by order of the executors of the hero of Trafalgar. The list, still existing, comprises sixty names, and is headed, " Persons to whom Mourning Rings were sent agreeable to the directions of the Rt. Hon. Earl Nelson and J. Basel- wood, Esq., executors of the late Lord Viscount Nelson, deceased." The names that follow are chiefly those of relatives and personal friends, whose descendants still possess the rings. One of these was recently shown to me in its original red-morocco case, lined with white satin, and on the label the name of the maker. This was very interesting, as it was none other than John Salter, so frequently alluded to in the Nelson dispatches as " Lord Nelson's silversmith." At p. 389, vol. vii. of Sir Harris Nicolas's work is the following refer- ence :— " On the 30th of August, 1805, Lord Nelson called very early in the morning at Mr. Sailer's, the silver- smith, in the Strand, and purchased a silver-gilt cup for Horatia; and there is in the possession of Mrs. Salter a paper that has been examined by the Editor," &c. The cup in question, given to Horatia, Mrs. Philip Ward, is still in the possession of her son, and is fashioned in the shape of a port- wine glass, inscribed " Horatia," and on the reverse side : " To my much loved Horatia, 21st August, 1806. Nelson & Bronte." " She used it," wrote Lady Hamilton to Mrs. Salter, "till I thought proper for her to lay it aside as a sacred relic." There still exists an old bill of John Sailer's to Lady Hamilton, dated January, 1800, to March, 1803, written in faded ink in two columns, many of the items evidently for presents. The name of Salter being thus familiar to me, and knowing it to be an old firm, I began to wonder if they produced the mourning rings which were made for Nelson's mother and grandmother (who died within ten days of each other during the Christmas season of 1767-8), and which are still in existence. They were probably made by order of Capt. Maurice Suckling, and are engraved "C. N. A. S., 1767-8" (for Catherine Nelson, died 26 December, 1767, and her mother, Anne Suckling, died 5 January, 1768). I therefore made inquiries, and found that the firm was still in the Strand under the name of Widdowson & Veal. Their courteous reply to my letter, although it shattered my ittle theory, is interesting :— " We are unable to give the exact year that John Baiter established this business, but it was pro- iiil>lv about 1780. Unfortunately, we have none of viit il of the particular Nelson mourning rings ; mi we know thai they were made here at that time, and we have repaired, old ones and made copies to replace lost ones ourselves. We should '•II you that over a door between our two shops we lave a fanlight of stained glass, which has a coat it' arms, under which is the name of John Salter. We had here in a glass case Lord Nelson's cocked lat, the one worn at Copenhagen ; but two or three rears ago Mr. Ball, the present head of the firm, ent it to the United Service Institution, where it
 * he books of the Salter period, and therefore no