Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/645

. iv. DEC. so. 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 535 letters deliberately consumed, but he also gives the reason. I need not go far afield to show how hazy information about Miss Sarah Curran appears to be ; for the pages of ' N. & Q.' a few years ago will prove it. It was then deraonstratec that a tradition was without foundation which attributed to her the later of the only genuine portraits of Percy Bysshe Shelley extant; the 'D.N.B.,'under Shelley, vol. Hi. p. 39, proves this. I have noticed that one oi his Majesty's ministers referred to Miss Curran as a pupil of Alary Wollstonecraft Cor that she appeared to be a true pupil) As Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter, this may possibly account for the confusion of Miss Sarah Curran with another Miss Curran who painted Shelley's portrait in Eome in 1819, when Sarah Curran had been dead many years. H. SIRE. 50, Twisden Road, Highgate. I accept ONLOOKER'S deserved rebuke for giving information at second hand which I could not verify. All through the present discussion I have had no desire to misrepresent the actions of Major Sirr or his son, and I am equally innocent of any desire to "foster idoliza- tion " of Robert Emmet or Sarah Curran. My interest in the men and women of 1803 is purely historical. I know Madden and Fitzpatrick are partisans, but there is unfor- tunately little history written in Ireland except by partisans. I quoted from ' The Sham Squire' simply because Sir J. Greg's narrative seemed to offer a natural and not offensive explanation of how the Rev. J. D. Sirr came to pen the note he did. I still think the note of J. D. S. was un- necessary and unwarrantable. All the wit- nesses were dead, and the correspondence had either been destroyed or had disap- peared ; certainly it could not be referred to tor confirmation or refutation. This is the view taken by Dr. Madden (' United Irish- men,' iii. 514), and I think most un- prejudiced persons will agree with him. MR. SIRR is mistaken when he states, "I believe Dr. Sirr's note about Miss Curran's and Emmet's correspondence never appeared in print until I sent it to 'N. and Q..1" for this note was printed in Madden's life of Emmet, forty-five years ago, to which I have already referred. Dr. Madden strangely omitted fro_m this note the words "upon my father's visit," and so wasted time in guesses about " J. D. S.," all wide of the mark. ONLOOKER and MR. SIRR do not seem to know how well the Sirr papers were ran- sacked, whereas the Hardwicke papers and those about 1803 in the Home Office furnished absolutely new material. The tender con- sideration shown by all the authorities to Sarah Curran surely offers little countenance to the alleged nature of some of her letters, and it is to be remembered that the letters must have been read at Dublin Castle ; yet in the secret confidential correspondence of the Lord Lieutenant and other officials no hint is given of any atrocious sentiments in them, though comment is freely made on the characters and sentiments of persons impli- cated in the insurrection. FRANCESCA. [FATHER W. SIRR, a nephew of Dr. D'Arcy Sirr, also Rends us a long letter, but we regret that our space will not permit us to insert more on this subject.] TOBY'S DOG (10th S. iv. 508).—I suppose that the preacher took for his text Tobit, v. 16: "The young man's dog [went] with them." For the " young man " was named Tobias, or, in modern English, Toby. WALTER V. SKEAT. The allusion is, of course, to the well-known story in the Apocrypha. T. D. T. THE AUTHOR OF ' WHITEFRIARS ' (10th S. iv. 447).—In reply to MR. NIKLD I can say that the boldness of the cataloguers of the British Museum is fully justified. Notwithstanding that they make some 4,000 corrections in their Catalogue annually, I should say they are generally right, as they are in this instance. Since 1868 (when her name did not appear in the Catalogue) there has been no doubt about the author of this novel of the Harrison Ainsworth breed," to repeat Allibone's quotation. For myself I need hardly make any excuse, as my book, quoted by MR. NIELD, was the first essay of the kind in English literature ; but I fear I am responsible for ''Jane." Halkett and Laing copied me; Cashing copied them. On 19 June, 1862, Miss Emma Robinson was given a Civil List pension of 75J. a year,* and according to the return to the House of Jotnmons she was still taking it in 1889. I lave never heard of her death. There was also in the same list a Mrs. Emma Robinson making a pension. My eldest sister, who knew Miss Emma Robinson in 1850, told me makes money by them is given a pension ; but a person who devotes many years of life to a biblio- graphy, and has to spend 500/. in publishing it, is informed that bibliography ia an officially unknown and unrecognizable quantity.
 * A person who gets novels published for her and