Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/373

 .V.APRIL 2i. 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

305

The "notable and un- known Dickens letter " dated 8 June, 1870. I *' I have always striven in my writing to express veneration for the life and lessons of our Saviour, because I feel it.

" I rewrote that his- tory for my children, every one of whom knew it from hearing it re- peated to them long before they could read, and almost as soon as they could speak.

" I have never made proclamation of this from the housetops."

Dickens's letter to me

dated 7 December,

1861.

" When I exercise my art, one of my most con- stant and most earnest endeavours has been to exhibit in all my good people some faint reflec- tions of the teachings of our great Master. Over and over again, I claim them in express words as disciples of the Founder of our religion ; but I must admit that to a man, or woman, they all arise and wash their faces, and do not appear unto men to fast.

" My reverence for the Divine Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount is not a feeling of to-day.

I married very young,

rge famil of children. All of them,

and h*,d a large family

from the first to the last, have had a little version of the New Testament, that I wrote for them, read to them long before they could lead ; and no young people can have had an earlier knowledge of, or interest in, that book. It is an insepar- able part of their earliest remembrances."

I published Dickens's letter in 1871, in a small volume entitled ' Home and Abroad,' pp. 127-8, and I think Forster quoted it in his ' Life of Dickens.' The letter now quoted in the newspaper paragraph is so like it in an abridged form, and yet dated nearly ten years later and written with a different object, that it would be interesting to have fuller informa- tion about the old book in Upper Hollpway its title and author, the point to which the letter was a reply, and the ground for regarding the letter as genuine and inde- pendent. DAVID MACRAE.

Maxwell Park, Glasgow.

WALTER LYNN'S STEAM-ENGINE. (See 7 th S. vii. 241; 9 th S. v.^64.) At the second refer- ence a query of mine will be found respecting an improvement in Savery's engine, men- tioned in an advertisement in The Daily Courant of 24 July, 1721. No name was given in the advertisement, and I asked for information as to the projector. None of your readers was able to assist me, but I am now, thanks to the suggestion of a friend, able to answer my own question. The advertisement was obviously issued by Walter

Lynn, whose ' Case ' is printed at length by MR. VV. E. A. AXON in a communication which appeared in ' N. & Q.' at the first reference given above. There is a notice of Lynn in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' but the principles of construc- tion of his engine are not known ; and r indeed, there is an air of concealment and mystery both in the 'Case' printed by MR. AXON and in the advertisement in The Daily Courant. He was a member of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding, and amongst the possessions of that body is a handbill, measuring seven inches and a quarter by six inches, bearing the following words :

"This is to inform the Curious, That there is to- be seen at the house near the toirn hall. From Nine in the Morning till Eight at Night, without Loss of Time, A Most curious Fire Engine in Miniature, which is frequently used to draw off the water from Coal Pits, it representing one in Derbyshire, at the Lead Mines, which draws up 700 Hogsheads of Water in one Hour, fourscore Ells deep. This- Engine works with a small Fire in a Chafing Dish, at the same time turns a Water-Mill, and rings a Set of six Bells. Note, This inimitable Piece of Workmanship, has been shewn in many Parts of this Kingdom to the general Satisfaction of all

Gentlemen, Ladys, c., that has seen it The

Person that shews it was the inventor and Maker."

Dr. Marten Perry, who is, I believe, treasurer of the Gentlemen's Society, in sending me a photograph of the handbill, expresses his belief that it refers to Walter Lynn's steam-engine, although there is no direct evidence upon the point. The words in italics are written, a space being provided for the insertion of the place of exhibition.

E. B. P.

EXCHEQUER TALLIES. Exchequer tallies are so rare that I may perhaps be permitted to describe three that came into ray posses- sion in 1861, bought at a sale in the East India House prior to its demolition. Two of these 3 ft. 10^ in. and 3 ft. 11-J in. respec- tively bear each twenty-five broad notches, representing, as I think, 25,000. These tallies are exactly like one in the possession of Lord Avebury, figured (No. 5) in the illus- tration to a paper by Mr. Philip Norman in TheArchceolocjical Journal, vol. lix. pp. 283-305. The inscription on each of my two tallies is as follows :

D Unit Societ Merca Anglo ad Ind Orient Negot in part xiiij Excheq Bill con p servit diet Societ p Act Parl A xiij R s Georg Tert

Mag Brit

Above the figures xiiij are illegible signs of letters, presumably carrying the total to 1,400,000/., the amount authorized by