Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/457

 s. v. MAY 12, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

377

of that kind, had the same notions about the last Sunday in the term. This particular school ceased to exist some years ago, at a time when these private schools went under by dozens ; but I should think the tradition is living elsewhere still.

HAROLD G. DANIELS. Press Club.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS : HIS ANCESTRY (10 th S. v. 269). Descended from an illus- trious family of Campania, in the kingdom of Naples, he was son of Landulphe, Comte d'Aquin, Seigneur de Lorete et de Belcastro, and grandson of the famous general Thomas d'Aquin, Comte de Sommade, who com- manded the army of the Emperor Frederick I., and who married the Emperor's sister Fran- ^oise de Soiiabe, daughter of Frederick, Due de Soiiabe, and Judith of Bavaria. St. Thomas was great -nephew of the Emperor Frederick I., nephew of the Emperor Henry VI., and in the third degree of the Emperor Frederick II. His mother Theodora, daughter of the Comte de Theate, of the house of Caraccioli, descended from the Norman princes who drove the Saracens and the Greeks from Italy, and conquered the two Sicilies, of which they became kings in the eleventh century.

Malvenda says that the Seigneurs d'Aquin had the title of Comte from the time of Charle mange. CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield, Reading.

Dr. Robert Owen, in his 'Sanctorale Catholicum' (1880), states that Count Lan- dulph, the saint's father, sent him, "at the age of five to Monte Cassino to be nurtured with other noble youths, as the manner was." Later, he went to Naples to study under Master Peter of Ireland. HARRY HEMS.

'REBECCA': A NOVEL (10 th S. iii. 128, 176, 293,435; v. 72, 117). There has recently come into my possession a small 12mo volume, published at Burton-on-Trent in 1822, entitled 'Realities and Reflections in which Virtue and Vice are Contrasted,' by Ann Catharine Holbrook mark the spelling of both Christian name and surname who is, by many, considered to be the writer of 4 Rebecca.' Upon the fly-leaf is inscribed "A scarce volume, by this little - known Staffordshire authoress." Therein is also pasted a cutting (apparently from some book catalogue) quoting another work of Mrs. Holbrook's called " The Dramatist ; or, Memoirs of the Stage. With the life of the authoress, &c. Birmingham, 1809." It is claimed for 'Realities' that the incidents

depicted are taken from " real life," and they form a series of " Tales, Moral and Instruc- tive," addressed to the young.

After careful comparison, I find many indications that point to Mrs. Holbrook as the writer of these short stories and of the novel. The same highly religious tone per- vades both, with a marked similarity in several of the characters, and the inflexible resolve that villainy should be exposed and punished. Moreover, in the list of sub- scribers given at the end of the booklet are residents at Ashby the surnames of " Rebecca." Does not this fact offer a valuable clue to identity ? For we know how often writers of fiction have sought for their heroes and heroines the names of places familiar to them.

I may add that search is still being pro- secuted in likely quarters for the missing third volume of 'Rebecca,' which it is hoped may soon be discovered.

CECIL CLARKE.

Junior AthenaBum Club.

LARGE PAPER MARGINS (10 th S. v. 147, 217). There is no reason why the margins of large-paper copies should not be equal all round, the width depending entirely upon the way in which the pages of type are placed in the "forme." Just now there is, I think, a fashion for narrow inner margins, and the peculiarity in the large-paper edition of * Walpole's Letters ' referred to by the HON. R. MARSHAM-TOWNSHEND may be due to this. The explanation offered by P. N. R. at the second reference is not satisfactory, as it can apply only to the case of a book which is imposed as a folio, that is, in sheets of four pages ; and it is hardly conceivable that an ordinary octavo could have been printed in this expensive way. lam afraid lam becoming somewhatobscure to the non- technical reader, but my meaning will be made clear by opening out a number of ' N. & Q.' before cutting it, and noticing the arrangement of the pages. It will easily be seen that the attempt to produce a " large-paper copy " of f N. & Q.' by simply printing it upon a larger sheet of paper would produce a ludicrous result. I mention this because I once found that a librarian of great experience, whose name is well known to all your readers, was of opinion that the production of a " large-paper " copy was simply a matter of using larger paper, and did not involve the somewhat expensive process of reimposition. R. B. P.

WIG AN BELL F9UNDRY (10 th S. v. 168, 216, 257). The following is a short list of bells from the Wigan foundries of Ralph Ash ton