Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/146

 NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. VIL FEB. 9, 1907.

,v Fdward Bumpus last December, in which one of the items is Howe's edition of Shake- speare's works (7 vols., including the rare volume of the * Poems,' 1709-10). This is stated to contain "numerous plates, 1 H^des the engraved frontispiece and vignette portrait, The six mentioned by MB. TUDOR would hardly come under that description, so that I ain afraid his copy must be an imperfect one, so far at least as the illus- trations are concerned.

S. BUTTERWORTH.

It is apparent that MR. TUDOR'S set of the 1709 edition is very imperfect. The fact of a book showing no trace of the removal of leaves is a somewhat untrustworthy test of its completeness. It is very easy to remove plates or pages when rebinding, and occasionally books are actually imperfect when they first leave the publishers. The edition in question to be entire should exhibit a frontispiece portrait and a full-page plate before every play. Perfect sets can be consulted at the British Museum and at the Bodleian. Birmingham and Cambridge also possess sets. WM. JAGGARD.

J. L. TOOLE (10 S. vi. 469). Possibly the following may be of some use :

"It was at the Hay market Theatre on the 22ud of July. 1852, or rather on the 23rd of that month, that he [Toole J made his first essay as an actor, the u -casion being the benefit of the stage-manager Mr.

Frederick Webster an evening's entertainment

of extraordinary length 'The Merchant of

Venice ' in four acts ; then a concert ; and next the comedy, in three acts, of 'Mind Your Own Busi- ness,' with the entire strength of the Haymarket Company; followed by * Keeley worried by Back- bone '; and at nearer one o'clock than twelve, Toolc, as Simmons, in * The Spitalfields Weaver,' must have made his first acquaintance with the London stage as a regular actor."' Representative Actors,' by W. Clark Russell, 1888, p. 423.

Mr. Russell gives the above from " a correspondent," not named. It is not clear whether the correspondent speaks of Toole's first appearance as a regular actor at any theatre or at a London theatre If the MS. note quoted by MR. BULLOCK and the account given above are both true it is curious that Toole's first appearance o: all and his first London appearance as a professional actor should have both been on >; benefit " nights.

In the obituary notice in The Times o 31 July, 1906, is the following :

" Mr. Toole, at the age of 20, appeared for on night at the Ipswich theatre, and joined a dramati club at the Walworth Institute. It was there tha he made the acquaintance of his firm friend anc admirer, Charles Dickens, who had heard of hi

alent and had come to see him act It was

tiortly after Dickens had first seen him at Walworth Mr. Toole took a holiday in Dublin, where Charles Dillon, the manager of the Queen's Theatre, ersuaded him to act Simmons in ' The Spital- elds Weaver.' What correspondence had passed etween Toole and Dillon before the choice of )ublin as a holiday-resort we are not told. At any ate, Mr. Toole's success was immediate, and from iiat moment he became a professional actor." if ter a few lines about his doings in Ireland md Scotland, The Times says :

'In 1854 he made his first professional appearance London, at the St. James's Theatre, then under- lie management of Mrs. Seymour." The Dramatic Peerage,' by Erskine Reid and Herbert Compton, 1892, says (p. 218) hat Toole " made his appearance at the

ld Theatre at Ipswich 1852."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

JEtsalianmts.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Society in the Country Hone. By T. H. S. Escott..

(Fisher Unwin. )

THIS is just the book to afford delight to the eaders of ' N. & Q.,' for Mr. Escott has in its pages )ondensed the social experience and observations )f a lifetime as well as the literary work of several ears. In his dedicatory preface to Major Molineux le states that, "whenever it has been chrono- ogically possible, the country houses mentioned ire confined to those with which I am personally acquainted. Describing, therefore, chiefly, so far as was possible, persons and places actually visited
 * >y me, as a native of the south-west of England, I

lave naturally dwelt most on ground familiar from its earliest associations." Mr. Escott maintains that the country house only began to exist between bhe thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, the true founders being the franklins or squires, in whose homes there was food and talk to suit all tastes. " The men had their politics ; the ladies learned what were the latest novelties and vagaries in dress." At that time classes in the community were not separated from each other by the modern gulfs, and all persons of liberal calling or education were at least mutually as well known among themselves as members of a modern club. The franklin's hospitalities made him a power in the land, and he was far too wise a man to let them exceed his means. No one was welcomed with greater con- sideration than the doctor, and the guests would frequently receive from him remedial drugs, which he would produce from the recesses of his ample cloak. The length of the doctor's visit was not subject to restriction, but the ecclesiastic had to content himself with three days, lest he should be tempted to stay away too long from his spiritual cure.

In treating on ' The Fashionable South Downs ' Mr. Escott shows how prolific Stanmer has been in its social offspring : Brighton and the Pavilion were both its children. From these descended Bayham Abbey, Lamberhurst, and West Dean. It was on Sunday, the 7th of September, 1783, that the