Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/420

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MAY 4, 1907.

representing the site of the old castle. The captain of the Club entertained his company by relating what Mr. Lloyd had written, and accepted it all as truth. The editor of the aforesaid journal also said " It is made still more memorable by the fact that Robert Bruce was once in hiding in th Chapel " ; and he concluded by asking if the place will "now be a pilgrimage for Scots."

It appears to me to be quite time to rele- gate this story of Hornsey to the realms of folk-lore, and to emphasize the fact that the author never represented it as truth, .although the "historians" have made plenty of copy out of it. I do not intend to enter into the history of the Lodge here, as I have fully treated it in my own ' History of Hornsey.' Let me merely state that Edward I. and his Court were at Harengeye

on friendly terms with the then rector

when the alleged events are supposed to have taken place, and that it is hardly possible to conceive that Robert Bruce would hide where his enemy was.

Miss Porter's authority does not mention the name of Highgate. She depends upon the account given by Hector Boece or Boethius and Scottish readers will know how little reliance can be placed on any- thing he said. The ' D.N.B.' states : " The gravest charge against Boece is that he invented the authorities on whom he relies."

JOSEPH COLYER MARRIOTT. 36, Claremont Road, Highgate.

FREE SOCIETY or ARTISTS. In the follow- ing paragraph, occurring in that execellent work ' The Royal Academy and its Members,' there are two slight inaccuracies that might be avoided in subsequent editions :

"In the following year, 1761, we find two Exhi- bitions. The artists had come to loggerheads ; the main body, styled henceforth the Society of Artists, continued its triumphant career ...... The seceders

formed a separate body, styling itself the Free

They continued to hold Exhi-

ty o Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in Mr. Christie's

Society of Artists. ey

bitions in the rooms of the Societ

of Arts, in

Rooms in the Haymarket, in Pall Mall, and in St. Alban's Street, until 1778, when the Free Society closed its books, divided the spoils, and vanished from history."

Apparently the title of " The Free Society of Artists " was not adopted until 1767. A volume of the catalogues before me provides the following variations of the title :

1761. Without title. Exhibiting in the " Great Room " of the Society of Arts.

1763. At the same place. " Under the Patronage " of the Society of Arts.

1765. " At Mr. Moreing's Great Room in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden." " By the Body of Artists associated for the relief of their Distressed Brethren, their Widows and Children."

1766. Same place and title.

1767. " At the Two New Great Exhibi- tion-Rooms in Pall Mall, next the Bottom of the Hay -market." " By the Free Society of Artists, associated for the Relief of their Distressed and Decayed Brethren, their Widows and Children."

1770, 1773, 1774. "At Mr. Christie's Great Room next Cumberland House, Pall Mall." Same title.

1776, 1778, 1779. "At their Exhibition Room in St. Alban's Street, Pall Mall." " By the Society of Artists (continued from the year 1759 upon the Original Institu- tion)."

The last catalogue was issued for the season following their supposed dissolution. The exhibition included work by James Stuart, Wheatley, James Basire, and Carter ; bu t these are the only prominent names.

ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N.

POLLY KENNEDY : POLLY JONES. There appears to be some uncertainty as regards the identity of these two famous courtesans, and in the interest of print collectors it would be well that this doubt should be cleared away. There is nothing dubious about the well-known mezzotint of Miss Kennedy by T. Watson after Reynolds, for this is a portrait of the redoubtable lady who saved her two brothers from the hang- man after they had been condemned to death for murder in April, 1770. Another engraving by Valentine Green after E. F. Calze is said by Bromley to represent Polly Kennedy, but is described in Boy dell's catalogue as Miss Jones. Chaloner Smith, while pointing out that it bears no resem- blance to Reynolds's portrait of the former lady, does not seem to think that it can represent the latter ; see ' Brit. Mezzo. Portraits,' p. 568.

Apparently this surmise arose from his belief (into which he was led by Bromley) that a celebrated Miss Polly Jones did not exist, and that the name Jones was an alias of Miss Kennedy. The Calze print, however, may very well be a portrait of the famous Polly Jones, for such a lady certainly was once alive, and, as readers of the Selwyn correspondence and the Castle Howard letters will agree, was quite a distinct per- sonage from the Polly Kennedy who saved