Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/9

 ao s. vii. JAN. 5, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

1

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1007.

CONTENTS. No. 158.

JfOTES : Fairy-haunted Kensington, 1 Lady Anne Hoi- bourne, 2 Dodsley's Famous Collection of Poetry, 3 "First -Footing," A.D. 1907, 5 Cardinal Mezzofanti : Jeremiah Curtin King Alfonso's Marriage Guevara Inscriptions at Stenigot : " Potie " Warden, 6 Admiral Benbow's Death" Firgunanum " Christ's Hospital at Hertford" Churchyard Cough "Long Public Service, 7.

QUERIES : " Unconscionable time dying "--" Thune ": " CEil-de-boeuf," French Slang Words T. Cayerley : Jean Cavalier Gamelshiel Castle, Haddingtonshire George Stepney Eleanor of Castile Rev. R. Bauthmel, 8 Cantus Hibernici ' " Unbychid " H. S. Kemble 'London and Neighbourhood,' 1750 ' Sea- Voyage of Aloysius' Romney's Ancestry Isle of Man and the Countess of Derby Doncaster: Image of the Blessed Virgin, 9 Authors of Quotations Wanted Boddington Family Officers of State in Scotland John Stivens Scott Illustrators, 10.

.REPLIES : First Female Abolitionist, 10 St. Oswald: "Gescheibte Turm " Cowper, Lamb, or Hood? Mar- quise de la Fayette "Mony a pickle maks a mickle " "The Maghzen," 11 Authors of Quotations Wanted "Ito": "Itoland" "Forest of Oxtowe" Bibliqtheca Farmeria.na Carlyle on Religion Myddelton Family, 12 Illustrations of Shakespeare Andre George Eliot and Dickens St. George's Chapel Yard, Oxford Road Oscar Wilde Bibliography Richard Humphries, the Prize- fighter Monkeys stealing from a Pedlar, 13 Walton, Lancashire West Indian Military Records " Quap- ladde" "Poor Dog Tray," 14 March 25 as New Year's Day Ausone de Chancel, 15 A Knighthood of 1603 Dole Cupboards, 16 Sante Fe", 17 Courtesy Titles, 18.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Sheridan's Dramatic Works ' Dod's Peerage ' ' Clergy Directory ' ' Literary Year- Book ' ' Whitaker's Almanack ' ' Whitaker's Peerage ' "Muses' Library." Obituary : Mr. Arthur Hall.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

FAIRY-HAUNTED KENSINGTON.

IN choosing Kensington Gardens for the haunt of Peter Pan and his elfish companions, Mr. J. M. Barrie has followed the example of an early eighteenth-century poet, Thomas Tickell, who peopled the same district with a fairy host who

played

On every hill, and danced in every shade. Tn Tickell's time Kensington Gardens was a fashionable resort, where, he tells us, The dames of Britain oft' in crowds repair, To gravel walks and unpolluted air ; Here, while the Town in damps and darkness lies, They breathe in sunshine and see azure skies. But charming as Kensington was to the beaux and belles of early Hanoverian days, the poet assures us that Far sweeter was it when its peopled ground With fairy domes and dazzling towers was crowned.

In the dim past the seat of Oberon, the Elfin king, was situated here. Only fairies were admitted into the beautiful domain that surrounded his palace, except when some daring elf stole a mortal child from

the matron's bed And left some sickly changeling in its stead.

Thus it was that young Albion, a prince of Britain, came to the haunts of the fairies, was fostered by them, and grew to be tho wonder of the wood for height, and strength, and beauty :

His lofty port his human birth confest ;

A foot in height ! How stately did he show !

How look superior on the crowd below ! A fairy princess falls in love with him, and he returns her affection with equal warmth.

Beneath a lofty tulip's ample shade they sigh their love into each other's ears, and plight their troth

In words so melting that, compared with those, The nicest courtship of terrestrial beaux Would sound like compliments from country clowns To red-cheeked sweethearts in their homespun gowns.

King Oberon, all unseen, watches their passionate love-making, and overhears their vows. He had cherished other views for Kenna's future, and is furious at what he has seen and heard. He decrees, as a punishment for the luckless pair, the im- mediate banishment of Albion from fairy- land and the speedy marriage of Kenna to another lover, Azuriel, whose large and fair domains stretched

Where the skies high Holland House invades.

We need not pursue the story further than to say that the death of Albion in battle is followed by the destruction of the fairy kingdom and the dispersal of the fairies. All except heart-broken Kenna seek a home elsewhere. She continued to haunt the grove where her mortal lover, trying to say,

" Kenna, farewell ! " had sighed his soul away. Her faithful attachment to scenes endeared by the memory of a lost love has been rewarded by the bestowal of her name upon " the neighbouring town " of Kensington.

Such in brief is Tickell's story, and, after the lapse of a hundred and eighty-four years, the fertile fancy of another imaginative writer has once more given to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. Kenna's home is again alive with fairies, and, aided by the fantastic pencil of Mr, Arthur Rack- ham, Mr. Barrie has conjured up for us a twentieth- century vision of the doings of the " little people " of Kensington, about whose loving and fighting Thomas Tickell tried to interest our ancestors in the days when George I. was king.

Tickell may be safely classed among the forgotten poets, though he wrote a good deal, was the companion of Addison, and in one instance appeared as the rival of Pope. He was a North-Countryman, a