Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/127

 10 s. VIIL AUG. 10, loo:.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

101

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1907.

CONTENTS.-No. 189.

NOTES :' Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne,' 101 Jubilee of 'The City Press,' 103 Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' 105 Cape Town Cemetery Knoydart : its Pronunciation Hume and Rousseau, 106 'Don Quixote ' in English Literature Possessive Case of Nouns ending in S " Mocock " : its Meaning C. F. Blackburn, 107.

QUERIES rJohn Newbery's Portrait Song on Railway Travelling Erasmus's Ape Richard Harman, 107 Devil's Island Rev. R. Grant " Haberdatz " French Testament, 1551 C. C. Pierquin, 108 Authors of Quota- tions Wanted Pie : Tart Embleton of Northallerton Pre-Reformation Parsonages Jane Austen's Relatives " Eie sores " ' The North London Ferret/ 109.

REPLIES: Zoffany's Indian Portraits Robert Grave, Printseller, 110 Crosby Hall Moravian Chapel, Fetter Lane Monks of St. Ebrald at Eton, 111 " Practice," a Rule of Arithmetic Croppenbergh or Coppenburgh Bishop Best Isles Family, 112 Beddoes Surname- Panel Inscription " Breese " in 'Hudibras' "Totter- out," 113 MacKeachan Proverb Queen Mary L at Wormley ' Sobriquets and Nicknames ' " Bladum " : " Siligo "Houses of Historical Interest, 114" Wound" its Pronunciation Dollars : " Bits " : " Picayune " Burns's Mensuration School" Edward " in Slavonic Col. Cromwell, Royalist, 1646 Cornish Vergers: Came Family, 115" Caveac " Tavern Lady-bird Folk-lore " Dapifer " : " Ostiarius," 116 J. G. Marvin" Slink " : " Slinking "Newspaper " Editions "Richard Baxter on the Pied Piper, 117.

NOTES ON BOOKS :' Early English Lyrics 'Canon Beck's History of Rotherhithe Irish Association for preserving the Memorials of the Dead' Wine, Women, and Song ' ' Poems of Patriotism ' ' North Wales ' Routledge's New Universal Library Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

BOIGNE.'
 * MEMOIRS OF THE COMTESSE DE

I HAVE lately finished reading the English translation of this delightful book, and have also seen several notices of it in the daily and weekly press. The reviewers, with the courtesy due to a very charming lady, have refrained from treating the book in a critical spirit. They have generally given readable summaries of the contents, ,nd have left any slips that they may (or may not) have discovered to take care of themselves. Some of these, such as the inaccurate account of Lady Hamilton's arly days, are easily corrected by every well-informed reader ; others require a little research. I will venture to note a few matters regarding the authoress and her family which caught my eye while reading the book. The translation, so far as one can judge without seeing the original, seems to be extremely well done ; but the editorial part of the work leaves something to be desired. In justice to the authoress it should be stated that the book was written from memory, when she was verging on the age of sixty, and that she admits that

there are probably many errors in dates, places, and possibly in facts. These errors are much fewer than might have been expected, and none of them detracts from the essential merits of the book.

On the father's side Madame de Boigne belonged to a good old Norman family, which ranked among the lesser noblesse of the provinces. The hereditary possessions of the family, having been increased by some fortunate marriages, were erected into a marquisate by the young King Louis XV. in 1719. Rene Eustache d'Osmond, the father of Madame de Boigne, was the great- nephew of the original grantee of the dignity. In the note on the family which forma Appendix II. of the book it is stated that " St. Osmond was Bishop of Salisbury after having enjoyed the title of Duke Dorzet [Dorset ?], which has since passed to the house of Sackville." It is sometimes stated that St. Osmund enjoyed the earldoms of Dorset and Somerset, but there are no grounds for thinking that he was a collateral ancestor of the Marquis d'Osmond, and the claim is ignored in the account which is given of the family by Magny in the ' Nobili- aire de Normandie,' 1862, pp. 265-73. Osmund was a common enough name in the eleventh century.

Madame de Boigne's maternal ancestry was of a far more interesting character. The family of Dillon, sprung from an Anglo- Norman stock, had been settled in Ireland since the time of King John, and in the course of years had become more Irish than the Irish themselves. Robert Dillon, her grandfather, belonged to a branch which possessed Kilcornan Castle for several generations ; but his father, as the son of a younger brother, settled in Dublin as a banker and merchant. Robert went to Bordeaux, engaged in the wine trade, and, on the strength of a small property which he had acquired, became known as the Seigneur de Terrefort. It could hardly be expected that a Dillon would succeed in business, and Robert was a decided failure. His first wife had been Martha, the daughter and coheir of William Newland of Gatton, by whom he had one daughter, Christiana, who was the wife of Sir Edward Swinburne, fifth baronet of Capheaton, and the great- grandmother of the illustrious poet of our own days. He married secondly Mary, daughter of Edward Dicconson of Wright- inton Hall in Lancashire, whose wife Mary was the sister of Sir Edward Blount, fourth baronet of Sodington. It was not Miss Dicconson's father who was tutor to the