Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/396

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MOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. OCT. 26, 1907.

Append the following as an illustration of their character. Inserted before p. 222, vol. i. is the following holograph letter from Mrs. Piozzi to Dr. Lysons :

Sunday, 16 March, 1794, Hanover Square.

DEAK MR. LYSONS, Knowing that you are curious about publick advertisements, I consider myself as less to be blamed for what 1 have been doing this Morrig. Our Groom hearing much Talk yesterday at an Alehouse concerning somewhat contained in the Newspaper, he brought it hither .to me: & I copied out what follows from the Daily Advertiser of Saturday, March 15 :

" Extraordinary Appearance in the Moon. A Lady passing over London Bridge on Monday, the 3 d of February, was accosted by a Boy under seeming Agitation of Spirits, who pulling her by the Gown earnestly requested her to look at the Moon, which he was inclined to believe from its alarming Appearance was not the Moon. The Lady looked up, and to her great Surprize saw the Moon rock for a considerable time, & when it ceased She saw the appearance of great Armies of Soldiers, both Horse k Foot, pass over the Orb. This the Lady as well as the Boy saw repeated three Times between eight & nine o'Clock in the Even*. If the Boy or any one to whom he may have mentioned this Circumstance should see this Advertizement & will call on Mr. Clarkson, China Man, Market Street, S e James's Market, or send a line to A. B. to be left there, mentioning when & where he may be spoken to, he shall be handsomely rewarded."

Well ! when early Prayers were over at S 1 Georges this Morn*, I ran down to Clarkson's & beg* 1 to see the Lady. She was not visible, but the old Man of the Shop said his Friend M r Scott of Suffolk Street was the person who interested himself in the business, that he was a Studied Gentleman, that he was persuaded of the Lady's Veracity, & took all possible pains to gain Corroborating Evidence from the Boy, for whom he had repeatedly advertised, but hitherto without Success. Meantime I, who till then had thought the whole Matter a Joke or April Fool Trick, was examined as to my Residence, .and being hard pressed to tell where M r Scott should

direct to me I took the monstrous Liberty (for

which I beg your Pardon and Indulgence) to say if they would write all particulars to the Rev: Daniel Lysons, Putney, it would be the same thing as to myself.

And now here comes your Brother to help obtain my forgiveness from you, & request you to open a,ny Letters on this curious Subject which are meant for Your much Obliged

H. L. PIOZZI.

Rev. Daniel Lysons, Putney.

No elucidation of the mystery is recorded in the volume, but on the next page is pasted & curious broadside (of the description which used to be called a " cock ") rudely printed, and headed by an irrelevant woodcut of George and the Dragon, in which the same story is told, accompanied by pious refer- ences to similar wonderful occurrences.

J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

HATS WORN IN THE ROYAL PRESENCE. <See 8 S. vii. 148, 338, 391 ; 9 S. viii. 368,

452 ; ix. 34.) It should be noticed that in one case, that of Richard Verney, age may have been some plea for licence. In 1516 Verney was 52 : was this then a considerable age ? He died the next year. Six genera- tions of the family ran from 1489 to 1630, which gives an average age of 24 for the birth of an heir. Richard Verney 's father died 23 years before, his son Sir Thomas only 10 years after him. His great-great- grandson died at the age of 67. $

In the same age, from Simon Montford, who married Anne, d. of Sir Richard Verney, six generations covered 170 years, or an average of 28 years for each generation.

P. M T.

Botri/roN & WATT IN AMERICA IN 1786. Much has been written about the great Soho firm, but the subject is by no means exhausted, and it may be useful to put on record for the benefit of future writers that on 27 May, 1786, one Barnabas Deane, on behalf of Boulton & Watt, petitioned the Assembly of the State of Connecticut for the grant of an exclusive right for making and erecting steam-engines. The application was refused. The names of Boulton fe Watt are not mentioned, but the inventors are described as having obtained an Act of Parliament in Great Britain giving them an exclusive right to the invention for twenty- five years, so there is no doubt about the identity. I take this from the Report of the United States Patent Office for the year 1850, p. 444. R. B. P.

BURTON'S ' ANATOMY or MELANCHOLY ' : PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. The concluding paragraph of Mr. A. H. Bullen's introduction to the ' Anatomy of Melancholy ' (ed. by the Rev. A. R, Shilleto, G. Bell & Sons, 1893, &c.) begins :

" How comes it that the editio princeps of the 'Anatomy' is not in Christ Church Library? 1 have seen and handled the copy of the second edition (bearing his inscription) that he presented to the college, but where is the quarto ? "

The answer to the last question is, I think, "In the British Museum." The Museum copy of the first edition (press-mark C. 45, c. 30, formerly 715, e. 2, which is crossed out, while at the right-hand top corner of the title is 3 R f ) is entered in the Catalogue as containing Burton's autograph. On [a 2] verso, a blank page, the dedication occupying the recto, is this inscription :

1621

Ex dpno Rqberti Burton

authoris, ^Edis huiusce alumni.

(On the title-page of Burton's ' Philoso-