Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/39

 US. I. JAN. 8, 1910.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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small court leading out of a street known as Little Duke Street, between King Street and Pall Mall. Will some one familiar with the topography of this part of London about 1760 give me further information ?

HORACE BLEACKLE Y.

THREE CCC COURT. In 1761 there was a court so named on Garlick Hill, Thames Street. It is believed to have been so named after a sign of "The Three CCC." What was the origin of the sign ?

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

MEDMENHAM ABBEY : HELL-FIRE CLUB.

(10 S. xii. 4*67.)

MR. CLEMENT SHORTER'S recent contribu- tion leads one to hope that he contemplates a new and exhaustive biography of Wilkes, which is certainly much needed. We may rest assured that admiration for the fascinating " patriot n will not blind MR. SHORTER to the faults of his hero, and that he will be content to allow manifest virtues to condone obvious indiscretions. The story of John Wilkes is apt to lure one to- wards dangerous pitfalls, and even such a cautious critic as the late Mr. C. W. Dilke based some of his conclusions with regard to the ' Essay on Woman * upon false premises. In my bibliographical notes upon Med- menham Abbey I have discovered the follow- ing references :

1. 'The Poems of Paul Whitehead

with his Life ,* by Capt. Edward

Thompson (G. 'Kearsley, 1777). On pp. xxxiii-viii. of the Life is a full description of the " Franciscans " of Medmenham Abbey. Thompson was a scandalous writer of the period, and there is no doubt that he knew his subject. I have examined several of his poems in ' The Court of Cupid l with con- siderable care, and I found many of his statements corroborated by contemporary newspapers and magazines. What he says of Medmenham Abbey is worthy of atten- tion.

2. * Nocturnal Revels : or, The History of King's Place.' By a Monk of the Order of St. Francis. 2 vols. Printed for M. Goadby, Paternoster Row, 1779. The Introduction in vol. i. of this scarce book contains a description of " Medmenham Priory " and of the " Monks of St. Francis, 1 '-

w r hich might usefully be compared with Capt. Thompson's account. Still, I regard it with suspicion. This observation, how- ever, does not apply to the rest of the work, which is a valuable document.

3. ' The Grenville Papers.* Edited by W. J. Smith. 4 vols. 1852. In vol. i. p. 126 there is a possible allusion to Wilkes's association with the Monks of St. Francis in 1754.

4. ' Churchill's Poems.*' The Candidate,' written in 1764, contains a reference to Med- menham (11. 695-702). The Aldine edition, vol. ii. p. 221, has a note on the subject.

5. Town and Country Magazine. Vol. i. pp. 122-3 (March, 1769) contains an account upon which the description in ' Nocturnal Revels l ten years later was evidently based. Medmenham Abbey and the rites of the " Monks " are described at full length in vol. v. pp. 245-6. There is also a sketch of Sir Francis Dashwood's life in the ' His- tories of the Tete-a-Tetes,* vol. vi. p. 9.

6. ' Abbey of Kilkhampton ? (G. Kearsley, 1780). See the epitaphs on Lord Le De- spencer and Sir Thomas Stapleton, pp. 56, 100.

7. ' Index Librorum Prohibitorum.' Pisanus Fraxi (H. S. Ashbee). Privately printed, 1877. There is a note on Le De- spencer, p. 211.

8. ' Paterson's Roads l (ed. 1826), pp. 99-100.

For obvious reasons I have selected the more obscure references, as no doubt MR. SHORTER has collected the better-known ones, such as those of Walpole and Wraxall. No apology is necessary for consulting even the most seemingly worthless authority. As Taine remarked, " II n'y a pas de mauvais documents."

Is there any evidence that the Order of the Monks of St. Francis at Medmenham Abbey (which does not appear to have been styled the Hell-Fire Club till late in the century) was founded as early as 1742 ? George Knap ton's picture of Sir Francis Dashwood adoring the statue of Venus is said to have been painted in this year, for bhe Society of Dilettanti, but this in itself is not sufficient to indicate the date of the foundation of the " Franciscans."

In addition to the above documents, MR. SHORTER should examine the contemporary caricatures in the Print-Room at the British Museum, where he will be able also to con- sult the ' Catalogue of Prints and Draw- ngs.' I would refer him to the ' Satires,'' Division I. vol. iii.;'part ii. pp. 1239, and