Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/494

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. JUNE is, 1910.

CHEVALIER D'EoN : HIS DEATH. The

Times of 25 May contained a reproduction

of the account given by it a century earlier

of the death of this celebrated character :

From The Times of 1810.

Friday, May 25.

The following paragraph records the death of that very enigmatical personage the Chevalier D'Aeon :

LE CHEVALIER D'AEON.

This celebrated arid well-known character, who for some time officiated as Minister from the late Court oi France to that of Great Britain, died last Tuesday, at a very advanced age, at his residence, in Milman-street, Foundling Hospital. The Chevalier, it will be recollected, was for many years asserted, and implicitly believed to the last to be a female, of which sex for several years past he (for so we may now speak) wore the attire, &c. However, this curious question, and which will even now excite no small degree of interest in various circles, was on Wednesday set at rest, the body being dissected in the presence of some professional gentlemen, and the Earl of Yarmouth, Sir Sydney Smith, Hon. Mr. Lyttleton, Mr. Douglas, and several other persons of considera- tion. The following is a correct copy of the certificate of the professional gentleman who operated on the occasion :

" I hereby certify, that I have inspected and dissected the body of the Chevalier D'Aeon, in the presence of Mr. Adair, Mr. Wilson, and Le Pere Elizee, and have found the male organs hi every xespect perfectly formed.

(Signed) " T. COPELAND, Surgeon, Golden- square."

The notice seems worth preserving in the columns of ' N. & Q.'- JAMES CURTIS.

THE QUEUE IN ENGLAND. In connexion with the wonderful queue which gathered from Westminster beyond Vauxhall on 17, 18, and 19 May to see the lying-in-state of King Edward VII. in Westminster Hall, the following paragraph appeared in the London Letter of The Manchester Guardian of the last-given date :

" Origin of the ' Queue.' In the year of Queen Victoria's first jubilee, 1887, Mrs. John Wood, within a short distance of where the end of the great queue of mourners is to-day, was playing in Pinero's ' Dandy Dick ' at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square. It was there in July, 1887, that the French idea of a theatre ' queue ' was adopted tentatively ' by permission of the police.' "

As an old theatregoer, I should have placed the date half a dozen years earlier, and have associated the origination of the plan in London with the late Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte's opening of the Savoy Theatre in October, 1881 ; but it would be interesting to have the point settled.

It may be noted that, during the recent funeral proceedings, every constable to

whom I spoke, of whatever grade, carefully pronounced the word as " kwee '' ; and the bulk of the populace adopted the police pronunciation. A. F. R.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

CHEVALIER DE LAUBENCE ON HERALD BY. In Frasefs, vol. xxix. p. 27 (1846), I find a reference to this person as " the late," and as the author of a " little work n on heraldry, with " quaint and far-fetched notions " and a frontispiece of exceeding whimsicality. I cannot identify author or book in any biographic or bibliographic work. Who was he ? When and where was the work published, and what was its

title ? FOBBEST MOKGAN.

Hartford, Conn.

BUFF AND BLUE AS PABTY COLOURS. In these very political times an inquiry into the history of party colours in this country should have special interest. It would be interesting to know, for instance, how far there has been continuity of usage in successive generations, or uniformity in all parts of the country at any given time. There has probably been a considerable lack of both. Even regarding the precise form of a famous allusion to political colours there is an uncertainty which I hope the readers of ' N. & Q.'' will be able to dispel.

I refer to the words used by the Prince of Wales in proposing the health of the hostess at a banquet given by Mrs. Crewe on the morrow of the Westminster Election- Fox's historic election of 1784. According to Wraxall in his ' Posthumous Memoirs,' the Prince gave the toast of

True Blue

And Mrs. Crewe ;

to which the lady replied,

True Blue

And all of you.

In this form it is usually quoted, and reappears so in Mr. Sichel's ' Sheridan.' Yet one cannot but think that if there has not been a slip on Wraxall's part, there was something very near a slip on the Prince's : that the second line saved the situation for the first. For the colours of Fox and his party were buff and blue, and the buff was not less prominent than the blue. Fox wore in Parliament a blue frock-coat and buff