Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/81

 ii s. i. JAN. 22, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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line cheese. At a masculine table they eat with feminine forks and neuter knives, 011 masculine plates, feminine potatoes and neuter meat, or with masculine spoons take feminine soup and neuter vegetables."

ST. SWITHIN.

ROBINSON CRUSOE'S LITERARY DESCEND- ANTS : ' THE ADVENTURES or CAPT. ROBERT BOYLE l (10 S. xii. 7, 79, 417). The author- ship of the ' Adventures ? is variously attri- buted to William Rufus Chetwood (died 1766) and to Benjamin Victor (died 1778) ; but the weight of authority is in favour of the former; see 'Diet. Nat. Biog.,' Lowndes's 'Biog. Manual, 2 Allibone's 'Diet. Eng. Literature,' and Halkett and Laing's ' Diet. Anonymous, &c., Literature.'- The first publication seems to have been in 1728, with subsequent editions in 1787, 1797, 1804, 1814, and 1824. So far as I know, there is no later issue, but the book is occasionally catalogued as a second-hand item. W. B. H.

MARY, QUEEN or SCOTS : LADIES-IN- WAITING AT ANTWERP (10 S. xii. 489). In ' Murray's Handbook to Holland and Belgium * both ladies are said to have been named Curie. One of them received Mary's last embrace before her execution. The inscription to the memory of their mistress runs or used to run " Perfidia senat : et heret : post 19 captivit. annos relig : ergo caput obtruncata."

In this connexion may I be permitted to ask whether any attempt has ever been made to clear away the obscurity surround- ing the names of Mary's ladies-in-waiting ? All writers are agreed that two were present at her execution. Scottish historians give their names as Elizabeth Curie and Jane Kennedy ; on the other hand, Froude (' His- tory of England,' xii. 251) calls them Eliza- beth Kennedy and Barbara Mowbray, but states that the latter was the wife of Curie, Mary's French secretary. Which of these two accounts is to be trusted ? Are we to suppose that Scottish writers like Tytler, Hill Burton, and Taylor were incapable of stating accurately facts connected with their country's history ? Or must we Assume the discrepancy to be due to the ' ; incurable inaccuracy " of the great English historian ? W. SCOTT.

MERIMEE'S " INCONNUE " (11 S. i. 10). A friend, Miss Elizabeth (Lizzie) Balch, wrote a book of letters purporting to be the " Inconnue's " answers to Prosper Merimee, and I have more than once heard her say that she wrote them in a fortnight. This

is probably the book referred to, but it is so many years since I read it, that I no longer remember the title. H. A. ST. J. M.

The letters are assumed to be genuine, and the lady has been identified as Mile. Jenny Dacquin. See Alph. Lefebvre's " La Celebre Inconnue de Prosper Merimee, sa vie et ses ceuvres authentiques, avec documents, portraits et dessins inedits. Preface intro- duction, par Felix Chambon. Paris, E, Sansot & Cie., 1908.' ? C. W. SUTTON.

FUNERAL PLUMES (11 S. i. 10). A con- temporary copy, in my possession, of the undertaker's bill for Garrick's funeral (1779) throws some light on this subject. Among the items are the following :

A state lid of rich black ostrich plumes 011 three days, and carried in procession at the funeral, 2 10*.

A state rail covered with mourning and rich plumes of the best ostrich feathers, placed round the corpse three days and three nights, 5.

To 17 plumes of rich ostrich feathers on hearse and horses, 2 10.*.

To 6 plumes of rich ostrich feathers for the horses of the state coach, 1 10*.

To 30 plumes of ostrich feathers, velvets, and velvet hammercloths for the mourning coaches, 12 15s.

To 72 plumes of feathers, velvets, and velvet hammercloths for 12 mourning coaches, 31 12s.

To an extra rich and long Amozeen scarf, a do. hatband and a pair of open laced looped gloves for the Dean of Westminster, 4 10s.

The charge for hanging the churches of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Hampton, and Hendon (of which place Garrick was, I believe, Lord of the Manor), amounted to 811. 12s. ; and the total of the bill came to 1,4151. The executors appear to have thought the charges rather high, for there is a note at the end stating that, after allow- ing deductions made by Mr. Higgins and Mr. Skerrett, to whom the bill was referred for taxation, the total was agreed at 1,391Z. WM. DOUGLAS.

125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill.

The following lines are from the first edition of Blair's poem ' The Grave,'' which was published in 1743 :

But see ! the well-plum'd Herse comes nodding on

Stately and slow. See also 9 S. ix. 108. W. S.

'VORTIGERN AND ROWENA J (10 S. xii.

508). The history of this anonymous work is rather complicated. It was written by Sir H. B. and Lady Dudley. Unless I am mistaken, it first appeared in 1778 under the title of ' Shakespeare's History of the Tunes,'- 12mo, pp. iv-76. Then it was enlarged, and