Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/179

 ii s. x. AUG. 29, 1911] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and it is obvious that the Southampton road misses it altogether, and goes by More- stead and Twyford (see Ogilvy, ' Britannia,' 1675). Then the highway came from Bagshot by Frimley, Aldershot, Farnham, Alton, and Alresford as now and Celia Fiennes rode that way in 1 695 ( ?) : ' Through England on a Side' Saddle,' p. 233. She came from Winchester, but the main Southampton road still misses Winchester in the earliest editions of Paterson's ' Itine- rary. "

" The Roman road from Winchester to Basingstoke seems to have been neglected till turnpiked."

I have expressed my acknowledgments to MR. BOOKER for these interesting comments.

J. LANDFEAR LUCAS. Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

'AUT DlABOLTJS AUT NlHIL ' (11 S. IX.

270 ; x. 139). When I first read this story on its appearance in Blackwood 1 s Maga- zine, my opinion of it was that of The Spectator, which spoke of it as " distinctly original, and in the highest degree imagi- native." There was also a notice of it in The Alhenceum for 6 Oct., 1888 the story having appeared in the October, and not the November, number of Blackwood for that year which sought to identify some .of the characters of the drama, and con- cluded by saying that " Parisian society is extremely anxious to know who X. L. is." In the Preface to the book published by Methuen in 1894 the author gave "an emphatic and unqualified denial to the rumour that the characters in this little drama are portraits," with the exception of the Prince of Evil himself, who is said to be " a photograph taken from life." In addi- tion to the title-story, the Methuen volume contained some other tales which had been originally published in Macmittan's Maga- zine, Pall Mall Magazine, and TempU Bar. Their names were ' A Waltz of Chopin,' ' A Kiss of Judas,' ' The Strange Story of a Diamond,' and ' The Luck 'of the 'Devil.' They are all of the strange, uncanny nature of the first story, and evince great powers of imagination.

Of the author himself, we can only learn that he had lived many years in Paris : that he was the friend of Victor Hugo and of several other distinguished French- men, as well as of Sir Walter Besant (to whom he dedicated his book); and that In- was a man of great cultivation and extensive reading. On the title-page of the

book he is described as " Author of ' Little Hand and Muckle Gold.' ' Like the Pari- sian public, I should certainly be glad to know more of a writer of such original gifts. Was " Julian Field " his real name, or merely a nom de guerre 'f I have sometimes thought that in " X. L." we should read " Exsul." W. F. PRIDE AUX.

TRANSLATION OF THE LIFE OF M. DK BENTY (11 S. x. 49, 98). PEREGRINUS requested information about E. S., who appears as the translator of a Life of M. de Benty (London, Tooke, 1684). If we turn to Gillow's ' Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics ' (London, Burns & Gates, 1885 ?), v. 499, we find the following notice under ' Sheldon, Edward, Esq.,' who proves to be E. S. :

"Born Apr. 23, 1599, third son of Edward Sheldon of Beoley, co. Worcester, Esq., by Elizabeth, dau. of Thomas Markham, of Ollerton, co. Notts, Esq. Entered Gloucester Hall, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner about 1013, became a student at Gray's Inn, Mar. 1, 1019/20, and matriculated as a member of University College, Oxford, iu Nov., 1021. He then travelled on the Continent for some years, during which time he acquired proficiency in French and Italian. Upon his return he settled on his patrimony at Stratton, co. Gloucester ; but, falling under persecution on account of his religion, and alarmed by the outbreak of the Civil War, he retired to London, where he continued to live in great privacy till his death at his house in St. Jame* Street, Mar. 27, 1087, aged 84[?].

" By his wife Mary, daughter of Lionel Wake, of Antwerp and of Pedington, co. Northampton, Esq., he had nine sons and three daughters. From his eldest son, William, descended the Sheldons of Ditchford. of whom Francis Sheldon inherited the estates of the Constables and Tun- stalls of Burton Constable and Wyclif, and assumed the name of Constable. His fourth son, Dom Lionel Sheldon, O.S.B., was chaplain to the Duchess of York ; his fifth son, Dominic, was a colonel of horse under James II. in Ireland ; another son, Ralph, equerry to James II. ; and two of his daughters were maids of honour to Queen Catherine. Ralph Sheldon, the antiquary, was his nephew."

Besides the Life of M. de Benty men- tioned by PEREGRINUS, Gillow gives the titles of three other works as follows (I give the barest form) : ' The Bule of the Catholic Faith,' from the French of Francis Veron, D.D., Paris, John Billain, 1660; 'Counsels of Wisdom,' from the French of M. Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis of Belle Isle, London, 1680 ; ' Christian Thoughts,' from the French, London, 1680.

A short notice of Sheldon appears also in ' The Catholic Encyclopedia,' s.v.

Another notice is to be found in the 4 D.N.B.'