Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/301

 ii s. x. OCT. 10, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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canon forbids the appointment of any person under the age of 20. Nor could a person of that age be a master blacksmith, as Powell is said to have been.

I am conscious that this is not a direct answer to R. B. P.'s question, but it may, perhaps, be of some assistance to him.

SECRETARY.

In 1849 the Rev. B. J. Armstrong, Rector of Little Stanmore, published ' Some Account of the Parish of Little Stanmore, alias White- church, Middlesex.' At p. 11 he writes as follows :

" It was upon this occasion that the Black- smith's melodious voice, the clanking of his anvil, and the rolling of the thunder, suggested to Handel's mind that admirable air which goes by the name of the ' Harmonious Blacksmith.' "

He adds in a note :

" Others say that the well-known air is a German tune ; that the Blacksmith (who was a musical amateur) was singing it when Handel rode into the shop ; and that the great master re-set, but did not compose, the melody."

The rector of a parish is usually regarded as a good authority on local tradition ; and .here Mr. Armstrong shows that, in 1849, none of his parishioners attributed the composer's inspiration exclusively to the hammer and anvil. The " rolling of thun- der " and the " melodious voice of the blacksmith " were then thought to have done their part in influencing the great master ; and this in spite of the fact that the reputed hammer and anvil of Powell had been rescued from oblivion fourteen years earlier, and were then before the world as " evidence " of the truth of the story. Charles Dickens seems to have entertained a profound veneration for these relics," which were shown at the Crystal Palace in connexion with the Handel Festival of 1859. In 'Our Eye-Witness with Handel,' which appeared in All the Year Round for 16 July, he gives a graphic picture of a German gentleman sitting idly at the organ, his fingers lightly touching the keys, but not pressing them down. He is listening to the blacksmith at work in the village, and "" as the notes drop singly on his ear he shapes them into a chord of melody that has lived for a hundred years and more, and gained with every year of life an added ring of glory."

I purposely refrain from discussing the question of the authorship of the air, as that lias been settled by DR. W. H. CUM- -MiM.s, MR. GEORGE MARSHALL, and others at 8 S. ix. 230, 311,354, 456, 493, and other references quoted above. Musicus.

An interesting series of letters on this subject by an eminent authority on the iterature of music, Dr. William Cummings, appeared in The Morning Post in 1913.

A. SMYTHE PALMER. Tullagee, Eastbourne.

LOSELEY MSS. AND LotJVAIN (11 S.

x. 230). I am glad to say that Prof. Feuillerat's edition of these MSS., called ' Documents relating to the Revels at Court in the Time of Edward VI. and Queen Mary,' appeared a few weeks ago as vol. xliv. of Prof. Bang's " Materialien zur Kiuide dea alteren Englischen Dramas " (Louvain,1914). One cannot but fear that, as a result of the burning of Louvain, many works due to appear in the " Materialien " may have perished in MS. ; and all who are acquainted with this valuable series will feel the greatest sympathy for Prof. Bang, its indefatigable and most genial editor, in the overwhelming calamities which the War has brought upon him. G. C. MOORE SMITH.

GROOM OF THE STOLE (11 S. viii. 466, 515; ix. 32, 95, 157). The following further reference from ' The True State of England,' &c., 1734, pp. 23-24, sub 'Gentlemen of the King's Bed-Chamber,' may be of interest :

" These are frequently call'd Lords of the Bed- Chamber. They were, 'till late Years, but Eleven in Number, whereof the Groom of the Stole is the first, who by his Office has the Honour to put on the King's first Garment, or Shirt, every Morning ; but it is now alternately perform'd by the Ix>rd in waiting, which they take in Turn Weekly, and attend in the King's Bed -Chamber, when he eats in private ; for then the Cup-bearer, Carvers, and Sewers do not wait. They are in the King's Gift."

The Groom of the Stole at this date was Francis, Earl of Godolphin, while the names of the other Gentlemen of the Bed-Chamber (eleven in number) are also given.

The places of the Pages of the Bed- Chamber, commonly called Pages of the Back-Stairs, who receive 801, per annum each, are in the gift of the Groom of the Stole (ibid., p. 27).

Under ' The Establishment of Her Ma- jesty's Household ' there is no such official so named. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

02, Nelson Road, Stroud Green, N.

THE FIRST PHILOSOPHER AND THE OLYM- PIC GAMES (11 S. x. 150). Pythagoras is meant. According to Diogenes Laertius, Proccmium, 8 (12), he was the first man to use the term tAoo-o<os when speaking to Leon, the tyrant of Sicyon or Phlius. Diogenes gives as his