Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/339

 il 8. XL APRIL 24, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

329

Construction of the Old Wall at Verulam : the Roman Bricks compared with the Modern.' This letter, printed in Archceo- logia (vol. ii. pp. 184-7), is illustrated by a plate after Webster's own drawing.

The, Gentleman's Magazine (Ixix. 1014 ; Ixx. 41) affords further details of Webster's life, but, curiously enough, no record of his death. In early life he was intimately and professionally connected with Dr. Nathaniel Cotton of St. Albans. At one time he was living at Chigwell Row, Essex, and while there employed a woodcutter who was the ^original of Gainsborough's ' Woodman.'

This picture, which portrays a man loading a donkey with sticks, a woman standing near with an infant in her arms, and a bare -legged boy, has been engraved by Simon. It remained in the obscurity of the original owner's family until sold at Christie's on 8 May, 1897, to Messrs. Waring .& Co. for ?>46L 10s. The catalogue states that it was painted for Mile. Gratian, who married Robert W r illoughby, Esq., of Cliff Hall, Warwickshire ; and by her bequeathed to her daughter, Mrs. Poignard, in whose family it remained to date.

While residing at St. Albans, Dr. Webster had made a drawing in water-colour of a local celebrity named Kinder or Kinderley, -once a small landowner and farmer near Potter's Cross, between St. Albans and Berkhamp stead, but at the time of the drawing (presumably about the year 1764) reduced to beggary by " the artifices of what Pope calls a ' vile attorney.' ' Kinderley was then aged 83, but continued to live some years after. This drawing, which represented him begging at the door of a house, was in the Doctor's possession in 1799, when he was living in Chelsea, and had affixed to it a copy of the Rev. Thomas Moss's poem ' The Beggar,' in Webster's handwriting. From this circumstance the correspondent of The Gentleman's Magazine erroneously in- ferred that the Doctor himself had written the poem. HERBERT C. ANDREWS.

Victoria and Albert Museum, S.W.

ALFONSO DE BAENA (11 S. xi. 251). Any one desiring information regarding Spanish literature should consult Fitz- maurice - Kelly's ' Litterature Espagnole ' (with separate bibliography), Paris, 1913. "This work originally appeared in English (London, 1898), and has since been trans- lated into various languages ; the second French edition quoted above is the latest version, and practically a new book. So far as 1 know, Baena's sole title to fame Is that he made a collection of early Spanish

lyrical poetry for King John II. about the year 1445, to which he contributed a Pro- logue in prose. This Cancionero is in- valuable to the student of Spanish lite- rature. The original MS. appears to be lost, but an early, though defective copy is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale. The best edition is that of P. J. Pida! (Madrid, 1851). MR. BRESLAR will find further information in Fit zmaurice- Kelly and in Menendez y Pelayo, ' Antologia de Poetas Liricos Castel- lanos,' vol. iv. p. xxxviii sqq. (Madrid, 1893). The ' Dezir que fizo Juan Alfonso de Baena,' printed in 1891 for the first (and wha.t will probably prove to be the only) time by Menendez y Pelayo, vol. ii. pp. 215 262, is merely a set of verses riot poetry. It adds nothing to Baena's reputation.

H. O.

PORTRAITS OF THOREAU (11 S. xi. 250). There are three portraits of Thoreau (see H. S. Salt's ' Life of Henry David Thoreau,' 1890, p. 299). The first is a crayon done by S. W. Roose in 1854, before Thoreau wore a beard. The second is a photograph taken at Worcester, Mass., in 1857 or 1858, which shows the face with a fringe of beard on the throat, but with lips and chin shaven. The third is an Ambro- type photograph taken at New Bedford, at the request of Mr. Daniel Ricketson, in August, 1861, when Thoreau was wearing a full beard and moustache. To my eyes the same man looks out of all three. Mr. Salt says (op. cit., p. 300) :

"It is stated in The Critic, April 9, 1881, by Mr. William Sloane Kennedy, that there is in existence a fourth portrait of Thoreau, bequeathed to a friend at Concord by Sophia Thoreau, with the request that it should not be reproduced."

G. L. APPERSON.

PACK-HORSES (11 S. xi. 267). Chap. vii. vol. ii. of Miss Meteyard's ' Life of Wedg- wood ' contains a good deal of information about the state of the roads in the eighteenth century, arid the rqode of conveying merchan- dise by means of pack-horses. Mules were in general use as well as horses :

'.' Many a time he [Wedgwood] had seen the wretched pack-horses and asses heavily laden with coal from Norton or Whitfield, with tubs full of ground flint from the mills, crates of ware, or panniers of clay." Pp. 266-7.

" Many other adjacent lanes and roads seem to have been put into repair at this date [1763], and a few of the principal carriers. .. .soon brought into use carts and waggons, in addition to the accustomed strings of panniered mules and

horses We have seen that a few of the original

roads about Burslem and the surrounding villages had been, in the first instance, mere trackways marked out by upright stones." P. 273.