Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/51

 n s. XL JAN. 16, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES,

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1915.

CONTENTS.-No. 264.

JfOTES : Dibdin and Southampton, 41 Walker the Iron- monger's Literary Frauds. 42 Holcroft Bibliography, 43 Early London Gymnasia, 44 Provincial Booksellers, Seventeenth Century Links between Thallium and the Great Plague, 45 Sponge " A Scarborough warning" Caxton and Bishop Douglas-Xanthus, Exhantus, 46.

sQUERIES: ' Guide to Irish Fiction '' The Theatre of the World 'Queen Henrietta Maria's Almoner Beamish

Wood's Views in London, 47 Contarine Family " Cole " : " Coole " Gregentius Archiepiscopus Tephrensis English Sovereigns as Deacons Bishop Hervey of Derry _ Biographical Information Wanted Bishop Towers of Peterborough Early Foims of Wrestling, 48

Forbes and Whiterill, Shakespearian Critics Punc

tuation Vicars of Wombourne Biographical Informa- tion Wanted Henry Gregory Trees on Da

rtmoor, 49.

REPLIES : France and England Quarterly, 50 Regent Circus, 51 Thomas Bradbury, Lord Mayor Turtle and Thunder W. Thompson, 52 Nathaniel Cooke Latinity

Saluting the Quarter-deck, 53 Author Wanted Bor- stal Eighteenth-Century Murder " Kultur," 54 Luke Robinson, M.P. A Shakespeare Mystery, 55 Crooked Lane, London Bridge " Forwhy "Old Etonians 'Tom Jones,' 56 Pyramid in London Authors of Quotations Wanted Alphabetical Nonsense" Piraeus mistaken for a man," 57 Sex of Euodias John McGowan, Publisher

" Quite a few "The Title Lord" Cousamah," 58 Sir Everard Digby's Letters Name of Play Wanted, 59.

ISTOTES ON BOOKS : The Oxford Dictionary 1 Burke's Peerage and Baronetage ' ' Who's Who ' ' Burlington Magazine.'

Notices to Correspondents.

flubs*

DIBDIN AND SOUTHAMPTON.

THE good people of Southampton have ehown no indecent haste about attempting some commemoration of Charles Dibdin, seeing that it is more than a century since he died on 25 July, 1814, and close upon 170 years since he was born in Southampton. A generation ago, or thereabouts, Mr. H. G. Thorn made an effort to provide a statue of Dibdin to match the Isaac Watts memorial. The late J. Milo Griffith prepared a model, which now stands forlorn, and a little broken, in the local Free Library and Museum. Money did not come in, and the project came to nothing. The Southampton Literary and Philosophical Society seems to have been more successful with a less ambitious pro- posal to commemorate the ocean bard's centenary, for in the issue of The South- ampton and District Pictorial for 9 Dec., 1914, there is a sketch of a tablet " now being exe- cuted " on behalf of the Society, which is to be placed in the tower of Holy Bhood Church. As Dibdin was baptized in the

church, of which his father was parish clerk, the place is appropriate, if not distinguished. I should like to point out, before it is too late, that the Society's designer has fallen into the old error of stating that Dibdin was born on 15 March, 1745. This blunder is the less comprehensible as in the same issue of the Pictorial there is a facsimile (I think from a photograph made by me) of the baptismal record in the church register, according to which " Cha 3 son of Tho : Dibdin clerk of this Parish " was " baptisd in Privat March 4, Becep in Church 29." The actual date of birth is not known, but clearly it was not 15 March. The note under the illustration, that Dibdin was the youngest of a family of eighteen, also perpetuates an old error. There is no evidence that Thomas Dibdin had more than fourteen children, and Charles was certainly not the youngest.

The editor of the Pictorial devotes several pages to Charles Dibdin, who is happily styled by him " the best recruiting officer the Navy ever had." Among other interest- ing illustrations are two portraits of Dibdin, which are incorrectly stated to represent him at the respective ages of 30 and 65. The first is from a print after the portrait by T. Phillips (now in the National Portrait Gallery), who was born when Dibdin was 25 years old, and did not come to London until 1790. The picture was probably painted about 1799, the date of J. Young's mezzotint reproduction. It therefore represents Dibdin at the age of 53 or 54. The second is from the print after A. W. Devis, which served as frontispiece to Dib- din's ' Professional Life,' published in 1803, when he was 58 years old.

An appreciation by Mr. C. H. Holmes is quoted at some length. In its critical remarks considerable intelligence is shown, but the " facts " require correction. I select a few instances. Dibdin is said to have gone to Winchester as chorister at the age of 11, but he was past the age of 12. It was at the age of 14 (not 16) that he applied for the organistship at Bishop's Waltham ; he had gone to London, and was singing at Covent Garden Theatre in his 15th year, not at 17 as stated by Mr. Holmes. He says Dibdin's career as an actor was short, and at 22 he " settled down to the regular business of writing music," &c. It was compara- tively short, but it lasted from 1760 to 1774. Garrick is said to have procured Dibdin's dismissal from Covent Garden Theatre, to which he was appointed composer in 1778. This seems improbable, not only because Garrick never had much influence at Covent