Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/52

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xi. JAN. ie,

Garden, but because he was dead long before Dibdin left in 1781.

Dibdin's novels were not written in the period following that date, when he was casting about for a means of livelihood, but long after, when his ' Table Entertainments ' had brought him prosperity. The origin of these is said to have been more or less acci- dental, which is not .the case. In 1787 Dibdin prepared his initial entertainment, ' Headings and Music,' and toured the country with it in order to obtain funds for the contemplated voyage to India. When that scheme failed he repeated the entertain- ment under the same title at various towns in the South -West, and then attempted successfully to get a hearing in London with a new entertainment called ' The Whim of the Moment ' (January, 1789), not ' The Oddities,' which was not produced until December, 1789. Mr. Holmes considers that Dibdin's knowledge of the sea "is as deep a mystery as that of the source of Shakespeare's knowledge of classical myth- ology," as he " had been on the sea only three times in his life, and then only for a few hours each time." Yet he refers to Dibdin's attempted voyage to India, when he was at sea for a month, and mentions that he was born and reared in a seaport town, where the fact that his eldest brother was captain of an Indiaman would ensure his coming in contact with the marine element. From the knowledge of sea terms shown in the songs it is reasonable to infer that the writer was on intimate terms with his subject, just as the knowledge shown in extant orchestral scores by Dibdin, which met with acceptance in their day, is the best reply to the customary nonsense about his ignorance of the rudiments of music.

E. BIMBAULT DIBDIN.

64, Huskisson Street, Liverpool.

THE LITERARY FRAUDS OF HENRY WALKER THE IRONMONGER.

(See 11 S. x. 441, 462, 483, 503; xi. 2, 22.)

12. 'A COLLECTION OF SEVERAL PASSACIES,' &c. (continued. )

M*r additional corroboration consists in (a) proofs of Walker's intimate connexion with Cromwell, and (6) " Walkerisms " in the tract itself.

(a) Cromwdl and Walksr. Up to the tim3 when he fled from London to the Army, in the middle of the year 1647, Cromwell's lodgings were in Drury Lane.

Throughout the year 1648 he is known to- have lived in King's Street, Westminster,, and there are entries in the records of the- parish of St. Margaret which prove the fact. These records are very voluminous, and though the Town Clerk has very courteously permitted me to inspect them, I do not think they throw any light upon the exact site of the house. From the quotations I am about to cite, however, I suggest that it must be concluded that Walker and Cromwell lived in the same house.

It is also well known that Cromwell termed Vane " Brother Heron," and that Vane termed Cromwell " Brother Fountain.'^ From this it has been incorrectly concluded that these terms were personal nicknames. On the contrary, they were probably terms applied to the knots of politicians to which each respectively belonged ; and, in Crom- well's case, I think that if his house was;

The Fountain " in King's Street, he and others of his coterie would be known as "brothers Fountain." That the term. " Brother Fountain " was not a nickname peculiar to Cromwell is shown by the following quotation from a letter from William Rowe to Cromwell himself, to be found in John Nicholls's ' Original Letters and Papers of State,' p. 17. The letter is dated 30 Aug., 1650, and concludes as follows :

" Your brother Fountayne is drawing up a, declaration in answere to the Scots King's, and I must be his amanuensis all day to-morrow."

Now for my proof that Walker lived at " The Fountain," in King's Street. Crom- well was away on service with the Army at the end of 1648, and did not return to London until late in December. So Walker com- menced to lecture on Hebrew at "The Foun- tain," announcing the fact as follows :

" On Monday next begins a free lecture, to- be read every night at 5 a clock, to teach the grounds of the Hebrew tongue. And not only schollers but those that understand neither Greek nor Latine may be able to translate any part of the Hebrew bible in short time. The Professor doth it at his own charges for a generall good, and they that will may come, and it will cost them., nothing, at the Fountain in King's streete at Westminster." Perfect Occurrences, No. 94, 13 20 Oct., 1648.

" This night was the Hebrew lecture begun, and is every night at five a clocke freely taught for nothing for half an houre in the Fountaine yard in Kings street at Westminster (not in the tavern, as some mistake, but at a private house next doore to it). There are divers Members, Ministers and Gentl. have been there, and some fellows of colledges. Upon conclusion Dr. Waideson, of both the Universities and physician of the college of London, was pleased to give me