Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/105

 11 S. XII. AUG. 7, 1915.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

9T

bishop, and using every possible shuffling he could hit in order to answer whatever question he might be asked by him. This offer being gladly accepted by the principal, the rice-cake-seller, on the ap- pointed day, was attired in the principal's robes and stole, and appeared before the bishop at his arrival. Without uttering a single word, the bishop showed the false principal one finger, which was promptly responded to by the latter showing two fingers. Again the former produced two fingers, and the latter exhibited four fingers. For the third time, the bishop extended three fingers, and the rice-cake-seller readily put forth all five digits. Scarcely had they finished these exercises, when the bishop left the place hurriedly, his mien turning very pale and much abased. Shortly after, a news was brought in that, in the next town he visited, the bishop declared he had hitherto met not a single priest with so profound a learning and such a quick flash of genius.! ! Thus the timid, shallow-brained principal of this church not only safely retained his office, but gained to boot so high a renown as the greatest scholar of the time, solely by dint of the offhand manoeuvres of the humble rice-cake-seller. After rewarding him bountifully, the principal privately asked him the covert senses of those signs where- with he made the bishop turn tail so shamefully. Then the rice-cake-seller explained them by these words : ' Firstly,' said he, ' he asked me by sign Low much would I charge for one of my rice-cakes, to which I replied twopence ; secondly, he asked me my price for two of them, and I answered fourpence ; and for the third time, he questioned me about my price for three of them, wherefore I expressed my goodwill to reduce it from six to five pence.' "

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

HELL-FIRE CLUBS.

(1 S. x. 376 ; 2 S. ix. 367 ; x. 77, 238 ; 3 S. ix. 413 ; 4 S. i. 53, 138 ; 6 S. iii. 127, 210, 271, 319, 418 ; 8 S. ii. 127, 178, 211, 312 ; iii. 334; 10 S. v. 90; xii. 467; 11 S. i. 31, 95.)

EDINBURGH.

Consult Grant's ' Old and New Edinburgh,' vol. iii. pp. 122 and 123.

MEDMENHAM ABBEY.

The motto of the club, " Fay ce que voudras," inscribed on a doorway at the Abbey, was borrowed from Rabelais's de- scription of the Abbey of Thelema in ' Gar- gantua.' In a house on the site of 18, Hanover Square (afterwards rebuilt for the Oriental Club), Lord Le Despenser lived, 1771-81 (Chancellor's ' Squares of London,' p. 74). Consult ' Foundling Hospital for Wit/ 1786, vol. iii. p. 104, and Sheahan's

History of Buckinghamshire/ 1862, pp. 905, ^906. There is a view of the Abbey ruins

n ' Beauties of England and Wales/ p. 375

DUBLIN.

The club is said to have been founded in. Dublin in 1735, by Richard Parsons, first Earl of Rosse, and James Worsdale, the artist, afterwards (1741) appointed Deputy- Master of the Revels. The meetings were held at " The Eagle Tavern," Cork Hill ;. meetings were also held at other places, in- cluding Mount Pelier (5 S. xi. 386 ; 8 S. iii. 334). The members were popularly credited with indulging in the wildest debauchery ; and his Satanic Majesty is said to have been a guest on more than one occasion, but perhaps- this character was acted by one of the- members for the benefit of the natives from the surrounding districts.

There is an oil painting of the members by James Worsdale (6 S. iii. 211), now in the National Gallery of Ireland, in which the five full-length figures grouped round a table are- said to be portraits of Henry Barry, fourth. Lord Santry, Col. Clements, Col. Ponsonbyv Col. St. George, and Simon Luttrell. This picture, formerly at Santry Court, Dublin,, the seat of the Domville family, was exhibited at South Kensington in 1867 by Sir Charles Domville ; at the sale of his collection it was bought by Mr. John Warden of Dublin, whose son presented it to the Gallery in 1878. There is a carved mahogany side-table- which belonged to the Club in the National- Museum, Dublin. Among the beverages- consumed was a mixture of whisky and butter known as scaltheen. A bowl said to have belonged to the H.F.C., but not the same as the one represented in Worsdale'a group, was shown in the Loan Museum oi Art Treasures, Dublin, 1873. At the Irish- International Exhibition, 1907, a silver punchbowl, date 1700, said to be the one shown in the group, and also the club's corkscrew, were exhibited.

A club of a similar nature called " The Blasters " was reported upon in the Irish- House of Lords (' Journal of the House of Lords/ vol. iii., 1737, p. 414). There was another blasphemous club called " The Holy Fathers," said to be a revival of the- Hell-Fire Club (Freeman's Journal, 12 March,. 1771, p. 329). The Dublin Hell-Fire Club did not seem to admit lady members, a privilege allowed occasionally in the English institu- tions (' Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany/ Second Series, vol. iii., 1862, p. 162 j. ' Mrs/Delany/ by George Paston, p. 246).

J. ARDAGH.

35, Church Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin.

(Tojbe continued.)