Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/75

 n s. xii. JULY 24, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.:

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-a statement which tempts me to remark that to produce " the finest white lawn " was textile feat for an amateur.

" Periodically the death-dress was carefully aired, and put back in the drawer to wait till wanted. My father always remembered these periodical airings, and could describe the long white robe, the lace-bedecked cap, the white stockings and uloves, so carefully treasured by the old lady." P. 29.

The mention of gloves has stirred me to ~write this, because I am informed that they ^are not part of a corpse's outfit in England at the present day. I was much struck some years ago, when I visited a famous charnel- house near Palermo, and noticed that the liands of some of the skeletons were encased in gloves of white kid. ST. SWITHIN.

THE EMPIRES OF THE AIR AND SEA. The Tecent French air raids in Germany recall the fact that Louis XVIII. predicted that the French nation would conquer the empire of the air, whilst Great Britain would retain the empire of the sea. The following -epigram was written by Louis XVIII., when Comte de Provence, in 1783, the year of the aeronautical experiments of the brothers Montgolfier, Pilatre de Rozier, and the Marquis d'Arlandes :

IMPROMPTU SUR XOS D^CODVERTES A^ROSTATIQUES.

Les Anglais, nation trop fiere, S'arrogent 1'empire des mers ; Les Francais, nation Ugere, S'emparent de celui des airs.

ANDREW DE TERN ANT. 36, Somerleyton Road, Brixton, S.W.

THOMAS JAMES MATHIAS. While search- ing for the will of Charles Marsh (11 S. xi. 474) I came across the entry of letters of administration to the estate of the above, author of * The Pursuits of Literature,' a book that was the delight of my early reading days. I had the splendid quarto edition. I made a note that the administra- tion was granted in November, 1833, because I thought it was so extraordinary that he should have left no will. He died in the previous August in Italy. None of the biographies mention his not having made a will. Formerly it was of advantage to leave a will, as the estate duty was less than that on an administration without a will. This piece of injustice was abolished many years ago, and now it is often a good thing when a will is not made, as the property is then divided, according to the statute, between the surviving relations, instead of being as it often is: bequeathed in an unfair manner. RATPH THOMAS.

JOHN CHAPMAN, PUBLISHER, 1822-94. Chapman was intimately connected with George Eliot, Herbert Spencer, and G. H. Lewes, was proprietor and editor of The Westminster Review for many years, and well known to a very large circle of literary men in the fifties, the sole survivor being, I think, Mr. Frederic Harrison.

Three MS. diaries of Chapman were recently discovered on a bookstall at Notting- ham, and S. Y. E. devotes three articles to them in The Nottingham Guardian of 4 May, 25 May, and 1 June. These are full of interest, but I regret very much that Dr. Chapman did not recast his diary into a methodical autobiography. Perhaps, how- ever, he was wise, considering the very peculiar circumstances. Could not S. Y. E., however, " give us some more," to quote ' Ingoldsby ' ? WM. H. PEET.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

MADAME VIGEE LE BRTJN. Having been engaged for some time on an illustrated book dealing with ' Madame Vigee Le Brun and Some of her Sitters,' with especial reference to such of her works as are to be found in this country, may I appeal through your columns to possessors of any examples kindly to favour me with particulars (and if possible the sight of a photograph) of the same, with a view to assisting in the pre- paration of a * Catalogue Raisonne ' ?

J. J. FOSTER. Aid wick, Holland Road, Sutton, Surrey.

JOHN DE W T ATFORD, c. 1200. Can any reader furnish any information about a certain John de Watford ? He was a prior, apparently, of some English house in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. Tho priory may have been dedicated to St. Cathe- rine, but this is by no means certain, since the seal on which "the name occurs has the appearance of being the private seal of the prior himself, not that of the priory. There is no document to give any clue.

E. T. LEEDS. 27, Walton Street, Oxford.

GEORGE DIBDIN PITT'S DRAMAS. This prolific author-manager produced about March, 1842, at the City of London Theatre, Norton Folgate, a drama, ' The Fool of Finsbury ; or, The Beggar of Crosby Hall.'