Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/10

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vm. JULY 5, 1913. given a much more elaborate rehearsal of bitter school experience under the rule of

" Mr. John Conjugate at B es [Bowes ?]

in Yorkshire." The hero relates how Master Conjugate, with what appeared to be the tacit indifference of his parents, stole from him a toy watch. " I had the mortification to see the young rogue wear it for several days, and at last sell it to one of his school- fellows." Then,

.... Our dinner consisted of a very coarse hard pudding, made chiefly of rye, peas, and broken pieces of bread, which was succeeded by nearly Imlf a pound of mutton that had died a natural death, or was in danger of dying of some disease. .... We were sent to a common at a considerable distance, to fetch bundles of furze for the use of the house .... My department generally was, with another boy, to milk two cows, clean the vessels of the dairy, and conduct the cows from and to the field."
 * ' with what frugality we lived passes all credulity.

Thin as this appears in comparison with the solid and brilliant pictures We know so well, is it not yet conceivable that the reading of an unguided and precocious boy might have stamped one of its impres- sions from just such suggestions as these ? It, is undoubtedly in Dickens's earlier Work that we find it easiest to detect the lines along which his genius travelled when stimulated by his quite untutored studies. In one chapter alone (chap, xliv.) of ' Pick- wick ' we find two such instances : Sam Weller's tale of the gentleman \vho blew out his brains as a testimony to the digesti- bility of crumpets, the bald original of which is recorded by Boswell, 16 April, 1779 ; and the story of the cobbler ruined through inheritance of a comfortable legacy, still more distinctly foreshadowed in bk. iv. chap. ii. of ' The Spiritual Quixote,' by the Rev. Richard Graves (1773), the sufferer from the technicalities of the law being in this case a travelling tinker. Colour, glow, and movement, it need hardly be added, are in none of these cases to be looked for in the first sketch. PAUL T. LAFLEUB.

McGill University, Montreal.

STATUES AND MEMORIALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.

(See 10 S. xi. 441 ; xii. 51, 114, 181, 401 ; 11 S. i. 282 ; ii. 42, 381 ; iii. 22, 222, 421 ; iv. 181, 361 ; v. 62, 143, 481 ; vi. 4, 284, 343 ; vii. 64, 144, 175, 263, 343, 442.)

SAILORS: NELSON.

Birmingham. Nelson's statue stands in the Bull Ring, facing St. Martin's Church. It is the work of Westmacott. and was

erected by public subscription at a cost of about 3,000/. The statue is of bronze, on a marble pedestal. It was inaugurated 011 25 Oct., 1809, the day of the celebration of the jubilee of George III. Nelson is repre- sented standing erect, bare-headed, clad in an admiral's uniform, and invested with his insignia and honours. His left arm reclines on an anchor, and at his right side is seen the prow of a model man-of-war. The pedestal is ornamented with allegorical sculpture, and also contains the following inscription :

This statue

in honour of Admiral

Lord Nelson

was erected

by the inhabitants of Birmingham

A.D. MDCCCIX.

The statue is protected by iron pallisades shaped like boarding-pikes, connected by a cable. The lamp -posts at the four corners are modelled in the form of clusters of boarding-pikes issuing from cannon. Mr. Joseph Farror bequeathed a legacy of 6rf. per week to keep the basement of the statue clean.

Yarmouth. The famous Doric column in honour of Nelson is erected on the South Denes. The foundation-stone was laid on 15 Aug., 1817. The column is 144ft. high, and was raised by contributions from " his fellow countrymen of Norfolk." It is hollow and fluted, and springs from a massive square pedestal. At the summit is a huge globe resting upon Caryatides, and from it rises a colossal statue of Britannia, grasping a trident and holding forth a laurel wreath in the direction of Burnham Thorpe, the little Norfolk village in which Nelson was born. On the base is a long Latin inscription. The summit is gained by an interior circular staircase of 217 steps. I am informed that 1 in St. Nicholas Church- yard. Yarmouth, is a stone bearing the following inscription :

" Here is deposited the | body of | Thomas Sutton. | He creditably discharged | the duties of surveyor to | the corporation and super- intended | the erection of the monument to the which he departed this life | June 1st 1819 | aged 65 years. "
 * memory of Lord Nelson on the | summit of

Portsmouth. Near the western extremity of Portsdown Hill, 300 ft. above sea-level, an obelisk is placed to the memory of Nelson. It is 150 ft. high, and was erected by his brave companions the survivors of the Trafalgar fleet, who each contributed