Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/41

ii s. viii. JULY 12, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES. {{sc|Blake and his Friend Butts]] (11 S. vii. 428, 492).—Alexander Gilchrist, in his 'Life of William Blake,' gives ample accounts of the relations between the two men, and many of Blake's letters to Butts; but no account of the latter's life. He is said to have lived in Fitzroy Square, neighbour to Flaxman, who made his home from 1794 until his death in 1826 in Buckingham Street; it is probable he met Blake there. Butts was Blake's "one consistent patron." He owned the "fresco" of the Canterbury Pilgrimage which was bought by Sir William Sterling Maxwell (p. 273):—

" One of the last, if not the very last, works bought by Mr. Butts of Blake, was the original series of water-colour drawings or Inventions from the Book of Job .... This set of drawings .... has passed from Mr. Butts' son into the possession of Lord Houghton." Pp. ^27-8.

In the spring of 1901 the writer had the great privilege of seeing at Parkstone, Dorset, the remains of Mr. Butts's collection, inherited by his grandson, exhibited in a Toom attached to his house, specially built for it.

The inquirer is in error as to Blake's intention in the apostrophe cited by him. The lines occur in some verses " composed above a twelvemonth ago, while walking from Felpham to Lavant, to meet my sister," and sent to Mr. Butts in a letter apparently in continuation of one of 22 Nov., 1802. Clearly they were not meant to reflect on his friend as the following excerpts prove :

A frowning Thistle implores my stay



"' If thou goest back," the Thistle said, " Thou art to endless woe betray 'd.

Poverty, envy, old age and fear Shall bring thy Wife upon a bier. And Butts shall give what Fuseli gave, A dark black rock and a gloomy grave." I struck the thistle with my foot,

And broke him up from his delving root ; Must the duties of life each other cross, Must every joy be dung and dross ? Must my dear Butts feel cold neglect Been/use I give Hayley his due respect ?

P. 182.

The references are to

-edition, London, 1880.

vol. i. of Gilchrist T. F. DWIGHT.

"ATTAINTING ROYAL BLOOD" (US. vii. 469).!. Both Houses passed the Bill of Attainder, and a Court of Chivalry, presided over by the Duke of Buckingham, passed sentence of death upon Clarence, 8 Feb., 1478. I suppose this Parliament was legally within its powers in thus condemning the

King's brother, however unjust the sentence may have been. Poetic justice was, no doubt, done upon " false, fleeting, perjured Clarence " ; but Parliaments are rarely concerned with matters poetical.

Richard III. had been king for eight months before his first Parliament, which assembled on 23 Jan., 1484, confirmed his title to the throne, thereby accepting the inevitable. Says Bishop Stubbs :

" The bill, having been introduced before the lords in the king's presence, was carried down to the commons, and received their approval, after which, with the assent of the lords, all the state- ments contained in it were pronounced to be true and undoubted, and the king gave his assent. By such an extraordinary and clumsy expedient was the action of the June council made the law of the land, and the parliament bound to the truth of certain historical statements which many of the members, if not all, must have known to be false."

2. Apparently it was not until the Parlia- ment of 1513-14 that full restitution v?as made to Clarence's daughter, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, of the rights of her family. But Richard III. had knighted (along with his own son) Edward, Earl of Warwick, when only 8 years old, at York, in 1483. Next year the usurper, having lost his only son, thought of making Warwick his heir, but on further consideration shut him up in close confinement in Sheriff Hutton Castle, and nominated John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, another of his nephews, to succeed to the throne.

A. R. BAYLEY. [G. W. W. also thanked for reply.]

ST. KATHARINE'S-BY-THE-TOWER (11 S. vii. 201, 310, 376). A royal commission was appointed in 1868, and reappointed in the following year, to inquire into several matters relative to the royal hospital of St. Katherine. Evidence was obtained from the Master, the Senior Brother, and the Chapter Clerk of the Hospital, and the Master appears to have been examined upon a report (whether printed or not does not appear) to the Charity Commissioners by Mr. Skirrow. The report of the Commission was issued in 1871, the official reference being [C. 3211, and the price 2rf. I have inquired at the King's printers, and find that the evidence was never printed. Perhaps there was some reason for this suppression, the management of the hospital being then regarded as most unsatisfactory. In sup- port of this I quote from p. 14 of the report :

This property at present consists of a piece of land of about two acres, on which is built the lodge of the Master, and another piece of land, the site of the chapel, the schoolhouse, and the residences of