Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/513

 ii s. VIIL DEC. 27, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

the previous day. The only indication of the explosion was the great funnel lying on the deck. She had accommodation for 5,000 persons, of whom 800 were first-class passengers. Another misfortune overtook her in the loss of her captain (Harrison), who was drowned in the Solent on the 22nd of January, 1860. He was universally beloved, and his sudden death saddened the closing of the Christmas festivities. His successor as captain was Vine Hall, brother of Newman Hall of Surrey Chapel, and afterwards of Christ Church, West- minster Bridge Road. The Daily Telegraph in its notice of Andersons on the 9th inst. says :

" With many mishaps, the Great Eastern won glory at last, as the ship which laid the Atlantic

cable in 1865 It is curious, however, to reflect

that where the later and greater leviathan of unfor- gettable fate proved vulnerable, the Great Eastern triumphed. The watertight compartments in which Brunei built her saved ' The Great Ship,' as she was called, from sharing the fate of the Titanic. The worst of her many troubles occurred in American waters, where she struck a reef of sunken rocks, which ripped a hole in her outer skin for a length of 80 feet and a breadth of 10 feet. Thus grievously wounded she rode safely into port. ......In old age the Great Eastern served as a show

ship and variety theatre in the Mersey, and was broken up for old iron about a quarter of a century

A. N. Q.

MlSS BOYDELL AND DEPUTY ELLIS. In

my note on 50 and 51, Pall Mall, I quoted (ante, p. . 225) William Carey's amusing description of Mary BoydelFs success as Lady Mayoress, and the infatuation of Deputy Ellis for this beauty of the Civic Court. Several City friends having requested me to contribute to these pages the verses addressed to Miss Boydell, I have much pleasure in complying :

On Miss at my Lord Mayor's Ball.

If Reynolds, our Apelles, were to draw A British Venus by strict Beauty's Law, He need not cull among the various Fair Compaction [sic], Feature, Stature, Shape and 'Air ;

He by Miss might the whole complete,

In her alone, where all those Graces meet.

J. Ellis.

If I 'm fair as Hebe, you 're sage as Ulyssis,

Enjoy all that Goddess on you can bestow,

\ our sense charms the grave ones, your brilliance

the missis, While in vain for your wit and your fancy they

glow. M. B.

Miss Boydell's most respectful compliments to Mr. Deputy Ellis, and begs he will accept of the above humble return for his Epigram, which she receiv'd from her Uncle.

Cheapside, April 4th, 1786.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

HENRY GARNETT THE JESUIT. An anonymous priest, probably a Jansenist, who travelled from Vienna to Italy in 1664, relates in the account of his journey (Add. MS. 19,568) that in the Jesuit convent at Leoben he saw a portrait of a member of the Society bearing the inscription " Beatus Henricus Garnettus, Martyr, Londini pro fide catholica suspensus." Our traveller evidently knew the man by repute, since he refers to him as "ce scelerat," and makes fun of his having been made a saint. As Gannett has been canonized, says our priest or rather only beatified we must look for a record of a miracle, and he professed to find that on the picture " son visage (etait) tout brillant parmi des epics de ble," which, he explains, "estoi'ent proches de la potence ou il fut pendu." These were the " ears void of corn," or " Garnett's straw," about which we can read in his biography.

L. L. K.

GROSVENOR CHAPEL. (See US. ii. 254, 293; iv. 434; vii. 96, 386.) After a long period of closing, this chapel-of-ease to St. George's, Hanover Square, in South Audley Street, was reopened on 30 Nov. All seats are free, with the exception of a few " set apart for men only." The notice on the doors is signed " H. R. L. Sheppard, Priest in charge and Chaplain to the Cavendish Club " the latter, one may imagine, a somewhat curious designation.

CECIL CLARKE. Junior Athenseum Club.

djmms.

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.

SONG WANTED. Can you tell me when the ballad was published, and where it can be found, of which the following lines form the first verse ?

Our life is like a narrow raft

Afloat upon the hungry sea ;

Hereon is but a little space,

And all men eager for a place

Do thrust each other in the sea.

F. R. CAVE.

[The origin of these words was inquired for at 11 S. vi. 230, but no reply has been received. The song' 4 from an old MS. set to music by Blumen- thal, was published, at any rate more than twenty- live years ago by Messrs. Boosey.]