Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/59

us. VIIL JULY 19, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES. Friars Langley, and place them by the side of the unhappy Richard's Queen. The whole subject of Richard's death has been as yet one of impenetrable mystery, and the examination of his corpse here, if it be his, has not enlightened us. Neither of the skulls within the tomb, on the closes examination, presented any marks of fracture or evidences of murderous violence."

Again, Mrs. A. Murray Smith, in her 'Westminster Abbey, its Story and Associations,' p. 91, says:—

"The manner of his departure remains to mystery to this day: whether his skull was cleft by Sir Piers Exton; whether he was starved by his cousin's orders, or starved himself to death. The first story is disproved by the fact that when the tomb in the Abbey was opened in 1871, no trace of a blow could be seen on the skull."

Here, then, we have records of two exanimations of the skull; both report it to be unharmed, and neither makes any allusion to the jaw or any other bone being missing.

Lastly, I would point out that the clas? which is not ashamed to perpetrate these outrages on the illustrious dead is by no means confined to boys and illiterates. The hero of the story told at 11 S. i. 112 about Ben Jonson's grave was " a dis- tinguished man of science and popular writer." ALAN STEWAKT.

vii. 369, 413, 454, 515). In vol. v. of ' Bir- mingham Faces and Places,' the Preface of which is dated May, 1893, there is a bio- graphical notice of Mr. G. H. Bernasconi, for more than forty years Birmingham's best- known cartoonist:
 * THE TOMAHAWK ' : MATT MORGAN (11 S.

" About this time he [G. H. B.] became ac- quainted with Matt Morgan, and for some time shared a studio with that artist in the Strand. Morgan conceived the idea of painting a large picture of Rotten Row in 1862, and, being a man of considerable ambition, subsequently took a large studio in Berners Street, off Oxford Street, part of which he used as a fine-art exhibition in partner- ship with Fred Buckstone, a son of old Buckstone of the Haymarket. This gallery became renowned far and wide as the meeting-place of Saturday- night ass.'iiil>li,-s. Calderon, F. C. Burnand, Du Manner, Charles Keene, W. S. Gilbert, Stacy -M,: i k>. and a score of others who have since become notable, used to meet there, and Mr. Bernasconi can tell endless and varied anecdotes of adven- tures indulged in by many of the leading wits and artists of our time in those distant days how, for instance, at a bazaar for the Hospital for Incurables, held in the old Exhibition building of 1862, the future editor of I'lnn-h wrote a piece called ' The Siege of Seringapatam ' ; how he led his soldiers on to victory ; how Morgan got up a Spanish bull-fight, and was himself the matador. and how a poor unfortunate super from the Hay- market, made up as the bull, was prodded all over the ring by a dozen or so matadors on prancing basket horses, and when he finally dropped, how

Morgan lightly sprang into the arena, and, striking an attitude on the top of the bull, gave him the happy despatch. Matt Morgan, it will be remem- bered, was the artist of The Tomahawk, perhaps the most brilliantly edited satirical journal not even excepting that of the sage of Fleet Street ever produced. The Tomahaick ran its course from May, 1867, to well into 1870, and Mr. Bernasconi has since put the careful study he then made of Matt Morgan's ideas and methods to good use in conceiving and carrying out his own artistic productions. .. .Most of the Toma- hawk cartoons were drawn under Mr. Bernasconi's observation. In those days the liberty of the press was not so unfettered as in these, and the- brilliant Matt Morgan, having incurred the dis~ pleasure of certain exalted personages moving in the highest social atmosphere, thought it wise to seek fame and fortune in the Republic of the West He died in America in 1890."

It will thus be seen that in at least one instance Matt Morgan's influence on the art of the English cartoonist was not incon- siderable. Mr. Bernasconi's spirited and innumerable Birmingham cartoons were drawn for many publications over a long series of years. The Third Member (1868), Bntm (1869), The Dart (from 1876), The Owl (from 1880), The Town Crier (many years), and a host of other local illustrated journals and occasional ventures were enlivened by his versatile genius. I believe, though I am not sure, that he was drawing for The Town Crier (started in 1860) on its final disappear- ance (in 1903). I met him very frequently at one time, and know he was proud of his friendship with Matt Morgan, of whom he always spoke with admiration.

WlLMOT CORFIELD.

All references are of interest, but I have- not seen an}- mention of The Mask, in which short-lived paper of 1868 I think Morgan had also a principal part. I possess- Nos. 1,4, and 5 to 12. No more appeared.

G. L.

WILDERNESS Row (US. vii. 428 ; 495; viu 37). It was in Clerkenwell, as earlier replies have stated, and faced " a tall old brick wall bounding one side of the grounds of the Charterhouse." It was here, at No. 21, that John Britton lived about 1802, but mentions it in 1850 as still standing. FTis first carriage visitor at this house was Edward King, the antiquary, who suffered nuch annoyance because there was no room r or his carriage to turn, and the horses had
 * o be taken out while some men dragged it

nto Sutton Street. He wrote the next day r refusing to visit Britton again until he iioved further west. Britton did move shortly afterwards to 10, Tavistock Place, 3iit the immediate cause of his removal was