Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/444

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. in. JUNE 3, 1911.

medical certificate at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1762, and Daniel qualified as a surgeon at St. George's Hospital in 1792. The crest is similar to that used by the Kemp baronets of Norfolk and Suffolk and by the Kentish knights of the name and was used by the Kemp(e)s of Hendon from Queen Anne's time, if not earlier. It will be found on their tombs in Hendon Churchyard, and was exemplified to the first Hitchin- Kemp in 1868. FRED. HITCHIN-KEMP. Clyderhous, 51, Vancouver Road, Forest Hill, S.E.

"MAY FAIB" (11 S. iii. 329, 377). The attribution of this to the Rev. George Croly seems to rest upon the statement by Allan Cunningham in his " Biographical and Critical History of Literature of the Last Fifty Years' (1833), but I take leave to doubt if it be correct. ' May Fair ' was published in 1827 by William Harrison Ainsworth, afterwards the novelist, who, soon after his marriage with the daughter of John Ebers, a publisher in Bond Street, London, took over his father-in-law's busi- ness, and carried it on for about a year and a half. If Croly did indeed write the book, he took immense pains to conceal the fact, both in the text and the foot-notes with the cryptic initials appended to them. Of the former, such lines as the following may be instanced :

Reader, hear my mystery,

No dabbler with the Muses I ;

No working member of the corps, I lounge along an easy life, Untroubled with a muse or wife ;

No flutterer hi the crowd of Blues, I neither kiss their lips nor shoes.

But the lately published ' William Harrison Ainsworth and his Friends,' by S. M. Ellis (1911), seems to go far to negative Croly 's authorship. At pages 161 and 162 are printed two letters from Ainsworth to his intimate friend James Crossley of Man- chester, the first dated 12 March, 1827, where he writes :

" I am just on the eve of publishing a fashion- able jeu d 'esprit called May fair ; it is a very smart affair, and will, no doubt, prove a hit."

This was followed by a further letter :

" I have the pleasure to send you a copy of a little book I have just published Mayfair which is causing a great sensation in town. Everybody says it is the best thing of the sort

extant, and beats Luttrell hollow it is by a

distinguished member of Brooks's and Crockford's, and has occasioned much talk and scandal hi the Blue Coteries."

If this may be accepted, it is placed beyond doubt that Croly was not the writer, for even if it were possible to imagine him a member of Brooks's Club, no supposition of him at Crockford's can be entertained. Mr. Ellis says that ' Mayfair ' was a vast success and exhausted two editions. The late Mr. William Bates inquired as to the authorship in 1870 (4 S. v. 274), but without result. W. B. H.

QUEEN VICTORIA'S MATEBNAL GREAT- GRANDMOTHER (11 S. iii.. 387). Henry XXIV. of Reuss (Lobenstein and Ebersdorf), according to Wappen-Almanach der Souver- ainen Regenten Europa's (1842), married on 28 June, 1754, Caroline Ernest., Gr. v. Erpach. WILLOTJGHBY A. LITTLEDALE.

This lady was Caroline Ernestine, daughter of George Augustus, Count of Erbach- Schonberg. She married Henry XXIV. of the younger line of Reuss, Count of Plauen- Ebersdorf, on 28 July, 1754, and died 22 April, 1796, in her sixty-ninth year.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

" WHEN SHE WAS GOOD," &c. (11 S. iii. 128, 234, 271, 333). The following extract from " The Home Life of Henry W. Longfellow, Reminiscences .... by Blanche Roosevelt Tucker-Machetta," New York, 1882, states positively that Longfellow acknowledged the authorship of the lines. Writing of one of her visits to the poet's home she says (p. 89) :-

" A slight controversy here ensued, and from epitaphs we veered around to poetry. Up to the present time I had taken but little share in the conversation. A momentary lull gave me a chance to speak, and not interrupt.

' Yes,' said I, deliberately, when all had finished, ' there is no* accounting for the rubbish that will in spite of judicious weeding find its- way to publicity ; the authors are never known, and perhaps it is as well. I can at present only call to mind one instance, under the head of poetry, which runs as follows :. or ' I stopped with an inquiring look around, and half hesitat- ingly ventured to retract my implied idea of repeating it.

In vain an earnest * Pray go on,' ' continue,' hi which the professor's voice was uppermost in the chorus, positively insisted on hearing the aforesaid ' rubbish ' ; clearing my throat, I began :

There was a little durl, And she had a little curl That hung in the middle of her forehead, When she was dood, She was very dood indeed, But when she was bad she was horrid. " I looked up triumphantly as the last line rang out. Depict, imagine, my confusion when the poet raised his eyes, and with a fa hit 'smile-,.