Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/107

ii s. iv. AUG. 5, MIL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

101

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY,

JULY 18TH, 1811-DECEMBER 24TH, 1863.

(See ante, pp. 21, 61.)

THE references to Thackeray's broken nose at the end of my previous article may be supplemented by another account of the incident. On the front of No. 28, Clerken- well Road part of the terrace once known as Wilderness Row is carved in stone the inscription "Thackeray lived here: 1822-24." The house, which is still Charterhouse property, was then inhabited by Mr. Penny, a master at the Charterhouse. The whole history of Thackeray's life in this house is given in an article in The Grey friar for April, 1892, by the Rev. G. S. Davies, illustrated by several old Carthusians. Dean Liddell, Mr. Roupell (a monitor in Penny's house during Thack- eray's residence), and many other old

Carthusians of Thackeray's time were con- sulted.

It was at Penny's house that occurred the famous fight with Venables in which, according to general belief, poor Thackeray's nose was broken. Thackeray at the Founders' Day dinner in 1862 or there- abouts humorously and vigorously described the " scrunch " which ended the contest. Mr. Roupell well remembered the fight, and when asked for his reminiscences he wrote :

"It was a wet half-holiday, when a boy named Gossip asked leave for Thackeray and Venables to fight. We wanted some amusement, so I let. them tight it out in Penny's long room, with the im- portant result to Thackeray's nasal organ."

Thackeray's nose bled so profusely as to stop the fight, but he and Venables remained friends for life. Thackeray was Roupell's fag. Lovers of ' N. & Q.' feel a personal interest in Thackeray, for he was one of the first great writers to make reference to it in his pages. HIPPOCLIDES calls attention to this on the 4th of April, 1903 :

" Thackeray says in a note to ' The Virginians ' (published 1858-9), at the bottom of a page in chap. Ixxviii. : ' In the Warrington MS. there is not a word to say what the " old place " was. Perhaps some obliging reader of Notes and Queries will be able to inform me who Mrs. Goodison was. Ed.' "

A visit paid by MB. JOHN T. PAGE to Mrs. Thackeray's grave in the cemetery at Leigh is described by him in ' N. & Q.' on the 23rd of February, 1895 :

" The grave is only a few paces from the entrance gates, on the left-hand side of the centre road, and consists of two portions of ground labelled E 34 and E 35 . A memorial cross marks the spot, and stands on two receding blocks. The whole of the design is constructed of white marble, and on the upper block, from which the shaft of the cross springs, is carved the following inscription :

To the dear memory of

Isabella Gethen Thackeray

Born 1818, married 1836 to

William Makepeace Thackeray.

She died at Leigh Jan. 11, 1894, aged 76,

At the back of the cross are the words ' Dominus

Illuminatio,' and in the centre the letters ' IHS.' "

MR. PAGE on the 5th of August, 1899,

gives the following as the inscription over

Thackeray's grave in Kensal Green :

" William Makepeace Thackeray,

Born July 18th, 1811, Died December 24th, 1863.

Anne Carmichael-Smyth, Died December 18th, 1864, aged 72,

His mother by her first marriage. " The grave is on the south side of the ceme- tery, the above simple inscription being carved on a flat stone embosomed in a framework of carefully trained ivy."