Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/211

 us. iv. SEPT. 9, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

205

Urban V. was of a family settled at Grisac in Provence ; in fact, in that part of France where the Grimaldi had formerly large possessions at Antibes, Cannes, Frejus, &c. As many members of the Grimaldi family became Cardinals, it would be natural that one should reach the Papacy ; but Urban V. is the only Pope who can have belonged to this family.

The other form (8) is exactly how the Grimaldi of Spain spelt the name. On the whole, therefore, it would seem that the family name of Pope Urban V. was Guillaume da Grimaldi. L. M. R.

ELIZABETHAN PLAYS IN MANUSCRIPT. Sir Edward Sullivan, writing in The Nine- teenth Century for July, says :

" Not one original MS. of even a single play [produced between 1572 and 1642] has survived, and, so far as I am aware, we have but one instance of the preservation of an actor's acting part Alleyn's part of Orlando Purioso." The MS. of ' Sir Thomas More,' preserved in the British Museum, is mostly, if not altogether belonging to the Elizabethan period. The peculiar interest of this play is that some critics consider part of the MS. to be not only Shakespeare's composition, but also to be in his actual handwriting.

P. A. McELWAINE.

R. L. STEVENSON AS A SCIENTIFIC OB- SERVER. There is a reference to him in the book by his father, Thomas Stevenson, on ' The Design and Construction of Har- bours,' 3rd ed. (Edinburgh, 1886), p. 163. The son is stated to have made some obser- vations on deflected waves at Pulteney Town breakwater, from which the father calculated the value of a constant in a certain formula. L. L. K.

BRITISH MUSEUM : EARLIEST GUIDE. ' The General Contents of the British Museum,' a crown octavo volume of 103 pages, published by R. & J. Dodsley, 1761, is apparently the earliest guide-book to Montague House and its contents. Its author was Edmund Powlett, who on 5 December, 1761, sold a half share in the profits to James Dodsley for eight guineas. A like sum was to be paid in the event of a second edition of 750 copies being issued. An agreement to this effect now before me affords the first identification of its author.

Although it was suitable for the purpose, apparently the public were not interested in the British Museum, and a second edition of the guide was not required. At this date

Newbery was publishing his popular guide to Westminster Abbey, following the very successful book by Coull, but evidently the less general interest in the Museum, or the restrictions as to admission, prevented Bloomsbury from affording a rival attraction to the waxworks and other wonders at Westminster.

The London Magazine did not give much publicity to the Museum until 1763, and The Royal Magazine only included (February, 1764) a description in a long contribution entitled ' A Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster.'

ALECK ABRAHAMS,

" READY-MONEY MORTIBOY " : ORIGINAL OF THE CHARACTER. It is always interesting to know who were the originals of familiar characters in works of fiction. I therefore pass on the following item of information to ' N. & Q.'

There has recently died at Northampton Mr. Charles Cecil Becke, the Borough Coroner. In the obituary notice in The Northampton Mercury it is stated that his mother " was a sister of the late Mr. Henry Billington Whitworth, who amassed a large fortune, and figures in Besant and Rice's famous- novel he was the original of ' Ready- Money Mortiboy.' '

It will be recalled that Mr. James Rice was a Northampton man, and that the above- mentioned novel was the first work written in collaboration with Sir Walter Besant.

JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

LINLATHEN : ITS POSITION. One of the most remarkable Scotsmen in the second half of the nineteenth century was Thomas Erskine, who is almost universally desig- nated " of Linlathen." He corresponded with the most prominent religious thinkers of his day, was a close friend of Principal Shairp and Dr. John Brown of ' Rab and his Friends,' and was greatly esteemed by Carlyle. He frequently had Carlyle as a guest at Linlathen, and he entertained him at his Edinburgh residence in 1866 when he delivered the famous Rectorial address.

Like many more who speak and write of Linlathen, Froude seems to have had only a vague conception of its position. In chap. xx. of ' Carlyle' s Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 94, after saying that the philo- sopher of Chelsea had gone on a visit to his Scottish friend, he introduces the first letter from the country quarters with the remark, " He meanwhile was reporting his successful arrival in Fife." Linlathen, however, is in