Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/267

 ii s. iv. SEPT. so, leu.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

261

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER M, 1911.

CONTENTS. No. 92.

NOTES: George I. Statue in Leicester Square, 261 Cromwelliana, 262 Epitaphiana, 264 ' Interludium de Clerico et Puella' FitzGerald Anecdote: Two Versions Children of George II. and the Prince of Wales, 266 Wasps forecasting the Weather" In spite of his teeth " -" Sniping" : Early Instances Hellings Family, 267.

QUERIES : "Selfist" McClelland of North Dakota, 267 Robert Bruce, Earl of Boss James St. John of South Carolina American Historical Documents Ceylon Officials and Writers Stafford of Wokingham Signora Corradini 'A Caxton Memorial,' 268 Miles & Evans's Club Scissors : " Pile " Side Watchmakers' Sons Zadig of Babylon Kniveton Family Gresham Family Tattershall : Elsham : Grantham Raphael's Cartoons : Le Blon's Copies Noel, Cook to Frederick the Great, 269 L. Lanoe P. Leigh R. Lodge B. Lyndon W. Thacker Thackeray on the Marquis de Soubise's Cook- Pope's Description of Swift Fulani, Nigerian Tribe "Grecian "in 1615 Epicurus at Herculaneum Hunyadi Janos Peare Family, 270.

REPLIES : Peers immortalized by Public-Houses Naked British Soldiers at Maida, 271 Thirteenth Per centum : its Symbol Cornish Genealogy and the Civil War, 272 Dr. Price the Druid, 273 Highgate Archway, 274 London Directories Washington Irving's 'Sketch- Book 'Eliza- bethan Plays in Manuscript, 275 Authors Wanted 'Guesses at Truth ' Uniacke Family " Complain " in Gray "Ipecacuanha" in Verse" Water-Suchy" Seven- teenth-Century Quotations, 276 " Scammel " Overing Surname Henry Fielding and the Civil Power, 277 Selden's 'Table Talk': " Force "History of England with Biming Verses, 278 "Hie locus odit, amat,"&c. Col. Abbott : ' Allaooddeen ' Women Carrying their Husbands Hamilton Kerby Belgian Coin with Flemish Inscription, 279.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-Dr. Macray's ' Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford' Dr. Kriiger's ' Unenglisches English.'

Notices to Correspondents.

JSotes.

GEORGE I. STATUE IN LEICESTER

SQUARE :

CANONS, NEAR EDGWARE. (See 11 S. ii. 7, 50, 98, 135, 199 ; iii. 152.)

AT the second reference I wrote that Mr. H. B. Wheatley in ' London Past and Present,' 1891, states that the statue of George I. formerly in Leicester Square was uncovered with some ceremony 19 November, 1748. Then I quoted John Hollingshead as saying in ' The Story of Leicester Square,' 1892, that it could not have been erected in 1748, as a print of the square dated 1751 shows a Dutch- looking tree in the middle. (Hollingshead adds, " Perhaps the print is wrongly dated.")

I further gave an extract from Peter Cunningham's ' Handbook to London,' new edition, 1851, in which he says :

" I have a proof of the view in Leicester Square in the 1754 ed. of Stow, without'the statue in the centre. The print in the book contains the statue : it was therefore in all likelihood erected about 1754."

I wrote that possibly Mr. Wheatley had good reason for giving 1748 as the date.

At 5 S. iv. 138 is an abbreviation of a

paragraph in The Gentleman's Magazine

which confirms Mr. Wheatley' s statement.

The whole paragraph is worth reproduction :

November 1748 Saturday 19

Being the birth day of the Princess of Wales, was a very splendid appearance of nobility and gentry at Leicester-House, when his Royal Highness observing some of his lords to wear French stuffs, immediately ordered the D. of Chandos, his groom of the stole, to acquaint them, and all his servants in general, that after that day he should be greatly displeased to see them appear in any French manufactures ; the same notice was given to the ladies. The fine statue of K. George I. in Leicester-square, was uncovered on the above occasion. Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xviii. 1748, p. 521.

The Duke of Chandos here spoken of was Henry, second Duke. It is interesting to note that he was present at the uncovering of the statue, which had been erected by his father, the first Duke, at Canons. The story of how the second Duke bought his second wife is told at 4 S. vi. 179. The evidence is not convincing.

According to ' London : being an Accu- rate History,' &c., by David Hughson, LL.D. ( =David Pugh, LL.D. ; see ante, p. 70), vol. vi. pp. 418, 419, foot-note, the estate of Canons was sold by order of the Earl of Aylesbury, father-in-law of Henry, the second Duke of Chandos, and one of the trustees in whom it was vested.

"As no purchaser could be found for the house, that intended to reside in it, the materials of the building were sold by auction, in 1747, in separate lots, and produced, after deducting the expences of the sale, eleven thousand pounds [It had cost 250,000 ibid., p. 416, foot-note.] The marble staircase, in particular, was purchased by Philip earl of Chesterfield, for his house in May Fair [each step consisted of one piece, twenty- two feet long ibid., p. 417, foot-note] ; the fine columns were bought for the portico of Wansted House. The magnificent chapel was pulled to pieces, and the painted window purchased by the parish of Great Malvern, in Worcestershire ; the great iron gate is_ before Hampstead church ; and the equestrian statue of George L, one of the numerous sculptures that adorned the grounds, is now [i.e. 1809] the ornament of Leicester Square."

Assuming that Hughson (Pugh) and The Gentleman's Magazine are correct, the statue