Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/388

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NOTES AND Q UERIES. [ii s. iv. NOV. n, ion.

articles on Bubb Dodington (10 S. xii. 461 504) will show that on the internal evidence of the dedication, this is not an improbable attribution. Gibber's reference to " Tus culum (for so I will call that sweet retreat which your own hands have raised), where like the famed orator of old, when public cares permit, you pass so many rational unbending hours," seems decidedly to point to Eastbury in Dorsetshire, where Bubb Dodington used to entertain his literary friends. " How many golden evenings," says Gibber, in a flash of eloquent retrospec- tion, " in that theatrical paradise of watered lawns and hanging groves, have I walked and prated down the sun, in social happiness ! " This merely echoes the language used by Young and Thomson in praise of " Pierian Eastbury."

Near the commencement of his first chapter, in speaking of raillery, Gibber observes :

" There are two persons now living, who though very different in their manner, are, as far as my judgment reaches, complete masters of it ; one of a more polite and extensive imagina- tion, the other of a knowledge more closely useful to the business of life " ;

and he then proceeds, in one of the best pas- sages of the book, to give a careful analysis of the characteristics of these two masters of the art of raillery. The first, whom he describes as having a title, is universally recognized as Lord Chesterfield ; the second, " who is so far from having a title, that he has lost his real name," has never yet been satisfactorily identified. Bellchambers queries if this was Bubb Dodington, and Mr. Lowe, in a note on the passage, quotes from ' The Laureat,' p. 18, that the portraits were " L d C d and Mr. E e," and suggests that the latter name may stand for Erskine. I cannot find that any Erskine living at that time answers to the character, and I feel sure that my annotator has knocked the nail on the head when he states that the portrait is that of Giles Earle, known among his intimates as "Tom" Earle. Earle, though now forgotten, was a man of some prominence in his day, and occupies a niche in the ' D.N.B.' He was a minor politician and one of the convivial com- panions of Walpole, and I have no doubt that Gibber's pen has done full justice to his merits.

In this connexion I may refer to the verses entitled ' A Dialogue between G. Earle, Esq., and B Doddington, 1741,' communicated by the late MR. ALBERT HARTSHORNE to these columns (11 S. ii. 10). MR. HARTSHORNE said that he had no means of ascertaining

whether this peculiar example of t he- literature of the time had ever appeared in print. The verses are by Sir Charles Han- bury Williams, and were printed in his ' Odes,' of which three editions were issued in 1775, 1780, and 1784. As all these editions are rather scarce, I will refer the reader to ' The Works of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams,' 1822, i. 30.

There are many other notes in this copy of the ' Apology,' but I will confine myself to- quoting one on Mrs. Tofts the singer (chap, xii.), as Mr. Lowe says nothing about this- lady :

" I know not if it be true, but a Gentleman of good intelligence assured me y e Mrs. Tofts was a natural daughter of the well-known BP Burnett. She afterwards married one Smith, a rich English Banker at Venice, where the Gentleman who told me this saw her at her own house. It was on her that was made a well-known Epigram or some- thing like it which I think has been imputed to- S r Richard Steel [sic] :

ON MBS. TOFTS. So great is thy beauty, so sweet is thy song, As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus-

along ;

But such is thy av'rice and such is thy pride, That the beasts must have starv'd, and the Poet

have died.

The Gentleman who told me he saw her at Venice- conflrm'd to me this her character for pride."

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

CASANOVA IN ENGLAND.

See 10 S. viii. 443, 491 ; ix. 116 ; xi. 4,37 ; US. ii. 386 ; iii. 242.)

ONE of the most noteworthy incidents during Casanova's residence in London was his adventure with Mile. La Charpillon,. a beautiful courtesan, barely seventeen years- Did, which resulted in his imprisonment n Newgate and his appearance before Sir John Fielding. He speaks of her as a ]adx ' que tout Londres a connue " (Gamier ed" d. 485), or as the Rozez edition puts it i ' que tout Londres connaissait alors !r Rozez ed., vi. 7). In spite of this statement I have been unable to find a reference to his person in any of the newspapers, maga- ines, pamphlets, poems, or memoirs of the >eriod. Ten years later, however, when Casanova's Mile. La Charpillon would have >een twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, he famous John Wilkes became acquainted vith a lady who bore a very similar name, ^his was Mile. Marianne Genevieve de "harpillon, whom " the patriot " met in