Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/518

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. DEC. 23, 1911.

phrase, " Christus rex, venit in pace Deus homo factus," was used as a formula or incantation against demons in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. It was suggested that " the medals were used in all probability as charms." G. H. W.

[MR. ANDREW SOUTH also thanked for reply.]

LONG'S HOTEL, BOND STBEET (11 S. iv. 406). ' Six Weeks at Long's ' I believe is not by E. S. Barrett. The original attribution to him seems to be in ' N. & Q.,' 1 S. viii. 423 (1853), from ROBERT BELL, who, I presume, was the originator of the Dublin Historical Society (see Boase's ' Modern English Biography'). Bell's account is repeated in my ' Handbook of Fictitious Names,' 1868, see p. 195 ; then by W. Daven- port Adams in his most useful book the ' Dictionary of English Literature ' (1878) ,- next in Halkett and Laing's ' Dictionary,' 1882; and lastly by D. J. O'Donoghue in ' The Poets of Ireland,' 1892.

The writer in the ' D.N.B.' does not credit Barrett with ' Six Weeks.' Neither do I now believe the pseudonyms " Cervantes Hogg " and " Polypus " are his. I took them, I presume, from the National Library Catalogue.

I have never seen the original edition of ' Six Weeks,' but I have a note that it was first published in 1811 (?). At 4 S. i. 314 (1868) MR. Axox inquired for the name of the author, but there was no reply. He states the date as 1814. The copy in the National Library is the third edition, dated 1817, and that is the year it was noticed in The Literary Gazette (p. 69). The work was announced as by " a military officer," which Barrett w T as not.

Some fifteen years ago I read through W. Jerdan's ' Autobiography,' published in 1852, the year before BELL'S note. Though crammed with facts, Jerdan's four volumes have no index, but I made notes of the matter I might require. In vol. ii. p. 176, he says :

" At this period the satirical novel called ' Six Weeks at Long's,' in the doing of which, as formerly stated, I had a hand with Michael Nugent (a few years before a fellow "reporter with me, and a clever fellow to boot, though he never would emerge from that drudgery), was published. The material was furnished by a Military Officer, I think, who paid us for our literary assistance, which, as far as I can remember, was not of the foremost character."

Now Barrett was a very capable writer* and would not want the assistance of men no better than himself ; also I doubt if

his circumstances would have enabled him to live at one of the most expensive hotels in London, or to pay for the publication of the book, as the title-page states he did.

Nugent died on 16 March, 1845. Jerdan wrote a short notice of him in The Literary Gazette, which was copied into The Gentle- man's Magazine (July, 1845, p. 86). Jerdan there says that Nugent was one of those who licked ' Six Weeks at Long's ' into shape, and that the material was furnished by an habitue of the hotel.

Nugent was one of the few authors who escaped the lynx eye of the editor of ' A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors,' 1816.

' The Handbook of Fictitious Names ' on p. 178 gives this information :

" The following are a few of the characters mentioned : Vol. I., 220 This gentleman [Words- worth ?] ; p. 226, another Poet [Soutbey] ; Vol. II. 2 Lord Yardlip [Col. Berkeley] ; 3, a Girl of fifteen [Miss Foote] ; Vol. II. 206, Lady Charlotta [Bury]." See Barrett, E. S., in the ' Biographical Index.'

It is unfortunate that Jerdan, who was a contributor to ' N. & Q.,' never contra- dicted BELL'S note. If the whole ques- tion were carefully looked into, and all the books read, I believe it would be found that Barrett wrote very few of the works attri- buted to him. RALPH THOMAS.

ANTIGALLICAN SOCIETY (11 S. iv. 448). Antigallican Societies reflected those un- bridled sentiments of hatred towards the French which began, or perhaps were only revived, with the naval defeat suffered by them at the hands of the brave Admiral Benbow, and were further strengthened by the victories of Marlborough, and the scouring of the seas by Anson and Hawke, when in 1756 the Indian Empire, and in 1759 the Canadas, were added to the British dominions. All these triumphs fostered a spirit of boastfulness which culminated in the formation of Antigallican Societies their common bond being hatred of Jean Crapaud, who was ridiculed on the stage and insulted in the streets.

There is still, I think, or was until of late years, a tavern of this sign in Tooley Street, Southwark. There was also an " Anti- gallican," the sign of a public-house in Darkhouse Lane, in 1815. It was at the corner of the street next the river, says ' The Epicure's Almanack,' 1815, "The Queen's Head " occupying the opposite corner. There was (also in 1815) another " Anti- gallican " in Threadneedle Street, next door to the New England Coffee-House, which was