Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/155

 US. V. FEB. 17, 1912.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

and I have a letter now before me, received by my father from Southampton, February 23rd, 1848, acknowledging the receipt .of wenty copies of the second edition of " this day's date," containing the important intelligence from France, and stating that the contents were immediately com- municated to the principal bankers and merchants in the town, and that " The Daily News was the first paper to arrive in Southampton with the intelligence from Paris/'

Dickens had known Dilke from his boy- hood, and was very fond of him. On his death he wrote to Forster : " Poor Dilke ! I am very sorry that the capital old stout- hearted man is dead." Sorrow may also be expressed that no adequate record should remain of a career which for steadfast pur- pose, conscientious maintenance of opinion, and pursuit of public objects with disregard of self, was one of very high example.

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

(Jo be continued.)

CASANOVA IN ENGLAND.

(See 10 S. viii. 443, 491 ; ix. 116 ; xi. 437 ; 11 S. ii.- 386; iii. 242; iv. 382, 461.)

ONE of the first public places that Casanova visited on his arrival in London was a tavern which he calls " Cafe d' Orange." In the Gamier edition, vi. 346, he says :

" Voyant beaucoup de monde dans un cafe, j'y entrai. C'etait le caf6 le plus mal fame de Londres, celui oil se r&unissait la lie des mauvais sujets de 1'Italie qui venaient a passer la Manche " ;

and on the next page he particularizes it as the " Cafe d' Orange." In the Rozez edition, v. 427, the description is somewhat different :

" J'entre a nion insu au cafe d'Orange, espece de taverne ou caverne, oil se reunissaient tous les vauriens d'ltalie et des autres pays."

In both editions Casanova declares that he was warned at Lyons to avoid this hostelry,

From the first I suspected that the adven- turer must have found his way to the Prince of Orange Coffee - House in the Haymarket, which, if newspaper paragraphs are to be trusted, was situated at the bottom corner of the street, opposite the King's Theatre. Owing to its proximity to the Opera-House and the fact that (according to newspaper

advertisements) tickets for the benefit: performances of Continental artists were tc. be obtained there, one may conjecture- with some reason that the tavern was much patronized by foreigners. Such a surmise* too, is justified by a statement in Henry Angelo's ' Pic-nic,' where, at p. 364, this, coffee-house is described as " crowded with foreigners and dancing-masters." It WP.S there that Casanova met Vincenzo Martinelli, the editor of Boccaccio, which circum- stance seems to place the identity of the cafe beyond doubt, for in one of John Wilkes's address-books there is the following entry: "Martinelli, at the Orange Coffee- House, Haymarket."

Possibly Casanova may have maligned the- tavern, since fifteen years later Fanny Burney made use of it as an address in h'er negotiations with the publisher of ' Evelina.'' It should be noted that the memoirist uses the- colloquial term " Orange " in place of the- formal title, " Prince of Orange " Coffee- House.

Martinelli was well known in London as a man of letters, and his acquaintance with Lord Spencer is a testimony to his respect- ability. In 1752 he published in London his ' Istoria critica delta vita civile,' and in 1758 his ' Lettere f amiliari e critiche'; and MB. RICHARD EDGCUMBE tells us at 8 S. x. 312, that his edition of Boccaccio was: published in 1762. While preparing this, work he received much friendly criticism and advice from the wealthy and eccentric Thomas Hollis (Francis Blackburne's ' Me- moirs of Thomas Hollis,' passim), and it is. worthy of remark that Horace Walpole speaks of him with deference. He was also the friend of John Wilkes, and a letter from him to the " patriot," addressed to the King's Bench Prison on 25 July, 1769, wil* be found in the Add. MSS. 30,870, f. 170. It introduces Baron Sieten, " Imperial' minister at the Court of Poland," which* shows that Martinelli kept good company. Long after Wilkes's discharge he was in the- habit of dining with him.

Shortly before his visit to England, Casa- nova met at Turin an English nobleman whom he calls Lord Percy, and soon after his arrival in London he made the acquaint- ance of Lord Percy's mother, whom he calls, the "Duchess" of Northumberland (Gar- nier, vi. 365). He was anticipating events. In the year 1763 there was no Duchess cf Northumberland, for it was not until 22' October, 1766, that Hugh Smithson, Ear} 1 of Northumberland, was created a duke. So, too, the nobleman whom Casanova met.