Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/228

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [U s. v. MAK. 9, 1912.

What must have added to the charm of Dickens's holiday was the low price of provisions : a fowl one shilling and tenpence ; a duck a few halfpence more ; meat sevenpence A pound, French weight ; and a bottle of the very best wine tenpence. Dickens was at Boulogne when Prince Albert visited the Emperor, and as he passed on the Calais road Dickens noticed that Napoleon was broader across the chest than in the old days when he used to meet him at Gore House, and that he stooped more in the shoulders. Less than a year and a half .afterwards Dickens met him in Paris, and wrote to Forster : "I suppose mortal man out of bed never looked so ill and worn. I never saw so haggard a face. ' '

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

(To be continued.}

EPITAPHIANA.

DAWSON THE ARTIST. Some time since, while transcribing the inscriptions in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Nottingham, I came across a neglected and partially buried recumbent slab, inscribed as follows :

In Memory of

John Turner Dawson

Son of Wilm. & Elizabeth

Dawson who died Feby. 5

1803 in the 14 Year of his

Age. [Also] Elizabeth Wife

of

William Dawson who died October 1806

Aged [4]6 Years.

Also John Dawson

who departed this Life

May 3 1809

Aged 18 Months.

And William Dawson,

Father of H. Dawson,

Born 1760, Died 1826.

This interesting, but now decaying me- morial of the great landscape painter's family was not previously known to exist. .Still more strange is the circumstance that Henry Dawson himself appears to have forgotten its existence, although it must once have been known to him, as the latter part of the inscription could only have been cut after he had attained fame, and possibly under his own direction, he being but 15 years of age when his father died. Never- theless, among the family data left by Henry Dawson ( vide his ' Autobiography ' ) there -occur errors that the inscription serves to -correct, notably in the name of William Dawson's wife, and in the date of death of

the child John. The present note may perhaps assist in rescuing this interesting memorial from the oblivion into which it has fallen. A. STAPLETON.

39, Burford Road, Nottingham.

JOHN HAMILTON, ARTIST. The following inscription from St. Luke's Old Burial- Ground, King's Road, Chelsea, may be of interest to MR. W. ROBERTS and others :

"Francis William Le Maistre, Esq., Lieut. - Gov[ernor] of (Casp ) in (Lower) Canada, d. May 12, 1803, in his (45) year. John Ham[il]ton, Esq., d. 13 Mar., 1808, a. 70. He \yas a great artist, and .... Mrs. Margaret Hamilton, w. of the above, d. Dec. 29, 1822, a. 79."

This must be the John Hamilton (fl. 1765- 1786) of the ' D.N.B.' G. S. PARRY.

CLAXBY CHURCH. The following epitaph presents several interesting queries. It is in Claxby Church, situate between Market Rasen and Lincoln:

GVLIELMVg FlTZWILLIAMS ABMIGER A JETATIS SV-SI ALTERO SVPRA LXXX"

ARMA MILITIA Hvivs DEPOSVIT. Weepe poore men weepe here our mortality Laied A Maister in Hospitality How he was Religious, Faithfull, Constant. Twenty seauen quietus est's Demonstrant, From worldly troubles he ne're found true rest. Untill from God he had quietus est.

ANNO D'NI. 1634. MENSE IVLIJ DIE DECIMO TERTIO

VlVAT IN ^jTERNVM,

J. FOSTER, D.C.L. Tathwell, Louth.

ABBOTS LANGLEY CHURCHYARD. The fol- lowing are upon two headstones on the south side of the church at Abbots Langley, Hert- fordshire :

All people that pass by

Pray read these doleful lines Of a young man that went to

Wash himself and was Drownd in his prime, in his age

23, whose death his parents Dost lament most grievously.

But tho' it was our loss We trust it was his gaine

In hopes of a glorious Resurrection to live Eternally. John Barns dyed the 16 day of June, 1723.

All Christian people that pass by

May view these mournful lines, Here lyes the Body of William Barns

Who unfortunately lost his Life Just in the Prime of his Years by

Being thrown out of an empty cart And between the Heavens and the

Earth became a Prey to Death's all Wounding Dart. Lord grant he did thy

Mercy find, and altho' we are left in great Sorrows and doubtes, Lord grant that

They may work together for our good