Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/588

 484

NOTES AND QUERIES. [HS.V..TI-SK 22,1912.

mentioned as Wiliybyrig in a charter of A.D. 1007 (Napier and Stevenson, ' Crawford Charters,' p. 135). Each of these places was a burh, and none of them can be described as " a fortified town." There are plenty more of the same kind.

The circular mounds represented in the Bfcyeux Tapestry do not prove that the Normans introduced such mounds into this country. Moreover, no indication is given in the Tapestry of " courts attached."

Great as must have been the labour bestowed on Mrs. Armitage's book, it appears to me that its main conclusion is untenable. The theory of the late Mr. Clark still holds the field S. O. ADDY.

3, Westbourne Road, Sheffield.

CASANOVA IN ENGLAND. I. LA

.(See 10 S. viii. 443, 491 ; ix. 116 ; xi. 437 ; 11 S. ii. 386 ; iii. 242 ; iv. 382, 461 ; v. 123.)

OWING to the kindness of Herr Bernhard Marr, the librarian of the Castle of Dux, I have received facsimiles of two autograph letters written in the year 1763 by Marianne de Charpillion to Casanova, which I have com- pared with the letters in the British Museum written by Marianne de Charpillion to John Wilkes between the years 1773-7. It is obvious that the handwriting is the same. My opinion is confirmed by that of Herr Marr, who has had an opportunity of com- paring photographs of some of the British Museum letters with his MSS., and who declares :

" Fur mich ist die Identitat der Duxer Briefe in Beziehung auf die gleiche Handschrift ohne alien Zweifel begrundet." Letter dated Dux, 13 Dec., 1911.

I am able also to cite the weighty authority of Dr. Tage E. Bull, who has not the slightest doubt that the letters in question were written by ; the same person, and who adds : " It is amusing to see that the courtesan sticky to the eccentric way of spelling her .own name CharpilKon (letter to Casanova of 12 Sept., 1763 : cf. letter to Wilkes, 1 Jan., 1774)." Letter dated Copenhagen, 2 Jan., 1912.

M. Aldo Rava, the editor of the recently published ' Lettere di donne a Giacomo Casanova,' Milan, 1912, is of the same opinion, and writes :

" -Merci pour les deux photos. C'est bien 1'ecritxire de La Charpillon, dont je possede un facsimile." Letter dated Venice, 2 Dec., 1911.

In the face of such evidence one may safely claim ' that this interesting Casanovian problem is solved.

Even without the testimony of hand- writing the identification might have been proved. In addition to the fact that the name Marianne de Charpillion (or Charpillon) was the same in both cases, and that the family consisted of a grandmother, a mother, and one or two aunts, the Charpillons whom Casanova knew sold a quack medi- cine which they called " le baume do vie " (balm of life) : Casanova's ' Memoires,' Gamier, vi. 490, 493, 513. It is significant, therefore, that Mile. Charpillon should write to Wilkes when he was ill, saying that she was sending him " some balm." On 17 Feb., 1777, she tells him", in her illiterate manner :

" Je vous anyoyent 'du beauuje du couyent, il vous fera du bien mais craignee, c'est charme. . "

And on 22 May, 1777, she writes :

" Je pren la libert^e de vous anvoyer du beaume, si je trouve & redire & vos action cela ne inempe'che pas de d6sir6e votre sant^e."

Casanova's statement that Mile. Char- pillon lived in Denmark Street is another instance of his wonderful accuracy (Gamier, vi. 482). His only mistake a pardonable one was in thinking that Denmark Street was in Soho, instead of in the parish of St. Giles. The Holborn rate-books show that Francis Decharpillon (sic) was residing in that street in 1763-4, being rated at 24Z. a year.

According to Casanova, the grandmother of Mile. Charpillon was a native of Berne, who had taken the name of Anspergher " sans aucun droit," and he seems to suggest that the mother, the youngest of four daughters, was^ also born in Berne. The Christian name of either the mother or the grandmother must have been Frances, as shown by the Holborn rate -books. Mile. Charpillon, whose full name was Marianne Genevieve, was born in Franche-Comte, her father being the Count de Boulainvilliers (Gamier, vi. 512-13).' If Casanova is right, the date of her birth was circa 1746 (Gamier, vi. 481 ; Rozez, vi. 7), and Wilkes was in the habit of celebrating her birthday on 1 Nov. ; but there is no indication whether this was Old or New Style. With these par- ticulars in view, it may be possible for some industrious person to discover her acte de naissance.

II.

THE following references in Casanova's 'Memoires' to his intended journey to London help to explain the reason of his desire to visit England :

"... .la paix etant faite, je voulais en profiter pour voir rAngleterre." Casanova at Turin, circa January, 1763 ; v. Gamier, v. 519.