Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/383

 u s. vi. OCT. 19, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

THE QUEEN OF TAHITI'S FEATHER ROBE (11 S. vi. 210). I read with interest MR. WAKEFIELD PIM'S inquiry, and it brought to my mind a long-forgotten fact, that in the Museum at Belfast there was a feathered coat presented by the great naturalist Mr. Patterson, who brought it home from the South Sea Islands, where he had received it from the Queen. It had a wonderful history, which I forget, but which I trust some of the local antiquaries will revive. Can it be possible this is the cloak MR. PIM inquires about ? I will look out for further infor- mation.

This also brings back the fact that over half a century ago there was a portion of the original Solemn League and Covenant in this Museum. Has it also been forgotten ? It was the portion signed by the Belfast Presbyterians, and should be a valuable relic of the stern days that are past.

FOUR SCORE YEARS AND TEN.

Mr. Robert M. Young, B.A., F.R.I.B.A., for many years Secretary of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society a society which supported a museum from 1831 until 1910, when the collections were handed over to the Belfast Corporation to be amalgamated with the municipal collections has called my attention to MR. PIM'S query.

While the description given is not quite in accord with a robe in the Society's collection, it is possible that the robe to which he refers is the one now in the Belfast Municipal Museum. This robe is from the Sandwich Islands, and is made of scarlet feathers decorated with the few yellow feathers of the moho, a bird black with the exception of about a dozen yellow feathers under the wing. It is these yellow feathers only which are used to form the decoration on the scarlet ground. The robe was pre- sented to the Society as far back as 1841 by a Mr. Gordon A. Thomson, a native of Belfast. According to records, Mr. Thomson happened to visit the chief island of the Sandwich group at a time when the monarch of the Sandwich Islands was involved in a quarrel with the French, who demanded money as indemnity for alleged injury. In order to satisfy this demand a number of valuable objects were offered for sale, includ- ing the feather robe now in Belfast, which was purchased by Mr. Thomson.

Included in the same collection are a royal robe made of crimson velvet and white furs, which was presented by King George IV.

to the Queen of the Sandwich Islands ; and another royal robe in tapa cloth from Tahiti.

A. DEANE. Public Art Gallery and Museum, Belfast.

GARRICK'S 'SATIRE' (11 S. vi. 250). In replying to MR. EDGCUMBE'S query it may be well to state for the benefit of the un- initiated, and the better comprehension of Garrick's cynical lines, that among other curiosities which have for ages adorned the Great Hall at Warwick Castle, and are still exhibited to visitors when the family are not " in residence," are a huge metal porridge pot, out of which the legendary Guy is supposed to have fed ; one joint of the spine of the wild dun cow which he is credited with having slaughtered on Dunsmore Heath ; and the tusk and shoulder-blade of a wild boar of- gigantic dimensions which he is reputed to have slain. Full particulars of these and other relics will be found in the admirable and interesting ' History of Warwick Castle and its Earls,' published in 1903, the authorship of which is accredited to the present Countess of Warwick, though it is an open secret in the county that the work is the result of arduous research on the part of a local divine who devoted many months to collecting the needful material in the Castle, Guy's Cliff, and elsewhere. I may quote one extract from this book :

" With regard to the relics attributed to Guy, and preserved at Warwick Castle, I fear these must, however reluctantly, be given up, at any rate so far as the legendary Guy is concerned, though he will retain, from sentimental motives, his caldron or porridge pot, fork, and sword. Antiquarians have shown that most of the ' Guy relics \belong to other periods, but, curiously enough, these eminent authorities overlook the fact that there have been more than one Guy of Warwick, and most of the armour so described belongs to Guy de Beauchamp, the famous Earl of Warwick who flourished in the reign of Ed- ward III."

Now as to the satire, I cannot do better than quote what that distinguished litterateur Mr. Percy Fitzgerald says in his ' Life of David Garrick ' :

" Yet he [Garrick] was not quite above the sensitiveness which may underlie friendship between a player and ' a Lord.' The best illustration of this is the little history of an invitation to Warwick Castle. He and his friend Arden had been strongly pressed to pass a week en famille at the Castle ; he thought he would now avail himself of the invitation. They arrived, were received by the housekeeper, shown all the curiosities, treated to such light refreshment as a cup of chocolate, and then bowed out like ordinary tourists. They were both bitterly indignant Garrick especially, whom other Lords were only too proud to entertain. He turned