Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/385

 us. vi. OCT. 19, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

317

at " The White Bear : ' in Drury Lane on 7 Feb., 1735. and agreed to rob the house of a Mr. Francis, " a farmer of Marylebone," an enterprise which they carried out with much brutality. Turpin was executed at York on 7 April, 1739, and immediately after his execution there was published at York a pamphlet containing an account of his life (no doubt compiled from contem- porary newspapers), together with the shorthand report (by Kylls) of his trial at York. In this account of his career the date of the meeting is given also as 7 Feb., 1735, but the place of meeting is said to be "The White Horse" in Drury Lane a mistake which we may safely assume to be that of the provincial compiler of this narrative, unfamiliar with London inn- names. The fact is, therefore, that ' The Xewgate Calendar ' and the York pam- phlet both agree on the date and place of the meeting of Turpin's gang, and that both correspond with the details given in the inscription on the pistol found at Banbury. The writers of that day could not have taken the date and place from the pistol inscription, because they did not know of its existence, and it seems to me clearly established that this was Turpin's pistol, presented to him by some of his audacious admirers on that night in 1735.

How the pistol got to Banbury is not quite so clear. We know that in 1738, after the death of Tom King, Turpin had to fly from London, where the pursuit was too hot. He next turns up at Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, where he was calling himself Palmer (his wife's name), and posing as a horse-dealer. Neither 'The Newgate Calen- dar,' the York pamphlet, nor Mr. T. Sec- combe's very careful monograph, which appeared in The Essex Review in 1894, throws any light on Turpin's route to Long Sutton, but it is quite conceivable that he may have worked (or robbed) his way round through Banbury, and stayed at " The Reindeer Inn." Then the handsome pistol, with its compromising inscription, may have seemed a dangerous companion for 'the gentleman who was going to start a new life in the North as " John Palmer." He probably pushed it through a hole in the old wainscot, where it has remained for 174 years.

There were at one time so many bogus (or unauthenticated) Turpin relics in exist- ence that it seems useful that the genuine- ness of this pistol should be recorded.

R. S. PENGELLY. 12, Poynder's Road, Claphani Park.

" LET SEVERELY AJLONE " (11 S. vi. 228). The expression " You must shun him. . . . by leaving him severely alone " was used by Parnell in his speech at Ennis, 19 Sept", 1880. See the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' xliii. 327, under ' Parnell.'

MAC.

COMPTON ABDAXE CHURCH (US. vi. 189). Berstead Church, near Maidstone, had bears formed into pinnacles.

W. Louis KING.

Wadesmill, Ware.

HENRY HUNT PLPER"(!I S. vi. 129, 176. 216, 236, 294). I do not know if the following notes of Mr. Piper's connexion with the Shef- field Literary and Philosophical Society will be of any interest to your correspondent.

The Society was founded in 1822 at the instigation of Mr. James Montgomery, Mr. Piper being one of the original proprietors. From the beginning the Society held monthly meetings, at which papers were read by some of its members, and also arranged for lectures, which were delivered to larger audiences.

Mr. Piper gave the following papers and lectures to the Society :

7 March, 1823 (paper). ' On the Effects of Education and Literary Pursuits."

6 Aug., 1824 (paper). ' On the newly discovered Treatise by Cicero, " De Republica." '

1 (or 2) Oct., 1824 (paper). ' On the Dialect of Sheffield.' This was given again as a lecture by request of the Council on 28 Jan., 1825, and afterwards published.

5 May, 1826 (paper). ' On the Principles and Theories of Education.'

30 March, 1827 (lecture). ' On Music.'

12 Oct., 1827 (paper). ' On the Advantages of

a Classical Education.'

29 Dec., 1828 (lecture). ' On the History of

Greece.'

6 March, 1829 (paper). ' On the Epicurean and Stoic Philosophy.'

2 Oct., 1829 (paper). ' An Examination of Phrenology.'

1 March, 1831 (paper). ' On the Agricultural Plans adopted in the Netherlands for the Main- tenance of the Poor.'

3 Feb., 1832 (paper). ' On the Life and Writings (!) of Socrates.'

21 Feb., 1834 (lecture). ' On the Mind ana Senses, and their Liability to Deception.'

7 March, 1834 (paper). ' On the Use of the Moods in Latin.'

8 Aug., 1834 (paper). ' On Milton's Sacred Drama.'

1 May, 1835 (paper). ' On the Drama of Euripides.'

6 May, 1836 (paper). ' On Physical Geography.'

2 June, 1837 (paper). ' On Peculiarities in the Structure of the English Language.'

2 April, 1840 (paper). ' On the Metaphysical Sciences.'

3 Sept., 1841 (paper). ' On Roman Literature.'