Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/114

 106 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vn. F™. s, •-are not shown at all. In " Old Cheapside, 1580," the distance of the Guildhall from the street is much too great; but most at fault is " Old Charing Cross, 1620." The introduction of the Horse Guards "—a building begun in 1745 on the site of a guard-house erected in 1641—is ingenious. The background of this model hardly sug- gests the existence of the river : there is a dense forest of some kind, sprinkled with church towers, immediately behind White- hall and Westminster Abbey. Some early eighteenth«century buildings have strayed into Spring Gardens ; and a label placed by the Banqueting Hall calls attention to Westminster Hall, which cannot be seen, although the high-pitched roof of the Abbey is very noticeable. In " Old St. Paul's, 1560," the Pardon Churchyard is identified as having been situated at the south-east instead of on the north side, east of the Bishop's Palace. Perhaps I am too exacting ; it may only be intended that we should admire these models for their ingenuity and picturesque appearance. If their use had been confined to fairs and popular shows we should be disarmed, but in our museums inaccuracy and this kind of exhibit should surely not be tolerated. ALECK ABRAHAMS. ALEXANDER GUMMING, 1733-1814. WATCH- AND CLOCK-MAKER.—The following par- ticulars from the ' Old Statistical Account of Scotland ' (1799), vol. xxi. p. 74, supple menting as they do the account of Cumming in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' are worth recording :—• " Alexander dimming, son to Mr. James Cam- ming, late in Aviemore in the parish of Duthil (Inverness-shire), gave striking proofs of mechanical genius at an early period of life, when a boy at school. Being patronized by John, Duke of Arnyle, he resided under the patronage of the Duke at Inverary for several years. From thence he settled in London, where his inventions and improvements in the mechanical line recommended him to the favour of the late Earl of Bute and the notice of hie present Majesty. Having by his merit and industry in the mechanical department acquired a sufficient independency, he now enjoys the fruit of his labour in his villa near London. What foundation is there for the story that the Duke of Argyle discovered Alexander Cumming as a herd laddie who had made & wonderful clock inside a sheep's skull with wooden works, and was so much struck with the ingenuity of the mechanism that he sent him to Edinburgh and had him apprenticed as a watchmaker ? H. A. PITMAN. DATE OF WEBSTER'S PLAY ' THE DEVIL'S LAW CASE.'—Webster's practice of borrow- ing from the works of his contemporaries has already afforded valuable assistance in fixing the dates of composition of his plays. MR. PERCY SIMPSON (' N. & Q.,' 9 S. iv. 286) has pointed out that ' The White Devil ' contains a reference to Ben Jonson's ' Masque of Queens,' thus implying a date subsequent to the production of the ' Masque ' on 2 Feb., 1609; and MR. CHARLES CRAWFORD (' N. & Q.,' 10 S. vi. 242) has noted in ' The Duchess of Malfy' lines borrowed from Donne's ' Anatomy of the World ' and Chapman's ' Petrarch's Seven Penitential! Psalms,' first published in 1612. It is interesting to notice that similar evidence can be adduced to establish the fact that the date of composition of ' The Devil's Law Case ' was later than 1616, as the play contains borrowings from Ben Jonson's play ' The Devil is an Ass,' written in that year. The parallel to which atten- tion is here drawn has hitherto remained unnoted. . In Act II. sc. i. of ' The Devil's Law Case ' Ariosto observes :— Why, look you; Those lands that were the client's are now become The lawyer's; and those tenements that were The country gentleman's are now grown To be his tailor's. Webster's ' Works,' ed. Dyce, 1877, p. 116. Compare Meercraft's speech in ' The Devil is an Ass,' II. i. :— . . . the fair lands That were the client's, are the lawyer's now; And those rich manors there of goodman Taylor's, Had once more wood upon them, than the yard By which they were measured out for the last purchase. Jonson's ' Works,' ed. Gifford, 1869, p. 353. The resemblance here is too close to be accidental. It should be remarked that Dyce has already drawn attention to another fairly close parallel between the two plays —see Webster's ' Works,' ed. Dyce, p. 112— and correctly assumed that in the passage there noted Webster was indebted to Jonson. But then Dyce believed there was conclu- sive evidence that ' The Devil's Law Case ' was written shortly before its publication in 1623, on the faith of a supposed allusion to the massacre of the English by the Dutch at Amboyna; whereas it has since been shown that the news of the massacre did not reach England until 1624, and conse- quently after the play was published. At any rate, the parallel passages here quoted are interesting as affording additional evi- dence that Webster's play was later than