Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/18

 10 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s.vu. Jak. *, m H.M.S. Beagle.—Has the ultimate fate of the ship on which Darwin made his cele- brated voyage ever been definitely cleared up ? An article appeared in The Japan Magazine in April, 1910, stating that a ship called the Beagle was presented to Japan in 1870, and after being used as a gunboat, &c, was broken up in 1880. But there were doubts as to whether this was the Darwinian Beagle. On the other hand, Essex friends tell me that they are under the impression that the guardship moored in the Roach River (near Burnham - on - Crouch) thirty or forty years ago was named the Beagle. This Government hulk would seem more likely to be the vessel in question. Possibly some local or naval reader can clear up the point. F. A. W. Paris. ' A Spur to a Celestial Race.'—In the ment of 1629 (State Papers, Chas. I., cxxxiv.) there is a statement that " Mr. Turner since the last Session of Parliament did refuse to print a booke called ' A Spur to a Celestial Race,' because there was in it that a man may be certeine of his salvayon." Was this book ever printed, and if so, when ? Who was the author ? Wallace Notestein. University of Minnesota. Parish Registers of Surrey.—Could any reader of ' N. & Q.' kindly let me know whether there are any transcripts of the parish registers of Surrey earlier than 1813 still extant, and if so, where ? • They should, of course, be in the same custody as the Marriage Licences of Surrey Commissary Court, but they are not. Reginald M. Glencross. Makshufa, Hareficld Rood, Uxbridge. The Inquisition in Fiction and Drama. —Can any of your readers give me par- ticulars of works of fiction or of plays introducing the Inquisition ? I am aware, of course, of its introduction in ' Westward Ho I * and of Victorien Sardou's tragedy ' La Sorciere'—a mere travesty of In- quisitorial process. But in the autumn of 1911 I read a review of a novel dealing with " the Holy Office " in the Netherlands —supposed to be based on a MS. found in an old house in Antwerp; and I believe that some four or five years ago another novel was based upon the Inquisition. Its ela- borate and very dilatory procedure is all against a successful and accurate treatment of it in fiction or drama. Eric R. Watson. " Of sorts."—In replying to the query concerning' A " Dish " of Tea ' Mr. Douglas Owen uses (11 S vi. 433) the expression " the dish was originally a bowl of sorts." When- ever I meet with this " of sorts" I am puzzled, as no English dictionary that I have consulted has as yet furnished me information. What is its exact meaning ? I have come across such sentences as " It is an army of sorts," where the context seemed to imply that it was a sorry one ; and the title of a book, ' Chances of Sports of Sorts,' which seems to be only a variant for " all sorts." G. Krueger. Berlin. French Pronunciation of " Law."— I should feel obliged if you would help me to trace the reason for pronouncing the name Law (of South Sea Bubble fame) as " Lass " in France. I find this pronunciation is noted by Larousse as correct. Joseph Berry. Royal Dublin Society. Reference Wanted.—Where does Lord Keeper Coventry say " The depraved nature of man, which of itself carrieth man to all other sin, abhorreth them " ? David Salmon. Swansea. ftcplws. THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, UPHOLSTERER. (10 S. vi. 447 ; vii. 37 ; US. vi. 407.) May I supplement Col. Chippindall's inter- esting account of the Chippendale family by a reference to one or two other modern authorities ? In Miss Constance Simon's charming and tasteful production ' English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Century ' (1905) a very good account is given of the Chippen- dale family as known in London. Miss Simon says (p. 24) that Thomas Chippen- dale the second (the great Thomas Chippen- dale, I may call him) was born and spent a part of his early life in Worcester (though she gives no authority for that statement), and that both father and son were settled in London before 1727. On 19 May, 1748, the son would appear to have married Catherine Redshaw of St. Martin-in-the- Fields at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, as related by both Miss Simon and Col. Chippindall. This, the latter states, was followed by the baptism of a son—Thomas
 * Nicholas Notes ' dealing with the Parlia-