Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/413

 IIS. VII. May 24,1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 405 Charters, the dates of which are already ascertainable from a variety of sources. My notes as to successional lists of Masters, &c, refer to printed lists only, though references to lists existing in MS. would not be unwelcome. William McMurray. Izaak Walton and Tomb-Scratching.— The initials "I. W.," with the date 1658 beneath, are scratched on the tomb of Isaac Casaubon in Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley describes this in his ' Memorials of Westminster Abbey' as the earliest of many defacements of the sort, and states without any doubts that the initials are Izaak Walton's own work. Walton had a profound admiration for Casaubon, may have been named after him, and was inti- mate with his son Meric. Mr. E. Marston, in his ' Thomas Ken and Isaac Walton' (1908), also accepts this inscription as the work of Walton, and points out that his half-brother Ken in 1656 carved his name on the stonework of the cloisters at Winchester College. Mr. Marston adds that " Frank Buckland was the first to draw attention to the initials "—i.e., I presume, to read Izaak Walton in " I. W." The ' D.N.B.' also accepts the identification. Having given all the evidence that, so far as I know, supports this view, and the authorities which endorse it, I venture to express strong doubts as to the soundness of the whole inference, for it is nothing more. " One can scarcely think," says Mr. Marston, " that it was out of a desire for posthumous fame that Izaak Walton, when he was sixty-five years old," made this record. Sixty-five ! I really find it impossible to believe that a worthy and pious man of that age would deface any tomb by carving on it. Mr. Marston's parallel is not to the point ; it only proves what we all know—that schoolboys have frequently carved their names on available spots in schools. But even so the cloisters of Winchester are not a tomb, and they have not the revered sanctity of Westminster Abbey. The initials " I. W." must have been fairly common in 1658, as in other periods of modern history. Is there any likely person or class of persons who would have the opportunity and inclination to carve them in Westminster Abbey ? Surely there is a group of persons one would obviously suspect. The Westminster boys of the period must have been familiar enough with the Abbey to lose some of their sense of its peculiar reverence, and one of them who was keen on classical study would naturally choose the tomb of a famous classical scholar for his schoolboy inscription. This seems to me a much more likely theory than the accepted one, which I shall not believe until I learn of another man of noted piety and mature age who was guilty of a similar- defacement. V. R. Parliamentary Changes. — The Daily Telegraph of the 12th inst. contains Mr. J. F. Henley's reminiscences of the changes in the dress and habits of members of Parliament that have taken place during the forty-four years he has occupied the position of superintendent of the members' waiting-rooms. When he went to the- House of Commons in 1869 "Gladstone was Prime Minister, and in all he* has seen seven different Premiers, five Speakers, and five chief clerks. The only member now in the House who was there before I went in is Mr. Chaplin. In several cases I have seen three genera- tions of the same family in the House." During Mr. Henley's early days there were few private rooms for Ministers, and all the- Prime Ministers " hung" in the cloak- room. " At that time every one wore a top hat, which was always taken into the House. It is only about ten years ago that members began to leave their headgear in my custody. In the eighties the fashion in dress began to change. Coloured coats then made their appearance, and the silk hat lost its monopoly. It was not, however, until 1892 that the democratic cap appeared." One is surprised to find that snuffing was a regular habit among members during the- sixties and seventies, as long before this it was rare to meet with a snuff - taker. One of the greatest snuff-takers Mr. Henley knew was Mr. Charles Newdegate. Mr. Gladstone had always a kind word for Mr. Henley, who thinks that " it was the last time he was in the House he sat down in a chair beside me, and when I rose he said ' If you don't sit down I shall not come and see yon again.'" And once, when Henley made a little blunder, Mr. Gladstone's reassurance was:— Mistakes are common all through life : Man Miss takes, mid she becomes his wife. F. C. J. De Foe and Napoleon Bonaparte.— I have just been reading Defoe's " The His- tory of the Devil, Ancient and Modern. In Two Parts. London: Joseph Smith, 193, High Holborn, 1837," 1 vol., narrow 12mo. The text appears to follow verbatim that of the earlier editions, but I received a very