Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/85

 n a vii. Jan. 25, wis.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 77 The Stones of London (11 S. vi. 429, 515 ; vii. 16). — Statue of George II., Golden Square.—Portland stone. Gladstone Memorial, Strand.—Pedestal of Portland stone. Gordon Memorial, Trafalgar Square. — Pedestal of hard Derbyshire limestone. Edward .Tenner, Kensington Gardens.— Portland stone base, panels of Aberdeen granite. Sir Rowland Hill, by Royal Exchange.— Pedestal of Dalbeattie granite. Sir Robert Peel, Cheapside.—Pedestal of unpolished Aberdeen granite. Robert Raikes, Victoria Embankment Gardens.—Pedestal of Cornish grey granite. Mrs. Siddons, Paddington Green.—Statuo of white Carrara marble, pedestal of Port- land stone. Westminster Scholars' Memorial, Broad Sanctuary. — Column of red Peterhead gr.inite, base of Portland stone. Robert Waithman, Ludgate Circus.—' Monolith and pedestal of Devonshire granite. Duke of Wellington, opposite Royal Ex- change.—Pedestal of Peterhead granite. Duke of Wellington. Woolwich Arsenal.— Statue and pedestal of Portland stone. William IV., King William Street.— S'atue of Foggin Tor granite, pedestal of Hayter granite. John Ardaoh. w, Richmond Road, Drumcondra. Dublin. Wreck of the Royal George (11 S. vi. 110, 176, 374. 436, 496; vii. 36).—T. F. D. will find, on referring to the ' Minutes of the Cjtirt Martial ' held after the loss of the ship, that it was not caused by the careening of the vessel, but by the bottom falling out through age. When there was a consider- able quantity of water in the ship the port sills were still above the water-line outside. The Royal George foundered because she was rotten, and according to the evidence a large piece of the bottom fell out. In a sketchy account like the popular history referred to this may not appear, but, besides the Minutes mentioned, Barrow's ' Life of Lord Howe ' and ' Dictionary of National Biography' (under Sir Philip Durham) can also be consulted. R. B. Upton. A short reference to the Royal George appears in the memoirs of an African negro, Gustavus Vassa, who as a boy was for a few weeks on board in the service of a lieutenant of marines. He says :— ■'The Royal George was the largest ship I had ever seen, so that when I came on board I was sur- prised at the number of people, men, women, and children, of every denomination, and the largeness of the guns, many of them bras9, which I had never seen before. Here were also stalls or shops of every kind of goods, and people crying their different commodities about the snip as m a town. To me it appeared a little world into which I was cast without a friend." The author of the memoirs was afterwards on the Namur. one of the fleet engaged in the capture of Louisburg. He says of this : •' We had the good and gallant General Wolfe on board, whose affability made him loved by all. He often honoured me and other boys with marks of his notice, and once saved me a flogging for fighting with a young gentleman." Several details of the taking of Louisburg under Admiral Boscawen are given, and of the elaborate naval procession when entering the town the day after the victory. M. N. Wigan. The Curfew Bell (11 S. vi. 466 ; vii. 17). —This is rung every evening by the one and only bell (" Peter ") hanging in the northern tower of Exeter Cathedral. This big bell seems to have been originally taken in exchange at Llandaff for some smaller Devonshire ones by Peter Courtenay, twenty-fourth bishop of this diocese (1478- 1483). It was afterwards conveyed by water to Hfracombe, carted here by road, and placed in the tower where it still is, Prior to this, tradition affirms, the Curfew was sounded from one of the two (Norman) towers erected by Bishop Robert Warelwast (1107-36). After the hour of eight has struck, the number of days in the current month are tolled upon the same bell, and, following a short pause, eight more strokes are given. Harry Hems. Fair Park, Exeter. Curfew is rung on a sonorous bass bell at 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.. throughout the winter months, at the Chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross at Stratford-on-Avon. Being handy to the local fire-brigade station, the same bell is also used to call the volunteer firemen together, which would prove rather confusing if a fire should happen about the customary hour for ringing the Curfew. William Jaggard. [Is not a " curfew " at C a.m. an anomaly ?] Replica of Wilkie's ' Village Poli- ticians ' (11 S. vi. 349).—Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower states, in his monograph on Wilkie (' The Great Masters in Painting and Sculpture,' 1902), that this replica is in the possession of S. Hatchard, Esq., Glendare, Camden Park, Tunbridge Wells. W. B.