Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/135

 ii s. vii. FEB. 15, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

Now I have a copy of " The | School for Scandal, | a Comedy ; | as it is performed at the | Theatres - Royal, | in | London | and | Dublin. [ Dublin : printed in the year, M.DCCjLXXX." I have been unable to trace any record of it, and, as far as I am aware, it is unknown to bibliographers. In the imprint the B in DUBLIN is upside down ; .arid after the last page there is an advertise- ment of * Pranceriana Poetica : or, Prancer's Garland.'

The date 1780 settles the pretensions of the issue of 1781, and for the reasons already stated from the title-page and the internal -evidence of my copy it appears to me that it is the first genuine edition, that it is unique, and that Ewing's edition, if genuine, was published at a later date.

Baker states that ' The School for Scandal ' according to Lowndes it was first printed in Dublin in 1785. Both authorities were clearly in error.
 * ; is still imprinted " (i.e., in 1782), and

I trust that further information will be forthcoming on this interesting subject, And all obscurity removed.

INQUISITOR.

WE must request; correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

STUART PORTRAITS : EDGAR FAMILY. I purchased some years ago four small oil portraits of the Old Pretender, Queen Anne, William III., and Queen Mary evidently by a contemporary artist. They are in old carved and gilt frames. The dealer from whom I purchased them said they had belonged to the Edgar family, and that an Edgar was Secretary to the Old Pretender. Is there any member of that family in existence who could give me particulars as to the authorship, &c., of the portraits ?

W.

REFERENCE WANTED. In the 'Life of Bishop Paget (Oxford) ' a quotation from Johnson is given showing the difference between courtesy and politeness, thus :

" Courteous elegant in manners, kind. Polite elegant in manners, glossy."

The distinction is so good that I should like to have the exact reference. It is not in the Dictionary. H. N. ELLACOMBE.

OTTERY ST. MARY. After nearly fifteen years of personal research among unpub- lished documents relating to the Manor of Ottery St. Mary, I have collected a great deal of valuable and interesting material, which I am now preparing for the press. I hope no long time will elapse before I am able to issue the first volume, bringing the history down to the Dissolution of the College of St. Mary of Ottery. This will include a vast amount of hitherto unpublished in- formation from the Public Records and from the manuscripts at the British Museum ; but, in order to make it exhaustive, I should esteem it a great favour if any of your readers who know of documents relating to the parish in other collections or in private hands would furnish me with information concerning them, particularly any dealing with the Anglo-Saxon period. Among the documents which I have been unable to discover are the originals of some deeds relating to Cadhay, in Ottery St. Mary, which were printed not quite accurately, I believe in The Gentleman's Magazine (1862, i. 64-7), over the initials G. H. D.

(Mrs.) FRANCES ROSE-TROUP,

West Hill, Harrow-on-the-Hill.

F.R.HistS.

THE * LONDON,' ' BRITISH,' AND ' ENG- LISH ' CATALOGUES OF BOOKS. Mr. A. Growoll's ' Three Centuries of English Book- trade. Bibliography ' (New York, 1903) includes ' A List of the Catalogues, &c., published for the English Booktrade,' by Mr. Wilberforce Eames. Unfortunately, the statements made by Mr. Growoll and Mr. Eames are occasionally at variance, and it is difficult to get at the accurate biblio- graphy of the ' London,' ' British,' and ' English ' Catalogues of Books. I should be glad of any light on the following points.

On p. 149 Mr. Eames notes :

" A Catalogue of Books published in the United

Kingdom during the year 1835 as given in the

Publishers' Circular. London, 1836."

But, according to Mr. Growoll, p. 92, The Publishers' Circular was first issued in Sep- tember, 1837.

On p. 92 Mr. Growoll continues :

" After Volume XII. [1849], when the Publisher*' Circular became Mr. Low's own property, the alpha- betical catalogue bears the title of ' Sampson Low's Catalogue of New Books,' &c. In the following year 1845 [sic], Mr. Low published the h'rst of the series of catalogues which has endured to the present day, under the title of ' A Catalogue of Books published

in the United Kingdom during the year 1844 '

This was published annually until 1853, when the title was changed to 'The British Catalogue of Books.'"