Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/143

 ii s. vii. FEB. io, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

to the Wimbledon and Merton Annual, 1903 (Wimbledon, Edwin Trim & Co.). It was in 1789, he wrote, that <! the house and 17 acres of land were bought for '2,3001. by the Rev. Thomas Lancaster, who made the house a school, and let off part of the land for building along the frontage in Church Street, and in the little street along the east side of the garden which bears his name. Lord Nelson was then living at Merton, and was acquainted with Mr. Lancaster, who named the school ' Nelson House ' in the hero's honour ; and Mr. Bracken- bury, who carried on the school in later years, has talked with an old pupil of Mr. Lancaster who remembered being brought with other boys to recite before Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton in the front parlour, for which they were rewarded by a half -holiday at the great man's request. The school was continued under the name ' Nelson House ' successively by Mr. Stoughton, who built a large drawing-room at the back, now pulled down ; Messrs. Stoughton and Mayer ; Messrs. Mayer and Brackenbury ; and finally by the Rev. Dr. Huntingford and his son-in-law Mr. Malan. By Dr. Huntingford the house was re- named 'Eagle House.' He used to have a school at ' Eagle House,' Hammersmith, and when he moved it hither he brought not only the name, but the Eagle which surmounts the middle front gable. During its scholastic period the house was gradually surrounded and somewhat buried by dormitories, dining - halls, and other offices such as a large school of eighty or ninety boys required. These have now in great part dis- appaared, and the old house was reduced nearly to its old form when it came into the possession of the present writer in 1887."

G. L. APPEBSON.

EXCISEMAN GILL (11 S. vi. 490; vii. 34, $4). W. J. M. says that, according to an an- notated edition of the ' Ingoldsby Legends,' the story and the reference quoted are equally mythical, and also that no supple- ment to Lewis's ' History of Thanet ' has been published. The publisher's name is, however, given as " W. Bristow, Canter- bury." The full reference for the legend is quoted as ' ; Supplement to Lewis's History of Thanet, by the Rev. Samuel Pegg, A.M., Vicar of Gomersham W. Bristow, Canter- bury, 1796, p. 127."

Who was the Rev. Samuel Pegg, A.M. ? Was he merely an invented personage? Whether he was or not, the name of the alleged publisher, W. Bristow, Canterbury, is certainly genuine. According to Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes,' vol. iii., " he was a printer and bookseller, Alderman of Canterbury and Treasurer of the Eastern Parts of the County of Kent, and died Aug. 30, 1808, (et. 47."

His obituary is recorded in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1808. William Bristow was Mayor of Canterbury in 1795. His marriage is registered at St. Dunstan's, Canterbury,

1791, where he is described as a " widower." In Cowper's * Freemen of Canterbury ' William Bristow, " printer and stationer," became a freeman by apprenticeship in 1783. His name also appears in the ' Poll for the Knights of the Shire,' 1790 (p. 43), and again for 1802.

In ' Ingoldsby Country ' Mr. C. G. Harper says :

" Ingoldsby, who composed the legend, in- vented the quotation as well, and those who seek the Rev. S. Pegg's Supplement will not find it."

Who is the original authority for saying the quotation is mythical ? It would seem to be a mixture of fact and fiction. The " Excise- man Gill " has been shown by correspon- dents of *N. <fc Q.' to have been an active and zealous riding officer, pursuing smugglers and making seizures of contraband spirits. The publisher of the supposed ' Supplement ' was a real personage. Moreover, there appears to be a chalk pit having legendary connexions with smugglers.

If, therefore, the Rev. S. Pegg was a real person, there seems to be no reason why he should not have written a ' Supplement to Lewis's History of Thanet,' although copies may now be scarce. G. H. W.

[The Rev. Samuel Pegge died in February, 1796, and while Vicar of Godmersham, Kent, made collections relating to the county. See ' D.N.B.*]

FIRST FOLIO SHAKESPEARE (11 S. vii. 8, 56, 94). MR. JAGGARD, referring to the Felton portrait, says (ante, p. 56): "This delineates in the background a bookcase containing folios." It should be clearly understood that MR. JAGGARD is here alluding, not to the picture itself (which has no background), but to the grossly misleading little stipple engraving (based on the equally misleading engraving by Trotter) published by William Darton in 1822. I would add that it is by no means certain that the volumes on the shelves are folios, for both the top and bottom of no single book are visible.

M. H. SPIELMANN.

BRASIDAS'S MOUSE (US. vii. 90). It is recorded by Plutarch that this celebrated Lacedemonian general, having once caught a mouse amongst some figs, and let it go again on its biting his fingers, said to the bystanders :

"Observe that there is no creature so con- temptible as not to be able to free itself ii-oni a foe, if it exerts all the power it possesses/' Plutarch, ' Apophth.'

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield, Reading.