Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/198

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. VIL MAR. s, 1913.

<( about 1,000 acres), with Mr. Chas. Bigge. In 1815 he purchased the house No. 19, Park Crescent, London, where he lived during the life of his wife. She was a famous musician, and as an amateur pianist was visited by Haydn. She composed several musical pieces, and died 3 Nov., 1823, ^ged 53. He died 5 March, 1837, aged 69, and was buried at Pinner, where a marble tablet commemorates him and his wife and two of his sons. RICHARD WELFORD. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

THAMES BRIDGE AT WALTON (11 S. vii. 129). The print mentioned is not rare, and was probably copied from a print, 2 ft. in length, of the original picture. The history of the bridge and the particular event celebrated are given in Ireland's ' Thames,' vol. ii. p. 73, published in 1791 :

" The celebrated old bridge at Walton was built by the late Mr. Decker [sic], for which he obtained an Act of Parliament in 1747, and in 1750 that handsome structure was completed. . . . The happy construction of this bridge was such, that being composed of timbers tangent to a circle of a hundred feet in diameter, either of which falling into decay, might, with ease, be unscrewed ; and, with equal facility, receive a new substitute, without disturbing the adjoining timbers."

Brayley's ' Surrey,' vol. ii. p. 341, gives a> more grammatical and detailed account, and quotes a letter of Dicker's in The Gentle- man's Magazine for March, 1754, in which, speaking of a proposed bridge at Blackfriars, he says :

" I think that I can demonstrate, that Walton Bridge, or another Bridge built of the best timber as that is, and in that manner, will last for the space of at least 200 years, without any repairs. And when in course of time the timber shall be decayed, posterity may frame upon the ground such another bridge, to be raised upon the same piers (which will last above 1,000 years), and when framed it may be set up in six months' time."

The bridge lasted until 1787. Mr. Dicker's house was sold to the Earl of Tankerville, and a mansion known as Mount Felix took its place. The house of the Earl of Lincoln was bought for the Duke of York (temp. Oeo. III.), and is now the Oatlands Park Hotel. j. j. FREEMAN.

Shepperton,

The print of this bridge shows the original bridge which replaced the ferry under the Act 20 Geo. II. c. 22. It was built by Samuel Dicker, the sole owner, and opened in 1750. An account and a sketch " of the intended bridge at Walton -upon -Thames " will be found in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1750 (p. 589), and also in Ireland

(vol. ii. p. 73). The bridge grew dangerous, and, under 20 Geo. III. c. 32, was taken down by the then owner, Michael Dicker Sanders, and rebuilt of brick (see Ireland, vol. ii. p. 74), this bridge lasting until 11 Aug., 1859, when it collapsed. The tolls were abolished in 1874. when the structure became a county bridge, and was soon after rebuilt.

G. D. JOHNSTON. 3, Knaresborough Place, Cromwell Road, S.W.

RICHARD SIMON : LAMBERT SIMNEL (US. vii. 129). Certainly "the subtle priest" Simon was with Simnel in Ireland from late in 1486, and was captured with the pretender at the Battle of Stoke (see Bacon, J. Gaird- ner's ' Henry the Seventh,' chap, iv., and 'D.N.B.,' lii. 262). I cannot see how he can have been present at the Lambeth Con- vocation in the February before the battle. He must have been in Ireland at that time. Should not, then, the Convocation be dated February, 1487/8 ? Anthony Wood in his ' Annals,' under 1486, says :

" A certain poor Priest of Oxford, named William Symonds, of the age of 28 years . . . .being discovered, was apprehended, and the 16th Feb. confessed in St. Paul's Church .... that he by flattery had seduced the son of a certain organ- maker of the University of Oxford, and had caused him to be sent into Ireland .... Some report that the said youth was named Lambert Symnell, and that he was a baker's son in Oxford ; but the Priest's confession was the truest, viz., that he was the son of an organ-maker of the University of Oxford. And who that should be but one Edward (William) W T otton I cannot tell, knowing very well from various obscure writs, that such an one, and nobody else, professed that art at that time in Oxford."

The official account describes Lambert, in 1487, as " sonne to Thomas Symnell, late of Oxforde, joynour " ; but in his letter to Innocent VIII. of 5 July, 1487, Henry VII. calls him " quemdam puerum de illegitimo thoro natum."

In 1486 William Wotton, " orkyn-maker," furnished Magdalen College Chapel with a pair- of -organs for 28Z. In 1488 he repaired the former organs for 40s. He is supposed to have been the earliest organ- builder in this country. In 1487 he entered into an agreement with the Warden of Merton College to make a pair- of -organs like that at Magdalen for the same price against the vigil .of Whit Sunday, 1489. He was prob- ably a brother of Richard Wotton (Demy, 1482), Superior Bedel of Divinity, the father of Edward Wotton (Magdalen chorister, 1503), physician to Henry VIII. , and writer on natural history. " A pair-of -organs " meant simply an organ with more pipes than one. A. R. BAYLEY.