Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/225

 ii s. VIL MAK. 22, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH S3, 1913.

CONTENTS. No. 169.

NOTES : Sir John Gilbert, J. F. Smith, and ' The London Journal,' 221 Lamb on Wordsworth's 'To Joanna,' 223

Inscriptions at St. James's, Piccadilly, 224 Communion

Plate in Museums Tong Church Treasure" Vadet," 225 The "Peccavi" Pun First Editions of Sheridan, 226 " Star-ypoiniing," 227.

QUERIES : Rev. T. D. Fosbroke and Watertight Com- partments Kennedy Family' A Mirror for Short-hand Writers ' ' Great Historical Picture of the Siege of Acre ' Living Latin Portraits of an Actress, 227 Rev. H. De Foe Baker W. Carr, Artist "Furdall"" Lucasia" "Nut" English and Danish Ogre-Stories ' The Old Man's Legacy ' Foreign Authors Col. Drake " A wyvern part-per-pale addressed," 228 " Hypergamy" Author Wanted Paulett of Andover Sir Edward Hitchins Col. E. W. Bray Rear- Admiral Robinson Sibbering Andre Chewier in London Bettisfield Park " Do you come from Topsham ? " Anecdotes Markland, 229 Mr. B. Bridget Zodiac Club Ling Family, 230.

REPLIES : Chan trey, 230 Botany St Bridget's Bower, Kent Medal Prebendaries of Weighton, York Minster Sheridan's 'School for Scandal' History of Churches in Situ, 231 Onions planted with Roses Simpson and Locock, 232 Petronius, Cap. LXXXI. Pagan Customs and Institutions Fire - Ritual 'Margiana' : Name of Author Wanted, 233 Inscription at Wetheral, 234 British Gallery Musgrave Family J. Davy Breholt Armorial : Stevenson, 235 The Text of Shakespeare's Sonnets Almshouses near the Strand Extraordinary Fountains in Ireland Exciseman Gill, 236 Pigments General Beatson and the Crimean War " Morrye-house " " Once is never," 237' London,' ' British,' and ' English ' Catalogues Faith-healing J. Erskine : Michael Dahl the Elder Hart Logan Novels in ' Northanger Abbey' Mechanical Piano Octagonal Meeting-Houses Dominus Roger Capello " Mad as a hatter," 238.

UOTES ON BOOKS : ' Athense Cantabrigienses ' ' A History of Banstead in Surrey' 'Dr. Arne and "Rule, Britannia"' 'The Antiquary' 'The Imprint' 'News* paper Press Directory.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Jitries*

SIR JOHN GILBERT, J. F. SMITH, AND 'THE LONDON JOURNAL.'

I BEAD MB. HEBBEBT B. CLAYTON'S note on 'Sir John Gilbert as Illustrator' (US. iv. 521) with great interest. I can add my testimony to the enthusiasm with which Smith's romances and Gilbert's illustra- tions were received, not only by the growing-up, but the grown-up, some fifty years ago. My friend the late Thomas Fowke the sculptor told me that he took in The London Journal for years, simply for Gilbert's illustrations he never read a word of the stories.

Though I had myself great admiration for the illustrations, it was many years before I knew the name of the illustrator. I remember that when Fowke told me, he added that a boy was sent down to Gilbert's at Blackheath with the portion of the story for the next number of The London Journal, and that Gilbert read it,

drew his illustration straight on the wood- block, and gave it to the boy to take back with him !

The individuality of each character in Gilbert's illustrations was always recogniz- able without the slightest doubt. If a new person was brought in, we wondered, from the drawing, what part he (or she) was going to play in the story. How unmistak- able throughout ' The Woman and her Master ' were the old villain Ned Cantor, whose character could be realized almost without reading the story, and the poor downtrodden victim his wife ! Then all the surroundings, whether indoors or outdoors, seemed to fit the characters.

Having read one story, I wanted to go backwards and see the previous ones, '' Minnigrey ' and ' The Will and the Way.' It would be difficult to procure those num- bers in the present day, but it was easy sixty years ago. Then the booksellers in Holywell Street (renamed Booksellers' Row by the inhabitants, though the name never had any official recognition) kept outside their shops piles of loose back numbers of all the popular periodicals, which were sold at four a penny. Many hours did I spend in searching the piles of The London Journal for the particular numbers wanted. The Journal was one of the works I referred to on 6 Oct., 1877.*

In his ' Glances back through Seventy Years,' published in 1893, my old friend Henry Vizetelly says :

" When the proprietor of The London Journal came across J. F. Smith he had failed as a three- volume novelist, f But the success of ' Minnigrey ' was so enormous that it raised the circulation to half a million copies an unheard-of number in the days when cheap publications were heavily handi- capped with a paper duty which positively doubled the price of the material they were printed on. %

literature and Henry Downes Miles, as to whom a question was asked by MR. CLEMENT SHORTER, 27 Jan., 1912 (11 S. v. 69)', and replied to on p. 133. On looking now at the illustrations to Miles's ' Dick Turpin,' 1 think more of them than I used to do. They are no doubt rough, but they appear to me to be vigorous and full of life, and the execution as good as artist and wood engraver could afford to put into them at the low price they were probably paid.
 * The article (5 S. viii. 272) was on Highwayman

t There are no three- volume novels under Smith's name in the National Library Catalogue, nor any except those republished from The London Journal. It would be interesting to know the titles of these failures.

+ The London Journal was dated a fortnight in advance of the actual day of publication. I was told at the time this was to avoid payment of the duty. What duty, then, does Vizetelly refer to?