Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/296

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [n s. vn. A PR ,L 12, 1913.

' GREAT HISTORICAL PICTURE OF THE SIEGE OF ACRE ' (11 S. vii. 227). The pam- phlet is evidently a guide to one of Porter's pictures exhibited at the Lyceum Theatre at the end of the eighteenth century, when its fortunes were at a very low ebb. Its vicissitudes are well described in the follow- ing extract from l Haunted London,' p. 171, which also incidentally answers MR. DIB- DIITS query :

" The Lyceum in 1789-94 was the arena of all experimenters, of Charles Dihdin and his 'Sans Souci,' of the ex-soldier Astley's feats of horseman- ship, of Cartwright's ' Musical Glasses,' of Philips- tal's successful ' Phantasmagoria.' Lonsdale's 'Egyptians' (paintings of Egyptian scenes, by Porter, Mulready, Pugh, and Cristall), with a lecture, was a failure. Here Ker Porter exhibited his large pictures of Lodi, Acre, and the siege of fSeringapatam. Then came Palmer with his ' Por- traits,' Collins with his ' Evening Brush,' Incledon with his ' Voyage to India,' Bologna with his ' Phan- tascopia,' and Lloyd with his ' Astronomical Exhi- bition.' Subscription concerts, amateur theatri- cals, debating societies, arid schools of defence were also tried here. One day it was a Roman Catholic chapel ; next day the ' Panther Mare and Colt,' the ' White Negro Girl,' or the * Porcupine Man ' held their levee of dupes and gapers in its changeful rooms."

ALAN STEWART.

This work was painted by Robert ,Ker Porter (1777-1842). Vide 'D.N.B.,' xlvi. 191. The evidence of its having been exhibited at the Lyceum is provided by the title of the pamphlet, and a reference in ' The Panorama, with Memoir of its Inventor Robert Barker,' an excellent summary con- tributed by G. R. Corner to The Art Journal, February, 1857:

"Mr. Robert Ker Porter painted and exhibited at the Lyceum three great historical pictures of the storming of Seringapatam in 1799, of the siege of Acre^and of the battle of Alexandria, March 21,

Presumably ' The Siege of Acre ' was exhibited in 1801 ; it is not mentioned in ' The Picture of London for 1802,' published by Sir Richard Phillips, February, 1802. ALECK ABRAHAMS. [MR. J. ARDAGH also thanked for reply.]

RICHARD SIMON : LAMBERT SIMNEL (US. vii. 129, 194, 256). G. W.'s reply at the last reference is very interesting. Simnel is certainly a mysterious person as to origin, and one wishes it were possible to solve the enigma. But it seems extremely doubtful whether his parentage will ever be satis- factorily determined. Bacon says :

" And as for Simnel, there was not much in him, more than that he was a handsome boy, and did not shame his robes. But this youth, of whom we now are to speak [Perkin Warbeck],

was such a mercurial, as the like hath seldom been known " ;

and proceeds to suggest that Perkin may have been a natural son of Edward IV. But this insinuation is founded upon an error of Bacon's to wit, that the pretender was the King's godson.

John Ford in his fine play ' Perkin War- beck ' introduces Simnel in the last act ; wherein he gives good advice, somewhat belated, to his less fortunate successor in rebellion, which Warbeck scornfully rejects. Ford makes Henry say of Simnel, earlier in the play :

Lambert, the eldest, lords, is in our service, Preferred by an officious care of duty From the scullery to a falconer ; strange example ! Which shows the difference between noble natures And the base-born.

COL. DRAKE (US. vii. 228). Can he be the following ?

William Tyrwhitt Drake, s. Thomas, of Chadlington, Oxon, arm. Christ Church, matric. 3 May, 1803, aged 17; lieut. -colonel Royal Horse Guards Blue ; M.P. Amersham in seven Parliaments (Nov.) 1810-33; died 21 Dec., 1848. A. R. BAYLEY.

LING FAMILY (US. vii. 230). Nicholas Ling, the publisher of the first edition of ' Hamlet,' was a Well-known bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard. He was (1) at " The Mermaid " in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1580-83 ; (2) West Door of St. Paul's Church, 1584-92 ; (3) North-West Door of St. Paul's Church, 1593-6; (4) at the Little West Door of St. Paul's Church, 1597 ; (5) in St. Dunstan's Churchyard in Fleet Street, 1600-7. He Was the son of John Ling, or Lyng, of Norwich, " parchement maker," and he was apprenticed to Henry Bynneman for eight years from Michaelmas. 1570. Bynneman had " The Mermaid " shop in Knightrider Street, and also a stall in St. Paul's Churchyard. For facility of reference I place in chronological order such facts as are known about Ling.

1570, 29 Sept. " Nycholas Lynge, the sonne of John Lynge of the Cetie of Norwych, parche- ment maker, hath putt hym self apprentis to henry bynyman, cetizen and staconer of London, from the feaste of Saynt Mychell." Arber's ' Transcripts,' i. 434.

1577, 25 May. Nicholas Linge bachelor, of St. Olave's, Hart Street, and Mary Springham, spinster, of St. Bartholomew in the Exchange, London, general licence 25 May, 1577. Vide Chester's ' London Marriage Licences ' (1887), p. 847.

1579, 19 Jan. " Nicholas Lynge, receiued of him for his admission freeman of this Cumpanie, Dinner paid. . . .iii 1 iiij d ." Introduced by Henry Bynneman, his employer.