Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/413

 us. ix. MAY 23, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

407

Lovat), commanding the 1st Trivernessshire Local Militia, heard that the 2nd Battalion had been granted the privilege of wearing the kilt, he also petitioned Lord Liverpool to be allowed to dress his regiment in it, -c-s he had been daily pressed to do so " by a large body of men, the quietest and most orderly that were, perhaps, ever brought together i'or training."

He goes on to say in his bombastic style (H.O. 50, 209) :-

" Your memorialist begs pardon, and blushes at being called to mention aught as to what may seem to point to himself, because it is well known that, in conjunction with Lord Graham in the House of Commons, the grace and favour of His Majesty and Parliament was solicited and procured for the restoration of their garb to Highland men a3 a reward for their loyalty. The Caledonian Band at Edinburgh, immediately filled, w r ere the first Volunteers in the Empire, and gave rise to so many other corps."

This claim, it will be noticed, is very much in the terms of the famous epitaph which Fraser, a queer old man, inscribed in his own honour in the church of Kirkhill. The 'D.N.B.' omits to mention the "Cale- donian Band " ; nor does it state that Eraser was appointed captain of the Inver- ness, Banff, Elgin, and Nairn Militia, 24 Dec., .1802 (H.O. 50, 59). He was then 66 years of age, which makes it difficult to under- stand why, " being advanced in years," as Stewart of Garth says (' Highlanders,' ii. 351), he should have handed over the raising of the Fraser Fencibles in 1794 to James Fraser of Belladrum. J. M. BULLOCH.

123, Pall Mall, S.W.

DR. JOHN SAMUEL PHENE of Chelsea, who died late in 1911 or early in 1912, aged DO years, was known as " The Chelsea Hermit."

For the following particulars I am in- debted to a friend who lived some years in Chelsea, and to some undated newspaper cuttings which appeared at the time of the Doctor's death. It would, I think, be interesting if any of your readers could supplement or correct them, especially by supplying the actual date when Dr. Phene" died.

He was, I believe, educated at King's Lynn Grammar School, and in his early years travelled in the East, spending then, or later, some time at the excavations on the site of Troy. From time to time he contributed numerous papers on serpent - worship to scientific societies and publi- cations, and is said to have claimed to be the leading authority on the subject. He had accumulated a great store of informa-

tion about certain serpent-shaped mounds or hills in Scotland and South Africa, arid had a very strong idea that he had made discoveries of profound importance.

The Doctor possessed considerable pro- perty in Chelsea, and it was chiefly in his dealings with this property that his eccen- tricity showed tself.

Some twelve years ago he rebuilt " The Six Bells " in King's Road, and decorated the timber front with four figures of Mephis- topheles. The ceiling of the shop next door was decorated with red and yellow owls. For many years the house opposite to the one in which he lived in Oakley Street was allowed to go to ruin : the front door boarded up, the windows broken and dirty. Its front was covered with fantastic figures and statues supposed to show the Doctor's descent from the Phoenicians. The ceilings were reported to be very elaborately deco- rated. Local gossip was, of course, at no loss to account for this state of things. The Doctor was said to have lost his bridea very beautiful young lady on the morning fixed for the wedding, and to have resolved that henceforth no one should inhabit the house. The story has been denied.

He was buried at Kensworth, near Dun- stable. The coffin passed through the streets bare and uncovered ; a single bunch of flowers, sent by the Countess of Seafield, was placed inside. FREDERIC TURNER.

Frorae, Somerset.

SIR RICHARD WENTWORTH. Nicolo Tarta- lea Brisciano or Tartaglia, the r.ame by which he is better known mentions in the preface of his ' Q.uesiti et Inventioni diverse ' (Venezia, 1546) that a certain idea struck him one day in the course of a conversation with " el nostro honorando compare, messer Ricardo Ventuorth, gentil'huomo di nostra sacra Maesta." This was, no doubt, the father of Sir Thomas, the first Baron Wentworth. The date and place of the meeting are not given. L. L. K.

ROMAN CATHOLIC FELLOWS OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. The recent death of Monsignor Walter Croke Robinson removes the only Fellow of either of these Univer- sities who was at the same time a Roman Catholic priest. Monsignor Robinson was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1872, and the University Tests having been abolished, he was able to retain his Fellow- ship at New College, Oxford, which he con- tinued to do till his death.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.