Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/431

 ii s. ix. MAY so, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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many quarters that was regarded as wild opti- mism. The largest and most distinguished firm of newspaper distributors were of opinion that no increase would follow the reduction in the cost of The Times. Everybody who wanted The Times had it, was their view an opinion shared by many shrewd judges.

" An unusually large supply of paper was manu- factured by Messrs. W. V. Bowater & Sons, Ltd., London Paper Mills Co., Ltd., Northfleet Paper Mills, Ltd., Albert E. Reed & Co., Ltd., Jas. Spicer & Sons, Ltd., Townsend, Hook & Co., Ltd., and James Wrigley & Son, Ltd., makers of The Times paper for several generations, but instead of an increase of 40 per cent, the circulation of The Times has increased more than 200 per cent. Paper-mill after paper-mill has come to the rescue, but even now it is impossible to obtain a sufficient quantity of the exact kind of raw material required by The Times. In the course of the next few weeks readers of The Times will have at their service further paper-making machines, and the public will then find that every copy of The Times is printed on exactly the same quality of paper. Now and then some copies of The Times may appear faintly printed. That is due to the im- possibility of producing at six different mills raw material of identically the same colour, substance, and texture. It is a temporary disadvantage, and will pass away as soon as the new paper- making machines are in operation."

On the 19th inst. The Times announced its intention to publish at regular intervals statistics of its net sales, excluding all free, returned, and unsold copies, so the public will be kept informed of the progress of the great journal.

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

(To be continued.)

THE CHRONOLOGY OF ' TOM JONES.'

FOB nearly fifty-one years a palpable error by the late MB. THOMAS KEIGHTLEY has stood unchallenged in the pages of ' N. & Q.' In the number for 30 May, 1863 (3 S. iii. 424, 425), MB. KEIGHTLEY declared that Fielding had been guilty of an unaccountable ana- chronism in permitting Mr. Jones, Miss Western, and the immortal Squire to pass at will from Somersetshire into Gloucestershire, " while there is," he says, " no bridge over the Avon between Bath and Bristol." Why this statement should have gone unchallenged for all these years it is difficult to understand, as many of your readers must have been familiar with the ancient bridge over the Avon, near the village of Keynsham, just below the mouth of the river Chew. It was built before 1611, as it is shown on a map of Somersetshire of that date. It was partially destroyed during Monmouth's rebellion, but

was repaired in 1688. It was in constant user during the lifetime of both Mr. Jones and MB, KEIGHTLEY, and any one who desires now to follow the wanderings of Mr. Jones and the- lovely Sophia may speed his motor-car over the ancient bridge at Keynsham.

In the same communication MB. KEIGHT- LEY registers another complaint. He says :

" Sophia and her cousin, on their flight froim Upton, arrive at a town where they meet the Irish Lord. From all the circumstances, this town must have been Evesham, and they must have gone to- London by Oxford. Yet when Jones follows them, he comes to Coventry; and so, though we- hear nothing of it, must have passed through Strat- ford and Warwick."

MB. KEIGHTLEY mentions none of the- circumstances on which he bases his assump- tions, and the facts are that Sophia arrived at Upton a little before 3 A.M. on 1 Dec., 1745 r and left the inn about half an hour later, as it is stated that had the Squire arrived " two- hours earlier he could not only have found [Sophia], but his niece into the bargain" (x. 7) r and the Squire had reached Upton shortly after 5 (x. 6). Sophia reached the inn on the London road about 10A.M. (xi. 2), after riding, about six and a half hours, and a portion of the time at full speed (xi. 2). Evesham was^ but twelve miles and a half from Upton r which would allow of a speed of less than two- miles an hour far too slow a pace for two- ladies to whom speed meant liberty. Again r when they arrive at the inn the landlord exclaims, " What people ever travel across the country from Upton hither, especially to London ? " Such a remark would have been wholly out of keeping had the inn been at Evesham, as the ordinary travel from Upton to London would have been through Evesham. Both Sophia and Jones might have passed through Strat- ford and Warwick at night without it being necessary for the author to mention it ; but pass through these towns they certainly did not, for had they done so they would have reached the London road at Coventry itself, instead of at a point a little more than six miles beyond Coventry (xii. 13). Sophia's party "came into a wide and well-beaten road, which as they turned to the right, soon brought them to a very fair promising inn " (xi. 2).

The author does not describe the route^ Sophia followed, save meagrely at its begin- ning and ending. She travelled through by- ways, across country, and probably passed through the villages of Pershore, Bis- hampton, Alcester, Wotton Waven, Nut- hurst, and Solihull, from which there is. a*