Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/485

 ii s. ix. JUNE is, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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brown and gold, and the harvesting of the seed going on. This leads to talk of the unfortunate Blackwell, the husband of Elizabeth the author of " A Curious Herbal."

Under ' At the Sign of the Anchor ' Mr. Blunt remarks how curious it is so little is definitely known about the Chelsea Porcelain Factory. " To this day we do not know with any certainty when or where the factory began, by whom it was established, or who were its earliest artists." " The earliest extant products date from about 1745 ; and about five years later Charles Gouyn became director of the factory, which was situated on the west side of Lawrence Street, between Justice Walk and Cheyne Walk. The output of the early period included much uncoloured ware, and many of the designs were Oriental decoration : the paste being a creamy white with a glaze of satin texture. Sprimont about 1750 introduced more elaborate designs with rich colouring and gilding. The Chelsea Derby was later produced by Duesbury. These are marked with the Anchor and D, of which nearly a hundred speci- mens may be studied at South Kensington and the British Museum."

Some dozen years ago Mr. Blunt was allowed to descend the" long arched cellar beneath the little " Prince of Wales " public-house at the corner of Lawrence Street and Justice Walk. At its western end he found some remains of cylindrical dome-topped brick structures, which were undoubtedly small kilns, and which had always been so regarded by the tradition of the house and the neighbourhood.

At No. 5, Cheyne Walk, lived James Nield from 1792 until his death on the 16th of February, 1814. His son John Camden, who also lived with him, died in the same house on the 30th of August, 1852, when it was found that he had left his entire fortune of half a million to Queen Vic oria.

In the last chapter Mr. Blunt d scourses on Sir Hans Sloane and Mrs. Carlyle.

" The Greatest House at Chelsey," described by Mr. Randall Davies, is, of course, that built by Sir Thomas More in 1520, to which he would retire when weary of London. It was beautiful and commodious, and from a hillock in the garden " the whole of the noble city of London w r as visible ; and from another the beautiful Thames, with green meadows and woody eminences all round." Although the great house has been demolished, " there are fortunately relics more enduring than bricks and mortar. Within a few years of its first ^oundation Hans Holbein executed within its walls the wonderful portraits of More and his family which time has only par- tially succeeded in destroying. Even if the large family group is lost for ever though there is hope that it may yet be discovered there remain the single portrait of More, belonging to Mr. Edward Huth ; three or four of the drawings for the heads, in the Windsor Collection ; and, what in some respects is more valuable than all, the original sketch for the group. This famous sketch, inscribed with the names of the persons represented, was sent by More to Erasmus upon Holbein's return to Basle in 1528, and it is now in the Museum there."

Mr. Randall Davies, by skilfxilly weaving in accounts of contemporaries, gives a vivid picture

of Mpre's happy life at Chelsea. The visitor* mentioned include Henry VIII., who, as we are once more told, walked with him in the garden after dinner, " houlding his arme about his neck," yet within fifteen years sent him, on& of the noblest of his subjects, to the scaffold.

Mr. Randall Davies supplies an account of More's successors in the Chelsea house. Only twice during two centuries did this fair inheritance descend from father to son, and it changed its owners no fewer than thirteen times. A sketch of each of these is provided, so that we have- complete details of the house until its destruction under the direction of Sir Hans Sloane.

The illustrations in Mr. Blunt's volume include Turner's house, Don Saltero's Coffee-House, Old Battersea Bridge, and a view of the Thames in 1750. Mr. Randall Davies gives us eighteen full-page plates, including Sir Thomas More and the More family, both after Holbein, and a gateway from Beaufort House.

We can heartily commend these books to all lovers of the history of Chelsea.

WE have received Part I. of Vol. VII. of Papers and Proceedings of the Hampshire Field' Club and Archceological Society, containing an account of the meetings in 1913, and some un- usually interesting articles. Publication has been delayed on account of the absence abroad of the Rev. G. W. Minus, who had undertaken to see the work through the press, and the magazine appears under a new editorship, Mr. Minus being succeeded by Mr. John Hautenville Cope. At the annual meeting in last year Mr. N. Dale, the Hon. Secretary, read a paper on Famous Win- chester Moneyers, with details of the Godwins whose names appear on coins dating from Ethel- red II. to William II. Last year's excursions included visits to the Roman remains at Rock- bourne, Apsley House and Southwark Cathedral, Itchell, Crondall, and Winchfield, Brightstone, Westcourt, and Wolverton, Old Sarum and Compton, and Wymering Manor. The Rental of

Wymering an early fourteenth -century deed

is given " extended," with a translation of the more important parts.

An article on Hampshire Flints, by Mr. Dale, is accompanied by illustrations or cuts of two types, showing a system of the evolution of the cut put forward by the author as a contribution to the present controversy as to their age. Capt. G. A. Kempthorne writes on the Hampshire portions of the Devil's Highway, which skirts the north side of the county for about eight miles, and supplies a clear sketch-map. Mr. J. P. Williams-Freeman communicates some notes on Roman roads in the southern part of" the county from information given to him by Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, who has collected much information on the subject. Some good pictures of Hampshire fonts illustrate Miss Emma Swann's paper on this interesting series, which dates back to 1150, and was probably produced in Belgium or under the direction of Belgian workmen. In ' Tudor Winchester from Civic MSS.' W. H. Jacob vividly reconstructs in imagination the city of that time. Among other contributions is a history of the Benedictine Priory of Monk Sherborne, by Miss Florence Davidson. The Priory, which is now known as Pamber Priory, dates back to the eleventh century.