Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/239

12 8.1. MAR. 18,1916.1 NOTES AND QUERIES.

238 "Can any member of that sedate institution, the Travellers' Club, explain to us at this date why Mr. Stewart Rose's anonymous and amusing collection of 'Anecdotes of Monkeys' should have as the first part of its title the words 'Apology addressed to the Travellers' Club'? Was that classical scholar, that friend of Sir Walter Scott, among those refused admission into its select coterie?"—'Secrets of our National Literature,' by W. P. Courtney, 1908, p. 22.

Should your correspondent still want a copy of this book, I can inform him where one can be had.

I believe the book required to be a little jeu d'esprit, published anonymously by Mr. John Murray in 1825, entitled 'Apology addressed to the Travellers' Club; or, Anecdotes of Monkeys.' The author is supposed to have been William Stewart Rose, the poet and translator, and the work is to be found in the British Museum Catalogue under 'Apology.'

Both Halkett and Laing and the British Museum attribute the authorship to Rose, although the article on him in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' does not mention the work. The idea of writing the book was suggested to the author after reading Bingley's 'Animal Biography.'

(10 S. v. 244).—In Mr. William T. Whitley's recently published and most interesting 'Life of Gainsborough' it is suggested that Madame St. Alban, who sat to the artist in 1785, was the same lady as Grace Dalrymple, wife of Sir John Eliot, known to her contemporaries as "Dally the Tall" (v. 'Thomas Gainsborough,' by William T. Whitley [1916], p. 243). This, I believe, is not the case. The suggestion was made originally not by Walpole, but by the last and most capable editor of Walpole's letters, the late Mrs. Toynbee, who, when I showed her the evidence some years ago, agreed that the two ladies were distinct and separate personages. The confusion seems to have arisen as both were friends of Lord Cholmondeley. I append the following newspaper references to Madame St. Alban:

"Lord Ch—ndl—ynow resides entirely in St. Albans."—Morning Post, April 5, 1785.

Another paragraph re Madame St. Alban and Lord Ch—mdl—y.—Morning Post, April 18,1785.

"Madame St. Alban is sitting to Gainsborough."—Morning Herald, June 29, 1785.

"Lord Cholmondeley quitted France without Madame St. Albans; she is on her way hither."—Morning Herald, Jan. 10, 1786.

Paragraph re Madame St. Alban's new coach.—Morning Post, May 23, 1786.

"Lord Cholmondeley and the object of his idolatry the lovely St. Aubin [sic] are at Margate."—Morning Post, Aug. 23, 1786.

"Lord Cholmondeley and Madame St. Alban are at Kingsgate House."—Morning Post, Sept. 15, 1786.

Paragraph re Madame St. Alban's jewels.—Morning Herald, March 13, 1786.

Paragraph re Madame St. Alban's dresses.—Morning Herald, March 28, 1786.

In 1785 and 1786 there are many newspaper paragraphs re Mrs. Eliot, who is sometimes referred to as Miss Dalrymple and Dally the Tall, but she is never identified with Madame St. Alban. It is impossible that she would have been called by the last name without some explanation. About this period, too, she became the chère amie of the Due de Chartres, and according to the papers her connexion with Lord Cholmondeley had ceased. On April 4, 1785, The Morning Herald stated that he "now lives with a Gallic belle of no inconsiderable attractions," evidently Madame St. Alban. Mrs. Eliot had been his mistress some years previously, as early as 1776.

The matter would be of little importance were it not for the fact that Gainsborough's portrait of Madame St. Alban painted in 1785 does not appear to have been identified. Neither Mr. Whitley nor Sir Walter Armstrong has told us where it is. And I believe the art critics will have difficulty in identifying it if they search for it as a portrait of Grace Dalrymple Eliot.

(12 S. i. 111).—The 'Life' quoted says Franklin's compassion was moved by her superstition. Perhaps it was. But according to his autobiography, his interest rather was roused in one eating so cheaply:—

"In a garretthere lived a maiden lady of 70, in the most retired mannerShe was a Roman Catholic; had been sent abroad when young, and lodged in a nunnery, with an intent of becoming a nun; but, the country not agreeing with her, she returned to England, where there being no nunnery, she had vowed to lead the life of a nun, as near as might be done in these circumstances. Accordingly, she had given all her estate to charitable purposes, reserving only twelve pounds a year to live on; and out of this sum she still gave a part in charity, living herself on water-gruel only, and using no fire but to boil it. She had lived many years in that garret, being permitted to remain there gratis by successive Catholic tenants of the house below, as they deemed it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her to confess her every day. 'From this I asked her,' said my [convert-Catholic] landlady, 'how she, as she lived, could possibly find so much employment for a confessor?' 'Oh!'