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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. MAY 20, me. —I should be grateful for any information respecting "Descendants' Dinners." The first recorded instance appears to have taken place about 1630, according to a rare broadside in the British Museum, entitled ' A Congratulatory Poem upon the Noble Feast made by the Ancient and Renowned Families of the Smiths.' The poem, which consists of 174 lines, describes a Smith banquet held at Drapers' Hall. All, from the "mighty lord" who presided, the knights, a "glittering train of esquires," and hundreds of wealthy citizens, down to "worthy persons of domestic trades bringing up the rear," were Smiths.

Another instance on record is a Feast of the Wright Families held at Founders' Hall in Lothbury, previous to 1659; when Mr. Wright, a merchant of London, was "one of ye first Stewards to this Nominall Feast of Wrights." A Feast of the Marshalls appears to have taken place at the Cock in Fleet Street on Nov. 13, 1679; and it seems to have been quite a common practice some two hundred years ago to invite all branches of the family to meet on a certain date at a popular hostelry.

" M. A. E." : WHO WAS SHE ? (A.D. 1864.) In the Bodleian Library, but apparently not in the British Museum, there is a book of viii and 72 pp. entitled " A Few Short Poems, by M. A. E. Oxford, 1864." On the title-page there are four verses from ' The Christian Year ' of J. Keble. The Preface, dated " Oxford, Feb. 1864," shows that the writer was a lady. The first 19 pp. contain poem is about " Joe Pullen's Tree. Written on hearing that it was doomed to destruction, 1847." The next is about the Rev. N. J. M., who died July 5, 1858. Who was Miss or Mistress M. A. E. ?
 * Edith ; or, The Sorrows of War.' The ninth

EDWARD S. DODGSON.

ALTARS OF ANTIQUARIAN INTEREST. Where could one find illustrations or de- scriptions of a series of altars as used in the various cults from Druidical times to the present day ? Are they given in any work on comparative religion ?

H. BROTHERTON.

GARBRAND. I am interested in a picture representing the portrait of a lady with high, dressed hair. It has the appearance of being connected with Gainsborough's school, and is signed Garbrand, 1776. I wish for some particulars about this painter and his works. PIERRE TURPIN.

R. S. CHARNOCK. (See ante, p. 286, and

Iso 10 S. iii. 262.) Having regard to my

Biographical notice of Charnock at the

earlier reference the only one that has

appeared I should like to know where his

' library " was. The few books he could

lave had where he died could hardly be

referred to as a " library."

RALPH THOMAS.

HARLINGTON, MIDDLESEX. Any informa- tion relating to interesting local events occurring in Harlington (a small village near Hounslow) during the eighteenth century, folk-lore, &c., or directions towards obtaining such information, will oblige. AITCHO.

' CHAITIVEL.' Where can a translation into English of this old French lai be found ?

T. N.

Jlepius,

JULIAN HIBBERT, PRINTER.

(12 S. i. 327.)

JULIAN HIBBERT' s greatest service to the press was not as an amateur typographer, but as the financial backer of the obscure and poor men who, in the first four decades of the nineteenth century, conducted the desperate battle for the freedom of the press. It is largely owing to Hibbert's wealth and generosity that the fight was at last success- ful, and the foundations of the present news- paper press were established. Julian Hibbert was a man of good family, whose wealth was derived from the West Indies. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and was all his life a scholar and a student. Mr. W. J. Linton, in his ' Memories,' describes him as "a prose Shelley with the same gentleness of nature and chivalrous zeal against wrong." Hibbert became a Radical and an atheist, and threw himself into the fight in support of Richard Carlile, who was many times convicted for selling Thomas Paine's works and other prohibited books. He not only wrote ' Theological Dialogues ' for Carlile' s journal, The Republican, issued in 1819, but contributed largely to his financial needs. Hibbert started by sending him a cheque for 1,OOOZ., and then gave 1,OOOZ. to fit up Carlile's shop, which stood at the corner of Whitefriars Street and Fleet Street (No. 162). It was here that so many ingenious expedients were adopted to prevent the Government from obtaining evidence against the person who actually sold the incriminated books and pamphlets. At one