Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/443

 12 S. I. MAY 27, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

437

REFERENCE WANTED (12 S. i. 389). In "Travels during the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789,' Arthur Young, under the date of Nov. 7, 1787, writes of the country between Dunkirk and Rosendael that there "are a great number of neat little houses, built with each its garden, and one or two fields inclosed of most wretched blowing dune sand, naturally as white as snow, but improved by industry. The magic of property turns sand to gold."

EDWABD BENSLY.

For " the magic of property turns sand to gold," see Arthur Young's ' Travels in France,' p. 109, Miss Betham - Edwards' s edition, 1892. It was whilst he was at Dun- kirk, Nov. 7, 1787, that Arthur Young wrote "the above. A. GWYTHER.

RICHARD WILSON (12 S. i. 90, 158, 213,
 * 277). Since Richard Wilson, the friend of

Lord Eldon, has been identified with the magistrate of Tyrone, thanks to W. H. B. and EDITOR ' IRISH BOOK LOVER,' it should be possible to ascertain the date of his death. Where did it take place, and was he ever married to Lord Rodney's daughter ? In The Bon Ton Magazine, i. 278 (September, 1791), there occurs the following paragraph, which is obviously copied from some news- paper, probably The Morning Post or Morning Herald :

"Old Dick Wilson has been much enfeebled since his marriage. He has, by the advice of his apothecary, retired to the sea-coast "

As I have stated previously, he eloped from Bath with a daughter of Lord Rodney in April, 1789.

I regret that I cannot answer the question of MR. JAMES DURHAM, ante, p. 277, but the following biographical information, taken from The Town and Country Magazine, xxi. 195-6, may be of some assistance :

" Mr. W[ilson] is the son of an officer who resided near Dublin. His father's fortune was rather narrow, but he shared it most liberally with his son, to whose education and appearance in life he paid every attention. On leaving school he was entered as fellow-commoner in the University of Dublin, where he was generally disliked, from the vanity and puppyism that marked his character ; and not- withstanding the pains taken with his education, he attained but a very superficial knowledge of literature, and never applied himself to the study of any profession.

" Soon after his father's death he found himself reduced to ways and means for a livelihood, his expenditure having been profuse ; and was forced to leave his native country and seek his fortune in England.

"Gaming appeared to him the most eligible mode of obtaining support ; and, for the purpose of be- coming an adept, he formed connexions with those whom he considered most capable of instructing

him. Among these was the late [William] Brereton, of Drury Lane Theatre. His acquaintance with this gentleman was rather unfortunate. They quarrelled ; Brereton challenged, and Mr. W[ilson] refused to accept the defiance, alleging that his antagonist, being on the stage, was not a gentle- man. Brereton, enraged at this insult, instantly dispatched a letter to his namesake and relation at Bath, the celebrated George Brereton of fighting memory, who, on receiving it, came post to London, determined to make an example of W[ilson]."

Then follows a description of how George Brereton flogged Wilson at " a coffee house under the Piazza," and how the pair sub- sequently fought a duel (April, 1777), in which Wilson was wounded. Cf. St. James's Chronicle, April 17-19, 1777 ; Rambler's Magazine, vii. 199.

"In the course of some time W[ilson] resolved upon trying a matrimonial scheme, and having found a woman to his purpose entered the hymeneal noose. By this match he acquired competency, and having made Bath his headquarters soon formed a circle of genteel acquaintance."

The account concludes with a description of Wilson's elopement from Bath in 1789 with Lord Rodney's daughter, who is said to have been " scarce seventeen." Wilson's age is given as 45.

HORACE BLEACKLEY.

CHURCHES USED FOR ELECTIONS OF MUNICIPAL OFFICERS : WHALLEY ( 1 1 S. xii.360, 404, 430, 470, 511 ; 12 S. i. 38). MR. RICHARD LAWSON, at the third reference, says, after quoting a passage from the ' Journal of Nicholas Assheton,' " The date of the entry is Sept. 4, 1617, and the church referred to is Whalley Abbey in Lancashire."

Is the latter statement quite beyond cavil from any prowler* in the minutiae of history ? There were two churches in the Whalley of 1617, the Conventual and the Parochial ; and though the former was not demolished until some forty-five years (between 1661 and 1665) later than that date, yet as the Abbey demesne was purchased by Richard Assheton and John Braddyl in 1553, and the Abbey itself was soon afterwards reduced to a welter of ruins, it seems to me that the election referred to was more likely to have been held in the Parish Church hard by, and this notwithstanding the entry that the officers " alighted at the Abbey, and presently after went to church." Prome- nading through a stone quarry, to which the Abbey was then irreverently reduced, would be a more undignified procedure for pompous State officials than walking along a few yards of level road. This may be but an inferential detail, but of such truly is history manufactured. J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.