Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/101

 I2S.X.JAN.M.WM.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 79 &c.) is characterized in Bonn's 'Lowndes' as "a learned work, too well known to require commendation." FAMA. ADAH ISAACS MENKEN'S ' INFELICIA ' (12 S. x. 32). In my copy of ' Artemus Ward in London,' not dated, published by John Camden Hotten, in Hotten' s " Very im- portant new books. Special List for 1870," is the following last page of the list : ' Infelicia. Poems by Adah Isaacs Menken- Illustrated with numerous gracefully pencilled designs drawn on wood, by Alfred Concanen. Dedicated, by permission to Charles Dickens, with photographic facsimile of his letter, and a very beautiful engraved portrait of the Authoress. In green and gold, 5s. 6d.' Many of the designs are signed with Con- canen' s initials. There is a small error in the query : " Isaac " should be " Isaacs." According to notes in The Referee of December 24, 1905, written, I think, by Mr. George R. Sims, she is buried in the Jewish portion of Pere Lachaise, and on her tomb are the words " Thou knowest." But she was not born a Jewess. Her maiden name was Adelaide McCord, and she was a native of New Orleans. Her second husband was Isaac Menken, a handsome man, a devout Jew, and an accomplished musician. She adopted his faith and put an " s " to his front name. ROBERT PIEBPOINT. This book was published by Hotten, and much may be learnt about it in Mr. Richard Northcott's brochure published last year. But he does not give the name of the artist of the head- and tail-pieces. They are nearly all signed A. C. DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE. "MATA HABI'S " YOUTH (12 S. ix. 527; x. 34). I heard it stated about the time of "Mata Hari's " execution at Vincennes, in October, 1917, that she was staying at a Russian Jewish hotel, near Stepney Green, during the winter of 1911-12. She seems to have appeared at several Jewish enter- tainments in East London, but her prin- cipal object in coming to England was to secure a more remunerative engagement in the West End. Like many natives of Friesland, she was by no means ignorant of the English language, and was anxious to appear in a ballet based on Shakespeare's ' Antony and Cleopatra.' ANDREW DE TERNANT. 36, Somerleyton Road, Brixton, S.W. WELLINGTON TESTIMONIAL CLOCK TOWER (12 S. ix. 230). I regret that I did not notice A. H. S.'s query at the time. This was removed from London to Swanage by ship in 1867, after it had been pulled down by the great contractor, the late Sir John Burt, and given by him to his friend Mr. Thomas Docwra, who, having so transferred it, re- erected it in the grounds of the Grove, then his property. It stands not on the quay but in the grounds of Rockleigh, a part of the old Grove, of which I now happen to be the owner. A. R. A. THE ABYSSINIAN CROSS (12 S. x. 9, 56). The Abyssiaian Cross is of native design and work ; a base was designed for it by Mr. Micklethwaite and the whole gilt, and it used to stand above the altar in the Lady Chapel. It was also fitted to a pole, in the way of many early crosses, to be used in processions. HAROLD S. ROGERS. "To BURN ONE'S BOATS" (12 S. viii. 210; ix. 177).!. The ' N.E.D.' gives nothing earlier than 1886 (and that only a provincial newspaper) for the metaphorical use of the above phrase. Surely there must be many and much earlier instances ? 2. A few examples of the historical act are : Some exiles in Corcyra, 427 B.C. (Thuc. iii. 85); Agathocles in Africa ; 10 B.C. (Diod. Sic. xx. 7) ; the Emperor Julian, on the Tigris, A.D. 363 (Amm. Marc. 24, 7, 3 ; c/. Gibbon, cap. xxiv.) ; Cortes in 1519, at Cempoalla (Prescott, Mexico, ii., chap. 8). The Athenians at Syracuse had intended to do it (from a different motive, Thuc. vii. 60, 74). Brewer's ' Phrase and Fable ' vaguely i attributes the act to " Julius Caesar and other generals," with no references. H. K. ST. J. S. AUTHOR'S NAME WANTED (12 S. x. 34). ' Two Months in the Confederate States, in- cluding a Visit to New Orleans,' was published in April, 1863 (not 1883 as stated by MR. ABBATT). The author of the work was a Mr. Corsom or Corson. The writer's sympathies were with the South. B. B. on The Old Deeside Road. By G. M. Fraser. (Aber- deen University Press.) MR. FRASER is to be congratulated on a most useful piece of work in his monograph on the Old Deeside Road. He states in the opening chapter that he would sooner write the history of a nation than the history of a road, a state- ment that is at first surprising, but less so when it is "realized how little reliance is to be placed on many of the older maps and plans, and how much depends on personal research. The best,