Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/123

 12 S. X. FEE: 4, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 97 on the site of the Swan Tavern ; certainly there is a signboard there depicting a swan, but Swan Walk is some little distance away. E. ST. JOHN BROOKS. FREEDOM OF A CITY (12 S. ix. 489; x. 55). The grant of the freedom of a city gratis frequently occurred through a desire bo propitiate some great man by advancing >me protege or dependent of his. Examples taken from the ' York Freemen's Roll ' (Surtees Soc.) are: 1627. William Barwick, innholder, my lo[rd] ji[ayor] gratis. [Evidently at the request of the Lord Mayor, who in that year, according to Drake ('Hist, of York') was Blias Micklethwaite.J 1651. John Catlin, bricklayer, at Lord Fairefax request gratis. The honour was afterwards given to great men in their own persons, e.g., 1658. John Hewley, esq. gratis. Similarly, in 1745, William, Duke of Cumber- land, received the honour, and William Pitt in 1757. Earlier examples than the above might be found by a careful search, but as the Roll between the years 1272 and 1760 contains over 36,500 names, this would prove a .somewhat formidable task. The freedom was also given without payment in cases where it was policy to encourage those to take up their residence who by their skill or talents would bring honour or profit to the city. Examples of this are : 1667. Will Padget, musicon, gratis. 1679. Nathan Harrison, musition, gratis* The freedom was also granted as a reward for presents made to the corporation or city, the giver evidently expecting the freedom again in return. In 1731, e.g., Henry Hindley, the clockmaker and friend of Smeaton, was presented with the freedom " in consideration of his making and presenting a very good and handsome eight days clock and case for the Lord Mayor's house, and another for the common hall, and taking care of the same for one year." Charles Mitley, the statuary and carver, having in 1739 carved a figure of George II. and presented it to the corpora- tion, was granted the freedom of the city gratis. ( Vide also ' Glass -painters of York,' William Peckitt, 12 S. ix. 323.) The above examples are all of the full freedom, as opposed to the honorary title only, being conferred. This entitled the recipient to a vote at all elections, to the right to his sons becoming themselves j to joint ownership in the strays around the city and free pasturage thereon for his horses and cattle, and to his share in the proceeds derived from the rents paid by non -freemen for pasturing their flocks and herds, the sale of hay and hire of land for race-meetings, &c. The amount received by the freemen of the different wards therefore varied according to the greater or lesser value of the land they owned I and the several purposes for which it was used. JOHN A. KNOWLES. ADAH ISAACS MENKEN'S ' INFELICIA' (12S. x. 32, 79). Alfred Concanen was Adah Menken's illustrator. He was an admirable artist and did other work for Hotten, the publisher, as well as for Hotten's successors, j Chatto and Windus. Concanen re-drew I the designs in Artemus Ward's panorama for the illustrated edition of the lecture, and made designs for novels by Wilkie Collins 1 and various stories published among Chatto's I Piccadilly Novels. Concanen afterwards i joined a man named Lee, and established ! with him the lithographic firm of Concanen and Lee. They specialized in drawing and j printing the covers of songs and dances. j Amongst Concanen' s work of this kind is I the cover of Gwyllym Crowe's ' See Saw ' i waltz, but I have seen nothing by Concanen I * Infelicia.' Concanen was subject to fits, and was picked up insensible one night by a constable. * Supposed to be drunk, he was put in a police cell and was found in the morning to be dead. I knew Lee and he told me of Concanen's end. He showed me a i paragraph which had appeared in The London Figaro on the matter. This was in 1897 or 1898, so it is probable that Concanen had not then been dead more than a year or two. The portrait of Menken in ' Infelicia ' was probably engraved from a photograph which is reproduced in H. G. Hibbert's ' A Play- goer's Memories' (1920). The photograph and engraving, however, differ somewhat. The engraver may have been C. Jeens, as he did similar work for the frontispieces of Mac- millan's Golden Treasury Series. Jeens and Finden were amongst the best steel engravers of the time. J. H. M. THE TBOUTBECK PEDIGREE (12 S. x. 21, 77). DR. HAMILTON HALL'S special pleading will not avail in face of the clear statement in the Cheshire inquisition taken in 1512, after Sir William Troutbeck's death, that his heir was Margaret, wife of John Talbot and
 * free on attaining twenty-one years of age,
 * which equalled the designs for Menken's