Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/205

Rh structing anagrams on the names of those to whom his poems were dedicated. The later dedication includes a eulogistic sonnet on the virtues of Cecilie Nevil, describing her as the richly endowed daughter of Minerva; and the significance of the description consists in the fact that in the earlier dedication Alia Minerva had been the anagram on the name Maria Nevila.

his English acquaintances Casanova speaks of "le chevalier Edgard, jeune Anglais, riche, et qui jouissait de la vie en caressant ses passions. J'avais fait sa connaissance chez lord Pembroke" (Garnier ed., vi. 539). Other editions of the 'Mémoires' (e.g., Laforgue's) describe him as Sir Edgar. Each variation presents difficulties. The title of Sir Edgar, at this period, is an unfamiliar one, and the name Edgard is unknown.

Herr Gustav Gugitz of Vienna, the editor-in-chief of the forthcoming edition of Casanova's 'Mémoires'—basing his assumption on a letter formerly preserved in Count Walstein's library at Dux in Bohemia, written to Casanova while in England, dated Dec. 1, 1763, and signed "W. E. Agar " suggests that the previously unidentified Edgard or Sir Edgar is the writer of this letter. Unfortunately the letter itself contains no clue and I have not been able to obtain a facsimile.

The most prominent W. E. Agar of the period was Welbore Ellis Agar, who was twenty-eight years old at the time of Casanova's visit to London. He was the son of Henry Agar, M.P., and Anne, only daughter of the Right Rev. Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Meath; born in 1735; married October, 1762, Gertrude, daughter of Sir Charles Hotham, Bart, (who died at Margate, aged 50, on Aug. 14, 1780); appointed one of the Commissioners of the Customs in December, 1776; and died at his house in New Norfolk Street, aged 69, on Oct. 30, 1805. He was brother to the first Viscount Clifden.

In 'The Hothams,' by Mrs. A. M. W. Sterling, ii. 333-4, it is stated that his marriage was an unhappy one.

Until there is an opportunity of comparing his handwriting with that of Casanova's correspondent of Dec. 1, 1763, it cannot be determined that they are identical, and even then there is no direct evidence to connect Edgard with Agar, but it is not improbable that they were one and the same person.

The "Canon," where Casanova dined (Garnier, vi. 540-41; vii. 60) appears to have been the famous Cannon Coffee-house in Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, the site of which is now occupied by the Union Club at the south-west corner of Trafalgar Square. In 1763 it was owned by Patrick Cannon, and after his death in 1765 was carried on by his widow, Susannah Cannon. It was rated at £48. In 1815 it was owned by one Hodges (vide 'Story of Charing Cross,' by J. Holden Carmichael, and the Westminster Rate Books).

The Star Tavern (Garnier, vi. 377, 383) to which I have already referred at 12 S. i. 122, may possibly have been the Star in the Strand, near Charing Cross, which is mentioned in 's 'List of London Coffee-houses and Taverns,' at 12 S. ix. 525. Casanova, who patronized the Orange and the Cannon, which were close at hand, was familiar with this part of the town.

Casanova says that Lady Harrington introduced him to her four daughters (Garnier, vi. 364). She had five daughters, but we cannot complain of Casanova's inaccuracy in this instance, as the youngest, Lady Anna Stanhope, afterwards Duchess of Newcastle, was only three years old in 1763, and therefore it is quite probable that he did not see her.

It is obvious that the story of the riot at Drury Lane Theatre (Garnier, vi. 369; cf. 'N. & Q.,' 12 S. i. 185) and the story of the wager at White's Club (Garnier, vi. 461; cf. 'N. & Q.,' 11 S. iv. 383) were both related to Casanova by one of his friends, and that he repeated them in his 'Mémoires' as if he had actually been an eyewitness of the incidents.

The file of The St. James's Chronicle for the year 1763 at the British Museum is complete, but although I have searched it twice I cannot discover any of the paragraphs which Casanova says appeared in this newspaper.

"La pension à Harwich" (obviously a misprint for Hammersmith) where Sophie Cornelys was educated (Garnier, vi 474) consisted of three houses in the Broadway, Hammersmith, yclept at the period