Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/495

 12 S. X. MAY 27, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 405 Wilkes, who had always a warm welcome for any Frenchman of liberal opinions. From 1770 onwards, Wilkes kept a diary in which he entered the names of nearly every person with whom he dined, but although innumerable foreigners are mentioned, I have failed to discover the name of Marat. ... In 1775, being the friend of d'Hol- bach, d'Alembert and Helvetius, it seems impossible that he should have failed to become acquainted with Marat, if that person was then a doctor of reputation in England (12 S. iii. 343, June, 1917). Mr. Morse Stephens, a warm admirer of Jean Paul, has been equally unable to trace him in any contemporary chronicle. Never- theless, to a small coterie of foreigners then domiciled in London he appears to have been fairly well known. Chief among these, as mentioned above, were the Italians, Zucchi the artist and Bonomi the architect ; while, as a pupil of the former, Hamilton, the future Academician, also frequently met Marat. At Zucchi's house, it seems, there was always a knife and fork laid for the necessitous ami du peuple, and their intimacy was further cemented by repeated borrowings on the part of the guest, totalling, in all, some 500, advances which, we may conjecture, enabled him to finance his various literary ventures, but which, it is to be noticed, he was never in a position to repay. Zucchi, a man of estimable charac- ter, was about this time (1775) courting Angelica Kauffmann, for whom, like many of his contemporaries, he had a deep admira- tion, and whom, after the death of her un- worthy husband, he married, and he fre- quently took Marat with him in the evenings when he visited her (Farington's ' Diary,' Oct. 26, 1793). Marat, if we are to believe himself, requited the hospitality and bene- factions of his friend by a peculiarly base form of treachery, viz., the seduction of the latter's fiancee. At least such was his boast made some years later to Brissot and recorded in the latter's ' Memoirs ' (vol. i., p. 336). Whether this allegation was true, or, as is far more probable, was merely a libel invented to enhance his own prestige, his conduct in either event seems to have been almost equally despicable. We have seen that, until 1775, Jean Paul, in his various publications, had scrupulously preserved his anonymity, but that after the St. Andrews degree the reasons for this had largely diminished It is to be observed, however, that his address, changed now from St. Martin's Lane to " Church Street, Soho," is still involved in some obscurity, for the local records from 1763 to 1779 contain no mention whatever of any Jean Paul Marat at "Church Street, Soho," ither as householder, ratepayer or occupier. A person named Abraham Marot (not Marat) did, however, occupy a house at 32, Church Street, now merged in Kettner's Restaurant, from 1763 until 1767, when he was succeeded by his widow, who continued there until 1779, before which date she had apparently re -married, for she is latterly named Mrs. Marot Noah, and finally Mrs. Noah. Whether a relative or not of these people, and whether sheltering at 32 or else- where, he was thus probably never more than a lodger at the vague address of Church Street, Soho." SIDNEY L. PHIPSON. (To be continued.) MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS IN BEDFORD CHURCHES, CHAPELS AND BURIAL-GROUNDS. ST. PETER DE MEBTON. (See ante, pp. 325, 365.) 44. 4yds. w. from 41 on a t.u.s. ; w.f.e. In memory of Selina Pressland, daughter of John & Eliz. Maria Pressland, who died January 23rd, 1838, aged 4 years 9 months. " Little little Children, Jesus cried, Come and behold my face. O Lord, I come, do not despise A child that seeks thy grace." 45. On a long ob. wh. s. altar tomb close to east window of chancel, this and No. 44 are on west side of gravel path which leads from west round north and east sides of church and meets another gravel path on south side, the latter of which leads from s. entrance of churchyard to small door on south side of chancel. s. Sub hoc tumulo depositae sunt mortales exuviae Reverendi viri Nicolai Aspinall,* A.M. Apud Standon in agro Lancastrensi nati In Schola Gram : de Clithero in eodem educati. Collegii Immanuelis apud Cantabrigiensis alumni, quod centum libris per Testamentum gratitudinis ergo donavit, charissimi viri Edmundi Castelli olim amanuensis quippe linguarum orientalimn periti . . . docti, ludi liteiarii qui est in hoc oppido non ita pi-idem . . . Eidem Collegio Noyo Sve. Ste. Mariae apud Oxon : praepositi. Cui collegio etiam centum libras per testamentum dono dedit. 1727, was a friend of the Rev. Edmund Castell, rector of Higham Gob ion, Beds., and editor of the Polyglot Bible. His tomb is close to the east window. The wording of the inscription is fast perishing, and it is hoped funds will be forth- coming so that the tomb can be renovated. Barton-le-Cley registers record the marriage of Nicholas Aspinall, Clerke, and Elizab. Kings, gentlewo., on May 24, 1684.
 * Rev. Nicholas Aspinall, A.M., rector 171 1-