Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/557

 12 s. x. JUNE 10, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 459 Prest's " original romantic drama," called ' The Miser of Shoreditch,' in two acts (pub- lished under his own name in Lacy's acting edition of plays), was considered before its production on the stage by his acquaintances, even by Edward Lloyd himself, a satire on the future proprietor of Lloyd's Weekly News. A perusal, however, will soon con- vince the reader that it is, like many dramatic " novelties " of the period, a mere adaptation of a long-forgotten French melodrama. It may not be generally known that Edward Viles wrote very little, excepting the '' titles " of the sensational novels pub- lished under his name. This I was informed not only by the late Mr. W. E. Church, but also by the late Mr. Edgar Lee. Both Church and Lee (real name Tasker) often said Viles, notwithstanding his " weakness " to pose as an author, was the most kind- hearted of men. He was always willing to help financially any literary man or woman in trouble, and rescued more than one novel- ist's humble home from the hands of the bailiff. One of his pensioners for more than twenty years was the widow of a novelist formerly in his employ, and at Christmas-time he never failed to send her a goose, a bottle of gin, and a plum -pudding from his own home. Edgar Lee, who died in December, 1908, was for about two years secretary of Edward Viles, and said he remembered well the bitter cold November morning when the consumptive-looking Robert Louis Stevenson called on Viles with the MS. of ' Treasure Island.' Viles's reply a week afterwards was he " did not think much of the stuff, but was willing to purchase the tale to be re-written by a more competent hand." Stevenson called once again for the return of his MS. and never sought another inter- view with Viles. ANDREW DE TERNANT. 36, Somerleyton Road, Brixton, S.W. In my remarks at ante, p. 418, I mention a " 80,000 house ghost " at Valley Road, Shortlands, fcKent. Upon looking up Kelly's Directory for Kent (1870) I find that Mr. F 'ward Harrison, the publisher of Salis- bury Court, lived at that time at Valley Road, Shortlands, Beckenham, Kent, so that the paragraphs in the London Evening News of May 6, under ' Woman's Story of a Haunted House ' and ' 80,000 House Ghost,' refer to his residence, and it would be in- teresting to know the history of this par- ticular house, which is apparently without an owner and going a-begging. FRANK JAY. BRASS ORNAMENTS ON HARNESS (12 S. x. 410). These are usually known as " horse amulets." Mr. Charles Rowe of St. Helens, in his little book on Collecting, has devoted a chapter to them. J. M. BTJLLOCH. An exhibition of " horse brasses " Was recently on view at the Birmingham Central School of Arts and Crafts. The specimens were lent by Mr. George L. Craig of Hudders- field. HOWARD S. PEARSON. THE ROYAL ARMS (12 S. x. 410). See 11 S. x. 281, 336, 396, 417, 458, 510 ; xi. 50, 74, 96, 138, 177, 232, where this subject was discussed at great length under the heading ' France and England Quarterly.' I do not think that a direct answer can be given to M. H. C. W.'s question, but my own impression is that the placing of the lilies of France in the first and fourth quarters by Edward III. and all other English sovereigns down to the accession of James I. had no- thing to do with the claim of Edward III* to the French throne, but was intended to symbolize his and their Angevin descent. My reasons for this view I gave in the course of the discussion to which I have referred, in particular at 1 1 S. xi. 232. F. SYDNEY EDEN. 56, Holland Road, Kensington, W.14. The arms of France were quartered (a new form of marshalling heraldry at that time) by Edward III. in 1340, when he claimed the kingship of France. There may have been no precedence in the first and fourth quarters, but if there were, probably he desired to give greater prominence to the claim that he was substantiating. The French arms were not dropped until Queen Anne's time, when in the first quarter England and Scot- land were impaled, possibly to give promi- nence to the Union. When Scotland was given a separate quarter England remained, as now, in the first. WALTER E. GAWTHORP. 16, Long Acre. THE DANCE OF SALOME (12 S. ix. 150, 197, 235, 273, 297, 413). The death of John the Baptist, with matter entirely fresh in English, fills 100 pages in The Harvard Theological Review, April, 1922, xv., pp. 115- 216, viz., ' Literature on the New Testa- ment, 1914-1920,' by H. Windisch (professor in Ley den, Holland). He had the comple- ment of this article, to wit, ' Literature in Great Britain and America ' during the