Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/104

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NOTES AND QUERIES." [12 s. ii. JULY 29, wwi

Lawrence Flammeuberg, " The Necromancer, or The Tale of the Black Forest ; founded on facts. Translated from the German by Peter Truthold. London. 1794. 2 vols.,* 12mo, 6s." The Museum, unfortunately, does not possess a copy. MONTAGUE SUMMERS.

WELLINGTON AT BRIGHTON AND ROTTING- PEAN (12 S. i. 389,476, 517; ii. 35). The phrase " the young Arthur Wellesley " was my own. B. B. transfers it to the Vicar of Brighton, and proceeds to found an argu- ment on the mistake.

It is certainly remarkable that the Iron Duke's biographers do not mention his early schooling at Brighton. When the restora- tion of Brighton Parish Church was proposed as a memorial to the Duke, the Bishop of Ohichester disapproved, but, on further in- formation, chanced his opinion, and sent 100?. to the fund. He wrote to the Vicar :

" The future church, if by God's blessing it be memorial to that groat man ; for I now under- stand that he was wont, when a boy, bending his knees in the Vicarage pew, introduced there as the pupil of your grandfather, the then Vicar of the parish, to worship in the present Parish Church. It will he well to have somewhere an enduring record of the consistency and steadfastness in after life of this habit, now universally known, of public worship ; and what record so appropriate as the renovation and enlargement to be connected with his name of that very church where the founda- tions of that habit, though not perhaps first laid, were, we may believe, assuredly confirmed and strengthened in the critical, period of youth ? " Brighton Gazette, Sept. 30 and Oct. 7, 1852.
 * i ccoir.plished, will indeed be a most suitable

The grandfather, Henry Michsll, was Vicar of Brighton 1744-89. Henry Michell Wagner, whom I can remember, was vicar 1824-70 ; he was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Wellington when the Dtike was Commander- in-Chief at Paris in 1817.

Mrs. Byrne's ' Social Hours with Cele- brities,' ii. 189, should be consulted ; but T do not know whether she wrote from first- ] and information. H. DAVEY.

89 Montpelier Road, Brighton. [MR. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT thanked for reply.]

CLEOPATRA AND THE PEARL (12 S. i. 128, 1 98, 238, 354, 455 ; ii. 3T ). As bearing on the question of the dissolubility of the pearl, the following extract from my diary of March 31, 1905, is relevant. I should explain that it was part of my official duties in Ceylon to act as Superintendent of the Pearl Fishery in 1904, 1905, and 1906:

" Ex'PKRIMKNT WITH A PEARL. I should have

mentioned an interesting experiment which was tried at my house, and for the result of which I < nn therefore vouch. A r.earl of a very large size

but of a very bad colour, was found in a lot of oysters purchased. It was given to a domestic fowl with its food. After an interval of rather more than twenty-four hours the fowl was killed and the pearl recovered. It was found to have been reduced to less than half its original size, but the colour had much improved. The mistake was leaving it so long ; if it had been left for about six hours only, it would probably have been reduced slightly in size, but at the same time the colour would have improved considerably."

The last statement was but an inference,, though probably justifiable.

PENRY LEWIS.

A LOST LIFE OF HUGH PETERS (12 S. ii. 11, 57). Both the books to which MR. JAGGARD has kindly referred me are well known to me.

" History of the Life and Death of Hugh Peters, that arch-traytor, from his cradell to the Gallowes,

Printed for Fr. Coles at the Lambe in the

Old-Baily. 1661,"

with woodcuts so crudely executed that the printer himself probably drew them, and written in illiterate English, is a pamphlet of 13 pp., with verse at the end which is initialled " T. H." As in the case of all seventeenth-century pamphlets, the pub- lisher's name is important. Francis Coles (Coales, Cowles) had been the publisher of The Perfect Diurnatt, in conjunction with other printers, and was probably the author of this life of Peters. Like many other tracts of 1660 and 1661, this must have been issxied as proof of a loyalty rather under suspicion at the time. Coles was a printer only, not a bookseller, and the tract (2 sheets) must have been hawked about the streets for two.pence. or a penny a sheet (the customary price of the times). It is pure fiction.

The second book, the ' Historical and Critical Account of Hugh Peters, after the Manner of Mr. Bayle,' published in 1751, was by William Harris, and, though ostensibly of quite a different calibre, is equally worthless. It was the first life of Peters to be based upon the ' Dying Father's Last Legacy to an Only Child,' which I proved at 11 S. vii. 301 was a fraud, not written by Peters. Needless to add, it is neither critical nor historical.

The life I am trying to trace was published (so the advertisement states) by H. Brome and H. Marsh. Brome was the publisher of a number of important books, and also of many of Sir Roger L' Estrange' s tracts, and Marsh published many pTays. The loyalty of both was above suspicion, so that a life of Peters issued by them is likely to have been a serious affair, neither fiction nor vulgar satire. J. B. WILLIAMS.