Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/363

 12 s. ii. OCT. 28, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

to it, I may perhaps be allowed to quote the notice in extenso :

" Davies, Thomas, actor, publisher, and mis- cellaneous writer, horn ahout 1712, died 1785, was -educated at Edinburgh University, and made his histrionic debut at The Haymarket in 1736. After this he became a bookseller, but, not succeeding, resumed his old profession, being seen at Covent <Jarden in 1746 as Pierre in ' Venice Preserved.' Going into the provinces, he met and married a young actress named Yarrow, to whose beauty iDhurchill afterwards paid homage in the well tnown lines :

On my life

That Davies hath a very pretty wife, In 1753 both were employed at Drury Lane very much in the character of ' understudies.' That Davies was really but a poor performer may be inferred from Churchill s pronouncement in ' The Rosciad ' :

In plots famous grown

He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone. In 1762 Davies returned to bookselling, publishing in 1777 ' A Genuine Narrative of the Life and Theatrical Transactions of Mr. John Henderson,' written by himself. He was bankrupt in 1778, and through Dr. Johnson's influence had a benefit at Drury Lane, figuring as Fainall in ' The Way of the World.' To 1779 belongs his edition, with a memoir, of the works of Massinger, and to 1780 his biography of (larrick, in which he was again assisted by Johnson. This was followed in 1785 by his ' Dramatic Miscellanies, consisting of Critical Observations on Several Plays of Shakespeare : with a Review of his Principal Characters and those of various Eminent Writers as represented fcy Mr. Garrick and other Celebrated Comedians, with Anecdotes of Dramatic Poets, Actors, <Scc.' In 1789 an edition of Downes's ' Rosoius Angli- canus ' was published, with additions, by the late "Mr. Thomas Davies. Mrs. Davies, who survived her husband, died in 1801."

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

MS. VERSES (12 S. ii. 229, 278).' To the Comedians of Cambridge ' in the collec- tion described by MR. J. HAMBI.EY ROWE is, I suspect, the short piece that J. S. Hawkins printed in his notes on Ruggle's ''Ignoramus,' p. 259 (' Epilogus ') :

" The passage in the text,* however, contains an allusion to a poem, written, as it should seem, between the time of the first ;m\or<ii)uix the master, and Dubinin 1 lie clerk; John a Stile, student in the common law, wislielh

" Sed sine protectione regali non audet ire ultra Barkeivay, aut Ware, ad plus, ut eleganter quidam legalis poeta.''

a more sound judgment and more reverent opinion

of their betters :

Faith, gentlemen, I do not blame your wit,

Xor vet commend, but rather pity it ;

Ascribing this, your error and offence,

Not unto malice, but to ignorance ;

Who know the world by map, and never dare,

If beyond Barbara >/ ride past Ware,

But madly spurgall home unto your schools,

And there become exceeding learned fools.'

"Very unfortunately the sixth line of the above poem, which is also that referred to by the text, is defective in the manuscript, and a space is left for the. insertion of a word to fill up the line ; perhaps we should read,

If beyond Barkeicay gone, to ride past Ware."

Should my conjecture as to the identity of the poem be correct, it would be interesting to learn whether MR. ROWE'S copy fills the gap, and whether it differs in any other deteil from the Sloane MS.

EDWARD BENSLY.

DOG SMITH (12 S. ii. 291). I do not know whether this will throw any light on MR. R. H. THORNTON'S query, but a certain Smith left a charity (date forgotten) to the parishes of Farleigh, Warlingham, &c., in Surrey, and the recipients most ungratefully call it " Dog Smith's Charity."

I should add a word as to its history. Dog Smith passed through the villages in question as a tramp and left in his will money to each parish that gave him money to the others he left a kick. I do not know whether his executors carried out this last bequest !

F. B.

See 6 S. xii. 230, 354, and in earlier series ; also in Surrey histories. Recently the Secretary of the Harleian Society stated that he had discovered

i pedigree which shows the ancestors and collaterals of Henry Smith, l;.te Alderman of London, who died in 1627, and w.-.s buried at Wandsworth. He was a great benefactor to the poor. This find is unique, since no historian, to my knowledge, knew anything anent the origin of the family. The MS. in question was formerly in the possession of Peter le Neve, Norroy King of Arms, who died in 1720, and whose library was dispersed in 1730-31. It is now in my possession.' f

I have some extracts from Arnold's ' Streatham,' pp. 88, 89 :

" Dog Smith. Mr. Henry Smith, a London silversmith, so c ; -,ll<-d as a dog was in constant attendance on him."

' The Family Topographer,' by Samuel Tymms, 1832, p. 174, vol. i. :

' In Wandsworth Church i- a bemtiful monu- ment to .Mr. Alderman Henry Smith, generally known as Dog Smith, the u'reat benefactor to Sin-rev, \c., who died of the plague in U',27."

R. J. FYNMOKE.