Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/537

 12 s. ii. DEC. so, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to execute the command. With lantgrn and tools the gardener at dead of night repaired to a wooded spot, and, digging deep down, came across the carcase of the grey horse, and proceeded to deposit the clean, stripped, sparkling drapery over the remains. Henceforth, comparative peace followed.

Where in Wales did all these peculiar incidents happen ? ANEUBIN WILLIAMS.

CAPT. EDWARD BASS c. 1818. Can any reader inform me if there was one of H.M. ships in 1818 or 1819namedCluckhead, or some similar name ? also to what family Capt. Edward Bass of such ship belonged ? He was a native of Shropshire. The name of the ship mentioned on his tombstone in Minster Abbey Churchyard is almost un- readable.

PERCY F. HOGG, Lieut. R.G.A.

Minster-in-Sheppey.

"DR." BY COURTESY.

(12 S. ii. 408.)

INSTANCES of the title of " doctor " applied to 'clergymen innocent of that degree are furnished by plays, novels, memoirs, and letters in the eighteenth century and earlier, though the tendency seems never to have been so common as the modern practice of "" doctoring the apothecary."

In Act IV. sc. i. of Vanbrugh's ' Relapse ' U 696), Tom ^Fashion speaks of " Mr. Bull the chaplain," and in sc. iv. addresses him as ' Mr. Bull." Later in this scene he prefaces a request to him with the words, " Prithee, dear doctor." In sc. vi. the Nurse appeals to " Mr. Bull." In Act V. sc. iii. Fashion both refers to him and addresses him as " doctor," while the Nurse talks of " Mr. Bull." In the final scene of the play we have Fashion's

Prithee, doctor," and Lord Foppington's

Pray, dactar, one word with you." The list of characters gives simply " Bull, Chaplain to Sir Tunbelly."

In Farquhar's 'Beaux' Stratagem' (1707), Foigard^ " a Priest, Chaplain to the French Officers," is, on first entering (Act III. sc. ii.), Addressed as " doctor " by Gibbet, the high- wayman, and by Aimwell. In Act IV. sc. ii. Aimwell says : " Pray, doctor, may I crave your name ? "

In Fielding's ' Grub Street Opera ' (1731), in a scene between Lady Apshinken and Puzzletext the chaplain (Act III. sc. iv.), the lady sings : . Oh doctor, oh doctor, where hast thou been ?

In Act III. sc. xiii. the Butler and Groom style him " doctor." Puzzletext's character does not encourage us to believe that he was a Doctor of Divinity.

In 'Joseph Andrews' (1742), Book II. chap, xvi., Parson Adams is called "doctor" by a perfect stranger, who gives him false hopes of a living. In Book III. chap. iii. his new acquaintance, Mr. Wilson, replies to a question of his : " What leads us into more follies than you imagine, doctor vanity." The title is a compliment to his guest's scholarship, for we have been told in the preceding chapter that Wilson, who had at first been " not quite certain that Adams had any more of the clergyman in him than his cassock," was so astound ed at the readiness of his Greek quotations that " he now doubted whether he had not a bishop in his house."

In ' Jonathan Wild ' (1743) the hero addresses the Ordinary of Newgate as " doctor " (Bk. IV. chap. xiii.).

Did Fielding mean " Mr. Supple, the curate of Mr. Allworthy's parish " (' Tom Jones,' 1749, Bk. IV. chap, x.), to be a D.D. ? Squire Western calls him " doctor " in the chapter where he makes his first appearance; and in Bk. XVI. chap, ii., after Western has sent the parson on an errand " Do, doctor, go down and see who 'tis. ..." the author continues : " the doctor re- turned with an account," &c. But possibly this is no more than echoing the title given by Western. An excess of scepticism, how- ever, in such matters might lead one next to dispute the right to his doctorate of the Rev. Charles Primrose. Horace Walpole, in writing to Mann (Feb. 27, 1752) of the Duke of Hamilton's marriage to Elizabeth Gunning, says : " He sent for a parson. The doctor refused to perform the ceremony without licence or ring." Was the parson a D.D. ? And was Walpole aware of this when writing ?

Lady Mary Coke noted in her ' Journal ' that she heard Lcrd Ossory announce the death of " the famous Dr. Sterne " (March 18, 1768). See W. L. Cross, ' The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne,' p. 461.

Swift in the ' Journal to Stella,' when mentioning the death of Richard Duke (1658- 1711), calls him "Dr. Duke" (Feb. 14, 1710/11). The ' D.N.B.' does not men- ion that he took this degree.

No doubt it is difficult to make sure n each instance, especially in the case of ictitious personages, whether or not the title is incorrectly applied, but sufficient evidence remains to show that at one time