Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/349

 12 S. III. JUNE, 1917.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

34S

There is a fort called St. Barbara at one end of the " Spanish Lines," eastward of Gibraltar Rock. Its ruined condition is noticed in the privately printed ' ^Notebook of an Oxonian,' 1831, p. 87. This fort and that of San Felipe were blown up by the British on the approach of the French troops in their last attack on Gibraltar. The name still appears on large-scale maps.

Of the six religious gilds which were formerly established at Kingston-upon-Hull, one was St. Barbara's. It probably took its rise after 1389 (Lambert's ' Two Thousand Years of Gild Life,' p. 111).

In the Index to Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Second Series, vols. i. to xx., tli ere are references to the figure of St. Bar- bara on a chalice, a ring, a roodscreen, and a vestment.

The account of the saint in Audsley's ' Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts ' may be noticed, though it is chiefly drawn from Mrs. Jameson, vol. iii. 4-7. I have found several instances of devotion to St. Barbara in books relating to Brittany. CECIL DEEDES.

Chichester.

I do not intend to discuss with MB. MONTAGUE SUMMERS the historical authority of the ' Breviarium Romanum' or of the Dominican Breviary, neither in general, nor with special reference to St. Barbara. Suffice it to say that the Roman Curia recently nominated a commission (of which Mgr. Duchesne is the president) in order to expurgate the legends contained in the ' Breviarium.' The work is going on, but very slowly. S. REINACH.

Boulogne-sur-Seine.

MABAT : HENBY KINGSLEY (12 S. ii. 409, 475). Thanks to the kindness of SIB WILLOTJGHBY MAYCOCK, I. have seen a por- tion of Prof. Morse Stephens' s article upon ' Jean Paul Marat ' in The Pall Mall Maga- zine. As SIB WILLOUGHBY remarks, it is both " able and exhaustive," but its in- formation is wholly negative. Little or nothing is known about Marat's residence in England, although he is believed to have resided here for ten or twelve years. The place of his residence, i.e., Church Street, Soho. which Prof. Stephens calls " fashion- able," circa 1765-77, I should prefer to term " respectable." Although his ad- mirers declare, upon little or no evidence, that his practice in London was a large one and his reputation considerable, Marat was never a householder, as, I believe, were most successful foreign medical men, like Baron

de Wenzel and Chevalier Ruspini. I have had the King's Square division of the- Westminster Rate -Books searched between the years 1763-79, with the following results. There is no mention of any Jean Paul Marat, but a person named Abraham Marat or Marot occupied a house in Church Street,. Soho, from 1763 to 1767, in which latter year he died. The same house was tenanted from that date until 1779 by his widow, Mrs. Norah Marot. Perhaps these were re- latives of the famous Jean Paul, which would account for his residence in Church Street. Of course, the fact that he was not a householder or a rate-payer does not necessarily disprove that he carried on a successful practice (especially if he lived with relations), but we should have certainly- had a convincing proof that he was a success- ful practitioner if he had occupied a house- of his own.

The fact that he is never mentioned by any of his British contemporaries is more- surprising. Had he been at the same time a distinguished scientist and a man of advanced political views, one would have expected him to have come into contact with John Wilkes, who had always a warm welcome for any Frenchman of liberal opinions. From April, 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 later years Wilkes- seems to have held him in abhorrence :

" I do not believe that a tear will be shed for the death of that monster Marat [he writes to his daughter on July 27, 1793]. What a heroine f [i.e., Charlotte Corday]. I suppose Egalite must soon experience a like just doom, unless pre- vented by the guillotine " (' Letters of John Wilkes to his Daughter,' iv. 153-4).

Of course, Wilkes held different political views in 1793 from what he did in 1775, but in 1775, being the friend of d'Holbach,. d'Alembert, and Helvetius, it seems im- possible that he could have failed to have- become acquainted with Marat, if that person was then a doctor of repute in Eng- land. That Marat held " revolutionary ideas of social reform" at that date is^ proved by the publication of ' The Chains of Slavery,' published in London in 1774.

The two medical tracts, which Marat pub- lished in London in 1775, i.e., ' A Singular- Disease of the Eyes ' and ' An Essay on Gluts,' which were reprinted under the editorship of Mr. J. B. Bailey in 1791, have been praised by Dr. C. Edward Wallis in a most interesting paper in the Proceedings