Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/43

 12 s. in. JAN. is, i9i7.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

37

Your correspondent's account of the estimate for engraving guns for a complete ship armament is very interesting, but I can Tiardly imagine that estimate to have been -carried out with over one hundred costly cannon of this description, all of bronze. {Bronze is invariably meant when speaking of brass ordnance, as the latter material was too soft to be employed by itself for cannon- founding.) It rather appears that this .-gun was a rare and choice example, and placed in the Park of St. James on account of its high-class workmanship. It is also of a suitable size and light enough (only 1 ton) to be employed as a gun for land service.

The Turkish gun that supplanted it (1803) in the Park is certainly less historic and, it may be added, very much less artistic. What claim to appearance (on account of -extreme length) it originally possessed, is lessened by its having been shortened by at least 5 feet at the muzzle. Like most ^Eastern weapons, it is uninteresting in outline. VICTOR FARQUHARSON.

Sra WILLIAM TRELAWNY, GTH BART. (12 S. ii. 508). He became lieutenant R.N. in Sep- tember, 1743 ; master and commander, May 10, 1754; post-captain, April 9, 1756; was captain of the Peregrine sloop in 1757. (Cf. Court and City Registers, &c.)

W. R. W.

Charnock says in ' Biographia Navalis ' that the first information he has of him is as ^a lieutenant in September, 1743, and the next of April 9, 1756, when he was promoted to be captain of the frigate Port Mahon. He held various commands after that as captain, and in 1766 was appointed Governor of Jamaica, where he died Dec. 11, 1772.

A. G. KEALY, Chaplain, Royal Navy, retired.

AUTHOR AND TITLE WANTED : BOYS' LOGICS c. 1860 (12 S. ii. 330, 397, 475). William Clark Russell, retiring from the mer- chant service in 1866, commenced his literary career by writing a tragedy in verse, which was produced at the Haymarket Theatre the same year (1866), but was not a success. Later, becoming a journalist, he contributed articles on sea topics to the leading journals. In 1868 he served as editor of The Leader, and in 1871 he contributed to The Kent County News. He, however, soon settled down to writing nautical tales of adventure, which was henceforth his chief occupation, and in 1875 his first novel, ' John Holds- worth, Chief Mate,' appeared, followed in 1877 by his most popularwork, ' The Wreck of

the Grosvenor.' In 1880 he became a mem- ber of the staff of The Newcastle Chronicle, and later for a short time was editor of Mayfair. Accepting the offer of a position on The Daily Telegraph in 1882, he was a regular contributor to that paper, under the pseudonym of " A Seafarer," for about seven years. From that time, until his death in 1911, he seems to have been solely occupied with the production of his novels. Further information relating to him might be ob- tained from the ' D.N.B.' second Supp. vol. iii., ' Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1 and Allibone's ' Dictionary of Authors.'

E. E. BARKER.

This author was a young man of 16 in 1860, and his first piece of literary work was a play, produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1866, which proved a failure. Neither the ' D.N.B.' nor Chambers's ' Dictionary of English Literature ' mentions the following facts : His first novel was published under his own name, by Low, in 1867 ; it was in three volumes, and entitled ' The Hunch- back's Charge : a Romance.' A collection of criticisms entitled ' A Book of Authors ' appeared from the house of Warne in 1871. This also was published with his name on the title-page. In 1872 he issued ' Per- plexity ' and ' The Surgeon's Secret,' under the pseudonym of Sidney Mostyn, and in 1873 ' Kitty's Rival ' and ' Which Sister ? ' In December, 1874, ' Jilted ; or, My Uncle's Scheme,' came out anonymously, as did the first edition of ' John Holdsworth, Chief Mate,' by the author of ' Jilted,' in Sep- tember, 1875. The same pseudonym as above was again used in 1878 for ' Little Loo,' a story of the South Sea, and as late as 1891, when he was well known and popu- lar, for ' Curatica ; or, ' Leaves from a Curate's Note-Book.' ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

In reply to T. F. D.'s query I find, upon the authority of Mr. Marston, that the late W. Clark Russell was writing when 23 years of age. Before then he had published works, through Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. But the first sea story was not issued until 1875, and was entitled ' John Holdsworth, Chief Mate.' Mr. Russell died in November, 1911.

CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

GEORGE TURBERVILLE (12 S. ii. 470). T. F. Kirby's ' Winchester Scholars ' gives :

"1554. George Turbervyll (14), Whitchurch, Bristol Dio. Sch. N.C. Fell. 1561-2. Ad studium juris. Then Seer, of Embassy to Russia. Author of poems."

A. R. BAYLEY.