Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/465

 128. III. OCT., 1917.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

459

published one" of Mr. Corry as Landry on horseback, dated 1843. The edition pub- lished by Dicks does not give the date, or place of production, or the cast of the characters, but I believe the drama was more than once performed at Astley's.

T. W. TYRRELL.

The scene illustrated in the print de- scribed by your correspondent appears to be the third scene of the second act of ' The Dog of Montargis ; or, The Forest of Bondy ' : " He that has no sash must be the villain. [Macaire here? appears much confused. He knows he has none on. . . .]" GEORGE XEWALL. [J. PARSON also thanked for reply.]

TALLY STICKS (12 S. iii. 300). About twenty years ago, when I was being driven up Corve Dale, Shropshire, the coachman pointed out a man in a field adjoining the road, and told me that this person could hardly read or write, and yet, with the aid of tally sticks, was able to keep accurately all the pay accounts concerning the work- men employed on a fairly large estate.

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

EDWARD JOHN COBBETT (12 S. iii. 301, 399, 431). May I be allowed to complete the biographical particulars of this artist ? He was born on April 20, 1815, and died at the residence of his daughter, Winchmore Hill, London, on Oct. 11, 1899, being buried at Highgate Cemetery. He was the son of Edward Cobbett, who died April 1, 1879, and was buried at Frimley, Surrey. The son began life as a wood-carver, and some of his work of this kind may be seen in the choir of York Minster. When about 20 years of age, he changed his profession for that of artist, and quickly made a name for himself as one of the chief exponents of the Rustic School of painting, which had a great vogue from 1850 to 1885. For over thirty years Cobbett exhibited at the Royal Academy and other exhibitions. A few of his pictures are well known, such as ' The Peepshow,' ' The Nut -Gatherer,' and ' Girl and Child in a Snow Scene ' (the two latter were illustrated in colour in a Christ- mas number of The Illustrated London News] ; and he won a bronze medal at the Crystal Palace in 1 874 for a picture called ' The Cottage Door.' For many years he lived at Oakley Square, N.W., and from 1885 to 1895 at Addlastone, Surrey. He was an early member of the R.B.A. and became a vice-president ; and he was one of the small band of artists, actors, and men of

letters who constituted the Savage Club in the old days when Bohemianism and ex- clusiveness were the purport of all its rules. The above information is frcm family records, and will correct a few errors in the earlier replies.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.

Two CHARADES (12 S. iii. 298,. 371). I am obliged to the powers that be for admitting my query, and to the two corre- spondents who have kindly endeavoured to answer it ; but I am still in -doubt as to the accurate characterization of the things I have to find. There is, for instance, that voice heard in the orchestra. Am I to pick out the " loudest," as I have hitherto tried to do ; the " sweetest," as one writes ; or the " stoutest," as declares another ? Am I to worry over something which is never " heard," or is never " used," by night ?

I do not consider that either charade has yet been properly answered, as far as printed conjectures are concerned. There may be acuter guesses that have not been made public.

Sometimes I suspect 1 hat the propositions are hoaxes. I gave some heed to the follow- ing bogus challenge :

My first is the slave who never had a master, My second is the man who invented sticking-plaster, My whole is a number half of which is more Than twice its double twice repeated o'er.

ST. SWITHIN.

THE ALPHABET IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (12 S. iii. 271, 340, 369). In the floor of St. Giles's Church at Durham, near the font, at the west end, I have seen a flagstone on which was cut the alphabet in Roman letters of about the eighteenth century. It dis- appeared in the course of a " restoration " some years ago. There was a tradition of school-keeping in the church, and of a sanded board on which letters and figures were traced by or for the children. The alphabet on the floor was probably used in teaching the letters ; and alphabets on -walls, fonts, tin plates, &c., may have been used in the same way. J. T. F.

Winterton, Lines.

BLOOMSBURY IN 1840 (12 S. iii. 385). Your correspondent may, perhaps, find what he wants in Rowland Dobie's ' History of the United Parishes of St. Giles in the Fields and St. George, Bloomsbury ' (1829), which contains a good map on a large scale. According to the ' Companion to the [British] Almanac ' for 1840, p. 162, the con- struction of a new street, afterwards known