Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/21

 12 S. IV. JAN., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

15

SCOTT AT LES A^TDELYS. The Journal de Rouen of Nov. 17, 1917, republishes the guide- book assertions about Walter Scott visiting the town of Les Andelys on Jan. 17, 1827, and signing in a local hostelry his name as " mr. Guillaume 1'Ecossais."

This seems like an invention of some romantic traveller. Can it be verified for the benefit of the numerous readers of Walter Scott in France ?

C. R. GRAVILLE.

CEDARS IN ENGLAND. Will any of your readers, conversant with the subject, give me an idea of the maximum size of cedars in this country ? I measured the fine specimen at Camer, in this county, a few days ago, and found it 26 feet in girth at 1 feet from the ground before the spread of any lateral branches. Are there many that beat this ? S. B. C.

Canterbury.

CLAUDE DUVAL, THE HIGHWAYMAN. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' offer information on the following points ?

1. Where was this highwayman's birth- place in Normandy ?

2. He came to England in 1660, as page or footman to the then Duke of Richmond. How long did he remain in that employ ?

3. In what year was the hostelry known as " The Duval Arms " in Duval's Lane pulled down to make way for a new railway extension ? " The Duval Arms " bore on its signboard the mounted figure of Claude Duval.

4. Particulars wanted concerning the house in Chandos Street, Covent Garden, where Duval was captured.

6. Who sentenced Duval to be executed at Tyburn ? Was it Sir Matthew Hale ? Was he executed on Jan. 21, 1669, or in February, 1670 ?

6. Dr. William (or Walter) Pope says in his ' Memoires of Monsieur Du Vail ' that after the execxition he was cut down and taken to the Tangier Tavern, St. Giles's, where he lay in state all that night. Dr. Pope adds that a gentleman, while stripping Duval of his clothes, put his hand in Duval's pocket, and discovered the speech, written hi a bold hand and signed, which Duval had intended to make on the gallows, but did not. Dr. Pope says that after much trouble he obtained it. What is the nature of this document ? Does it still exist ?

7. According to tradition and to the ' Memoirs,' Duval was buried in the centre aisle of St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden,

London. A white marble slab was erected to his memory by his friends, which bore the " family arms, curiously engraved," and an epitaph of eight lines of verse in black letters. Where was Duval really buried ? The annals of St. Paul's Church do not mention this monument, nor can any tomb- stone bearing these " family arms " and epitaph be found.

THOMAS CROMPTON. Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

[The ' Diet. Nat. Biog.' in its notice of Duval Says that some of the incidents narrated in the ' Memoirs ' " ascribed to the pen of William Pope " appear unworthy of credence. The B.M. Catalogue enters the pamphlet (which is anony- mous) under Walter Pope.

1. The ' Memoirs ' state that Duval was born at Domfront, Normandy, in 1643.

3. What is the authority for speaking of " The Duval Arms " in Duval's Lane ? Duval's name has been associated with a private house in the lane called after him. This house was pulled down in 1871, and the Duval legend was trans- ferred to another house near, which was also pulled down in 1897. Long articles on these houses appeared in ' N. & Q.' on Jan. 29 and March 19, 1898, MB. JOHN HEBB showing in the former that " Duval's Lane " was a popular corruption of " Devil's Lane," as the property was described in a survey made in 1611, half a century before Duval arrived in England.

4. The ' Memoirs ' say that the house was the Hole-in-the-Wall.

5. The London Gazette for Jan. 20-24, 1669[70], contains a short account of Duval's trial at the Old Bailey, which states that he was executed on the 21st. There is no mention of the judge who presided at the trial. It may have been Sir William Morton, of whom Foss says in his 'Judges of England,' vol. vii., 1864, p. 148, that he was the terror of highwaymen, and that he " prevented the mercy of the Crown being ex- tended to him [Duval] by threatening to resign if so notorious an offender was allowed to escape." An earlier number of The London Gazette that for Nov. 15-18, 1669 had contained a royal pro- clamation, dated " Whitehal, Nov. 17," offering a reward of 201. to any person who should lead to the arrest and conviction of any one of a number of notorious criminals, the first on the list being " Lewis alias Lodowick alias Cloud de Val alias Brown."

6. The sp.-ech is printed in full in the ' Memoirs,' which are reprinted in the ' Harleian Miscellany,' vol. iii. The speech occurs on p. 313.

7. The ' D.N.B.,' in stating that Duval was buried " in the centre aisle of Covent Garden Church, under a stone inscribed with an epitaph beginning

Here lies Du Vail : Reader, if male thou art, Look to thy purse ; if female, to thy heart," follows the ' Memoirs ' ; but we are informed on excellent authority that there is no entry of Duval's funeral in the Burial Registers of St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, and that there is no " white marble slab " or any other monument to Duval's memory in the church or churchyard.]