Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/321

 12 S. IV. Nov., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

315

and he became so prominent as an engineer that bis life was identified with half a century of progress in mechanical science. He died 18th August, 1874. There is a statue of him in the Town Hall. His life has been written by Mr. W. Pole."

The works of Mr. (afterwards Sir) W. Fairbairn and my grandfather Mr. Charles Tavare were situated in the same street, Canal Street, now Cannel Street, Ancoats, Manchester. My grandfather was a dyer. FBEDK. L. TAVARE.

22 Trentham Street, Pendleton, Manchester.

BISHOP JOHN BOWLE AND THE AUSTIN FAMILY ( 12 S. iv. 240). A possible identifica- tion is provided in the superscription of a letter before me. It is addressed by John Ashe of Fenchurch Street, Feb. 21, 1645, to " Mr. John Smith at Mrs. Austin's, the falcon on the bank side."

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

REV. HENRY OWEN, M.D., D.D. (12 S.

iv. 245). He was born at Tan-y-gader, near Dolgelly, in Merionethshire, in 1716. For details of his career see Rowlands' s ' Eminent Welshmen,' 1907, and Roberts's ' Eminent Welshmen,' 1908. The latter says the 2nd edition of Rowlands' s ' Mona Antiqua ' was published in 1776. This is a mistake for 1766. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

SHELLEY: SCHUBART (12 S. iv. 102). There is a possible reference to the work Inquired for by Miss STOCKLEY in Edward Dowden's ' Letters,' p. 226 : " I have a copy of the ' German Museum,' with the translations from Schubart quoted in Shelley's note." W. E. WILSON.

Hawick.

REV. THOMAS NOEL (12 S. iv. 242). Hobhouse mentions that Lord and Lady Byron were married by a Mr. Noel, and refers to him as a natural son of Lord Wentworth {' Memories of a Long Life ').

PERCY MORRIS.

New Club, Brighton.

The entrance of Thomas Noel at Rugby

School is more explicit than that of his

matriculation. It runs :

" Thomas Noel, son [ward erased] of L' 1 Went- worth, No. 28 Duke Street, Manchester Square, or Kirkby Mallory, Leicestershire, April 29, 1783."

The note in the last edition of the School Register confused him with the 9th Baron, but was corrected in the Addenda.

A. T. M.

SCOTT : SLIP IN ' OLD MORTALITY ' (12 S. iv. 184). Was not this slip, which DR. WILLCOCK attributes to Scott, rather a slip by the people who gave the innkeeper his. nickname ? They had no doubt, as DR. WILLCOCK suggests, the text comprising " Gaius mine host " in their minds when they conferred the nickname. This would be for them quite a possible mistake. Scott probably adopted the name as he found it. J. FOSTER PALMER.

3 Royal Avenue, S.W.3.

SPURS IN COATS OF ARMS (12 S. iv. 242). Pap worth's ' Ordinary of British Armorials ' assigns a second coat to " Connell or Con- nely," viz., Argent, a chevron gules between in chief two spurs, and in base a battleaxe

azure, shaft or. o * ^.

b. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN. Waleall.

Mates on

Small Talk at Wreyland. By Cecil Torr. (Cam- bridge, University Press, 7s. 6d. net.)

AT first sight this oddly named book might suggest one of those local histories by worthy and indus- trious persons who have no great skill in writing and no interests outside the parish pump. But we reflect that such a one would hardly acknow- ledge his small beer to be of that character, and we recognize Mr. Torr as an authority on Greek ships and Greek music. So we look for the kind of book an accomplished scholar produces, and we are not disappointed, though Mr. Torr has left his materials in " most admired disorder." He has travelled, and varies his local reminiscences with tales of foreign countries. Also he has the inquiring mind which asks questions.

The whole book is, in fact, quite in the vein of ' N. & Q.,' and shows that sudden change from one topic to another which is a feature of our own columns. With Mr. Torr some new theme is always turning up we never know quite how or when ; and, if he ever revises his book, we hope he wfll, like his Parson Davy, supply an index. Davy's portentous ' System of Divinity ' was hardly " worth while," as our American friends say, but Mr. Torr's book is. He could add to his illustrations a map of the lovely region in which he lives. The present reviewer has pleasant memories of it, and only wishes he had had the luck to penetrate into Mr. Torr's attractive house and garden.

Using largely the records of earlier generations, the author appears as a praiser of old times and ways. Still, he believes that jerry-builders were as busy then as now, although their work has all tumbled down and been forgotten long since. It does not pay, he suggests, to repair old build- ings. It is often better to take them down, and set them up again on fnesh foundations. New things soon get to look old, as Mr. Torr says of a chimney-stack of 1906. We can quite believe it ; some sorts of stone soon weather to a venerable appearance. " Writers on architecture do nofc