Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/88

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ' [12 8. v. MARCH, 1919.

with a term of imprisonment by virtue of benefit of clergy. During the period of his incarceration he became a Catholic " on trust," but recanted some years later. 'The chief injury to him consequent on the incident was the loss of his post of play- wright to the Admiral's company, and his transference to that of the Lord Chamber- lain. The public, however, and even his avowed enemies, treated the matter lightly. Sir Sidney Lee considers Henslowe's letter on the occasion " interesting " ; on the other hand, Prof. Herford sees in it evidence of the writer's " illiterate indignation." See the articles in the ' D.N.B.' on Henslowe and Jonson by Sir Sidney Lee and Prof. Herford respectively. N. W. HILL.

CHRISTMAS VERSES AT SHEFFIELD (12 S. iv. 324 ; v. 46). It is curious to see " was-
 * sail " turned into " Wesley." Some variations

which I remember as current in the West Riding of Yorkshire in about 1865 may be worth recording :

A little purse " of ratchin' [stretching] leather skin."

And here we come a-wesselin'

So fair as to be seen.

For " A New Year," " Anywhere," explained as " Anywhere we like to go."

Love and joy come to you, And to you our wessel too. Bring out the butler of this house,

Put on his golden ring ; Let him bring us a glass of beer,

And better we shall sing. And a good fat pig to kill every year. The " Wesselers " carried three dolls in 'a box to represent the Blessed Virgin, and the infants Jesus and John the Baptist. On one occasion at least there was a black doll in addition, called " Tichbung," and said to represent " Tichborne," the Claimant in a once famous lawsuit.

There is an article on ' Representations of the Virgin with Two Children ' in The Sacristy, vol. ii. p. 150, by the late James Fowler, F.S.A., of Wakefield. J. T. F. Winterton, Lines.

BYRONIC STATUE IN FLEET STREET (12 S. v. 40). I can find no reference to this somewhat striking figure in Muirhead's excellent ' London and its Environs,' pub- lished last year by Messrs. Macmillan.

Messrs. Attenborough, who have been in business at 193 Fleet Street since 1888, know nothing, I believe, about the statue, or who put it there.

During the late eighties and early nineties of the last century many changes were

made in Fleet Street. Old houses (one of them Dray ton's) were pulled down ; new buildings were erected. At about that period Sir John George Tollemache Sinclair, Bt., an ardent almost fanatical admirer of Byron, affixed at Byron House, 85 Fleet Street, two medallions of the poet, as well as a number of mural inscriptions relating to him and embodying quotations from his works. Sir John Sinclair also adorned Hood House, 71 Fleet Street, with 'The Song of the Shirt ' ; Nelson House, 53 Fleet Street, with inscriptions referring to Nelson ; and Mary Queen of Soots House, 143-4 Fleet Street, with ' Queen Mary's Adieux to France.'

Did Sir John Sinclair put up the statue of Kaled ? I merely offer this as a sugges- tion. E. G. C.

NAPOLEON AND LORD JOHN RUSSELL (12 S. v. 12, 47). The particulars given by SIR WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK and PRINCIPAL SALMON respecting Lord John Russell's visit to Napoleon at Elba may be supple- mented by the account which Goldwin Smith ('Reminiscences,' 1911, pp. 24-5) heard from that statesman of his impressions of the fallen tyrant :

" It was difficult to find any one who had seen Napoleon. I made that remark at a dinner- party, when a voice near me said, ' I saw Napoleon.' It was Lord Russell, who had paid Napoleon a visit at Elba, accounts of which are already in print. I asked Lord Russell whether the common portraits were like. He said they were. I asked him whether there was not in the face that hard look of selfish ambition. This he had not noticed ; but he aaid, and repeated with emphasis, that there was something very evil in the eye. When Lord Russell spoke of war, Napoleon's eye flashed, showing, what was certainly the fact, that the lust of war was with him in itself a ruling passion. It is difficult to divine what else could have led him to invade Russia. He evidently had no intention of restoring Poland. He was immensely fat, Lord Russell said, and this might account for his fatal lack of activity in his last campaign."

CHARLES LLEWELYN DAVIES. 10 Lupus Street, Pimlico, S.W.I.

SMOKING IN ENGLAND BEFORE THE IN- TRODUCTION OF TOBACCO (12 S. iv. 331). I have a small collection of " fairy pipes," some with the remains of stems, but for the most part without, all of which have been picked up whilst I was at work on the land. Most of them are quite plain ; others have a small incised ornamentation outside the bowl, a quarter of an inch below the edge of the bowl ; and one of them has the word " Dublin " incised on it.