Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/414

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ['12 s. vi. J UNE. 1920.

Grey. So to correct him, Taylor said (imitating his affected sententious emphasis and nod) ' Richard.' " ' Life of Johnson,' iii. 318, G Birkbeck Hill's edition (Johnson is speaking at Sir Joshua Reynolds's).

Put this beside Mrs. Piozzi's version, anc we see how immeasurably her superior Boswell was n reporting.

Has any Johnsonian enthusiast treated of " Dr. Johnson as a Mimic " ?

EDWARD BENSLY.

SIGN PAINTING (12 S. vi. 310). The following extract from George D. Leslie's ' Our River,' p. 51, will correct and supple- ment L. G. R.'s note :

" It was during our stay at Wargrave this year (1875) that my friend Mr. Hodgson and I repainted Mrs. Wyatt's signboard for her the George and Dragon. I painted my side first, a regular orthodox St. George on a white horse, spearing the dragon. Hodgson was so taken with the idea of painting a signboard that he asked me to be allowed to do the other side, to which I of course consented, and as he could only stop at Wargrave one day he managed to do it on that day ; indeed it occupied him little more than a couple of hours. The idea of his composition was suggested by Signer Pellegrini, the well-known artist of Vanity Fair ; the picture represented St. George, having vanquished the dragon, and dismounted from his horse, quenching his thirst in a large beaker of ale. These pictures were duly hung up soon after, and very much admired ; they have since had a coat of boat varnish, and look already (1881) very old masterly. Hodgson's, which gets the sun on it, is a little faded, but mine, which faces the north towards Henley, still looks pretty fresh.

" There were some paragraphs about this sign in The World, the editor of which was staying at Wargrave at the time, and one of these was printed in gold type, and presented to Mrs. Wyatt, and hangs "up in the inn parlour. This is the second signboard I have painted, the first being the King Harry at St. Stephen's, near St. Albans. Miss Jekyll has painted several about the neighbourhood of Wargrave .... The sign of the Swan at Pangbourne was executed by a friend of mine, Mrs. Seymour Trower, whilst she was staying on the river there, and is a great success, both in drawing and colour."

J. J. FREEMAN. Shepperton.

There s?ems o be some confusion as to the collaboration of artists which produced the sign of the George at Wargrave-on- Thames. Although Mr. G. D. (not G. L.) Leslie is everywhere acknowledged as being responsible for one side, the other has been attributed variously to Messrs. Broughton, Stacey Marks, and J. E. Hodgson. The last-named is given by Mr. C. G. Harper in 'The Old Inns of Old England,' vol. ii. (Chapman & Hall, 1906), line illustrations

of the sign appearing on pp. 176 and 177. This work devotes a special chapter to the- study of inn-boards painted by artists, enumerating such names as Hogarth, G._ Morland, R. Wilson, J. C. Ibbetson, " Old " Crome, J. F. and Charles Herring, Beechey, Smirke, T. Wright of Liverpool, Opie,. D. Cox (whose Royal Oak at Bettws-y-Coed is figured on page 173), Millais, Marcus Stone, 3 Walter Crane, Caton Woodville, &c. Hogarth's ' Man Loaded with Mischief ' is one of the best-known instances. The original was once to be seen in Oxford Street. Replicas or copies exist at Blewbury, Wallingford, Norwich, and on the Madingley Road, Cambs. That at Blewbury is em- bellished with decorative iron scroll-work. The Madingley Road sign was repainted some forty years ago.

F. GORDON ROE. Arts Club, 40 Dover Street, W.I.

TITLE OF SONG WANTED (12 S. vi. 313). The title of the song is ' Ever of thee,' by Foley Hall. It was very much in vogue in the early sixties, like 'Beautiful Star,' and many other sentimental songs. It is pub- lished in C. Sheard's " Musical Bouquet " series and may be obtained for a few pence. . The words were stock copy for all the penny song sheets in my youthful days.

WILLOTJGHBY MAYCOCK.

The song 'Ever of thee I'm fondly dreaming,' bears that title. Its author, George Linley ; its composer, Foley Hall, ft is easily procurable in popular collec- ions. C. SANFORD TERRY.

IMRAPEN : BADEN IN SWITZERLAND (12 S. . vi. 292). As I have made two "cures

the Swiss Baden (1900 and 1904), and also visited it later, I can assure MR. WAINE- WRIGHT that " the Baths " were long distinct from the town, the town being about a quarter of a mile above or north of the Baths. Now-a-days there are houses almost everywhere between the lower baths and the higher town, the railway station seing situated a little back of the main road, and about midway between the two bits of Baden. The open-air bath described by VI. de Blainville is no doubt that called the ' Verenabad,' and reserved for the poorer jlass of bathers. It was roofed in in 1827, and in 1840 moved to behind the Limmathof, and entirely altered in 1871 (see Earth. Pricker, ' Geschichte der Stadt und Bader zu Baden,' Aarau, 1880, p. 418). There is still a hotel named Verenahof & Limmathof