Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/21

 12 s. vii. JULY 3, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 13 Atherstone, of Thursford, Grahamstown. The many descendants of the Nottingham Atherstones now at the Cape have endea- voured to learn more of their forbears, but hitherto without success. Hugh Atherstone, father of John, and presumably of Edwin, had many children who were all remarkable for their good looks. A Diary dated 1808 to 1811 describes the funeral of Hugh at Nottingham, with military honours, but little more is known of him save that he was held in high esteem in that City. Further information would be much valued. Y. T. According to Chambers' s ' Cyclopaedia of English Literature,' and also Boase, this poet was born at Nottingham, April 17, 1788, and died at 19, Macaulay Buildings, Bath, Jan. 29, 1872. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. FRANK BARBER. DR. JOHNSON'S BLACK SERVANT [12 S. vi. 296]. The following extract does not seem to have been much noticed at the time of its publication in ' The Windham papers ' [vol. i. pp. 65-69] ed. by Lord Rosebery, London, 1913 : " After waiting some time in the adjoining room [in Bolt Court] I was admitted to Dr. Johnson in his bedchamber, where after placing me next him in the chair, he sitting in his usual place on the east side of the room (and I on his right hand) he put into my hands two small volumes (an edition of the New Testament as he afterwards told me), saying ' Extremum hoc munus morientis habeto.' He then proceeded to observe I was entering upon a life which would lead me deeply into the business of the world ; that he did not condemn civil employment, but that it was a state of great danger; and that he had therefore one piece of advice earnestly to impress upon me that I would set apart every seventh day for the care of my soul ; that one day, the seventh, should be employed in repenting what was amiss in the six preceding, and for fortifying my virtue for the six to come, that such a portion of time was surely little enough for the meditation of eternity. " He then told me that he had a request to make to me, namely that I would allow his servant Frank to look up to me as his friend, adviser and protector in all the difficulties which his weakness or imprudence or the force or fraud of others might bring him into. He said that he had left him what he considered an ample provision, viz., 70 per annum ; but that even that sum might not place him above the want of a protector, and to me, therefore, he recommended him as to one who had the will, and power, and activity to protect him. " Having obtained my assent to this, he pro- posed that Frank should be called in, and desiring me to take him by the hand in token of the promise, repeated before him the recom- mendation he had just made of him, and the promise I had given to attend to it. A conversa- tion then took place on the evidences of Christ- ianity." The date under which the above appears in Windham's Diary is Dec. 7, 1784 and an, account of a later visit and conversation with the dying man is given under the date of Dec. 11, which no lover of Dr. Johnson, can afford to miss. William Windham has a right to the letter M. after his name in any book- lover's catalogue, as he died from the injuries he- received whilst endeavouring to salvage his library at a fire in his house. Only Charles Lamb could have done justice to such a martyrdom. JAMES O'HARA. 18 Cope Street, Dublin. At 10 S. xii. 259 mention is made of Mr.,- Aleyn Lyell Reade's 'Johnsonian Gleanings,'' Part I. ; it was announced that Part II. was to deal with Johnson's black servant. I sent a letter to The Standard, Jan. 22,. 1889, pointing out that my grandfather, who was a witness to the bond securing Barber 's annuity, may have been the gentleman alluded to as having replied to the doctor's enquiry as to the amount usually given. My grandfather was born in Jamaica, and was brought over to England when quite young by a black nurse, and so might well sym- pathise with Barber. B. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate. NICHES IN CHURCHYARD CROSSES (12 S^ vi. 251, 299, 341). I am unable to consult books or my notes, but if I remember rightly there is a cross outside St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, carrying a stone lantern (a so- called To tenlaterne = lantern of the dead) on the top. I believe it is illustrated in the German "Dictionary of Archaeology" by Miiller and Mothes. L. L. K. Mr. A. K. Cook, 'About Winchester College,' p. 367, after mentioning Meads and other College grounds, says : " Before the [Reformation the school can have had no lawful concern with any part of the grounds which I have described. . . .The names of scholars, however, were freely cut on the south wall of Meads from 1569 onwards ; and thais would hardly, perhaps, have been the case if they had not sometimes had lawful access to them." The niches to which Prebendary Deedes alludes were in my day (1885-1890) decorated with candle-ends on the evening of Domum Day. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT*