Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/602

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.vii.DEc is, 1920.

enough one in France, and represents, I think, a frame of mind in which one is shedding one's illusions as well as emerging from a state of mental confusion and ob- fuscation. The Echo de Paris of Nov. 10, 1918, published a cartoon by Abel Faivre showing the German delegates being led blindfolded to the allied lines to receive the terms of the Armistice. The expressive legend below the picture was " Enfin ! 1'Allemagne voit clair ! "

It so happens that I did not read Mr. Wells 's story until after I was familiar with the title of the French version, and I am of opinion that the French title is a far better one than the original. Mr. Britling, as a matter of fact did not " see it through," as I understand that phrase. The book was written, if I remember aright, about half- way through the war, so, obviously, Mr. Britling could not see it through if " it " refers to the war. But he did begin to see daylight, if a colloquialism may be per- mitted. The meaning of things began to dawn upon him ; in other words he com- menced "a voir clair." The title seems to me to be very well chosen.

It is not always possible to " translate " a title, but when a book is called by another name in another language it should be made obligatory to give the original title as well. Great liberties are sometimes taken with the titles of French biographical and historical works. For instance, M. Philippe Gounard's ' Origines de la Legende Napoleonienne ' (1906), which has for sub-title ' L'ceuvre historique de Napoleon a Sainte Helene,' appears in English dress as ' The Exile of St. Helena : the Last Phase in Fact and Fiction.' And M. Frederic Loliee's 'Frere d'Empereur : le Due de Morny et la Societe du Second Empire ' (1909), "becomes ' Le Due de Morny ; the brother of an Emperor and the Maker of an Empire.' M. Loliee's title does not justify the addition of the words "and the maker of an Empire"; nor does his book, which deals with the social rather than with the political life of the Duke. And so one might go on multi- plying examples of "mistranslated titles." F. H. CHEETHAM.

With all respect to Mr. Wells and to your correspondents, I would assert that ' Mr. Britling commence a voir clair ' expresses the point which Mr. Britling reaches. He does not " see it through " in the sense in which that phrase is used by

SNIPE IN BELGRAVE SQUARE ( 12 S. vii. 437), I have co.ne across two people, who could tell tales of the time when snipe were shot in parts of what is now the West of London. The following information appears to be- well authenticated. About 1840 a certain youth who has being prepared for Woolwich r lived in lodgings in Kensington and used to walk along a lane, said still to exist (possibly Thistle Grove, which runs at right angles to> the Brompton Road, not far from the Boltons) to a hamlet in the direction of Chelsea where his tutor was. Beyond the hamlet there was a marsh, haunted by ducks and snipe, and this was the youth's- favourite resort in his leisure time.

Even now, I believe, inhabitants of Bays- water refer scornfully to the low-lying parts around South Kensington station as "the

Marsh."

T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.

the ordinary man.

Q. V.

In the ' Recollections of Lady Georgian* Peel ' (1920), p. 110, the following passage occurs :

"All round Belgrave Square and Sloane Square- were absolute swamps, belonging to Lord West- minster and Lord Cadogan. In my father's youth when he was at school at Westminster, he re- membered the great treat, of a half-holiday, was tx> go with the Grosvenor boys, who were also at the school, to shoot their father's snipe, which abounded in the marshes, where is now Belgraye Square. He remembered getting up to his waist in bog."

Earl Russell, better known as Lord John. Russell, Lady Georgiana Peel's father, was at Westminster School, 1803 to 1804.

G. F. R. B.

SARAH WILKES (12 S. vii. 4, 12, 20). Sarah Wilkes was the elder daughter of Israel Wilkes, the father of John Wilkes 1 (1727-97), and therefore sister of that notorious politician. The 'D.N.B.' states- that she was an eccentric recluse and the prototype of Miss Havisham in ' Great Expectations' (1861). In the 'Dickens- Dictionary,' by A. J. Philip (1909), "Miss- Havisham " is said to be the prototype of a "young lady" (real name not mentioned.) who lived " in a house on the Kettle estate 1 - at New Town, Sydney, Australia," and whose story was told to Dickens. Sarah Wilkes lived for some time with her brother- John at Aylesbury after his marriage with- Mary Mead, and broke off all relations with him in 1754 (vide Alex. Carlyle 'Autobio-- graphy,' 1860, Ed. Burton). She di< (spinster) about 1804, at or near Aylesbury (vide ' Life and Correspondence of J. W.,' by John Almon, 5 vols., 1805, and 'Wilkes.'

by Gregory, 1888).

F. J. ELLIS.