Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/437

 12 s. ix. OCT. 29, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 359 E. R. HUGHES, ABTIST (12 S. ix. 250, 294).' The Year's Art, 1897,' at p. 106, gave his first Christian name as Edis, but probably this was a printer's error for Edw., though it occurs in other issues of that useful publication. According to ' Who Was Who, 1897-1916,' he died May 15, 1908. The portrait- painter Edward Hughes (b. Sept. 14, 1832) had died the preceding day. Were they related ? JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT. Br RIAL-PLACES OF EMINENT SCIENTISTS (12 S. ix. 250, 315). John, Lord Wrottesley (ob. Oct. 27, 1867), was buried at Tettenhall Church near Wolverhampton. WILLIAM PEARCE. BAD SEASON : TRAGIC OCCURRENCE (12 S. ix. 309). In this query the Northumber- land Street tragedy is tentatively dated in the middle or late fifties of last century. It happened on the morning of July 12, 1861. Its memory will last, if for no other reason, because of Thackeray's ' Roundabout Paper ' called ' On Two Roundabout Papers which I intended to write.' His comment on the event is : Have any novelists of our days a scene and catastrophe more strange and terrible than this which occurs at noonday within a few yards of the greatest thoroughfare in Europe ? The brave Dumas, the intrepid Ainsworth, the terrible Eugene Sue, the cold-shudder-inspiring ' Woman in White,' the astounding author of the ' Mysteries of the Court of London,' never in- vented anything more tremendous than this. The murderous attack was not on " a well- known attorney," but on Major William Murray. On Major Murray's death in 1907, having " survived by over forty years one of the most terrible experiences which can possibly fall to the lot of man," The Daily Telegraph for April 4 had a long article on this " classic example in London's annals of crime for the ferocious and bloody nature of its hand-to-hand encounter." Murray's own account of the struggle is there reprinted. As the Major's assailant died in Charing Cross Hospital and the Coroner's jury brought in a verdict of justifiable homicide, there was no " celebrated trial," which may account for the story not being as widely known as it deserves. It can be confidently recommended to readers who want a thrill. Is there a good account accessible apart from the contemporary reports and the news- paper revival at the time of Major Murray's death ? EDWARD BENSLY. I. DONOWELL (12 S. ix. 330). John Donowell (/?. 1753-1786), architect and draughtsman, exhibited architectural de- signs and views of Weymouth, Melcombe Regis, &c., at the Free Society of Artists in 1761, at the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1762-65 and 1767-70, and at the Royal Academy in 1778-81 and 1786 (A. Graves, ' Society of Artists ' and ' R. A. Exhibitors '). He was a director of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1768-71, 1773, and 1775 (Papers of the Society in the R.A. Library). In the King's Library, B.M., are views of the exterior and interior of St. Giles - in-the-Fields, inscribed " Jno Donowell delink Anty Walker sculpt. Published 1 March 1753, and sold by the Proprietor Jno Donowell in Norris Street near the Haymarket, London " ; also a view by him of ' Monkey Island,' between Maiden- head Bridge and Windsor, published in December, 1753. He drew the well-known view of Maryle- bone Gardens which has been several times reproduced, but as a rule without any mention of the artist's name. It was published by J. Tinney in 1755, and re- published in 1761. The figures are cleverly drawn, and show the influence of Canaletto. Donowell is included in S. Redgrave's ' Dictionary of Artists of the English School,' 1878, where it is stated that " he built Lord Le de Spencer's house at Wycombe, the designs for which were printed in Wolfe and Gandon's work." The views of Oxford mentioned by W. V. G. are new to me. HILDA F. FINBERG. 47, Holland Road, W.I 4. Jgote* on The Merry Wives of Windsor. Edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and John Dover Wilson. (Cambridge University Press. 8s. net.) THE theatre has continuously and triumphantly vindicated ' The Merry Wives ' against their Seevish detractors of the study. Mr. Harold hild, in three or four serried and pleasant pages at the end of this book, marks the few " improve- ments " or " revisions " it has undergone, and its many successes, when performed more or less as " my Lord Chamberlaines servants " left it to us. John Dennis in 1702 made a fresh version of it, soon abandoned ; Frederick Reynolds- in 1824 turned it into an opera ; in 1874 the last ebb of the notion of improving it was seen in Swin- burne and Sullivan's substitution of a new song for Anne Page's ' Fie on sinful fantasy ! ' On the