Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/21

 9 S. I. JAN. 1, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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associated visions, c., and says that there is no confirmation anywhere of such an edict or such consequences as Bell pretends, though doubtless Kudolf would have been glad enougl to destroy all Luther's works and the Re formation too. Bell had affirmed that 80,000 copies of the 'Table Talk' alone were de stroyed and burnt. But Walch and the other Lutheran commentators are less in- dignant with Bell's expedient for securing notoriety for his publication than with hi. ( statement, denounced both by Walch anc Irmischer as mendacious, that in the * Table Talk ' Luther had acknowledged as erroneous or recanted the doctrine of consubstantiation which all his life long he taught and adherec to. It is, of course, possible that some one copy of the ' Tischreden ' had been concealed been discovered by Sparr, and handed over to Bell. But the implication and express statement that this was the only one or almost the only one that had anywhere sur- vived till 1626 is obviously preposterous. In Protestant countries copies of some of the editions "must by 1 626 nave been plentiful The British Museum has German editions of 1566, 1577, and 1603; the Bodleian German editions of 1571 and 1591 ; Trinity College, Dublin, the German one of 1566 and the Latin one of 1571. Here in Edinburgh both the Advocates' Library and the University have copies of the 1567 German edition. Doubtless there were many copies in Britain, not to speak of Germany, when Bell indited his extraordinary cock-and-bull story.

It might be worth while investigating the fable in all its ramifications, and seeing if, and how far, Bell befooled Archbishop Laud, the Westminster Assembly, and the Long Parliament : in which case these additional grounds of suspicion should be noted. No precise locality is anywhere indicated of the edict, burning, discovery, &c. Now, what Rudolf or Ferdinand might possibly do in the Archduchy of Austria might be wholly impossible and out of the question in Saxony, Brandenburg, or the Palatinate. Gregory XIII. (1572) was not "the Pope then living" at any time after Rudolf II. came to be emperor (1576-1612). Did Hazlitt not see that the second part of his preface made the first part of it (Bell's narrative) incredible; or was he perfectly careless on the subject ? And did Hazlitt "translate" Luther's 'table Talk ' at all, or only make arbitrary moderni- zations, excisions, transpositions, and other alterations, currente calamo, in Henry Bell's, wholly without regard to the German (my own impression after a summary comparison of the three)? D. P.

PORTRAITS OF THE WAKTONS (8 th S. xii. 327,

431, 492). I cannot but consiaer that your correspondent O., in his criticism of my letter at the second reference, gives a rather mis- leading turn to one of my statements. The words " the seal of his own approval " were applied primarily, if not exclusively, to the signature on the portrait of Lady Cockburn, and were literally quoted from some bio- graphy I judged very likely from Leslie's or Faringdon's, from certain jottings in my note-book and although Northcote may tell " the truth and nothing but the truth," we are not bound to accredit him with the whole truth. His explanation of the inscription on Mrs. Siddons's robe does not extend to that on Lady Cockburn's, nor can we be expected to infer that Sir Joshua delivered himself of the same gallant speech to the latter lady. It would, I think, have been more gracious to have consulted my authorities before advancing the view that I "must strangely have misread them."

ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

REYNOLDS (8 th S. xii. 487). Mrs. Pelham was Sophia, daughter of G. Aufrere, of Chel- sea, ana became the wife of the first Baron Yarborpugh. See Chaloner Smith's ' History of British Mezzotinto Portraits,' vol. i. p. 192.

W. D. H.

Mrs. Pelham was Sophia, only daughter of George Aufrere, Esq., and became wife of Charles Pelham, afterwards Baron Yar- borough. She married in 1770, and died in 1786. She was painted in 1771 by Reynolds. ALGERNON GRAVES.

One would like to suggest Miss Fanny Pelham, of Esher Place, who, inter alia, enter- tained the French Ambassador during his embassy to this country in 1762-3. There are passing references to her in Austin Dobson's 'Nivernais in England' ('Eighteenth Cen- tury Vignettes,' Second Series), where one gathers that she was the subject of a rhymed ancomium by the ambassador. She was a Lavish hostess, and capable of entertaining the company by singing. ARTHUR MAYALL.

BAYSWATER (8 th S. xii. 405). PROP. SKEAT may be right in his derivation of this name ; 3ut since no horse, in serious earnest, could ever have been called a " bayard " unless he were of a bay colour, I beg to express a doubt of its correctness. Surely the horses watered there could not have been either all bays or all old " screws," and so called " bayards " in ruth or from derision.

Moreover, although Bayard is a personal lame, distinct from Baynard, it seems to me