Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/205

 9ts.x.s K pT.6,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

197

he was twenty -one years of age he was con- stituted with Nicholas Johnson joint Pay- master-General of the Forces, and in 1702 sole Paymaster, and it is said that " his abilities were so conspicuous that he was able to discharge with success all his duties, altho' then but twenty- three years of age." He held the appointment during the reigns of Charles II., James II., and Queen Anne, and died in 1713, s.p., having married Elizabeth Carr Trollope, daughter ajid heiress of Sir William Trollope, Bt., by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Carr, Bt., Chancellor of the Exchequer. CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield.

This was Charles Fox, eldest son of Sir Stephen Fox by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Whittle, of Lancashire. He married in 1679 Elizabeth Carr, daughter of Sir William Trollope, Bt., and died in September, 1713. From Haydn's ' Book of Dignities' (1890) it appears that he was ap- pointed Pay master- General of the Forces Abroad and Chelsea Hospital in 1703.

G. F. R. B.

EPITAPH ON AN ATTORNEY (9 th S. ix. 345 ; x. 37). The Castleton epitaph is not the only one in Derbyshire which savours of cynicism. At Ashover Church is the following :

This Tablet

is here placed

in remembrance of

John Milnes, a man of business and in all cases

an advocate for a plan.

He was born and lived at the Butts,

where he died a Bachelor,

June 28 th, 1838.

Aged 68. N.B. 'Twas said he was an honest man.

W. B. H.

In 1890 I copied the following epitaph in Askrigg (Yorks) Churchyard :

Here lieth y e Body of M r Myles Alder- son who died in y e 75 th year of his age in the year 1746 An honest attorney.

R. B B.

THACKERAY A BELIEVER IN HOMCEOPATHY (9 th S. x. 63; 132). I beg to thank SIR H. POLAND for his reply to ray query regarding the above. As I am not fortunate enough to possess either a copy of the 'Dictionary of National Biography ' or of the ' Encyclo- paedia Britannica' my knowledge of Dr. Elliotson is derived from Baas's ' Outlines of the History of Medicine,' trans.- by Hender- son, New York, 1889, where at p. 632 it is stated that "John Elliotson, professor of

medicine in the London University, was forced from the same cause [i.e., the advo- cacy of mesmerism] to resign his position in 1838." And again, at p. 882 : "Among the prominent supporters of phrenology in Eng- land were also Andrew Combe, John Elliotson [also devoted, as we have seen, to mesmerism], and Archbishop Whately."

Seeing that Dr. Elliotson had two "cranks " viz., mesmerism and phrenology I saw no reason why he should not also nourish a third viz., homoeopathy which would have thoroughly explained the passage quoted from the "Biographical Edition" of 'Pen- dennis,' viz. :

"In one of the Brookfield letters my father writes of my little sister : ' M. says, " Oh, papa, do make her [i.e., Helen Pendennis] well again ; she can have a regular doctor, and be almost dead, and then will come a homoeopathic doctor, who will make, her well, you know. " '

To what this paragraph alludes, unless it be to Thackeray's recent illness and its cure, I cannot imagine. It certainly, to me, carries the very strongest weight possible as internal evidence. Of course, if the fact to SIR H. POLAND'S certain knowledge be other, that disposes of the Question, but as a piece of cir- cumstantial evidence it is certainly weighty.

The matter, then, at present remains as follows : Thackeray's little daughter alludes to some homoeopathic doctor who to her knowledge cured when the regular practi- tioner failed. SIR H. POLAND says this was not Dr. Elliotson, who had recently cured Thackeray when another doctor had failed. Who, then, was it to whom the child alluded ? W. SYKES, M.D., F.S.A.

EUSTON ROAD (9 th S. ix. 427, 518). Under date Monday, 29 June, 1761, the Gentleman's Magazine records :

"This day the new road from Islington to Old Street was opened for all passengers and carriages. This . road is called the City Road, and is indis- putably the finest road in London."

JOHN T. PAGE.

" MERRYE " (8 th S. ix. 108, 270 ; 9 th S. i. 193, 277, 437). The word merye occurs quaintly in the will of Alderman Richard Chamberlayne, 1567, ending, "I praye God make us merye in Heauen " (T. C. Noble, ' Hist, of Company of Ironmongers,' p. 53). ETHEL LEGA WEEKES.

CHAIRMANSHIP OF GOVERNING BODIES OF ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS (9 th S. x. 67, 114). PERTINAX will find the names of the governors of most English public schools in the ' Public School Year-Book for 1902.'

G. F. R. B.