Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/340

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. OCT. 25, 1902.

present, and that the hospitality of his treat- ment procured him a very pleasant evening. On 14 October, 1852, Woodin engaged for his performance the Marionette Theatre at the old Adelaide Gallery, which adjoined the Lowther Arcade, paying down 1001. as rent till Christmas, and passed seven hours with Blanchard making out his programme. He gave his opening night on the 23rd. This proved so successful that for years he gave a dinner to his friends to celebrate the event. More than that, it gave him courage to plunge into matrimony, and on 23 July, 1853, he married Miss Frances Susannah Sprague, in the presence of Blanchard and a few other friends. His wife predeceased him by a very few years. 1 do not know the exact date on which he hired the Polygraphic Hall, but I think it was in 1856. On 21 December, I860, he brought out the ' Cabinet of Curiosities,' which Blanchard had also written for him. I believe he retired from public life about 1866. His father, the old picture dealer, for some time lived at the house known as the Qld Palace at Bromley, which was pulled down by the London School Board in 1894. The panelling and fittings of the State Room, which is associated with King James I., may be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington. The younger Woodin also lived for some time at the Manor House, Brunswick Road, Bow, an old eighteenth- century building, which he decorated with a large amount of old oak carving. Some of the ceilings he covered with paintings on canvas, executed by himself and his friend Telbin, the well-known scene-painter of Drury Lane Theatre. I believe the' present tenant of the house still preserves these relics.

Before giving up his entertainments en- tirely Woodin shared them with other per- formers. On 21 March, 1864, 'An Elopement Extraordinary,' by John Oxenford, and ' The Bachelor Box,' by Tom Robertson, were per- formed at the Polygraphic Hall. Woodin died on 1 January, 1888, Blanchard, who followed him not long after, writing his funeral elegy. Woodin was a good-natured fellow, but a little too full of himself and his performances. He was a tiabitut of the Arundel Club, where Byron is said to have made the joke recorded by the Editor. Here is one of Woodin's advertisements, 'tis forty years since :

"Mr. W. S. Woodin's Cabinet of Curiosities (newly Polished and Re-lined) will be opened at the Polygraphic Hall, King William Street, Charing Cross, on Monday evening, May 12th [1862], forming an entirely original Characteristic Entertainment, with new music, songs, and dances. The Scenic illustrations and effects, entirely new, painted by

and under the direction of Mr. William Calcott, artist to Her Majesty's Theatre. Admission, Is. ; area, 2s. ; stalls (retained through the evening), 3s. Doors open at half -past 7, commence at 8. Carriages to be ordered at 10. First Morning Performance, Saturday, May 17. Doors open at half-past 2, com- mence at 3."

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

I recollect spending a most enjoyable evening at this hall witnessing Mr. W. S Woodin's 'Olio of Oddities ' at the time the Guards made their entry into London, soon after the conclusion of the Russian war.

HARRY HEMS.

THE DE LACI FAMILY TEMP. HENRY I. AND STEPHEN (9 th S. x. 21, 173). I am sincerely obliged to MR. A. S. ELLIS for his reply to my note on this subject. My object was, and is, not to find fault, or criticize, but to obtain light on a remote but interesting subject. I think, however, that I can tell MR. ELLIS " what writings the fourteenth - century chronicler of the Priory * [of Llanthony Prima] had before him " when he stated that " Hugh de Lacy died without issue and his heritage descended to two sisters," &c. He had the pages of Giraldus Cambrensis (q.v.\ wherein it is written, " Hugh de Laci died without issue, and his great inheritance de- volved on his two sisters: Emmeline, who had no children, and Emma, who took to husband

(lost), by whom she had a son Gilbert,

who assumea the name of De Laci."

As I have shown the first statement to be completely out of court, it tends to make me seriously doubt the second, namely, that Gilbert de Laci was a sister's son, and I shall hope some of these days to find from some " carta " or " confi rmatio " that Gilbert was the son of Hugh, just as I have found that Sibylla Fitz-John was his daughter. To make matters clear, I venture to give the pedigree thus :

Hugh de Lacy=^Adelina ?

(d. ?). I

Sybil=pPain Fitz-John.

Cecilia (d.

ecilia (d. 1203 ?). Agnes=p William de Monchensi.

Ralph. William. Hubert.

Sybil brought Painswick, or Wyke-Pagani,

to her husband. Cecilia married three times :

(1) Roger, Earl of Hereford, (2) William of

Poitou, (3) Walter of Maine, but left no issue.

ST. GLAIR BADDELEY.

an abbey. The confraternity there were always "canons."
 * It is curious that the Rolls Series miscalls it