Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/500

 492

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XL JUNE 20, IQOB.

the cause of their " senile decay " I would like to suggest to MR. BIMBAULT DIBDIN and to MR. J. M. BULLOCH to try fish-glue, which can be obtained from most stationers or oil- men, from one penny a bottle upwards. So far back as 1888 I glued down a few cuttings on to paper, card, glass, leather, or wood, notably a frame of portraits of " the master " (Dickens) ; and, although printed on " thin " paper, they have lost nothing since then, neither in the colour of the paper nor the blackness of the printing-ink. I need hardly add that it is always advisable to buy the more "expensive" bottles of glue. As the old proverb sayeth, it's no use " spoiling the ship for a ha'porth o' tar."

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

Very few of the so-called "gums " are really composed of gum, and of gum itself there are various kinds. The best plan, and much the cheapest, is to make one's own mucilage. Acacia gum two parts to three parts of cold water is commonly used. This makes rather a thick mucilage, but one that keeps fairly well in a cool place and in full bottles. A mucilage that is said both to keep better and to be more adhesive may, however, be made by dissolving one part of ghatti gum in two parts of lime-water. When you ask for ghatti gum see that you get it. The lime- water mucilage will not so readily ferment as one made with plain water. The addition of a little glycerine also helps to preserve it.

C. C. B.

' THE POETRY or GEORGE WITHER '(9 th S. xi. 266, 409). I have a considerable number of George Wither's works in first and early editions, which I shall be pleased to exhibit to any ' N. & Q.' contributor who may desire to consult them. F. E. MANLEY.

Cecil House, Allerton Road, N.

JOHNSON : AN ANECDOTE (9 th S. xi. 345). Though the following remarks have no direct reference to Dr. Johnson, yet they may not be without some degree of interest to your readers. I used many years ago to visit at Aldenham Abbey, Herts, then in the occupa- tion of Mr. William Stuart, whose father, when a young man and vicar of Luton, was introduced, as Boswell records, to Dr. John- son in 1782. Mr. Stuart died in 1874, and is buried in Aldenham Churchyard. The family estate was at Ternpsford, in Bedfordshire, but within the last few years the mansion has been burnt down.

Mr. Stuart had a collection of heirlooms and many valuable treasures, as, for in- stance, the sword of Admiral Penn, the

father of the founder of Pennsylvania, and a fragment of the tree under which the treaty with the Indians was signed. He possessed also a beautiful model, in frosted silver, stand- ing 3 ft. 6 in. in height, of the Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross, for which he told me he gave 500. In the library was a magnificent copy of the Pentateuch, which he had bought for a large sum at the sale of the library of the Duke of Sussex, so beautifully written in Hebrew that it looked exactly like printed matter. Over the fireplace, was the fine por- trait of his father in his episcopal dress, with the sky-blue ribbon of the Order of St. Patrick, painted by William Owen, most strongly resembling his son.

Amongst other relics shown to me, one was an autograph letter from George III. offering Dr. Stuart, then Bishop of St. David's, the archiepiscopal see of Armagh, or rather pressing it upon him, which proved one point insisted upon by several historians of the period, that the king always held the patronage in his own hands. The archbishop was accidentally poisoned by an embrocation given in mistake in 1822. As the letter mentioned Lord Bute " as your father, being one of the best friends I ever had," it dispelled the idea that George III. had not liked him. Mr. Stuart was also a great-grand- son of the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and had several letters which had passed between her and Pope. Thomas Percy, editor of the 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' had been one of his father's suffragans in Ireland.

There are pedigrees of the families of Stuart of Aldenham in Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' vol. ii., and of Penn of Stoke Park in Burke's ' History of the Commoners,' vol. ii. p. 491 et seq. (1838), containing much interesting matter and anecdotes concerning the family of Penn.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

BYRONIANA (9 th S. xi. 444). Accuracy is indispensable to the searcher in the columns of 'N. & Q.' It is not possible for Byron to have applied to, and received from, the Ferrara authorities permission to copy Tasso's unpublished letters and verses at the date mentioned by Count Stephen Szechenyi. During the whole of 1818 Byron remained in the neighbourhood of Venice. He visited Ferrara for the first time between 2 and 6 June in 1819. He remained there two days only. This is another example of the risk incurred by correspondents who neglect to verify their quotations. I respectfully advise them, on every biographical point of