Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/315

 9*s. xii. OCT. 17, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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copy, as well as others I have seen, is lettered on the back ' Serjeant Bell and his Karee Show,' and that on the front cover is a de- sign in gold, copied from the frontispiece, of the old showman exhibiting his wares. I have carefully looked through the book, and as regards Dickens cannot concur with Mr. Shepherd's opinion, as I fail to observe the slightest trace of the master's hand either in the introductory or any other portion of the letterpress. But as regards the authorship Parley," I am inclined to think Mr.

of "Peter

Shepherd is right. On the last page of the

of the

Works of Mr. Peter Parley, Voyager, Travel- "

. book (p. [448]) is "A List

. [448 f Mr.

Popular-

ler, and Story-Teller," all of which were issued by Mr. Thomas Tegg, the publisher of 'Serjeant Bell.' Amongst these is 'Tales about Great Britain and Ireland,' of which a copy of the fourth edition, published in 1845, was given to me when a youngster, and is still in my possession. At pp. 35-41 of that book is an account of Goodrich Court in Herefordshire, then the seat of Sir Samuel Hush Meyrick, the great authority on arms and armour. At pp. 255-80 of ' Serjeant Bell ' I is also an account of Goodrich Court, drawn up in very similar language. This old place had naturally an attraction for "Peter Parley" Mr. Samuel G. Goodrich and he needs no excuse for introducing a description of it into his books. But there is no conceivable reason why Dickens should have done so, and in default of other testimony, I think we must accept the external evidence of Mr. Tegg, and the internal evidence of the book itself, that " Boz " had no literary connexion whatever with 'Serjeant Bell.'

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

SIR HENRY SIDNEY'S HEART. Sir Henry Sidney, K.G., Lord President of Wales, who died on 5 May, 1586, at Worcester, in the bishop's palace, left directions in his will that his body should be buried in the Sidney Chapel at Penshurst, but that his heart should be placed by the side of his fourth daughter, Ambrosia, who died at Lud- low Castle 22 February, 1574, and was buried in Ludlow Church.

In the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. Ixiv. pt. ii. p. 785, there is an engraving of the leaden urn in which Sir Henry's heart was placed,

bearing the following inscription : " Her lith the Harte of Syr Henrye Sydney, L.P., anno Domini 1586." In the letter which accom- panies it, dated " Leominster, Aug. 14," 1794, the writer, Samuel Nicholas, states that he had " procured the Urn a few days ago from Edward Coleman, Esq., of this Town" that it had come into Mr. Coleman's possession, with the house he then resided in, some years earlier ; by what means it was brought there, or whence, is not known ; but Thomas Harris, Esq., was the owner of the house before Mr. Coleman, and it is supposed that he had it from Dr. Coningsby, who was a great lover of antiquities.

Can any reader of 'N. & Q.' throw light on the previous and subsequent history of this interesting relic? It is not mentioned in any papers at Penshurst.

MARY SIDNEY.

127, Ebury Street, S.W.

PAINT-BRUSH. This term appears to be recent in literary use. I do not find it in any dictionary before Cassell's 'Encyclopaedic' in 1886, and I have not come upon a literary example before 1882. All the same, I re- member it in colloquial use more than fifty years ago ; indeed, I can remember having a paint-box and paint-brushes, and buying " camel's-hair paint-brushes" in 1845. Was it then only a child's word ? In works on art one finds only "the brush," the "product of his brush," &c. In 1792 the Gentleman's Magazine speaks of a " painter's brush," and in a ' Book of Trades ' of 1842, under ' The Brushmaker,' where scrubbing-brushes, shoe- brushes, clothes-brushes, and tooth-brushes all appear, one finds paint-brushes referred to only as "the brushes used by painters." But surely tradesmen who sold them called them " paint-brushes " fifty years ago ! Can any one furnish examples 1

J. A. H. MURRAY.

"CuT THE PAINTER." As a slang expres- sion, originally no doubt nautical, but latterly used by "dry land sailors," convicts, &c., meaning to " make off with oneself," " be off," " cut the connexion," this is known as early as 1700. We should like to know when it was first used in a political connexion, in reference to the separation of a colony from the mother country. My own impression is that I heard it first somewhat before 1870, and that it was then given as a well-known Australian phrase, and as an expression of the Australian sentiment of that day. I somehow associate it with Dilke's 'Greater Britain,' in which a good deal is said about the relations between the colonies and the