Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/373

 9* s. xii. NOV. 7, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

365

possession of the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery. I am one of those old- fashioned people who still read * The Farmer's Boy ' occasionally, arid I consider that a portrait of its author should find a place on the walls of our National Valhalla. It is now eighty years since Bloomfield passed away. He died in poor circumstances in a house still standing in North Bridge Street, Shefford, Bedfordshire, on 19 August, 1823, and lies buried in the churchyard of the ad- jacent village of Campton. The lowly stone which marks his grave is inscribed as follows :

Here lie

the remains of

Robert Bloomfield.

He was born at Honington

in Suffolk December iii, MDCCLXVI

and died at Sheffbrd

August xix, MDCGCXXIII.

Let his wild native wood notes tell the rest.

A sale of Bloomfield's effects took place at his house at Shefford on 28 and 29 May, 1824. Catalogues of the sale and cuttings from the Morning Herald describing it are to be seen in the Bedford General Library. From these I gather that two portraits of Bloomfield were disposed of one in oils by Rising and a water-colour drawing by P. Violet. Many other relics of the poet, including the old oak table immortalized in ' Wild Flowers,' found ready purchasers, but the pity of it is they were not sent to London for disposal. It would be interesting to learn what has become of the two portraits. Probably their present owners might feel inclined to offer them to the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery. Verbwn sat sapienti.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

PRINCE OF WALES'S THEATRE, TOTTENHAM STREET. The announcement that pickaxe and shovel are busy over the demolition of this famous structure must bring many a pleasant reminiscence to the mind of the middle-aged theatre-goer notably, of days when the little house leapt into sudden, well-deserved popu- larity under the Wilton-Bancroft rule, and lengthy runs rewarded an enterprise which secured the representation of that series of Robertsonian comedies, surely unapproach- able in their fancy, wit, and, above all, sound- ness of tone and purpose comedies, in fact, pur et simple, affording marked contrast to some latter-day productions so styled. We know what gibes were directed at these dainty plays. It was whispered and written of them that they belonged to the " milk-and-water," " bread - and - butter," " teacup - and - saucer "

schools, were only suitable for girls and boys in their teens, could take no permanent root on histrionic soil, and so on.

Can any one honestly contend that such prophecies have been fulfilled ? Rather, I imagine, there are hundreds nay, thousands of us who preserve lasting impressions of benefits derived from our acquaintance with pieces which have charmed us with their brightness, enlivened our spirits, taught us good and wholesome lessons in the past which the relentless hand of time has by no means effaced.

Yes, true and hearty indeed was the laughter which rung out night after night within that pretty bandbox of a place de- stined to become quite the most fashionable theatre in London. The framework was in such complete harmony with the pictures presented upon its tiny stage : boxes, stalls, pit, circles all so bijou and cosy. Satis- factory as most of the revivals of this elegant set of comedies have been, somehow trans- ference to other and larger arenas has always seemed to dim their lustre in the eyes of their first admirers. "No days like the old Prince of Wales's," they were wont to ex- claim with a sigh. Now that the home of so much refinement in drama and acting is being literally broken up, it may be permissible to offer this sincere, if inadequate, tribute to its memory by one who has spent many happy arid profitable hours behind those crumbling walls. CECIL CLARKE.

[See 9 th S. x. 64, 176, 232 ; xi. 67, 193.]

" UNI VERSARY." ''This first Stone of the Royal Universary Infirmary for Children, founded as a Dispensary on the Twenty- seventh day of April, 1816 was laid," &c.

I copy the above from an advertisement just issued by the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children. It purports to be a transcript from a tablet which was found buried under the foundation stone of the hospital when the demolition took place this year. I cannot find " Universary " in Latham's * Johnson ' or in the ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary,' and do not see what it means. WM. H. PEET.

' RULE BRITANNIA.' Having doubts about the comma which is always printed between these two words, I referred to the original 'Alfred : a Masque,' 1740. It is anonymous, but, needless to say, is by James Thomson, the poet, and D. Mallet. On p. 42 the chorus is printed

Rule Britannia, rule the waves ;

Britons never will be slaves.

Then in the next verse the chorus is not