Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/172

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NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. n. AUG. 27, i

to Skelt's halfpenny series. The penny plates that bore the Skelts' names were either Lloyd's or some other publisher's, as Straker's or Park's. Bad as Skelt's were, Webb's own were far worse. It is needless to say that to get at all these details requires a pretty extensive collection, which I have ; in fact, I have collected since- 1 was a boy, and have probably five thousand distinct prints from copper-plates printed between 1811 and 1850, and as many duplicates. Of the^kelts' alone I have about one thousand different prints. The collection is almost complete. Much of it was originally collected by Capt. Frederick Hodgetts I may say regardless of expense. A fourpenny book of the play of ' Guy Fawkes ' cost him nearly 5l. to obtain. But the Captain was one of those who left no stone unturned when they had set their minds on a thing. He is not only known as an author of popular books, but is the inventor of the "Hoagetts patent safety ship," which will revolutionize shipbuilding if adopted.

The Skelts are reputed to have been of Hebrew faith- one is said to have been originally a shoemaker, and eventually to have died in Stepney workhouse. Nothing now seems to be known of them, any more than of all the others who published " Scenes and Characters." The earliest I have is by W. West, dated 26 February, 1811. I don't think Skelt came on the scene until about 1840. There are many collectors of the Skelts' prints, but I am told that nobody collects W. West's, simply because there are none to be bought. One would like to know the forenames of the other " M." and the " E." Skelt, or, in fact, to have any information. EALPH THOMAS.

SEEING-GLASS = LOOKING-GLASS. The fol- lowing is an extract from the will of a Lincolnshire farmer dated 1 August, 1796 :

"Item I also give to my wife the bed she now lieth on, one ovel [sic] table, one Tea table, one Round table, three round backed chairs, one spindle chair, my chiney [sic) and Tea table, Silver spoons, one Baril [sic] warming pan, and a Seeing Glass and Tongs."

H. ANDREWS.

EXECUTIONS AT TYBURN. GUALTERULUS is sadly in error in saying (ante, p. 129) that Governor Wall was hanged at Tyburn on 28 January, 1802. The last execution at Tyburn took place on Friday, 7 November, 1783, in the person of John Austin, convicted on the preceding Saturday of robbing John Spicer and cutting and wounding him in a cruel manner. In Walford's ' Old and New London ' it is erroneously said that " the last criminal executed here was one Ryland, who was

hung [s?'c]for forgery in 1783." William Ryland was executed on 29 August, two months before the date of Austin's conviction, and many a poor wretch made the fatal pilgrim- age to Tyburn in the interval, hanging by wholesale being the rule in those days. The long procession westward had been attended by such disgraceful scenes that the authorities resolved to hang criminals henceforth outside Newgate prison, straight from the condemned cell. Accordingly, on 3 December, 1783, the Recorder ordered the erection of a scaffold in front of the gaol, of which a notice and de- scriptive engraving appear in the Gentleman's Magazine for the same month ; and on the 10th the new hanging-place was inaugurated by the execution of ten malefactors.

F. ADAMS.

'BRADSHAW'S RAILWAY GUIDE.' Irvine's 'Annals of our Time, 1837-71,' contains the following obituary notice :

" September 8, 1853. Died at Christiania, sud- denly, from an attack of cholera, Mr. Bradshaw, the projector of the popular railway guide."

There must be some slight error about this, for there can hardly be two gentlemen who can claim to be the originator of this guide.

The Manchester Guardian of Thursday, 7 July, tells us, under the heading of " The Churches":

" A large congregation witnessed last evening, in the Wesleyan Church, Higher Broughton, the unveil- ing of two memorial windows. One of the windows, representing the scene of our Lord's Ascension, has been erected by Mrs. Kay, of Birkdale, Southport, in remembrance of her husband Mr. Robert Diggles Kay, who was for a long period a member of the Higher Broughton Wesleyan Church. Mr. Kay was the originator and first editor of ' Bradshaw's Rail- way Guide,' a work which has grown from 6 pages to 400, and from needing no index has now an index occupying itself over 40 pages."

The subject of the larger of the two windows, which is in the transept on the western side, is the Ascension. At the foot is the following inscription :

" To the glory of God and in memory of Robert Diggles Kay, originator and first editor of 'Br?<i- shaw'; born April 8, 1810; died October 8, 1897. ' In te, Domine, speravi.' This window was erected July 6, 1898, by his trustees, Sarah Kay, his widow, and Edmund Crayston, his friend, being part of a large bequest to this church. Mr. Kay was for about twenty years a regular attendant at this place of worship."

FREDERICK LAWRENCE TAVARE.

30, Rusholme Grove, Rusholme, Manchester.

GOOD FRIDAY CUSTOM. The following from the Standard of 9 April may be worth reprinting in ' N. & Q.':

"In the churchyard of St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithiield, yesterday, 21 poor widows residing