Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/183

 o s. ii. AUG. 27,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

175

let out in flats, the entrance of which is in Pitt Street, but one wing stretches into Church Street, adjoining the " Old George " Tavern. Apparently the only reminiscence in Kensington of Newton's having resided there is a small but excellent statue in the Public Library, representing the philosopher in a sitting posture and immersed in thought on the law of gravitation, with an inscription stating that he resided in Kensington from 1725 to 1727, and died there in the latter year ; also that the statue was presented to the library by the sculptor, John Bell, Esq., in December, 1891. W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

BATTLE OF THE NILE (9 th S. ii. 127). This little pamphlet finds a place in Prof. Laugh- ton's accurate and comprehensive ' Nelson Bibliography,' under the heading 'Anony- mous,' with the note :

" Verses written, presumably, by an Italian with a very imperfect knowledge of English, and worth noting for their exquisite absurdity."

F. L. MAWDESLEY. Delwood Croft, York.

CARDINAL Rossi (9 th S. ii. 129). Is not Raphael in this query an oversight for Michael Angelo ? I have looked through 128 works of Raphael, but can find no ' Last Judgment' such as Angelo executed in the Sistine Chapel. J. H. MITCHINER, F.R.A.S.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE RYE HOUSE PLOT (9 th S. i. 68, 212, 372 ; ii. 34). The following, headed ' Rye House,' from Pinnock's ' Guide to Knowledge' for 1834, may be of interest to MR. W. B. GERISH :

" Two miles north-east from Hoddesdon is Stan- stead Abbots, so called from its having once belonged to Waltham Abbey. In this parish, near the side of the river Lea, and on the road from London to Hoddesdon, is the Rye House, originally built as a castle bv Andrew Ogard, agreeable to a licence from Henry VI. The present building has both battle- ments and loopholes, and was probably the gate of the castle which Andrew Ogard had liberty to erect, and, if so, is among the earliest of those brick buildings raised after the form of the bricks was changed from the ancient flat and broad to the modern shape. But what has brought this house into public notice is its being considered as the spot fixed on for the intended assassination of Charles II. in his return from Newmarket in 1683.

" The house was at that time tenanted by one Rumbold, who had served in Cromwell's army : being once or twice at a meeting of some discon- tented persons, who, in the course of conversation, talked of many schemes for changing the govern- ment, and, among others, of killing the king and his brother as the surest, Rumbold informed them of the situation of Rye House, which he then in- habited, and of there being a moat round the house,

way to Newmarket ; that once the coach had gone through without the guards attending it ; and if he had placed anything in the way

coach for the shortest time.

to have stopped the he could have shot

both the king and his brother, and might have escaped through the grounds by a way jn which he could not have been followed.

" This conversation furnished Ramsay and West with an opportunity of framing the most probable part of the evidence they gave against the persons who were brought to trial for a supposed intention to murder the king and the Duke of York, which, from their having fixed on this house as the scene of action, was called the Rye House Plot. There is a tradition (though the grounds of it are at this time unknown) that after Runibold's execution, his head was placed on an iron pike, still remaining on the top of a twisted chimney on the house, and his limbs on the branches of a large elm, which stood on the opposite side of the road, but has since been cut down. Rumbold was certainly not executed till two years after the plot ; when, being taken

Prisoner on the defeat of the Duke of Argyle in cotland, he was condemned as a rebel. At his death he positively denied the knowledge of any plot ; he admitted his having mentioned now easy he could have killed the king and duke, but declared no scheme had ever been formed or agreement entered into to attempt their death."

GEORGE LUCAS. Commercial Street, Maesteg.

In addition to the works specified in reply to my query, I have recently obtained two more. These are :

Rye House, 1685. By Beni. Winstone n.d. (circa 1888), 7 pp., wrapper and plan of Rye House (the latter reprinted from Spratt's ' True Account ').

An Historical Guide to the Rye House and an Account of the Plot, together with a Description of the Rye House, as given upon the Trial of Lord Russell, Algernon Sydney, and others in 1683; also Guide to Places of Interest in the Locality. J. Teale & Co., Rye House, Hoddesdon, Herts, n.d., 32 pp., including wrapper, illustrated.

W. B. GERISH.

Hoddesdon, Herts.

through which the king sometimes passed in his

AUTOGRAPHS (9 th S. i. 268, 336 ; ii. 35). For many years i have had a good, gradually in- creasing collection of autograph letters ; and my plan is very simple, and seems to me far more convenient for inspection, and safer from the "society thief," than CLIO'S plan. I have ten volumes of cardboard - leaved albums ; each page takes two or more letters. I keep the volumes in a glass-fronted small cupboard, lying on their sides, their backs facing the front. On their backs are stamped the contents of each volume Statesmen, Music, Artists, Stage, Science, Authors, &c. At the beginning of each volume is an alpha- betical list of contents, with room to add fresh names. The letters each have a narrow slip, three-quarters of an inch wide, of foreign bank-note paper pasted down the back ; the under side of this slip is pasted into the book,