Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/359

 S. III. MAY 6, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

353

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>dcut portrait appeared in the Roundabout, eekly journal which faithfully reproduced ^ lany of the interesting London characters in t he middle of the eighties. He was locked up { s a beggar in 1881, but owing to public interest was released, and presented with a ^um of money as a recompense. He was sup- 1 osed to be wealthy, but no evidence of this vas forthcoming at his death.

C. DAVIES SHERBOKN.

The old Frenchman's name was Christian Kimminick, and he was in reality, I believe, a Swiss. He sold papers at night, and in the daytime served as an artist's model. His face was recognizable in many scenes of Eastern life exhibited on the walls of Burlington House and at other galleries.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

HORACE WALPOLE AND HIS EDITORS (8 th S. xi. 346, 492 ; xii. 104, 290, 414, 493 ; 9 th S. i. 91; ii. 75, 332, 531; iii. 54, 131, 257). In a letter to Con way, dated 27 May, 1745 (Cun- ningham's edition, vol. i. p. 364), Walpole remarks in reference to the recent battle of Fontenoy:-

" If you are all acting up to the strictest rules of war and chivalry in Flanders, we are not less scrupulous on this side the water in fulfilling all the duties of the same order. The day the young volunteer departed for the army (unluckily, indeed, it \vas after the battle), his tender mother Sisy- gambis, and the beautiful Statira, a lady formerly known in your history by the name of Artemisia, from her cutting off her hair on your absence, were so afflicted and so inseparable that they made a party together to Mr. Graham's to be blooded."

This letter was first printed in the fifth volume of the quarto edition of the ' Works of Lord Orford ' (1798), edited by Miss Berry. In this edition two explanatory notes of Horace Walpole's are appended to the pas- sage quoted above. The first note establishes the identity of the young volunteer with "George, afterwards Marquis Townshend "; the second states that Mr. Graham was "a celebrated apothecary in Pall Mall." The passage appears (with the same two notes) in the ' Private Correspondence ' of Horace Wal- pole (London, 4 vols., 1820). In the first "collected" edition of the 'Letters,' edited by Wright (London, 6 vols,, 1840), a fresh note is added, with a view to establish the identity of " Sisygambis " and " Statira." It is stated that they were respectively " Ethel- reda Harrison, Viscountess Townshend, and her daughter the Hon. Audrey Townshend, afterwards married to Robert Orme, Esq." The former identification is obvious enough. The identification of Miss Townshend, how- ever, appears more than doubtful, as there is

no evidence to show that she had any special regard for Con way, as the "Statira" men- tioned by Walpole evidently had. On the other hand, it seems likely that "Statira" stands for Lady Caroline Fitzroy (afterwards Countess of Harrington), between whom and Con way, on Walpole's own showing, an affection formerly existed (see vol. i. p. 95 ; vol. yiii. p. 484). In support of this identi- fication it may be noted, (1) that in the earlier part of the letter now under consideration Walpole compares Conway to Orondates a Scythian prince who figures in a romance of Calprenede as the lover of Statira ; (2) that " Statira " is subsequently referred to (in the same letter) as " evidently descended from a line of monarchs," a description which is accurate in the case of Lady Caroline Fitzroy, who was a great-granddaughter of Charles I.

Owing to Wright's failure to distinguish this note from those of Walpole in his " col- lected " edition (vol. ii. p. 36), and owing to Cunningham's not having consulted the quarto edition (in which this note does not appear), it now figures incorrectly in Cun- ningham's edition as Walpole's own note.

In a letter to Sir Horace Mann, dated 4 Jan., 1745 (Cunningham's edition, vol. i.

E. 337), Horace Walpole writes, "You will ave heard of Marshal Belleisle's being made a prisoner at Hanover," &c. In the first series of ' Letters ' to Sir Horace Mann, edited by Lord Dover (London, 3 vols., 1833), in which this letter was first printed, no note on this incident is given. In Wright's "collected" edition (London, 6 vols., 1840) there is a note detailing the capture as follows :

" Belleisle and his brother, who had been sent by the King of France on a mission to the King of Prussia, were detained, while changing horses, at Elbengerode, and from thence conveyed to England, where, refusing to give their parole in the mode it was required, they were confined in Windsor Castle."

Wright has given no indication of the source of this note, and therefore, according to his system referred to above, it is presumably Walpole's own. Cunningham consequently, without examination, accepts it as Walpole's, whose name he appends to it in his edition. As a matter of fact, Wright's note is little more than a quotation from Mahon's ' History of England,' as is obvious from the following extract :

" This year England obtained, as captives, the two principal promoters of the war, the Mareschal de Bellisle and his brother. They had been sent in the autumn, by the King of France, on a mission to the King of Prussia, but stopping to change horses at Elbingerode, a village of the Electorate of Hanover, were detained by the magistrates. From thence they were conveyed to England, and, refusing to