Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/31

 9° s. vi. Jim 14, 1900-] NOTES AND QUERIES. 21 LUNDON. SA TURDA Y, JULY 14, 1900. CONTE NTS. - No. 133. NOTES x-Webb. the Swlmmer, 21-Catalogues of English Book Sales, 22-Quotations in Text-Books, 24-Marriage as Christian Name-Monntflchet Castle- Handbill of Welsh Guide. 25-Irish Soldiers at the Boyne, 26. QUERIES:-Warwickshire Arms- “Llnnsrd-feel"-J. C. Schetky-Books on Venezuela, 21-Louljs-Palatlnate- Brown Family-Pressgang Songs-Mlhell or Michel- Capel Family-Cornelius van der Goes-The Campbells, 28-Letters on a Clock-Twyford Yew Tree-“ Bolt from the blue "-The ‘Spectatoi-,’ 29. _ ~ RBPLIES =-Ancient Towers ln Sardlnla, 29-Phllology and Ethnolog'-“To help ” with lnhnltlve-Soldier Ancestors -Counting Another’s Buttons, 80- Tennyson Query- The National Flag- General Cope-White, of Dorchester, 31-“ Quarter " of Com-Muriel-°‘ Brotherhood of Fools,” 32-“Colly "-Llneal Descendant of Wlckllffe-Woore, in Salop-Identifying Junlus, 33-Vase of Solssons-J. W. Box-Ruskin’s Residences, 34 - Borough-English - Men wearing Barrlnga, 35-Moyse Hall -Dwnn Family- “Reredos"= “Lardose”-Extent of Bt. Martln's Parish, 36 - Proverb- Bogers’s ‘ Glnevra ’ - “ Nesquaw ”-“ Les Grlces ” - A Deserted Village - Ronjat - ‘° Nower ”- “ Cmwdy-mutton," 37-Lander Query, 38. NOTES ON BOOKS :-Courtney’s ‘ The Idea of Tragedy ln Ancient and Modern Art ’ - Roberts and Woodall’s ‘ Gossiping Guide to Wales ' - Folkard's ‘ Catalogue of Books ln the Wigan Free Library'-Reviews and Maga- zines. Notices to Correspondents. Sum. MATTHEW WEBB. THE “ Captain,” as he was called, accom- lished his great swim across the English ghannel twenty-five vears ago. Immediately the press of the world was full of accounts of how it was done and of the man who did it. Any one would conclude that it had thus been so thoroughly chronicled that not a doubt could be left for subsequent inquirers. The contrary is the fact. In the course of writing the article on Webb for my ‘Literature of Swimming’ I have been met with doubts at every turn. A most inefficient account is that which Webb himself wrote in the BQy’s Own Paper, 1879, in which he says numerous accounts have been published, and that “one of the best, written by an eye-witness,* is pglglislied in my book on swimming." This k has Webb’s name attached to it in -large letters, but that of the real writer, Arthur Gay Payne, in small letters and in parenthesis. ' In the newspapers this kind of mystery seems to be most popular. Webb probably wrote ‘“Mr. A. G. Pa e,” and the editor struck the name out. It `has tafen me a long time to find out with cer- tainty that Payne was the “ eye-witness.” _L __ It has no date, but was published in 1875, and was evidently got up in the greatest hurry. There is not a year named throughout the undred and eleven pages, except the date of Webb’s birth; but is forename is not given. In revising the article above referred to which I wrote five years ago, about Webb and his writin s, I have been surprised to find the difficult I have had to get correct dates and facts. I’ shall be glad to make clear some of these in ‘N. & Q.,’ so that future inquirers may) be saved trouble. The latest notice of We b is that in the ‘D.N.B.,’ 1899. One is not inclined to criticize this indispensable work, but I do think a good opportunity has been lost by the biography being treated as if it were o Brown, Jones, or Robinson, instead of being written with some amount of technical an specialist knowledge, which is possessed b so many writers in the present day. Mr. Robert Watson has written about Webb in his ‘ Memoir ’ 1899, but as this book has some five hundretl pages swarming with names without an index, the ‘D.N.B.’ may well be excused for not citing it. In our fight for the freedom and independ- ence of our countrymen in South Africa the newspapers have apparently not spared our gsnerals when they have made mistakes. hat did the newsgapers themselves do for Webb’s swim? hy, they sent corre- spondents to sea who were not sailors, and who were seasick the whole time ! Even the representative of the Dover Empress was down with this wretched malady. Payne and Wilkinson seem to have been the only exceptions. There were eight representatives at the first, and six at the successful swim. We are met with a difiiculty at the outset. The ‘ D.N.B.’ says Webb was born 18J anuary- probably copied from the Times of 26 July, 1883,  6 ; but Webb’s own account says he was ‘ born at Dawleiy, Shropshire, on the 19 January, l848.” his his brother, Dr. Thomas Law Webb, in answer to my inquiry, kindly informs me is the date entered by his father in the family Bible, which settles that point. Then in the Badminton Library volume on ‘Swimming,’ 1893, p. 162, Sinclair and Henry say he was born “at Irongate, near Dawley.” This is also an error; Dawley was his birth lace. The ‘I§.N.B.’ sa s the best account of Webb’s swim is in Lind and Water; it should have said one of the best. This account was written by A. G. Pa ne, and, with additions, was }eprinted in Webb’s ‘ Art of Swimming (1875.