Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/431

 9* s. vii. JUNK i, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

423

presents without the bishop's institution, and in which a measure of independence is still maintained or asserted. In a few also, as Battle, Booking, Hadleigh, Hawarden, and some others, the dean or rector retains the right of granting marriage licences con- currently with the bishop of the diocese. And this is all that is left to them of the old and now departed privilege. One writes with a sort of regret for an old usage lost and a link with the past severed, though it may be well that the thing was abolished.

C. B. MOUNT. (To be continued.)

'THE TWO DUCHESSES.'

As the recovery of the long -lost Gains- borough picture may give a fresh lease of life to a book with the title 'The Two Duchesses,' edited by Mr. Vere Foster, and published in 1898 by Messrs. Blackie & Son, I take the liberty of calling attention to the manner in which this book is illustrated. It is scarcely likely that the publishers had any direct hand in the matter, and it is not easy to believe that the editor had much to do with it, although the onus must naturally rest on him. It is even more difficult to attribute the blunders which 1 am about to point out to accident. Facing

E. 96 there is a portrait of a lady in a irge "Gainsborough" hat, and with the title "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. From the painting by George Romney (bet. 1775-81)." Now the Rev. John Romney in the ' Memoirs ' of his father distinctly states that, although Georgiana sat more than once to his father, the portrait never came to any- thing, for he could never get her to keep her engagements. As a matter of fact, the portrait reproduced in Mr. Vere Foster's book is neither of Georgiana nor by Romney, but represents Mrs. Drury and is by Sir Joshua Reynolds ; the original portrait was at the Old Masters' in 1876, and an engraving of it, by Every, was published by Messrs. Graves in 1868.

Facing p. 132 in the same book is the reproduction of a portrait described as repre- senting "Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire. From a picture in the possession of Sir A. Vere Foster, Bart." But this has nothing whatever to do with Lady Betty Foster, and is, in fact, a portrait of Mrs. Siddons by J. Downman, and was engraved by P. W. Tomkins in 1788 a print perfectly well known to every collector.

One naturally begins to suspect the other illustrations in this book. On p. 340 there

is a reproduction of a whole-length portrait described as " Elizabeth, Duchess of Devon- shire. From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A." Lawrence painted Eliza- beth, Duchess of Devonshire, before her second marriage, and this portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1805 ; an engraving by F. C. Lewis was published in 1828. But the portrait reproduced in Mr. Vere Foster's book is totally distinct from the engraved picture, and, indeed, is as unlike the lady whom it claims to represent as it is possible for it to be. The picture may be by Lawrence, but I am certain it does not represent Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire.

The extraordinary ignorance with which this book is illustrated strikes one at the very start, for the frontispiece is a portrait of " Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire. From a print," the person responsible for the illus- trations apparently not knowing that the original portrait is by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and that it was engraved by Bartolozzi. There is probably no more widely known print than this. Moreover, the picture itself was painted about seventeen years before Lady Betty Foster became Duchess of Devon- shire.

It is to prevent or at all events to arrest if possible, the perpetuation of these amaz- ing blunders that I call the attention of your readers to the book. W. ROBERTS.

47, Lansdowne Gardens, S.W.

SHAKESPEARE'S BOOKS.

( Continued from p. 164. )

THERE is a resemblance between Shake- speare's account of the conduct of King Henry V. and his soldiers before the battle of Agincourt and the account, in the 'Life of Scanderbeg,' of the conduct of Scanderbeg and his soldiers before the battle of Phar- salia. Before the battle, Scanderbeg, King of Epire,

' maketh his hands and his eyes the witnesses of all that is done. He vieweth and revieweth his troupes, he examineth if all be well, and still is devising and casting how to dispose and order all
 * hings for the best."

And King Henry walks "from watch to watch, from tent to tent " :

O now, who will behold The royal captain of this ruin'd band Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent, Let him cry " Praise and glory on his head ! " For forth he goes and visits all his host, Bids them good morrow with a modest smile, And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen. 'Henry V.,' IV. Chorus.

Before the battle of Pharsalia some of Bassa's soldiers