Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/133

 9-s. via AUG. io, i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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morial tradition is (or was) in Hathersage churchyard. Has this thigh-bone ever been replaced in its original resting-place 1 If not, where is it now? I need the information for literary purposes, as I am old-fashioned enough to believe in the non-mythological personality of Robin Hood and the " merrie men " of Sherwood Forest.

J. B. McGovERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

DEPUTY-GOVERNORS OF COUNTIES. How many were appointed for each county ? From the commission of Thomas Stoney, of Arran Hill, co. Tipperary (see ' Stoney, of Portland,' in Burke's ' Landed Gentry '), it appears that they were provided by the terms of the Militia Act of 1792. T. U. S.

CHARLES LAMB AS A JOURNALIST. (9 th S. viii. 60, 85.)

MR. LUCAS may take it for certain that Lamb's connexion with the Albion began and ended in 1801. But why does not MR. LUCAS examine the contents, and thus ascertain for himself the dates and true chronological sequence of the letters'? The task of re- arranging the letters would be easy and pleasant for one acquainted, as he pre- sumably is, with the lives of Elia's chief correspondents. Moreover, it is an indis- pensable propcedeusis for the intending bio- grapher of Charles Lamb.

MR. LUCAS is perplexed about the date of the two letters numbered Ixxxiii. and Ixxxiv. in Canon Ainger's 1888 edition, and xcvi. and xcvii. in the recent Edition de luxe. These are dated " [August] 1801 " and " August 31, 1801," respectively by all the later editors. MR. LUCAS thinks they may possibly belong to 1803 ; but a glance at the contents of the second letter decides the question at once in favour of 1801. This second letter is a reply to one from Manning announcing (1) his arrival in the near future for a stay in town, and (2) his resolve to explore China later on. Lamb replies that of the intended visit to China he had already heard, but that the news of Manning's impending visit to London is a joyful and well-timed surprise. "You could not come in a better time for my

purposes; for I have just lost Rick man

He has gone to Ireland for a year or two." Now (as MR. LUCAS is doubtless aware) Rickman went over to Dublin as private secretary to Charles Abbot, Chief Secretary for Ireland in the Addington Administra-

tion, in the month of July, 1801. In January, 1802, Abbot was recalled to fill the Speaker's chair, and with him Rickman returned to London, where he remained at first as private secretary to the Speaker, and later on (1814) as Clerk to the House. All which corroborates the commonly received date (31 Aug., 1801) of letter Ixxxiv. (Ainger, 1888). Again, from a letter addressed by Lamb to Robert Lloyd, undated, but proved by the contents to be later than 15 November, 1801 (which letter, by the way, is printed by MR. LUCAS out of its proper place in 'Charles Lamb and the Lloyds,' p. 136), we learn that Manning was in town in November on his way, as we know, to Paris, whither he went before the year was out. Manning may have come up in October, or earlier still ; anyhow, the friends cannot well have foregathered until after Lamb's return from Margate, where we find him sojourning 9-17 Sep- tember, 1801.

In letter Ixxxiii. (1888) Lamb transcribes for Manning his "epigram on Mackintosh the Vindicioe Gallicce man who has got a place at last," &c. The reference here is not to the Bombay recordership, which was not bestowed until 1803. But already in 1800 Mackintosh had thought of accepting a judgeship in Trinidad, and later he had become a candidate for the office of Advocate- General in Bengal a post ultimately be- stowed on Bobus Smith -(1803). A rumour in connexion with this latter or some other place may have reached Lamb, and inspired the unlucky epigram.

In dealing with the dates of letters Ixxxiii. and Ixxxiv. MR. LUCAS is needlessly sceptical ; when he comes to deal with letter Ixiv. (1888), on the other hand, his mood changes ; he becomes, like Boswell, " full of belief." Never- theless, letter Ixiv., which all the editors agree in dating "October 5, 1800," belongs, in point of fact, to the spring of that year. As in the case of Ixxxiv., a glance at the contents suffices to ascertain the true date. Lamb writes : " Dr. Manning, Coleridge has left us to go into the North on a visit to Wordsworth." Coleridge took his departure from the Lambs' 36, Chapel Street, Penton- ville on the first day pf April, 1800. Again, Lamb writes : " rriscilla [Lloyd] meditates going to see ' Pizarro ' at Drury Lane to - night (from her uncle's) under

cover of coming to dine with me heu

tempora ! heu mores ! " But during the month of October, 1800, there was no performance of ' Pizarro.' The play was on four times in March, six times in April, and thrice in May, 1800. On 20 May it was performed for the