Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/139

 9"> s. viii. AUG. 10, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

131

SWEENY TODD (9 th S. vii. 508). I well recollect the issue of this penny dreadful in numbers, and the low-class illustrations of the ' Charley Wag ' style 1 referred to in ' N. & Q.,' 9 th S. v. 346.

I should hardly have expected to find it in our national library ; nevertheless I do find something about it, and, though at Oxford, it may possibly be some gratification to the Trustees of the British Museum to have some testimony, however unimportant, to the great use of their printed Catalogue in public libraries. The copies here accessible to readers at Bpdley and the Radcliffe Camera are of inestimable service, being constantly con- sulted, and often in fact, generally with some success, as in the present case. In the volume entitled "British Museum: Catalogue of Printed Books. London : W. Clowes, 1897," fol., in column 144 I find this entry :

" Sweeney Todd, the barber of Fleet street a

drama (founded on the work of the same

title) by F. Hazelton. See Lacy (T. H.) Lacy's Acting edition of plays, etc., vol. 102 [1850, etc.], 12."

My recollection of the book is that the title read "demon barber," and the date 1870. With regard to the latter part of the refer- ence, with the date [1850] I will say nothing, being too pleased to have the Catalogue here at all to grumble at any of the late Sir Anthony Panizzi's peculiarities in scientific bibliography. RALPH THOMAS.

' Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,' was published in parts during the year 1840. A copy of it is now on sale at Mr. W. Smith's, No. 1, Marsham Street, West- minster. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

I am under the impression that * Sweeny Todd ' was written by G. A. Sala, and was one of the penny dreadfuls referred to by him in his so-called ' Life and Adventures,' written by him for Dicks the publisher. I think I remember Sala acknowledged the authorship in a paragraph in the weekly notes he contri- buted for some time to the Illustrated London News before he was superseded by Mr. James Pay ii. Selections from these notes were pub- lished in book form, and the question might be set at rest by anybody who thought it worth while making a search for the para- graph. The subject was not referred to, tcept by implication, by Sala in his 'Life id Adventures.' JOHN HEBB.

CHAIN - MAIL REINTRODUCED INTO THE BRITISH ARMY (9 th S. vi. 488). The query >s to " this iron chain armour " raises a smile in a soldier reader. These "burnisher" jhoulder-straps, as they are called, were

ordered to be worn about three years ago by the cavalry and R.H. Artillery. They save the fraying of the cloth shoulder-strap with the sloped sword ; they have a smart appear- ance, and, in a degree, they are useful.

H. P. L.

PHILLIPPO (9 th S. vii. 468 ; viii. 72). The name Phillippo or Phelipeau seems familiar to me in connexion with Burgundian history. I fancy it may have been that of one of the Lords of Chateauneuf who was poisoned by his lady. The lady was buried alive at a spot which my mother used to point out to me, an earthen pot having been placed over her head that her agonies might be pro- longed. Now that my mother is dead, i could point out the spot to succeeding generations. Such is tradition, and I have no reason to doubt its accuracy ; but I should, of course, prefer to excavate in search of positive proof. THOMAS J. JEAKES.

ROYAL BOROUGH (9 th S. viii. 65). A royal burgh in Scotland is a corporate body or person erected by a charter from the Crown, and holding its rights, lands, and privileges direct from the Crown. The charter may be either an actual express existing writ, or its existence is sometimes assumed from other facts and circumstances, on a presumption that the original has perished by accident. The charter does not require, or even admit, of sasine. By the Act of 1663 the provosts and bailies of royal burghs have power to value and sell all ruinous houses when pro- prietors refuse to repair or rebuild them. Many other privileges conferred are to be found in the Acts of the Scots Parliaments, as well as enactments regulating the trade, and special favours enjoyed by the magis- trates and burgesses of such royal burghs, most of which have, however, fallen into desuetude. There are sixty-six royal burghs in Scotland. FRANCIS C. BUCHANAN.

The reasons for the use of the distinction are diverse. Leamington received the name Royal Leamington Spa in 1838 because the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria visited it in 1830 (' Chambers's Concise Gazetteer of the World'). In another way Salford is "royal" because it had been held by the king so far back as Saxon times. According to the Domesday Survey :

"King Edward [the Confessor] held Salford. There are three hides and twelve carucates of waste land, a forest three miles long and the same broad, and there are many haias, and an aerie for hawks."

In the thirty-sixth year of his reign Henry III. granted to William de Ferrers, Earl of