Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/176

 168

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. vm. AUG. 24, 1901.

before 1 May, or later than the very beginning of June, 1820. Let Canon Ainger " cudgel his brains no more about it," &c., but take his pen and mark these three letters to Cottle "Nov. 5, 1819," "1819, later," and "Mayor early June, 1820," respectively.

That the reader may form some notion how far the editorial blunderings in the ' Letters ' of 1900 extend, I now append a list of the documents in their true order, dated as exactly as possible, from October, 1798, to the close of 1800. The asterisks mean wrong dates in the " revised " edition of 1900. Edition de Luxe Edition of

(1900). 1888. Date.

- Oct., 1798

XXXV.

xxxyi.

xxxiy.

xxxyiii.

xxxix.

xl.

xli.

xlvii.*

xliv.

xlviii. *

xlv.

xlvi.

xxxvii.*

xlix.

1.

In.

liv.

Ivi.

Ixxii.*

Ixxxiv.*

Ivii.

Iviii.

lix.

Ixi.

Ixix.*

Ixii.

Ixv.

Ixvi.

Ixvii.

Ixiii.

Ixiv.

Ixviii.

Ixx.

Ixxi.

Ixxiii.

Ixxiv.

Ixxv.

Ixxvi.

Ixxvii.

Ixxviii.

Ixxix.*

Ixxx.

Ixxxi.

Ixxxii.

xcvii.

(postscript)* Ixxxiii.

Oct., 1798 xxxv. 29 Oct., 1798

xxxvi. 3 Nov., 1798

xxxvii. 8 Nov., 1798

13 Nov., 1798

20 Nov., 1798

xliii. c. 20 Nov., 1798

xxxviii. 28 Nov., 1798

xxxix. 27 Dec., 1798

xl. 21 Jan., 1799

xliv. c. 31 Jan., 1799

xli. 15 March, 1799

xlii. 20 March, 1799

After 13 April, 1799

Sept., 1799

xlv. 31 Oct., 1799

xlvii. Dec., 1799

xlvi. 28 Dec., 1799

xlviii. 23 Jan., 1800

liii. 13 Feb., 1800

xlix. 1 March, 1800

1- 17 March, 1800

Jxiv. c. 5 April, 1800

Ixxvi. 16 or 17 April, 1800

li. 12 May, 1800

17 May, 1800 hi. End of May, 1800

2 July, 1800

Jiv". Prob. 22 July, 1800 l v - 6 Aug., 1800
 * ?" July (early), 1800

Jviii. c. 7 Aug., 1800 J 1X - 11 Aug., 1800 } x : 14 Aug., 1800 lvi - c. 14 Aug., 1800 J vn - c. 16 Aug., 1800 Ixi. 22 Aug., 1800

Prob. autumn, 1800 26 Aug., 1800

9 Oct., 1800 13 Oct., 1800 16 Oct., 1800

3 Nov., 1800 28 Nov., 1800

4 Dec., 1800

10 Dec., 1800

13 Dec., 1800

14 Dec., 1800 16 Dec., 1800

Ixiii. Ixv. Ixvi. Ixvii. Ixviii. Ixix. Ixx. Ixxi. Ixxii. Ixxiii. Ixxiv. Ixxxiv. (postscript) Dec. 19, 1800 27 Dec., 1800

MYOPS.

SWEENY TODD (9 th S. vii. 508 ; viii. 131). As there seems some interest in " the demon barber," I will just mention that in the year 1859 I well remember going with my old college friend Walter Besant, who was to become so famous, to a performance called ' The String of Pearls ; or, the Barber Fiend of Fleet Street.' I forget whether the theatre at which it was played was the Standard in Shoreditch or the Britannia, Hoxton ; but I think, it was the Britannia. Certainly our blood was curdled, steteruntque comce.

JOHN W. HALES.

The hideous story has been frequently revived. I have known it since 1840, and once saw it acted as a drama at a " penny gaff" at Hoxton. Its latest appearance in print was in the new series of the London Journal, 1899, vols. xxxi. xxxii., one of the special ' Tales of Mystery,' and entitled * The String of Pearls,' the second name of the dramatic version. It ended in No. 826, 14 October, 1899. J. W. EBSWORTH.

The Priory, Ashford, Kent.

Besides the ' Sweeney Todd ' drama by F. Hazel ton of 1850 there was one by George Dibdin Pitt, produced at the Britannia Theatre in 1842, called 'Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet-Street ; or, the String of Pearls, a Legend- ary Drama in Two Acts.' I do not think G. A. Sala wrote the story. I fancy it was from the pen of a man named Savage, who was responsible for ' Charley Wag,' * The Woman with the Yellow Hair,' and other abomina- tions of the same class. I do not think George Augustus Sala ever " prostituted " his abilities at any time. He wrote for Bow Bells and Dicks, but Dicks did not publish anything of such a low class as the works I have mentioned. S. J. A. F.

KIPLING STORIES (9 th S. vii. 488). I gladly answer MR. ELLIOT STOCK in regard to two of the five stories. The silly illustrated trifle entitled ' The Legs of Sister Ursula ' appeared in the earlier sixpenny series of the Idler. (I have mislaid my copy, but it was before August, 1895, when the new series began, edited by Jerome K. Jerome.) In another number, at nearly the same time, was pub- lished the railway story of 'A Sunday Holiday,' which is perhaps the worst that Kipling ever wrote, quite unworthy of its reappearance in in ' The Day's Work ' volume. ' The Lament- able Comedy of Willow Wood ' has not been republished. It fills twelve large octavo pages of the Fortnightly Review, pp. 670-81, May, 1890. There are many other of Kipling's stories that well deserve to reappear, such as ' The