Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/530

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. vm. DEC. 28, 1901.

parently to the prologue written by the latter lor Marston's tragedy 'The Patrician's Daughter.' This letter, as copied, is undated, but was, I think, of about February, 1841, at which time the writer was living in London, probably in lodgings, at No. 31, Arundel Street, Strand. Marston was married in May, 1840, to Eleanor Jane Potts, the union being strongly opposed on the part of the lady's family, and in the following year he published his first play, entitled as above a clever production and most favourably reviewed wherein he idealized and inserted his love story. The drama was performed in December, 1842, being brought out by Macready, and accompanied with the pro- logue by Dickens.

As this letter will interest many, I give it below ; and it would be well if the exact date and present whereabouts of the original could be ascertained :

MY DEAR SIR, We found this morning the Pro- logue on our breakfast table, and the perusal of your lines has furnished us with good spirits for the day. Not, that its delightful effects are to be restricted to so limited a period ; but, that it elevates us at least for this day, above misgivings and appre- hensions. I read it ivell, because it seized on my mind by its beauty, energy, and direct bearing on the question ; and Mrs. Marston, who may be sup- posed in some sort the representative of the Public, interrupted, with enthusiastic plaudits. "Dubb'd noble only by the sexton's spade," should bring down a hurricane of "bravos," as also '"Iron is worn at HEART, by many still," and the five following lines. Then I think, at "Awake the present," the tableau will be most beautifully introduced. I suppose you have omitted the lines on which a question was raised, at the conclusion. "Yourselves the actors, and your homes the scenes," seems to me to condense into a focus the character of the play. Pray acquit me of the presumption of attempt- ing to criticise. It is the expression of feeling, not of opinion, that I have recorded. Mrs. Marston wishes to thank you with me, and begging our best Compliments to Mrs. Dickens,

Believe me My dear Sir, Yours most indebted and most faithful,

J. WESTLAND MARSTON. To Charles Dickens, Esq r.

W. I. R. V.

THE HAWSON OAK AND ITS GEEEK CROSS.

Crosses and trees bearing ancient names occur frequently in Devon, but never in con- nexion, except at the Hawson Oak near Holne, at whose foot, till some ten years ago, there rested a granite cross of Greek shape, not of Latin form, as in all the other Dart- moor crosses, hence presumably placed there by a member of the Greek rite which dominated in Carthage when on a visit to the mine grounds. That there were such visitors may be inferred from the finding of Numidian coins of B.C. 200 on Carnbrea.

The oak, which stands some forty yards from the tenement of Hawson, with its con- secrating appendant cross, went together down the ages, and might be doing so still but for an incident of too common a type related to me by the then vicar of Staverton. When I asked him how the cross had become broken and framed a few yards off into the wall of Hawson Court, a modern residence, he replied that when driving past he had missed the cross, arid also heard the chink of a stonebreaker's hammer. Following the sound, he found the cross on the stone-heap with one arm spalled off and the rest in order to follow. The old man explained that " they hadn't brought him no road mattle, and he wasn't not going to lose no time by doing nothen', so he had gone arid fetched the rummagy old thing, which wasn't no good to nobody."

Cider was the form of persuasion which resulted in the vicar's taking the cross to the master of Hawson Court, who built it into his wall close by, where the Ordnance map records its position.

But its centuries-old bond of connexion with the old oak is now no longer based on " seeing is believing," and it is to have that former connexion recorded in an easily accessible place that I ask that this narrative may appear in your columns.

W. G. THORPE, F.S.A.

32, Nightingale Lane, S. W.

HUGH CHAMBERLEN THE YOUNGER. The cenotaph in Westminster Abbey is well known. Dr. Moore in the 'D.N.B.' gives 17 June, 1728, as the date of Chamberlen's death. In the Wandsworth burial registers is the following entry : " 1728, June 27. Dr. Hugh Chamberlen (Physician)."

LIBRARIAN.

Wandsworth, S.W.

REV. RICHARD HOOKER, OB. 1600. In the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' it is said that the third daughter " Jone married Edward Nethersole at Bishopsbourne 23 March, 1600." This is wrong : the Joan then married was the widow of Richard Hooker.

In ' Cant. Mar. Licences ' (First Series), "18 March, 1600. Licence granted to Ed ward Nethersole of Canterbury, gent.; and Judith Hooker of Bishopsbourne, widow. To marry at Kings tone." The marriage is not entered in the register of Kingstone, near Canterbury, and the present rector (Rev. C. H. Wilkie), having kindly examined the original licence in the registry at Canterbury, states that it is " Joan Hooker of Bishopsbourne, widow, and not " Judith " as printed.