Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/275

 9* s. ix. APRIL 5, 1902.] NOTES AND -QUERIES.

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The first Principal of the college, Alexander John Scott, M.A., was a man who exercised great personal influence and won much affection. Maurice dedicated to him his ^Mediaeval Philosophy,' Baldwin Brown his 'Home Life in the Light of the Divine Idea,' and George Mac Donald his 'Robert Falconer.'

The first two scholarships founded were to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria to Manchester in 1851. One, the Victoria (Classical Scholarship), was given by Samuel Fletcher, and the other, the Wellington (Greek Testament) Scholarship, in memory of the Duke of Wellington, who accompanied her Majesty. This was the gift of George Faulkner.

The recent celebration was in every way in accord with the directions left by the founder, that the college should be "free from the religious tests which limit the extension of university education." The opening service was held in the Cathedral, when the preacher was the Bishop of Manchester; the closing service, "by the request of the Court of Governors," was held in Union Chapel, Dr. Maclaren, the Presi- dent of the Baptist denomination, upon whom the college has conferred the degree of Litt.D., being the preacher.

JOHN C. FKANCIS.

Qnttit*.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

HARRIETT POWELL. Can any of your readers inform me through your columns where information can be obtained relating to Harriett Powell, afterwards Countess of Seaford, a notable actress and singer, whose portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1796? I have searched all the' usual sources of information, but can find no record of her or her career. I am also desirous of ascertaining the present location, if possible, of the above-mentioned portrait, or of either or both of the other two portraits of this lady, painted by C. Read and the Rev. W. Peters respectively

W. H. W. P.

[Consult John Chaloner Smith's 4 British Mezzo- tinto Portraits,' 1884, vol. ii. p. 682, &c.]

ST. BEES. Who was this saint? A place named after her is in Cumberland, and is

celebrated for a divinity college. Is it the same as St. Bede ? G. A. BROWNE.

("Consult, under St. Bega or Bee, Baring-Gould's Lives of the Saints,' 6 September, vol. x. p. 92.]

RICHARD AND ED. ORIEL COWLAM. In the 'Medical Register' of 1780 these two gentlemen appear under the heading of ' Surgeons and Apothecaries.' and as then being at " Newport. Isle of Wight." Richard Cowlam was the Mayor of Newport, but I am not sure of the years (? 1756 and 1764, and perhaps oftener). I much desire in- formation as to their birth, baptism, parent- age, marriage, death, place of burial, and any biographical particulars ; also their relation- ship to each other. Does "Ed." stand for Edmund or Edward in this particular instance? C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

"ASTONISH THE NATIVES." What is the origin of the proverbial use of the expression "to astonish the natives"? It occurs in inverted commas in 'The Ingoldsby Legends' (' Legend of St. Gengulphus '). I have found the expression in Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' chap. Hi., under the sub-heading 'Magnificence of the Caliphs': "But his train of camels, laden with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia," <tc.

T. M. ROUGH.

MISPLACING OF A COMMA. In a book by Robert Barr entitled 'The Mutable Many,' published by Methuen, on p. 109 the author commences a paragraph thus: "It is said that the misplacing of a comma in an Act of Parliament once cost the country a hundred thousand pounds." Will some courteous reader inform me what was the Act of Parliament referred to, and also the occasion of the assumed loss ? F. CLAYTON.

Morden.

HEARTSEASE Is there any legend of the heartsease or pansy in which the flower is named heartsease through having eased an aching or a wounded heart ?

(Miss) L. TUCK.

New Barnes, Ely, Cambs.

AMELIA OPIE'S NOVELS. Can any reader tell me whether any of the novels of Mrs. Opie have been reprinted? They seem to have been very largely read when first published, and it was proposed, I fancy by Routledge, to include them in the six- penny edition of well-known novels which they brought out some twenty years since, but for some reason or other this was not done. I think that 'Temper,' which some consider her best work, has been reprinted