Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/362

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. MAY 3, 1902.

Ethiopian queens or queen - mothers) on account of its having been borne by so many of the wives of the Ptolemies.

JOHN MAC-CARTHY.

CHAPMAN FAMILY (9 th S. ix. 187). There is, or was some twenty years ago, a Checkley Hall, then used as a farmhouse, at Checkley- cum-Wrinehill, formerly known as Check- leigh, a township in the parish of Wybunbury, co. Chester. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

Wanstead.

GEORGES I.-IV. (9 th S. ix. 100, 164, 318). MR. PAGE is quite right. Walter Savage Landor wrote the stinging epigram on the Georges in the form quoted by him, and sent it to the Atlas newspaper somewhere in the later fifties of last century. I copied it at the time, but have " God be praised " in the last line instead of "Heaven." Ever since then I have been trying to hunt down a stupid version of the same epigram which is usually attributed to Thackeray, owing, no doubt, to his having lectured on the four Georges about the same time that Landor wrote. I heard those lectures, and can testify that Thackeray did not even quote the lines while on the platform, nor did he add them to his text when the lectures were published in the Cornkill Mayazine in the summer of 1860. But in January, 1861, a reverend lecturer at Darlington, referring to the palmy days of the Georges, quoted from "Thackeray" what he called a new Georgic, as follows :

George the First was vile viler George the Second ; Whoe'er heard any good of George the Third ? And when from earth the Fourth ascended God be praised the Georges ended.

Being at that time literary manager of the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, I published the correct version from the Atlas, made fun of the rhythm in the substitute, and sent a marked copy to the lecturer. A few years later the reverend misquoter lectured near my house, and I took the chair. To my amazement he trotted out the Thackerayan Georgic, word for word, and told me after- wards that he had given it thus many scores of times and knew he was right ! Since that time his wretched version, with varia- tions, has often appeared in the newspapers. Upon the last occasion that I saw the lines they had been much improved and were cor- rectly attributed to Landor. Still, the first line did not rhyme with the second, and the second did not scan. That was in a paper on 'The Literature of Epigram' contributed to a magazine for Christmas, 1900, by a well- known journalist, himself the author of more

than one booklet of respectable poetry. His excuse to me was the old story, that the printers had made a hash of it. Here is the " printers' hash ":

George the First was reckoned vile,

Viler George the Second ; And what mortal ever heard Anv good of George the Third ? When from earth the Fourth ascended, God be praised the Georges ended.

It is worthy of note that in every mis- quotation I have seen the sting of the satire in the fifth line "When from earth the Fourth descended " has been lost. Thanks to MR. PAGE we now have the correct version, and if our indexer will put a cross-reference to Landor there is some hope that the epi- gram may be properly quoted in future.

RICHD. WELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The verses on the four Georges were cer- tainly by Walter Savage Landor, though they are not to be found in any of his books or in Forster's edition of his collected works (1876). They were printed in the Atlas of 28 April, 1 855, with his signature, " W. S. L.," in the form given by MR. PAGE, with the exception that the last line runs

(God be praised) the Georges ended.

The former owner of my copy of ' Imaginary Conversations' (first edition, 1824) has written the following note on a fly-leaf :

" Landor was with Thackeray after his lectures on the Georges were delivered, and said : I sing the Georges Four, For Providence could stand no more. Some say that far the worst Of all the Four was George the First. But still by some 'tis reckon'd That worser still was George the Second. No mortal ever said one word Or good or bad of George the Third. When George the Fourth from Earth descended, Thank God the line of Georges ended.

Extempore by Landor."

STEPHEN WHEELER.

Oriental Club, Hanover Square.

PORTRAITS OF JOANNA BAILLIE (9 th S. ix. 129, 237). Your correspondent would most probably get the information he desires from Miss Hunter Baillie, Duntisbourne House, Duntisbourne Abbotts, Gloucestershire.

A. A. H.

MRS. SIDDONS'S HOUSE, UPPER BAKER STREET (9 th S. ix. 224). What is the autho- rity for the statement that Mrs. Siddons was living in Gower Street in 1817 1 I am aware that Campbell says she was living there at that date, but I want something more definite. Fitzgerald in his * Lives of the Kembles/ vol. ii.