6 with Wallis, if compared with his later works. certain that Rome for Good News' was: In the Epistle Dedicatory in Room for not published before 1661, for on p. 19 is the Cobler he speaks of his two former a reference to "William Gloucester "-i.e., books," this, no doubt, referring to Rome William Nicholson, who was Bishop of for Good News and More News,' and on Gloucester from 1661 to 1672. The tract is p. 6 there is another reference which con- dated in the British Museum Catalogue as nects Wallis with the first of these. On" [1642 ?]," but evidently this is some p. 26 of Rome for Good News' the dialogue twenty years earlier than it should be. ends with:: Wife....we will talk no more to-night, but leave till another time, and then we will begin with Magna Charta and talk over three or four Sheets more while on p. 4 of More News from Rome; or, Magna Charta' (1666), the wife says:"The last winter you and I fell into some discourse by the fire and brake off somewhat abruptly, you promised to begin with Magna Charta.' 6 66 some The verses in Rome for Good News' contain allusions to many who suffered for their refusal to conform, among them being Arthur Hildersam (1563-1632), Thomas Turner (1591-1632), Bates, and Sharp, the last a bookseller of Banbury, who is also referred to in More News.' There also occurs the name of Ravis, Bishop of Glou cester (1604-7), who made a threat that he would not leave one preacher in my These extracts suggest the year 1665 as diocese who doth not subscribe and con the date of Rome for Good News,' but form." He is spoken of thus :the examination of Rawson given in the Where are the thousand men become, 'Calendar of State Papers (Domestic),' That fought for reformation, 1 Oct., 1664, raises the question whether Doct. Ravis. A rare bird with his heady book, earlier editions of this and other tracts by Soon wrought their desolation. are In this There Wallis may not have been issued. very uncomplimentary examination it is stated that Wallis " wrote references to Nicholson, Bishop of Glou the books called Magna Charta,' Good cester, who is also handled severely by News from Rome,'' More News from Rome,' Wallis in his later tract, More News."" which and the Honour of a Hangman,' A further letter in the Calendar of State would make it appear that copies of works Papers (Domestic)' for 1667-8 suggests It is as bearing these titles were then in existence. that Wallis wrote other tracts. So far I have not yet seen any of these follows:works with the date 1664 or earlier, and if such were published-as seems likely from the evidence given-it would appear they were all destroyed. It also seems probable that the titles of later issues were transposed or combined. The British Museum has a copy of Or Magna Charta; More News from Rome, 1666, but an addition in MS. reversing the lines has been made to the Catalogue, and a note appended that the first and second titles were evidently transposed by the printer. This tract may be a combination of the first and third of the works mentioned by Rawson. And I suggest also that the second tract named, Good News from Rome,' is the same as 'Rome for Good News,' the title of the later issue (supposing an earlier) also being transposed. 66 In the title of 'More News' (1666) a font erected in Gloucester Cathedral in October, 1663, is referred to, and in the text this is spoken of as recently erected." A period of three years might warrant the term recently," but again the examination of Rawson permits the probability of an earlier edition, which seems to have been entirely destroyed. It is, however, quite 66 "1668. April 24. Roger L'Estrange to Wil- reflect quality as Felo de se.' I can fasten nothing on "I send another libel, Room for the Cobbler,' which is the damndest thing has come out yet'; but I beg privacy, being in quest of Wallis, who has disguised himself....I hope the libel of the Cobblers will be closely and quickly followed up :: if you show it to Lord Arlington or my Lord of Canterbury, let no words be spoken, as I want to surprise the parties." With the exception of Liberty of Conscience' (by Sir Charles Wolseley, 1668) and Room for the Cobler,' I cannot trace any of the tracts mentioned. L'Estrange suggests that 'Felo de se is by Wallis, and it seems possible that Omnia Concessa a Belo' and 'The Poor Whores' Petition' were also by him. It will be interesting if some reader of 'N. & Q.' can give information as to these, and also as to the dates of the earliest issues, if any are known, of the publications named in the record of 1 Oct., 1664. Zachary Grey in his 'Review of Mr. Daniel Neal's History of the Puritans,' 1744, has an entertaining passage relating to Wallis. He says: "About this time [1667] Mr. Neal observes (p. 412) that Ralph Wallis, a Cobler of Gloucester, publish'd an Account of a great number of Scandalous Conformist Ministers, and named their Scandals: but forbears to inform us, how Ralph Wallis came off upon his Tryal. The Author was to be tried for his Life, and when he came before the Judge, he ask'd him Whether his Fault was greater than Oliver Cromwell's? No, said the Judge, nor so great. Pray, my Lord, said he, let not my Punishment be greater; if I must be hang'd, let me be dead and buried, and lie so long in the grave first, then take me up and hang me after: which made the Judge invite him to Dinner, and give him a Guinea instead of an Halter; a thing much the better of the two.' A careful reading of the Life and Death of..the Cobler of Glocester' (1670) reveals more of Wallis's strange career than is suggested in the 'D.N.B., though the only pamphlet of his which is mentioned is Room for the Cobler of Gloucester.' There is a curious reference to Sir Thomas Overbury. Wallis had a particular friend, Capt. L., who praised his pamphlets, saying they were the works of the "witty Cobler, whereupon he was told that the epithet of witty was above the capacity of a cobler to deserve. He replied, "Oh Sir, you must understand he is a Glocestershire-man, and Glocestershire is famous for having two great Wits born in it, instancing in Sir Thomas Overbury, and the Cobler of Glocester." According to accepted authority, Overbury was born in Warwickshire, and the reputation of Gloucestershire for wit must, indeed, have been at a low ebb if it rested in the hands of Ralph Wallis. The British Museum Catalogue attributes to Wallis authorship of "The Cobler of Gloucester reviv'd In a Letter to the Observator's Countrey-Man. London, Printed and sold by H. Hills, in Black-Fryers, near the Water-side," Loving Friend R. Wallis, Cobler "; but,as Wallis died in 1669, this would not seem to be his. Though written in somewhat the same style as tracts known to be by him,. the subject-matter is mainly political. The date agrees with references to Queen Anne and Admiral Sir George Rooke. There are allusions to Gloucester and to the Bishop of Gloucester, but these are evidently made to be in keeping with the nom de plume adopted by the writer. ROLAND AUSTIN. Public Library, Gloucester. DOTHEBOYS HALL ANTICIPATED. A NOTE in N. & Q.,' 15 March, 1862, sug-gests a possible relation between the account of Yorkshire schools in Nicholas Nickleby and a narrative of closely corresponding experience to be found in Literary Recollections,' by the Rev. Richard Warner (1830), nine years earlier. This hypothesis is disposed of in a brief comment by the editor, based on Dickens's statement in the Preface to the first cheap edition of his novel that his earliest knowledge of such dens of misery had come to him, in some forgotten way, during his boyhood days at Rochester: observation during an unofficial tour of all the details were obtained through direct inspection. little-known works of fiction in the eighStill, it is interesting to discover that two teenth century made use, in their initial chapters, of an almost identical situation, and show besides unexpected coincidence in Man; or, Memoirs of Sir Charles Beville definite points of treatment. "The Placid (1770), contains the following significant passage (i. 44) :— "I was accordingly sent to a school....the master of which took a journey on foot, or in the waggon, to London, every Whitsuntide holidays, on purpose to advertise, that At Stonelands, in Yorkshire, youth are boarded, educated and cloathed, at twelve pounds a year, by Zachary Birch, and proper assistants [his wife and a parish will take the care of any young gentleman down '; apprentice]. N.B. Mr. Birch is in town, and by which means, he sometimes contrived to get his own passage gratis....I....underwent the usual discipline of the school, namely, cold, hunger, and beating," &c. 6 If the procedure of Squeers is thus anticipated here in one noteworthy particular, there is further resemblance discernible in The History of the Curate of Craman; Taken from Real Life; By an Unbeneficed Clergyman of the Church of England (1777), in the second chapter of which is . given a much more elaborate rehearsal of bitter school experience under the rule of "Mr. John Conjugate....at B-es [Bowes ?] in Yorkshire." The hero relates how Master Conjugate, with what appeared to be the tacit indifference of his parents, stole from him a toy watch. "I had the mortification to see the young rogue wear it for several days, and at last sell it to one of his schoolfellows." Then, .... with what frugality we lived passes all credulity. Our dinner consisted of a very coarse hard pudding, made chiefly of rye, peas, and broken pieces of bread, which was succeeded by nearly half a pound of mutton that had died a natural death, or was in danger of dying of some disease. ....We were sent to a common at a considerable distance, to fetch bundles of furze for the use of the house....My department generally was, with another boy, to milk two cows, clean the vessels of the dairy, and conduct the cows from and to the field." Thin as this appears in comparison with the solid and brilliant pictures we know so well, is it not yet conceivable that the reading of an unguided and precocious boy might have stamped one of its impressions from just such suggestions as these? It is undoubtedly in Dickens's earlier work that we find it easiest to detect the lines along which his genius travelled when stimulated by his quite untutored studies. In one chapter alone (chap. xliv.) of 'Pickwick' we find two such instances: Sam Weller's tale of the gentleman who blew out his brains as a testimony to the digestibility of crumpets, the bald original of which is recorded by Boswell, 16 April, 1779; and the story of the cobbler ruined through inheritance of a comfortable legacy, still more distinctly foreshadowed in bk. iv. chap. ii. of The Spiritual Quixote,' by the Rev. Richard Graves (1773), the sufferer from the technicalities of the law being in this case a travelling tinker. Colour, glow, and movement, it need hardly be added, are in none of these cases to be looked for in the first sketch. PAUL T. LAFLEUR. McGill University, Montreal. erected by public subscription at a cost of about 3,0007. The statue is of bronze, on a marble pedestal. It was inaugurated on 25 Oct., 1809, the day of the celebration of the jubilee of George III. Nelson is represented standing erect, bare-headed, clad in an admiral's uniform, and invested with his insignia and honours. His left arm reclines on an anchor, and at his right side is seen the prow of a model man-of-war. The pedestal is ornamented with allegorical sculpture, and also contains the following inscription :— The statue is protected by iron pallisades shaped like boarding-pikes, connected by a cable. The lamp-posts at the four corners are modelled in the form of clusters of boarding-pikes issuing from cannon. Mr. Joseph Farror bequeathed a legacy of 6d. per week to keep the basement of the statue clean. Yarmouth. The famous Doric column in honour of Nelson is erected on the South Denes. The foundation-stone was laid on 15 Aug., 1817. The column is 144 ft. high, and was raised by contributions from his fellow countrymen of Norfolk." It is hollow and fluted, and springs from a massive square pedestal. At the summit is from it rises a colossal statue of Britannia, a huge globe resting upon Caryatides, and grasping a trident and holding forth a laurel wreath in the direction of Burnham Thorpe, the little Norfolk village in which Nelson was born. On the base is a long Latin inscription. The summit is gained by an interior circular staircase of 217 steps. I am informed that, in St. Nicholas Churchyard, Yarmouth, is a stone bearing the following inscription : Here is deposited the body of | Thomas STATUES AND MEMORIALS IN THE Sutton. | He creditably discharged the duties BRITISH ISLES. (See 10 S. xi. 441; xii. 51, 114, 181, 401; 11 S. i. 282; ii. 42, 381; iii. 22, 222, 421; iv. 181. 361; v. 62, 143, 481; vi. 4, 284, 343; vii. 64, 144, 175, 263, 343, 442.) SAILORS: NELSON. Birmingham.-Nelson's statue stands in the Bull Ring, facing St. Martin's Church. It is the work of Westmacott, and was of surveyor to the corporation and superintended the erection of the monument to the memory of Lord Nelson on the summit of which he departed this life | June 1st 1819 | aged 65 years. Portsmouth.-Near the western extremity of Portsdown Hill, 300 ft. above sea-level, an obelisk is placed to the memory of Nelson. It is 150 ft. high, and was erected by his brave companions the survivors of the Trafalgar fleet, who each contributed two days' pay for the purpose. On the completed until 1815. In shape it looks base is the following inscription :- To the memory of to perpetuate his triumphs The British Fleet 27 Sail of the Line, The old battleship Victory, moored in Portsmouth Harbour, is an object of neverdying interest to every British subject. On the deck is marked with an inscription the spot where Nelson fell, and in the cockpit the spot where he died. The Victory's anchor, mounted on stone pedestal, is placed on the Esplanade, Southsea Beach. On the base is inscribed Close to this spot embarked the Hero of the Nile, something like a drawn-out telescope, and base comprises an octagonal battlemented ment, containing several rooms, surmounted by a circular embattled tower of four storeys, over which again is a similar, but narrower turret of one storey." The structure is 102 ft. high, and on the apex is fixed a Greenwich time-ball. Above the entrance is carved in stone a representaThe tion of the stern of the San Josef. interior of the basement is devoted to a collection of Nelson relics and objects of interest. The summit is gained by a circular staircase. Dublin.-The design of the Nelson column in Sackville Street is something of a cross between the Trafalgar Square memorial and the Great Fire Monument, London. It consists of a massive square pedestal, from which rises a fluted pillar 120 ft. high. On the summit is a colossal statue of Nelson. Above the entablature of the column is a caged platform, to which access is gained On from the interior by a spiral staircase. the four sides of the basement are depicted Alas, for the last time to take command of the in relief scenes from the battles of the Nile, of Admiral Lord Nelson, sculptured Monuments of Wellington and Nelson, presented by Lord Frederick Fitzclarence in 1850, and placed on Southsea Common, mysteriously disappeared some years afterwards. They had been adversely criticized as possessing little or no artistic merit, and it is said that their remains received decent burial at Spithead. Edinburgh. The Nelson monument forms a conspicuous object on Calton Hill. It was founded soon after his death, but was not Copenhagen, St. Vincent, and Trafalgar. Long Itchington, Warwickshire. (To be continued.) CHARLES LAMB AND "DOG DAYS."-In Hone's Every-Day Book,' No. 29, published on Saturday, July 16th, 1825, there appeared an article entitled 'Mad Dogs,' in which the writer stated as an appalling fact that there was no cure for hydrophobia. He went on : "Preventive [sic] is better than cure, and in this case it is easy. Dogs, however useful in some situations, are wholly useless in towns. Exterminate them." This suggestion of bellum ad exterminationem called forth in the following number an amusing remonstratory reply in the shape of a letter purporting to be written by "Your faithful, though sad dog, Pompey, which has been identified by Mr. J. A. Rutter as Charles Lamb's. In his edition of the Works of Charles and Mary Lamb' Mr. Lucas prints it in the 'Appendix' to vol. i., among the Essays and Notes not certain to be Lamb's but probably his, and his comment is that there certainly is no difficulty in conceiving it to be from Lamb's pen, although there is no overwhelming internal evidence." Mr. Macdonald, on the other hand, appears to be more confident and affirms that we cannot doubt that Charles Lamb held the 66 : In the "Oxford" Lamb, Mr. Hutchinson prints it apparently without any doubt as to its authorship. To put an end to any dubiety on the subject, it may be sufficient to point out that the original manuscript in Lamb's handwriting, with a short note at the end signed "C. L.," dated 16 July, 1825 (a week before its appearance in the 'EveryDay Book '), was sold by Messrs. Sotheby's on 18 July, 1904. S. BUTTERWORTH. THE DEAF ADDER THAT STOPPETH HER EAR.-In one of his Advent sermons the late Rev. A. H. Stanton conjured his congregation not to resemble the deaf adder, which stoppeth both her ears"; adding, in one of his inimitable asides, "though, how she can do it, I never could imagine.' also by her father, Thomas Hoggins of Great Bolas, co. Salop, gentleman. The Earl Marshal's warrant is dated 4 March following. Accordingly, on 5 April, 34 George III., 1794, Sir Isaac Heard, Garter, granted to Sarah, Countess of Exeter, these arms: Gules a lobster's claw erect Or, between three herons' heads erased argent, to be borne by the Countess, and also by her said father, Thomas Hoggins, and his descendants, with the following crest, namely, On a wreath of the colours a heron's head erased argent charged with a lobster's claw gules (Grants, xviii. 304). The St. James's Chronicle for 5-7 May, 1796, states that at a court held on Ascension Day (5 May), 1796, the Countess of Exeter Queen, and the four elder Princesses were was presented by Mrs. Lecan. The King, present at this Court. W. G. D. FLETCHER, F.S.A. LEGHORN ENGLISH MERCHANTS THERE IN 1702.-I add the following names from lished by Arrigo Pleunus. The surnames the title-page of the Italian Grammar pubcapitals. Christopher Hanbury, Christopher are in small type, the Christian names in Michel, Daniel Gould, Francis Arundel, George Colling, George Lambe, Gilbert Serle, Humphry Chestman, James Harriman, James Paitfield, John Horsey, Jonathan But the problem had already been solved Basket, Richard Frome, Samuel Lambert, in the twelfth century. In the 'O.E. Samuel Thorold, Thomas Balle, Thomas Homilies,' Second Series (E.E.T.S. Publica-Chamberlayne, Thomas Dorman. And John tions, 1873, pp. 196, 198), occurs a passage Robbins, presumably of the same city, on prayer, the modern rendering of which owned a copy of the later edition on 24 runs as follows:March, 1738-9. "The adder seeketh a stone and layeth one ear thereto, and in the other ear she putteth her tail, and so stoppeth up both.” This is in order that she may not hear the voice of the charmer, and the application is given : When we draw away from the evil which assaults us, let us go to the stone, that is....our Saviour....Upon Him we lay our right ear when we understand He is true GOD....and stop up our ear against the teaching of the devil. left ear we close with our tail when we understand He became Man for us....and so we stop both ears and do not hear the devil's charming.' E. M. F. Our THE LORD OF BURLEIGH AND SARAH HOGGINS. (See 11 S. vii. 61, 83, 143, 166.) -A recent visit to the College of Arms has shown me that Lord Exeter, on 26 Feb., 1794, petitioned the Earl Marshal to issue his warrant for granting arms to his wife Sarah, Countess of Exeter, and to be borne RICHARD H. THORNTON. THATCH FIRES.-Hanging in the top of the porch of Bere Regis Church, near Wareham, are two weighty iron hooks, like half-anchors, with a stretch of, perhaps, close on 2 ft. They are each on an iron shaft, which is split for a length of about a couple of feet, opening out to a width of about 3 in. at the lower end. Across the split are the old bolts by which the hook was fastened to a pole, which must have been big and heavy a two-man power pole. I was told that the hooks- formerly hanging in the churchyard-have been kept at the church from old days, and that when a thatched cottage caught fire there was a rush for the hooks with which to tear off the burning thatch. Hanging to the hooks are heavy iron shackles, though what these were for I failed to learn. These very interesting objects are now in the dry, but rusted heavily. |