have carried out. It concludes with a statement that the disowned wife after a while asked and obtained permission to leave Richmond on a visit to her friends in the north; that she was taken ill in London on the way, and died in Marylebone parish, where Thomson, on receiving the intelligence, ordered her a funeral. Taylor says that Chalmers went on to tell him that he had examined the church register at Marylebone and found the following entry, "Died Mary Thomson, a stranger," which he regarded as a complete confirmation of the old housekeeper's story. "Thus we find," says Taylor, "that the letter from Thomson to his sister [alluding to the affectionate letter written in the last year of his life, which is inserted in Johnson's Lives of the Poets] accounting for his not having married is fallacious, and that his concealment of his early marriage was the result of pride and shame when he became acquainted with Lady Hertford, Lord Lyttelton, and all the high connexions of his latter days." What induced me to examine if possible this account was finding it copied into the Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen of Robert Chambers (Rev. T. Thomson's revised edition, vol. iii. p. 447). Now I beg to state that I have recently examined the register of Marylebone parish (which, by-the-bye, is very neatly written and easy of reference) during the whole of the time of Thomson's residence at Richmond until his death in 1748, and have found no such entry. The burial list contains the name Thomson only once, under date October 30, 1745, with simply the words "Anne Thomson" and nothing to indicate her being a stranger, the Christian name also being different from that given by Taylor. It is hard to believe that the poet's well-known letter to his sister contains such a falsehood as the story, if true, would imply (particularly as there could be no cause of concealment from her), and I for one shall certainly refuse credence to it altogether now that I have disproved its details, unless something further is brought to light on the subject. Blackheath. W. T. LYNN. P.S.-A question I find was asked about it in "N. & Q." (2nd S.) many years ago, which, however, failed to elicit any definite information. Of course it is difficult, at this distance of time, to disprove such a story absolutely; but, besides being inherently improbable, it is now evident that, as told, there is no truth in it. FIRING ROYAL SALUTES IN LONDON.-It may perhaps be well to record in the pages of "N. & Q." that in the year 1881 a great change has been made in the method of firing in St. James's Park. These royal salutes are given three times a year, on the anniversaries of Her Majesty's birthday, Accession day, and Coronation day. It has been customary to use on these occasions very small mortars called "pots," which, although insignifi cant to look at, when loaded with gunpowder tightly compressed, gave on their being fired a great noise. These "pots" were put on the ground on the northern side of the Horse Guards parade, and so little show was made that the attendance of the public was not very great. This year the authorities, taking advantage of a battery of artillery being located in the St. John's Wood barracks, have caused it to undertake the saluting duties. On each of the three anniversaries a company of artillery, with four thirteenpounders, has appeared on the Horse Guards parade, the four guns have been taken into St. James's Park, and have been fired up the lake in a westerly direction. To give more éclat to the occasion, a company of the Life Guards has joined the Artillery in forming a guard of honour and in keeping the ground. On the birthday anniversary the number of guns fired corresponds with the number of years of Her Majesty's age, whilst on the other occasions the year of the reign serves as a guide for the number of the guns. The time of firing is one o'clock precisely, and the time occupied in the celebration about half an hour. Further information on royal salutes in the parks would be interesting, and some details as to firing the guns at the Tower of London would also be acceptable. I will conclude by asking if annual royal salutes are given anywhere in London besides in St. James's Park and at the Tower. 15, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. GEO. C. Boase. A CONTEMPORARY OF BURNS.-The birth-house of Burns having been recently acquired by a body of trustees, to be henceforward by them kept in the poet died last May. She was a Mrs. Cunningproper order, I may note that an alleged friend of ham, of Malletsheugh, Mearns, and, according to the newspaper account, was aged one hundred and one years and seven months. "She was a native of Tarbolton, Ayrshire, and was a contemporary of Burns, whom she knew intimately." Glasgow. W. G. BLACK. History of Our Own Times, an inquiry has been suggested to me on which I should be glad to be informed. In the full and exhaustive list he has given of the leading men of the Victorian era, whom he has painted with a vivid and graphic touch, and generally with singular fairness, one curious omission stands conspicuous. The name of Archbishop Whately, of Dublin, never once occurs. And yet the writer cannot be ignorant of the prominent part he (the archbishop) took in many of the transactions which are described with minutest detail in these volumes. The transportation question is only one out of many of these. It is well known that Archbishop Whately was on the Committee of Inquiry. But his name is pointedly omitted, though he was one of the foremost in collecting and giving evidence. There must be a cause for this marked exclusion, the only one of the kind the book contains. Can any of your readers offer a solution? INVESTIGATOR. NELL GWYNNE AT MILL HILL.-Allow me to address an inquiry to some of your learned correspondents who may be familiar with the history of North London. I should like to obtain some information regarding the house at Mill Hill, near Hendon, which is said to have been built by Charles II. for Nell Gwynne; and also to be referred to some work or works that may bear upon the subject of her residence there. Peter Cunningham's life of poor Nelly contains nothing about her abode at Mill Hill, and I have no access to the little-known Memoirs by John Seymour, printed in 1752. MUSTAFSIR. FAIRFAX OF BARFORD.-It is shown by the list of lay subsidies for Warwickshire that a family of this name has been settled at Barford, co. Warwick, or in its neighbourhood, since 6 Edward III., and members of it have resided there until quite a recent date. Can any of your readers inform me when the Fairfaxes first came to Warwickshire, and if they were related to the Yorkshire family of that name? AN INQUIRER. "A Kirkwall correspondent writes:-It is a common custom to place coins in the foundation of a new building, but hitherto we are not aware of these being embedded in the foundation of a ship. From a discovery made the other day in one of the Orkney Islands this would appear, however, to have been a custom at one time in Spain. Seventeen years ago a Spanish schooner was wrecked at St. Catherine's, Stronsay, and embedded in the sand. During the recent spring tides, since that time the keel and stern-post have remained however, the wreck was dragged out with considerable labour, and the men are expecting to make good wages for their venture from the sale of the copper bolts and stern fittings. When the stern-post was separated from the keel a copper coin, rolled up in tarred canvas, was found carefully embedded in the joint. The coin bore the date 1818, was in excellent preservation, and had evidently been placed there when the vessel was built." W. G. BLACK. Glasgow. BUNKER'S HILL.-There is a place so called in the parish of Laughton, near Gainsburgh. I am not absolutely certain that the name is old, but my father told me that he was quite sure it bore that designation before the American Bunker's Hill became famous in history. The Hull Advertiser of Feb. 20, 1796, tells that "on Wednesday, the 3rd instant, the Duke of NorBunker's Hill, near Alnwick, into a very large thumberland's hounds run a fox to a place called furze cover." A Bunker's Hill, near Scarborough, is mentioned somewhat doubtfully in the Archaeologia, vol. xxx. p. 462. I think, but am not certain, that I have heard of other Bunker's Hills in England. Can the derivation of the name be ascertained? Bottesford Manor, Brigg. "ANECDOTAGE." EDWARD PEACOCK. Mortimer Collins, in his Thoughts in my Garden, i. 151, speaks of a certain book as one "of pleasant anecdote, produced by a man who has reached his anecdotage-to use a pun which Disraeli, the younger, has conveyed from Wilkes, the demagogue.' Where or when was the word used by Wilkes, and was he the inventor of the pun? If not, where does it first occur? XIT. THE PARISH OF IFIELD, SUSSEX.-I am desirous of gathering together so much of the past history of this parish as can be found. Will any of your readers help me? The second Lord Holles is buried in the church A LEGEND OF THE VALLEY OF ROCKS AT LYNTON.-In Black's Guide to Devon there is a sketch of a legend of the Valley of Rocks at Lynton. Messrs. Black tell me they have lost sight of the writer of that guide, and advise me to apply to you. Can you give me any assistance in finding the original legend in a more complete state? R. A. L. BARBER SURGEONS' HALL.-Until how late a period were the bodies of malefactors exhibited to the public for a fee, and what was the fee? I find a notice of it as late as 1797. C. A. WARD. SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. Will any one recommend the best book on Scandinavian mythology? C. H. THE MONOLITH IN HYDE PARK.-Can you give me any account of the large irregular monolith which stands in Hyde Park, in the hollow at the eastern end of the Serpentine ? CALIX. CAMPBELLS OF CARRADALE, ARGYLESHIRE.Will any one assist me with information as to the genealogy and history of this ancient family? C. B. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER-Can any one tell me the name of the clergyman with whom Arthur Schopenhauer, the great German philosopher, who died in 1860, lived for a time about the beginning of this century at Wimbledon, and whether the house there is known? It would be interesting to know this, as Schopenhauer, it appears, was much disgusted with his experience of an English clerical family. E. S. Ď. "FOXED" PLATES IN BOOKS.-In The Library (Macmillan & Co., 1881), the custom of tearing out the protective sheets of tissue paper allotted to plates is deprecated. My experience is that when the tissue has served its purpose, that is to say, when the plates are thoroughly dry, it tends to "fox" them. Will somebody give me his experience? TINY TIM. DOTTEREL OR DOTEREL?-All ornithological books that I have seen spell this word with double t; all the newspapers that I have seen, including the Times, spell the name of the ship which has met with such a disastrous end with one t only. The Times seems to have a propenwriting wagon, which is no doubt right, and fagot, sity towards dropping one of double letters ; which seems, like Doterel, to be a new form. E. LEATON BLENKINSOPP. AFTERNOON TEA.- When did this modern usage of afternoon or five o'clock tea first come into fashion; and did not a similar custom prevail in A. C. B. the last century? "THE MOTHER HUFF CAP."-There is an old public-house in this village bearing this sign. What is the meaning of the name? Tradition varies a good deal, some saying that it is named after a character in one of Shakespeare's plays; others after a bird; and others after a pear tree that once grew in the field opposite. DANIEL R. RATCLIFF. Great Alne, Warwickshire. NUMISMATIC.-The following is a description of a handsome silver coin, in size resembling an old five-shilling piece, but in style of design very much like the present florin :-Obv., "Victoria dei gratia britanniar. reg: f: d." Profile bust to the right crowned. Rev., tueatur unita deus anno dom MDCCCXLVII." Four shields crowned: on the first and third, England; second, Scotland; and fourth, Ireland; in the first and third quarters a rose, and in the second and fourth a thistle and a shamrock respectively; in the centre, a cross surrounded by the garter, with the legend "Honi soit qui mal y pense"; on the edge, in raised letters, decus et tutamen anno regni undecimo." Am I right in supposing this to be the crown piece which was said to have been prepared by Wyon but was never used? I should be glad to have some information about this coin, and also (assuming that my supposition is correct) to know the reason why this design was abandoned. G. F. R. B. 66 "An Appeal to the Serious and Candid Professors of Christianity on several Important Subjects. By E. Elwall. To which is added an Account of his Trial for Heresy and Blasphemy, at Stafford Assizes, before Judge Denton. The Third Edition, with Improvements, &c. Birmingham: Printed by M. Swinney, No. 21, in New Street, and sold by J. Belcher, at his Circulating Library, Edgbaston Street" (1772), small 8vo., pp. 52. A copy of this trial (of which 2,000 were issued, the expense being borne by the printer) having been lent by Sir John Pringle to James Boswell, the latter was led to make allusion to Elwall at the tea-table of Mrs. Williams : "Sir," replied Dr. Johnson, "Mr. Elwal was, I think, an ironmonger at Wolverhamption; and he had a miad to make himself famous, by being the founder of a new sect, which he wished much should be called Elwallians. He held that every thing in the Old Testament that was not typical, was to be of perpetual observance; and sohe wore a riband in the plaits of his coat, and he also wore a beard. I remember I had the honour of dining with Mr. Elwal. There was one Barter, a miller, who wrote against him; and you had the controversy between Mr. Elwal and Mr. Barter. To try to make himself distinguished, he wrote a letter to King George the Second, challenging him to dispute with him, in which he said, 'George, if you be afraid to come by yourself to dispute with a poor old man, you may bring a thousand of your black guards with you; and if you should still be afraid, you may bring a thousand of your red-guards.' The letter had something of the impudence of Junius to our present king. But the men of Wolverhampton were not so inflammable as the common council of London so Mr. Elwal failed in his scheme of making himself a man of great consequence."-Boswell's Johnson, chap. xxvi. This personage, whose name is of some importance in the annals of Unitarianism, was born at Sedgley, near Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire, where, according to his own statement, "his ancestors had lived above eleven hundred years, ever since the Saxons conquered the Britons." He carried on business as a mercer and grocer in Wolverhampton for many years, made a fortune, and built with his savings a little town, consisting of eighteen brick houses, which still (1817) bears the names of Elwall's Buildings." Among other crotchets he held that the seventh day of the week was to be observed for ever as the Sabbath, and accordingly was wont to close his shop on Saturdays and keep it open on Sundays. He wore a beard when no one else did, and hence was remembered and spoken of for years after his death as "Jew Elwall" by the lower orders of the town where he had lived. In his publications he advocated the unity of the Godhead, and thus brought upon himself the animosity of the clergy of the Establishment, who at length procured an indictment against him for blasphemy and heresy. On this he was tried before Judge Denton, in 1726, at Dr. Priestley and J. W. Croker look upon this the Stafford Assizes, when he appeared in long trial naturally from two different standpoints. flowing beard and a Turkish dress, "out of respect The former says, "It is impossible for an unprefor the Unitarian faith of the Mahometans." He judiced person to read this account of it, which is was permitted to plead in person to the indict-written with so much true simplicity, perspicuity, ment, and in the end was informed that he might leave the court a free man, but whether by a formal acquittal of a jury or as the result of some technical informality it does not clearly appear. After the trial he proceeded to London, where he became a member of the "Seventh Day Baptist Church" at Mill Yard, Goodman's Fields. He also in his later days frequented, and sometimes spoke in, the religious meetings of the Quakers, thus leading Lindsey to give him erroneously the distinctive title of the sect. He died in London at an advanced age, in or about the year 1745, leaving behind him the reputation of an honourable, charitable, and pious man. and strength of evidence, without feeling the greatest veneration for the writer, the fullest conviction of his love of the truth, and a proportionable zeal in maintaining it"; the latter, "This is rather the rambling declamation of an enthusiast than the account of a trial." Once more, on a later day, the name of Elwall turned up when Johnson and Boswell were discussing the subject of toleration. The latter threw " your countryman Elwal” into the teeth of the doctor, who replied, "My countryman, Elwal, sir, should have been put in the stocks-a proper pulpit for him and he'd have had a numerous audience. A man who preaches in the stocks will always have hearers enough." When Dr. Joseph Priestley was living at Leeds in 1772, a Quaker friend lent him an original copy A few scattered remarks upon Elwall and the of Elwall's trial. This, he says in a letter to Theo-republication of his "Trial" will be found in The philus Lindsey, was "the only one" he ever saw, Life and Correspondence of Joseph Priestley, by John Towill Rutt, London, 1832, 2 vols., 8vo.; and some account of his "sufferings and testimony" is given by the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey, A.M., in his Sequel to the Apology on Resigning the Vicarage of Catterick, 1776, 8vo. I have before me another edition of the trial, entitled : "The Triumph of Truth; being an Account of the Trial of Mr. Elwall before Judge Denton, for publishing a Book in Defence of the Unity of God; at Stafford Assizes, in the year 1726, &c. Dundee, M.DCC.XCII." 8vo. pp. 12. In the preface to this the editor, Dr. Priestley, remarks that since his first reissue he "has had the pleasure of knowing many of Mr. Elwall's acquaintance, and particularly Mr. John Martin, of Skilt's Park, between Birmingham and Alcester, who was present at the trial." This gentleman was at this time in his eighty-fourth year, and perfectly remembered the event. Every one, he said, was struck with the tall figure, the white hair, the large beard, and the flowing garment of Mr. Elwall. He spoke for an hour with great gravity, fluency, and presence of mind; and deponent further states that during the trial "he was struck with the resemblance of it to that of Paul." The manifestations of religious sentiment seem marked by the periodicity which is observed in the pathology of disease, and in accordance with this, Elwallism seems to have broken out once more at the period mentioned by your correspondent. I have also one of these reissues : "The Triumph of Truth. An Account of the Trial, &c., for Heresy and Blasphemy, said to be contained in a Book published by him in Defence of the Unity of God, &c. Liverpool, 1817." 8vo. pp. 8. This is a bare reprint of the so-called "Trial," as originally published by Elwall, without the preface of Dr. Priestley. I have finally : "Memoir of Edward Elwall, who was Tried, &c., for writing a Book in Defence of the Unity of God against the Errors of Tritheists or Trinitarians. Liverpool, Printed and sold by F. B. Wright, &c., 1817." 8vo. pp. 8. From this and the other pieces I have mentioned a pretty complete Elwallian bibliography, if it were worth the trouble, might be compiled; and further allusions to Elwall will be found in the Monthly Repository, xii. 386 and xvii. 73. 66 Tri I need hardly say that the appellations theists" and "Trinitarians," employed on the titlepage of the tract last cited as signifying religionists holding the same opinions, have been applied to those whose distinctive tenets were bitterly at variance. In illustration of this, no less than as appropriate to the subject, I transcribe the title of a scarce and curious volume before me : "A Short History of Valentinus Gentilis the Tritheist, Tryed, Condemned, and put to Death by the Protestant Reformed City and Church of Bern in Switzerland, for Asserting the Three Divine Persons of the Trinity to be [three Distinct, Eternal Spirits, &c.]. Wrote in Latin "Valentini Gentilis teterrimi hæretici impietatum ac Birmingham. Edward Elwall was a native of Sedgley, near Wolverhampton, and by occupation a mercer and grocer; he made a fair fortune, and built a considerable number of houses, which went by the name of Elwall's Buildings. He was a man of a serious and inquisitive turn of mind, and amongst other matters took up the question of the true Sabbath day, which he affirmed to be Saturday, and not Sunday. In consequence he closed his shop on Saturdays and opened it for business on the Sundays; this caused the common people to consider him a Jew, and in consequence he published the little volume which led to his trial, entitled : "A True Testimony for God and for His Sacred Law; being a Plain, Honest Defence of the Ten Commandments of God." 12mo. 1724, pp. 72. This was replied to by Chubb, and Elwall then brought out : "A True Testimony for God, and for His Sacred Law; being a Plain and Honest Defence of the Fourth Commandment of God, in answer to a Treatise entitled The Religious Observation of the Lord's Day, according to the Express Words of the Fourth Commandment.' 12mo. 1724, pp. 71. He was indicted for heresy and blasphemy at the Stafford Assizes in 1726, was permitted to plead his own defence, which he did with great firmness and presence of mind, and was acquitted. He then printed : "The Triumph of Truth; being an Account of the Trial of Mr. Elwall for Heresy and Blasphemy. London, Johnson. Price one penny." There were several editions of this little tract, amongst others one was brought out by Dr. Priestley. After his trial he published another small pamphlet, entitled Dagon fallen before the Ark of God; and some years subsequently he printed The Supernatural Incarnation of Jesus Christ proved to be False, London, 12mo. 1742, pp. 48. Being absent from my library, I am unable to give a complete list of Mr. Elwall's publications at present. The dedication of his True Testimony to "all honest, humble Men and Women" is dated "Wolverhampton, 8th day, 3rd month, 1724"; and Lindsey, in the sequel to his Apology, speaks of Elwall as being "one of the Christian People called Quakers." This, however, was not the case, |