be done by night, as well as by day, provided that the air be not charged with a low cloudy atmosphere, or any other dark vapour. Although the operation is performed in public, advice is communicated with the greatest secrecy, as it can neither be heard nor understood but by the persons who assist at the machines. Nay, if he who sends or receives the advice is desirous to conceal it, even from these persons, there is a method of doing it freely. In fine, this operation is performed with great expedition; for, in a quarter of an hour may be communicated a period, containing about two hundred letters. Add to this, that the machine situated at the place A not only communicates advice to the other at the place B, but does not attempt it before being certain of being heard at B. Although so apparently precise, this description sadly lacks detail concerning the apparatus employed. Can that detail be found elsewhere? ALFRED F. ROBBINS. SIR JOHN CHANDOS.-In The Life of the Black Prince, by the Herald of Sir John Chandos,' recently edited by Miss Mildred K. Pope and Miss Eleanor C. Lodge of Oxford University, and published at the Clarendon Press (1910), it is stated in the 'Index of Proper Names,' p. 242, that Sir John Chandos was son of Thomas Chandos, Sheriff of Herefordshire." This is an error the repetition of which in this important edition of the Chandos Herald's poem increases the need for its correction. 66 The great Sir John Chandos, a knightfounder of the Order of the Garter, Viscount of St. Sauveur in Normandy, Constable of Aquitaine, and Seneschal of Poitou, was son and heir of Sir Edward Chandos, a distinguished Derbyshire knight. Sir Edward, who received rewards for his service in the war with Scotland and for other services in the early reign of Edward III., was a constant friend and companion of that king. Sir John's parentage is correctly stated in his life in the Dictionary of National Biography,' which expressly cautions the reader against the above error, and that authority is, moreover, referred to on p. 242 mentioned above. M. Fillon, who is also there cited as an authority, and some other writers had earlier made the mistake of confusing this Sir John Chandos, the last of the knightly house of Chandos of Derbyshire, with another Sir John Chandos, son of the above Sir Thomas Chandos, and last of the male line of the baronial house of Chandos of Herefordshire and Shropshire. The latter Sir John died within the years 1428-30 (the 'D.N.B.' says 10 Dec., 1428) without issue, some sixty years after the death of his renowned kinsman, his sister's descendants becoming, in the eighteenth century, Dukes of Chandos. The knightly family of Chandos of Derbyshire, sprung from the baronial house, and seated in the county of Derby for five generations, is now represented by ChandosPole of Radbourne, through the marriage in the reign of Richard II. of Peter de la Pole and Elizabeth, niece and eventual sole heiress of Sir John Chandos of Radbourne, the famous warrior. The above Sir Thomas Chandos was in the King's division at Crecy, while his contemporary Sir John Chandos of the Derbyshire branch of the family was in attendance upon, and fighting beside, the youthful Prince of Wales, then only sixteen years old. R. E. E. CHAMBERS. Pill House, Bishop's Tawton, Barnstaple. JAMES FORSYTH.-The article in the 'D.N.B.' on this Indian traveller needs some corrections. some Capt. Forsyth joined the Bengal Army (not the Civil Service) in February, 1857, after receiving a university education not in England, but in Scotland. After Assistant Conservator, and acting Conseryears of military service he was appointed vator of Forests in the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories. He was subsequently transferred to the Central Provinces Commission, and after a time was nominated Settlement Nimár. Officer, and then Deputy Commissioner of He joined the Bengal Staff Corps in 1861, and was promoted to the rank of captain 20 February, 1869. His book 'The contained accounts of some, but by no means all, of his Highlands of Central India' travels and explorations in the Central Provinces. R. E. B. "ELZE "ALREADY.-' Glints o' Glengonnar,' by Christina Fraser, recently published, consists of a series of sketches illustrating the life of dwellers in a remote district of Upper Clydesdale. The writer manifestly knows her people well, and perhaps the most fully presented character in her group is "Easie,' the local shopkeeper, an incomer who has permanently retained certain impressions received in her native parish. Among these is the use of some words which are unfamiliar to her youthful auditors :— "Easie had twae words she used often, 'elze ' and efterhin.' If a baker or cadger had come suner than she expected, she wad say, 'Is that you, elze? I didna think it was that time o' day': quick, she wad say, or, if we had been sent an erran' an' cam' back Are ye back, elze? Juist rin like a whittret.' If it was something she wad do later, she wad say she wad do't efterhin." -66 66 66 Efterhin " or "efterhend," for afterwards, and "whittret" for weasel, are still in fairly general use throughout the Lowlands; ¡but elze" in the sense of already is less commonly known. Indeed, it is questionable if many who are familiar with the native speech ever heard it, to say nothing of including it in their vocabulary. It is an interesting survival of the form ellis or els," which Jamieson in the Scottish Dictionary' illustrates by quotations from Barbour, Gavin Douglas, Sir Egeir,' and Archbishop Hamilton's Catechisme' of 1551. That it signifies already," and is distinct from the other ellis or elles," which means else or otherwise, there seems to be no doubt whatever. All Jamieson's examples support the distinction. Mr. Small in his edition of Gavin Douglas either ignored or discredited this specific meaning, for he gives it no place in his glossary. Douglas uses the word in his version of 'Eneid' iv. 135, where the poet describes Dido's waiting hunter : 66 Hir fers steid stude stamping, reddy ellis, Rungeand the fomy goldin bitt jingling. 66 It might, of course, be suggested that the word in this instance means otherwise," or apart from his rider"; but it seems better to take it in the sense of the Latin jam, conveniently rendered in English as already." when he hears them, and then he strenuously proceeds as follows:— For quhat compair betuix midday and nycht, Or quhat compare betuix myrknes and lycht, Or quhat compare is betuix blak and quhyte, Far gretar diference betuix my blunt endyte And thi scharp sugurat sang Virgiliane, Sa wyslie wrocht with neuir ane word in vane, My waverand wit, my cunnyng feble at all, My mynd mysty, thir ma nocht myss ane fall. All this and more shows the exponent's ostensible attitude, and gives warrant for his later statement, "Ellis [i.e. already] haue I said." Jamieson's commentary on “Ellis, already," runs thus: LONGFELLOW ON DUFRESNY.-In Longfellow's 'Hyperion' occurs the following "After all,' said Flemming, with a sigh, 'poverty is not a crime.' But something said when he married his laundress, because he worse,' interrupted the Baron; 'as Dufresny could not pay her bill. He was the author, as you know, of the opera Lot,' at whose representation the great pun was made. I say the great As pun, as we say the great Tun of Heidelberg. one of the performers was singing the line, L'amour a vaincu Loth' (vingt culottes), a voice from the pit cried out Qu'il en donne une à l'auteur !' Gentleman's Magazine (March, 1895) of my A few days after the publication in The article 'Molière on the Stage,' describing the numerous plays founded on incidents of the great French dramatist's life, I received a letter from a former contributor to ' N. & Q.,' the late Dr. Paul Q. Karkeek of Torquay, asking me for information about Dufresny's opera. He said he had been trying for years to obtain a copy of the work mentioned by Longfellow, but had not been successful. I had never heard of such a work, and it is certainly not in any of the editions of Dufresny's collected plays. The only play of Dufresny's bearing some resemblance to the title of 'Lot,' I could suggest, was 'Le Lot supposé; ou, La Coquette de Village'; but it is a comedy, and there are no songs of any kind in it. There is no mention of a play or opera called 'Lot' in the 'Anecdotes dramatiques (contenant le Titre de toutes nos Pièces de Théâtre, depuis l'origine des Spectacles en France),' the best compilation Hampshire. I should like to know where of the kind published in the eighteenth she lived in that county. From documents century; and it has no place among the in Somerset House I find that she died at operas in Félix Clément's Dictionnaire des Great Cumberland Street on 15 December, Opéras,' issued near the end of the nine- 1840. It is known that Baron Gerard teenth century. painted two portraits of her in 1829 and 1830. I much wish to trace these portraits, and any other portrait of her, if such exists. She was born in St. Helens, Isle of Wight, the year being variously stated as 1785, 1790, and 1792. Letters of administration were granted in February, 1843, to James Daw or Dawes of St. Helen's, Isle of Wight, Mary Ann Clark of 5, Hyde Park Square, and Charlotte Thanaron, resident in France, her brother and sisters, who inherited most of her great wealth. Is any. thing known of them or their descendants? In October of the same year I went over to Paris for a few days, and met the late M. Victorien Sardou at the Café Tortoni, on the Boulevard des Italiens, after he had been attending a rehearsal of a new play at one of the theatres close by. In the course of our conversation I mentioned to him the passage in Longfellow's 'Hyperion.' M. Sardou smiled, and said he had been asked the same question by many American visitors who had been introduced to him, and he had received several letters on the subject from unknown admirers in the United States. He had come to the conclusion that it was one of the few literary sins the charming American poet would have to answer for at the Day of Judgment. Perhaps some reader of N. & Q.' can give information about a work of Dufresny which has eluded the search of Dr. Karkeek, M. Sardou, and myself. It is true that Dufresny married as his second wife a laundress, and Le Sage has made this one of the incidents of his novel 'Le Diable Boiteux.' Dufresny, however, was by no means the literary martyr one would suppose on reading Longfellow's Hyperion." As the Abbé de Castres said: 'Il avoit deux passions qui dévoroinent tout, l'amour de la table et celui des femmes." ANDREW DE TERNANT. 25, Speenham Road, Brixton, S.W. Queries. WE must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct. SOPHIE DAWes, Baronne DE FEUCHÈRES -Will some correspondent refer me to the fullest account of the life of this notorious person before she met the Duc de Bourbon, and after his death when she returned to England? I already have a full account of her extraordinary life in France, and I am most anxious to get more particulars of her English career, parentage, childhood, and her life in Hants and in London on her return to England. The 'D.N.B.' states that she died in Hyde Park Square, 2 January, 1841, and that she had also a house in JOHN LANE. MISS WYKEHAM, BARONESS WENMAN.Can any reader direct my attention to the best account of Miss Wykeham, to whom the Duke of Clarence is said to have proposed so many times ? Sophia Elizabeth was the only child of William Richard Wykeham of Swalcliffe. She inherited from her grandmother (Hon. Sophia Wenman) all Lord Wenman's estates in Oxfordshire, including Thame Park. The Duke of Clarence-afterwards William IV.—was reported to have proposed to her in 1818. He subsequently created her Baroness Wenman, 3 June, 1834. She died unmarried 9 August, 1870. I should also like to know who her representatives are, and if there is any portrait of her in existence; one would like to see the portrait of the lady who so persistently refused to be Queen of England. JOHN LANE. 66 Vigo Street, W. ALDERMAN WILCOX. Who was this? Mr. Seccombe in his article on Titus Oates in Dict. Nat. Biog.' (xli. 300) writes of a dinner given by Alderman Wilcox in the city in the summer of 1680," at which Oates and Tonge "disputed their respective claims to the proprietorship of the plot." It is certain that no person named Wilcox has ever been elected an Alderman of London, at any rate since the end of the thirteenth century, nor is such a name preserved amongst those returned to the Court of Aldermen by the wards for the Court's final choice. I imagine the referred person 66 to must have been the John Wilcox, brewer," elected Sheriff of London on 28 July, 1673, who "fined off" immediately, TEESDALE LEGION.-Can any of your readers assist me to find particulars about a volunteer corps called the Teesdale Legion? It existed in the south of co. Durham some time during the latter part of the eighteenth century or the first few years of the nineteenth. W. L. VANE. Thornfield, Darlington. THACKERAY AND PUGILISM.-The article on Pugilism' in Chambers's Encyclopædia,' 1901, vol. viii. p. 486, says: Thackeray....devoted one of his 'Roundabout Papers' to the fight between Sayers and Heenan." Where did this originally appear ? Has it been reprinted? Also, in Temple Bar for January, 1864, under the heading of The Millers and their Men' appeared a most racily - written account of the fight between Heenan and Tom King, signed "P." I should be glad to know the author's name, and if he wrote any more 'Idylls of the Ring.' H. P. in his Thackeray: a Biography (Lane, 1909). [See Mr. Lewis Melville's useful' Bibliography' The account desired is No. 1062 in the list: "Roundabout Papers. V. On Some Late Great Victories. With an Illustration. Cornhill Magazine, June, 1860; vol. i. pp. 755–60."] THE STAGE.-About AND THACKERAY twenty years ago Mr. Chas. P. Johnson said in The Athenæum that he had acquired a CAPT. WITHAM AND THE SIEGE OF GIBRAL- playbill of a piece called 'Jeames, the RailTAR. - In England's Artillerymen,' by road Footman of Berkeley Square,' which J. A. Browne, published in 1865, the follow-was produced at the Theatre Royal, Liver, ing passage occurs in reference to the sortie Church Street (Liverpool), 13 July, 1846. of the garrison in November, 1781, during the I shall be glad if any one will put me in great siege of Gibraltar :communication with Mr. Johnson if he is still alive. S. J. ADAIR FITZ-GERALD. 8, Lancaster Road, Bowes Park, N. : "Two Spanish Officers were taken prisoners. One, a Lieutenant, was taken in the middle of the battery by Capt. Witham, of the Royal Artillery, who commanded the detachment of the Corps out upon this service. The Spanish Officer was armed with a drawn sword, when Capt. Witham, with a fire-brand only in his hand, seized him by the sword arm, and in Spanish demanded the key of the magazine of that battery. The Lieutenant, Don Vincente Friza, replied, Todo es Bombas (the whole is a magazine), and gave up his sword." Can any one give the authority for this story? The author of the book does not remember from what source he obtained it. The present representatives of the Witham family possess a seal with the motto "Todo es Bombas " upon it, which confirms the existence of the story. Ancell and Spilsbury refer to the incident, but no one else, as far as I know, mentions the "Todo es bombas " part of the story. Bomba means a shell." Dykes Hall, Sheffield. J. H. LESLIE. THOMAS JAMES THACKERAY.-This rather versatile writer and adapter of plays seems to have "flourished" between 1826 and 1854. Two of his plays are 'The Barber Baron,' from the French (through the German), Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 8 September, 1828, and The Force of Nature,' same theatre, 4 August, 1830. He also wrote and lectured about rifle shooting. The 'D.N.B.' is silent as to his career. Was he in any way related to W. M. Thackeray? S. J. A. F. 'OR. GOLDSMITH, B.A."-I have before me a copy of The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, to which are added an Essay upon his Language,' &c. (by T. Tyrwhitt), published in 4 vols., small 8vo, by T. Payne, London, 1775. The title-pages of vols. i. and ii. respectively bear the following inscriptions in a contemporary clerkly hand (certainly not that of the author of The Vicar of Wakefield'): vol. i., the Gift of Or Goldsmith to Edw. Bratt"; vol. ii., "The Gift of O. Goldsmith, B.A., to Mr Edward Bratt." As Dr. Oliver Goldsmith died in April, 1774, it seems difficult to identify him with "O. Goldsmith, B.A."; but if not, who was the donor, and who was his friend Edward Bratt? It has occurred to me that the first two volumes may have been published before the other two, early in 1774, but, it being foreseen that the work could not be completed until 1775, they were postdated. As the two inscriptions do not exactly correspond, the two volumes were not probably issued together. If this hypothesis be correct, the books may have been sent, and inscribed by the publisher, at the donor's request. Unfortunately, no entry of this edition of Chaucer is to be found in the Register of the Stationers' Company, so the actual date of publication cannot be ascertained; but the work was noticed in Gent. Mag. for March, 1775. Can any of your readers help me to clear up these points? Reading. J. S. ATTWOOD. MONTAGU GERRARD DRAKE was admitted on the foundation at Westminster School in 1725, and died young. He is described in the parentela of that year as the son of William Drake, "Abberburiæ,' co. Oxford. I should be glad to obtain further particulars of his parentage, and the date of his death. G. F. R. B. RICHARD HEYLIN was elected from Westminster School to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1644. I should be glad to ascertain anything about him. In the last edition of Welch's Alumni Westmonasterienses' he is erroneously identified with Richard Heylin, Canon of Christ Church, who died 26 April, 1669, aged 72. G. F. R. B. WILLIAM JOSEPH LOCKWOOD is stated in 'Burke's Landed Gentry' to have been "shot blind by the mob at Westminster School," where he was admitted 1 Feb., 1773. Where can any account of this occurrence be found? I should be glad also to obtain the respective dates of his birth and death. G. F. R. B. THOMAS CORYAT AND WESTMINSTER SCHOOL.-What ground has Mr. John W. Cousin for saying in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature' ("Everyman's Library," 1910) that Coryat (15771617) was educated at Westminster and Oxford? The 'D.N.B.' and the Publishers' Note' to Coryat's Crudities ' (MacLehose & Son, 1905) both state that he entered Gloucester Hall, Oxford, in 1596, but are silent as to his earlier education. URLLAD. xi. 384; xii. 74, 154.)-Mr. F. W. Cornish TEETOTAL": EARLY USE. (See 8 S. writes in his English Church in the Nineteenth Century' (1910: at II. v. 97):-- "In February, 1830, the 'Bradford Society for Promoting Temperance,' the first society to which the name Teetotal' (i.e. 'total') was given, was founded by Henry Forbes." Can information be given as to when Dicky HACKNEY AND TOM HOOD.-In a very amusing letter of Tom Hood's (quoted in Walter Jerrold's biography), the poet describes his adventures in Hackney. He had been invited to a ball, and just when (as he humorously parodies Sir Walter, I think) Hackney had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry all bright, And there were well-dressed women and brave men, a chimneystack was blown down and hurled through the house, which stood close to a private asylum. Can any one identify the persons and the locality for us? Who was proprietor of the madhouse ? M. L. R. BRESLAR. Percy House, South Hackney. MISS PASTRANA.-In a foreign dealer's recent catalogue I find this once famous lady described as "Miss Julia Pastrana, the well-known bearded Mexican danseuse. Middle of last century.' Were there two ladies of that name and fame ? I distinctly remember having seen as a small boy an exceedingly ugly, monkey-like creature, but she performed in a circus on a regulation "paste-board" strapped on the back of the usual plump grey cob, and jumped through hoops, over ribbons, &c. L. L. K. LADY ELIZABETH PRESTON, FIRST DUCHESS OF ORMONDE.-I should be grateful for information of any existing portrait of this lady, who is frequently mentioned by |