NIGGER MINSTRELSY. The was admitted to Westminster School in Evening WILLIAM GEORGE AUGUSTUS FITZHARDStandard, under this heading in its issue ING, son of Augustus Fitzharding of London, of Dec. 14 last, states that the late Mr. Gladstone "became proficient on the banjo, and used to sing Darktown Races' with its Doo-da-doo-da' refrain." Surely the name of the song was 'Camptown Races,' or something similar? I remember it well, nearly 60 years ago, and do not remember the suggested title. I think the song commenced Camptown race-course, three miles long (or Camdown ?) Some weeks before the appearance of the note in the above newspaper I had inquired as to the song, something having caused it to haunt me. HERBERT SOUTHAM. DESCENDANTS OF RICHARD PENDERELL. John Field of Lambeth Marsh (1743-1790) to their coat of arms. was Can anyone tell me where to find an acTHE MARRYING MAN.'-I recently picked count of the Penderell family, so that I can up on a Farringdon Street twopenny barrow see whether the Burrows tradition a volume The Marrying Man: A Comedy correct? G. A. ANDERSON. in Three Acts,' by the author of Cousin Geoffrey' (.e., Mrs. Gordon Smythies): HISTORICAL COPPER-PLATES.I have just printed for private circulation (and not in bought a set of 12 copper-plates engraved the British Museum). It was an adaptation by J. Harris, an engraver who worked at from her novel of the same name, published the end of the seventeenth and beginning of in 1841 and dedicated to Theodore Hook. the eighteenth century. They appear to Was it ever performed ? It is not in be copies of old illuminated pictures. Can Clarence's bibliography, The Stage Cyclo- any reader tell me if they were ever published pædia.' J. M. BULLOCH. in a book and, if so, what was its title ? Size about 8 by 10 inches. The plates are as under : 37, Bedford Square, W.C.1. COL. GORDON, R.E., IN THE CRIMEA.-In a Series of Historical Portraits photographed in the Crimea, 1855,' by Roger Fenton (it is not in the British Museum), there is said to be a portrait of "Col. Gordon, R.E." Is this Major-General Edward Charles Acheson Gordon, R.E. (1827-1909), and what is the size of the portrait ? J. M. BULLOCH. 37, Bedford Square, W.C.1. 66 “EUCEPHUS ' AS A CHRISTIAN NAME.I have just interviewed a man of sixtyseven who gives his full Christian name as above. He produced his marriage certificate of forty years ago (from a register office in Hull), and in that the name is so spelt. Is this a real name or a corruption (e.g., of Josephus")? My man tells me that he was left an orphan when he was seven or eight years old, and that he had no friends," and had to do for himself." It seems as though he had to do for himself" even in the matter of a Christian name. EPITAPH IN TETBURY CHURCH, GLOS.Over one of the inner doors of this church is a large marble tablet with this inscription (it is quoted from memory, but is substantially accurate) :— COLONEL MONTRESOR OF BELMONT, CO. KENT.-Colonel Montresor gave the bells to Throwley Church, Kent, in 1781, where he intended to be buried. He died, however, in Maidstone Gaol and was buried apparently in Maidstone Church, June 9, 1799. The In this vault are interred several Saunderses Kentish Gazette states he was then "proved of this parish. Particulars the last day will disclose. Amen. innocent," but does not say with what crime or misdemeanour he had been charged. What was his supposed offence? Belmont was sold and the sheriff was in possession for 1800 and 1801. Why? PERCY HULBURD. [The 'D.N.B.' states that he died about 1788.] USE OF "AT" OR "IN" WITH PLACENAMES.-What governs the preposition "in" or "at" in reference to a city or town? We always say "in London," never "at London." We say at Leamington," not "in Leamington.' Where is the distinc tion ? 66 RAVEN. Is any story attached to this unusual epitaph ? M. N. O. £1,000 IN 1653: PRESENT-DAY EQUIVALENT.-Sir Marmaduke Constable had his being put to sale, he was forced to purchase whole estate sequestered for ten years, which, it of the Commonwealth for the sum of £1,000, April, 1653, 5 Car. II. What would be to-day's value ? CLIFFORD C. WOOLLARD. 68, St. Michaels Road, Aldershot, Hants. AUTHOR WANTED.-Whence comes the following sentence, which appeared in the "In Memoriam" list, The Times, Feb. 6: 66 Sorrow is, then, a part of love, and love does not seek to throw it off.” Replies. DE KEMPELEN'S AUTOMATON CHESS-PLAYER. (12 S. x. 72, 113, 155.) A reprint was issued by M. A. Richardson, VON KEMPELEN's chess-player has been often Newcastle, in 1846. I cannot find either the original or the reprint in the British Museum catalogue and suspect that the reference is wrong. L. L. K. DEVONSHIRE MSS.-I should feel obliged to any correspondent who could point out the present whereabouts of the original manuscripts of Risdon's History of Devon, Does the name derive from Berthold or Bartholomew? Surely it can hardly be a diminutive of "Brito." Solution of the origin of the name will be appreciated. INA CRISTAL. described, with details of its working. Briefly, it depended on the skill of an expert chessplayer concealed partly in the figure and partly in the large box on which the figure was seated. After its invention in 1769 it had 1838, when it was exhibited in public for the a great career in various ownerships until last time in Philadelphia, and in 1854 was Chinese Museum of that city. An account destroyed in the fire which demolished the of the figure will be found in Bogue's Boy's Own Book,' 1855, but the automaton possesses little interest now, as it has been entirely superseded by later and cleverer inventions. The figure which MR. ACKERMANN saw in South Africa 35 years ago, and which he so accurately remembers, was, no doubt, a copy of Mr. J. N. Maskelyne's whist-player Psycho," and it is quite likely that I have handled some parts of this identical figure. About 1880 I numbered amongst my friends a professional conjuror, Mr. Edward Le Mare of Manchester, who had a genius for mechanical construction and who was one of the very few makers of automata and apparatus for professional illusionists. Maskelyne's ingeniously conceived whist-player was first shown at the Egyptian Hall in 1875, and, as is usually the case, imitations of it began to appear after a few years had elapsed. I saw the original figure as a member of the public and afterwards handled the beautiful mechanism of the hand and arm of a similar figure that was being made in my friend's workshop for dispatch to the Cape. The full mechanical details would take too much space to describe here. Suffice to say it was really a mechanical device containing no human figure. A spring-driven clockwork provided the motive power. Of two separate trains of mechanism, the first worked the sweep of the hand and head sideways through a quarter circle, and the second train actuated, by a single cord, the closing of the thumb so as to grip one of the cards arranged in the quadrant spoken of by MR. ACKERMANN, and, by still further tension on the cord, to raise the hand, wrist and fore-arm into such a position as showed the face of the card to the audience. The secret of the control of the apparatus lay in the fact that behind the stage an air-pump was used to raise or lower the pressure of air in a pipe which passed under the stage and up one leg of the lower wooden base. The green baize covering of this base allowed the variations of pressure to be conveyed to the inside of the upright glass cylinder and to the mechanism inside the figure where, I believe, a simple piston arrangement was raised or lowered by the high or low pressure, and switched the driving power of the clockwork on to either of the trains of gearing mentioned above, or stopped midway, when no motion took place. The man who played "Psycho's" cards controlled the air-pump unseen. The cards of the other players could be overlooked from behind the curtains at the sides of the stage, so that the chances of winning were well in favour of " Psycho.' Full details of both Kempelen's and Maskelyne's machines, with illustrations of the mechanism, are given in 'The Old and New Magic," by Mr. Henry Ridgeley Evans, published by the Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906, and probably obtainable from Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench and Co., London. ARTHUR BOWES. A full account and satisfactory explanation (presumably correct) of the automaton and its inventor, Wolffgang de Kempelen, a Hungarian, appears in a book by the wellknown chess writer, George Walker, entitled Chess and Chess-Players' (1850); the article is headed 'The Chess Automaton,' and is the first in the book, occupying 37 pages. It was suggested to the author by finding on his shelves a thick volume containing six or more tracts on the subject. The important parts are too lengthy to quote in full, but the following notes may be given. The invention appeared first at Vienna in 1770. Mr. Walker, in English, first quotes from a work by M. Windisch, Briefe über den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen,' &c. (Basle, 1783), giving a full description of the appearance of the automaton : The chest to which it is fixed is three feet and a half long, two feet wide, and two feet and a half high; and is, by means of the aforesaid castors, moved with facility from place to place. Behind this chest is seen a figure the size of life, dressed in the Turkish costume, seated upon a wooden chair fastened to the body of the Automaton, and which of course moves with it, when rolled about the apartment. The figure leans its right arm on the table, holding a long Turkish pipe in his to smoke. It plays with its left hand; which left hand, in the attitude of a person who ceases M. de Kempelen informed me was an oversight on his part. When the Turk is about to play, M. de Kempelen, as pipe-bearer, takes the pipe from his hand. Before the Automaton is a chess-board, screwed on the table, or upper surface of the chest, on which the eyes of the figure appear to be constantly fixed. Then follows a description of the paraphernalia accompanying the figure and clockwork in the chest, and the doors to be opened to exhibit these, before playing, and a description of how the figure moves his hands and head while playing. De Kempelen was a modest man and did not at first care for the notoriety of his exhibit it, actually took it partly to pieces toy," and, pestered from all quarters to and stored it, giving out that it was damaged. But it was brought to light again by request when the Grand Duke Paul of Russia visited the Emperor Joseph II. at Vienna. De Kempelen now decided to reap the financial harvest promised by his invention, and it went to Paris in 1783 and was an instant success; from Paris it proceeded to England. In 1785, Philip Thicknesse (1719-1792-this seems to have appeared anonymously in 1784, see 'D.N.B.') printed a pamphlet denouncing the chess-player as a hoax, and touching perilously near to the secret. After this the inventor was invited to go to Berlin; eager to solve the mystery, Frederick the Great purchased the figure, and when he held the clue, banished it to an obscure lumber room,' ," where it remained for 30 years, until the advent of Napoleon, when it once more set out on its travels and 66 and country round it. Hence the modern Indian province of Sindh or Sind. There is a well-known phonological law by which the sibilant breathing s becomes transferred lower down the mouth to the breathing h. Hence very long ago the name Sind became Hind to the people west of modern India, who still say Hind for Sind, e.g., Persians and Arabs. Long ago, toovery long ago the Greeks, with their love of fitting foreign words to their own tongue, adopted 'Ivdos for the river, and I a for the country and land, with 'Ivdo for the people. These the Romans transformed again into "Indus,' "India," without even the very light breathing indicated by the Greek spelling. There was a clear dropping of h here, as the older form Hind is still in common use, as is seen in the term Qaisar-i-Hind (Cæsar of Hind) for the title of the King of England as Emperor of India; while in poetical parlance Ind is still a common term. We still became the property of M. Maelzel, who sold the key to Prince Eugene for 30,000 francs, repurchasing it for the interest on the money! Maelzel eventually arrived in London in 1819. Games played by the figure were taken down and published in a small volume by Mr. Hunneman in 1820. During this final visit to England several essays on the subject appeared, one by an Oxford graduate, Observations on the Automaton Chess-Player' (1819), giving a full description of the figure and its mode of play. Robert Willis of Cambridge (18001875, see D.N.B.') brought out an interesting work on the subject in 1821, 'An Attempt to Analyse the Automaton ChessPlayer,' and this proves that a man might be concealed in the contrivance. Dr. Brewster copied this account in his work on natural magic. Walker now tells us that "the man who really played the ChessAutomaton was concealed in the chest," and describes how this could be so that he could move about while the works were being ex-use the aspirated form in the very common hibited with apparent candour, and how he terms Hindostan, Hindostani. controlled the movements of the figure after the moves of the game had been indicated on the underside of the chess-board, but the ingenious details must be perused in Mr. Walker's book, as they occupy some space. Mouret, a great chess-player, was the chief "jack-in-the-box" for Maelzel, and they appeared in Spring Gardens and St. James's Street. The automaton travelled Europe and eventually arrived in America, The last Mr. Walker tells us of it is that "for some years the figure has lain in a state of inglorious repose in a warehouse at New Orleans," so the note by L. L. K. in N. & Q' that it perished in a conflagration is of interest; this may have occurred through the candle that was used when exhibiting the interior, or that used by the enclosed player, after taking up his final position. 66 over RUSSELL MARKLAND. Sind, Hind and India, we are unconsciously In fact, by the ordinary use of the forms still disclosing the history of “ India” in our everyday speech. There is yet another very interesting form, Scinde, which was common until quite lately, and is still sometimes seen as the name of the province we now write as Sind. This was due to the general European influence, arising ultimately out of old Latin usage, which produced such words as scimitar, scion, scent and many others. I have often wondered whether educated people grasp that when our dear friends Tommy and his wife talk about "Hindia," they are etymologically right, as they are, by the way, when, in discussing the late war, they talk about "Wypers." The use of the word "India" for that portion only of the whole country which was THE ENGLISH H": CELTIC, LATIN AND known to the speaker or writer has been GERMAN INFLUENCES (12 S. x. 32, 116).—'common through all history from the days of Dropping the h-origin of India." The the Persians, Greeks and Romans to those Sanskrit word for the ocean, wide estuary, of the Portuguese, English and other Eurogreat river, was (and is) Sindhu; root Syand, peans, to say nothing of the Mughals or fluidity, seen in Syundu, the name of one of Mongols. R. C. TEMPLE. 66 the three principal rivers in Kashmir, still i called by ordinary Indians and Europeans ERGHUM (12 S. 9, 55, 99, 136).-I now the Sindh. In contemporary vernacular find that Ralph de Urgham occurs in speech, the Sanskrit Sindhu became Sindh | Hardy's 'Le Neve' as prebendary of Decem and Sind, and was applied specially to the Librarum in Lincoln some time between great western river of Northern India, known 1306 and 1360." J. T. F. to us now as the Indus, and also to the delta Winterton, Lines. 66 66 Capt. Trotter, in mentioning the memorial in Bunnoo church, adds a footnote (p. 316), "On this memorial Nicholson's age is rightly given as 34, not as the tombstone gives it as 35." In the Dictionary of Indian Biograph (C. E. Buckland, C.I.E.) the dates of birth and death are given, 1821-1857, the place of birth not being mentioned. W. M. CLAY. INFERENCE AS TO DATE OF BIRTH (12 S. x. 127).—Immediately after reading FAMA's helpful directions I took a case, the working out of which exemplifies one of the pitfalls mentioned by him, and perhaps other points of interest. George Baker was admitted on the foundation at Eton, March 20, 1698, æt. 10. He died, according to the most expanded notice, on 28 January, 1772, in the eighty-sixth year of his age." But the notices in The Gentleman's and London Maga- Alverstoke, Hants. zines of 1772 have" at. 85." To take 10" and "aged 85" results in a contradiction, producing different latest possible (12 S. x. 129).—I have always taken an dates. I then took "aged 10" and " aged interest in this subject and herewith I 84," and found that he was born between venture to enclose a list of dummy books I made many years ago for a door in my own library. 66 aged March 21, 1687, and Jan. 28, 1688. This confirms the parish register, which records his baptism on July 17, 1687. I say confirms because the years in parish registers are not seldom misplaced, and in the case of two of George Baker's brothers, while Eton and Oxford agree, the parish register makes them each two years older. A. T. M. GENERAL NICHOLSON'S BIRTHPLACE (12 S. x. 109, 158). There is in the 'Life of John Nicholson,' by Capt. Lionel J. Trotter (2nd ed., 1898), p. 4, a distinct statement that the eldest boy of Dr. Nicholson's family was born as Lisburn, where his wife's mother, Mrs. Hogg, lived; and that he was born on Dec. 11, 1822. In a footnote Capt. Trotter, referring to Kaye's Lives of Indian Officers,' vol. ii., says: "Kaye has given 1821 as the year of John's birth: this is a manifest error, for John's eldest sister was born in October of that year." There is also much information bearing on the date of Nicholson's birth in 'Memorials of the Life of Sir Herbert Edwardes,' by Lady Edwardes (1863); valuable because he was a contemporary in years and Indian service, and an intimate friend of Sir John Nicholson; and also because he is responsible for the inscriptions on the tomb of Nicholson at Delhi, and on the tablets in the church at Bunnoo (western border of the Punjab) and in the parish church at Lisburn, Co. Antrim, Ireland, where Nicholson's mother had lived "ever since she had been widow." a PSEUDO-TITLES FOR 'DUMMY " Books petition which was then going on in Truth. 1. 'A New England Cat,' by M. E. W. 2. 3. The Rightful Heir: a Story of the Whigs.' 6. The Strange Case of Ann Chovies,' by the Editor of Rowe on Toast. 7. The Bloodhounds of Bodega; or Whines from the Wood.' 8. 'Lost in the Wash,' by the author of ' Bachelors' Buttons.' 9. On a Japanese Bike,' by the author of Cycle of Cathay.' 10. Contents of a Library,' Wood. Appearances are Deceitful.' (Illustrated.) Cover Hunting,' by M. T. Ness. A Bolt from the Blue ; or the Deserting 16. Master Wouldn't,' by Mrs. Wood. Midnight Musings on the Itchen': sequel to A Night at Margate.' 19. Lays Ancient and Modern ; Eggs for a Shilling.' a or Thirteen 20. Deceived,' by Ascham Dawe. |
