224
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAR. 20, im
If my account of Plaxton established on
fact more than another, it is that he possesse
what Thoresby called a " jocular tempe
and satirical wit (which displeaseth some
and please th many)." Though for manj
years he suffered from ill-health and a mos
painful disorder, he rarely put pen t<
paper without giving free rein to his peculia
humour, which, though usually rathe
satirical, is never unkindly. In the light o
this knowledge we can gauge much mor(
accurately the value of his tribute to Michae
Johnson, which was clearly written in
spirit of banter. A bookseller of any stand
ing would of course be a rare bird in an
out-of-the-way village like Trentham, anc
-no doubt Mr. Plaxton recognized in Michae
Johnson an honest and intelligent trades
man ; but whether his remarks " show the
high estimation in which the Father of our
great Moralist was held," so much as Mr.
Plaxton' s amused contempt for the ignorance
of the country clergy, may be questioned.
In a letter on the subject to The Gentleman's
Magazine in 1829 (part ii. p. 312), Mr.
James Broughton pleads that " we surely
re not to interpret in a strictly literal sense
the words of a jocose epistle," and suggests
that it referred to Michael Johnson's dis-
semination of literature rather than to the
stimulating effect of his own culture. But
this suggestion scarcely covers the latter
part of Mr. Plaxton's " tribute."
I find it rather difficult to explain the concluding portion of Plaxton's letter. The context would seem to suggest that " Allen " and " John Evans " were local clergymen, yet making warrants and drawing recog- nizances are rather legal tasks. It is worth noting that the Rector of Stoke-on-Trent at this date was the Rev. Thomas Allen, afterwards Archdeacon of Stafford and Dean of Chester (Rupert Simms's ' Bibliotheca Staff ordiensis ' ). Stoke is only three miles from Trentham. As a legal friend has suggested to me, Allen may have been a justice of the peace, to whom the local constables went for assistance. As to "" John Evans," it appears that a man of that name was Rector of Stockton, Salop, from 1690, whom Foster (' Alumni Oxoni- enses ' ) is inclined to identify with John, son of William Evans, of Bridgnorth, pleb. t who matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford, on 3 June, 1677, aged fifteen. Stockton is barely six miles from Donington, where Mr. Plaxton had been Rector, also from 1690. Evans might have acted as an amateur attorney, as the country clergy -often did. These explanations, though the
best I can offer, do not quite satisfy me,
and, if they cannot be substantiated, I
shall be glad of any others that accord with
the evidence. And why " our quondam
John Evans " ? ALEYN LYELL READE.
Park Corner, Blundellsands, near Liverpool.
(To be continued.)
T. L. PEACOCK'S LITERARY REMAINS.
IN spite of the renewed interest taken
of late years in the works of T. L. Peacock,
three dramatic efforts, a poem of some
length, an essay, a considerable number of
letters, and other literary matter still
remain unpublished, and for the most part
entirely unnoticed. They are to be found
in vols. 36815, 36816, 36469, and 36470
of the MSS. in the British Museum, and are
mentioned in the ' Catalogue of Additions
to the MSS., 1900-1905.' Vols. 36815 and
36816, which were purchased by the Trustees
of the Museum from Mrs. Edith Clarke in
1903, are almost exclusively filled with
Peacock's MSS. They are mostly autograph,
and in some few cases have been printed.
The letters and memorandum in vols. 36469
and 36470 form a part of the general corre-
spondence of Lord Broughton. Below is
given a classified list of Peacock's contribu-
tions to the four volumes f. (folio) standing
or one sheet, both sides of which are gener-
ally written upon.
VOL. 36815.
1. (ff. 1-9). Diary, 7 July 26 Sept., 1818. Extracts from this diary were included by Sir Henry Cole in his ' Biographical Notes ' of Peacock (pp. 16-18), published in 1875 (?), of which only ten copies were printed. These ex- Tacts were also used by Mrs. Clarke in her 'Bio- graphical Notice ' to Cole's 1875 edition of Pea-
ock's works. The remaining part of them has not yet been published.
2. a (ff. 10, 11). Letter in verse addressed to lis cousin Robert Walrond, Madrid.
6 (ff. 12-13). Letter in prose to on the
olitical state of England.
Both of these letters were published in Cole's Biographical Notes ' (pp. 4, 5).
c (ff. 14-45). Sixteen letters addressed to Ed- ard Hookham, Peacock's friend and publisher,
Aug., 1807 18 Aug., 1810. Extracts from ight of these letters are included in Cole's ' Bio- graphical Notes' (pp. 7-11), six of which were eprinted in Mrs. Clarke's ' Biographical Notice.' Tie rest are unpublished, Peacock's letter to [ookham printed in Dr. Garnett's Introduction o his 1891 edition of Peacock's ' Prose Works ' eing of a later date.
'he remainder of the volume is composed f literary fragments, but I have been unable o find references to any of these, apart om their being named in the above -men-
