38
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL JAN. 9, im
flower " on the wreath sent on the occasion
of Lord Beaconsneld's funeral, Her Majesty
had in mind her own great loss.
R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate.
[G. W. E. R. also thanked for reply.]
E. F. HOLT, PAINTER (10 S. x. 489). In 1907, when looking through some old prints and paintings, I came across a painting dated July, 1857. I bought it, and still possess it. On examining it I saw as follows in the corner of the painting : "Misleading. E. F. Holt. July, 1857. 3 Slone Str., S.W."
The picture shows a young girl standing by her father's side, listening to what he has to say, while the father is laughing at her. C. GRANT.
19, Blackfriars Road, S.E.
[Mr. Algernon Graves in his ' Royal Academy of Arts ' gives Holt's address as 34, Sloane Street when he exhibited at the R.A. in 1855, but as 1. Alma Road, Croydon, for the picture shown in 1857. Perhaps the address and date on our corre- spondent's picture are somewhat indistinct.!
GAINSBOROUGH'S WIFE (10 S. x. 509). Has J. G. referred to Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse's article in the ' D.N.B.,' xx. 362 ?
A. R. BAYLEY.
ISABELLA LICKBARROW (10 S. x. 403). She wrote " A Lament on the Death of H.R.H. Princess Charlotte Augusta. To which is added Alfred, a Vision," Liverpool, printed by Harris's Widow & Brothers, and published in 1818 at 2s. Qd. R. S. B.
' LOVE-A-LA-MODE ' (10 S. x. 490). This is described in ' The Poetical Register,' 1723, as having been " writ by a person of honour, and acted with applause." D. E. Baker, in his ' Biographia Dramatica,' observes that
" it might possibly be known who this writer was, by tracing back the alliances of the Colbrand family, as the first of three recommendatory copies of verses prefixed to this play is subscribed R. Col- brand, Baronet, and directed to his honoured brother the author, who by the letters signed to the preface appears to have been his brother-in-law, or half -brother. Vol. ii. p. 194.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
ROMAN LAW (10 S. x. 469). See the ' Institutes ' of L Justinian, Lib. I. cap. i. 3 : " Juris praecepta sunt hsec : honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere " ; and the references to Cicero and others given under " Suum cuique " in Biichmann's ' Gefliigelte Worte.' EDWARD BENSLY. Aberystwyth
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
The Story of a Lifetime. By Lady Priestley.
(KeganPaul&Co.)
LADY PRIESTLEY originally wrote her ' Story ' for her children only, and for five years it remained among books printed for private circulation. She has now been persuaded to issue the work for the public, and we cordially congratulate her on having done so, although we can well understand her hesitation in placing so much that must be almost sacred to her in the hands of an outside world, for this story reveals her home life with all its joys and sorrows, and that home was from first to last an abode of peace and love, the only sorrows that came to it being those caused by sickness and death.
Lady Priestley wrote this book in the solitude of her library, " a refuge in time of trouble, a retreat after a full and active life, a sanctuary." She is a daughter of Robert Chambers, and some reminis- cences of him are given. It is difficult to recognize the staid Robert Chambers as we knew him in the early sixties with the accounts he wrote to his wife of the goings-on in which he took part in December, 1847, at Fingask, in the house of his friends the Thrieplands :
" We carry on very merrily. Last night there was ' High jinks ' of the most extraordinary cha- racter. What would you think of a whole night of singing, dancing, and capering in all sorts of dresses, ending at about one in the morning with three or four of them, including Lord M., roarine out the chorus of ' It 's no use knocking at the door ' at the
top of their voices? The whole made good the
saying that men are only overgrown laddies, or, as Dryderi puts it, ' Men are but children of a larger growth.' This morning I don't know how we are all to face each other. There was a locking of the doors at last to make the ladies submit to an accolade before escaping, but they picked Lord Charles's pocket of the key of the back door and stole away."
It was shortly before this that ' The Vestiges of Creation ' " fell like a bomb among the Darwinites of the future." Great was the mystery as to its author, and many precautions were taken that his identity should not be known ; but there was no doubt about it in literary circles, and at an early period it was well known to ourselves.
Lady Priestley's first school had for its master Dr. Graham. Boys and girls were taught together, being divided by a screen " not so tall that we could not tilt ourselves up to see the boys getting; ' palmies.' " One of the boys in the school was William Playfair. Dancing lessons the young girl took at home ; the dancing master " wore tights, played the fiddle as he danced, and rejoiced in a green wig from which we could never take our eyes." About this time (January, 1839) De Quincey spent many Sundays at her father's house, but " had to rush back to get into Sanctuary before twelve o'clock, after which hour he could be arrested."
There were "delightful" Edinburgh days when "we girls gave the balls, and our mother the dinner-parties." One of these was "purely and simply a Scotch dinner" in honour of George Outram, editor of The Glasgow Herald. It is to be
