480
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. x. DEC. 12, 1914.
Miraculous Draught of Fishes ' of Rubens) from
Malines, an account of this piece of work being
given by the salvager, now a fugitive in England.
There are also, we are glad to see, two plates of
photographs of subjects from Rodin's splendid gift
to the nation, now housed in the main corridor of
the Victoria and Albert Museum. The frontis-
piece illustrates a Persian miniature from the
-collection of M. Leonce Rosenberg.
WILLIAM FRANCIS TRIDEAUX
OUB correspondents will share the deep regret with which we learn the death of Col. Prideaux, -one of the oldest and most highly valued contri- butors to ' N. & Q.' Col. Prideaux had been pre- vented by the war from seeking refuge at Hyeres from the rigours of an English winter, and died on ISaturday, 5 December, at his house at St. Peter's, in Thanet.
Born in 1840, he began in 1860 a career of thirty years' distinguished service in India and in Eastern Africa by entering the Bombay army as Ensign. He was attached to Mr. Rassam's mission to King Theodore of Abyssinia in the spring of 1864, and for nearly two years was a prisoner at Magdala. He was Acting Agent and Consul-General at Zanzi- bar from 1873 to 1875, and in the Persian Gulf from 1876 to 1877. Later he returned to India, and served as Resident in Jeypore, Oodeypore, and Kashmir.
The effect of his wide experience of men and manners will not have escaped the notice of those who enjoyed his communications to ' N. & Q.' An intimate knowledge of the East was blended in him with very distinct tastes of characteristic Western quality. He was widely and accurately read; and his chosen subjects were London, eighteenth - century literature, and bibliography, though he was also a keen student of numismatics and archeology. He possessed an unusually well- furnished library, to which, as several of his notes in our columns testify, he was prompt to add items of recondite or curious interest that came in his -way. His alertness of attention, exactness, and store of miscellaneous knowledge lent vividness and interest to topics which under most people's treatment would have appeared but aria. His range may be illustrated by the fact that, Tory as he was, and admirer of the dry light of the eighteenth century, he had a hearty liking for Mr. Chesterton's paradoxes ; while his unfailing pursuit of completeness in whatever he undertook is shown in his refusal to publish the revision he had prepared of his Stevenson bibliography in view of the new material which has recently come to light and has not yet been thoroughly worked over.
It is hardly necessary to say that his learning, his readiness to give information, and his humour to which a touch now and then of soldierly im- patience did no harm will be greatly missed by ua. His literary work is largely to be sought in periodicals, but he published separately ' The Lay of the Himyarites' and ' Notes for a Bibliography of Edward FitzGerald,' as well as the Stevenson -bibliography.
FREDERICK SIMOX SXELL.
WE regret to record the death of F. S. Snell, who passed away after a long fight with ill-health on Tuesday, 3 Nov. He was the sixth son of Henry Saxon Snell (ob. 1904), a descendant of Richard Snell of Sonning, Berks (1726-1817); was educated privately at Maidenhead, whence he proceeded to University College, London, and thereafter to Durham University, where he took his M.A. in 1883. He was also a member of the Middle Temple, and a Fellow and one of the founders of the Society of Genealogists of London.
Of slight physique, but untiring energy, despite attacks of ill-health, Snell spent his earlier yearj following the profession of schoolmaster. His malady making residence abroad advisable, he had two lengthy sojourns in South Africa the later one during the Boer War, when he shouldered a rifle and took duty behind wire entanglements with the best. But his inclination was always towards antiquarian studies, and especially genealogy, so that when, in 1906, some improve- ment in his circumstances brought him home again, he decided to settle in London, to be near the main sources of information, the Record Office, Somerset House, and the British Museum, whence he could draw the material for his genea- logical collections.
His main interest lay in the yeoman families of Berkshire, and it is in his labours towards working out their descents that his best memorial will be found. The present writer often discussed with him his schemes for a comprehensive collection of data from original sources, intended to simplify the task of future inquirers into this by-way of a fascinating study. He succeeded in gathering together a very fine and well-arranged mass of facts about bygone Berkshire people, which, under his will, go to enrich the collections of the Society of Genealogists of London.
He printed little. Two or three articles in The Pedigree Register evince a well-stored mind, and give indication of the pleasure which might have been conferred by his antiquarian humour, had he desired publicity of that kind. He was an occasional contributor to ' N. & Q.' To The British Archivist he was contributing at the time of his death a valuable epitome of the Chancery Depositions before 1714. He had also in an advanced stage, for the British Record Society, a continuation of the excellent Calendar of Wills in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, covering the years 1718 to 1725, which will, it is hoped, form one of their future volumes.
In the formation of the Society of Genealogists of London he took an active part, and scarcely missed a committee meeting during the first four years of its existence. Acting as Honorary Secretary of the Committee on the Consolidated Index, he had the satisfaction of seeing the index- slips reach a total of something like a million and a quarter under his supervision and practical help. G. S
to
J. C. The " Collins " if the term is really in colloquial use is so called from the egregious Mr. Collins in ' Pride and Prejudice,' and the letter of thanks he bestowed upon the Bennet family in return for their hospitality.
