132
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io th s. in. FEB. is, 1905.
Archdeacon of Surrey. Dr. Thackeray's
youngest son was William Makepeace
Thackeray, who joined the Bengal Civil
Service in 1766, and became the grandfather
of the novelist. This branch of the family
forms the subject of Sir William Hunter's
delightful book 'The Thackerays in India.'
Mr. Thomas James Thackeray was born at
Madras, 5 September, 1796, and baptized
there on 13 October. He was educated at
Eton, and admitted pensioner of St. John's
College, Cambridge, 15 October, 1814. He
took the degree of M.B. in 1820, and was a
captain in the 2nd Somerset Militia from
1824 to 1855. He was the author of a ' His-
tory of the Agricultural Society of England,'
written in French, and of other works in
that language published at Paris in the years
1846, 1847, and 1848. He also wrote a work
on the ' Military Organization and Adminis-
tration of France,' partly printed (at Woking)
in 1856, and was responsible for some 'Lec-
tures and Manuals on Rifle Practice.' He
settled at Clench Wharton, co. Norfolk, and
was alive in 1864 when the Thackeray family
memoranda were printed in The Herald and
Genealogist.
I think that Mr. Thomas James Thackeray may probably have written the libretto of ' The Mountain Sylph.' He was evidently a man of considerable culture, and the name of " Thwackaway," which was applied to him by Mr. Logan, would seem to indicate that he was popular in the society in which he moved, as disagreeable men seldom receive the honour of a familiar nickname. Probably, also, he felt no ambition to figure in bio- graphical dictionaries, arid has therefore been forgotten, like Edward Moran and other popular contemporaries of his, who were well known in their day, but have since passed into oblivion. Perhaps ME. JERROLD, or some other correspondent, may be able to give some further particulars of him. I am ignorant of the date of his death.
W. F. PRIDEATJX.
The references under this title to John Barnett's ' Mountain Sylph' have reminded me of a letter in my possession, addressed by my great-uncle, Thomas Dibdin, to C. Taylor, dated 30 August, 1834, i.e., five days after the first performance. In this letter Thomas Dibdin wrote, "The whole of the opera of the ' Mountain Sylph ' is mine, but another gentleman has been praised in the papers for it highly." From the context I gather that "the amateur gentleman" for whom the piece was written had not paid up, and the venerable dramatist was medi- tating a retaliatory assertion of his author-
ship. It is to be inferred that T. J. Thackeray
subsequently made good his promises, and so
retained his fame as librettist.
E. RIMBAULT DIBDIN.
" BROKEN HEART " (10 th S. iii. 9, 77). CANON SAVAGE refers to Dr. Stroud's treatise on ' The Physical Cause of the Death of Christ,' published in 1846.
To the second edition of that treatise, pub- lished in 1871, there is an appendix containing a letter from Sir James Y. Simpson, of Edin- burgh, to Dr. Hanna, in which he expresses his strong belief that the view adopted and maintained by Dr. Stroud, attributing our Saviour's death, not to the mere result of crucifixion, but to rupture of the heart, is fundamentally correct. Sir James gives his reasons at some length, and states that this opinion has not been in any way altered by later observations on the subject both here and on the Continent.
I would suggest to all who are interested in the medical view of the subject to read Sir James Simpson's letter. JAMES WATSON.
Folkestone.
THE LYCEUM THEATRE (10 th S. iii. 45). Surely Charles Kean's settings were quite as gorgeous as those of the Lyceum. The " Charles Kean Collection " at the Albert and Victoria Museum, South Kensington, for- tunately preserves the effects produced by his scenes, painted by the artists themselves. Few things have given me greater pleasure than I enjoyed whilst inspecting them.
RALPH THOMAS.
Narbonne Avenue, S.W.
MR. HIBGAME, in his interesting note, is slightly at fault in writing :
"Built somewhere about 1765, it passed from theatre to picture gallery, lecture hall, panorama, and a host of other entertainments, and then back again to theatre, till its destruction by fire in 1829."
James Payne was the architect of the building which was erected in 1765 for the exhibition of the Society of Artists, and which he named the Lyceum. Three years later, when a number of the members crossed the Strand to Somerset House, the premises were purchased by Mr. Lingham, a breeches- maker in the Strand, who let them for any purpose for which he could find a tenant. The most notable entertainments were Dibdin's ' The Whim of the Moment ; or, Nature in Little' (1789), and others of the kind, "the whole written and composed, and will be spoken, sung, and accompanied, by Mr. Dibdin."
The year 1809, when the burnt-out company from Drury Lane obtained a special licence
