470
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL JUNE is, 1907.
considerable ability. From private infor-
mation, it is certain the portrait must have
been executed about the commencement
of the year named in all probability at
Bradford, Yorkshire, where the youth's
parents were living. I should be glad of
any information about the painter and his
attainments. A. STAPLETON.
158, Noel Street, Nottingham.
HALESOWEN, WORCESTERSHIRE. Apropos of a recent visit of our Archaeological Society to the above town and neighbourhood, I raised in The Birmingham Post, the question why our geographies seventy years ago taught that Halesowen was in Shropshire, though distant from its nearest point twelve miles at least. Receiving no re- sponse, I now submit the query to your readers. HENRY SMYTH.
32, Stanmore, Road, Birmingham.
[Probably it was an outlying portion of a Shrop" shire estate.]
THE " GOLDEN ANGEL " IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. An old letter that I have, dated 27 Aug., 1658, was sent from a place in Kent "to be left at Mr. Angell's at ye Golden Angell in Paul's Church yard," to be conveyed to a place in Berkshire. In books on London signs accessible to me I fail to find it. Was it an inn for carriers ?
W. M.
" SCIVROOGH." What is the meaning of this word ? It occurs in the life of Lord Amherst by Henry Morris, author of 'The Governor-Generals of India' (1896). A Mahratta princess had visited her lady- ship, and wrote that she had " on the top of her turban a waving plume of white feathers resembling the wing of the scivroogh."
R. S.
DR. JOHNSON. We read much of John- son's great size, massive frame, and so on. Is there any record of his height or weight ?
T. M. W.
OXFORD DIVINITY EXAMINATION. Arch- bishop Temple in his ' Life,' vol. ii. p. 431, describes his examination, Easter, 1842, and states that " the examiner and examined always stand during the divinity examina- tion." Can any one say when this practice was discontinued ? I was examined in December, 1850, and I am almost sure I did not stand up.
It is a pity that Hansell, a most able man, is printed as " Hanswell " twice.
F. HARRISON.
North Wraxhall Rectory, Chippenham.
"EVERY MAN HAS HIS PRICE."
(10 S. vii. 367.)
THE editorial note to POLITICIAN'S query is of special value because it assists to clear up what may even now remain a somewhat doubtful problem, which has been rendered the more dubious by the mistakes, not only in assumption but in mere copying, made by previous writers on the subject.
On the latter point, a striking instance is to be found in the quotation, in the editorial note, from Mr. E. Latham's ' Famous Sayings and their Authors,' wherein is attributed to Sir Robert Walpole the speech of 13 March (according to the ' Parliamentary History,' and not 26 February), 1734, con- taining the passage (as there given) : " But in case it be a septennial parliament, will he not then probably accept the 5001. pen- sion, if he be one of those men that has a price ? " The fact is that that particular speech is recorded in the usually accepted authority as having been delivered, in the course of an historic debate on Bromley's motion to repeal the Septennial Act, by Sir William Wyndham, one of Walpole's most brilliant and persistent political foes.
The whole speech is to be found in ' The Parliamentary History of England,' vol. ix. pp. 454-65 ; but the portions essential to consideration of the present question are on pp. 460-61, for these contain the earliest known attack upon Walpole in connexion with the phrase now under inquiry. The late MR. THOMAS KERSLAKE, as pointed out in the editorial note, suggested that the words about to be quoted " seem to exonerate Sir Robert Walpole from the authorship on two grounds : first, that it was ' an old maxim ' ; second, enounced by Sir William Wyndham, and not Sir Robert Walpole " ; but the speech may be taken as it stands and the inferences drawn afterwards. " Let us suppose, sir," exclaimed Wyndham to the Speaker,
"a gentleman at the head of the adminstration, whose only safety depends iipon corrupting the members of this House. This may now oe only a supposition, but it is certainly such a one as may happen ; and if ever it should, let us see whether such a minister might not promise himself more success in a septennial, than he would in a triennial parliament. It is an old maxim, that every man has his price, if you can but come up to it. This, I hope, does not hold true of every man ; but I am afraid it too generally holds true ; and that of a great many it may hold true, is what, I believe, was never doubted of; though I don't know but
