Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/399

This page needs to be proofread.

n s. x. NOV. 14, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


39$


ADELAIDE ANN PROCTER : HER MOTHER (11 S. x. 349). Bryan Waller Procter, the rather of Miss Procter, married in 1816 Anne ! Benson Skepper (1799-1888), the step- daughter of Basil Montagu, Q.C. (1770-1851), 'the natural son of Lord Sandwich and Miss f Ray. Miss Skepper is stated to have been the 'daughter of a lawyer (who was also a York- . shire squire of small landed property) de- scended from the German Scheffer, the partner of Fust, the early printer. Her mother was a Miss Benson, aunt of the late 'Archbishop of Canterbury. A long obituary of Mrs. Procter appears in The Academy for [ 17 March, 1888.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.B.S.L.

The accomplished wife of Bryan Waller f Procter (" Barry Cornwall "), was before [her marriage Anne Skepper, daughter of 'Thomas Skepper, lawyer of York, and his ]\vife, whose maiden name was Benson, the [daughter of a wine merchant of the same jcity. Mrs. Thomas Skepper, who in her youth had known Burns, in middle life '.i.s< -mated Edward Irving, by whom she [was introduced to Carlyle. After her first husband's death she became the third wife of Basil Montagu. A. R. BAYLEY.

WALTER SCOTT (11 S. x. 330, 374).

Arlvrse criticism of Scott's works has been

mainly confined to his pictures of the

Stewarts and the Covenanters. It began

with MacCrie's ' Vindication of the Coven-

j inters, in a Review oT the "Tales of my

Landlord," ' published in Edinburgh in 1845.

fn the same year was published James

Browne's 'A Free Examination of Sir Walter

^ ott's Opinions respecting Popery and the

Penal Laws.' The querist mentions ' La-

.engro,' but he will find in the ' Romany

>-, Appendix, chaps, vi. and vii., a far

more lengthy and bitter attack on Scott

han that in the former work. Borrow in

hese chapters seems to have fairly "let

aimself go," and his language is quite

itriolic. In our day it is not easy to under-

tand his acerbity, but the " Waverley

wvcl.s " were published during the first

hirty years of the nineteenth century, and

f they did not exactly revolutionize public

pinion regarding the Stewart dynasty,

'!<->-, at any rate, modified the conception

I'hich had hitherto existed. The same may

e said of Scott's benevolent attitude

'wards the beauty of the Roman ritual

id his decidedly drab picture of the

of the Covenant. The novels, in

! iort, had the same effect as Carlyle's


' Cromwell ' : they changed and modified popular conceptions.

I have seen ' Walladmor ' occur only onco in booksellers' catalogues in the last ten years, so it must be pretty scarce.

Other spurious Scott " works " are ' More* dun,' Paris, 1855 ; ' The Bridal of Caol- chairn,' London, 1822 ; ' Allan Cameron,' Kopenhagen, 1841 ; 'La Pythie des Hig- lands' (sic), Paris, 1844; ' Schloss Avalon,* Leipzig, 1827: 'The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle,' New York, 1813. See ' Scott,' by C. D. Yonge, " Great Writers " Series,. Bibliography, p. xvui.

W. E. WILSON.

Hawick.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND WITH RIMING^ VERSES (11 S. iv. 168, 233, 278, 375, 418, 517; v. 34 ; x. 267). At the fourth reference MR. ALECK ABRAHAMS wrote :

" Thomas Dibdin also produced a metrical version of English history. . . .but I cannot give its title at present."

The following is the title :

" A Metrical History of England ; or, Recpllec* tions, in Rhyme, of some of the most prominent Features in our National Chronology, from the Landing of Julius Caesar, to the Commencement of the Regency, in 1812. In two volumes. By* Thomas Dibdin. London, 1813."

.ROBERT PIERPOINT.

"CORDWAINER" (11 S. x. 247, 296, 334^ 375). Some interesting information on this word was given at 8 S. x. 253, 343 ; xi. 52. At the second of these references my late father, MR. R. ROBBINS, stated from personal knowledge that "so lately as 1868 or 1870 every shoemaker upon the municipal burgess-roll of Launceston was described as ' cordwainer ' " ; while at the third CELER ET AUDAX stated that in Potter's ' Stamford District Directory ' for 1896 (the year in which this contribution was published) a " cordwainer " of Colly weston, Northants,. was named. ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

SEVENTH CHILD OF A SEVENTH CHILD (11 S. x. 88, 135, 174, 216). In Rush, ford, New York, there is a seventh son (though his father was not a seventh son) who is commonly known as " Doc " Weaver. The man has been a farmer all his life. His Christian name is, for ordinary purposes, unused ; indeed, though I have known the man all my life, and am aware that he has a Christian name, I am quite ignorant of it. He is sometimes referred to by his nickname alone, and seldom without it, for in the village of Rushford, where every one knows-