occasion of the meeting of the British Association in Birmingham, Mr. Bradbury goes on to state:—
"To Birmingham belongs the honour not only of introducing electro-plate, the use of which has extended to every civilised nation, but also the honour of first adopting Faraday's great discovery of obtaining electricity from magnetism a discovery that has influenced science and art to an enormous extent.
"Introduction of Electro-Plating.
"Undoubtedly Messrs. Elkington & Co., of Birmingham, were the first to turn the invention to solid practical account, both by themselves taking out a patent in 1840, and by buying up almost all the other patents that could be turned to any use in the practical development of the new process."
I trust this extract may be of some interest to your correspondent A. N. Q., in which case I would refer him to pp. 139-41 of Mr. Bradbury's work for fuller particulars.
MARY ELIZABETH BIIADDON : BIBLIO-
GRAPHY (11 S. xi. 175, 227, 282). T am a little
surprised to find that, in the various lists
of the productions of this prolific novelist
which you are publishing, there is no con-
firmation of the general belief in the Bohe-
mian underworld of the earliest sixties that
she was the author of the highly sensational
-story ' The Black Band ; or, The Mysteries
of Midnight,' with which The Halfpenny
Journal started on its ambitious, but brief
career. There were some in " the beautiful
City of Prague " who thought themselves
^able to recognize in The Welcome Guest, and
other periodicals which brilliantly signalized
the remission of the Paper Duty, the same
new and gifted hand in the special art and
mystery of which John Frederick Smith was
the clear-minded Master, and G. W. M.
Reynolds the Arch-Corrupter.
And now it looks as if the authorship of ' The Black Band ' will remain " ropt in mistery " as profound as that which en- velopes the secret of ' The Two Dead Men : & Tale of Love, War, and Horror,' with which the founder of the Lloyd family started his novel newspaper, in the humble little shop in Shoreditch, a full score of years befor^ the " literary " outburst of the first sixties. MAC>
Surely ' Lady Andley's Secret,' ' Henry Dunbar,' as well as some other of nor stories, appeared in The London Journal before
- ' coming out " in book-form. I well re-
an ember how the issues of the Journal were looked for week by week, and every one
talked about ' Lady Audley.' The sale of
The London Journal was never larger than
during this time unless it was when J. F.
Smith's stories were coming out.
THOS. RATCLIFFE.
' Vixen,' which was published, I think, about the year 1880, does not seem to have been mentioned in any of the lists of Miss Braddon's novels. B. B.
HERALDIC QUERIES : MALER (11 S. xi. 280). The arms of the Gei-man Family of Maler or Mahler \vere Gules, three escutcheons, t\vo and one, "argent. This is the coat of the Painters' (or Artists') Gild or Confraternity, symbolical of the three arts. " Valentine Maler " means Valentine the painter. .
K F. W. B.
SHERREN FAMILY (11 S. xi. 250). William Sherren, in ' List of Mayors of Folkestone,' 1838, 1840, 1845, 1846, died during office : " 1847, Oct. 16, at Folkestone, William Sherren, Esq., Mayor, at an advanced age " (Gent. Mag.}. "\Villiam Henry Lushington, son of Capt. William Sherren, 43rd Regt. Light Infantry, and Ann, died 1827, aged 18. Capt. Sherren died 13 Oct., 1847, aged 69 ; left issue Frederick, Alfred, Emily, Ann, and Eliza. Memorial in Wye (Kent) Churchyard. B. J. FYNMORE.
" CYDER CELLARS " (11 S. xi. 208, 256). I beg to be allowed to assure my fellow- contributors of replies at the latter reference that the statements to the effect that the " Cider Cellars " were ever absorbed in the Adelphi Theatre are entirely erroneous. Towards the end of the eighteen sixties a small social club known as the Circle, of which I was a member, used to meet every Monday evening at a house in Maiden Lane, just opposite the spot where the " Cellars " stood ; so that I was well acquainted with the locality. The " Cellars " were not back to back with the theatre, but a very little way to the east of it. At the time of the rebuilding of the theatre in 1858 the archi- tect was desirous of obtaining an exit at the back into the Lane, but he only succeeded then in securing a very narrow strip of ground which was used as a passage ending with the stage door the very door where Terriss, the actor, was standing, when forty years afterwards (1897) he was foully murdered. As far as I know, both door and passage are in use still.
Moreover, I venture to think that my reply at the latter reference is amply corroborated, both as to the date of the demolition of
