ii s. XL JCSE 19,
NOTES AND QUERIES.
475
T:ie next mention of Marsh is in a query
on 30 May, 1863 (3 S. iii. 431*), which is
on another subject, namely, an article in
The Quarterly Review, vol. Ixx. p. 290, for
1842, in which the critic incidentally
asked : " Who now remembers the name
of Mr. Charles Marsh ? " (No. 1.) The
reference here is to Marsh's great speech in
the House of Commons on 1 July, 1813,
against Wilberforce's attempt to force
hristianity on the natives of India. The
Quarterly reviewer's " Mr." seems to show
that he was unaware of Marsh's death. An
editorial biography is subjoined, which must
have taken my late industrious little friend
James Yeowell, then sub- editor, many hours
to work up a thing he revelled in. At the
ond he says : " Mr. Marsh, we believe,
subsequently returned to India." On p. 478
<3 S. iii.) is a note which remarks that
"Marsh is generally supposed to be the
author of * The Clubs,' " &c. In vol. iv.
p. 363, is a reply by the then well-known
biographers C. H. and THOMPSON COOPER,
which says : " We hope this renewed
mention of him may elicit the date of his
decease." On p. 529 F. C. B., who heads
his reply " Charles March,"t says : " This
gentleman died in the spring of 1835." The
exact date and place of death are, however,
still to seek.
The first notice of Marsh is in my old friend and early companion (I once had three copies of it), 'The Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors,' 1816, attri- buted in 'N. & Q.' to John Watkins and Frederic Shoberl. In it we get an original and contemporary biography of Marsh. The member of Parliament was in good favour, otherwise we should hear of it, for the authors spoke their minds in the freest manner. Allibone copies the ' Biog. Diet.,' 1816, but without acknowledgment I do not mention this in blame, as it was quite impossible for Allibone in so vast a work to cite all his authorities. It is still, and I believe always will be, useful to refer to Allibone. The next and last biography is in the ' D.N.B.'
I have searched at the Probate Registry from 1831 to 1839 inclusive, but have found neither will nor letters of administration. I
- It is signed " T." : a previous note of T.'s
on Lord Thurlow was first in the number (p. 121), and occupied over three columns. I presume T. was the editor, W. J. Thorns.
t Was that how the name was pronounced ? For John Taylor spells it in the same way. I presume he wrote from memory, from the absolute unreliability of his statements, which all require to be verified.
noticed very few in the index of the name of
Marsh or March, but there was one Charles
Marsh, died December, 1835, whose will I
looked atrather as a "forlorn hope,"
since the index had not given him an
" Esquire." He turned out to be a publican
of Essex. I mention this for the benefit
of any future searcher. If the mistake I
made (first above-mentioned) had not been
pointed out to me, I should never have given
this matter another thought.
I feel very curious to know more about Marsh- It is pretty evident that he did not fulfil the promise of his early years, and I should be glad to have my idea combated that he got into bad ways and eventually died in poverty and distress.
I hope some one will endeavour to write a longer biography than that in the ' D.N.B.' Marsh well deserves it.
Another matter I wish to mention is that by this reply I get back my record for an answer to the earliest question in ' N. & Q.' That record I held by my reply re John Reynolds, John Wilkes's attorney (11 S. i. 284), forty -eight years after the question was asked. This was backmarked by the late (and I may truly say very much la- mented) COL. W. F. PRIDEAUX in his reply as to the * Arabian Nights,' fifty -eight years after the question (US. viii. 21). My present reply settles the identity of the author, and is sixty -one years after the original query. RALPH THOMAS.
30, Narbonne Avenue, Clapham Common.
STONES USED TO STAUNCH BLOOD (11 S.
xi. 411). In the notice, at the above
reference, of vol. xx. of the ' Calendar of
State Papers and Manuscripts relating to
English Affairs existing in the Archives and
Collections of Venice,' &c., your reviewer,
after remarking, " In a list of cargoes brought
to England from the East Indies in October,
1626, occurs ' cestelletto di pietre per stagnar
il sangue,' " asks, " What were these stones
used to staunch blood ? "
Is not an answer supplied by the following extract in Southey's ' Common Place Book,' Second Series, p. 538, from " A Booke of the Thinges that are brought from the West Indies. Newly compyled by Doctor Monardus of Seville, 1574, translated out of Spanish by John Frampton, 1580 " ?
" They doo bring from the new Spain a stone of great virtue, called the Stone of the Blood. The Blood Stone is a kind of jasper of divers colours, somewhat dark, full of sprinkles like to blood, beeing of colon*- red: of the which stones the
