266
NOTES AND QUERIES. ;[ii s. vm. OCT. 4, 1913.
in his turn found out what a scoundrel Abu
Saud was. It was his vakeel, or agent,
.Mohammed Wat-el -Mek, who was captured
after his treacherous attack on Baker
at Fatiko on 2 Aug., 1872 (see Baker,
- Ismailia,' 1874, IT, 395).
FREDK. A. EDWARDS.
THE BALLANTYNE - LOCKHART CONTRO- VERSY. The following interesting letter, occurring in a collection on Publishing, recently secured, provides an opinion by a writer exceptionally well informed on this controversy :
MY DEAR CUNNINGHAM, Thanks for the infor- mation respecting The Athenceum. The subject shall be inquired into, but I fear nothing can be (lone, as the postage alone would be double or treble the cost of the Paper.
Respecting Lockhart's reply, I cannot agree with you. It is very true that the Ballantynes brought little into the concern beyond their labour, and they spent much but no prudence on their part could have prevented the ruin of a concern which embarked, at the suggestion of Scott, in the most absurd publishing speculations, <ind to an enormous amount on fictitious capital and I confess that I see anything but generous confidence in a man who, being, as he is represented, the monied partner, consented to receive 15 per cent ! for the capital advanced to carry on a business of which he was to share the profits. This assumes that Mr. Lockhart has given the true version of the affair but I do not think that he has disproved the fact that a vast amount of the fictitious paper in circulation for many years was issued for Scott's separate use whether as publisher (sole publisher from 1816 to 1822) or land speculator makes no difference. In fact Scott's greediness overreached itself and ended ii his ruin. This is my view of the matter, but in The Athenceum I was but too happy to dismiss the subject briefly.
Yours very truly,
C. W. DILKE.
The writer of this letter is Charles Went- worth Dilke, editor of The Athenceum 1830- 1846, and the addressee is Allan Cunningham, who contributed to The Athcnceum, 6 Oct., 1832, ' Some Account of the Life and Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.' This probably gives the best -indication of the date of the letter, but it may have been written on the publication of Lockhart's ' The Ballantyne Humbug Handled,' 1839.
ALECK ABRAHAMS.
AN ERROR IN ' LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND ' : MINIATURE PORTRAIT OF ELIZA- BETH WOODVILE. In Miss Strickland's well- known book of this title the author, in her life of Elizabeth Wood vile, the queen of Edward IV., refers to a portrait of the queen in the British Museum (ed. 1851, vol. ii. p. 329 ; " Bohn's Hist. Library,"
1884, vol. ii. p. 10). She gives a detailed
description of the miniature, which, she
declares, shows the queen entering the
abbey-church of Reading, the gateway of
which is clearly recognizable. In the earlier
edition referred to above she gives the refer-
ence as " King's Library, royal MS., 15,
E. 4 ; Chroniques d'Angleterre : illuminated
for Edward V. " ; in the Bohn edition this
is altered to " King's Library, royal MS. :
illuminated for Edward IV." Evidently
the supposed portrait could not be found in
the MS. referred to, and its number was
omitted, without, however, deleting the
rest of the reference. This reference seems
to have given trouble to several persons.
Dr. J. B. Hurry, in his ' Reading Abbey,'
1901, p. 41, note 3, says :
" No evidence for this statement is given, while the details of the picture cannot be recon- ciled with the topography of Reading Abbey."
To save other persons the trouble of hunting for the portrait, it seems well to state that the description given of the miniature makes it possible to identify it, quite certainly, with that in Royal MS. 15 E. 4, f. 295 b, which is a representation of the marriage of Edward II. There is, of course, no portraiture in this quite " fancy " picture, and Elizabeth Woodvile does not occur anywhere in the MS. H. I. B.
CHANNEL TUNNEL SCHEME IN 1802. A French mining engineer of the name of Mathieu presented to the First Consul in 1802 a scheme for a road connecting France with England, which is described as follows by A. Thome de Gamond in his ' Tunnel Sous-Marin ' (Paris, 1857) :
" Ce projet consistait en une voie souterraine formee de deux voutes superposes, decrivant, dans leur parcotirs longitudinal, une ligne brise-e, dont le point culminant e'tait au centre du detroit, versant par deux rampes vers la France et 1'Angleterre. La, voute inferieure servait de canal pour 1'^coulement des eaux adventices [drainage], dont on se debarrassait aux deux extre"mites dans des reservoirs e'puise's. Sous la voute superieure etait etablie une route pavee, e'claire'e par des bees a 1'huile et desservie x>ar des diligences attel^es de chevaux."
As we see, The Pall Mall Gazette has been anticipated in suggesting that a public high road should be built under the Channel.
L. L. K.
CATHERINE COURT, TOWER HILL, AND CAPT. MARRYAT. The demolition of this quaint and little - known corner of the City of London has caused to disappear the" house in which Capt. Marryat, the well- known novelist, was born. Some years
