504
NOTES AND QUERIES, [us. vm. DEC. 27, 1913.
the same measure. To drink off (or eat)
candle-ends was a romantic extravagance in
drinking a lady's health by which gallants
gave token of their devotion (' N.E.D.').
The wax candle has ever lorded it over the
unsavoury tallow dip, associated with kitchen
and garret, while the wax taper suggests
cathedral and boudoir.
In days before gas and Argand lamps people's rank was not infrequently gauged by the class of candle they affected. " Wax candles in the schoolroom ! " says Mrs. Elton in ' Emma.' Bacon in his 'Natural History ' extols wax lights as lasting longer than tallow candles, because " wax is more firm and hard."* Pepys (12 Feb., 1667) notices Killigrew's introducing " wax candles and many of them " in his theatre, which previously had " not above 3 Ibs. of tallow." As late as the year 1843 candles were used to light the Haymarket Theatre (London), but on 28 April of the same year the " candle-snuffer " had dis- appeared, and gas was introduced for the first time. And at this theatre was last observed the old courteous ceremonial of welcoming Royalty by the manager bearing in either, hand a wax candle, and walking backwards to the Royal box.
The original " composite " candle was patented in 1840, and" was the result "of the demand for cheap, self -snuffing candles suit- able for such uses as the illuminations in honour of the marriage of Queen Victoria, which consisted chiefly of the placing of candles in windows, t So long as candle - making had solely for its objects the forma- tion of candles from certain crude materials, the products of nature, little, if any improve- ment could be expected. It was not until ! the idea of separating the solid from the liquid constituents of fats, which originated with the French chemist Chevreul in 1823, liad been practically elaborated that the various manufacturing processes became possible which have resulted in the elegant and useful commercial products which we now signify by the word " candles."
TOM JONES.
J. F. MEEHAN, BOOKSELLER.
THE record of this valuable chronicler of Bath traditions is a painful duty for me, who counted him among the rapidly dimin- ishing number of those who make life worth living.
- ' Cantor Lectures, Jan., Feb., 1883.'
t Price's Patent Candle Co., Ltd., Catalogue.
Many times during my occasional visits
to Bath have I sat in his sequestered back
office in Gay Street, hidden behind a veri-
table bower of books, and learning the
precious local details of men and women who
have made the city famous.
His love for the sacrosanct memories of Bath (which tied and bound me also with silken cords ever since my first sojourn there in 1864) filled his mind with the rich abundance of its sacred heritage from his schoolboy years, creating a mutual sym- pathy between us.
- N. & Q. 3 was one of his favourite pub-
lications, and he was a constant reader and student of its pages ; and his periodical catalogues of rare books figured therein conspicuously.
His collection of Bath relics consisted of portraits and caricatures by Rowlandson, Gillray, Cruikshank, and Bunbury early in the nineteenth century, together with innumerable autograph letters by such personages as Bulwer Lytton, Walter Savago Landor, and that noble-minded gentleman J. A. Roebuck, M.P., who was shamefully rejected in 1834, I am sorry to say, from his representation of Bath in the House of Com- mons. I speak with gratitude of Mr. Roebuck, who wrote me, almost on his deathbed, an unforgotten letter of support in a time of peril.
Miss Abby Meehan assured me recently that these relics of Bath history (a list of which she showed me) will undoubtedly be sold to the city and probably form the nucleus of a museum of precious objects and local curios. I have read many of the letters.
I see that a writer in The Bath Herald claims for Mr. Meehan the discovery and restora- tion of Fanny Burney's grave. He can well spare the credit of the earliest search for it. Readers of The Athenaeum will know that singly I enjoyed that privilege in 1895, and sought unavailingly for the last resting- place of Madame D'Arblay (nee Burney) in the dreary, rank grasses of the old dis- used Walcot Cemetery.
My last talk with Mr. Meehan was at the Bath Pageant in July, 1909, I little suppos- ing he was so soon to write " Finis " on his Book of Life.
Mr. Meehan was a strong Liberal in poli- tics and a Roman Catholic in faith, and was buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Perrymead on Saturday, the 13th inst.
He leaves a widow, three sons, and a daughter, besides Miss Abby Meehan, a sister now residing in London, a lady well known for her untiring energy in the world of feminine journalism. WILLIAM MERGER.
