Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/318

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. OCT. u, 1911,


other reports of the trial, four of which were issued in Edinburgh in the year of the trial, and three in London (also in 1857). The daily newspapers from Wednesday, 1 July, 1857, to Friday, 10 July, are filled with details. See also Cornhill, November, 1896, pp. 639-53, article by J. B. Atlay (afterwards reprinted in ' Famous Trials of the Century,' 1899) ; G. W. M. Reynolds, Miscellany, xix. 72, with a poor woodcut portrait ; Harper's Weekly, 1857, i. 508, with portrait ; and The St. James's Budget, 24 November, 1893, p, 20, which also has a rough portrait. The best impression of Madeleine Smith's appearance can be obtained from the minute descriptions of her which were printed at the time of the trial notably one which was contributed to The Ayrshire Express, and is quoted in the ' Annual. Register,' 1857, and also by Duncan Smith in his book on the trial (supra}. Irving' s ' Annals of Our Time,' i. 489-90, has a good abstract of the trial. Reference may also be made to the following :

' Studies in Black and Red,' by Joseph Forster, 1896.

' Poison Romance and Poison Mysteries,' by C. J. S. Thompson, 1899.

' The Memoir of John Inglis,' by J. C. Watt, p. 85. (Inglis, then a young man, defended Madeleine, and it is said that she was the only client that he ever visited in prison. )

' Madeleine Smith and Scottish Jurisprudence,' 44 pp., or Dublin Revietv, vol. xliii. (1857).

Law Magazine and Law Review, iv. 67-96 (1857).

Brown and Stewart's ' Reports of Trials,' 1883 (294-364).

' Who Killed L'Angelier ? with Remarks on the mode of conducting Crown Prosecutions in Criminal Cases,' by Scrutator. Edinburgh, 1857.

' Madeleine tried at the Bar of Common Sense and Common Humanity. Being a Plea for the Coroner's Inquest in Scotland,' by Historicus. Glasgow, 1858.

' Poison for Rats ; or, an Apology for Miss Smith,' n.d. (printed by W. H. Collingridge, London), a frenzied pamphlet.

Journal of Jurisprudence, August, 1857.

Lancet, July and August, 1857.

Edinburgh Medical Journal, August, 1857.

' The Maybrick and Madeleine Smith Case Contrasted,' by L. E. X., 1889.

' The Case of Madeleine Smith re-examined and compared with Tawell, Palmer, and Bacon, showing how Tawell was unjustly hanged.' [By Omicron.] London, 1857. (John Tawell was hanged at Aylesbury 14 March, 1845. Thomas Fuller Bacon was convicted of poisoning his mother in the same month and year as Madeleine Smith was tried. Palmer's case was in 1856.)

The letters of Madeleine Smith to L'An-

felier were printed in New York by the Astor team Printing Press, but they are found in far fuller and more accurate form in Duncan Smith's book, where also are given several pages in facsimile of her handwriting.


It is as well to record here that on Monday, 3 February, 1890, Malcolm McLeod Nichol- son, formerly a clerk in the Justiciary Office, Edinburgh, was tried in that city on a charge of having stolen from the Justiciary Office inter alia 219 documents relating to the case of Madeleine Smith, consisting of letters passing between her and L'Angelier and printed copies of the said letters. Nicholson was sentenced to twelve months' imprison- ment. Various well-known booksellers in Edinburgh gave evidence that he had offered the letters for sale to them. This was an important and interesting case, reported fully in the newspapers at the date given above.

I may add that Madeleine Smith had two brothers and two sisters.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

[MR. F. C. WHITE also thanked for reply.]


MILES'S CLUB (11 S. iv. 269). Miles's Club was started as a gambling club by Richard Miles, who in 1773 was associated with a Mr. Kenney in the management of the Savoir Vivre Club in St. James's Street. Three years later they moved to the other side of the street, and opened a club as " Kenney's " where Boodle's Club now is. When Brookes' s Club became fashionable, Kenney's declined, and the house was sold to Harding, the proprietor of Boodle's, who moved his club there from Pall Mall. Kenney retired into private life, and Miles opened a clubhouse " near St. James's Place, originally White's Chocolate House,'* in 1781. This he conducted as " Miles's Club " till 31 December, 1809, when he was compelled to close it for lack of support, as most of his members deserted him for a club kept by Raggett in St. James's Square. Miles became bankrupt, and the house was afterwards acquired by Arthur's Club, and rebuilt about 1825.

Miles went to live at Abingdon, whence in 1834 he issued an appeal for assistance. ' The Memorial of Richard Miles, the Proprietor or Conductor of one of the Princi- pal Club-Houses in St. James's Street for upwards of Thirty Years.' In this pamph- let he prints a list of the bad debts he made in the club, giving the names of over twenty noblemen and gentlemen who, he says, owed him 11,303. 14s.

In the edition of 1790 of ' Hoyle's Games Improved,' by Charles Jones, Miles's is mentioned among the fashionable houses where the games were played.

F. JESSEL.