Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/65

i2s. VITI. JAN. is, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 49 ' a pot of paint thrown in the face of the public ') there was one particular afternoon when the hopes of Whistler's admirers sank very low because Walter Sickert, giving evidence as one of them, had failed miserably in cross-examination. That evening Strang called at Whistler's house, and the following dialogue took place : Strang ' I can't understand how Walter came to make such a mess of it to-day.' Whistler ' No, more can I.' Strang ' I suppose it must have been conceit.' Whistler ' Very likely, but I can't understand anybody being conceited but me ! ' ' J. LANGDON BONYTHON. Carclew, Adelaide, South Australia. (Qturtas. WE must request correspondents desiring in- ormation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers may be sent to them direct. COUNTESS MACNAMARA. Miss Frances Williams Wynne, the writer of ' The Diaries of a Lady of Quality,' which were edited by Abraham Hayward in 1864, writing at Richmond in August 1832, says (op. tit. pp. 216-9) : "We have just had Countess Macnamara here she gave me a singular instance of devotion to her beloved Bourbons, which, being asserted on her personal knowledge, is, I suppose, in the main, true. A Miss W., who sonie fifty years ago was an admired singer on the English stage, made a conquest of a JVIr. A. a man of large property, who married her. Whether the lady's character was not immaculate, or whether, the march of intellect not having begun, actresses of the best character were not yet reckoned fit society for ladies, does not appear ; certain it is, that, finding she could not get any society in England, the A's went to establish themselves at Versailles, where they took a fine house, gave fetes, c., &c. His wealth gave splendour ; her beauty, her singing, her dancing, gave charm. The Polignacs came to her fetes, and afterwards introduced her to the little society, to the intimate reunions, of which Marie Antoinette was a constant member. When adversity befell this object of admiration, of almost idolatry, Mrs. A. devoted herself, her talents, and (better than all) her purse to her service. It was chiefly during the Queen's melancholy abode in the Temple that Mrs. A. most exerted herself. In bribes, in various means employed for the relief of the poor Queen, she expended between 30,000 and 40,000 sterling. This of course was taken under the name of a loan, and soon after the restora- tion Mrs. A. made a demand upon Louis XVIII. Every item of her account was discussed and most allowed, till they came to a very large bribe given to the minister of police, one to the gaolor, and bribes to various persons, to manage the escape of the Dauphin and the substitution of a dying child in his place. Louis XVI II. would not agree to this article, and insisted upon its being erased from the account as the condition upon which he would order the gradual liquidation of the rest of the debt. To this condition Mrs. A. would not accede : Louis XVIII. died : the accounts were again brought forward. Charles X. was just going to give the order for paying the debt by instalments when the revolution came, and Mrs. A. seems now further than ever from obtaining any part of her money. It is to me very sad that Mac. does not seem to feel that, admitting all her premises, her story tells very much against her beloved Bourbons She concludes the history I have just written by saying, ' I had a message for Mrs. A. from Holyrood, which I was desired to deliver in person. 1 had great difficulty in tracing her : at last I found her a week ago,' (she told me where but I have forgotten). She represents her as preserving remains of beauty at about 70, coiffee en cheveux, with a mask ot paint. ...It seems 'that they are all convinced, and this have no evidence of his death, and know that it did not take place in the Temple, but I have 110 evidence of his being alive at any subsequent period.' " The Miss W. is , Miss Charlotte Walpole ; the Mr. A. is Mr. Edward Atkyns. See 10 S. ix. 343, xi. 457 and the authorities there quoted. Who was Countess Macnamara ? JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Can any reader kindly tell me whether the three Primers which preceded the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. can be obtained in a reprint, and if so, where; also, the same information as to the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637. EVERARD HAMILTON. ALCHEMICAL MSS. I shall be extremely grateful if any of your readers can help me trace the whereabouts of two interesting alchemical manuscripts. One is a four- teenth century volume that belonged to the late Reginald Cholmondeley of Condover Hall and is described in the 'Historical MSS. Commission Report,' vol. v. p. 334. Among numerous other alchemical texts it is said to contain a copy of Roger Bacon s Tractatus trium verborum ad Johannem Parisiensem. ' The other manuscript was the property of the late J. Eliot Hcdgkin of Richmond, Surrey. It is a fifteenth- century alchemical work and is described in the 'Historical MSS. Commission Report,' vol. xv., part 2, pp. 2-4. I am at present engaged in completing a catalogue of the early alchemical MSS. in the British Isles, which is to be printed as the opening volume of an International